A Gatekeeper & The Celestial Sovereign

To most people, Zhao Detong always appeared to be wild, reckless, and crazy. This perception of him was well-earned, he had spent his teens going to lavish parties and drinking wildly. Despite his love for Fei Bing Bing, he had always acted frivolously and flirtatiously with others, as a free spirit.

But that was only his outward appearance, Zhao Detong like most people, had many layers. In fact, he was a very controlled individual. He would always appear to be the person that drank heavily and went wild at parties, but in fact, he was rarely ever drunk. He never went over his limits. His outwardly frivolous behaviour had led him to be a top socialite amongst the elite Youth of his generation, and as a result, he was the most well-connected out of all of them.

Most things in his life were planned in his favour.

Heirs to some of the most powerful conglomerates and children of the most influential Assemblyman and Politicians were all listed as contacts on his phone. Some of his casual weekend drinking buddies were heirs to corporations that were accountable for most of China’s GDP.

While he made connections he never let his grades slip, he graduated top of his class in school and he went on to Major in Economics and again he graduated top of his class from TsingHao University.

The world always worked in his favour, and no matter the situation he always ended up on top, he was always in control of his surroundings. He navigated the public sphere as if it were his playground.

The only outlier to his life, the only person he could never really fully control, was Mao Lu.

He had always been a powerful force for him. When they had been in school together, He was always second place to Mao Lu, yet they were never rivals. Unlike all the elitist smug pricks he had met in life who saw every step as a competition, Mao Lu had always been a refreshing breath of air for him. He never felt pressured to be his best around him.

Mao Lu never seemed to change, he was always insanely kind, tenaciously naive and sincere.

He was his calm, his peaceful place, his best friend.

Zhao Detong found security in their friendship.

However, that security had begun to unravel ever since last year.

From the moment Chàng Bo had appeared Zhao Detong had felt uncomfortable, he could slowly feel his calm and peace fading away as chaos and a creeping sense of hysteria came over him.

He felt like everything he had ever known about Mao Lu was coming undone.

When he and Fei Bing Bing had been pulled into that magic ring he had felt his whole world collapsing in on itself. His whole perception of life chipping away slowly. His control over his surroundings became more and more fragile. He had tried to remain calm, He let his curiosity and fascination with all these strange events and supernatural occurrences take the wheel. But slowly fear and panic had been building up inside of him.

A fear and panic which only exploded when reality hit him in the face and he saw Chàng Bo fighting that witch.

In that instant when the Coven was exploding around them and people were turning into blood-filled mist, his coolness left him.

And he became even more panicked when he saw a magically powered man, a man that looked like his best friend, standing before him blatantly ignoring the death and destruction at his feet. The warmth in his eyes was gone and replaced with an unnatural sharpness. A cold almost solemn energy emanating off of him.

He outwardly appeared like Mao Lu, but Zhao Detong felt like he was looking at a Stranger. The man he knew would never be acting this calm in this type of situation. _________________________

There was an awkward silence as everyone stared at each other. Mao Lu felt a weight in his throat, he had never seen Zhao Detong look at him like that.

Like he was staring at someone he didn’t know.

It made him feel uneasy and his heart squeezed slightly, his blood rushed strongly through his veins as anxiety reared its ugly head.

“D-Detong” he called out, his voice shaking, “Calm down, why are you acting like that?”

“Why am I acting like that!?”

His shout made nearby birds squawk and flutter away.

“W-w-why” Zhao Detong’s chest was pumping up and down, “You’re actually asking why?”

He waved his hand, gesturing towards all the carnage around them, “that monster next to you killed everyone in this building...you’re standing on a puddle of someone's blood and you’re asking me what’s wrong?”

He looked at Mao Lu incredulously, “how can you even ask such an obvious question!?”

“I-I-I know this is a lot to take in and it’s all a bit overwhelming and Bo did something wrong...but we should discuss this later. Let’s not pani—”

“He did something wrong, wrong?” Zhao Detong interrupted, his face filled with shock, “This isn’t like you’re chastising a fucking puppy! He killed these people. These people are dead. What’s wrong with you, Lu you’re the guy that cries over deaths in movies yet you don’t even seem disturbed right now, what the fuck is wrong with you!?”

Every word that Zhao Detong said made Mao Lu feel like he was being hit by a hammer, his hands trembled slightly and that weight in his throat grew more and more.

Detong was right, why didn’t he feel anything, his previous anger at Chàng Bo had quickly become obsolete, his outrage at these peoples deaths for such a silly reason had been so short-lived it was comical.

He had changed. Going through the Tempering Heart Trial, or perhaps even before then, he had grown slowly more desensitised to his surroundings. Having Zhao Detong yell at him like this was like a slap in the face, a wake-up call, he was slowly losing principles and he hadn’t even been aware it was happening.

Just as panic began to fill him up, he felt Chàng Bo’s warm and steady hands on his shoulders.

“If you’re mad at someone you should be mad at me, Mao Lu did nothing wrong. I’m the one you should be scared of. Shouting like a mad-men won’t make this situation go away. What are you scared of, your best friend?” Chàng Bo laughed coldly, his voice was like morning frost.

“All the thoughts raging in your head are so obvious. Your best friend isn’t the same person anymore, too much is going on, you’re so overwhelmed so you’re letting your pitiable panic and insecurities take the wheel. That’s something so blatantly mortal, why do mortals always act like this. Is it really that terrifying to know that the world doesn’t revolve around you and that in the greater scheme of things you’re not a predator, you’re weak prey.”

At Chàng Bo’s insidious words Zhao Detong found his legs shaking more.

Fei Bing-Bing ran over to Detong’s side and placed a comforting arm around him, “Babe why are you acting like this, you know Mao Lu never hurt you, and yes this is all insane and people just died but I think you’re overreacting a little.”

“He’s not over-reacting” Tanaka spoke up, he and Bei Lao had been watching this scene unfold quietly from the side-lines, both feeling equally uneasy.

“It’s normal to freak out like this, this situation is just well ridiculous, actually I’m glad Detong is freaking out right now, if he didn’t I would be freaking out.”

Tanaka looked towards Mao Lu calmly, “You have a lot of explaining to do....but first can you just take us home.”

Mao Lu glanced at everyone and at their varying levels of discomfort.

Their reactions were perfectly normal, he was the weird one.

He nodded wordlessly and opened up a doorway. Through the rippling portal, everyone could see Mao Lu’s Courtyard.

He turned to Chàng Bo and whispered to him, “I’m going to take my friends back and talk to them privately. While I’m doing that can you go and get Frank Wang, you know where he is don’t you?”

Chàng Bo nodded wordlessly.