Honor and Cultivation (WoH×MDZS)

Forbidden Books

If Zishu'd had a choice, 7 pm right after dinner would not have been his pick of when to sneak into a building.

But the Lans apparently all slept at 9 pm, and that included Lan Wangji. Wangji tried to say he could stay awake for longer if needed, but Zishu had retorted he wasn't risking Wangji fainting in the middle of the escapade if 9 pm was what he was used to and he needed someone familiar with this world. The issue was soon dropped.

Zishu guessed it was good that the operation wouldn't be affected the Nails of 7 Autumns for 3 Apertures.

Now Zishu and Wangji were in the Room of Forbidden Books, wearing darker robes than usual, each with a candle to light the way. The elders of the Lan Sect, according to Wangji's brother Lan Xichen were having a meeting. Wangji had written down everything that could be said about the beheaded fierce corpse for Xichen to give to them, including his uncle. Apparently this was always how Wangji reported things, so none would suspect it was so he'd be free to be here.

"...how do you find anything in here?" Zishu whispered in amazement.

"Memorize the sections."

"But there's so many!"

"..."

"...wait why am I surprised," Zishu realized. "After seeing how many rules your sect's children have to memorize I'm halfway convinced you Lans have superhuman memory." He looked around. "Are these all forbidden?"

"Dangerous. Regular disciples will go mad from these methods."

"And the others?"

"...dangerous to everyone. Even Uncle."

Zishu hummed, looking around the room until-

"What's that?"

Sitting on 1 of the top shelves was a book, its golden cover standing out like a sore thumb among the palette of white and shades of blue.

Wangji leaped into the air, grabbed the book, and landed in front of Zishu.

"Thanks," Zishu returned, taking the book. He opened it, leaning over so that Wangji could read it as well.

The first thing that surprised him about the book was how obviously messy it was. All the books here were handwritten, but this book had words that were crossed out, in bulletpoints rather than in paragraphs. And there were no chapters- each page was marked by the date rather than a chapter name. It was as if the writer was thinking as he went along-

Wangji shut the book so suddenly it closed on Zishu's fingers.

"Fuck- ow! What?!" Zishu snapped, rubbing his sore hands.

"I can't."

"Why not?!"

"Dangerous."

"Huh??" Zishu questioned. He grabbed the book and began flipping through it more closely.

His eyes widened. From what he could understand, this book was a list of experimental notes. They had been cruel and disturbing... some involved capturing living people, beggars or others who wouldn't be missed... there were things that he didn't understand, terminology from this world but there was stuff he could read- something about worlds, a multiverse, and the pathway in between...

"Hanguang Jun, this might help, look-"

Wangji looked away.

Zishu sighed and demanded, "Hanguang Jun. Are your rules more important or is getting your Wei Ying back more important? Do you remember why we're here?"