Honor and Cultivation (WoH×MDZS)

Behind the Waterfall

Wuxian had followed the horde of corpses all the way to a waterfall.

"...where did they go?!"

Wuxian jumped and whipped around to see Kexing and Chengling- it was the latter who'd spoken.

He relaxed and whisper-snapped, "Are you cats?! Why don't you make a sound when you walk?!"

"It's called skill," Kexing retorted. He nodded around them. "Where did the corpses and drug men go? You were following them closer than we were."

"Behind that."

"...what the waterfall?"

"Uh huh." Wuxian paused for thought, then added, "I saw them pass through directly into the waterfall."

"Then why aren't we following??"

In response, Wuxian grabbed a stone and chucked it at the waterfall.

It flew towards the running water...

...then hit sonething behind the water and flew right back at them.

Kexing pulled Chengling out of the way and looked behind him to see the stone had made its mark on the tree behind them.

"...jeez. Can't you just use words?"

"My words are untrustworthy to you, I don't like wasting my breath."

"Like hell you d-!"

"Shishu!!" Chengling hissed, trying to stop him from punching Wuxian.

"I think I've figured out a way in though by looking at the plants," Wuxian whispered. "Follow me."

The trio snuck in through the side of the waterfall. There seemed to be a narrow passage near the floor, covered by moss- apparently the unnatural curve in green mass this had created had tipped Wuxian off. They tiptoed, wary of triggering the drug men and corpses, but all was safe.

They got to a wide cavern that looked pretty well-lived in- shelves holding all sorts of boxes and brushes and carving tools, even statuettes.

Kexing went to the shelves, followed by Chengling. He took a palm-sized box off the shelf and realized there was a name carved into the bottom.

"Liang Xiao?!" Chengling exclaimed.

"You know them?"

"Yeah! He was a guest of mine before, but he vanished a year or so ago. He was a beggar too, so no one really bothered to look for him..."

Kexing chuckled rolled his eyes and remarked, "You really like inviting beggars into your home don't you?"

Chengling shrugged.

Kexing opened it.

Inside were a few strands of hair.

A thought suddenly occurred to him, and Kexing's eyes widened. He began grabbing the boxes off the shelves frantically, tossing those he didn't care about on the floor.

He soon found what he was looking for and opened it.

A box marked as Zhou Zishu.

Holding a few strands of hair.

"Shishu, there's 1 for you too- uh. At least I think this is yours??"

Kexing tucked the box holding Zishu's hair into his robes and hurried over where Chengling stood among the discarded boxes. He'd simply thrown away all the ones that didn't have Zishu's name, he hadn't registered what they said... had he really thrown away a box with his own name??