Honor and Cultivation (WoH×MDZS)

A Full Array

A whistle broke the quiet of the night.

It was the signal for a fierce corpse, one labeled by the world as terrifying, unholy but revolutionary. The corpse now moved through the trees he'd been hiding in carefully and jumped, making it through the window and onto the floor of the bedroom.

"Wen Ning," Zishu greeted as the corpses shut the window behind him. He and Wangji were sitting at the desk, paper scattered in front of them. "No one saw you, right?"

"No one saw me."

"Great. Sit down."

Wen Ning sat down.

A knock came from outside and a young voice called, "It's me!"

"Come in."

Sizhui entrred, closing the door behind him. He greeted, "Hanguang Jun. Senior Zhou. Senior Wen."

Wangji's guess had been correct. Sizhui hadn't freaked out upon seeing Wen Ning, when they had been far enough from Cloud Recesses to call him out again. He had been surprised and a bit cautious, but accepted Wen Ning as a travel companion without much fuss, even asking if he could call the Ghost General "Senior Wen".

He now sat down between Wangji and Wen Ning.

"Sizhui- good timing," Zishu remarked. "We've managed to piece together what we think the array we're looking for looks like, based on the notes we found and wanna hear what you think- guesses where it might be. Look."

Wangji pulled the drawing of the array from the pile of parchment.

"Hanguang Jun thinks-"

"Is this it?!"

"Only our guess based on the notes, but yeah," Zishu replied. He frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"I've seen this before," Wen Ning whispered. There was real fear on his face, and Zishu noticed his hand went to the top of his head, as if he was looking for sonething there. "That place... I thought they'd simply kill me, I didn't think..."

"What?" Zishu asked. "Wen Ning are you okay?"

"Where is it... where are they?! Get them out, pull them out!!"

"What are you talking about?!"

Wen Ning shook his head. His hands began grasping at his hair more frantically, their movements too strong for Zishu, Sizhui and even Wangji to stop him. He didn't seem to be able to hear anyone anymore- he didn't respond no matter how much any of them called his name, even Wangji speaking up wasn't enough to shock him back to reality. Something about this array had put him into a blind panic and no one knew how to-

"UNCLE NING!" Sizhui yelled.

That snapped Wen Ning outta his weird trance. He lowered his hands slowly, staring at Sizhui in astonishment. "What... what did you just call me...?" he stammered.

"I... ah hahaha... uh..." Sizhui mumbled, bowing awkwardly. "I think I said... Uncle Ning. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lose composure like that..."

"..."

"It's fine."

Zishu turned to Wangji, but his face gave nothing away.

His words seemed to prompt Wen Ning into speaking because the corpse burst out, "Ah- it's okay!! Really it's fine!! You caught me off guard that's all! No one's called me that for years..."

"If I may, who was the last person to call you Uncle Ning?"

"...a small child," Wen Ning replied with a small, sad smile on his face. "A small child that liked to be buried in the ground like a radish, to chew on the scary Yiling Partiarch's flute... the light of the Burial Mounds, who lost his home too early, whose corpse has probably been destroyed..."