Honor and Cultivation (WoH×MDZS)

Through the Array

Kexing, Wuxian, Chengling and Gu Xiang thankfully made it back to the waterfall without any trouble.

To speed things up, they had split up the workload needed to activate the array. Kexing and Gu Xiang were in charge of putting the candles and string where they should be, Wuxian was filling the marks left by the array with goat's blood, and Chengling was starting the fire for the candles.

"Hey- be careful!" Kexing yelled, looking up from the needle he had carefully threaded at Wuxian. "Don't color outside the carving!!"

Wuxian rolled his eyes and shot the man a glare. He pointed out, "You're trying to get your husband back, but I'm trying to get home!! I want this fucking thing to work as much as you do, I'm being extra careful!! If you don't stop chattering and annoying me I might really do something wrong!!"

Kexing huffed, but seeing that Wuxian had a point, he said noth-

A yelp sounded from the side of the cave as a fire flared up.

"Can you not Chevalier Gold Bean?!"

"Chengling?"

"Ack- I'm okay!!" Chengling hastily clarified. He grabbed a stick and lit the end up with fire. "Got it!!"

Kexing smiled, chuckling. He teased gently, "Scared of a little fire?"

"Of course not! It- it just flared up really suddenly that's all!" Chengling explained. "Are you done yet Shishu, Xiang Jie-jie?"

"Nearly, there's only 3 more that need to have a needle stuck into them," Gu Xiang reported. "Bring the fire over here- I'll light the candles."

"Hand me a branch too- that's not on fire silly disciple!!" Kexing yelped hastily as Chengling held the second branch to the fire. "I'm still holding the string and needle- I meant I'll help with the fire once all the needles are in!"

"...right."

Chengling handed the slightly burning branch to Gu Xiang.

"Now that you're done with the fire, grab 1 of the brushes on the shelves and help Wei Wuxian with coloring in the array." Kexing looked at the man standing on the stool and added reluctantly, "It's a big one for him to be doing all by himself."

"Okay!"

It was easy to hop over the string. It had been threaded through the needles, and each one stabbed right of the candlewicks so the thread formed a polygon. It was a reflection of the 18 biggest shapes on the array. Thankfullt the candles were short, only reaching Chengling's ankle.

He stood next to Wuxian and began filling in the parts closer to the floor.

It didn't take much longer for the last stroke of the array to be covered in goat's blood, all 4 people safely inside the area the string outlined.

As Wuxian tossed the stool out of the area, the flames on the candles flared, and the string shimmered, like it had turned to diamond.

"That means it worked! Right?" Gu Xiang checked, turning to Kexing.

Kexing nodded.

"Skipping the stuff about something belonging to the transportee since we're not sending anyone through, we're going through ourselves...we just need 2 more steps," Wuxian reported, checking the instructions he'd slipped into his robes. "Before we can scatter the ashes on the array, the light of the moon... needs to touch the paint..."

"..."

Everyone looked at the array. It was too deep into the cave- not so deep it was impossible to see of course, but deep enough that the weak light of the candles was way stronger than the flimsy moonlight shining through the curtain of running water.

"...now what do we do?"

Gu Xiang ran to the edge of the cliff, as close to the water as possible without falling off. She called, "Master, push the big mirror in the corner at me!"

Confused, Kexing did.

Gu Xiang turned the mirror it slowly as she watched its surface.

The moonlight shining through the curtain of water was caught by the large mirror and reflect onto the array, causing a gentle glow to emit from the stone carvings.

Gu Xiang grinned and ran back to Kexing. "Done!" she declared.

"Good one, A-Xiang," Kexing praised, ruffling Gu Xiang's hair. "Let's get back inside the circle."

Once they were inside, Kexing threw the ashes at the array.

A strong gust of wind started in the cave, and with the blinding burst of light, the array activiated, a swirl of gold, blue and black.

The wind was so strong, in fact, that it swept the lightest person in the cavern off his feet easily.

"AHH!!"

"Chengling!" Kexing yelled, grabbing Chengling's hand. He smiled, so happy he could actually laugh. "Don't be afraid- we did it! We found the way through- we can save A-Xu!!"

Chengling nodded, grinning widely.

"I'm gonna jump in a bit and we're gonna fall through together, okay?"

"Okay!"

"A-Xiang, grab my other arm and jump through with me. Wei Wuxian, I'm trusting you to follow us closely!"

Wuxian rolled his eyes and muttered something no one could hear, but he couldn't really be mad now. After all...

He was a step closer to going home.

Gu Xiang grinned and grabbed Kexing's other arm.

Kexing warned, "On the count of 3!"

"1... 2... 3!"

On "3", Kexing did indeed leap off the ground, letting the wind sweep him off his feet. He felt something pull him forward at once, dragging him towards Chengling, who had been halfway through to begin with. He could also see Gu Xiang and Wuxian had been lifted off the ground, drifting towards them. One by one, they fell through, the light consuming their senses.

None of them saw the swirl of lights fade into nothingness behind them.