As Liu Liangzhe led Xiaolin, Mu Wen, and the yaoguai deeper into the Death Hall mountain, he realised instantly that there was something missing. He had not been greeted. It wasn't a pompous attitude that he had, but he had thought Wu Mi would be excited to see him after so long apart. He had so much to tell his ghostly lover. As they were no closer to seeing the man, and his corpses had clearly been disturbed, only a few of them shifted around, mostly bumping into things as the energy keeping them alive diminished over time without being replenished, he decided to call out.
"Wu Mi?" he called. "Wu Mi, are you there?"
"If I die," Wu Mi had whispered to him one night right before they were going to sleep. "I want you to keep me with you."
"A-Mi, why… why would you want that?"
"You would keep me healthy, and safe, and I could never leave you," Wu Mi said, his eyes forced shut with the breadth of his large smile. It did nothing to ease the ache in Liu Liangzhe's heart. Why would Wu Mi even think such things? They were both only eighteen, barely adults, and there would be no way Liu Liangzhe would let Wu Mi die, he would be there for him, he would keep him safe.
"Alright… if you die -- and please don't -- I will keep your ghost with me. I'll find a way to make it as though you were as close to living as possible. I'll… I'll find a way," he said. Wu Mi took his face between his gentle hands and pressed another kiss to his lips, his bare shoulders peeking out from beneath their blanket.
"I know you will. I love you. So much."
"Wu Mi?" he shouted again when he received nothing but the shuffling of his corpses and the yaoguai behind him. He couldn't feel Wu Mi at all, he couldn't feel maybe a fourth of his undead in his mountain at all. Where had they gone? He led the yaoguai to the second most sacred space in his mountain, where the red trail from his tracking spell ended: The Sunless Plum Forest. The opening to the massive room was large, and inside there was a heavenly fire that replicated the sun for the plants, without actually seeing the daylight. It still burned bright, fuelled by the energy gathered by the ghosts, monsters, and corpses in his mountain in his absence but his energy when he was there. The animals in the forest were all dead, animated corpses that had long since rotted into moving skeletons, birds, field mice, rabbits, and even a stray fox or two because Wu Mi enjoyed them. The fish in the large pond were also skeletons, and the water hadn't been purified in so long that it was murky and barely replenishing itself like it was meant to. The array that drew from the water source outside the mountain must have been damaged during his unexpected leave.
"You can stay here for now, Mu Wen and Xiaolin can come with me," he said, his voice strong despite not feeling so. "If you need to leave, to hunt or whatnot, you can traverse the path you came. If you'd like to add an animal to this forest, you only need to ask. Excuse us…"
Mu Wen walked with Xiaolin, hand in hand, and followed him away from the sunless plum garden, having snagged plums for themselves because his trees were still fruitful despite all the time away from them, and they had grown massive and unruly as well, the grass was similarly too tall and the flowers were out of control but thankfully beautiful.
"Liu-shifu, who was the Wu Mi you were calling for?" Mu Wen asked, her voice still timid.
"He was my lover, a ghost," he admitted. He was also very clearly gone, and Liu Liangzhe wiped his eyes before any of the gathering tears could fall. Just yesterday they were promising each other an eternity, no matter who died, and he returned to find him at rest. He was glad that Wu Mi was finally free of his earthly chains, but he missed him already, and he missed him more than he would have ever imagined possible considering he hadn't wanted to keep him as a ghost originally. He didn't want to condemn him to a half life no matter his skills at allowing the dead more freedoms.
"I'm sorry you've lost him, Shifu."
"Me too," he said. "Anyway, I'll show you to your rooms and mine, so you can find me if you need me."
His room had been mostly undisturbed, but when he went in to check, his shrine had been touched, his vessel token keeping Wu Mi tethered to him had been removed. To make Wu Mi leave, it would have to have been destroyed. He made new rooms across from his own, assuring both Xiaolin and Mu Wen that the skeletons in the adjoining chamber would not harm them, but were guards for his library and study. As he built, he felt the cool breeze that accompanied his gaggle of assistant ghosts. They were all the ghosts of older people that couldn't move on, and had been trapped without a purpose. They lingered because of the tragic circumstances of their life ending event. He had given them purpose.
"Liu-ye is back," one of the ghosts said. She had been an older woman in her life, her face full of wrinkles and her hair long and grey, but she was very kind.
"Hello, Ayi-da-po," he said. She was the head of the four assistant ghosts that he had. She, like the other three, were wandering ghosts, and retained their human appearance, thus not being very frightening, so they weren't very useful during a fight. They were excellent at helping Wu Mi maintain the mountain however.
"It's been so long since Liu-ye has returned," Ayi-da-po cried out. "And then that human arrived with Wu Mi but he wasn't you. We've all been so worried, especially since he was laid to rest. He locked us away, we would have intervened if he hadn't, I swear to the master, I swear!" Ayi-da-po got on her knees and her hands clenched at his robes. What she had said hurt Liu Liangzhe's heart very much, but he didn't want Ayi-da-po to have to get on her knees for him. That was a bit excessive. He helped her up to her feet and held the side of her cheek before he yanked her to him for a hug. He held onto her, and he wasn't sure when he started to cry, but she stroked the back of his hair and shushed him. Er-po, San-po, and Si-bo, his other three assistant ghosts, all crowded around him as well.
"I didn't think it would be that long," he whispered. "I'm so sorry. To all of you. I'm so sorry I was gone for so long. It must have been horrible to be trapped here."
"Well, we kept the rooms as immaculate as we could, but Wu Mi… he didn't let us clean when he went searching, he got angry when we tried to help. He cried for days," Ayi-da-po said, which made Liu Liangzhe feel even worse. Poor Wu Mi had been trapped all alone in the mountain for so long, and Liu Liangzhe had been his prison keeper, yet he had been too far away to release him.
"Who… who came here? Who made it through the halls and took the totem?" he asked, pulling away from Ayi-da-po to wipe his eyes and hold his hands on his hips, as if he hadn't just come to yet another horrible realization after many previous ones just that day.
"Some cultivator in pale pink and green robes. He's staying in the town you made for us, a bunch of humans moved there after we thought those -- excuse my language -- bastards killed you. We've been warning the other ghosts not to attack, and we've been trying to keep the corpses back, but they just don't listen. That man in town has been slaying them or putting them to rest. He's even banished a few of the more malicious ones. They go down every night…"
"Then I'll go down tonight, I need to get food for my charges anyway," he said. He then offered all four of his assistants a smile. "Do you want to meet my new son? I found him. I found his sister later, but she's going to be very special to our home, I know it. Here, follow me," he said, holding out to grip both Ayi-da-po's hand and Si-bo's hand. Si-bo was the only male assistant ghost he had, and the youngest to die having been only fifty-six years of age when it happened. Si-bo was also the most isolated of the four, and preferred to do his duties without interacting, but Liu Liangzhe liked to let the man know he was welcome with them, all the misfit spirits and corpses were. Because of their position, Si-bo would never have to fight on the battlefield like the corpses, or rather skeletons, under his command did.
Liu Liangzhe took the assistant ghosts to the two rooms that he had made for his pseudo children, and he knew that they would have to leave for more than dinner. They needed desks and bed mats, blankets, and curtains for their doors. He peeked his head into Mu Wen's room first.
"Mu Wen?" he asked.
"I'm here," Mu Wen said, her voice throaty, as an unnaturally large tigress stalking across the room before it transformed into the visage that Liu Liangzhe thought of when he thought of Mu Wen. "What did Liu-shifu need?"
"I wanted you to meet my assistants," he said. "They can help you with anything. If you want to leave your room and pass the skeleton chamber, you may want to ask for them to help guide you until you're more familiar with the mountain's layout," he said, and then he introduced them all to his new martial daughter. She bowed to them all as if they weren't ghosts, which was something more humans would be unlikely to do unless they were afraid of offending them and being attacked.
"Here," Liu Liangzhe said a moment later. He pulled out the silver he had kept for years in his room, and handed it to Mu Wen. It should be able to pay for most of the things she would need, and if the town, now populated by humans, didn't have whatever it was she wanted or needed, then they would find it elsewhere.
"What is this for?" she asked.
"For decorating your room," he said. "I'm going to get your shidi, and we'll go to town for some food. I'll carry him since he's been walking so much. There's a cultivator in town, so be careful until we know more about him. I don't want anything to happen to either of you."
"I'll protect shidi with my life," Mu Wen said seriously. Liu Liangzhe nodded.
"I know, but I want that to be a last resort sort of deal. If you can, I want you to both escape," he said. Mu Wen nodded, and then got up from the raised stone meant for her bed and joined him to grab Xiaolin who was running around the room in circles until he tired himself out. Xiaolin saw them at the entryway and ran to them, crashing straight into Liu Liangzhe's legs. He vocalized some sounds before he held his arms up, and Liu Liangzhe, being a people pleaser, immediately picked his child up and held him despite the boy having worn himself down unnecessarily.
"Xiaolin, these are your aunties and uncles, they'll help you with whatever you need. If you can't find me or Mu Wen, then you can call for Ayi-da-po, di-po, san-po, or si-bo and they will come to help, alright?" he asked, ensuring that Xiaolin understood. The boy nodded with another vocalization. Only a week ago, the boy was too afraid to make a single sound, and now he was making all sorts of noises to suppliment his inability to speak proper words. It was actually quite a blessing, or at least Liu Liangzhe felt blessed that his child felt comfortable enough with him to do such things. "Good, now we're going to town, but there's a cultivator staying there, so we need to be careful."