The room was not filled with skeletons, but rather it was a library or study, filled with books and scrolls, each of which was in a proper place on shelves carved into the walls. These walls continued into a dark nothingness above with how tall the cavern vaulted above them. There was a rickety ladder leaning against one wall, also ascending into obscurity, that had been preserved only partially during the time it was out of use, clearly having rotted. There were tables and desks all over as well as partially moth-eaten and decayed seats, although the wooden stools were rather sturdy in appearance, all things considered.
"On my way here, I ran into some of the Jin Clan. I saw that there were missives talking about confidential information. Scandals and whatnot, but one of them involved both the Seven Devils and the Wood Sect. Do you know anything about that?" Liu Liangzhe said, and while some may feel threatened with such a statement, he was more curious. He knew who the Seven Devils were, all the major sects did, they were upstarts who practiced unorthodox cultivation and ruled over territories like tyrants with minions, all of which were human since the Seven Devils had no foothold in death whispering like the Diyu Lord. If they did, the Elders of the Sects would have already neutralized them without a doubt. The Wood Sect had no business with the Jin Clan and the Metal Sect more than anything else. Their borders were rather close, however, so perhaps that could be a reason that they were in contact. He said all of this to the Diyu Lord, who sat patiently as he both thought it over and then responded as succinctly as he could.
"I believe we can find more answers to that conflict inside the Wood Sect. I want to come with you, back to your Sect," the Diyu Lord said. "I'll bring Mu Wen, and we can weave a great tale of how we met. I'll be a wanderer, not too far from the truth, but I've been raising Shu Xiaolin, that's how he survived, and Mu Wen is my martial daughter, my other disciple, and helped tend to Xiaolin until we ran into you. Of course you reunited and because I've been caring for him, I couldn't part with my child, so you invited me to the Wood Sect to stay not as a member, but as a guest."
"That works," Shu Zhijing said after a moment of consideration. "The elders like me, they will take my word for it, but… my brother…"
"Your brother has no say over what the elders do," Liu Liangzhe said. "I've never belonged to an official sect, but I knew many people who did, and I know how things used to work."
"My brother's the sect leader's eldest son," Shu Zhijing said with more weight. "He does have the higher say, and even if he didn't, he… knows some things about me that ensure that I do what he says lest he tells certain people…"
"He's blackmailing you," Liu Liangzhe said with a sigh. "Well, what is it that he's holding over you? Will it hurt Xiaolin? Maybe we can find something even more damning to hold over his head." Liu Liangzhe was clearly just trying to be helpful, but Shu Zhijing couldn't just admit what his brother knew to the man. Unless…
"I'm sorry," Shu Zhijing said. Liu Liangzhe raised an eyebrow and sort of frowned. "For Wu Mi. He said that staying here without you was like a repeating eternity of loneliness." Liu Liangzhe was very quiet, his face smoothing out until his lips drooped to something like a sad frown but lacking the confusion of before. "Was it true? That you were lovers? Proper lovers, I mean, not just sworn brothers."
"Oh, honey…" the Diyu Lord said, leaning forward. "Are you a cut sleeve? Is that what your brother's holding over your head? Curse the divided peach, nowadays, I hear." Liu Liangzhe laughed, but it was a pained and strained laugh. The man was clearly pained by the idea of having lost Wu Mi. Shu Zhijing had thought, when he put Wu Mi to rest, that he was saving a ghost someone had selfishly kept, and it was still quite selfish to keep a ghost, but it was clear there was more than just a one sided desire. Wu Mi had longed for the Diyu Lord, he had longed for Liu Liangzhe, and it just so happened he was on his way back when Shu Zhijing put him to rest. They could have been happy once more, if Shu Zhijing just hadn't gotten involved with the ghost. He should have practiced the way of wu wei, but he had been so caught up on his sect's motto to help just to help, even at the detriment of the cultivator. Still, if he hadn't gotten rid of Wu Mi, there would have been no reason for him to stay, and he may have never reconnected and found his nephew after so long. Thus, Shu Zhijing became the selfish one, thankful for having done what he did to find Xiaolin and disregarding the consequence of his actions, Liu Liangzhe's anguish.
"I bet they don't treat jade maidens like they treat us," Liu Liangzhe said with another sad laugh-huff. "Then again, most people forget women like that exist, so of course they don't mind as long as they aren't faced with one of those harp pluckers themselves."
Shu Zhijing had never heard of either a jade maiden or harp plucker, but given the context… were there women who preferred the love and company of other women? That was entirely baffling to Shu Zhijing. Men were perfect, he thought, why bother with a woman -- they were too soft and their voices were too high pitched… They must think the opposite about men, he supposed. He wished he could meet one and ask, just to know. Liu Liangzhe, despite being the Diyu Lord, seemed like he was a wise person who had known many people, more people than Shu Zhijing, but perhaps that was because before he was the Diyu Lord he was a wandering rogue cultivator who probably met lots of kinds of people.
"Well, I know how to solve your cut sleeve issue superficially and only temporarily," Liu Liangzhe said. "You've suddenly fallen in love with Mu Wen. It gives us more reason to be with the Wood Sect, and it will--" Liu Liangzhe stopped speaking as he scrutinized Shu Zhijing for a moment. "Ah, but you have someone waiting for you, a man. That makes it more complicated."
"How did you know?" Shu Zhijing asked, leaning forward. Was that a power cut sleeves had in order to tell each other apart? He could hardly have guessed that the Diyu Lord, one of the most fearsome people who murdered thousands, was a lover of men. The current stereotype was that cut sleeves were tempters, deviants, and were too weak to be normal and thus went on a subpar way. While the Diyu Lord was a deviant, sure, there was no way anyone would accuse the man of being subpar, at least nobody in their right mind. He didn't even want to know what was said about jade maidens/harp pluckers.
"When I mentioned pretending to love Mu Wen, having to announce that, you made this horrible face, the one that shows me that you feel guilty, and if you felt guilty, that means there is someone else you already love and knows that you love him. That really makes things more complicated… we could still do the Mu Wen love story, that could work, but that might hurt--"
"It doesn't matter. We should do the story with Mu Wen, if she's okay with it."
"Mu Wen's a yaoguai, she's happy to not be dead. She'll help us," Liu Liagnzhe said offhandedly, like it wasn't extremely important information. They couldn't bring a yaoguai into the Turtle Forest, the main domain of the Wood Sect, that was like they were asking for people to grow suspicious. Some cultivators, the elders, would immediately tell. "And before you make yourself nervous, I have lots of protections for her in place. She's indispensable to me, and we cannot lose her. This lover of yours… Can I ask how serious it is?"
"Not that serious," Shu Zhijing said, but his voice faltered despite his attempt to stay strong. Liu Liangzhe looked down at him despite not being that much taller than him, even when they were seated, and just sighed deeply.
"Whatever you say, Shu Zhijing," Liu Liangzhe added. "So, you're in love with Mu Wen, and as her master, I cannot let her go unaccompanied since she has no other family. Us wandering cultivators must stick together when we can, of course, so… we can use your time with her to inform each other of what's going on. I suppose I will have to meet your family, and not kill your brother when he's introduced, but I won't, because I won't take that from you--" Shu Zhijing nodded, despite feeling like he wouldn't be able to kill his brother despite the horrible things he had done. He still loved his brother too much, and to live without him would be worse than living with the cruel man he had become-- "but if anyone gives me any shit, I will punish them. I don't tolerate fools. I'm over a thousand years old, and while I slept through most of it, I'm still a rightful elder, I think. I feel like I deserve that at least…" Liu Liangzhe continued to speak aloud, mostly planning to himself, and Shu Zhijing nodded along, but he didn't listen to the man's rambling. He wondered what Wu Mi did when Liu Liangzhe went on rants, and he wondered if it was the same that Shu Zhijing did when Qiaodan would go on rants back home.
"Anyway," Liu Liangzhe finally said. "You really should finish that water and then head back to bed. I want to stay for a few days, reacquaint myself with some things, but then we can leave back to wherever the Wood Sect is located. I never bothered to learn the names of the homes of my jailers, no offense."
"None taken. I never even met Mengya Daozhang," he said before he finished his water. He set the cup down as he stood up and bowed to Liu Liangzhe once again before he headed to the door. "Good night, Liu Liangzhe."
"Good night," Liu Liangzhe called back reflexively, already having returned to a book with his name stamped hastily into the cover. The cover also read: DISSONANCE PLAGUES.
Shu Zhijing headed back to Shu Xiaolin's room, his room in the Death Hall mountain rather than the room he once lived in while he was at the Wood Sect, staying with his uncle so that when he woke up in the night Shu Zhijing could run to him quicker or he could find his uncle himself once he started to walk on his own. He got back beneath the blankets, his feet chilled by the stone floors, and hugged onto his nephew, just rejoicing in having his nephew back after missing him for four long years.