"The burial--fuck, fuck those fuckers. Who was it?"

"Wen Chao. Wen Zhuliu."

"Wen Zhuliu? The Core-Melting Hand?" 

"Mn. He served Wen Chao throughout many atrocities." 

"Is that what you mean when you say he wasn't okay--that he was--"

Oh.

But - no, why wouldn't he say, that couldn't be it. He would have told- if not Wangji, Wei Ying would have told someone. It doesn't. It doesn't make sense.

"He never used his sword again," he rasps eventually.

"Fuck," he hisses. 

"I'm going to kill them slowly." 

You killed him, he wants to say, you killed him for it. But if he does then Jiang Wanyin will want to know why.

"Mm." 

"Sleep. In the morning we need to fly."

"Yeah. Ugh. Okay." 

He goes to very grumpy sleep. 

It takes him a long time to fall asleep. He is miserable and afraid and guilty.

Perhaps it would be easier to sleep on his back, which in this body is generally more comfortable, but he's trying to maintain the habit of laying on his front. He is prepared to need that again, this time. He is ready for it to come to that again, so long as Wei Ying lives.

He startles awake several minutes shy of five in the morning. Takes those minutes to pull himself together. Then he sits up and checks if his companion is awake.

Nope, still asleep. 

Wangji cleans up the not-quite-a-campsite, and covers up the fire residue. If Jiang Wanyin is still asleep, he can be kicked awake. Gently. Sort of.

"Ow," Jiang Cheng mutters, but he gets up and mounts his sword without any real complaint. 

Good. Off they go. Keeping a careful eye out for potential outposts.

There's one over there! It seems slightly...fire-damaged. 

...oh?

That being the case, they can try landing directly on it instead of stealthily nearby. Is anyone here?

The interior is full of corpses, fierce and still. The latter appear to be all Wen soldiers. The fierce corpses are gathered around a single barricaded room that it doesn't appear they've managed to break into yet. 

...well that's highly concerning.

He will start dispatching the fierce corpses and hope that Jiang Wanyin follows his lead.

Yep. It's almost relaxing. Re-killing fierce corpses is normal and expected and so much less concerning than everything else right now.

Once they are Successfully Dispatched he turns his attention to the barricade. "Do you think there are soldiers, there?"

"There's got to be something, or they wouldn't have bothered trying to get in." 

They can dismantle the barricaded door and take a look inside, then.

There are people huddled inside; servants, mostly. A small number of cultivators, none of them dressed like a soldier. 

"Did--did you get them all?" One of the latter asks, stepping forward warily.