“Detective, we’ve been expeg you.” Wuzui was waiting for Marcus at the gate of the temple, but he was surprised to see the young boy with him: “And, who is this young friend of yours?”

  “Some kid I met on the bus. He needs some talismans to keep his parents safe.” Marcus gently patted the young boy on his shoulder: “Thank you for meeting with me and your help.”

  “e on in, Master’s waiting for you.” Wuzui nodded and opehe gate.

  “Is Master Liaoran home?” The young boy asked.

  “He is, let’s go and see him.” Wuzui smiled.

  Three of them made their way into the inner sanctum, where Master Liaoran was meditating, sitting on a hay mattress with a small metal inse burner by his side. The room was well lit by dles but had a fuzzy feeling to all the lighting, possibly due to the faint smoke in the air.

  Master Liaoran opened his eyes and stood up as Marcus and the young boy approached along with Wuzui: “Wele, detective. And I see you met a friend on your way here.”

  “Yeah, I think he needs some talismans for his parents.” Marodded.

  “Oh, I’m not talking about the young man with you.” Master Liaoran shook his head: “Wuzui mentioned you have some questions for me. And young man, I appud your love for your parents. Unfortunately I have run out of talismans, so I’m going to have to make some new ones now. Hope you won’t mind.”

  “No… no problem. ” The young boy said: “My mom and my dad will be ba the m - so I still have some time.”

  “Wonderful.” Master Liaoran Wuzui: “Wuzui, y me the materials? Aive, I see fate is being very peculiar and humorous today, so why don’t you just ask the questions while I make the talismans? I assume our young donor here would find them beneficial as well. Young donor, you keep a secret? Keep everything in this temple.”

  “Yes… yes! Of course, I promise!” The boy was flustered for a moment, but then he nodded.

  “Okay then Master, if you deem it proper.” Marcus took a quick look at the boy then uttered his thoughts after a short moment of hesitation: “Here’s my situation - I just went into a house where a family was murdered with some of my colleagues. And ihe house, we were attacked by a ghost… Hmm, e to think of it, it might not be one ghost, could be more. I ’t tell…” Then he proceeded to tell the master and the young boy what he saw, and the fight between him, Kevin, Keryn and the four total ghostly figures. Up until now, he still could not decide if the “ghosts” of the murdered family were really their spirits, or were they merely shadows inated from the mysterious aura that filled the house. Or even, could they be the scouts or minio by the rotten woman, due to the woman’s g their lives?

  “I ot give you a definite answer, but I must say, they are all possible sarios.” Master Liaoran shook his head as he sat ba the ground and started writing o pieces of light yelloer of good quality with a writing brush and some kind of thick red ink that gave off a salty smell: “Yet in the end, as you should be able to tell, it makes no difference.”

  “I uand, Master. ” Marodded: “My colleagues and I will look into the family and their e to this woman. But here’s my other question - ”

  “You’re worried about the vision you saw.” Master Liaoran nodded as he raised his hand, finishing up the final stroke on the first talisman he was making: “And with the 15 year anniversary of the sunken cruise ship ing up, you’re worried AND curious about what kind of pattern there is.”

  “Actually, I think we’ve found the pattern.” Marcus scratched his nose: “It’s some kind of 15 year circle, and at each circle massive amounts of people die with some kind of ritualistic marker along the elemental cycle. Last time it was the drowning of hundreds of people, so water. This time, if the vision is indeed some kind of warning nitioing to fire. And the mass grave we fouimated around thirty years old, and showed signs of people dying urees aangled with tree roots. So it was wood. Metal, wood, water, fire, earth.”

  “Go on.” Master Liaoran looked at Marcus with a smile, and started drawing a sed talisman.

  “So, I want to know, how do I firm this? And does that vision even mean anything?” Marcus asked: “I don’t really believe in preition. But… How I find out if this vision is really something that will happen? Without alerting anyone, of course.”

  “There’s no way you do that. ” Master Liaoran sighed: “The only choice you’ll have is to choose whies you’d want to alert. The people? Or the spirits.”

  Marcus let out a long sigh, then after a moment of sideration, he responded: “The spirits.”

  “Good choice.” Master Liaoran smiled: “And here’s ahing to keep in mind: the visions you and your colleagues saw might not be just memories or things that happened in the past. They could also be the visions people have in mind. For example, if a person wants something really mud has strong and clear enough daydreams about it, they could beemory-like pieces of vision. And should this person fall victim to a paranormal entity, this piece of vision could be taken by their killer as well.”

  “Oh! Oh, I see…” Marcus immediately hen scratched his jaw, drowned in his own thoughts: “So, this means that someone in on the pn was killed by the woman. And their vision was absorbed. Which means there’s indeed a pn to actually set fire to the food festival.”

  “What?!” The young boy screamed, “This is bad! This is horrible! My parents are bringio the festival, and… and my friends!”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll try to stop them.” Marodded at the young boy: “To be safe, I think we o get it celled.”

  “And if what you’re saying is real, then it means it’s some kind e spiracy.” Wuzui interjected from the side: “And I don’t think your being a detective sway that, Detective.”

  “I uand.” Marodded: “So it needs something else - if I just go out there and start telling people about this, it will no doubt paint a target on my bad alert the people behind this.”

  “So, there’s something you could try.” Master Liaoran finished up the sed talisman and got started ohird: “It’s not that uhe ritual of spirit calling. But it requires you to go to the spirits, it’s a bit more dangerous, but has a higher possibility of success.”

  “Okay, what is it?”

  “Before I tell you, you’ll need rest, and if you could, you o have something that could tie yourself to the spirit you seek. I have to warn you, the one killed by the woman is probably already gone food. And you may run into imposters.” Master Liaoran raised his head and looked at Wuzui: “Wuzui, you go get the jujubes, the wine, some sticky rice, some spirit calling inse and a burner.”

  “Uood, Master.” Wuzui immediately headed to the ste room on the side of the inner sanctum.

  “Detective, stay for a bit, if you don’t mind.” Master Liaoran sped up a little with his making of the talismans: “Like I said: it will be quite dangerous. You will need your strength to ha.”

  “I - I wanna tell my parents…” The boy sniffled, trying not to cry: “I wanna go home.”

  “Just stay a little, kid.” Wuzui came over, dropped everything on the ground and patted the boy on his shoulder: “Don’t worry, I teach you some tricks to fake being sick.”