“Gloria Lee?” When Glot to the front gate of the Kshiti Temple, a clergywoman in a beige robe was already waiting for her. Gloria had seen her around these parts before and could reize her face, she just did not know of her name or her role at this local temple.

  “Yes. I need help.” Gloria let out a breath of relief: “How’s Sue? She okay?”

  “She just left. We gave her some talismans, some dles and a straw doll just in case.” The clergywoman Gloria, then made a “e on iure to let Glo into the temple. “Let’s help you first. Your friend told us everything. Did you really front an angry spirit?”

  “Yes. At least I think it was an angry spirit.” Gloria shook her head with frustration: “The situation’s more plicated than that - it’s - probably has something to do with a strange body I had to p the coffin home.”

  “We heard about the body.” The clergywoman led Gloria to a restricted side area of the temple, away from the locals that came to pray and worship: “Lucky for us, we have one of our elders here. She could help you make better sense of the situation. I trust that you have already locked the pce down?”

  “Yes. Acc to the protocol.” Gloria nodded: “But - if possible, I would just o do a quick sing ritual. There are some - really troublesome local kids, who may be too curious for their own good…”

  “I see what you meant. Don’t worry, we’ll send someoo warn their parents. And we will put an official noti your door as well.” The clergywoman sighed while tinuing to lead the way into a small personnel-only room on the side of the temple, where the ground aved with small colored tiles that resembled the patterns one would see on paper talismans. It was her first time ever to be here, and right when stepping into the patterns, she felt something tingling on her shoulders and ears. Something heavy, cold, sore-indug and gloomy seemed to be lifted off her.

  “Here.” The clergywoman stopped at the door to a side room: “Elder Mu is in there, I suggest you think carefully about the questions you want to ask her. She’d dislike it if you ask too many dumb questions. And also, listen carefully, she dislikes expining over and ain as well.”

  “Thank you.” Gloria nodded.

  “Elder Mu.” The clergywoman knocked on the door, then pushed open the door: “This is the temp watcher of Fuman Coffin Home, Gloria Lee, she’s here to see you.”

  Ihe room, there was a small wooden table by the only window, with a small altar and an inse burner pced on top. An old woman was kneeling in front of the table, seemingly praying. There was another red wooden table at the end of the room, with wooden pques pced on top of a red wooden shelf with three levels. Oop level, there were three pques made of red wood and goldeal main pieces. On the lower levels there were more that looked less meticulous aailed.

  “e in.” The old woman turned and waved her hand at Gloria.

  “Please let me know if you need anything, I’ll be outside.” The clergywoman bowed towards Elder Mu, then backed off from the door.

  “Thank you for seeing me, elder.” Gloria sat down on a hay mattress in front of the old woman.

  Elder Mu looked like a kind old woman with a hidden sharp edge, wearing a robe of white and red. Her eyes were clear, and there was a scar on the left side of her face, like she had been sshed in the face before by some kind of sharp object. The ssh appeared to be quite serious, as Gloria could easily tell that it altered her facial boructure to a not severe but noticeable extent.

  “Okay, sit tight, a me take a look at you.” Elder Mu Gloria, then reached into a partment uhe table by the windoulled out a piece of talisman. This one was made of some kind of red paper, and the symbols and words on it were painted with golden paint, all signs of a specialized talisman of high quality.

  Elder Mu held the talisman with her right hand a dangle in the air, then with a low t of some kind of spell, she flicked the talisman with her left middle finger, with a little bit of Qi trated on her fiip.

  The talisma up in fmes and turned into ashes pletely within the blink of ahe ashes lingered in the air, slowly swirling and spinning like a small tornado. This small ash tornado grew in size while it moved tloria and in a span of a few seds shrouded her entire body in it.

  Gloria trated her Qi in an attempt to see what these ashes were doing. It turned out, though appearing like simple, gray ashes to the untrained naked eyes, with the help of her Qi she could see every particle of it glowing in some kind e and golden light. These glowing particles were inter-ected with thin but bright lines of energy, and along with the particles they formed a muagnifit whirlwind of energy surrounding her.

  When the current of energy died down, the ashes fell onto the ground, dimmed and seemingly somehow heavier and more solid than before.

  Elder Mu leaned forward to take a closer look at the floor around Gloria, then used a small broom and dustpan to collect the fallen ashes. “Go out there and ask for a small bow of blessed water.” She said to Gloria: “And an inse stick.”

  Gloria nodded and headed to the closed door. There was a small wooden tray by the door outside, with a small cy bowl and two inse sticks. Seemed like the clergywoman was already familiar with the process.

  Elder Mu nodded in approval when she saw Gloria not having to go far to get what she needed.

  The elder lit up one of the inse sticks a some of the ashes fall into the bowl of water. After a few dips, she then brushed the ashes in the dustpan into the water, ahem mix and i with what was already in the bowl.

  The ashes from the inse had a light gray color, and they took a while to absorb water and sink below. The ashes collected in the dustpan, oher hand, had a darker color and swiftly clumped up and drowned like little ks of coal.

  Elder Mu kept staring at the bowl as the ge slowly took pce. There were a couple of moments when Gloria wao ask something, but she decided against it and waited for the elder to speak first.

  After about two minutes, almost all of the ashes had sunk into the water.

  “Looks like you are in the clear. No un energy.” Elder Mu hen pulled out aalisman from uhe table and ha to Gloria: “But just to be safe, before you leave today, take this, then ask fss of blessed water. Burn it and drink it with the water.”

  “Thank you, elder…” Gloria nodded and took the talisman with two hands.

  “Now, tell me what happened.” Elder Mu looked Gloria straight in her eyes: “I already heard from your friend Sue, but I figured you would know more.”

  “Yeah.” Gloria let out a long slow sigh, then proceeded to expin to the elder what happened, with ails spared, as well as the precautionary measures she applied to the coffin home before she came here.

  “Okay, okay. You did good.” Elder Mu’s aowledgement lifted a huge weight off Gloria's shoulders: “With everything you’ve given, it seems like you’ve dohe right thing to the best of your abilities. But I do o ask, how e you only have so few sticky rice stored?”

  “I - I don’t really know…”

  “Doesn’t matter. Young Tae is a friend of this temple, so you ask for some before you leave as well. And remember to spsh it all over the ground, c all the ground in the room. ” Elder Mu tinued: “When will he e back?”

  “Sue had a call with him this m, and he said he should be back soon. Latest tomorrow.” Gloria shrugged then chuckled: “It’s just bad timing that he’s goo visit the family outside of the city.”

  “He should have done his job and filled all the provisions before he left.” Elder Mu shook her head: “Now, you uand that with an issue like this, you’ll o report it to the unity collective?”

  “Yes, I uand.” Gloria nodded and rubbed her temples.

  “Bureaucracy aside, when you’re certain that the bodies are secured, it’d be wise to take another look at them and try to see if you find anything.” Elder Mu tinued: “It’s very rare that a body would be able to do something like that. And what’s even weirder is that the spirit of another body somehow was brought to life by it?”

  “Yes…”

  Elder Mu looked down at the ground a silent for a bit, seemingly thinking about something. When she looked straight at Gloria again, her eyes were filled with worries: “The new body was burned beynition, you said?”