“We’re fine - we’re fine for now. Thank you for rushing back.” Gloria patted Sifu Tae Kuo on his shoulder: “And what do you wanna know? I did what the notes said, theo the Kshiti Temple a with Elder Mu…”

  “You met Elder Mu?” Tae Kuo’s eyes opened wide: “What’d she say to you? Was she harsh? Did she give you a palm spanking?”

  “Uhh - no?” Gloria thought for a moment then shrugged: “She seems very dired - nice.”

  “Ah, you were lucky.” Tae Kuo hen he opened his briefcase and took out a small gss jar, in it was some kind of thick light yellow liquid: “Let’s begin.”

  The liquid ecially brewed sticky rice wine mixed with certain oils, the recipe to which still o be properly doted by Tae, who still kept putting it off.

  “Now, Sue told me just about everything. But from what I heard, YOU hahings, so what did you see?” Tae Kuo ruffled through his briefcase to finally find a small pouch full of copper s.

  “Well, it all started with the body, and the three inse sticks, two short and one long.” Gloria proceeded to tell Tae Kuo everything she saw, and everything Elder Mu told her, including the elder’s theory about the 15 year cycle.

  “... fuck.” Tae Kuo sighed, then shook his head: “I don’t know about the 15 year cycle, but this is definitely not normal - and dangerous. You got the talisman and blessed water right? Drink it down now before we go in. Not that I don’t have faith in the capability of Elder Mu, it’s just… just in case.”

  “Alright.” Gloria let out a sigh, then hahe bag of rice wine, a cloth satchel of abar, threads and talismans to Tae Kuo. She then proceeded to screw open a small bottle of blessed water she got from the Kshiti Temple, lit up a talisman ahe ash fall into the water.

  Water with talisman ash tasted slightly bitter and salty. But she chugged it down. This was not that unon a practice, and usually reserved for cases where one was in danger of being possessed or cursed.

  “Is this all?” Tae Kuo weighed the bag of sticky rice: “This would not be enough to cover the ground - we need more.”

  “Should - should we go buy more now?” Gloria shrugged.

  “I asked a few shops on my way here. Looks like many shops were out. I don’t know what happened, seems like we’re having a she right now.” Tae Kuo sighed: “Alright, I guess we just have to make do. If its scale is too big, we’d have to ask the Kshiti Temple for help.”

  “Okay. Let’s do it then.” Gloria sighed.

  They left the door to Fuman Coffin Home ajar when they came in. The air was filled with a light but still foul st of decay and rot. It had only been a few hours, but somehow thick dust had been collected on the coffins, especially the two that were circled by sticky rid rice wine. And to both Tae Kuo and Gloria’s horror, the grains of sticky ri the inner ring were showing signs of being bed.

  “Bad, this is bad.” Tae Kuo shook his head, then twisted open his gss bottle of specially brewed wih oil: “Pour the sticky ri the ground, and y ara yer around these two.”

  “On it.” Gloria tore opeicky rice bag and started p it on the ground. The people at Kshiti Temple were quite generous and gave her a big bag of it, but it was still barely enough to cover most of the ground loosely. She left extra around the two coffins, and Tae Kuo poured some of his co on the new yer of sticky rice.

  “Okay, watch this, this is not ies, but I figure you could learn, you’re here very often anyway.” Tae Kuo looked back at Gloria while standing straight in front of the sticky rice circle: “And your Qi is actually more Yin-oriented, so it could be easier for you. But you’d o be extra careful as you’re more vulnerable during this ritual, you uand?”

  “I see.” Gloria nodded without hesitation: “Please proceed.”

  “Now, all you need right now is one of these.” Tae Kuo chose one paper talisman from his pouch, ftte and showed it to Gloria: “I assume that you’re pretty familiar with some of the basic talismans right now. This is a kind of talisman we don’t let aouch lightly - you see the patterns here?”

  “Yes.” Gloria nodded, she could vaguely read the old characters written oalisman: “This means - clearing of the eye?”

  “Exactly. We just call it ‘Ethereal Eye Talisman’. A bit plex to make, but not expeae Kuo nodded ba approval: “And the reason I don’t let aouch this is - this is a revetion talisman, oivated, it could reveal the signs of paranormal activity within a small radius, and with well crafted ones like this, and activated with Qi, it could reveal quite a lot. You’ll learn to read the signs with experience, I’ll expin when we see them.”

  “Okay.” Gloria took a deep breath, for some reason she had a lousy feeling about this.

  “Now, activate your Qi to protect yourself, then slowly ihis talisman with your Qi.” Tae Kuo raised the talisman right in front of his face using the index and middle fingers of his right hand, “And then, this is the spell you’d o t. Once you're experienced with the process you’ll no longer o do it, but I’ll do it just so that you memorize by heart.”

  Gloria flexed her arms and shoulder, so that her Qi would flow more smoothly through her muscles and meridians.

  “The Gods of Three and he Righteous Power of Two a, heed my call, ect with me.” Tae Kuo ted, enunciating each word: “e to my aide, be my eyes and ears, lift the veil off the fog. Be it so!” After the st word, the talisman stood up straight in the air, the patterns and words written on it started to glow, then an e fme arose. Before long, the talisman was pletely ed, and ashes of it were blown into the air.

  An e wave of energy swept through the entire room, and along its path, dark threads, fingerprints and even faces made of dark smoke were revealed.

  Eight faces, seven of them were on the lids of their coffin. The face of the middle aged man, along with his body, oher hand, remained where he was extinguished, melted, twisted and fractured. There was a shining object with the shape of a bde embedded in his chest, capturing the moment of his annihition. There were footprints all over the ground, but judging from their sizes and trails, they seemed to be from one single person.

  There was no fa or around the test coffin. Instead, what was revealed on it was something else. Something that brought chills to Gloria, even as she was expeg the worst.

  It was some kind of web with a giant, egg-shaped ter cluster sitting right on top of the lid of the coffin. The web was voluted and irregur like a spider web, while its threads were full of thorns. Some small strands from its many threads ected to all of the coffins, but the coffin of the middle aged man was covered with the most of it, for it was right o the new coffin.

  “Fuck me.” Tae Kuo cursed, looking around: “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  “What is it?” Gloria stepped closer to the test coffin, careful not to step on any vines and threads from the web.

  “Some kind of foul energy, or the remainder of it, a remnant, it appears.” Tae Kuo showed Gloria his right hand, it seemed some of the webbings have attached to him as well: “And it is still active - you’re wise to send Sue to Kshiti Temple and go there yourself, it could have left marks on you, possibly making you more vulnerable, and attractive to malicious spirits. But what’s more troublesome to me is - ”

  “No spirit in this coffin?” Gloria asked, with a heavy frown.

  “No spirit in this coffin.” Tae Kuo aowledged Gloria’s question: “And it’s an indication of - of some really heavy grudge or torment before death. Simple acts would not cause this.”