“First of all.” Gyuu Park stood up straight, found the Northwestern dire of the warehouse while standing in the inal spot. Theook out a small bronze bell with red threads ed on the handle. “I’ll start the ritual. You two stay silent and don’t make any sound. No matter what you see, don’t make a sound. If you see anything strahen look in the dire of the thing you see. If you are afraid or disturbed, keep your eyes on the rice.”
“Please, tell me this isn’t one of those dangerous rituals that could mess up the flow of Qiyun and bring omens down on us. ” Sue still seemed somewhat bothered: “I’ve heard quite a bit about these rituals, and none of them are any good. If we’re here to figure out what is bringing the omens to us, it kinda defeats the purpose if we do something that will literally bring omens to us.”
“Don’t worry Sue, it’s nothing of the sort.” Gyuu Park shook his head, chug: “Believe me, I know very well the pitfalls and dangers of messing with Qiyun and karma. And yes, sometimes even trying to peek at the flow of Qiyun and karma will cause oo be harmed and inflicted. But rest assured that this is no way that reckless or self-indulgent. All I’m trying to do is to see three things: one, if there had beeed levels of paranormal activity, or any occurrence of dangerous paranormal activities that be tied back to the mud river and this very docks area; two, hopefully we find out if what happe that electrical substation is ected to water, or at least has any e to the water flowing through here; and three, somewhat of an added bonus, if everything works out, we’d find out if there are iraens here, if there are, then we may have a lead on why Gloria was ied with omens. Her coffee shop was not that far away from here.”
“Are you really not peeking into the flow of Qiyun?” Sue narrowed her eyes and tried to firm.
“No - I don’t wanna go blind, or mute.” Gyuu Park shrugged, then pointed his fi the bowl of sticky rice at the ter of the circle: “I’m just going to see if there are any noticeable marks. Now, whenever you’re ready.”
Sue took a look at Gloria, and found that Gloria was looking at her as well, with an assuring look on her face. “So - you really ARE certain about this huh?”
“As certain as I ever be about things like this.” Gloria let out a rexed exhale, then nodded: “I mean - I want to figure this out. I don’t really care about what the unity collective says. I just want answers.”
“Okay.” Sue sighed, then looked up at the ceiling, as well as the dle pced in the Southeastern er: “Okay, let’s do it. Gyuu, just let us know what we o do.”
“Good, just keep your eye on it, you try to look around. But this ritual actually cause dizziness, so unless you see something, try to trate on the rice.” Gyuu Park nodded: “And Gloria, stand by my side and take that bottle of wine. When I tell you to, just spsh some wio the rice or the fgs.”
“Got it.” Gloria came close to Gyuu Park, and picked up the small light green bottle from Gyuu Park’s small cloth bag.
“Sue, you have brought talismans and some artifacts right? Hold onto them, and put that buddha statue on the ground, let it guard your back. If it breaks or even just cracks, you’d better be prepared to burn it.”
“Uood.” “You’ve got it.”
Gyuu Park cleared his throat, then started flinging his arm up and down t the bronze bell, while ting: “Oh, here I ponder; here I pray, here I ask. What brings me life, what brings me death; what brings me light, what brings me shadows; what brings me enlighte, pead goodness, what brings me greed, rese and ignorance. Here, I ask to see. Here, I shall see. Here, I see.”
The bell rang imes in total, then Gyuu Park Gloria: “Wine.”
Gloria poured some wiht palm and fingers, then leaned in a little and spshed it on the bronze bowl filled with sticky rice.
“Here, I offer you my will, I offer you my question, I offer you our wishes to learn and cultivate. Reveal to us.” Gyuu Park rang the bell one more time, then lit up somethiween his right middle and index fingers and threw it at the bowl of sticky rice.
A sizzling sound came from the rice, and shortly, a clear smoke arose. The grains of ri the top began turning yellow, then brown on the surface evehere was no visible fme.
Everything around them started being blurry, more and more so as time went by. It was not just because of the light gray smoke and mist appearing around them, but also because, for some reason, of the light shoo their surroundings through the windows and the sunroof had bee gradually dimmer and more iridest.
“Take heed. Take heed, as I plead ae. Take heed as I veo the river, gh the bridge and asd the mountains.” Gyuu Park tinued, slowing his words down, as if the annunciation of each word brought about some kind of weight on his shoulders and his mind.
Notig that Sue’s breathing had hastened, Gloria looked up at Sue, and found that Sue’s eyes were fixated on something to Gyuu’s left, the space between Gyuu and her. Gloria slowly and carefully turned her head as well as her eyes. When she almost reached the maximum angle she could without turning her shoulders, she saw what caught Sue’s attention with the er of her right eye: a seemingly female figure in a led robe, with messy, p long hair and four arms. It was not four arms on the same pair of shoulders, but were separately ected to two pairs of shoulders stuck together with an angle, with their own respective chests. The two arms in the middle almost seemed like one on the upper part, and only almost halfway to the elbow did they actually split into two arms.
“SILENT as I may be, weak as I may be, decrepit as I may be, covetous as I may be, bitter as I may be, unenlightened as I may be. Such is all illusion, blinding me from the truth, deafening me from the great song, ing me from the tyuu Park gave Sue an encing and calming look, then tinued: “For I am one of the on, one grain of dust, one vast universe, one eye, one flower and one sun.”
Gloria slowly turned her head back, while sing their surroundings to see if there were more entities to which she o pay attention. There were: in the dire between Sue and Gyuu Park, further from them than the female figure, there ile of severed arms and fingers, still bleeding; from oal beam above, dawo dried up bodies covered in moss, dried grass and small but colorful mushrooms; and arguably most lively and horrific of all, was a slowly pag man in ragged clothes with ssh wounds all over his body and half his face missing - his wounds were all bck like cracked coal or burnt wood, showing no traces flesh or bones inside.
