“It’s strange, that your spell can block off all the stench in the air and the residual dark and corruptive energy in the air, but it just can’t block the smell of the food coming out from your takeout bag.” when standing on the top of a building staring at a crater that was once an SFPD precinct, Josephine Wong said to Jianmen: “What’s that? Roasted duck?”

 

“Roasted goose.” Jianmen laughed and said: “One of my favorites, the key was to dip the meat with skin in sour plum sauce. And apparently it’s becoming a lost art in the US - the owner was about to close up, move and retire to be with his grandsons and granddaughter. So I bought the last bit of it, and I bought all of his equipment as well - I can start serving it at the inn, if you want some you can drop by some time.”

 

“Sure, smells appetizing enough.” Josephine Wong shook her head: “What do you think? You’re up for a temporary contract? The way you like, no further strings attached, small but challenging job, good pay in both cash and in resources, and uh, access to intel.”

 

“Yeah. Thanks for making the job appetizing as well.” Jianmen smiled and nodded: “Can you give me the details?”

 

“Here.” Josephine Wong readily handed over a scroll: “It’s all the information we have on the job and the requirements. Currently our regular contractors are swamped, and we have just too many red tapes and bureaucrats in the division, so everything’s a bit too slow for anyone’s benefits.”

 

Jianmen held the scroll in his hand for a brief moment, during which his power of mind and will already read through all of the things detailed in the scroll. “Okay, sounds fun and small enough. And what a happy coincidence that the job starts today!”

 

“Yeah, well, like you said. What a happy coincidence.” Josephine Wong chuckled.

 

There were no civilians around, so the two of them just walked in the air towards the site of the job while chatting. And during the time, the fragrant smell of the roasted goose roamed around the air around them.

 

“Okay, you gotta give me some of that roasted goose when you’re done.” when two of them arrived at the space right above a half destroyed building with an exposed basement, Josephine Wong laughed.

 

“Yeah, this is for Dave. Sorry, but maybe next time I can cook it for you?” Jianmen scratched his hair.

 

“Okay, you better keep that promise.” Josephine Wong smiled, but when she turned to a division agent that was guarding the building, her voice turned cold and authoritative: “Report, anything new?”

 

“Nothing particular about this this area, Ms. Wong. We were able to find the information about the former tenants of this house.” the agent nodded and answered: “It’s a West Miller, and his family of four, one college age daughter, one high school age son, and his wife Angela Miller.”

 

“Okay, this rate of destruction, I’d guess all of them are dead?” Jianmen sighed.

 

“Technically yes. But there’s some disturbing factors.” the agent answered, with a perturbed tone: “This whole household seemed to be infected by the dark energy radiated from a piece of knee cap that landed nearby, and at the time, the family had a pet lizard, which was the first to get infected. From the remains we found, looks like the lizard mutated and tore the whole family apart.”

 

“Let me take a look.” Jianmen walked into the building, and he instantly sensed a very faint trace of some familiar energy signature, so he turned to Josephine Wong: “Hey Josephine, per the job description, I am in charge of cleansing and investigating the area, that means I have full discretion in handling the scenes, right?”

 

“Not full discretion, technically major decisions still have to go through me. But if you are certain just do it and tell me later.” Josephine Wong handed a small scroll to the agent: “What do you see here?”

 

“I’m about to see.” Jianmen snapped his fingers, then a small ball of orange and golden energy rose up from his hand into midair. The ball of energy exploded and created some kind of hologram in the room. And Josephine Wong could make out that the two people in the hologram standing in the room were Jianmen’s students, Caroline and Jason. And hanging from a broken ceiling above them, was a young girl. From the information about the tenant, this must be the college age daughter.

 

“Holy...” the agent was stunned at the sight, but he was stopped by Josephine Wong from saying anything further.

 

“Just hang on a second! We’ll be over!” Caroline seemed like she wanted to help the seemingly stuck young girl, but she was stopped by Jason.

 

“What’s your name?” Jason gave Caroline a serious look, then asked, while his hand clenched his weapon tighter.

 

“Help me! Please! I am scared!” the girl just kept waving her hand.

 

At this point, neither Caroline and Jason moved a muscle to help the young girl, but stared at the young girl with shines of energy from their eyes.

 

A giant mutated lizard burst through the wall and lunged against Caroline, Caroline infused her Xuanli into her wooden shield just in time to defend herself, the mutated lizard and Caroline were both knocked back. This gave time for everyone, including the people watching the hologram, to see the full body of the mutated lizard: besides growing to an enormous size and having all the common monster features, it also had half a human body attached to the end of its tail, as some sort of bait to trap unsuspecting people.

 

Jason threw two silver energy spears at the lizard, which was able to deflect one with its tail but still got hit in the waist by the other.

 

“Fuck you!” Caroline cursed with disgust and fury, the silver energy axe in her hand lit up in blinding orange flame, the lizard’s left front claw was sliced off and burnt up in midair. Then a heavy shield bash connected with the lizard’s head - the impact was so strong, that the lizard’s lower jaw almost completely fell off from it.

 

The lizard flapped its tail at Caroline trying to attack her, but the tail was cut off by a flying silver energy blade unleashed by Jason. The half of the young girl’s body flew up due to its inertia, hit the ceiling and dropped into the first floor kitchen.

 

Caroline’s next axe attack almost completely chopped off the lizard’s head and cut its spine into two pieces. After this strike, the lizard had lost its ability to move, not to mention to fight back.

 

“Die! Rot in hell you sick, disgusting piece of shit! ” the death of the lizard did not calm Caroline down, she just kept bashing its body with both her shield and her axe, until the body of the lizard became a barely recognizable mess of bones and flesh.

 

“Hey hey hey! Caroline!” Jason stopped Caroline’s further attack: “Save some energy.”

 

“Okay, but one last thing.” Caroline took a few seconds to smooth her breath.

 

A fireball the size of a basketball was left by Caroline, and when it exploded, the entire building was flattened and there was nothing but a burnt hole on the ground.

 

“Huh? How?” the agent couldn’t control himself, as he looked at the half destroyed building up and down: “What the ….”