“Wait wait wait, I’ve heard of this inn. Or should I say I’ve heard of A mysterious inn.” Pei stopped knitting and interrupted Josephine Wong with a surprised look on her face: “It’s in San Jose isn’t it?”

 

“Yes.” Josephine Wong nodded: “It was completed not too long ago - well, not by our standards. So I’d take it that you haven’t been there before?”

 

Of all of those in the room - Blue, Alexander, Vivian, Nameless and Pei, none of them gave an affirmative answer, some shook their heads, while others just went silent.

 

“Some brothers of this monk had the honor of visiting it a few years back.” Nameless answered: “They found the brief stay offered to them generous and enlightening, but they didn’t intend to pry on the identity of the owner, as they were on a pilgrimage.”

 

“Hmm, I think I have some friends that have been there too.” Pei said: “They’re very picky and were not amused by the simple food. But they did mention that they saw a young man and a young woman soaking in some kind of special medicinal bath water, so they figured it might be a front for something else.”

 

“Ah, yeah, those would be his students.” Josephine Wong smiled: “It’s one of those things he told me he might think about when he’s settled down. And now those two are in the Grant Academy audit students.”

 

“Why?” Pei asked: “I mean, no offence to the Grant Academy, but can’t he teach them himself?”

 

“His explanation was for them to gain practical experience and broaden their horizons.” Josephine Wong smiled and laid down her cup of tea by her bed: “Jianmen he - powerful as he may be, he did not like to socialize, and is quite odd and stubborn of a character, no matter who you ask. But young students, even very talented ones, still need to socialize, to see the world on their own, to have a better understanding of how things work. So he traded for an opportunity for them to audit in the academy. And I agree.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, we know he’s a good teacher and a good master alright.” Vivian nodded: “What next? Who did you find next?”

 

“Well - hang on, sorry, I gotta take this.” just when Josephine Wong tried to continue with her story, she got a call from a female agent/healer deployed to Xianshi Inn: “This is Josephine Wong, what’s the status?”

 

“He woke up for a brief moment, and he asked for you.” the female agent said: “I told him that we will find you immediately, but he left a note and went back into the coma.”

 

“Okay, I’ll be there right away.” Josephine Wong sighed in relief and said: “What did he leave me with? What did he write?”

 

“I - I can’t tell, it’s a list of symbols. Perhaps you could understand it, Ms. Wong.”

 

“Understood. Thanks for telling me. I’ll be right there.”

 

“What happened?” Alexander asked.

 

“He woke up and left me a note.” Josephine Wong struggled to get out of bed and said: “Sorry team, but we should continue next time. Blue, could you create a portal for me? I am not in the best state right now, I will give you the coordinates.”

 

“Do you need anyone here to protect you?” Nameless asked: “This monk would be delighted to go.”

 

“No need. That place is pretty safe.” Josephine Wong picked up a piece of paper and wrote down some symbols, then gave the piece of paper to Blue: “And while I am gone, please keep this place running, and update me on what you found out about that relic - anything that could help us understand what that defiler was doing under that hospital.”

 

“Noted.” “Roger.” “Understood.”

 

“Now that’s a smooth portal to make.” Blue sounded delightfully surprised as he extended his hand and passed a small blue energy ball to Josephine Wong: “Personal tunnel space?”

 

“Yeah, personal tunnel space.” Josephine Wong smiled and took the blue energy ball from Blue, then she infused a tiny bit of her magical energy into it, and a portal with blue edges appeared right in front of her: “Keep in touch. I’ll keep the communications open.”

 

Josephine Wong disappeared into the portal, and her team in the room started gathering their things and were prepared to get back to work. But when they came out of the tent, they saw a one eyed man standing outside the tent waiting for them.

 

“What are you doing here?!” all members of the team were immediately on high alert: “You are not welcome.”

 

“I am here to offer you a trade, a bargain.” the one eyed man narrowed his only eye and said: “The relic, I want to help you figure out where it came from and what secrets were buried inside it, and in return I want you to share all information regarding this hospital with me. ”

 

“Why? What do you want with this intel?” Vivian asked.

 

“In case Josephine Wong didn’t tell you.” the one eyed man answered with a wide and snarky grin: “We Omen Dragons like - nay, LOVE the taste of anguish and pain, especially from memories. And since this so-called hospital is no more, I would like to find out if the one who made this place what it was  in the first place, most likely the one who left the relic, had other handy works lying around in other places. How’s this sound? A fair trade?”

 

“This will be pure desecration of the memories of the dead.” Pei frowned: “No, we cannot agree to it.”

 

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” the one eyed man’s body started radiating waves of terrible energy pulses: “What if I get really angry? What if I decide that with Josephine and her friend being weakened, I am the one with the sharpest claws and no one and nothing to lose?”

 

“Is that a threat?” Alexander growled, and his fingernails started growing long and sharp, and his arms and back started getting thicker.

 

“Alexander, no!” Blue put his hands on the shoulders of both Pei and Alexander: “If we found other sites like this, we will get first say in investigating those sites. You don’t get to do anything before we complete a thorough investigation.”

 

“I’ll give you 10 ten days on each site, not a second more.”

 

“15 days, and we take an oath.”