Without any doubt or hesitation, Marcus knelt on the ground and dunked his head right into the bucket. The temperature of the water would cause any normal person’s skin to get burned, blister and even swell, but it just fely slightly hot for him.

 

With his entire head submerged in the water, Marcus started hearing faint voices whispering in his ears. It was not the normally muffled conversation he would hear when one was under water, but clear voices of normal tones and speed. 

 

“Where - where are they taking us? ” One of the voices asked while sniffling, it sounded like a frightened child.

 

“I don’t know, stop crying, you’re making them upset. They’ll hit us. They’ll whip us!” This was another voice, also a child, but maybe slightly older.

 

“I want my mom… I want my mom…” This was a third child, crying, inconsolably.

 

“They’ll bury us. They’ll bury us below the trees…” A fourth child, calm but full of despair.

 

“Detective, are you okay?” When Marcus finally pulled his head out of the bucket, Wuzui asked, with a worried look on his face: “You were in there for quite a while.”

 

“I’m good, I’m good. Thank you.” Marcus took a deep breath as he wiped his face: “Yeah, I have some questions for you. Hope you can help me.”

 

“Wash your hands with the water.” Master Liaoran walked behind Marcus, with the beads on his right wrist: “Relax, I’m going to help push your Qi and get them circulating. The poisons in your system actually provided a good opportunity for you to have a breakthrough.”

 

“Oof!” Marcus grunted and almost coughed as the master landed his gentle, warm palm on his back and streams of warm Qi poured into his back and flowed towards his heart, his spine and shoulders. His Qi was somewhat “asleep” before due to his overexertion and physical exhaustion during the fight, but now it became invigorated and ready to mobilize once again. Following the guidance and direction of Master Liaoran’s Qi, Marcus concentrated and pushed his own Qi to flow through his meridians. The remainder of the poisons seeped into the body was broken down, isolated and gradually burnt away.

 

Steam started rising up from Marcus’ exposed skin, and droplets of light green sweat started appearing as well - containing toxins, but neutralized.

 

“Sorry about that. Took me a minute there.” When Marcus opened his eyes again, he nodded at Wuzui, who was patiently waiting by his side: “But the short version is this: I went to your old turf to check out a few things. Because I did not believe you when we first met, untilI I came into contact with something.”

 

“You went to that house?” Wuzui seemed slightly surprised.

 

“Yeah.” When Master Liaoran pulled his palm back, Marcus knelt down to wash his hands in the bucket: “The house with a tree in the backyard, and the tree had a face carved on it.”

 

“How - how’s that place now?” 

 

“The place is completely deserted. ” Marcus shook his head: “I’m sorry. I couldn’t see anyone even if I tried. The nearest place with a light was a building a couple of blocks away. And this wound on my shoulder was thanks to the tree as well.”

 

“The tree came alive, didn’t it?” Wuzui’s lips trembled, and his eyelids shivered.

 

“Yes.” Marcus nodded as he sprinkled the water on his forearms: “Really tough son of a bitch, I hit it with two kicks, enough to dent a steel plate but just barely cracked its skin. Eventually it was burned to a crisp by the two talismans you gave me. So, my gratitude for that.”

 

“Amitabha.” Wuzui put his palms together and said a prayer: “My gratitude for you as well. Though I could not be certain, I believed that some of my close friends in the gang were lost to this creature. Now they could finally rest.”

 

“Yeah, I wouldn’t be so sure. Sorry.” Marcus sighed.

 

“Why?”

 

“The detective is right.” Master Liaoran also sighed: “The evil, unclean being that left their marks on him, it couldn’t be satiated just by the taking of lives. We should go there and see for ourselves. For now let’s wait, then we’ll visit the guests the detective brough first.”

 

While Marcus continued washing his hands and forearms with the water, he explained to both Master Liaoran and Wuzui what he saw in full, including the conversations he just heard when he dunked his head in the water. And through the conversation, he got to know about the full story on Wuzui’s side: he was indeed assigned the cheap and dangerous block and used the house as a temporary hideout. Initially everything seemed fine for everyone in his crew, other than them having nightmares when they spent the night in that house, until one morning, where one of the members of Wuzui’s crew was found dead in the backyard.

 

The death seemed gruesome, Wuzui shuddered even as he mentioned it now. Yet the higher ups in the gang just quickly and quietly disposed of the body and told them to keep their mouths shut. He and his crew became worried, naturally. But things only started from there - another member of the crew suffered a similarly horrible death a few days later, and this time causing a few of the members to run away and into hiding, leaving only Wuzui and one of his friends. He was told by one of the crew who ran away that the tree would kill them if they stayed. They then decided to not spend the night in the house anymore, but what remained in the house did not stop haunting them. For days after, Wuzui started dreaming about a faceless woman with a few faceless babies hanging on to her body, and even started seeing visions of the woman in real life. Then when he finally gathered enough talismans to go safely into hiding, he was arrested by Marcus.

 

“Thanks to Master. I am finally safe, and on a path to find peace.” Wuzui bowed.

 

“We’re done now. Let’s greet our guests.” Master Liaoran sighed: “Detective, can you bring the bucket with you?”

 

The water in the bucket had become darker, with traces of ink-like substance flowing inside, yet even after Marcus’ stirring with both of his arms, the substance still had not blended in with the rest of the water. The bite mark on Marcus’ hand seemed to have been cured, and he no longer felt the numbness or itchiness coming from it.

 

Master Liaoran pulled out one paper talisman from his robe as Wuzui opened the front game to the temple. Marcus followed the master forward, down the mountain road and to a place where there was one wooden pole on each side, both of which had some bells and pendants made of red thread knots hanging on them.

 

“The Temple of Forgetfulness welcomes all guests and donors. It is but a place where all can pursue peace and tranquility.” Master Liaoran stood firm, raised his right hand with the talisman tucked between his middle and index fingers and spoke with a stern voice: “But all guests need to show themselves before entering.”

 

The talisman went up in flames, and its ashes were lifted into the air then scattered on the surface of the road by the night breezes. Four pale figures, all wearing different clothes but had the same kind of tree roots wrapped around their bodies appeared at the same time on the road, kneeling down and kowtowing to Master Liaoran.

 

Wuzui squirmed, then covered his mouth and started weeping silently while his eyes lingered on two of the four pale spirits kneeling on the ground.

 

“Namo Amitabha. I see now, the suffering of tanglement almost made you completely earthbound.” Master Liaoran walked around the four spirits and said gently, while rotating the prayer beads in his hand: “It’s nothing short of cruel torment, I’m sure. But it’s probably fate that brought you here. ”

 

“Can you - can you help them, master?” Wuzui sniffled and asked with a shaking voice.

 

“I’ll do what I must.” Master Liaoran stood behind the four spirits: “Detective, before we start, you may want to take a look at this.”

 

Marcus and Wuzui immediately ran to the master’s side and focused their sight along the master’s finger.

 

Dark rope and chains, connected to these poor spirits’ back, tying up their spines and rib bones and shackling them to something beneath the ground.