“I - I saw this on the other - the other spirits.” Marcus frowned: “What is this? Some kind of spiritual chain?”
“Something like that.” Master Liaoran nodded: “And it was present on the others as well?”
“As far as I could tell yes.” Marcus sighed and scratched his forehead: “I didn’t get a chance to look at them all, but it appeared so. Only they were more - more rotten, more decayed. And they attacked me, unlike them here.”
“They were still new.” Wuzui said, pointing at the two spirits on the left: “These two, they were my friends - they were lost to the tree - ”
“I see.” Master Liaoran sighed, then said to Marcus: “Detective, can you pour the water on the ground behind them? Make sure to cover the ground and chains.”
When Marcus splashed the darkened water from the bucket around, Master Liaoran raised his right hand, with middle and index fingers pointing upwards and the tips of his fingers glowing in golden light. Then he swung his hand at the ground, a golden arc shot down at the ground, instantly severing the dark ropes and chains.
The spirits trembled as if a breath of cold air just blew through them. Then as they felt the absence of the chains, they stood up, turned around and bowed towards Master Liaoran once again. Their bodies started getting more transparent, and parts of them started going up into ashes and smoke.
The two spirits that were once Wuzui’s friends waved to him with faint smiles on their faces. As tears flowed down from Wuzui’s face, he waved back to say goodbye to them one last time.
“Wuzui, let’s do some preparations tonight.” Master Liaoran sighed: “And detective, why not spend the night here. And we can get to the house before first light tomorrow.”
“Are you sure, master?” Wuzui asked with a frown, concerned.
“As long as we’re quick, it’d be fine.” Master Liaoran signed: “And I am worried about things like this.”
“Thank you very much, master.” Marcus nodded, then asked: “I hope - I wish this wouldn’t bring you any trouble.”
“If this kind of thing is happening to the city and it goes unnoticed, then my breaking some minute clauses of my past arrangements would just be something that needs to happen.” Master Liaoran looked up at the sky: “Rest up, Wuzui, Marcus. It’s not going to be easy.”
During the next three hours, Marcus almost did not get any sleep, instead, he just rolled on the hay mattress and looked at the night sky. It was a clear night where he could see both the stars and the moon, and the night breezes helped calm his worries and anxiety down to some extent. Before tonight, he was still in some level of denial about the supernatural, and right now, he realized it was time that he faced the fact that this kind of things not only do exist, they could be really dangerous, homicidally and murderously so.
“It’s time.” At about four o’clock in the morning, Master Liaoran came and tried to wake Marcus, only to find him lying awake: “You should have rested, detective.”
“Yeah, I’ll rest when this is all over.” Marcus sighed, smiled and jumped up.
The night became darker than before when Marcus drove Wuzui and Master Liaoran to the lone house. Without using any of his Qi technique, the streets and abandoned houses looked just as they were. But when he turned it on, he could see the hundreds if not thousands of hand prints and dirt marks left on the ground and all over some of the roadside buildings. These were all the spots where a lot of the spirits once crawled and stayed.
This time, he was driving right towards the house, and since Master Liaoran did not object, he just kept going. Wuzui became more visibly nervous and anxious the closer they got, and he kept looking at Master Liaoran for assurance.
Marcus parked the squad card right before the location of a pile of charred wood and ashes. It was the very site where the wooden monster crashed and burned under the effects of the talismans. It was immensely encouraging and assuring to see that it was still dead. All three of them got out of the car, Master Liaoran started walking directly towards the house, while Wuzui and Marcus picked up the things they brought over from the trunk before catching up.
“Good job, detective.” Master Liaoran picked up a chunk of wood with a cracked dent and examined it for a brief moment: “This creature, whatever it once was, had been destroyed fully.”
“Yeah, all thanks to the talismans.” Marcus nodded while keeping an eye on the surrounding area, while instinctually guarding Wuzui from angles not covered by the master: “Do you know what it is, master?”
“A construct of corruption, curses and some kind of evil ritual.” Master Liaoran shook his head and led the way into the abandoned house, now almost collapsed due to its several walls being almost completely knocked down.
Marcus and Wuzui followed Master Liaoran into the house, then out of the backdoor and into the backyard. There were less dark tendrils floating in the air, possibly due to the battle between Marcus and the wooden humanoid creature earlier. But on the other hand, there seemed to be some kind of dark ashes floating in the air, and the faint and distant cries of the spirits still haunted the walls and the glum air.
The tree, still covered by the thick dark substance but no longer had the face embedded in ist trunk. Master Liaoran stopped and stood in front of it, then raised the sleeves on both his arms. In his left hand, he had a string of wooden prayer beads, and in his right, he held a bronze Vajra. The Vajra had some green rust on it, but its surface was still polished and clean.
“Wuzui, Detective, ready your swords.” Master Liaoran checked the time and said with a stern tone: “I might be occupied for a moment when I start this. Detective, please take care of Wuzui, as well as yourself.”
“Of course.” Marcus opened up one of the backpacks they brought and took out two swords made of copper coins and red threads, one for him, and one for Wuzui. Wuzui put the backpacks down on the ground and opened them up, in an attempt to be ready for everything.
Master Liaoran looked up at the sky, chanted a short spell, then let the sharp blade on the Vajra run through his left palm to coat it in his blood. The Vajra made a gentle humming sound and glimmered in golden light.
“Crack!” A flash of golden lightning exploded from the Vajra as Master Liaoran raised it above his head, then as the golden energy solidified around the sharp end of the Vajra, he thrust it at the trunk of the tree.
The ground shook, a distant cry of some kind of gigantic creature came from underground. Marcus helped Wuzui stand firm in place and covered his back while keeping an eye on the master.
Something exploded inside of the tree, the shockwave from which tore up the dark substance coating the trunk and threw droplets and tiny pieces of wood everywhere. An invisible wall of energy and Qi appeared around Master Liaoran, blocking off all the splatter around him as well as Marcus and Wuzui.
A few spirits with fungi and grass in their eye sockets and nostrils emerged from the ground around the tree and tried to lunge at Master Liaoran. But they could not even get close, for their bodies were instantly melted and turned to ashes and smoke when they touched the invisible wall.
The ground continued to shake, and several large cracks appeared on the ground. Cries and screams came through the cracks. Countless hands and arms tried to extend and claw upward but were not able to reach very far before they were burned away.
More eyeless spirits with rotten flesh on their exposed bones emerged from the further locations and started coming at the tree. Marcus was not sure if Wuzui could see them, and he did not have the chance to ask right away because a few of them had crawled out of the house and were lunging at him from different angles.
A pleasant and calming ringing sound came from the bronze coin sword in Marcus’ hand, and unlike other weapons, it absorbed the infusion of Qi quite smoothly without almost any hindrance or friction or additional burn on the Qi itself. When three of the spirits rushed at Wuzui, he stepped forward with the coin sword raised.
“Poof!” The coin sword glided through the three spirits just like a sharpened katana cutting through floating balloons - Marcus sensed that he sliced something, but there was so little resistance that he felt he could slice through many more with no additional energy.
“What’s happening?” Wuzui asked in a panicked voice.
“They came!” Marcus looked back at Wuzui and Master Liaoran: “Can’t you see them?”
Wuzui appeared confused at first, then he was reminded of something, and he took out two pieces of green leaves in his pocket and brushed his eyelids with them. Marcus had only a rough idea on what that could achieve. Yet, he had no time to confirm, for more and more spirits were coming from the direction of the house.
“Detective! Careful!” Wuzui yelled from behind while he took out some triangle red flags with golden patterns on them and stuck them to the ground: “Let me set the array out now!”
Marcus leapt back after catching a few spirits trying to flank him, and with another swift swing of the coin sword, all these spirits were turned into ashes.
“Should’ve done this earlier.” Marcus sighed as he backed into the array made of nine red flags with golden patterns on them: “How will this work?”
“I didn’t know what we’re dealing with. ” Wuzui shook his head, then took a bamboo stick with a red thread wrapped on it and raised it to the air: “Here, cover me!”
Marcus quickly stepped out of the array and swung his coin sword once again, another four spirits dissipated in the air.
“The Gods of one and nine, lend me thy power and watch over me!” Wuzui pointed the bamboo stick at the sky and chanted. Nothing of significance happened. Two spirits bypassed Marcus and tried to ambush him from the side. They were blasted away by another invisible wall of energy created by the red flags.
