“Okay, Master, which way should we go?” Marcus posed the question he had the moment he learhat they o head downward instead of upward like he thought.

  “From the looks of it, there must be a way down from this very floor, and not the floor below.” Master Liaoran fixed his eyes on the card with a simple red map: “They built a hidden staircase right o a - aor shaft. ”

  “So we have to go out through the door? ” Keryn sighed, still cheg her hand.

  “Seems so.” Kevihe card from the side: “Where’d you find this, Sifu Kuo?”

  “In this envelope, in one of the ets.” Tae Kued and pulled up a torn envelope made of red paper, “Probably one of their emergency escape cards?”

  “But why not just have a regur map here?” Mick asked.

  “Very astute question.” Master Liaoran took a look at the back of the card, then he ha to Gloria, who showed it to the rest of the team before returning it to the master: “This monk would only presume this was also a key to the room. Si required blood to activate, there would be a prote and trag charm on it. But no matter, we should proceed if there’s nothing here.”

  “Uh, I think if we go down, we might be going into the server area.” Mick raised his hand, like a good student: “Judging from the size of the building and the square footage of the entire area, most of the servers would be below ground. Maybe because they’re using the ke’s water to - ”

  “Which means it’s gonna be way more dangerous.” Kevin nodded and took a deep breath: “Mother of gods this is gonna be a fun trip isn’t it?”

  “No use speg.” Master Liaoran smiled: “Let’s go.”

  The door to the trol room was bsted off from inside by a forceful palm strike. The three figures behind the door were thrown all over the floor in the hallway. Their eyes were unfocused, their mouths were drooling, and their noses were bleeding. They still tried to get up but were hit by the master’s hand seal. The same kind of glowing golden symbols were left on their foreheads, and in an instant, bck smoke poured out of their noses and ears.

  “What happeo them?” Marcus looked around. The guards’ hearts stopped beating and their skins grayed the moment the smoke left their bodies.

  “They’re killed by the dark energy of this pce, from what I could tell it was from a while back as well. They just didn’t know it.” Master Liaoran responded: “They are a product of this array and this ke. Still, we o be careful, because the breaking of whatever taihis pce could make them more violent or turraight into malevolent spirits.”

  “How about these people?” Marcus asked, taking a look at the two staffers he held on his shoulders: “Wouldn’t they suffer the same fate?”

  “This monk thinks they would, in time. But probably due to the nature of their work they are not there yet. ” Master Liaorahe way through the hallway while responding to Marcus: “And they would suffer horrible deaths if we do not put them somewhere safe. ”

  “And there goes any potential insider information we could have.” Tae Kuo sighed.

  “Oh! Look what I just found!” Just this moment, Gloria took a few steps forward and showed a small metal mirror to Marcus. It was the bagua mirror on a string, the same kind that he and she found after battling some hen of those whahe mass kidnapping of children.

  “cave bagua mirror.” Marcuse sighed: “Why am I not surprised at all?”

  The fact that the staffers w here all had the same kind of mirror just made him suspect that the people who ran this pce were far more sihan he previously imagined.

  “Master. Per his earlier designs, would they need people running this pce?” Marcus asked.

  “Yes. It’s for maintenanly, they just o make sure that enough electricity flowed through the circuits and arrays around the cores, and became imbued with enough power to suppress the paranormal energy and even stall the flow of Qiyun having to deal with it.”

  “What?” Gloria and Tae Kuo almost screamed.

  “It’s not a wise choice of design. But it’s the only way.” Master Liaoran paused for a moment, shaking his head: “It was never a perfect solution.”

  “How it be!? ” Gloria barked her question: “Everything that tries to influehe flow of Qiyun will bee cursed! I thought this was on sense back then!?”

  “It was not, it became a on sense sihen.” Master Liaoran sighed.

  This answer shocked everyone present. Though none of them stopped following the Master’s lead.

  “Many things have happened sihen. And days before what happeo him, this monk was entrusted with some knowledge about this very array he designed. ” Master Liaoran paused in front of a crossing in their path, for there were footsteps ining.

  “What happened?! What happened?” The voices were gurgling: “Something happened!? What is it? What - what happened?”

  “This monk will take care of them.” Master Liaoran took a look at the card: “Then you’ll ght forward, you’ll make a right at the sed crossing after this. You’ll see a flight of stairs, head down for a bit and you should see the safe room. Wait for this monk there.”

  “Alright. Be careful, master.” Marodded, then looked bad everyone else.

  Master Liaoran nodded bad hahe radio to Marcus, before leaping into the crossing and unleashing two palm strikes at two dires from which the voices were ing. Golden shockwaves of Qi bsted through the hallway, tearing the surface of the walls up, shredding the fl.

  Shadows made of bck smoke were bsted off from the backs of the guards and staffers. Some of them were instantly burned off, while some escaped into the vents above and cracks on the ground.

  Remember there will be no updates week. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!