“Why fire?” Keryn asked while still fag outward.

  “It’s the fire gua, the intervals between each of the dripping sounds heard by Mick.” Kevin raised the lock before his eyes and poi one row of symbols oalisman ed around it: “This is the fire symbht?”

  “Yes. But I think we o cut the thunder symbols first.” Tae Kuo took a deep breath: “Fire - fire is in the cycle, right?”

  “Right - right.” Kevin shivered, “Alright, do you wanna do it?”

  “What do you mean? Why the thunder symbol?” Mick frowned.

  “It’s - it’s kind of a riddle.” Kevin shook his head: “Thunder and fire talisman is a on talisman wheo se evil and atta entities - it literally calls down thunder and fire on the evil spirits. And the cycle of sacrifice has reached the fire cycle, while thunder is not among the five elements, right? Metal, wood, water, fire ah, no thunder, so - ”

  “So this is how we get in.” Tae Kuo took a look at the guards and staffers by their side, whose faces all seemed to have bee pale, gray and sweaty, while their breathing patterns were getting weaker by the sed.

  “I don’t know if that’s - ” Gloria wao express her doubt, but she could almost hear the heartbeats and breaths of the guards getting less noticeable by the moment: “Marcus, I’ll watch for you. You protect them in case anything was to e out of that talisman.”

  “Alright.” Marcus backed off, k down by Kevin and Tae Kuo’s side, who were both hesitating and struggling to make the decision. “Tell me which is which.”

  “The line on the left is the thunderline - ” Tae Kuo wiped his forehead and expined: “And the one on the right is the fire line. But be careful - ” Before he could say anything, both of Marcus’ hands glowed and grabbed the lock. His left thumb nail scratched across the thumper symbols, just hard enough to rub off the ink but not heavily damaging the talisman paper.

  The metal lock vibrated, rang and glowed. For a brief moment even Marcus could feel the heat peing his palms and fingers. But it was only for less than a sed, before the lock clicked open.

  “Shit, you fug geniuses, go in!” Marcus ughed before pulling oal door - it creaked open only by a hair, but it did open. It was heavy, but not as heavy as Marcus was expeg.

  Gloria stayed by the side of the door with Marcus as the rest of the group brought the staffers and guards into the safe house. Afterwards, they closed the door and waited inside by the door - they would o wait for the master here. And if possible, it would be best that they could find out any information from the barely breathing baggages.

  “Anything?” Just after they closed the door down, Marcus asked Keryn.

  “Not yet, we just brought them in - they may need a few.” Keryn shook her head: “Their heartbeats are really slow, and their body temperature is low too. I think when the EMP broke whatever prote there was, the dark energy here started getting to them.”

  “Well - let me try something then.” Marcus shook his head: “ you guard the door for me for a bit? A us know if you see Master Liaoran?”

  “Sure.” Keryn nodded.

  Gloria was already trying what Marcus nning to do whe close to the staffers and guards.

  “How’s it looking for them?” Marcus asked.

  “Some kind of dark energy is in their meridians and eves. I try to push some out or suppress it. But it’s going to take way too much effort and Qi.” Gloria shook her head as she wiped the er of her forehead: “I try to awaken one, maybe two. But all of them? I - ”

  “Let me try.” Marodded: “Maybe I try to burn off some of it and help lighten it for you - ”

  “Be careful, these are ordinary civilians, and their bodies are weak - hell, they’re weaker than most other civilians.” Gloria reminded him: “If your Qi burns too fast, it’s gonna burst their meridians.”

  Marcus retracted his arms and sidered for a brief moment: “Thanks, I’ll watch out for that.” He proceeded to pull a muscur looking guard up and had a feel of his physical state. Gloria wasn’t lying, the man’s breathing was as weak as it could be, and his meridians were like those of a sickly elderly person, one careless push he just might end up dead by a burst of Qi. He could only let a tiny stream of it into the man’s left arm to see if he could burn off the lingering: “How the hell did they get like this?”

  “I’d say it’s the exposure to the energy here, breathing it in, marinating their whole body…” Gloria shook her head.

  The guard in Marcus’ arms groaned and turned his head, yet remained unscious. Marcus’ Qi was indeed effective in burning away the dark energy in his body. It came with a cost though: the man’s meridians seemed to have beore brittle with the dissipation of the dark energy. After prolonged exposure, this man, like the others, had developed dependen the dark energy of this pce. Marcus’ method would have helped if applied earlier, but right now, it was like doing a procedure on someohout medie or suture.

  Just when Marcus hesitated whether he should proceed further, the guard coughed and opened his eyes.

  “Hey! Are you okay?!” Marcus asked, at the moment he could not trol his volume and startled Tae Kuo and Mick.

  The guard opened his mouth and his eyes wide, while his hands frantically poi his throat and his chest. He appeared to be trying to make a sound, but something in his throat just would not let him. He gurgled, retched, then a stream of thick, dark green liquid shot up from his throat. Marcus backed off in an instant, and the liquid fell on the guard’s chest and the ground beside him.

  “What the - !?” Mid Kevin almost fell on their backs, not because of the projectile vomit, but because of the tiny pieces of red flesh in the liquid, and the small malformed g faces on them.