“Oh god, this pce is deep, how many more floors do we have to go? ” Kevin grunted as he took a look at what was behind the door on their side. It was still the giant hole, and from his position he could already see something glistening below, and he could see gray mass scattered around the distahs.

  “e back. Don’t risk anything.” Marcus sighed as he retreated his palms from Keryn’s back. For the past three to five minutes, he had beely pushing his Qi into her meridians to help her push the freezing and numbiive energy out. They did it every two levels and after this round. Keryn coughed, heaved and vomited some more dark liquid.

  “Thank you Marcus.” Keryn wiped the ers of her mouth, her face regained a little healthy pink, a good sign that she had recovered from the nasty possession she just suffered.

  Gloria came over and sensed Keryn’s wrist pulses, her neck pulses and back, then she Marcus and Keryn: “We’re good now - the energy is almost all extinguished - one more time, then you’d be fine.”

  “Sorry about what happened - ” Keryn signed: “I thought I’d be more useful.”

  “Don’t worry about it - no one is safe here. It’s just bad luck.” Marcus shook his head.

  “ you tell us what happened? Do you remember anything from before your losing sciousness?” Gloria helped Keryn stand up.

  “Well - let’s see…” Keryn rubbed her temples, then shook her head: “I’m - I’m sorry, I don’t really remember whely, st thing I remember was us beating The Mother and Daughter butchers - I only had some very vague memories of us going dowairs, but - ”

  “It’s on in possession cases. She’d need more time.” Tae Kuo said as he rubbed some oi with a tingling smell on Mick’s temples: “Give her time - it’s often very unpleasant, even traumatic tain those memories, so pushing it won’t help.”

  “Thank you, Sifu.” Keryn sighed: “And thank you again, Marcus, I’ll try my best to remember - it’s just - I’m ing up really empty right now.”

  They went down five floors after breaking out of the Ghost’s Labyrinth already at this point, and they were still stu the staircase, with little to no indicatioher there was ao their path they were o.

  Just when they got ready to move on downward, footsteps came from the staircase above. Light ones, but enough to be noticed. Between each step there was a long pause, and the distaween each step appeared to be long as well - whoever it was, they were light on their feet.

  “Marcus, are you there?” A simple question from a familiar voice - it was Master Liaoran.

  “Did you hear that?” Marcus was about to let out a breath of relief, but before he did that he turned back at everyone else.

  “Yes - sounds like the master.” Kevin nodded.

  “I heard it too.” Gloria raised a thumb up: “But - firm, will you?”

  Marodded at everyone behind him, got ready in a fighting pose and turo the flight of stairs leading up. The footsteps slowed. As everyone waited with bated breath and readied to fight or flight, the master’s figure appeared oairs. His robe was slightly ragged, a few scratch marks here and there, and two burn marks.

  “What did you say to me when we first met?” Marcus asked.

  “That you are of talent and personal tragedy, but you shouldn’t let your fury mislead you and send you down the abyss of self-destru.” The master responded: “And, what’s more important, what you’ve learned from different pces and different masters did not match well with what you’d want out of them. You needed proper practid good ways to resolve your different styles and your flig ideas.”

  “What was my primary style before I started practig at your temple?” Marcus asked again.

  “You practiced three separate styles, all from the streets. The most notable was a Qi cultivation style named ‘Mantra of Green Bull', and you were practig a fighting style based on basic standardized fighting teique from the city, and a body tempering teique called the ‘Eagle Cws’.” Master Liaoran responded with a smile: “Good times for this monk as well, detective.”

  “Alright.” Marcus let down his arms: “Thank you, master. What happened?”

  “It appeared that you defeated a creature jured through wood carvings.” Master Liaoran shook his head: “This monk also entered a few creatures of the same nature - after an enter with an old friend from the old times.”

  “There were more of those?” Gloria frowned.

  “It is very likely there will be more - and more to e.” Master Liaoran sighed: “It is the - the unintended and untamed work of this monk decades baing right at us. And for that, this monk o apologize.”

  “What - what do you mean?” Tae Kuo wiped his forehead: “You - you were involved in the creation of the carving spell?”

  “Some modifications that made it more usable and less costly, yes. While this monk was w for him, this was a - a project for this monk was tasked with. He deemed it useful when the arrays needed prote. ”

  “And - was it used as a defense?” Gloria asked: “If we go down, will it be ied into the array?”

  “This monk does not know.” Master Liaoran thought for a moment: “The array never pleted stru, and thus the defense spells that would have been located close to the ters and cores were ried.”

  “And if we enter it, you help us diffuse it?” Marcus asked.

  “This monk will try.”

  A shout outs to my patrons:

  mant06

  Jonathan

  Thank you very much for your support! And a happy year of the snake!