Poison City

Following Master Liaoran’s gesture, Marcus sat on a hay mat placed by Wuzui. Something else about this temple was also different, he just could not tell yet. Maybe it was because the many candles placed around him, maybe it was because he never really visited the temple at this time in this manner.

Wuzui went into the inner sanctum then brought out a plain looking clay pot: “Here’s some tea, Detective Cai. ”

Marcus hesitated for a brief moment before accepting a cup. Master Liaoran sat in front of him, across the bamboo skin carpet. Wuzui handed a small cup of tea to Master Liaoran, who then signaled him to sit down alongside them.

“You’ve come with a lot of questions, Detective.” Master Liaoran accepted his cup of tea, took a sip then looked Marcus in the eyes: “But before that, let me lend you a hand - there’s a tracing spell placed upon you. I am not certain who placed it on you, but I could remove it for you if you’d like.”

“A tracing spell - Oh!” Marcus did not really get what the master was referring to at first. But after a short moment and another sip of tea it came to him - the master was referring to whatever spell Luo Zhuge placed on him. “Uh - this was still useful to me, master. But thank you!”

“Useful?” Master Liaoran slightly narrowed his eyes: “What for? Do you know the person?”

“It’s - it’s a bit of a long story.” Marcus finished his cup of tea before proceeding to summarize everything he went through to the master. The tea was fragrant, relaxing and energizing, and it definitely helped.

“That’s quite a lot of things in a short span of time. ” Master Liaoran scratched his jaw, as Wuzui refilled Marcus’ tea cup: “And I just noticed this - your Qi is much more balanced than before. And - I’m sorry if this seems overly blunt and insensitive, but I don’t think you would be capable of achieving this level of harmony in this short amount of time. So this led me to only one conclusion: you had sex - and with someone who wielded compatible Qi to yours.”

Both Marcus and Wuzui almost spat at the same time. Wuzui hovered his left hand over mouth to cover up his laughs.

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, really.” The master smiled and shook his head: “Thirst, hunger and sexual desires are all but natural to all humans. Do you think the great masters of old all remained virgins until their deaths? Some of them did, but not all of them. In fact - ”

“Master - I - ” Marcus tried to interject.

“In fact - ” Master Liaoran raised his hand to show his insistence on finishing his sentence: “In fact, a lot of powerful masters were couples, or had partners of compatible Qi. And with a correct way of doing things, you will be able to speed up the cultivation of each other’s Qi by magnitudes.”

“Master - ” Marcus could almost find a hole to crawl into, and he just needed the master to stop, or even to pause for a moment.

“Wuzui, fetch me the Scripture of Yin Yang and Harmony.” Master Liaoran nodded at Wuzui: “It’s not some invaluable manual or secret spellbook. It’s just old text with old but time-tested wisdom and philosophies. I am afraid that’s all I can help you with, because this is - is a strange area to me as well, and I know only some basics and have no experience at all. There might be some who could help during the old days, but I cannot guarantee to you that you can find them.”

“Well - that’s - that’s very helpful. ” Marcus took a deep breath and pushed his feeling of embarrassment down his stomach. If it could help him, then it would take priority over how he felt about the topic. “My gratitude, Master. But that’s not what I’m here for - ”

“I know. You’re here because you are very close to certain truths of this city.” Master Liaoran nodded at Marcus again, and put his cup down: “You may do well to remember this - once you have known or encountered enough of the truths, they would have a certain look, and a certain smell. It’s the air around them, their aura, their fire. You are very close, so soon, you will be able to see what we see, hear what we hear, and smell what we smell.”

“I see - ”

“And I want to start with this.” Master Liaoran picked up the teapot and refilled Marcus’ cup: “I don’t know how much you’ve learned about this over the city infrastructure project decades ago. And I don’t know what you’ve learned about my role in it, but if you’d hear it from me, I can tell you this, without any burden on you, or asking you to just blindly trust me, that I, WAS, involved in it. But not in the way that you probably thought.”

Marcus let out a breath of relief. This was one of his biggest concerns regarding coming here. Wuzui appeared to be very calm about this revelation - he knew already.

“The man who worked with the city and tried his best to push for the wide adoption of this new technology, as well as the one who actually invented it, he was my mentor at one point.” Master Liaoran proceeded to share another bomb.