Poison City

“Who was he? ” Marcus asked. This question was not important, but he just needed to know. For this long, he had never heard of this person, it was buried as deep as the infrastructure project.

“I could not mention his name. For us who knew him or knew of him, his name is off limits. ” Master Liaoran sighed and shook his head: “If I mention his name, the bind on me will be broken, and there goes the protection this temple provides. So - my apologies.”

“I understand, master - ”

“But I can tell you this.” Master Liaoran looked up at the night sky, smiling and reminiscing: “He was an idealist old man. Wise as you’d expect, kind hearted but tough and braver than anyone I’ve known. When he was just a lowly staffer in the city’s unpublished paranormal department, he could not stomach the tragedies and deaths from the paranormal entities and decided to find a way to prevent them. And after many trials and errors, he found the inspiration to build a new kind of electric grid, because electricity, even when it is traveling through wires, can carry signals and messages with them. And thus, it can be talismans or arrays - just a whole new different kind.

“As you can imagine. This idea was quite radical, and would take a lot of resources to implement at scale. Mind you, he was no expert in rituals or talisman making. He was only an investigator from the city. So he delved into research and old texts. When even they proved insufficient, he decided to venture into the old ruins. And I, being his assistant, his apprentice and somewhat of a bodyguard, followed him into it.

“The wisdom and mind in the ruins bestowed different gifts onto us. HIS gift was what he was searching for - the ways to embed spells in the electricity, and to make arrays at great scale. And my gift, was the enlightenment to the core wisdom and philosophies of mystic martial arts. This monk was already a somewhat well-known martial artist at the time. And after that, this monk was blessed and fortunate to have exceeded what was possible for anyone of similar age. This monk was barely 18 years old at the time.

“And thanks to that, in the following years, while his endeavor and campaign garnered more and more support as well as hostility, this monk was able to keep him and his family safe. Everything was proceeding somewhat smoothly, until the push to build the substations in the South-Eastern District encountered stronger than expected resistance.”

“Yeah. I heard about that, I can’t imagine the South-Easterners would easily agree to this, if ever. ” Marcus scratched his jaw and nodded: “Fengshui was important to them, and something like that was literally heresy.”

“It could just be because of how things worked out, or it could be intentional sabotage from people in the city. But it indeed happened just like you said, detective. The locals were offended that the proposed substations would be built on their temples and places of worship and rituals. So the project was stalled. And it later got worse when the rest of the city started actually building the substations and was seeing actual results.”

“ - at the expense of the South-Eastern District, by pushing the paranormal to the only available area?” Marcus shook his head.

Master Liaoran laughed, his face was full of relief and pride: “Yes. Exactly. As you can imagine, this pulled him, the leader of the campaign and project into the abyss of immense scrutiny, pressure and stress. A group of people who were hostile to this endeavor took advantage of his distraughtness and kidnapped his family. He asked, nay, begged this monk to go and save them while leaving him be. So - this monk went.

“His family was fine. But he was not. By the time this monk got back, he was already gone, from a knife wound to the heart. 

“For a moment, this monk wanted nothing but revenge. But this monk was nowhere as smart as he once was, so this monk chose to make sure that his family would be safe. A deal was made with the people behind this, and this monk was stuck here. If only this monk could tell you who these people were, but unfortunately this monk only made a deal through an emissary. From that moment on, this monk became the sole monk in this forgotten temple, and a pillar in this crucial spot. Yes, this spot is a Fengshui Spot in the Qiyun meridians running across the city as well. And effectively, when making the deal and becoming the supposed only monk of this very temple, this monk had become a pillar. A pillar of human flesh and faith. This is why this monk couldn’t just leave, and couldn’t just share the secrets with the rest of the world about what happened. Because this monk is bound by my oath and the protection afforded by the temple.”

“But why now? ” Marcus frowned: “Wouldn’t you still be bound by now?”

“It’s very simple. It simply is time.” Master Liaoran looked up at the sky, first in the direction of the golden energy pillar, and then Northward: “The city had been in its state of decay and crumbling long before this monk took this post. And as time went by the bind on me had become weak, and thus, a time to act once again.”

“What should we do, master? Where - where do we even start?” Marcus looked Northward as well: “I just saw this - this terrifying cloud of unclean energy, and it’s floating north. I am not sure what caused it, but it had swallowed even a Blood Rainbow.”

“Blood Rainbows themselves are the product of both the spell and array built from the electric grid and the disturbed flow of Qiyun around the city. And its shape comes directly from a gate of the old ruins - the palace that it was before it fell.” Master Liaoran laid down his tea cup: “And that thing - this monk could tell that its target is not anyone here. Unfortunately there’s no way to stop it. The only thing we could do - or the first step, is to actually head to the place where the core of the dark ritual is, and - ”

“Break it? ” Marcus asked, frowning: “I - I am not certain about that, master. Since it’s got its hold on the Qiyun hold in the entire city, breaking it would be - ”

“Catastrophic? Yes. Which is why that’s not what we’re doing it right away.” Master Liaoran shook his head: “What we’re doing at the first step, is to reboot the spell embedded in the electric grid. The only path forward is to start anew.”