“Who was he? ” Marcus asked. This question was not important, but he just o 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 he bind on me will be broken, and there goes the prote this temple provides. So - my apologies.”

  “I uand, master - ”

  “But I tell you this.” Master Liaoran looked up at the night sky, smiling and reminisg: “He was an idealist old man. Wise as you’d expect, kied but tough and braver than anyone I’ve known. When he was just a lowly staffer iy’s unpublished paranormal department, he could not stomach the tragedies ahs from the paranormal entities and decided to find a way to prevent them.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, eve is traveling through wires, carry signals and messages with them. And thus, it be talismans or arrays - just a whole new different kind.

  “As you imagihis 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 iigator from the city. So he delved into researd old texts. Whehey proved insuffit, he decided to veo the old ruins. And I, being his assistant, his apprentid somewhat of a bodyguard, followed him into it.

  “The wisdom and mind in the ruiowed different gifts onto us. HIS gift was what he was searg for - the ways to embed spells in the electricity, and to make arrays at great scale. And my gift, was the enlighteo 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 fortuo have exceeded what ossible for anyone of simir 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 roceeding somewhat smoothly, until the push to build the substations in the South-Eastern Distritered strohan expected resistance.”

  “Yeah. I heard about that, I ’t imagihe 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 iional sabotage from people iy. But it indeed happened just like you said, detective. The locals were offehat the proposed substations would be built oemples and pces of worship and rituals. So the project was stalled. And it ter 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 avaible area?” Marcus shook his head.

  Master Liaoran ughed, his face was full of relief and pride: “Yes. Exactly. As you imagihis pulled him, the leader of the campaign and projeto 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 mo.

  “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 unfortuhis monk only made a deal through an emissary. From that moment on, this monk became the sole monk in this fotten temple, and a pilr 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 being the supposed only monk of this very temple, this monk had bee a pilr. A pilr 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 prote 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 dire of the golden energy pilr, 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 bee weak, and thus, a time to ace 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 un 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 es directly from a gate of the old ruins - the pace that it was before it fell.” Master Liaoran id down his tea cup: “And that thing - this monk could tell that its target is not anyone here. Unfortuhere’s no way to stop it. The only thing we could do - or the first step, is to actually head to the pce where the core of the dark ritual is, and - ”

  “Break it? ” Marcus asked, frowning: “I - I am not certain about that, master. Si’s got its hold on the Qiyun hold iire 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.”