Chapter 232
“No.” when Agent Jill asked if Jianmen could take her in as his student, Jianmen immediately shook his head: “I would not be a good teacher for you. I think Josephine would be able to introduce you to a suitable mentor, so you could ask her if possible.”
“Understood.” Agent Jill was calm, but she still seemed very disappointed: “Thank you… I… I’ll try.”
“If you have a P.O. box or a mailing address, you can send it to me.” Jianmen thought for a short while and said: “I have some very basic documents I think could be of use to you. But remember, choose the path you want to go carefully, the art of exorcism and purification is one of faith and devotion, there’s very little room for mistakes.”
“But, sir, you just blessed the rain and cleansed the evil in this place.” Agent Hall said: “If you consider yourself unqualified, I don’t know who would be.”
“There’s a difference.” Jianmen sat down and took a sip from his flask: “I did not ‘bless’ the rain per se, I just laced the cloud with a combination of enchanted materials, let it interact with lightning and dissolve in the rainwater. It’s basically a kind of poison specifically concocted to target the unclean presence in this place. It would’ve worked better if I had more time to analyze what we were dealing with. It does not heal anyone and does not grant goodwill or good luck, which would often come with blessings.”
“... sounds still like some kind of blessing to me.” Agent Jill said.
“Read the things I’ll send you, and you’ll see the difference.” Jianmen nodded and said: “By the way, Agent Hall, you may wanna call a cleaning crew here. There are a lot more bodies than any of us previously expected. Just look into the crater in the middle of the area.”
“Understood, on it.” Agent Hall nodded and delivered several orders using the comms.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to look around and make sure there aren’t any loose ends.” Jianmen patted on Agent Hall and Agent Jill’s shoulders, then walked away from the area.
“Agent Hall, let me go and take a look at these bodies.” Agent Jill thought for a while, then walked up to Agent Hall.
“Alright, let’s go then.” Agent Hall already gathered a few volunteering agents by his side, and armed with refilled Wyvern Breath, they advanced on the position of the crater at the center of the area.
When they reached the edge of the crater, they were able to see how big a crater it was, and that it exposed some underground chambers and tunnels. There were piles and piles of grey and white ash below, quite similar to the situation above on the ground, but to a much greater degree. It was understandable, because when the rain started falling, the monsters and other creatures roaming the area all burrowed below the ground.
“This is some disturbing shit down here.” an agent saw the claw marks on the stone and earth walls around them.
“Here, let’s get down there.” Agent Hall found a tunnel leading to somewhere deeper, and signaled the agents to follow him.
The agents descended the curling tunnel, and before long, they found an underground chamber, which looked like it was clawed out by monsters, but in an organized fashion.
Inside the chamber, there were a few rectangle stone platforms, looking like beds. And on each of these stone platforms, was a full skeleton, almost completely buried in ashes.
Agent Hall hesitated for a while, then turned to Agent Jill: “Do you think...”
“Yes.” Agent Jill sighed with an upset look. With just a quick look, she was able to deduce that these were probably the same kind of pregnant women they saw on the ground: “I … I can’t imagine how fucked up this is.”
“Agent Jill, there might be other chambers like this.” Another agent on the side looked around and found another tunnel.
When the agents walked through the tunnel, they indeed found another room, but it was a room with only one stoned bed, with one skeleton on it - but the skeleton did not look like that of a human. Because the fingerbones and tone bones looked particularly long, and the skull looked like the body had longer and wider jaw bones than human.
“Lycan.” Agent Jill gasped: “We need to report to Ms. Wong.”
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Right in front of the Clearwater Municipal Hospital, Josephine Wong was waiting to enter through one of the wings, while a buddhist monk with a tall metal staff in hand and in a robe, and a middle aged Chinese woman in an ugly Lunar New Year sweater knitting a wool sock behind her.
“Are you sure you wanna go in alone, Ms. Wong?” the monk asked: “This monk believes Simmons and Robinson could just watch the surroundings by themselves, and Pei and this monk could go in with you.”
“No need, I can safely handle myself.” Josephine Wong smiled and said: “Plus, I don’t want Pei to ruin her sock - it looks too comfy.”
“Aren’t you nice. But I could just put it outside and come back to it.” Pei laughed and continued knitting: “I can feel that this is way too dangerous for any of us to go in alone.”
“Don’t worry, I am pretty good at stealth spells and hiding myself in hostile situations.” Josephine Wong showed off a silver color bracelet on her right wrist: “And I have this, it’s from Jianmen, the man I told you about. I was told it could basically make me invisible to all the unclean presence in there. So you just need to worry about the perimeters, I’ll be fine. If it gets too dangerous I am still very capable of escaping.”
“If you insist, Ms. Wong, then may you be safe and blessed. This monk will be here and await your command.” the monk gently bowed and said.
“Thank you, Nameless. ” Josephine Wong nodded and faced the hospital building with a stern look: “Okay, here we go.”
Josephine Wong cast a simple spell to float herself a short distance above the ground, then she went into the building through a door on the north wing.