“Good. Good.” inside of the underground training area, Jason and Caroline were meditating, with two small metal mirrors placed in front of them. Thin beams of light came from their foreheads and projected onto the mirrors and the mirrors deflected and broadened the beams and turned them into holographic projections in the space in front of them and slightly above their heads.

On the other side of the room, Thomas and Aimee were bathing in two wooden buckets, with medicinal materials floating in the bath water. On the two wooden buckets hung two metal pendants. The pendant on Aimee’s bucket had the relief sculpture of a piece of ice on it, while the one on Thomas’ bucket had the sculpture of a fireball on.

“This is really burning my butt off here.” Thomas asked while rubbing his own shoulder muscles: “How much longer do we have to be submerged in this thing?”

“Just about ten to fifteen minutes more.” Josephine Wong nodded and said: “You will know it’s time to get out when the water starts getting muddy and bubbling. And you, Aimee, same thing with you, except the water will start freezing on the surface instead of bubbling. When this happens, get out of the bucket and don’t take too long.”

“I thought our powers are not simply fire and ice?” Thomas asked: “So if you don’t mind me asking, why the bath water bucket with fire and ice symbols on them?”

“Flow magic is a bit different from normal magic. The ‘element’ is not represented by energy particles, but by the pattern of vibration from energy particles.” Josephine Wong answered: “Think of it as some kind of magic that is based on waves instead of particles, and the properties your flow energy displayed indicated that it is best to approach its training in ways that are similar to the ways in which we approach fire and ice magic training. Of course, I added some adjustments in the array, and with Jianmen’s special soup recipes, I am confident your bath water is quite suitable for both of you. And with more experience and fine tuning it will be even better.”

“Soup recipes?” Aimee lifted the left side of her eyebrows while looking at Josephine Wong, then she looked down at the floating herbal materials in her bath water: “So we’re bathed in soup right now?”

“Yeah, minus a few kinds of material and add some spice and salt then you’ll have the soup you love so much from lunch.” Josephine Wong smiled, then she seemed to be reminded of something: “Now … if you’ll excuse me, I have to go check up on the actual owner of this inn.”

“What should we do when we get out of the water?” Aimee asked.

“Get dressed and wipe yourselves clean. Then check the pendants, you’ll know what to do next.” Josephine Wong snapped her fingers and the purple flames burning at the center of the room just got a refuel.

Before heading into Jianmen’s room, Josephine Wong opened one of the cupboards and took out a clay jar and two small bowls.

“Agent Carolina.” when the female agent keeping an eye on Jianmen and monitoring the status and energy flow of the healing array and the medicine gradually administered on Jianmen’s body in rounds and phases was about to double check the array, she heard the voice of Josephine Wong and a knock on the frame of the door: “Can I have a moment with him?”

“Ms. Wong.” Agent Carolina nodded and quickly checked the array: “Of course, I’ll be right outside if you need anything.”

“Thank you. Take a break.” Josephine Wong sat down by the bed and said.

About half a minute after Agent Carolina walked out the door, Jianmen opened his eyes and spoke to Josephine Wong in a weak voice: “Hey, how long was I out?”

“Almost two days.” Josephine Wong said: “How are you feeling?”

“Still very very shitty.” Jianmen coughed then coughed: “It’s like I was forced to eat two clumps of burning coal then washed it down with gasoline and hot shrapnels.”

“How did the tracing and processing go?”

“Not that good, but better than I’d hoped.” Jianmen struggled to sit straight, but without arms and legs he was having a bit of trouble, he could only do so with Josephine Wong’s help: “These fucking defilers - their traces and memories just fade too fast, I did my very best and yet was still only able to gather just a tiny - a tiny and somewhat terrifying glimpse of what they were after.”

“So, what were they after?”

“Aftermath of unholy and un-divine intervention.” Jianmen frowned: “They are pollutants with minds of their own, after all, and I think they were looking for wounds, bleeding wounds of the world and the universe.”

“Stone of Negation.” Josephine Wong frowned: “Or at least - the improper use of it. But why would we have no almost no record - nevermind, stupid question.”

“Yes.” Jianmen coughed: “And I fear, that the wound is not yet fully healed. ”

“So they might come back?”

“Before you completely destroyed that sucker with the enchanted blade, it called for something. I think it was calling for its elders. ” Jianmen said: “The more powerful one was the one who responded, but it may not have been the only one who heard it.”

“Your destroying that avatar should serve as a warning.”

“Or a bigger target, we may yet to know.”

“So what do we do?”

“Mend the wounds. Strengthen the chain and flow of karma. When the order of karma is restored, it will make the world harder for them to traverse and act.”

“We can still fight them if it was the only. We will fight them when they came, won’t we?”

“No. No, you must NOT.”