Sue was beginning to regain her consciousness when sunlight shone on her face, as she was being carried by both Gloria and Gyuu Park and reached the street right outside of a famous noodle shop in the entire district - Chef Tang’s. It was a place for people to come and buy delicious and affordable noodles, and a place for people in dire positions to ask for help, and allegedly, buy potentially illegitimate information.

There were three bells hanging from a short, protruding red wood beam just on the side window. One was painted red, one was painted yellow, and the last completely black. When they laid Sue down in a long chair beside the maid door, Gyuu Park ran and rang the yellow bell three times.

A wooden board slid open right after, and a middle aged man opened up the window, staring at Gyuu Park, grumpy and impatient: “What are you doing here? Stinking up our place?”

“Chef Tang!” Gyuu Park almost jumped.

“What have you been up to, little Gyuu?” The middle aged man frowned: “And how did you - ”

“We need help, Chef. I am willing to pay, trade, whatever it costs.” Gyuu Park immediately raised his hand and stopped further questions from coming his way: “We really need your help, and some information would be nice. Because I have some pretty interesting intel for you as well.”

“... how interesting?” The middle aged man asked after a short pause and a few looks up and down Gyuu Park’s entire body..

“Something about the docks, and something about the shadows that are lurking in the warehouse. And something about the karmic abnormalities in there.”

“Son of a bitch - ” Chef Tang’s eyes opened wide: “What did you do? You know that kind of rituals are forbidden!”

“No! No! I didn’t do anything horrible or irresponsible. ” Gyuu Park immediately waved his hands and stood back: “I just - I just peeked at the residuals.”

“Peeked - tsk.” Chef Tang grunted: “Is that how you became this stinky?”

“No, and it’s a long story - ”

“Well, come on in through the back then. And bring your stinky friends with you.” Chef Tang slid the window closed.

The two strangely polished metal doors on the back of the entire noodle shop creaked open, two staffers of the shop in uniforms helped Gloria and Gyuu Park carry Sue inside, and put her on a platform made of pure stone with red wood and metal frames.

This seemed to be a specially designed room at the back of the noodle shop, with meticulous patterns painted on the walls, tiles that resembled talisman symbols and writings on the ceiling, and red wood pillars on the four corners, perfectly facing the four general directions. There were also lively patterns of divine beasts engraved on the exterior of the pillars.

“What happened to her?” Chef Tang, the middle aged man who owned the noodle shop, came over and asked.

“We performed the ritual to take a cursory look at the abnormalities of the flow of Qiyun and karma in one of the warehouses. A giant duster appeared in the vision, and it started to take advantage of our presence and our vision to feed on the remnants of some pollutants.” Gyuu Park explained: “I tried to break us out, but it seemed she’s still not completely out of it yet. We had to run away from the warehouse. ”

“Duster?” Chef Tang put his right index and middle finger on Sue’s right temple, then left temple: “How ‘giant’ can it be? They’re not supposed to grow - ”

“The size of a young child.” Gyuu Park responded: “When we tried to leave the warehouse, a whole horde of them rushed out and tried to attack us. Which is - ”

“ - never heard of.” Chef Wang frowned: “How many dusters?”

“At least a few dozens of them, maybe even up to a hundred.” Gloria answered.

Chef Tang took a look at her, then Sue, and finally had his eyes fixed on Gyuu Park. After a short while, he turned to the two staffers: “Bring me THE sword, then close it down. Seal the door and surroundings. Hold on the special orders, nobody comes in here until I come out.”

“Yes, Chef!” The two staffers immediately closed the doors and left the room. After a moment, one of the staffers brought in a short sword still in its elegant sheath, placed right on top of a red velvet cushion, carried on a wooden tray.

“You, stand beside the bed.” Chef Tang took the short sword, then ordered Gloria and Gyuu Park: “One on each side. ”

Gloria and Gyuu Park did as they were told, then Chef Tang walked to the head of the platform. He then held the short sword in his left hand, laid it horizontally and ran his right hand fingers along the body of the sword, infusing it with his Qi.

The sheath of the sword glowed in an ethereal purple light. Chef Tang then held the blade up, and started chanting some kind of spell of unknown language with a low voice. After around half a minute, the pommel of the sword started blinking in blue light. Chef Tang immediately put his right index and middle fingers on the pommel. Then with a quick pull, he pulled a small droplet of condensed blue energy liquid from the bottom of the pommel and locked it onto the tips of his fingers.

Chef Tang continued chanting, his Qi slowly enclosing the droplet of blue energy, forming a thin layer of purple outer shell.

“Now, be ready, do not resist, and do not make any sudden moves.” Chef Tang said with a stern tone, then while Gyuu Park and Gloria were still nodding, he threw the droplet of energy onto Sue’s forehead.

The purple shell cracked, then six tiny needles and legs grew out of the different cracked parts and sunk into Sue’s skin. Tiny droplets of red blood seeped out, and quickly turned gray, then turned pale, and finally turned into six droplets of different shades of black and gray. These gray patterns began spinning, while the droplets slowly rose into the air, gradually floating closer and closer to each other.

Gloria and Gyuu Park stared at the droplets. For some reason, these droplets of liquid were giving off an aura that felt hauntingly familiar to both of them.

“This stinking dirt rag. It came with you. ” Chef Tang spoke through his teeth: “And I thought your information was not worth that much. Some are up to no good. Some are trying the forbidden arts again. This - this is a disgrace.”

“What - ” Gloria was about to ask. But then the six droplets merged into one, grew at least a hundred times in size, and started changing in shape and smoking. Hairs started growing out of it, and almost at the same time, two tiny legs.

“It latched onto Sue. It followed us - this is why - ” Gyuu Park narrowed his eyes.

“Yes. And it is exactly the reason why it’s stinky as hell here.” Chef Tang retracted his left arm, then launched a palm strike against the ceiling. A gush of an intense energy beam clashed with the metal ceiling, and two heavy metal doors were opened by this strike. Sunlight came right in, and through the sunroof with a metal frame that had arcane symbols edged into it.

The drop of hairy liquid was locked in the air by the beam of sunlight, and with a high pitched scream, it turned into a puff of smoke.