“Come on, Caroline, I told you mine, let’s hear yours!” seeing that Caroline was a little embarrassed, Jason tried to dogpile on her with a gloating smile.

“It’s really lame, Okay? Not as poetic as yours.” Caroline waved her hand and was embarrassed enough to want to leave in unease.

“Don’t worry about it.” Jianmen shook his head and said: “It couldn’t have beaten mine, mine was basic as hell: it was liberally ‘Sleep serenely, eat peacefully, travel with caution, wear clean clothes’.”

“Oh, Boss, seriously?” Jason couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “Why? What happened?”

“I was in a completely new environment, struggling to survive and barely made it past a few dangerous encounters.” Jianmen poured himself a cup of tea and answered: “So, Caroline, don’t worry, sometimes your personal scripture does not appear to be what you want it to be because it has to do with your unconscious emotions and what you viewed as major parts of your purposes in life. They will change, as you are further along, eventually you can even change it to anything you want.”

“Okay, but what is this personal scripture anyway?” Jason raised his hand.

“It is the first step in establishing your connection with the universe.” Jianmen gave a short answer and then turned back to Caroline: “So, could you share with us your private scripture? No need to be embarrassed.”

“Okay, don’t laugh at me, OK?” Caroline sighed and looked at both Jianmen and Jason for confirmation.

“Don’t worry, no judgment or mockery here.” Jason promised.

“It was: ‘I shall be the fort. I shall be the rock. Sticks and stones and blades, firm stand till I fall’. ” Caroline nervously recited the voice she heard at the end of her first visualization process.

“Hmm, that was not bad, and it makes sense.” Jason nodded.

“Yeah, no worries, way better than mine.” Jianmen chuckled and refilled Caroline’s juice cup to full.

“Yeah, I am not a fan.” Caroline gave out a cringed, “It gives me the superhero vibes. So cringey.”

“Yeah, like I said. Don’t worry about it.” Jianmen as he scooped himself a bowl of matcha ice cream: “And like I said, don’t remember how you felt at the end of the visualization. Tomorrow, I am going to teach you meditation methods, and do remember these.”

“Really? Do we get our shifts cut?” Jason asked.

“Yes, you get an extra two hours of break each day. No change in pay.” Jianmen sighed and shaking his head, as if he was dealing with children, “But, you will need to practice meditation for half an hour per day and visualization for half an hour per day. Unless you have a really good reason you cannot miss any of it. Also your meals will be upgraded, your bi weekly medicinal meals will be upgraded as well. And your medicinal baths will extend to longer, naturally. For how long I still need to measure you.”

“Oh crap, why you have to treat us like that Boss?” Jason frustratedly lied on the table.

“When can we be done with this medicinal bath nonsense?” Caroline apparently shared Jason’s sentiment.

“You’ll thank me later. ” Jianmen left the table with a sly smile, “Take the rest of the day off, help yourselves to the juice and ice cream, and remember to get plenty of sleep. Just remember to clean up. Gather in the training space tomorrow morning at 8.”

---------------------------------------------------

Next day morning 8 a.m, at the same discreet corner at the back of the inn where Jason and Caroline last had their medicinal bath, Jason and Caroline were told to sit on two rattan mats, with incense burning in front of them.

“Nice that we have really good weather today. Perfect for our first meditation and visualization class.” Jianmen stood in front of both of them with a smiley face, “Did you get enough sleep yesterday?”

“For some reason 14 hours is still not enough.” Jason yawned as soon as he opened his mouth.

“It is natural. It’d be way better if you got 16, but 2 hours is not that much of a difference.” Jianmen waved a bamboo stick in his hand like it was a teacher’s pointing stick: “In the upcoming days, I will teach you the basic meditation method of our Clan, the Clan of the Golden Feather.” as he saw Jason raise his hand, he continued: “I’ll answer your questions in a bit, let me just lay down your basis 101 first.”

“First thing I am going to teach you is the basics of visualization. I believe you have heard about meditation, and visualization is, in general terms, a kind of meditation, but it is usually with a drawing, not unlike the drawing you saw in the basement. The meditation and visualization methods I am going to teach you, is called the Meditative Scripture of Three Oceans and Nine Heavens.” Jianmen, now sounding and looking like a real teacher and master with mysterious knowledge in his head.

“Now, remember the terminologies I am going to use: ‘meditation’ - refers to a similar kind of exercise you can get from any hipster training centre in San Francisco or online.”

“And visualization, is a practice of observing one or a few specific drawings with True Words inside, and strengthening your mind in the process. Imagine your mind being like a piece of weapon that is being forged and maintained. Meditation is the process of resting, applying oil on it, and enchanting it, while visualization is the process of hammering it, shaping, sharpening and tempering.”

“Now, since you have experienced your first visualization session yesterday, this session will be focused on meditation. When you are practicing by yourself, you should try your best to do visualization and meditation in alternating order. And you should not overdo either, especially visualization, lest you want your mind to be out of shape.”

“Now, listen to what I am saying slowly, and start relaxing your mind, slowly breathe in...”

Under the guidance of Jianmen, both Jason and Caroline slowly became immersed in the state of meditation, and lost track of what was going on around them.

Jianmen stopped talking, then he reached into his pockets and took out two three balls of mysterious material, one was silver white with a metal shine, one was translucent and bright orange, and the other was translucent and light blue, with wave patterns both on the inside and surface.

After gently placing the three balls on the ground, and muttering a few inaudible words, Jianmen watched as the three balls rolled on the ground as if they had minds of their own.

Slowly, the silver white ball with a metal shine rolled towards Jason, and the translucent bright orange ball rolled towards Caroline, and the translucent blue ball just kept turning rounds around its original position.