“Okay… okay… That is so good to hear. Get some rest.” after feeding the rose, Jason got a call from Ricky - who seemed like he was drugged up on painkillers or some other mind numbing drugs. And in a very incoherent way, Ricky told Jason that he and the other three that went in the West Wing were okay and Jason shouldn’t worry.

“Exactly 15 minutes.” Jianmen looked at his phone and laughed: “Pretty neat huh? Keep working hard and you’ll learn neat divination tricks like that.”

“Alright Boss. But I don’t imagine we’ll be full on cultivators and maintain a reasonable pace of progression?” Caroline asked: “Shouldn’t we just hole up somewhere and only come out once a decade?”

“Believe it or not, some great cultivators before actually invented the idea of ‘Hong Chen Li Lian’, which means ‘The Trials Among the Secular and Civilian World’.” Jianmen answered with a smile: “And you being employees here is a good mixed model of that - you will practice cultivation when you are not working and partaking in other necessary activities. And this is the age of information technology, as long as you are not distracted too much, I don’t see a reason for you to not keep working. Also, before you can skip food and sleep on the clouds, you’ll still need to work for me to use the personnel accommodations.”

“Okay, I get it. So we’re your apprentices.” Jason chuckled - when he knew that the other people in the hospital were safe, he was much more relaxed and relieved.

“And, also. Before you call it a day. Follow me to the basement again.” Jianmen snapped his fingers as if he just thought of something: “I wouldn’t be a good cultivation master, if I did not have a personal library.”

When they entered the basement again, Jianmen lightly clapped his hands, and with the sound of bricks and metal chunks moving, a part of the ground opened up downwards and showed some stairs leading to deeper underground.

And when three of them walked down the stairs, simple and elegant paper lamps hanging on both sides of the stairs started lighting up. After they walked through a short underground aisle, they entered into a spacious multi-layer room, where each layer is connected with stairs and bookshelves were located on each layer.

“The first layer is filled with the books you CAN read and CAN understand. The second layer is for books you CAN read but probably won’t understand unless you’re at least a 4th layer cultivator . And on the third layer if you can go up on it you can read it.” Jianmen pointed at three layers and said: “They are organized already. So feel free to come here and read anytime. You can bring the books anywhere in this inn, but never bring any books out.”

“What happens if the basement is locked?” Jason asked: “Like a few weeks back? Any other entrance?”

“You like reading, good. You can come here through any door you want. As long as you concentrate.” Jianmen smiled and pointed at Jason with an approving smile, then he pointed at another door at the corner of the room: “And, that’s a new room, you can practice spells and combat techniques in there if you’re so inclined. Don’t worry about damaging the books. Unlike other libraries, food and drinks are actually welcome in here.”

“Huh? Why?” Caroline asked.

“If you pay enough attention when you read, you’ll get hungry soon. ” Jianmen walked to the wall in front of a bookshelf: “And here’s a neat trick for you.” Then he gently knocked on the wall and said: “Rice wine, one bottle.”

The wall opened up a round hole and revealed a bottle of rice wine on a small platform, and the hole closed up as it was never there when Jianmen took the bottle out.

“You see, I’m kind of a bad boy, a rebel and a free spirit.” Jianmen showed off the bottle in his hand: “I built a food and drink teleporter connected to the diner fridge in my friggin’ library. I hope you can enjoy it as much as I do!”

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

After a good night’s sleep on the temporary folding bed, Caroline woke up refreshed, but still with a heavy mind.

Kane and Alex were still asleep on her bed - the cleansing and calming spell Jianmen cast on them yesterday was quite effective and potent - they had already slept for straight 14 hours, and at least from the looks on their faces they were quite well rested. And this still presented her a new problem - they were no longer in danger of being attacked by the gang of cultists, but she then had to explain to them about the nature of being a cultivator and the risks and dangers it entails.

What is also worrying, was the story shared by Jason last night and the follow up information provided by Jianmen. Apparently, there were some organizations, both living underground and somewhere on the surface. Jianmen could not tell who those men and women in black were, but he did enlighten them on some pretty explosive and worrisome information regarding this world: that besides them cultivators, and the occasional super-powered individuals they encountered before, there were also other groups of people in the world who wield supernatural powers. These groups include wizards, witches, some other creatures and mythical beings from folklores and legends and even beings they’d never heard of before.

And what Jianmen was alluding to, was not only the fact that the world she and Jason were in was changing, but also the fact that there had always been a supernatural side to this world, where many secrets and dangers lay, and by which great risks are posed to Kane and Alex.

And on another side, Jason was having similar thoughts and worries, but his worries were not as focused on the fact that there were other supernatural beings in this world, but more on the fact that the world seemed to be much more dangerous than he previously thought. This is the reason that he woke up early, and stayed in a meditation state since - he had a pretty bad gut feeling that something was going on with his family, but it was still early and he did not want to just rush home.

His phone rang, waking him up from his meditation.

“Hey Jason?” it was Mack, his younger brother, “You told me to call you if I notice something weird?”

“Yeah, what happened?”

“Mom and dad - they started sleepwalking, and it’s kinda freaking me out. ” Mack’s voice was shaking over the phone: “Can you come home? They’re home at the moment and I tried to stall them and convince them to stay home but I think they still want to get on with their plans this afternoon. So please come home as soon as possible.”

“Got it. I’m on my way. Don’t let them leave yet.” Jason put down his phone and immediately rushed out the door, almost bumping into Caroline on the way.

“Jason, Erika called, they finally did a thorough examination of the corpse from the hotel. I’m heading to San Francisco. You coming?”

“Ah… this is super bad timing. My brother just called me, there’s something going on with my parents. I need to get back as soon as possible.”

“Hmm. Okay, just go then. I’ll let you know if I find anything.” Caroline sighed and patted Jason on the shoulder: “Good luck.”

“Yeah. And you too.”