When Jianmen woke up, it was already night time as he could see the sky filled with stars from the small gaps in the debris above him. He tried to move but was immediately hit with a grueling pain from his right arm - as he turned his head and checked, he found that his entire right hand was gone, same with the lower half of his right forearm. The self healing ability of his body sealed the wound up and stopped the bleeding, but it was neither possible to completely numb the pain or grow his forearm and hand back, at least not without some time and some conscious effort from Jianmen himself.

After pushing some debris aside, Jianmen found a small translucent crystal ball the size of pea by his side - and he was not surprised but still couldn’t help feeling a little bit disappointed. This was the product of cleansing karmic pollutants, kind of like the scar tissue of humans when their wounds heal. It basically served no purpose for the absolute majority of sentient beings in the universe. But for someone who had good connections to karma flows and understood the mechanism of karma, it could be used in a number of ways. And one of these ways, though quite wasteful in Jianmen’s opinion, happened to be the healing of wounds caused by the usage of the Law of Karma when one’s not powerful and in tune with karma flows enough to use it.

And when he crawled out of the debris, he saw police tapes all around the outer perimeter of the house. There were a few police cars and one black car with two federal agents in it in the surrounding area, but seemed like all of the officers were more concerned with preventing people from outside of the circle coming in and damaging the scene, than anyone actually making it out.

Jianmen found the altar from which he was purging the fallen god’s power, before he got interrupted by the poor leader of the Bleeding Daggers, in the now completely broken building. It seemed like along with the destruction of the scroll and the cleansing of karmic pollutants inside, almost all of the residual power from the fallen god seemed to have dissipated.

Jianmen had to be extra careful when he left the scene with the altar on his shoulder - the injuries he inflicted on himself again made his sub-optimal condition even worse. He was debating in his mind whether he wanted to use the small crystal ball on himself - it would be a hell of a waste, and probably wouldn’t even heal his hand to the bare minimum level of basic functionality.

He was lucky, that the karmic pollutants sealed in the antique scroll were far from powerful, and he was able to conjure what little bit of the power of the Law of Karma and cleanse them in entirety. The cost was high, but from past experience, long term wise it’s almost always worth it, and the crystals tend to be the center of the “payback”.

After hiding the altar in a relatively safe place and sealing it with a spell just in case there was some more residual power from the fallen god seeping out of it, he immediately headed for Shawn and Nan’s place. On his way, he checked his old style, cheap but extremely sturdy phone - it was already almost midnight, and he had around thirty to forty missed calls from Nan.

When he reached the place and knocked on the door, he found that the door was open. Before he entered, he cast a simple illusion spell on his right arm so that Nan wouldn’t see his missing hand and forearm. When he slowly walked into the house, he heard a low weep coming from the center of the living room, and bottles, vases, dishes were broken and scattered all over the floor.

“Anyone home?” Jianmen carefully walked into the living room and asked.

“Oh, Jianmen! You’re alive!” Nan stopped weeping and tried to stand up from the ground where she sat: “I… I called you so many times...”

Jianmen could not say anything, so he just walked over and knelt down by Nan’s side.

“Shanyi.... Shanyi’s gone! Shanyi’s gone!” Nan grabbed onto Jianmen’s shirt and cried loudly: “My Shanyi… he’s not with me anymore!”

“I’m so sorry...” Jianmen lightly patted on Nan’s back: “So sorry...”

“Wait, how did you make it back?” Nan seemed to have realized something all of a sudden: “They said they found him in a building … the gangs ...”

Jianmen went silent, he had a feeling about how this was about to go.

“It’s your fault! Isn’t it?! It’s your fault!” Nan screamed with tears running down her faces and she used all of her forces to pound on Jianmen’s chest: “My Shanyi would never get involved with gangs!? It must be you! It must be you! You’re the one that pissed off the gangs! It’s your fault...”

Jianmen sighed, and after a brief moment of thought he decided to let silence be his only answer.

“Get out! Get out!” Nan’s hands almost tore up Jianmen’s shirt: “Give me back my grandson… You give me back my grandson...”

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

“Damn, Boss.” Caroline and Jason looked at each other and said: “That’s rough.”

“Yeah, well, what can you do?” Jianmen shook his head: “All she knew was that her grandson was a standup young man running a grocery store she started with all her life savings. I came to the store after only a few months and then that happened.”

“I’d take it that she still doesn’t know till this day?” Jason asked.

“I think so.” Jianmen sighed: “And she doesn’t have to. ”

“But why do you spend Christmas with her? Why does she even let you?” Caroline handed her chosen books to Jianmen.

“She didn’t have other relatives, she just had some neighbors she occasionally talks to. And I sort of… inherited some responsibility from Shawn, so I need to take care of her. ” Jianmen nodded at Caroline’s choice: “I can’t visit too often - it will bring her much pain. So I had to find a balance, to make sure that she’s taken care of and she’s not too lonely. I also made sure that she stays healthy so that she wouldn’t be tormented more by her loss.”

“And this Christmas you’ll spend it with her, even though she probably still hates you?” Jason shook his head and handed his choice of books to Jianmen: “Yikes, rough holidays, Boss!”

“Yeah well, I’ll see if the neighbors would invite her.” Jianmen chuckled and shrugged: “Don’t worry about me. Just enjoy yours.”