“First of all.” Gyuu Park stood up straight, found the Northwestern direction of the warehouse while standing in the original spot. Then he took out a small bronze bell with red threads wrapped on the handle. “I’ll start the ritual. You two stay silent and don’t make any sound. No matter what you see, don’t make a sound. If you see anything strange, then look in the direction of the thing you see. If you are afraid or disturbed, keep your eyes on the rice.”

“Please, tell me this isn’t one of those dangerous rituals that could mess up the flow of Qiyun and bring omens down on us. ” Sue still seemed somewhat bothered: “I’ve heard quite a bit about these rituals, and none of them are any good. If we’re here to figure out what is bringing the omens to us, it kinda defeats the purpose if we do something that will literally bring omens to us.”

“Don’t worry Sue, it’s nothing of the sort.” Gyuu Park shook his head, chuckling: “Believe me, I know very well the pitfalls and dangers of messing with Qiyun and karma. And yes, sometimes even trying to peek at the flow of Qiyun and karma will cause one to be harmed and inflicted. But rest assured that this is no way that reckless or self-indulgent. All I’m trying to do is to see three things: one, if there had been elevated levels of paranormal activity, or any occurrence of dangerous paranormal activities that can be tied back to the mud river and this very docks area; two, hopefully we can find out if what happened at that electrical substation is connected to water, or at least has any connection to the water flowing through here; and three, somewhat of an added bonus, if everything works out, we’d find out if there are indeed traces of omens here, if there are, then we may have a lead on why Gloria was infected with omens. Her coffee shop was not that far away from here.”

“Are you really not peeking into the flow of Qiyun?” Sue narrowed her eyes and tried to confirm.

“No - I don’t wanna go blind, or mute.” Gyuu Park shrugged, then pointed his finger at the bowl of sticky rice at the center of the circle: “I’m just going to see if there are any noticeable marks. Now, whenever you’re ready.”

Sue took a look at Gloria, and found that Gloria was looking at her as well, with an assuring look on her face. “So - you really ARE certain about this huh?”

“As certain as I can ever be about things like this.” Gloria let out a relaxed exhale, then nodded: “I mean - I want to figure this out. I don’t really care about what the community collective says. I just want answers.”

“Okay.” Sue sighed, then looked up at the ceiling, as well as the candle placed in the Southeastern corner: “Okay, let’s do it. Gyuu, just let us know what we need to do.”

“Good, just keep your eye on it, you can try to look around. But this ritual can actually cause dizziness, so unless you see something, try to concentrate on the rice.” Gyuu Park nodded: “And Gloria, stand by my side and take that bottle of wine. When I tell you to, just splash some wine onto the rice or the flags.”

“Got it.” Gloria came close to Gyuu Park, and picked up the small light green bottle from Gyuu Park’s small cloth bag.

“Sue, you have brought talismans and some artifacts right? Hold onto them, and put that buddha statue on the ground, let it guard your back. If it breaks or even just cracks, you’d better be prepared to burn it.”

“Understood.” “You’ve got it.”

Gyuu Park cleared his throat, then started flinging his arm up and down to ring the bronze bell, while chanting: “Oh, here I ponder; here I pray, here I ask. What brings me life, what brings me death; what brings me light, what brings me shadows; what brings me enlightenment, peace and goodness, what brings me greed, resentment and ignorance. Here, I ask to see. Here, I shall see. Here, I see.”

The bell rang nine times in total, then Gyuu Park nodded at Gloria: “Wine.”

Gloria poured some wine onto her right palm and fingers, then leaned in a little and splashed it on the bronze bowl filled with sticky rice.

“Here, I offer you my will, I offer you my question, I offer you our wishes to learn and cultivate. Reveal to us.” Gyuu Park rang the bell one more time, then lit up something between his right middle and index fingers and threw it at the bowl of sticky rice.

A sizzling sound came from the rice, and shortly, a clear smoke arose. The grains of rice on the top began turning yellow, then brown on the surface even when there was no visible flame.

Everything around them started becoming blurry, more and more so as time went by. It was not just because of the light gray smoke and mist appearing around them, but also because, for some reason, of the light shone onto their surroundings through the windows and the sunroof had become gradually dimmer and more iridescent.

“Take heed. Take heed, as I plead and mediate. Take heed as I venture into the river, go through the bridge and ascend the mountains.” Gyuu Park continued, slowing his words down, as if the annunciation of each word brought about some kind of weight on his shoulders and his mind.

Noticing that Sue’s breathing had hastened, Gloria looked up at Sue, and found that Sue’s eyes were fixated on something to Gyuu’s left, the space between Gyuu and her. Gloria slowly and carefully turned her head as well as her eyes. When she almost reached the maximum angle she could without turning her shoulders, she saw what caught Sue’s attention with the corner of her right eye: a seemingly female figure in a long ragged robe, with messy, pouring long hair and four arms. It was not four arms on the same pair of shoulders, but were separately connected to two pairs of shoulders stuck together with an angle, with their own respective chests. The two arms in the middle almost seemed like one on the upper part, and only almost halfway to the elbow did they actually split into two arms.

“SILENT as I may be, weak as I may be, decrepit as I may be, covetous as I may be, bitter as I may be, unenlightened as I may be. Such is all illusion, blinding me from the truth, deafening me from the great song, chaining me from the tower.” Gyuu Park gave Sue an encouraging and calming look, then continued: “For I am one of the common, one grain of dust, one vast universe, one eye, one flower and one sun.”

Gloria slowly turned her head back, while scanning their surroundings to see if there were more entities to which she needed to pay attention. There were: in the direction between Sue and Gyuu Park, further from them than the female figure, there was a pile of severed arms and fingers, still bleeding; from one metal beam above, dangled two dried up bodies covered in moss, dried grass and small but colorful mushrooms; and arguably most lively and horrific of all, was a slowly pacing man in ragged clothes with slash wounds all over his body and half his face missing - his wounds were all black like cracked coal or burnt wood, showing no traces flesh or bones inside.