The remaining amount of Qi in Gyuu Park’s meridians would only be able to supply one more attack. And right now, he could not be sure even if he exerted all of his force he would be able to defeat this creature, not to mention cut the chain off completely.

He could use the oiled blessed coin in his hand and the bagua mirror, but right now the sharp energy from the bagua mirror was already deeply embedded in his right arm. Though dormant, he did not want to imagine what would happen if there was more of this energy flowing into him.

After a short moment of contemplation, he decided to put the bagua mirror away, while clutching the coin tighter and infusing more of his Qi into it.

“Crack!” A thick bolt of bright, orange and golden lightning and a much thinner bolt of green lightning shot through the sky, leaving a gaping hole in the clouds above. The lightning struck something in the air, which was curiously not connected to the ground at all.

The hairs on the back of Gyuu Park all stood up, sending a chill and some kind of burning sensation all over his body. And at the same time, strange electric currents emitted through the coin and circulated through his meridians. Somehow, these currents did not electrocute him, but instead melded into his own Qi, strengthening his power, as well as raising his senses.

“My child! My child! MY CHILD!” The creature hopped up into the sky like a crooked insect, dragging the chain made of aquaweeds along its body. Its arms extended forward aiming at Gyuu Park, and crooked teeth covered in foul saliva and blood shot from its two mouths like bullets.

Gyuu Park rolled on the ground, the need to appear gracious left far behind. The crooked teeth cracked the ground tiles and embedded into the platform floor. With a quick sweep of his left hand, Gyuu Park launched a handful of dirt, tiny rocks and debris he grabbed from the ground in the sky. The creature screamed and changed course in mid air to land on a broken wall to the side.

Gyuu Park’s Qi exploded from all of these tiny fragments and formed some kind of green dust in the air. It temporarily blocked the view between Gyuu Park and the creature. Even though the wall of dust lingered for but one moment, it still made the creature hesitate and wonder for that period of time.

Rushing forward beneath the wall of dust with his entire body lowered, Gyuu Park readied his two hands that held tight with the fingers laced together.

The chain made of aqua weeds was just above Gyuu Park’s head, and the gushing wound he just created earlier was almost within reach. With this window of opportunity, he thrust his arms forward, with his index fingers sticking out, sticking with each other and the other fingers still laced. A green arrow of sharp, almost solidified Qi burst from the tips of the two fingers, aiming right at the wound on the chain.

Though off by a few inches, the sharp arrow of Qi struck true on the wound, and tore into its interior.

A loud crack exploded from the chain, streams of Qi splintered from inside the chain, and tore the chain completely open. Foul liquid gushed from the wounds on the chain, the pungent smell almost knocked Gyuu Park out. He had to push himself back with his tired legs as far away from the site as possible. His eyes teared up, his throat felt swollen, and the skin on his face and neck was burning.

Before Gyuu Park could do anything, another lightning descended from the sky. The blue light blinded him for a brief moment, the loud crack deafened his ears to all sounds, and the unusually strong shockwave released by the strike blew him almost entirely out of the docks area.

When Gyuu Park struggled up straight, he felt his arms shaking uncontrollably. The wooden coin in his palm was severely burned to an unrecognizable state, and had barely half its former shape remaining. Gyuu Park took a deep breath, then held the half wooden coin to his forehead and kissed the back of his hand holding it: “Thank you.” He did not yet know how this happened, but it must have been some kind of chain reaction involving this very blessed oiled coin, the stale and stuck Qiyun of this area, and the foul substance leaked from the chain.

There was the smell of ozone in the air. There were no other creatures anywhere visible. In the spot where the creature he was battling would have been, there was only a pile of what looked like incomplete sets of skeletons, with two skulls, two incomplete spines, arms and some finger bones.

Everything happened in but a brief moment, yet Gyuu Park had grasped already made a pretty educated guess on what happened: this creature was the amalgamation of corrupted spirits of a couple who lost their child, and had possibly been carrying this toll on their mind until their demise in the water.

Wind blew across the platform, and these two sets of skeletons started to crumble and dissipate into the air like loose sand and dirt. Gyuu Park looked around a few more times - there was not anything he could see, aside from a black charred mark on the ground, created by the lightning.

He limbed closer and closer to the bones, trying to go as fast as he could despite his muscles and bones complaining, hoping he could at least get something out of them that could help him make sense of everything.

The piles of bone dust were almost gone before he screamed and lunged forward with his arms extended in front of him. When he landed on the ground, chest bumping into the surface of the concrete platform, he managed to grab a small handful of it.

The dust felt chilly, even slightly freezing and also a bit clunky. But when he held it closer, his Qi started leaking out of his palm. He tried to control it, but somehow he felt a wave of dizziness rush through his head, and he started seeing different images of two faint shadows in front of his eyes.

“... we just can’t find him… we can’t find him… what horrible parents we are. What horrible people we are… I shouldn’t have … I shouldn’t have …” The two shadows stood on the edge of the concrete platform.

“... please, sir, please… can you help us… we really cannot find him… please… no one tells us anything… please…” The two shadows knelt on the ground, kowtowing to someone, begging, weeping.

“... please … I beg of you, he’s our boy… he’s been missing for days… please…” The two shadows asked, while holding what looked like piles of fliers in their hands.

“Where are you!? Please! Come out! Son! Where ARE YOU?” The two shadows shouted: “Please! Boy! Come out, stop scaring us! ”

When the visions stopped, the bone dust was almost completely gone from his palm.