“Go! Go downstairs! Go find someone for help!” Gloria raised her voice at Sue, while squeezing her meridians to find any traces of Qi to put on both her hands, ready to use the last bit of her power to buy her friend some time: “I’ll hold it off! Go find someone! Even the two from the patrol team!”

“Be careful!” Sue took a look back at the inside of the apartment, then started stumbling to the stairs. She wanted to go find help, but her muscles just would not listen. The lightning bolts exploded from the coin left quite a few marks on her. She was just a civilian, if it was any other day, she would be patting herself on the back and applaud her own fortitude. But right now, she just wanted to traverse the stairs down faster, so that she and Gloria could survive the day.

Gloria stood in the frame of the door, her eyes glancing at every corner of the apartment. The cracked pieces of the cat granny remained on the ground, shaking and trembling slightly, while releasing faint gray smoke into the air.

The main torso of the cat granny did not completely collapse yet, and was left on the ground like a charred and stained wooden container, the interior of which was especially burnt and he could even see some dark red cinder on the inner wall.

Gloria looked around, there was nothing she could find which she could use as a good throwing item. So she took a step back and picked up a shoe on the ground and tossed it at the broken torso.

“Crack” the torso was broken in several places. A small charred wood carving with some arcane symbols edged on one side fell out. The symbols were dark red, and a faint glow immediately dimmed the moment it was exposed to the air.

“What the hell - ” Gloria looked around some more, it seemed that there was nothing dangerous remaining in the apartment. The cracked pieces of tree bark and roots gradually stopped shaking as more smoke arose. And for some reason, the pieces seemed to be showing signs of crumbling and fading in color as well.

“Gloria? GLORIA!” Sue’s voice came from the staircase: “Are you alright?! I - I can’t walk anymore! Are you okay?!”

“Yes! Yes, I am okay!” Gloria responded: “For now! Don’t come over, I’ll guard here just in case it’s not dead!”

Gloria looked back at the remainder of the cat granny’s body. With the wooden carving exposed, the pieces of wood seemed to be losing the dark energy remaining in them at a faster rate. Realizing that the wood carving could be cursed, Gloria leapt to a corner of the room, where one of the cloth bags they brought back were. The cloth bag was now soaked. When she picked it up, a broken glass bottle fell out. She recognized it - it was one of the bottles of blessed water they brought from the Kshiti Temple, which may have been broken during the fight.

With the cloth bag soaked in blessed water, she was finally comfortable enough to pick the wood carving up. Just to be safe, she tried her hardest to squeeze her Qi into her hand.

With the soaked cloth bag covering her hand, Gloria knelt down and used the tips of her index and middle fingers as well as thumb to minimize contact.

The wood carving felt cold, even through the cloth bag. She wrapped the cloth bag around the carving, making sure there were several layers of wet cloth between her and the carving. But careful as she was, a stream of chilling energy flowed into her head. Her entire body tensed up and the muscles on her back almost spasmed from fear.

Before she could resist, Gloria felt that she was pulled into a dark void.

Her mouth was covered up by a piece of cloth. Sand and rocks squeezed her body from all directions, her hands seemed to have been tied behind her back. Her legs were tied up together by some rope as well. She tried to wiggle and use her Qi to break free. But she immediately realized that there was no Qi in her meridians, and her muscles were much weaker than she’d expect. Judging from the environment, it was clear that she was buried alive in the dirt.

She tried to struggle and move her body again, and a sharp pain from her back almost made her bite her tongue. Sharp objects were embedded in her back. Roots, roots of trees, now stuck into her back. Some of these objects even had their tips and branches sunk into her internal organs.

Before long, Gloria felt that her life force was being drained from a hole or gash on her back. She tried her hardest to resist, but still could not stop or even slow it at all. Before long, extreme sleepiness and darkness swallowed her.

“Yeah, no, this is definitely not normal human tissue.” When Gloria opened her eyes, the first thing she heard was the voice of Tae Kuo.

“Let’s keep it down. But this is definitely an outlet, or conduit of some kind of dark art.” Gyuu Park’s voice sounded exhausted: “I think I have a theory - but I will need to confirm it. For now let’s not mention this to anyone. The two old geezers from the watch and patrol team are no help, but no foul to us either.”

“What is it?” Gloria lifted her upper body up. She was in a patient room in the community health center along with Tae Kuo, Gyuu Park and Sue. Her body was sore, but in a much better state than she imagined. The vision was far from real - it was as if it was just a simple vision, not something that actually happened to her.

“Gloria, you’re up.” Sue rushed over, holding a cup of tea: “Here, have some tea.”

“Thanks.” Only now did Gloria find her lips cracked up and her throat dry and itchy. She did not waste too much: “So - what happened?”

“You passed out holding this.” Tae Kuo raised a wood carving and showed it to Gloria. Now she was able to see it for what it was like - it was shaped like a cat. Though crude, it still had the patterns that resembled two eyes, a nose and three whiskers on each side: “And - I think you took the last bit of its foul energy like a champ. It’s a - well, I’d say it’s a totem.”

“A totem, what does that mean?” Gloria rubbed her temples: “Sorry - my head is still fuzzy.”

“In other words, it’s a conduit of some sort.” Gyuu Park shook his head and answered with a low voice: “My guess is - and remember to keep this among us, that this is a manual recreation of the cat granny.”

“Yes, my thoughts as well.” Tae Kuo nodded with a stern look on his face: “The symbols have mostly faded. But I can vaguely tell what they meant - they were conjuring spell symbols, forbidden ones, used for conjuring shadows or aspects of powerful entities.”

“Meaning - whoever carved this, they know what the cat granny is like. And they unleashed this ‘copy’ of the cat granny for their own purpose.” Sue whispered.