“This is a - what is this?” Marcus asked Master Liaoran while flipping through the pages of the small manual, confused by all the vivid paintings and drawings.

“It’s a visualization manual. Something to help with your meditation, or should I say, an alternate means of meditation.” Master Liaoran answered: “The usage is very simple: find a quiet place. Drink enough water, don’t be too full or too hungry. Clear your mind. Fix your eyes on them and try to have the image imprinted on your mind.”

“But - there are many of them.”

“Which is why you need to find the right one for you. You’ll feel it after around 30 seconds to one minute. Don’t push yourself too hard. ” Master Liaoran smiled as he pulled a long cloth hanging on the wall of the inner sanctum, revealing a drawing of a humanoid creature: green skin, one extra eye on the forehead, two ears on each side, long eyebrows and sharp fangs. “This is for Wuzui, when he’s hardened his basics and foundations enough. It’s the Fanged Baboon, a legendary beast of high intellect and agility. It will be helpful when he reaches that level.”

“That’s - that’s fairly detailed.” Marcus tried to focus slightly on the drawing, and it only took less than five seconds before he started getting dizzy and a light headache. As he averted his eyes, the master flipped the cloth back into its place to cover the painting up again.

“When you’ve accomplished enough through basic visualization, you’re going to have one of your own. In more detail.” Master Liaoran smiled: “Can’t learn to run yet. ”

“What - what will happen if I accomplish what it’s intended for?” Marcus asked.

“For one, it’ll help you with the one defect you realized with your Kung Fu, or any martial arts, really - up until now you are only able to sense them, see them by suppressing the Yang properties of your Qi and tuning it towards a more Yin-leaning direction. It works, and it's good practice and technique. But it has its limitations, this would help you with that.

“And apart from this, there’s something else it would definitely help you with - it will harden your mind and will, which will make you less easy to manipulate. I trust now that, since you’ve seen your fair share of illusions, you’d know how dangerous they could be. In fact, for the weaker malicious spirits, illusion is the main means with which they harm and even kill their victims.”

“I see - this is - super helpful. Thank you very much, master.” Marcus nodded and put the manual into his inner pocket: “So - how do we start today?”

“One question.” Master Liaoran led Marcus outside of the inner sanctum and into the yard in which they used to spar: “Did you figure out what that stench on your captain is? Where it comes from?”

“No, unfortunately. And I don’t really know how I can look into it.” Marcus sighed: “All I can tell is - it’s weird. It’s a different kind of smell. It’s - yeah I still can’t think of anything similar. Maybe with this manual I can describe how it looks. Or I can try to get closer to the captain with my Qi suppressed.”

“No need to try too hard. Things should be revealed in due time.” Master Liaoran sighed: “If it is of this much importance to you, then why don’t we start with some basic visualization practices?”

Meditation was more about keeping one’s mind clear yet astute, control one’s breathing patterns and focusing on reflecting one’s own life in an attempt to gain more retrospection and wisdom; Visualization, on the other hand, was about keeping one’s mind in a state of tension and strength, for one needed to concentrate on the drawing and try their hardest to resist the natural disturbance emanating from it and avoid being distracted by the illusions.

The drawing that ended up most suitable for Marcus, to no one’s surprise, was one that took the rough shape of a large cat, or one may even say it looked like a tiger. There was still a bit of ambiguity because it was mostly only an outline, with blocks of different colors and patterns inside.

How he found this drawing was also a strange experience - when he fixed his eyes on other drawings, he had similar experiences as when he looked at the Fanged Baboon drawing: his head hurt, his sight became blurry and dizzy. All in all, he felt all sorts of discomfort. For the drawing he ended up with, on the other hand, it seemed to have a strange property to draw him in, without him causing him any discomfort, at least not at first. Only after spending time looking at it, did he realize that his energy was being expended at an accelerated rate, with the power of his mind being exercised and tempered in the process.

When Marcus woke from the visualization state, he actually needed to lie on the ground for a while. His ears were ringing, his visions were spinning, his entire body felt like swinging on a boat. Master Liaoran nodded at him in approval, before leaving him on the ground. He wanted to ask where the master was going, only his jaws and tongue were so sore that he could barely utter a word.

Master Liaoran came back after about three minutes, with another manual in his hands: “Detective, this is for you as well - something I’ve been recently practicing. Basic tricks to aide your Qi cultivation, most of it, but it was surprisingly helpful. So I’d suggest you see how it is with you.”

“Than - thank you very much, master.” Marcus took a deep breath and responded with a weak voice.

“You’d still need a few minutes. I’ll ask Wuzui to prepare some tea and some food for you.”