Poison City

“Hello there my dear poor clergyman.” Gloria greeted Gyuu Park with a bright smile and three plastic bags this time: “Want some leftover cake waffles?”

“Fun!” Gyuu Park smiled back: “Aaaand it’s leftover because it didn’t sell right? Not because it dropped on the ground or you sneezed on it?”

“Yeah, it couldn’t sell, and you know egg waffles, leave it till tomorrow and they’ll get soggy.” Gloria chuckled: “And since it’s evening, I brought you some specialty Ipomoea Wine. I heard they help you sleep nice and sound.”

“Geez Gloria.” Gyuu Park laughed and showed Gloria in: “I have no intention of going to bed early. I’ve been unusually busy recently. Your visit last time really got me to go back into the old manuscripts and scriptures. And reading those old dusty pages is just really headache-inducing.”

“Oh, good, that means the drinks I bought were not wasted.” Gloria sat down on a mat with a candle nearby: “I called you because I just found out about something - what do you know about omens? I found some records and documents on them from the community archives, and how they are linked to Karma and Qiyun. But they didn’t exactly tell me what I should do to deal with it. I was wondering what you’d think I should do.” 

“Well, tell me again why you’re looking into omens again?” Gyuu Park tore open one of the plastic bags brought by Gloria and took out a small black can, with a surprised look on his face: “And - you bought the Bomb? How did you even get that?”

“Well, I went to the shop and the shop owner knows me.” Gloria shrugged: “Oh, and I went into the omens rabbit hole because I did the puke ritual this morning.”

“Ugh, people still do that?” Gyuu Park cracked open the can, and the light brown foam burst out and dripped on the ground: “And, uh - what’d you find? Something ominous?”

“Ha-ha.” Gloria shrugged, as she opened a can of normal beer for herself: “Yeah, Sifu Kuo told me that from the looks of it, I had some bad omens on me, but I don’t have a lot of paranormal energy in my system. So it’s strange, and with what happened at the Fuman Coffin Home, I went to the community archive with a friend. And borrowed some records. None of them were very clear, so I thought I’d pick your brain on it.”

“Well, I am not surprised. And you’ve come to the right guy.” Gyuu Park chuckled: “And I’d imagine SOME of the records said that the study and investigation of omens is a sensitive act, right?”

“Yes, indeed. And that’d be my first question, if you don’t mind.”

“And a wise question at that.” Gyuu Park smiled: “The reason is simple - for one, looking into it doesn’t really yield anything productive in the short or even mid term; and for two, you’d think about voodoo in this instance, but in-depth investigation of omens could actually enable some ill-minded people to do a lot of harm. You study omens enough, you can actually learn to bring them upon people. You’ll suffer some grave consequences yourself, of course. But in the hands of someone desperate, it’s not gonna be pretty.”

“... has it happened before?” Gloria laid down her beer.

“Well, it’s a taboo for a reason - it must have happened some time before.” Gyuu Park shrugged and chuckled: “And - do you know how it works? I mean, from what I’ve learned, it always comes with unclean energy right? And this is why Sifu Kuo said my situation’s weird and unusual.”

“And he’s correct. But - does he know that you practice Spirit Cat Style?” Gyuu Park nodded and took a large gulp of his beer.

“He does. Wait - do you think it’s because my Qi burned the energy off?” Gloria immediately realized what Gyuu Park was trying to allude to.

“It is a possibility. But the more worrisome possibility is that - since Spirit Cat Style is more of a Yin style, thus the Qi you cultivated has a more Yin affinity. Your Qi could have absorbed it. Which would be somewhat concerning. But don’t worry, I can help you check and teach you how to do it yourself.” Gyuu Park stood up, went into the prayer room of the temple then came out with two pieces of yellow paper: “Here, this should be easy to come by even for a civilian - talisman paper.”

“Okay.” Gloria took one piece of the paper: “You wanna teach me how to make a talisman?”

“Sort of, but it’s only for you, and it serves no purpose other than showing you the energy in your blood.” Gyuu Park laid down his piece on the ground, flattened it, then raised his index finger: “Now, prick the tip of your middle finger to make sure you can drip blood, either hand is fine.”

“Okay.” Gloria pricked her left middle finger with her right hand, with a bit of Qi concentrated on the tip of her right index finger. “I wonder why Sifu Kuo didn’t use this method?”

“You’ll see - for Qi users and non-Qi users, the pattern you need to draw would be different. And, technically this is a trick among watchers and clergymen, not to be shared with the civilians. Now, follow my finger, make sure your blood is left on the trail.” Gyuu Park drew a circle on the piece of paper, then wrote a simple symbol in the middle of the circle: “Now, when done, put it up on a candle flame but do not let it burn.”

It actually took Gloria some effort to draw the circle and the symbol in full - blood from the fingertip did not flow as freely as ink from a pen. Then she dangled the piece of paper above the candle put forward by Gyuu Park. 

“A bit lower. Aim the circle at the fire.” Gyuu Park advised: “Make it so that you can see the paper getting a bit brown but not enough to burn.”

Gloria lowered the piece of paper gradually, until her fingertips could feel the warmth coming from the fire and the paper itself. The circle and the symbol drawn with her blood turned dark, like blood from a wound that was about to scar. Shortly after the drawing turned almost completely black, it started to brighten in color. Little spots and lines of red and orange began sprouting from the darkened mark of Gloria’s blood. And at the same time, the paper around the mark began changing in color as well. It was like soft paper stained by droplets of ink, a darker color began spreading from the blood marks into the surrounding areas, leaving trails behind. The further the stains spread, the lighter they became, making the trails into a strangely impressive gradient figure.

“Okay.” After a while, the marks drawn with her blood started dimming again, and the spread of the stains stopped. So she handed the piece of paper to Gyuu Park: “What - what should I do next?”

“Hmm.” Gyuu Park examined the piece of paper, then pointed at a particular trail of stains: “You see this?”

“Yes.”

“This is similar to the mechanism of test strips - the trail is a representation of the energy content in your blood, broken down and distributed along the trail based on how it interacts with the paper.” Gyuu Park explained: “And IF your Qi had absorbed unclean energy, it would show up as some kind of green-ish lines or mark at the end of the trails. But - ”

“But there isn’t any.” Gloria let out a breath of relief: “This is good, right?”

“Yes.” Gyuu nodded, smiling. But almost immediately, his smile faded, as his finger traced to some dark spots that looked a bit like snowflakes with root-like patterns laid sparsely along some of the trails: “This - this is curious. Looks like your puke ritual is accurate. You are affected by some omens. Not really serious ones, but - still concerning.”