The night is gradually getting late, and Jianmen was sitting alone in the inn's lounge, with two especially tall and thick incense sticks burning in two separate incense burners on the reception's desk in front of him.
"Well well, the elusive Mr. Yu is here by himself. What happened?" the figure of a tall young woman in dark jeans, dark purple boots and a dark purple jacket appeared in front of the inn's front door, and she said in a curious and slightly sarcastic voice: "Where are your students?"
"Good evening Josephine." Jianmen looked up from his phone and said: "What are you doing here? Need help with something?"
"Do I need a particular reason to come here? I'm just in the neighborhood and in the mood." Josephine Wong, the up and coming action starlet, sat down by Jianmen's side, toying with a sword shaped decoration hanging from the metal bracelet on her right wrist: "Looks like a lonesome night, you and I could both use the company."
"Thanks. But I am kinda in the middle of an anxious wait." Jianmen smiled and pointed at the direction of the diner: "Want some special rice wine? Fruit wine? Rib soup?"
"How's your coffee endeavor going? If you did it I'd like a cup, if not then just some matcha ice cream." Josephine smiled as she watched Jianmen going into the diner: "Don't know if you've heard. I met one of your students the other day."
"Coffee's a bust so far. And I've heard. Jason's a fan." Jianmen took out a whole mini bucket of matcha ice cream and a big spoon with a bottle of light yellow rice wine, "And Caroline doesn't even know who you are, so on average you are still well-liked by people in this inn"
"Aww, that also means you don't hate me, aren't you the sweetest grumpy old man." Josephine Wong chuckled and took a big scoop of ice cream and pointed at the two incense sticks: "I thought performing divination on a fellow cultivator is not polite."
"It is if they are my students. " Jianmen took a huge gulp of the rice wine, "And if they are going through tribulations."
"Ouch, I remember that." Josephine Wong made a painful face: "How far along are they?"
"Today's the ninety-ninth day."
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As she triggered the wooden card with a hornet relief sculpture, Caroline found out that she grossly underestimated the power of the card and the recoil that it generated: as several bolts of concentrated Xuanli arrow shot from the card and hitting Simon on the stomach, shoulder and face, the card also flew off from Caroline's hand.
Simon tumbled backwards from the hits and smashed a wooden shelf behind him. Caroline had absolutely no intention to waste the opportunity, with concentrated shiny orange Xuanli on her left palm, she unleashed a basketball-sized fireball aiming at Simon.
The same kind of green energy explosion occurred, Caroline's fireball was weakened and pushed aside, and ended up landing on the floor right beside Simon's left foot. An earth-shattering explosion threw Simon in the air and out of the kitchen window.
The explosion also shook Kane up from his paralysis, and after Caroline promptly retrieved the now cracked up wooden card, he and Alex were finally able to stand on their feet. "Come on, come on Kane, Alex." the use of the wooden card almost instantly drained Caroline half of her Xuanli, and the fatigue and weariness was no joke - if she was not holding onto the idea that she had to get Alex and Kane out of the warzone, she would have fainted.
"You little prick..." as Caroline tried to get Kane and Alex across the living room and towards the front door, a man with a heavily burnt face and only his body from the waist up crawled to the upper end of the staircase and stared at Alex, Caroline and Kane, "Let's see what you can do without that thing!" Then he pushed on the ground forcefully and "leapt" towards the Bakers with full force.
"Watch out!" Kane tried to aim and shoot at the man who had only half his body with only one hand holding the shotgun, the many tiny pellets sprayed all over the target's right arm but they barely impacted the man's movement, and the recoil just made the shotgun jump right out of Kane's hand. And in the next moment, the man's sharp nails on his left hand clawed Caroline on her face and neck and knocked her on the ground.
"Birdshot?! Fuck you Rubin! " Kane cursed at his client and reached into his back to retrieve the handgun half tucked into his jeans and tried to aim at the man, but the man's movement was too fast even with only two arms, and Kane was tackled to the ground without firing a shot.
Just when the man with only the upper body raised his left arm and was ready to claw Kane just like he did Caroline, a fire arrow pierced his left shoulder and exploded, immediately stopping his next attack, almost completely severing his left arm from his body, and instantly causing him to roll to the side and writhe in anger and pain.
"Fuck you and your motherfucking cult, dickwad." Kane held up his handgun and pointed it at the man's chest in point blank range, while Caroline covered Alex's eyes and ears he emptied his entire magazine on this man. Bullets penetrated the man's chest, shoulder and stomach, black and green blood poured from his body and slowly covered large parts of the ground.
Black smoke rose from this man's body, but before Caroline could do anything, the smoke shot through a broken window and disappeared, as if it was sentient and escaped out of fear.
The darkness around the house started fading away, as lights from the street lights and neighboring houses at a distance began to appear in their sight.
Caroline went to her backpack on the floor, took out her flask and took a big gulp of the fruit wine. As the cool and calming liquid flowed down to her stomach, she felt that her Xuanli and the power of her mind and will started slowly replenishing.
"Alex, are you okay? Alex!"