In a loud boom, the half collapsed building exploded into oblivion and left nothing but a burnt hole on the ground where it was. Caroline and Jason stumbled out of the premise of the building with disgusted and slightly traumatized looks on their faces.
"Let's just go." Caroline stood still for a brief moment with her left hand covering her nose and mouth, then she wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes and said to Jason.
A door glowing in orange and golden light appeared right in front of them, and the door was pulled open the instant its presence solidified. Jianmen walked out of the door, with a small glass jar filled with water and a small jellyfish inside on his left hand, and dark blue, dark green and dark red stains all over his clothes, which actually gave off quite a thick, irritating and pungent smell.
"Hey." Jianmen looked tired and battle worn, "You guys okay?"
"No." "Yes." Caroline and Jason each answered and then looked at each other.
"Yeah. My apologies I've been busy squashing bugs… lots of them and nasty as fuck." Jianmen sighed and handed them the glass jar with a small jellyfish inside, "But like I told you before, the world is changing fast, and not necessarily for the better and safer. Just keep this and find a place to hide, it'll keep you safe."
"We think someone may have broken the seal on the corpse. " Jason took over the surprisingly heavy glass jar and said: "There are many… casualties."
Jianmen sighed, looked like he wanted to say something but he then decided to hold back for now: "Go, find a place to hide."
Caroline and Jason nodded, and just before they were about to head to a safer direction, Jianmen gently patted on their shoulders - in an instant, their wounds were healed, their exhausted Xuanli were almost entirely recovered, and even their flasks were fully filled.
Without saying more, Jianmen went back into the door and the door disappeared. This time, the destination of the portal was right before the two possessed individuals that were just sent flying from powerful attacks.
Almost at the same time, another portal opened up beside Jianmen's and Josephine Wong came out from it.
"Tough day on the job?" Jianmen smiled and asked.
"I am filled with regret." Josephine Wong sighed.
"Boom!" the two possessed individuals clashed with an energy wall constructed by Jianmen, the wall cracked up and they were knocked back, and Jianmen looked at both of them with a frown: "This is not good."
"Should we team up?" Josephine Wong asked.
"No. You lead your team and take care of the spread." Jianmen shook his head: "Leave them to me. I am partially responsible for the situation, so let me take care of the heavy lifting for you."
"Always so knightly." Josephine Wong chuckled wryly, her weariness was even on a similar level to Jianmen's, though she did not have blood stains on her clothes: "Thank you. I owe you a big one this time. Be careful."
"I'm always careful." Jianmen extended both of his arms to the side, a rattan broom appeared on his left hand, and a short but heavy looking traditional Chinese meat cleaver appeared in his right: "And you be careful too. Battles are one thing - but politics … "
"Don't worry about me." Josephine Wong smiled and flew away towards the ground below to join the fight against the rogue monster hordes.
"Who… are... you?!" the two possessed individuals asked Jianmen: "Stay… out..."
"Sorry, can't do that." Jianmen twirled both the broom and the meat cleaver in his hands: "If you're just going for revenge, I wouldn't be standing here. But you just had to drag innocent people into this."
The possessed girl on the left, now with a pair of blood red eyes, was none other than Erika, the forensic technician who visited the inn one time and befriended both Caroline and Jason. Jianmen then turned his eyes on the woman on the right - she was wearing a police officer's uniform, and looked like it was a high ranking officer. With a quick read, Jianmen got to know that the original owner of the body was Bridget Benson, a practitioner of various mystic arts including witchcraft and voodoo. And now the spirits that possessed their bodies were too powerful for him to read at this short amount of time, all he could tell, was that they were full of grudge and a thirst for revenge.
Seeing that intimidation and negotiation did not work, the two spirits lunged at Jianmen with full force, each extending one arm forward with dark energy covering their arm and palm, forming into giant claws of dark energy. And at the same time, the flying monsters under their command all shot at Jianmen from all angles.
Jianmen's body disappeared in a blink of orange and golden energy, and almost at the same time he reappeared a short distance behind. Then he swung his broom in his left hand across the space in front of him.
A wall of wind swept through the bodies of the monsters and the two spirits, no slashing effects like from energy blades, no direct impact like from blunt energy attacks, and no heat and explosion like from energy blasts, yet the dark energy that formed the monsters were instantly dissipated and neutralized and cleansed. With one sweep, hundreds of flying monsters turned from aggressive and bloodthirsty dangers into ashes and small pieces of crumbling bone fragments in the air.
Similar things happened to the two spirits as well - their energy claws were shattered as they were pushed back by the wall of wind, same were the unused halves of their bodies. The skins and surficial flesh of the other half of their bodies were torn up and flew off from the wind, revealing the rotten and corrupted flesh and bones underneath.
Jianmen disappeared from where he was once again, and before the two spirits could turn around and defend themselves, two special energy seals were placed on the backs of their half heads.