Nameless and Pei waited outside of the building of the Clearwater Municipal Hospital for a while, both of them could sense the flow of dark energy inside of the building, and the presence of some dormant but still dangerous and deranged clustered malice inside.
The malice and dark energy inside the building and buried underneath the ground around it seemed to have even polluted the air and the sky above. The sky was almost always grim in the area around the hospital. And if one listened carefully, they could tell that there were also faint cries, moans and curses in the air. Even when the sun rose, the sunlight seemed to have trouble reaching the surface of the building and even the ground, which made the air always chilly, even numbing.
"Nameless, what do you think we should do to deal with this?" Pei continued knitting, when she finished one sock she just moved on to another sock: "To be honest, I am curious why this was never seriously reported and we just heard about it recently. If this thing woke up, we'd probably have another San Francisco at our hands."
"Namo Amitabha." Nameless gently bowed towards the building: "This monk dares not presume the undercurrent of our current situation. Ms. Wong is blessed and devoted, she will persevere. As for the means to cleanse this building, this monk thinks it requires ninety-nine virtuous monks to gather around, form a grand Demon Suppression Array and chant the scriptures in unison for ninety-nine days to weaken its influence on the environment, its foundation and integrity. Then we should tear down the ceilings, non weight bearing walls and windows to expose it to sunlight for a whole year, with a constant flow of virtuous monks chanting different Demon Suppression scriptures this whole time."
"Yeah I was thinking that I would do something quite different. I would install nine blessed and enchanted swords at nine spots around the whole area, then build a tall metal tower using special alloy with engravings on its body on the top of the entire building. Then I will have the metal rods from the tower run through the main body of the building and connect them to the swords. The tower will attract lightning just like a lightning rod, then purify and condense the energy, directing the energy flow through the entire building. And this would allow us to cleanse the building with the power of lightning."
"Pei, this method is indeed well thought out - the punishing power of lightning will surely disintegrate the unclean presence from inside and through its core. It would strike the evil down with the gods' fury and grace." Nameless thought for a while, then conceded: "At the time of grave impending danger, the more time it takes, the more potential danger we impose on the innocent people around."
"No no - your method is more stable and cautious." Pei put down the half-finished sock and said while shaking her head: "Swords are sharp, lightning bolts descended from the sky are explosive. But neither is defensive enough to guard the world from the backlash of this clustered malice. Even with the smallest miscalculation, the sword array could break and all our efforts would have just served as the jolt that woke the malice up."
"The monks could have served as a suppressive seal instead." Nameless said: "We could try to figure it out - this monk thinks it'd be a case where the secrets of our Demon Suppression Array should not be kept. For the peace and safety of the innocent, there's little to value in keeping this a secret."
"Thank you Nameless, and I'd be happy to share with you all I've had." Pei chuckled: "But, that aside, let's discuss this with Ms. Wong, she's out now."
Through the same door she went in, Josephine Wong came out of the hospital building while floating at a small distance from the ground. To the relief of both Nameless and Pei, she was not harmed in any way.
"What did you find, Ms. Wong?" Pei asked.
"Lucky for us - this thing dreams and its dreams are quite coherent and… interesting." Josephine Wong said while drowned in her thoughts: "And unlucky for us, this is someone else's mess that we would have to clean up. Pei, what do you know about some of the malice cultivation experiments that went on in the past couple of decades?"
"I am not an expert, but I know a thing or two. And I may have heard of some occurrences from the old days." Pei thought for a short moment and answered: "So, is it true? The clustered malice here … is cultivated? Who could have done it?"
"WAS cultivated." Josephine Wong shook her head and said: "From what I can tell, the core is no longer being maintained, the maintainer either died, or more likely, was consumed by it and might have even become one with it. So its sanity is deteriorating, I am not sure how long it can hold itself together."
"We need to construct a protective array around the area right away. If it imploded, we would at least be ready to prevent the malice from spreading." Pei exchanged looks with Nameless: "Nameless and I were just discussing this - we could collaborate and make this protective array, and at the same time prepare for cleansing this entire building."
"Let's go back to our headquarter first." Josephine Wong took out a piece of paper and lightly tapped on it, a portrait of a bald man started appearing on it. It took a short while, but the portrait eventually became detailed and lively just like a high definition picture.
"Ms. Wong." Robinson and Simmons landed right next to three of them: "No disturbance in the surrounding area."
"Good, at least it hasn't spread yet." Josephine Wong sighed in relief.