“What the - ” Gloria walked over, tore up a piece of her sleeve, covered her fingers with it to push the wooden pieces around - they were two pieces of the same carving. When put together they would become a crude carving of a round shield - the main surface of which had the relief sculptures of a mother and daughter - the Mother and Daughter Butchers, before they met their terrible fate. On the back of the wooden shield were some arcane symbols. Marcus could not read it, and judging from the looks of Tae Kuo, Gloria and Kevin, they didn’t know how to read them either.

“Let’s go.” Marcus took a deep breath and shook his head: “I have a bad feeling about this - let’s find a place and rest for a bit before we continue.”

“Agreed.” Gloria hesitated for a bit, then finally pushed down the urge to pick the carving pieces up - the last time she did it to the one inside of the cat granny, she fell into a trance with illusions without any means of fighting back. She survived that, but it would be much more dangerous if she did that again right now: “Let’s go.”

“Hey, you alright?” Kevin was still pale and weak from the little girl’s touch, but he still wanted to check on Keryn, who expended a lot of her Qi in that fight and used the one last talisman she had on her.

“I’m fine. I’m fine.” Keryn waved her hands, but still not refusing Kevin’s help: “Damn - first time fighting - I guess it’s second time fighting a legend.”

“Oh? What’s the first time?” Kevin chuckled and pushed his hardest in helping Keryn forward.

“First time would be fighting that - that rotten woman who might or might not be Big Sister Zhu.” Keryn shook her head: “Damn - I still need to talk to Brian about this, hope he’s safe in all of this mess of a situation.”

“Here.” Kevin handed a talisman to Keryn: “You don’t have anymore, right?”

“But - ” Keryn hesitated for a moment, then decided to accept and put it inside of her inner jacket: “If something happens, stay behind me or Marcus, alright? How are you feeling? ”

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“Like crap, to be honest.” Kevin hissed as he pulled a muscle in his back and waist: “Have you ever felt ice cold fingers that can make you depressed AND delusional at the same time? That was it.”

“I - I can kinda feel that.” Keryn nodded and sighed: “This is - truly disgraceful - ”

“Who made them?” Mick asked while looking around: “Who - who the hell could have possibly made them? ”

“Yeah I wanna know as well.” Tae Kuo shook his head: “They’re obviously people running everything here - ”

The sound of waterdrops came from the floor below them as they made a turn. All of them instantly lowered their bodies and stuck to the wall. After what just happened, everyone was high-strung.

Marcus stuck his head out from the corner to take a quick look. For once it was exactly what it sounded like: water dropping on the ground. The water came from the ceiling at a corner below them. One at a time, clear water dropped from a stained mark onto the ground, making a clear and unmissable sound.

“It’s just water.” Marcus let out a breath of relief.

“Any particular rhythm to it?” Mick asked, almost out of newfound instinct.

“No - it’s just water dripping from the floor above.” Marcus shook his head.

“Hey - weird, we don’t have water leak from the floor above.” Keryn raised her voice.

Everyone went silent for a moment, before Kevin busted out: “We should head down, get away from it. Water in a fucking haunted environment, that’s no good now matter how you look at it.”

No one objected to this, so they simply sped up and rushed downstairs. The water continued to drop from behind them, still nothing happened. Without hindrance, they went down another flight of stairs. But here again, they encountered another corner below them, with water dripping down the same position from the ceiling.

“Wait - wait wait wait!” Gloria raised her voice as well as her right arm slightly: “Something’s not right.”

“Yeah - I think we’re back to the same place.” Kevin nodded.

Marcus thought for a moment, then concentrated a bit of his Qi on his right index and middle fingers and shot a stream of Qi at the wall near the corner, leaving a small dent on it. “Alright, let’s go.”

The group went down another floor, finally coming to another corner where the corner ceiling was leaking water, and on the wall beside them, they saw the same dent Marcus left.

“Holy fucking shit.” Tae Kuo sighed.

Kevin and Mick turned to the other direction - a direction they did not consider for even one moment - the door in front of them out of the staircase. It was a door with a long transparent glass window placed vertically beside the handrail. Yet, even though the window was transparent, behind it they could only see a screen of darkness.

“Okay. We’re collective in the Ghost’s Labyrinth.” Tae Kuo wiped his forehead: “And - okay, everyone, remember this, stick together, but also see and remember clearly who’s next to you.”

“Yes. And if possible, remember clearly what they look like.” Kevin gritted his teeth: “Get this - the more we go down, always check who’s around you, okay? Remember who’s next to you and what they look like.”

“Alright.” “Okay.” Marcus and Gloria answered at the same time.

Everyone’s sight turned to Keryn - she was the only one who had not responded.