The wood and paper walls looked easy to break, but Gloria decided not to try. Not only because these seemed to be the work of Gyuu Park and she wanted to pay everything due respect, but also because she recognized that this was the kind of special array that would easily retaliate against anyone who tried to break through with brute force.

She tried to remember some of the walls and the symbols on them, but the harder she tried, the quicker she forgot the symbols. And should she spend more time staring at the symbols, her eyesight would become fuzzy, her head would begin to hurt and become dizzy as well. The whole area did not take up that much footage, yet the walls of paper and wooden frames seemed to have created some kind of strange field of illusion. Even with Gloria and all her mastery of mystic Kung Fu and Qi, she was still having trouble finding her way through everything

“Bagua Array.” Gloria rubbed her own temples and closed her eyes. She needed a minute, this array was put here to confuse, and not to hurt her. Thus, she just needed to recall everything she had learned from Gyuu Park and possibly from the community archives to figure out how she could see through the illusion.

“Bagua Array - bagua mirror - bagua - bagua steps?” Gloria ruffled through her pockets and tried to see if she had brought a mirror or just a simply a piece of paper with her. But there was not - she came here in a hurry, the only thing she brought was her wallet and her phone.

She turned her phone on, and started searching through the information she stored. There was still no signal down here, the only thing she could rely on would be the things she had in the phone’s storage.

After scrolling for a while, she found the image she was looking for - an image from a few years back, when she just started “trading” with Gyuu Park. This was the result of one of the earlier trades. A simple long image, with some words on the side, and numbers explaining where each step should be taken, and in which direction.

“Bagua steps”, the technique was so called. Unlike the sharp and often double-edged bagua mirror, or the mysterious bagua sword, it was a simple, easy to use ritual that could help the performer clear their mind and maintain the stability of their Qi.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

After memorizing the instructions on the image, Gloria looked around, trying to locate the direction of North. But she had spent too much time in this underground labyrinth already, and she had already lost track of her original position and direction.

All of a sudden, a rotten and dangerous feeling rose in her guts. The calmness that she forced upon herself was instantly broken - she needed to break through this array and out of here, as soon as possible.

After taking another look at the picture on her phone. She took a deep breath, looked around once more, and located the paper wall that was closest to her. This was a tip from the instructions: when one could not locate North, the next best option would be to locate the closest wall, use it as a temporary reference, or “fake North”.

With her back facing the wall, Gloria stepped forward to the right using her left leg, then left forward with her right leg, then straight right with her left leg… All of this was to make the performer step into all eight positions of bagua, eight symbols that represented the different aspects of the world and universe. And with the performer’s figure moving through all eight positions, the ritual would call down the righteous energy from the world, and help clear up any curses, omens and illusions that troubled the performer.

But, right now there were several factors that were clear hindrances to her attempts - the fact that she did not know where actual North was, the fact that she was performing this ritual without the sun and clear air, and the fact that without proper reference of locations around her, the positions she stepped over were probably not very uniform.

When she finished the eighth step, Gloria sensed a chilling energy flowing into her meridians, her bones and her mind. The fuzziness in her vision cleared, the dizziness in her head was lifted.

She looked at the paper walls once again, it appeared that after performing the bagua steps, the path through the space in which these walls were placed became clear as well. Without a moment of doubt or hesitation, she rushed through the embrace of the paper walls.

On the other side of the room, there was a heavy metal door. But with her pushing in full force, it did not take her too much time. Behind the metal door was another long tunnel, with barely any light. After a short while, she finally saw some dim light poking through what looked like a thick wall of leaves and rattan at the end.

It was somewhere downhill, from where it seemed to be behind the Fragrant Chrysanthemum Temple. The exit was hidden behind thick, unmanaged grass, and was quite a bit of distance from the nearest road. A good place for a secret exit indeed.

Gloria looked back up at the temple, there were bright, brand-new sealing tapes from the community collective around the outskirts, and she could see people with armbands walking in and out of the temple ground.