It did not matter how worried Gloria was, she needed to get to the temple with tact. She just had a run-in with the community watch and patrol team, there was plenty of reason that they would try to pin more fault on her, Fuman Coffin Home and even Gyuu Park’s temple.
Gloria deliberated for a minute, then decided to circle to the mainroad to the temple and acted as if she was just coming from the outer areas and wanting to go to the temple like a regular visitor.
Things were not looking good.
Strength and energy slowly return to her body, the dizziness from the maze faded. For some reason, right now even without her consciously concentrating her Qi on her fingers, she could see the faint auras surrounding the temple, and the blurry flow of energy in the air.
It gave Gloria no assurance of anything, for the simple fact that she saw a dark cloud looming over the temple. And from the inner rumbles of this cloud, she could see blinkings and flares of blood red light. A bad sign. She had heard of similar occurrences, but all were in a symbolic and metaphoric sense, never this literal.
“Hold.” When she got to the front door and just outside of the newly established quarantined area with tapes, a member of the community watch and patrol team with an orange armband stepped in front of her: “Who are you?”
“My name is Gloria Lee, I am a friend of Clergyman Park. I’m here to visit him, what happened?” Gloria tried to suppress the extreme concern and anxiety in her voice and tried to appear just like a concerned friend.
“Well…” This man with an armband hesitated for a short moment, then raised his hand and said: “Please wait here.” before heading inside.
A moment later, he came out, with another member - seemingly a female superior, also with an armband.
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“Can you tell me your name again?” The female superior asked.
“Gloria Lee - I am a friend of Clergyman Park. Please, let me know what happened!” Gloria raised her voice slightly, not to an offensive extent but should be just enough to convey her eagerness to see what was going on.
The woman sighed and extended her arm to the side: “Please, let’s have a quick chat.”
“What happened?” Gloria decided to walk to the side of the temple following the woman. She needed to know where Gyuu Park was sent to, but it was not easy and it would not help if she appeared too eager.
“I’m afraid I have some bad news.” The woman sighed: “He’s not with us anymore.”
This news struck Gloria like a bolt of lightning, all the same while draining all the energy from her entire body. Her legs almost completely gave out, and if it weren’t for the woman, her knees would have hit the ground.
“What - what happened?” Gloria thought for a moment, then asked through her teeth. Her throat and tongue felt dry, her heart was pounding her chest. She somehow felt she knew, only she was not expecting it to actually happen.
“It seemed like some people attacked this place, and - the Clergyman was very capable. He sent a signal to us, while fighting them off. We came as fast as we could - but - ” The woman then sighed: “Do you know if he had any enemies? Anyone who would want to do this?”
“I - I need to see him.” Gloria muttered and did not answer. Then, she shook the woman’s arm off and rushed toward the main gate of the temple. The man standing at the front gate only acted as if he wanted to stop Gloria but did not put any effort into it at all.
In the inner sanctum of the temple, Gyuu Park’s body laid on the ground, on a simple mat. Covered by a bloodied blanket with blessing symbols drawn on it. She could recognize it was him because of his old, worn shoes. There was another man standing by him, who tried to voice his objection to Gloria’s lifting the blanket, but was not able to. The woman with an armband followed Gloria into the inner sanctum and gestured to other members of her team to continue working.
“Who did this?” Gloria’s voice trembled as she looked at the wounds on Gyuu Park’s chest and shoulder, and fixed her eyes on a pool of blood on the ground, beside which laid another body - one weaning a full body of black. “Who are these people?”
“We don’t know yet. But - ” The woman sighed: “We’re going to find out.”
Gloria did not answer, she just knelt by Gyuu Park’s side, her hands covering her face, her tears seeping through her fingers.
Just this moment, in the corner of this woman’s vision, a stream of light purple air shot from the yard on her side, through the sky and shot through the thick dark cloud. Some faint cries and moans came through the hole in the sky, but it was not audible to anyone but this woman with an armband.
Investigator Liwen Sima fixed her eyes on Gloria Lee after seeing what happened above the temple. This was definitely simply a “friend” of the clergyman. She took note in her heart - the name “Gloria Lee” sounded familiar to her as well. It would be prudent, she considered, to look into this weeping young woman and watch over her.