Mingliang didn't want to bring Somad with him. Although the boy was a tough little monkey, he still felt a bit worried to bring the boy with him, because this time, he was going to visit a mortuary.

The smell of embalming fluid faintly entered Mingliang's nose. Aside from it, there wasn't decayed smell that Mingliang imagined before. He followed Dr. Ibrahim, to see one of his colleague, Dr. Sunyoto, he was working with the local police force as part of his job.

They shook hand. After a short chit-chat, Dr. Sunyoto explained his problem, "I just got a corpse this morning from police. There wasn't much mystery in how the victim died, but there was something that bothers me. When I talked about it with Ibrahim, he mentioned your name."

Doctor Ibrahim picked on, "I remember when you treated Nina, you drew something on the glass of water. Later you said that you were drawing a rune to dispell the demon of her body."

Mingliang nodded in affirmation, he didn't say anything and waited for further explanation.

Doctor Ibrahim continues, "When I asked about rune, you drew several examples on paper."

Mingliang still stayed silent. He waited for Dr. Ibrahim to continue, but dr. Ibrahim turned to Dr. Sunyoto instead.

Dr. Sunyoto seemed hesitated, "Look, this is still under police investigation. Whatever you see, you can't tell other people."

Mingliang noded, "Of course, don't worry about that."

He silently added in his mind, 'But you already told one of your friend about it.'

Dr. Sunyoto nodded but still hesitated. He looked at Dr. Ibrahim who gestured him to tell Mingliang before he finally explained, "So here's the case, the victim was drugged and then bleed to death. There was no doubt about it. But...", there was a pause, "... we found this strange drawing all over his body."

Dr. Ibrahim added, "We don't know the importance of this drawing, but that reminded me of your rune."

"I understand now, so you want me to take a look at this drawing. To see if there are a certain significance behind this drawing?", Mingliang finally understood what brought him here.

"I'll help you to look at it then.", Mingliang quickly agreed. He had nothing to lose anyway, and as a good citizen, he would be happy to help the law at any time.

"I took pictures of the drawing. Would you prefer to look at the pictures or do you need to look at the corpse directly?", Doctor Sunyoto asked after all not many people were used to dealing with corpses.

"Let's see the pictures first then.", Mingliang quickly made a choice. Although he had experienced dealing with a human corpse after the incident with the man in black, he preferred to stay away, if it was possible.

Dr. Sunyoto took his tablet out and showed the pictures he took before. Mingliang looked at each picture with interest. At the third picture, he saw a clue, and he felt his heart pounding inside his chest. Once more a bad premonition surged in his heart.

"Do you find something?", Doctor Ibrahim asked. He was watching Mingliang's expression and saw something.

Mingliang answered carefully, "I think I recognize something, but let's see all the pictures, then I'll show you something. Do you have a computer with internet connection here? One that I can use?"

Dr. Sunyoto nodded his head, "You can use my computer, it's in my office. Come, you can look at the rest of the picture on the way."

The three of them went to Doctor Sunyoto's office. As a doctor in one prestigious hospital, his office was neat with modern interior design. The dominant color was white. They kept everything simple and elegant. A couple of ornaments decorated the room.

"You can use the computer.", Dr. Sunyoto gestured at Mingliang to use his computer freely.

"Okay, thanks. It will just take a few minutes. I'll download something for you to see."

Within a few minutes, Mingliang already downloaded the documents he looked for. It was the one he tried to learn this morning. His clue to crack the array in the haunted house. He presented it to the other. Dr. Ibrahim and Dr. Sunyoto looked at the document seriously.

"See this and this.", Mingliang pointed out at some characters on the document, "Don't you think it is the same one as the drawing?"

Dr. Sunyoto and Dr. Ibrahim quickly saw the similarities. Mingliang stood from the chair and gave it to Dr. Sunyoto. Dr. Sunyoto quickly sat and checked the document. He flipped it back to the first page and then perused it to the end. Once and a while, Dr. Ibrahim or Dr. Sunyoto would point out at the screen. Mingliang watched at their side silently and waited until they finished.

When they finished, Dr. Sunyoto leaned back and rested on his chair. He took a deep breath, turned to Mingliang, "Do you know what it's mean?"

Mingliang shook his head, "Unfortunately, I don't know much about these runes. I learn a lot of Chinese and Indonesian ancient runes. These ones came from Jewish tradition. Almost every ancient culture has their own."

Dr. Ibrahim, who gained new interest after he met Mingliang asked, "Are you saying that in every culture they use runes to perform magic?"

Mingliang knew of Dr. Ibrahim's curiosity. He smiled and replied, "Well, I will make some analogy. A programmer, he has an idea in his head, an algorithm. This is a spiritual existence in itself. It exists, but it doesn't exist in reality."

"What does he do then? He wrote it in a programming language. Compile it and then run the app. Now, runes or spells have such power. It turns formless into a form. It turns intent into something that has power over reality."

"Languages, words, it has power. For many ancient belief systems, words have energy, even life, in itself. In the gospel of John, it is said that Jesus is the incarnation of the Word of God."

"And just like there are many programming languages, there are many ancient runes and spells. It is not for no reason that Muslim keep their holy book in its original language and writing. Because translating it will make it lose its power."

“I see...”, Dr. Ibrahim gave a deep thought over Mingliang's explanation, “If you analogize runes and spells as the programming language, what's the hardware then? You need harddisk, mainboard, monitor and so on. Not just a programming language."

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Yes, runes and spells in itself are not enough. We also need a medium such as...", Mingliang explanation was cut off.

"Such as that glass of water, where you drew your rune on it.", Dr. Ibrahim excitedly cut in.

"Yes, that's right. Water in its element has the power of cleansing. Which makes them a good media to exorcize dark energy.", Mingliang happy to see the doctor enthusiasm.

It was rare to find someone who appreciated his job. Especially people with high education such these doctors.

Dr. Sunyoto quietly listened to their conversation. Suddenly some inspiration flashed into his mind, "Wait, this corpse, whoever did the murder, drew these runes in the victim's body and let it bleed to death. By your analogy, would this man's body became the medium for whatever spell the perpetrator wants to make?”

Dr. Ibrahim and Dr. Sunyoto turned their focus to Mingliang. Mingliang's expression turned grim, "Drawing runes and spells, are not enough. We also need to infuse it with intent and spiritual energy to make it work. Take me to the corpse. If someone did some rituals on the corpse, then I should be able to sense some residue from the spiritual energy."

"Are you sure?", Dr. Sunyoto asked to confirm after all not many people enjoy the sight of a corpse.

Mingliang sighed and shrugged in submission, "There is no other way to confirm, take me there."

The three of them walked toward the mortuary. Dr. Sunyoto walked at the front, led them to the room. Dr. Ibrahim asked many questions along the way., "If water has cleansing nature, what about human? Why do it on a human body?"

"Life. Any rituals perform on a living body, be it animals or human, have one distinct characteristic, that is the sacrifice of life. It could mean many things. It could be said that life energy is one most miraculous energy that exists in this universe."

"Think about it, from nothing turn to living things. From the simple life, evolve to more complex life. From nothing but the most basic instinct to survive, into a living being with a mind that could comprehend abstract ideas and concepts."

"That's the energy of life."

"And human...?", after a moment of silence, Dr. Ibrahim asked.

Mingliang sighed, all the way to the mortuary, he felt his chest stuffy, "Human..., you could say the final result of evolution. The sacrifice of human life could mean the noblest one when done voluntarily and in full consciousness. Martyrs, heroes, people who fully understand the result of their action, but with such clarity still choose to do it, in exchange for something bigger than themselves."

"In the other hand, it could mean the evilest and lowest, when someone sacrifices other people's life. Most of the time, it was done in the worst way. It's an act of rebellion against life. An act of perverting life. It called forth the darkest power that exists beyond our world, chained and sealed in the depth of hell."

Dr. Ibrahim and Dr. Sunyoto got goosebumps all over their body. Dr. Sunyoto secretly cursed his colleagues for asking those question. Dr. Ibrahim himself partly regretted it.

In such a mood, they arrived at the mortuary. Dr. Sunyoto dealt with corpses many times in the past. He went in and out mortuary probably a hundred times. Sometimes he even worked at night. He never felt scared, but today, in bright daylight, he entered with a palpitating heart.

Back to the mortuary, Dr. Sunyoto directly brought Mingliang to look at the corpse. There were traces of Dr. Sunyoto autopsy, but everything was stitched back to its place. Dr. Sunyoto took extra effort, to keep the drawing intact. Although he already took pictures before the autopsy, the doctor tried his best to return it to the condition before the autopsy.

Mingliang closed his eyes. His hand hovered above the corpse. Faintly he induced the trace of spiritual energy formed along the runes on it.

'This somehow reminds me to the runes in that haunted house.', to Mingliang's surprise, he opened his eyes and pondered over the situation.

"What? How do you see it? Do you find something?", Dr. Sunyoto impatiently asked.

Mingliang hesitated for a second, "Well..., there's traces of energy along the runes. It is a ritual and whoever did it, know what they're doing. Uhm... is it possible for me to see the location?"

"The location where we found the body?", Dr. Sunyoto responded.

"Yes."

"Hmm... I'll talk to the detective who leads the investigation for this case first. I can't decide it by myself.", Dr. Sunyoto took his phone and walked out of the mortuary, leaving Dr. Ibrahim and Mingliang.

"What do you think the purpose of these runes? The ritual?", Dr. Ibrahim couldn't stand the silence.

"I have a guess, but it's still too early... Maybe if I can look at the location where the ritual took place. I need time to learn about the rune as well.", Mingliang walked away from the corpse, he had seen enough.

Dr. Ibrahim covered the corpse back before followed Mingliang walking away from it, "Care to share your guess with me?"

"Haha, sure. It's not a secret or something, but you have to remember, it's just a wild guess at best.", they walked toward the entrance where there were a desk and chairs.

Dr. Ibrahim pulled a chair, Mingliang took another chair. From the small window glass on the entrance door, they saw Dr. Sunyoto walked back and forth. Mingliang secretly felt guilty. It seemed his request brought a lot of trouble to Dr. Sunyoto.

"So what's your guess?", Dr. Ibrahim sat comfortably on his chair.

"Hmm, I think that person try to summon something. Or maybe exchange something with some being from the other side.", Mingliang turned his attention back to Dr. Ibrahim.

“Ah, that one. You already mentioned it before. But you're not sure about it yet. So what's the other possibility?"

"To gain power perhaps. You see, there is this seal that separates the physical and the magical. People like me find it harder to achieve anything at all. You can have all the knowledge, but without the energy to power it, it means nothing. It's like having a computer without electricity."

"But if that's the case, how about you? You don't do such a thing, don't you?"

"No, I don't.", Mingliang felt a bit uncomfortable. He had some secrets he didn't want to reveal.

Dr. Ibrahim seemed to notice and tried to find a way to avoid the topic, "So, is there no other way to get this... power? Aside from having a ritual that like... what? Open a crack to another dimension?"

"Yes, there are. Like me, I have this medal. I inherited it from my father. It contained energy. It's enough for me to use it to practice up to a certain level. But then, if I do, whoever inherits my knowledge wouldn't have anything to use.", Mingliang quickly grasped the chance.

"Ah, I see.... so you're in a tough spot now. Whatever you do, it's either end with you or ends with your disciple. I guess you choose not to use the medal. I see you're taking a disciple.", Dr. Ibrahim nodded his head, feeling satisfied with his answer.

"Yes, I try not to. But sometimes, I'm in a situation that forced me to use it.", Mingliang hesitated, and there was a pause, "Also, there are other ways. Sometimes there are places, where there is still energy left."

"Ahh... I see... Do you know such a place? Hmm... I guess you do, but it's secret, right?", Dr. Ibrahim thought he finally found the reason why Mingliang seemed hesitated before.

Mingliang just smiled, he happily decided to let Dr. Ibrahim satisfied with that idea. A moment later, Dr. Sunyoto entered the mortuary. He didn't look happy. There was a moment of awkward silence.

“Sorry, the detective can't allow you to see the location. And... He was angry because I called you to help with the investigation.", Dr. Sunyoto shrugged his shoulder.

"It's alright. I hope I don't put you into trouble.", Mingliang felt apologetic as well.

"No, we're fine. It's just that I have to ask you to leave the mortuary and all. Really, sorry. You try to help and..., well I guess it's my fault. I should ask the detective opinion first.", Dr. Sunyoto smile bitterly, it seemed his conversation with the detective was gone wrong.

Before the situation became more awkward, Mingliang decided to end their meeting. Both doctors accompanied him left the hospital. Dr. Sunyoto asked for his phone number, and they ended up exchanged phone number.

He no longer involved with the investigation, but the runes on that corpse weighted his mind. He couldn't put it aside as some coincidence. When he got home, Mingliang found Somad still practicing.

"Teacher, how's it going?", Somad steadily finished the rune, before turned and greeted Mingliang.

Mingliang hid nothing and told the boy everything.

"What's our plan then?", the boy asked seriously.

"I feel something is brewing, and we're running out of time, but there isn't much we can do for now. All we can do is to prepare ourselves. You need to grow stronger faster. Tomorrow, I'll talk to Mr. Ryan. I'll try to arrange so you could move to live with me as soon as possible.", Mingliang rarely showed the sign of worries in his face, but this time it was all over his face.

Somad nodded his head, his eyes were steady and had no fear in it.