Detective Pahaik spent half a day at the crime se, and then half a day avoiding any tact with his old high school buddy Rick Benson. And he finally answered the call when it was almost time for him to call it a day.

  Just like normal rich parents would do, Rick Benson asked and even begged Detective Pahaik to keep them posted on the whereabouts of his son, and informed him that since he had not answered nor returned his phone calls all day, he had hired a private iigator. Naturally her Maror Detective Pahaik was very fond of this idea - especially when they heard the private iigator’s name - Brooklyn Payne.

  An infamous slimy sleazebag, Brooklyn Payne was once a Detective himself, until he was caught red haaking bribes from a local gang member. But he was still a smart one, and worst of all, he was quite familiar with the PCPD rulebooks as well as their loopholes. And after looping Captain Ko in ouation and coordinating a district-wide search with other prects, they ed up their work for this day.

  Instead of going home directly, Marcus grabbed a quick bite from a deli by the side of the street, then hopped on a small dusty old bus and got on the way to the Temple of Fetfulness.

  A pce of some fame, oh some occasional volunteers here to help out and solely managed by only one monk: Master Liaoran. Not many knew how long this gentle, old but still agile monk had been the only monk iemple. But many knew one or two things about him - that he made probably the best talismans iy and he had no problem gifting them to the people in need, and that he could guard this loemple dangerously the mountains against bandits, gangs and even ferocious beasts roaming in the forests.

  “Hello, detective, how’s your week been?” When Marcus set foot iemple, Master Liaoran was already waiting for him in the yard, by the door to the inner sanctum, sipping on a cup of tea.

  “Not good. More weird and stupid cases.” Marcus threw his bag to the side and took off his jacket, his muscles jumping slightly anticipating a spar: “And just today I had to help a fellow detective iigate a crime se as fast as possible so that some rid iial parents won’t be able to swing their sg to tamper with the evidehering and processing procedure.”

  “Ha. But today we’re not going to start with the sparring session.” Master Liaoran poured Marcus a cup of tea and signaled him to sit on a small straw mattress in front of him: “Stressful days like today call for a little meditation first.”

  “Again?” Marcus sighed.

  “Yes, again.”

  After making Marcus sit down begrudgingly, Master Liaoran pulled out a small inse burner and lit the inse ih his finger. Marcus’ eyelids twitched as he watched this - he could barely sense any Qi ing from the master, and up to this day he still had a hard time pulling off this kind of move. His Qi had affinity to the elements of fire ah, in theory doing things like this would be retively easier for him. But whenever he tried, he either lit the entire inse stick down with an overpowered touch, or the inse stick did not light up at all. It was ultimately a matter of practid trol, or so he was told, yet it seemed to him that all the time and effort spent on practig trolling his Qi had mostly goo waste.

  “Now, clear your mind, but o try to go into a meditative state right away.” Master Liaoran said to Marcus while he slowly closed his eyes: “Don’t think of this as just some general philosophical thought exercise that you may enter in college or uies, but think of it as this mental preparation you do before you start practig your Ferocious Tiger Style - ”

  “Okay.” Marcus took a deep breath and then asked: “Should I recite anything?”

  “No, need, just some general self refle.” Master Liaoran’s voice became soft and even a little distant: “I have somewhat e to realize, that given the plig and sometimes sometimes grueling nature of your work, there might be - hard as you tried to calm yourself down and se your mind before ing here, things that would cloud your mind and thus exposing you to the easy pitfalls along this path.

  “The teags of old, and said to have e from Buddha and reat meditators, listed out three ‘poisons’, in no particur order, that you, or arying to find greater and higher wisdom along their paths of cultivation. First poison, Greed, is a poison of one’s obsessive desire to advan the power dder, enjoy the riess of the world, and when it es to martial arts and cultivation of the mind, the desire to learn and master too much; The sed poison is Rese, which points to the ive feelings of hate, anger, rage and pt for things, factors and people that are not ours to tro; The third poison, ohat I personally think is the most deceiving and fear-inspiring, is Ignorand Obsession, which sighe ck of uanding and knowledge, and the almost natural fixation that es with it - stig to one’s own mistakes, too stubborn to refled rethink, until it is too te.

  “I ot presume to tell you which of the Three Poisons with which you are most afflicted. I could only take a guess, but it bears great value that you try and figure it out yourself. The first step of knowledge and wisdom and all - ”

  When Marcus was about to leave Temple of Fetfulness, his muscles were more sore than usual. The beatings he received were nowhere less just because he spent the first half of his weekly session with Master Liaoran oation. This time during their spar, Master Liaoran patiently let Marcus use all of his moves on him, and then used Marcus’ very own style to deliver blows back, in an attempt to teach him how his moves could be improved and tempered. Marcus couldn't tell how much he had learned from that, but he could easily say that he was humbled once again, just like many weekly sessions before this one.

  “Wait a sed, detective.” Master Liaoran called out to Marcus from behind: “You fot this - ”

  Marcus turned back, and saw that Master Liaoran was behind him with a small cy jar and a small paper packet in his hand.

  “This is the oi for your muscles - I figured you’d run out soon. And here’s some talismans - I noticed that you have some dark clouds over your head and shoulders, s this with you until the ink fades, or if they get damaged.”

  “Thank you Master.” Marcus bowed and took the jar along with the talismans: “What’s this with the dark clouds?”

  “Oh, it just means you’ve entered some un beings oo some un pces. Nothing to worry about - Ferocious Tiger Style imbues your body and mind with enough Shaqi to deter most.” Master Liaoran was now fully dressed in his robe, with all his marble and boulder-like muscles covered up, and his smile made him just seem like a regur kind old man of the vilge.

  “Thanks again, Master, see you week.”

  “Be well and tranquil. And remember, I am here to help if you ever need any. ” Master Liaently Marcus: “Take care.”

  “Take care, Master.” Marcus bowed again, and just when he was about to turn, his pager and ph at the same time.

  “Sorry, Master - this must be very urgent.” Marcus silenced his pager and answered his phone while running to the side of the road.

  “Go to the damaged substation.” This was Captain Ko: “Something happened - Pahaik is already on his way over. I am sending Lance over as well.”

  “What happened?” Marcus waved his hand at some passing taxis, but none of them was vat at the moment so he had to stand on the sidewalk and keep waving.

  “From what I’ve heard, maybe some guy was on something really hardcore a on a rampage, or some kind of gang activity. Multiple victims, no witnesses.”