Jianmen looked back at Jason and was about to ask Jason one more question, but Jason had already fallen asleep, with the silvery green sand covering his body, with only his face exposed.
“Let’s go outside, and let’s have a chat.” Jianmen said to the other four individuals in the basement and said: “Let Jason rest for now.”
“Okay, sir.” Aimee gently tapped Thomas and Detective Lee on their shoulders and said: “We - I think we’re gonna need some rest as well.”
“Would you mind telling me about what you just went through first? I wanna know what my students have done, and Josephine is gonna wanna know about it as well.” Jianmen said as he was rolling out of the basement’s door.
“Yeah, sure.” Thomas sighed and said.
“Wait, you told us that your mentor’s name is Ms.Wong.” when they were heading out of the basement behind Jianmen, Detective Kuhn asked Aimee and Thomas: “And her name is Josephine - so that means...”
“Yeah, her full name’s Josephine Wong.” Aimee shrugged: “THAT Josephine Wong.”
“Huh, hmm, okay.” Detective Lee appeared quite shocked: “I - I mean, why, why would a sorceress of a few hundred years of age want to be in the movie business? And to be an action star, no less?”
“It’s a part of her ‘Trial of Red Dust’, which just means going through parts of the normal life of a civilian.” Jianmen answered while he opened the door to the fridge and started taking food and drinks out: “It’s something that accomplished power wielders and practitioners do - when they’ve reached a certain level, they could start to get drowned in the pursuit of power, or just the possession of it. The Trials of Red Dust can help one become more grounded, and help the power wielders gain more insight into the truth of power and order of the universe. But in Josephine’s case, it did not work as expected. Please, sit down and have some drink and food if you’d like.”
“I - I would very much like to know how that works, and how many powerful wizards and sorceresses are doing that right now.” Detective Lee said after sitting down at a table with the others.
“Oh, not many I’m afraid. Just consider the world you knew before, how many powerful people were willing to go and experience the life of a commoner for a prolonged period of time?” Jianmen smiled as he took two pots from the table beside him: “If rice and plum wine is not your thing, have some tea or coffee. And Aimee, that little feline friend of yours, I’m sure she would want something as well?”
“Plum wine sounds nice.” Mr. Night Owl hopped onto the table and sat at the corner close to Aimee.
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Both the detectives stared at the talking cat while she combed her own hair just like a regular cat.
All four of them, the two detectives, Thomas and Aimee then proceeded to tell Jianmen what happened to them and the two students of Jianmen in the past day - it was a thrilling experience, even for Aimee and Thomas. For Aimee, it was her first time being inside of an actual limbo outside of the lectures she had with Josephine Wong and at the Grant Academy, and it was a crossover limbo no less. For Thomas, it was his first time facing lycans with the proper powers to fight back - he still remembered that fateful encounter that sent him and Aimee into the hospital, which then led to them becoming Josephine Wong’s students.
“Okay. It makes sense.” Jianmen nodded: “Aimee, Thomas, please accept my sincere gratitude for helping my students through these tribulations of theirs. They would have been in much worse shapes if you were not there. And my apologies for things to have turned out this way - sometimes tribulations could be very - very atypical.”
“But I thought for tribulations people cannot accept help from the outside?” Aimee asked.
“Technically yes, unless these ones who provided the help are part of the tribulations.” Jianmen sighed and snapped his fingers in the air, and a small hologram of a bald headed man wearing simple clothes facing a lightning tribulation appeared in the air: “A tribulation is a trial, where the individual’s abilities and will are put to the test. I’m sure you would understand, some aspects of a person’s abilities and willpower are not manifested when alone, but when with others, either confronting them, standing beside them, or fighting along with them.
“And I’m sure you can see the parallel between the abilities of my students and the tribulations they went through. Caroline’s head-strong, direct and she does well in physical combat, so her tribulation was an actual battle against the lycan mafia. Jason’s calm, slightly shy and likes to think and combat with illusions and in creative ways, so his tribulation is a fight in the limbo, against an actual conduit of an evil - well, an evil entity.”
“Wait - this - this seemed really unfair, and kinda fucked up.” Detective Kuhn raised his hand: “The officers at my precinct, the civilians who lost their lives because some werewolf mafia decided to have a turf war against some other magic users, their lives are all for a test?”
“No, but it IS unfair. ” Jianmen looked Detective Kuhn right in the eye and said: “Just like an actual civilian gang war outbreak, or a terrorist deciding to target a police station - they would have still happened, and fate, destiny, or whatever you wanna call it, puts my students in that place at that time, pushing them to do the ‘right’ thing, and giving them a reward if they did it right. I know what you’re thinking, but I didn’t make the rules, no one you know or I know made the rules.”
“Just think of the times humans ‘fixed’ their pets so that they would be less troublesome at home and have a supposedly better life, even though most of the time they end up mateless and childless.” Mr. Night Owl said in a slightly sarcastic tone: “The decision is made ‘for their own good’.”
“Sir? Not helping.” Thomas put down his cup of coffee.
“Wasn’t trying to.” Jianmen sighed and shook his head: “I am only offering an explanation. There can be no justification.”