West City Road (SAIJOU)

Here to cross the Bridge too, are you? Well, it's most often closed now, but I did see a woman cross it earlier. The Bridge, as in "Magpie Bridge", stretches across the Lai Hung River.

Here to find that lady too, are you? What the heck is going on here...

With the malice getting so strong now, who knows what we'll see next?

The lady earlier was headed to Tai Chang Road, or so I heard.

The only way to reach Tai Chang Road now is through the morgue, but...

the bridge that crossed to the morgue collapsed a long, long time ago.

The hutongs of West City Road spread out underground, beneath the district.

The entrance into the hutongs was closed so long ago, though, how is anyone supposed to get in?

Hey, wanna hear something neat?

The Carmel Mansions basement connects to some other district in the city. Have you seen the Carmel before? It's that large building on the other side of Magpie Bridge, which no one is allowed to cross right now. Follow the Lai Hung and talk to the elderly man there, down by the water. He controls our bridge access.

Uh, how does a district up and branch out without warning?

Nguyễn's opening the passage for you? He's talking to the elderly man now. That guy knows Vietnamese as well.

Is it the malice that's making the connections between districts so shaky?

Oh! I see ya didn't blow up! The qigong therapist came 'round here earlier. Acted real strange, too. He was all shaking and wobbling. Seemed he was looking for someone.

The e-mail that came for ya was from a qigong therapist, just so ya know.

You'd have to be careful too, ya know. When humans are exposed to malice, they start to act... ghastly.

Got another e-mail, did ya? How many friends do ya have?!

If the malice in West City Road subsides, Nguyễn's translation pack might work like it's supposed to... Are ya going into the hutong to fix it? Then ya'd better hire a navigator.

Have ya hired a navigator yet...? Eh, guess I shouldn't ask. You hafta be a hutong-spelunking expert by now!

Some stranger in a bowler hat went down the stairs to the Lai Hung.

How do ya s'pose that geezer was able to open the entrance?

Is he a friend of yours?

As you can see, the water in Lai Hung River is forever stagnant.

Its water once reflected the sky, but now... only rainbows of diesel.

The bridge that crosses the Lai Hung is formally named "Magpie Bridge",

but we all simply refer to it as "the Bridge".

You're crossing the Bridge too?

Don't tell me you're going after that young woman who crossed earlier... Yeah, I thought as much!

How did it go? The malice from the connected district didn't leak in, did it?

The Lai Hung is so dirty, I can't rinse out any umbilical cords in its water. The filth would damage my merchandise!

We buy used military uniforms only. The new ones will get turned away.

Nguyễn brought in a bunch of stuff, but none of it ever caught my eye. "Standard" isn't always "aesthetic". Ah, Nguyễn... I wonder if he ever found that wishing stone he lost on the staircase along the Lai Hung bank.

"If you leave a wishing stone by the riverbank, your wish will come true."

Nguyễn's playing along to a very old tradition there, which sure makes me wonder what he wished so hard for.

Ah, Nguyễn must want you to find his lost wishing stone for him.

But if "finder's keepers" is real, and you do find it, will it be his wish that comes true, or yours?

How does a wishing stone become a guilü anyhow?

... Well, just goes to show that it doesn't always pay to put your whole heart into things.

Sniff, sniff... You smell just like that wise man who visited earlier. And he smelled just like that woman... See, the woman came to our district hoping to find a wangren, and the wise man came hoping of finding her!

That woman asked me if I could let her cross Magpie Bridge, which I operate.

Once I saw her get across, I promptly closed the door shut behind her.

Who are you looking for, eh? No wangren live in our district.

Say, can I... ask you a small favour?

Would you mind paying a visit to the next district over, just to see how everyone's faring?

I'm worried for that woman still, see. It will take me a moment to get the Bridge ready, so go read your e-mail. There's a terminal next to the glass eye merchant's stall.

It will take me a moment to get the Bridge ready, so go read your e-mail.

If you want to enter Carmel Mansions, you'll have to cross Magpie Bridge.

It also connects to the next district over, but I don't know how things are faring over there.

... Don't do anything risky. If the malice possesses you, you're as good as dead.

Shellfish Powder acquired.

Shellfish powder is amazing!

No one believes me, but it can change the element of malice in any guilü you sprinkle the stuff on! It could really help someone like you! If you'd like, I can mix a fresh to-go batch for you later!

I prepared some shellfish powder! Use some next time you see a guilü!

When you do, I promise it'll change that guilü's element of malice!

Just a heads up, a guilü's new element of malice will only be revealed AFTER you change it!

Back when our district was connected to Tai Chang Road,

their physicians would come here to buy herbal medicines.

A strange man was walking around the general vicinity of the Bridge. A colleague of yours, I take it?

Do you know Nguyễn, the photographer?

He came here to conduct interviews for a photo book he's working on, "Prosperity and Shadow." Hah! Poor guy sure came to the wrooong place if he wanted to see "prosperity".

Nguyễn must think it was his wishing stone that caused our malice outbreak. ... Oh, you must be confused. Sorry. It was tradition some decades ago for people to make wishes on small stones.

I've also heard the superstition that placing too many wishes on a single stone will break the stone to bits.

How could a stone blessed by someone's honest wish unleash so much malice? It doesn't make any sense!

Did Nguyễn want your photo too?

He'd spoken with a young woman earlier, but I don't know how she understood him if his translator pack is broken. J.C., at least, speaks Vietnamese. His jewellery stall is down the stairs and to the right.

Nguyễn might be near the Bridge. His wishing stone was stolen, see...

How could somebody do that to him? It's rotten to steal a wishing stone!

To the rest of us, making a wish on a stone for good luck is quite dated, but Nguyễn readily believes in the custom.

Ayo! The name's J.C. You here to use the passage?

The chick who went in earlier never came back to West City. Wish I caught her name. She had such looong earrings on, I... Sorry, where was I?

Oh, I know. You're another one who's here to speak to Nguyễn, am I right? Well, Nguyễn's moping at his place. Reddish door across the hall.

Here to speak to Nguyễn? Well, Nguyễn's moping at his place. Reddish door across the hall.

He'll open the passage for you, so get in there ASAP.

If the passage stays open for too long, who knows how bad the disturbances here will get. You'd better get a move on!

The bottle merchant likes earrings. Has a big thing for womens' ears. Your lady friend wasn't there, was she? Anyways, Nguyễn went to the riverbank to ask the old man about his stone.

It's strange how these districts keep connecting and disconnecting. That instability can't be safe, right?

Xiaohei's Earring acquired.

Deluxe Bottle acquired.

Hehe, today's my lucky day. Do you want to know whyyy? Because! ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... I found this huge earring near that passage exit you came from.

You don't find something this juicy sitting around every day! Only, it's a liiittle too big.

Woah, l-look at that...! What's that cutie you have there?

D-do you... wanna trade that little thing for this big hunker I have? Please...?

You know this feeling, don't you?

No, you can't hide it from me... You and I... share the same hobby. Here. Take this deluxe bottle. When you get home, drop that earring into this bottle. It's big, sure, but an earring's an earring.

Man, am I happy. To think, I'd find someone else with this hobby.

When I first saw you, I had a feeling you were just like me.

When it comes to getting bottled, earrings beat Corpses any day,

what, with their satisfying, "Plink!" sounds and all.

When I get to thinking about a woman's ear, I lose myself.

Ears with little pointy bits pricked into them? I love 'em! Hehehehehehehehehehehe!

Ever since the day I was born, I was naked and weak...

Without clothes on, I felt my body get smaller, smaller, smaller... In a way, these guys saved me: this grating, this lock and this door. The locksmith comes and keeps me screwed in, so I never feel loose. I'm neither naked nor afraid now!

The locksmith came back. He says Lung Shing Road suddenly got connected to West City Road. No bad mirror angles did this. It's a dimensional distortion, but who knows if it came from outside!

I can't believe the district just vanished into thin air like that!

I thought malice only infested our district, but it seems to be in all corners of Kowloon now.

Old Key acquired.

The Vietnamese man opened the way for you, did he? I should've known.

Out of everyone there, he looked the most trustworthy, but oh well... In the event that Kowloon ever heals, you do NOT want to be in that passage. Who knows where, or IF, you'd wind up! People mustn't wander in there freely. ... By the way, I have something else. It's a key I found but have no use for. Maybe you should take it.

Will you return to West City Road?

It's dangerous inside that passage, so don't take too long in there. Once you're through, I'll relock it.

Hey, it's me again. Did the peeled shrimp come in handy? I've decided to continue the business. Or, well, start it over from scratch... Life is long, and compared to those who disappeared, I'm in a good place.

We used to get over to Tai Chang Road through the morgue, but not anymore.

With the bridge to the morgue gone, one can only wonder what became of all the bodies still stored there.

Tiger-Dragon Key acquired.

You're not gonna believe this!

I heard this commotion under my house, right, and when I went to look, all the water was draining from the waterway! I plucked this off the wet soil. Do you think this key goes somewhere? Take it in case you need it.

It's a key to somewhere, all right, but it doesn't look normal to me.

Enough on that, I'm still freaking out that the water under my house dried up!

Have ya spoken with the snake restaurateur? I heard he found a key on the ground.

How did that geezer in the bowler hat make that weird opening, huh?

You people keep do things us normal people plain can't!

Placing wishes on stones, placing stones on pedestals...

See, it's never a good idea to slap values onto objects on a whim.

Once upon a time, there was a man who kept his umbilical cord attached.

He treasured it so much, he even gave it a name.

Then, a time came when the cord started to absorb the man's body.

He tried to cut it off with a kitchen knife, but it was too hard to sever.

In the end, the man's cord took over his mind and body, and that's why some cords are better off as "just cords".

If you put your heart into an object, it will grow that heart like its own.

Then, if you mistreat the object, that evil will soil its heart.

Nguyễn left to organise his photos.

He lamented to me that he didn't have a good theme down, and that he needed to take another look at his photos. If you ask me, who needs a "theme"?!

Oh, you're back! How did it go?

Were the hutongs packed with guilü? Gee, then maybe it's true...

Did all this happen because of one man's innocent wish on a stone? But... I'm sure Nguyễn had no idea!

Whoa, you scared me there! What the heck, buddy?! Well, since you're here, I've got something to tell you that just might strike your interests! First, did you know that there's an out-of-use dock just down from here?!

Plus, there should be a seashell there, and if you put your ear against it, you can hear the waves! Must be some kind of good luck charm!

The seashell on the old dock must be some kind of good luck charm!

I just remembered something about the liquid wangren.

If anyone gets too close to him, he often soaks into the ground and flees. He's as slippery as they come!

Nguyễn doesn't take pictures of people unless they really catch his eye.

That said, I did see him snap a shot of the young lady wandering around the district a little while ago.

Nguyễn has holed himself up in his room in order to review all of the photos he has taken for his project.

He does that when he feels alone in his thoughts, so maybe his translator pack breaking now has augmented the feeling.

You still haven't caught up with your lady friend? Nguyễn feels totally responsible. He's a serious person, which is a rare sort around these parts.

Far to the right of the Bridge is where you'll see the morgue.

It's through that morgue that you'd enter Tai Chang Road.

The qi flow started going again? Maybe Nguyễn's doodads'll work now.

No better way to find out than to take his translator pack for a little spin!

Hey! You!

Do ya know the old man inside the Spirit Dragon Temple?

Ma Shantong is his name. You have an e-mail.

The Spirit Dragon Temple used to be a Daoist monastery... but now, it's all ruins. Oddly, sometimes you'll see it vanish into thin air, only to pop back later. There's gotta be something in there. Rumours say this really old guy named Ma Shantong has been living there for decades.

You shouldn't go around giving names to random objects, that's for sure.

Nguyễn is odd in his own ways. For one, he's a sucker for things like "technology" and "progress", and he's all for collecting newfangled gadgets. That translator pack he wears is only the tip of the iceberg!

It appears the malice here has lifted.

Did you find the stone?

Let me see it. I'll have a look to see if it's genuine.

Oh, got the stone back, did you? Good! Better return it to Nguyễn. He'd been waiting to open the way for you as soon as you returned.

Return Nguyễn's lost wishing stone. He's... acting a bit too strange now. I hope it's nothing major, but do check on him, please.

Whoa!

Now's no time to get startled! We just made a huge discovery!

The seashell I mentioned before was actually a time talisman all along!

And time talismans have the power to correct space-time distortions...!

Huh?! What's a space-time distortion?! Don't ask me! How should I know?!

So, seashells can be time talismans! Doesn't that sounds so... benign?! If you do find one, don't you lose it! Even if doesn't help you here in this district, it could help you elsewhere!

If you wanted to reach Tai Chang Road,

all you had to do was pass through the morgue, but that doesn't work anymore.

... By the way, if a liquid wangren gets cold, do you think the wangren gets frozen into ice?

Nguyễn took a photo of the young woman who came to the district ahead of you.

Geez, Nguyễn's resorted to shouting at people like some geezer ever since his translator pack started to glitch. If you want to see for yourself, he has a room in the Carmel Mansions basement.

Did you hear that weird noise? ... Oh, I hope I'm not hearing things.

Nguyễn's acting weird, I just know it! His voice sounds so... pained, I guess. Is his translator pack fixed yet? Why don't you go check on him?

Fess up! You got an earring from the bottle merchant on Lung Shing Road! ... Hehe. Yeah, I thought as much. If you ever find the owner to that earring you got, give it back to them. If you don't, the owner would... dare I say it, "lose their balance"? Heh. Earrings are special like that.

There are people who live in a world that exists entirely in one man's head. Can you imagine? And to think, that's where you're headed.

I'm talking about Wangren Road, the district that exists inside of the head of an old sage, Ma Shantong. Some of us wangren still live here on the outside, but only those of us with strong delusion sources can do that. It sounds far more comfortable to live inside of Ma Shantong's head.

Still, if the delusion saturation in Wangren Road ever spiked too high, Ma Shantong too could lose his mind. It sounds weird, but it's true. I see you have delusion glasses... Very well. Ma Shantong is over there, inside of that ink portrait.

If the delusion saturation on Wangren Road remains unstable, Wangren Road will vanish entirely.

Wangren Road is over there, right in Ma Shantong's head. Use delusion glasses to speak to him.

It's starting up again... Wangren Road is destabilising. A storm of delusion is brewing, and malice is seeping through the defences that guard Wangren Road. The delusion saturation is spiking. Hohoho... something thick is coming into my head...! Augh, augh, auuugh! Take that door... to Tai Chang Road!

I see you've met Nguyễn.

... Whelp. Guess I get to translate. You after the chick with the earrings?

Well, I don't care who you are. That passage isn't safe to go into.

"She seemed to know it connected this district to Lung Shing Road." ... Lung Shing Road, huh? Gotcha.

The Lung Shing locksmith left the key that safekept the passage with Nguyễn.

"Because the passage was dangerous enough when he travelled it."

Smart guy. Given that passage never had anything going for it, it's too risky a spot to let every dude and his mum in.

"But the girl was in a hurry. She was searching for someone." Someone on Lung Shing Road? Then what happened?

"The guilü distorted all the magnetic energy, and your...

wishing stone got possessed...?"

Sorry. I don't know what all he means, but there was this decades-old custom where people made wishes on rocks.

If you need to find your lady friend, Nguyễn will unlock the passage for you.

That "shouldn't" count as breaking his promise to the locksmith.

That reminds me... Her earrings! There's that old guy on Lung Shing Road who collects earrings on the side!

Maybe she wanted to trade one of her earrings for one of his bottles!

Do you need to trade for a bottle too? If you're serious about this chase, I'll give you one of my pieces.

Earring acquired.

He'll open the passage for you, so get in there ASAP.

If the passage stays open for too long, who knows how bad the disturbances here will get. You'd better get a move on!

Are you looking for the young lady? She went through the passage that connects us to Lung Shing Road... There's no way to reach Tai Chang Road from Lung Shing Road, but Tai Chang Road may be her true destination. She said she's looking for a physician, but maybe she went to Lung Shing Road first in order to run some errand.

Oh, your wishing stone? I heard.

I don't think your stone is the cause, but you can bet the guilü inside those hutongs are feeding off it right now. A stone with a wish placed on it is no longer an ordinary stone.

Apparently, Nguyễn's wishing stone has mutated into a malice-birthing stone somewhere in the district underground. The mere thought of it agonises him.

There are two places that regulate our district's qi flow from below: the Tiger's Mouth and Dragon's Mouth. The Mouths must be where the guilü are nesting and distorting the qi flow, using Nguyễn's stone as sustenance.

The only way to get underground is through the waterway.

Hmm, so you're schooled in the ways of cleansing the hutongs, are you?

Good. In that case, should you find his wishing stone, he'd like to make another wish on it. He also thinks you should try going to Tai Chang Road.

First, you'll need to find the entrance into the hutongs.

Then, when calming the malice, you'll have to find your way to both the Tiger's Mouth and Dragon's Mouth.

First, you'll need to find the entrance into the hutongs.

Then, when calming the malice, you'll have to find your way to both the Tiger's Mouth and Dragon's Mouth.

Seems ol' Nguyễn's wishing stone is empowering the nearby Ghostmaster.

Nguyễn came to the district to find a theme for 'is snaps. That's when he wished on the stone.

He intended to find the shadows in prosperity, but over time, it was the prosperity in shadow that seduced him.

In turn, the Ghostmaster claimed it,

the "power to seek shadow" that the stone was innately bestowed.

You must expel the malice that clings to the stone. Now, please. This way to enter the waterway.

I'll let you in on this: Nguyễn, the man you seek, is confined under my care.

Just when the translator pack is usable again, huh! Too bad for you!

Hahahaha! There's no escape for you!

You cannot leave the district, unless... we strike a deal.

Give me the naming charm, and I shall release Nguyễn. Haha, it's a steal, am I right?

Malice will rise in the Sea of Qi to the beat of Nguyễn's guilty conscience.

You are here to see to our feng shui... Surely you know this about Yin by now,

but our Divine Choices must be performed on four human candidates, those destined to become Divine Beasts.

Be that as it may... even you may not be able to awaken Qinglong. This is all thanks to the evil Yaodi.

He was a feng shui master like you, but then, terrifyingly, Yaodi dared to steal Qinglong's power.

The monk who was destined to become Qinglong turned himself into a wooden statue, sealing Yaodi inside with him.

Robbed of his mortal body, the disgraced feng shui master remanifested as a vengeful spirit.

Yaodi then took to the dark arts. The Shelao Association, in turn, hopes to find immortality by reviving Yaodi.

I will protect Wangren Road, but you must awaken the other three candidates before Xuanwu's severed power runs dry.

Hurry... before Yaodi... awakens Qinglong...!