What Kind of Demons and Monsters Are These?

It's like transforming into a fetus and returning to the mother's womb.

It's like relaxing your whole body and mind, soaking in a hot spring... that moist and warm liquid is so captivating that it even calms your mind.

When Iver regained consciousness, he heard the rushing sound of the tides rising and falling around him.

A strong stench of blood mingled with the sounds of people talking.

He opened his eyes and saw a dark crescent moon hanging in the dark red sky.

Beneath their feet, Blood Sea, foaming white, rose and fell like the tides of a moonlit ocean.

In the very center stood a colossal mechanical dancer made of brass. She stood gracefully motionless, her hands folded in front of her. Behind her were butterfly-like wings, but these wings were not the wings of a living insect; rather, they were feathers pieced together from countless extremely thin gears and metal plates.

Iver and Lily appeared at almost the same time.

This time, Iver did not directly allow the Shadow Fiend to attach to his body and conceal his entire body.

Instead, they used a different method of disguise—

Anyway, Iver's hair was already quite long, though he usually tied it in a ponytail. Now, he let his hair down completely and put on Lily's clothes again—when the Shadow Fiend covered him again, Iver only saw a black afterimage that looked like a "character not yet unlocked," and it looked like a woman.

Lily, on the other hand, adopted the opposite disguise.

She changed into Iver ' men's coat and put on a wide-brimmed hat— Iver had just brought a grey trench coat and top hat with him on this trip. Now it was perfect for Lily.

Although Lily's long, curly gray hair still fell freely to her waist, she cleverly shifted her posture to that of a man. Just looking at her interlaced fingers, leaning back in the chair, and crossing her legs, it was hard to believe that "Mr. Gray" was a woman at this moment.

Because according to Iver's previous statement, Miss Aleister was actually a woman.

Although some people already know that Aleister is Iver... such as Her Majesty the Queen, and the Grand Guardian, it is still a secret unknown to outsiders.

—Perhaps this information gap will suddenly come in handy at some point in the future. So Iver simply changed into Lily's clothes, intending to play the role of "Miss Aleister" to the very end.

Anyway, he doesn't need to do anything, not even makeup—the face is not visible during the Promotion Ritual, and the voice will be distorted to some extent. You can only judge the other party's true identity from their posture, clothing, tone of voice, and hairstyle.

As for speaking—

Originally, Aleister was supposed to be spoken by Shadow Fiend.

Now it's just a matter of adjusting his dry, hoarse, monstrous voice to that of the Assassin Miss.

Compared to that...

Iver looked up, observing the crowd with great interest.

—He and Lily were actually the replacements for seventh and eighth place.

Six people had already arrived before they did. Judging from the enthusiasm of their conversation, they seemed to have been there for a while.

This suggests that the main venue for this ceremony is very likely not in Avalon.

The ninth person to appear, following Lily, was a short and thin old woman wearing a green wide-brimmed hat.

Her body was hunched and shrunken, and she didn't look like a human. She looked more like a goblin.

Once everyone had arrived, the man sitting in the first seat looked over and asked with interest, "Among the three of you... which one has Path of Transcendence?"

"Shouldn't you introduce yourself before asking someone a question?"

Iver did not speak.

But the Assassin Miss Chloe's sweet and gentle voice was followed by a triple echo of roughness and sharpness.

"Indeed, you are right, Miss."

The man nodded slightly, very politely.

He placed his right hand on his chest, bowed slightly, and said, "I am the [Prohibition], the Path of Authority."

He looked Blood Energy and robust. He appeared to be in his early thirties, and his voice was loud and clear.

"[Philosopher]."

The second-ranked man crossed his arms and spoke coldly, his attitude a stark contrast to the ban.

He had a cold, wintery demeanor, with an air of aloof arrogance. He must be quite old... Although his face wasn't clearly visible, it was obvious that he was already balding. He was probably at least in his forties or fifties.

"You can call me Stranger. I am currently an alchemist who is still an apprentice."

The man, also in his forties, answered gently.

"I am the [Forge], Dedication Path. Greetings."

The fourth to speak was a dwarf woman—or perhaps an older woman or grandmother. Because dwarves generally age prematurely, her exact age was difficult to discern. However, her attitude was quite friendly.

"I am Janet."

The next person to speak was a woman who appeared to be using her real name.

She said with a smile, "Janet Platinumman, the Path of Love... but I'm not a witch, little sisters?"

"... a ghost."

The sixth person to speak had his head down, looking as if he was about to fall asleep, and spoke in a hoarse, low voice.

Iver remained silent for a moment, then tilted his head slightly.

Immediately afterwards, Chloe's voice rang out. "Alai. You can call me Alai. As you can see, I am a Transcender."

"Ash."

Lily used her voice-altering skills to produce a deep, hoarse voice.

Because she only uttered one word, the waiting hall fell silent for a long time.

Finally, the old woman wearing the green hat realized what was happening and spoke in a sharp voice, "I am... the Hatter. The Path of Beauty."

As expected of New Moon Ritual, Iver thought.

What kind of Demons and Monsters are these...?

He glanced over and immediately spotted at least three accounts using alternate accounts.

The fact that they were able to bring in themselves and Lily to fill in the gaps in their team... indicates that the ritual organizers judged that if they were to bring in any more random Transcender at this point, their strength would be on a completely different level. That would be unfair to them.

This indicates that there were indeed many trumpets used in the New Moon Ritual.

Ban, Philosopher, and Stranger are most likely on the same team, and all three are probably using alternate accounts.

It's hard to say for sure about the forge, but judging from the looks of it, it's probably a dwarven blacksmith. This kind of support class makes it easy to find teammates.

One of the teammates she found was Janet Platinumman. It's unclear whether the ghost was part of their group.

Iver knew this person.

Janet is actually an Avalon.

A renowned Fairy Scholar —she once entered the Fairy Kingdom and gained healing abilities from the fairies...the ability to create witch's ointments. However, this ability is very unstable, sometimes working and sometimes not, and sometimes turning into poison or prank potions.

However, she was ultimately arrested not because she killed someone, but because she was a journalist who repeatedly made politically sensitive comments—including but not limited to sharp remarks such as "The royal family is being killed one after another and the royal family is not in a hurry, which means that the Queen wants to use this method to pass the throne to someone else," "Avalon is actually no match for Star Antimony. As long as the Stibnite Person attack, they will definitely be destroyed with a single touch," "Griffins are useless and are not as beneficial to the people as motorcycles," and "Avalon's alchemy has not actually made any progress. Those technological breakthroughs are completely useless."

Although it seems that she guessed quite a bit of the truth in it... in reality, she had no evidence at all and it was all pure guesswork.

And she also writes reports that are definitely not the truth.

For example, she repeatedly claimed that Sherlock Holmes became a famous detective because he orchestrated all the cases. For some reason, she harbored a strong animosity towards Sherlock and publicly criticized him on numerous occasions.

But she later got into trouble because of her loose tongue—she was imprisoned and made to ride a treadmill for six months, and after she got out, she went to Xingti.

If these six people are all Stibnite Person, then it explains why their first question was to ask who among us is the Transcender.

The Wraiths are mostly of the Path of Twilight, while the Strangers are alchemists. These three paths are absolutely dominant on Star Antimony's side, just like Authority and Dedication on Avalon's side. It's highly unlikely they'll fill any gaps.

If none of the three were the Transcender, then it meant that someone among the remaining people was definitely lying—which is why Iver was able to confirm that these six people were at least not a team.

The New Moon Ritual can only have a maximum of three winners, while defeat carries a heavy price. Therefore, a team can only consist of a maximum of three people.

These six people need to be divided into two or three teams, but they are all on Star Antimony. That's why the ritual captured himself, Lily, and the "Hatmaker," who is most likely a goblin, to fill the gaps.

—After leaving Avalon's radiation range, even the proportion of alien races increased.

Iver tentatively placed his hand on the armrest. The shadows concealed Iver's movements, but cards appeared in his palm.

[Shadow Blade], [Shadow Cloak], [Earthbound Spirit].

—As expected, the Paradox Flame Butterfly could not be summoned.

It's unclear whether the Great Sin Card are unusable, or whether the Paradox Flame Butterfly, which was assigned to the Dedication Path, is unusable.

That's easy too. Once Little Butterfly reaches Fifth Level, Iver can then draw upon her power to create some weaker cards.

We'll find out if the cards drawn from the Little Butterfly are usable when the next New Moon Ritual advances.

After everyone finished introducing themselves, the melodious sound of a music box suddenly filled the blood-soaked waiting room.

The brass dancer in the center flaps its wings slightly and dances gracefully to the light music.

The dance immediately captured everyone's attention, and everyone was captivated by it. Just watching the dance was therapeutic.

Her dance grew more intense and frenzied. Finally, she opened her eyes, and those eyes, like the most beautiful emeralds, were so beautiful they were mesmerizing.

Finally, her dance gradually returned to calm. After the dance ended, she closed her eyes again and returned to the initial state, completely still.

"I am Terpsichore."

Her ethereal voice resonated in everyone's hearts. "The Muse of Twin Mirrors."

Apart from that, she didn't say another word.

[This time, seven advanced practitioners possess multiple paths, but please note: only advanced path abilities and extraordinary items corresponding to their own path that they have personally crafted are allowed to be used during the advancement ceremony.]

This ceremony is limited to sixteen hours and is scaled to an 8:1 ratio with reality.

You must survive until the end of the ritual, or fulfill the special victory conditions during the early settlement.

Because this is New Moon Ritual, kill reward points will be calculated. At the end of the ceremony and during the settlement, the winner will be selected based on the points held from highest to lowest.

[There are three regular winners in this ceremony, but there are special victory conditions.]

The special victory conditions for this ceremony are: "Secret Reflection" and "Twin Victory".

[Secret Reflection: In this ritual, all advanced participants are the opposite gender to the characters they are playing. The winner is the one who discovers the true identities of all other advanced participants except themselves, and prevents their own true identity from being discovered by any other advanced participant, thus ignoring the victory conditions and winning immediately.]

[Twin Victory: At least two advanced users must remain at the end of the ritual. If only one survives, the user loses immediately, and the two advanced users with the highest scores among the deceased advanced users are chosen as the winners.]

[This ritual is rated as "Difficult Challenge". Death during the ritual will result in 90 days of weakness in reality, with a small chance of soul damage and an extremely small chance of disability.]

The dreamscape for this ceremony was constructed from 'amber,' while the script and bonus details were handled by ' Twin Mirrors.'

Then, Terpsichore paused. He began to chant softly, as if telling a story:

[1580, the Herasul Empire...]

Update complete!

Okay, continuing from the previous chapter, I've been breathing hot air through my nose for three days now, and even after taking ibuprofen for two days, I'm still not fully recovered. Every night when I go to sleep, I feel very hot, a little chilly, and sweat profusely, but when I take my temperature after waking up, it's always normal, a perfectly standard 36.5 degrees Celsius. Unbelievable.

I drank some antiviral oral liquid after waking up this morning, and the dry throat problem is basically gone; now I have a cough, but it's not severe. My runny nose has also started to increase, and the nasal congestion has lessened. Most importantly, although I feel weak, I don't have a headache or fever... It's really strange...

Because I don't have a headache, I don't want to go to the hospital. I always feel that it would be worse if I went to the hospital and caught something from someone else.

But if I'm still not better by tomorrow, I'll have to take me to the vet tomorrow afternoon. Our operations manager, Guan Guan, is coming to play with the cat on the 30th, so I have to stay strong and not give up.