Advancement Ritual

When Iver was making the Phantom Demon Card for the Basic Ritual, he could still sit in a wheelchair.

But he couldn't do that when performing the advancement ritual.

Fortunately, Iver had fed the Shadow Demon this morning. Even if he stood up and his body was completely linked to his shadow, the awakened Shadow Demon was not out of control at all.

The shadow under Iver's feet wriggled slightly, floating up a little from time to time, to prove that it was still alive and still there.

The shadow that floated up from time to time would remind people of the "misty" special effects made with dry ice—but this mist was pure black without any variegated colors.

It was surrounded by demonic energy.

In fact, the materials and procedures of the advancement ritual are not completely consistent.

The universal ritual itself is not so rigid. The complexity of many rituals and the difficulty in obtaining materials actually come from artificial encryption. In essence, it is similar to the ciphers in alchemical works. The purpose is to prevent people from analyzing the essence of this ritual.

That's why Iver was able to easily make Phantom Demon Cards.

As a new ritual that was born three years later, it has not yet experienced repeated encryption, incorrect decryption, and re-encryption. Its ritual meaning has not been distorted. Therefore, it can be easily replicated by Iver, whose "Basic Ritual" level is only level 1.

The advancement ritual is just the opposite.

The advancement rituals of various inheritance schools are slightly different in the details.

The ritual Iver used was a simplified version he had seen in his adoptive father's collection. This is a ritual that is widely circulated in the Avalon Knight family circle—

The advantage is that it doesn't take too much effort, and the disadvantage is that it consumes a small piece of White Crystal... about the size of a fingernail and as thick as a coin. But this thing itself is not expensive, so it's okay. Iver punched a hole in it, strung it on a rope, and made a disposable pendant.

He prepared six kinds of silver ornaments, namely two bracelets, a necklace, two rings and a forehead ring.

Then he smeared them with Clove Essential Oil, Cinnamon Essential Oil, Cypress Essential Oil, Benzoin Essential Oil, Helichrysum Essential Oil and Chamomile Essential Oil respectively, and placed them on the six vertices of the Hexagram that Iver had drawn—these six kinds of plant essential oils and the Hexagram magic circle engraved with silver sharp tools are the most important core of this ritual, the only irreplaceable part.

After that, Iver prepared three kinds of food that he didn't like.

He chose radishes, bitter gourds and green peppers. He only symbolically cut a thin slice and placed it in the center of the Hexagram.

In this way, the preliminary preparations for the ritual were completed.

Iver put on his seminary uniform. Although it is a school uniform, it is also a formal clergyman's robe.

It has a pure white clerical collar, with two golden Thorn Pattern reliefs with roses at the neckline—this ornament even contains real gold. Its shoulders and chest have brown belts, which still have golden Thorn Pattern decorations like antlers. This robe hangs down to more than half of the thigh. Further down are brown trousers and cloth shoes.

Anyone who sees this outfit will know that this is a Priest of the Nine Pillars God Church.

He closed the door tightly, and waited until the full moon rose to more than forty degrees before the ritual was officially started.

"—The nine are complete."

Iver whispered.

As he spoke, he lit a bundle of dried Sage and Mugwort mixed and bundled into an herb stick.

Like roasting a cigar, he repeatedly roasted the tip of the herb stick.

In fact, it can indeed be regarded as a kind of cigar—just as coffee is also soy milk in a sense.

Sage is the most commonly used herb for burning and offering sacrifices. It has different effects when mixed with different herbs. When mixed with Mugwort, its main meaning is to block the influence of other Paths on the advancement ritual.

For Iver, it is used to suppress the interference of his Path of Transcendence with the ritual.

"Forsake three of them..."

Iver said in a low voice, pressing the sage stick that was constantly emitting green smoke into the center of the Hexagram.

"—Constant Self, Lord of Scales and Feathers, Amber."

These three names are the names of the Pillar Gods of the Path of Love, the Path of Adaptation, and the Path of Twilight, respectively.

This is a necessary procedure for the Full Moon Ritual.

No transcendent can be all things to all people. Even the Full Moon Ritual does not allow for opportunism.

Before seeing his teammates and enemies, he must first declare the three Paths he dislikes the most. This is to show his determination.

In this ritual, he cannot cooperate with teammates from these three Paths. Even if all three Paths are powerful, he cannot secretly change his position.

These three Paths were also carefully selected by Iver.

Although the Path of Adaptation is good at survival, it will definitely sell out teammates at critical moments. Self-preservation and running away are the characteristics of the Path of Adaptation.

As for the Path of Twilight and the Path of Love, it's simply that there are too many weirdos in them.

—The so-called Path of Love is just a euphemism.

It is a Path related to barbarism, animality, and impulse, pursuing the animalistic desires of reproduction and diet.

What kind of people are in there?

Dirty old men, gourmets, cam girls, gluttons... none of them seem serious. But they are quite suitable for the modern internet environment.

The Path of Twilight emphasizes that "the Sun will eventually set, and all things will eventually perish." It is a path to resist death and decay, and to pursue eternal life and solidification.

Undertakers, taxidermists, gravediggers, including painters and sculptors who draw portraits of the deceased, may all believe in the Path of Twilight. Making mummies and wax figures also belongs to the skills of the Path of Twilight, including summoning the dead and reincarnation.

It is not easy to find excellent teammates in these three Paths.

As Iver recited the names of these three Pillar Gods in turn, a gust of wind suddenly swirled in the room.

Three colors of flames suddenly ignited on the three foods that Iver did not like to eat.

They were black, emerald green, and amber, respectively.

They quickly burned to ashes in the fire, turning into a black smoke.

But strangely—even though there was a strange whirlwind in the room, constantly spinning around Iver, the green smoke emitted by the sage stick after igniting the three foods went straight up, converging into a wisp of smoke only the thickness of a wrist, leading directly to the White Crystal pendant hanging under the chandelier above.

Then, Iver began to circle around the ritual array, holding the sage stick outside the ritual array, bending down and circling, fumigating the outer ring of the ritual array.

"The six protect me..."

He pointed the sage stick at the six silver ornaments in turn, while chanting the names of the remaining six Pillar Gods: "Hourglass. Light Bearer. Weizhe. Silver Crowned Dragon. Twin Mirrors. Serpent Father."

As he clicked on them in turn, the six silver ornaments gradually turned black.

It was not blackened by smoke, but rather as if it had touched some kind of poison. It was as if it had extracted something unfavorable from the surrounding air.

The whirlwind in the room also suddenly grew larger—all the lit candles in Iver's room were blown out by the wind, but nothing was blown down as a result, not even a light piece of paper.

"I pursue the Path of the Light Bearer."

The next moment, the herbal stick in Iver's hand suddenly burst.

He released it, dropping it in the center of the Hexagram. It continuously crackled and popped, rising a beautiful pure white smoke. It once again covered the White Crystal pendant that was hung up and blackened by the previous smoke.

—The ritual was a success.

Seeing that his "Basic Ritual" suddenly gained 20% progress, Iver breathed a sigh of relief and confirmed that the ritual had succeeded.

He took off the White Crystal pendant hanging on the chandelier and wore it close to his body.

Although he knew before that this ritual was very simple, this was, after all, Iver's first time advancing with a ritual.

Before, it was all theory; this time, it was a real hands-on operation.

When Iver put on this pendant, he felt a faint sense of tranquility and drowsiness.

It wasn't strong; he could resist it with willpower.

It was roughly like feeling sleepy after a full meal, or after taking melatonin before bed.

But Iver did not resist, but sat in his wheelchair, closing his eyes to perceive that dragging sensation.

As if slowly sinking into the dark depths of the sea, he clearly perceived his consciousness being dragged into a deeper level by some force while in a conscious state.

"Good evening, Priest."

Just as Iver woke up again, a cold voice with a somewhat familiar tone to Iver sounded.

He opened his eyes and found himself in a dark space. Although there was no light source here, he could see everything clearly.

He was sitting in a tall, wide-backed chair. Iver's height exceeded 1.8 meters, but even he could not completely fill the chair. When he put his elbow on one side of the armrest, the other arm could not reach the armrest on the other side.

And when he looked up, he found that there were eight more chairs like this.

The nine chairs were arranged in a circle, and in the very center was a huge stone Hourglass statue. It was about five or six meters high, like a huge display piece in a shopping mall.

Iver found that he was the fourth to arrive.

Ahead of him, three people had already arrived.

The four of them were sitting next to each other. The first was an old man with his head lowered, holding a cane. The second person was a young man wearing a brown double-breasted long trench coat and a top hat.

The third was dressed somewhat awkwardly—wearing a fully enclosed Knight helmet on his head, but wearing a shirt and sweater for easy movement.

Although Iver couldn't see their faces at all, just like not being able to see the faces of passers-by in a dream, he could immediately realize that the second one must be Sherlock! Because his tone was too distinctive, and this look was not disguised at all.

It was as if he was saying—yes, I am Sherlock Holmes.

Iver's clothes are the cover! It was drawn by Guanguan, the operator of this book!