Mind Wandering

The darkness filled the entire room, to the point where blackness itself seemed to thicken, and each breath became agonizingly difficult.

This time, because Alice was holding his hand, he knew his hand hadn't betrayed him.

However, he became even more lost. Did any of this even count as a hallucination?

Once again, he began to drift, wander, and hesitate between reality and illusion.

It seemed as if someone was speaking, yet the words themselves had lost all meaning.

Scattered, noisy, indistinct...

Aaron looked around, trying to find the source of the voice, but increasingly felt that the sound was coming from everywhere at once.

The darkness stripped away his sight, the noise weakened his hearing, his sense of smell seemed to have vanished due to his habituation to spices, and his sense of taste had long been excluded…

Aaron suddenly felt his body was heavy, yet also strangely light.

He tried to struggle.

Unsuccessfully.

His heavy body bound him, like a cage, imprisoning a prisoner trying to escape, rigidly restricting his restless desires.

For some reason, his urge to break free grew stronger.

It felt as if a voice was guiding him from the depths, calling to him, encouraging him.

He rose in his bewilderment, struggling with a strength that seemed to come from nowhere, and then, his body felt light…

He had escaped the prison of his flesh.

Before he could feel joy, a greater sense of dread awaited him.

As he broke free, all sound ceased, everything vanished, leaving only eternal darkness.

In the profound darkness, a solitary point of light flickered.

He knew that was him.

But what about the voice?

Where had the voice that guided, called, and encouraged him gone?

Time lost its opportunity to make a sound before the darkness. Aaron had no idea how to measure time at this moment.

Everything seemed frozen, yet also as if it were still continuing.

Was this still a hallucination?

Aaron vaguely guessed.

But what was this ritual Sart was performing? How could it create such a grand spectacle?

Wait, who is Sart? And what ritual?

He was slightly confused, then suddenly startled!

He didn't remember who Sart was, but he knew that Sart was an absolutely crucial name.

His instincts were sounding an alarm, so he had to remember!

He absolutely had to remember…

Sar… Sar what was it again?

Salami?

That sounds delicious…

His thoughts began to wander uncontrollably, and as he lost focus, the point of light symbolizing his soul continuously dispersed. However, after blooming, it was followed by amplified emptiness, and the light cluster gradually dimmed.

I shouldn't have picked up that coin!

Aaron recalled with great effort, desperately clinging to his only memories.

Wait, that coin?

Aaron froze. As this thought emerged, in this seemingly frozen darkness, he saw a spinning, two-colored coin.

Finally, other colors appeared in the monotonous darkness, and thus everything was about to change.

It was like time flowing backward, countless points of light surged from the darkness, merging back into the cluster of light.

Everything was like a rebirth, and the light cluster shone once more.

"Aaron, remember everything you experience today. Never forget that your surname is Albert."

In a daze, Aaron heard an extremely familiar voice; it was Old Albert's voice.

"Father, I will never forget." It was his voice, or rather, Aaron's voice.

"The glory of the family…"

Aaron's last memory was Old Albert's sigh, after which he felt himself falling.

The darkness below was dispelled, and he saw the scene beneath him.

He saw Alice trying to wake him, having lost his soul, he saw Sart quickly sprinkling Spirit Powder, and he saw Bals, his expression solemn, his metallic prosthetics gleaming faintly.

An invisible force pulled and tugged at him, drawing him back into real-time.

The weightlessness in his soul hadn't completely vanished yet, and he instinctively struggled. The sudden heaviness made him very uncomfortable, almost causing him to lose his balance.

Just like when the Enlightenment Ritual had ended, his mind was a blank slate.

"Starlight Above, all shall be revealed," Sart's voice came through, sounding exceptionally serious.

"Starlight Above, all shall be revealed," another clear voice came through the wall into the room.

A streak of azure light instantly suppressed the darkness in the room. The dull, dark red crystals that had been dim now became vibrant again, and the ethereal flames reignited, making the candlelight in the room flare up.

His wildly flailing arms shrieked as they retracted. The darkness that had filled the room finally coalesced back into a bronze card within the flames, floating silently on the desktop.

Sart wiped the cold sweat from his forehead before turning to the onlookers. "The ritual is complete."

"What happened?" City Lord Bals asked, frowning.

"He made the most crucial mistake possible: he chose to perform a prophecy ritual without first casting a marking ritual," someone said as they pushed the door open and entered, speaking calmly. "Yet, you were the one who received full marks in the ritual class back in the day. I can't believe you'd make such a mistake."

Senpai? Sart is his senpai?

Alice instinctively sized up this person. He had silver hair cut to his ears, a faint green glimmer in his eyes, and a mocking smile on his lips.

He wore a linen robe almost identical to Sart's, with a small tower-like symbol emblazoned on his right chest.

"Siosand, you're here."

Despite being his junior, Sart's attitude wasn't warm at all; there was even a hint of casual distance.

"If this is all the skill you have, senpai, I think I need to inform the teacher. Perhaps he should find someone else," he said with a polite smile, casually glancing at everyone in the room before nodding to City Lord Bals. "Respected City Lord Bals, I am Siosand, a Silver Tier Prophet from the Star Tower."

Sart responded with a cold expression, "I didn't have time to prepare a marking ritual. That would have only given the other party time to prepare their defenses."

"Then you should have waited for me," Siosand replied. "As long as I was there, you would only need to perform the marking ritual. Following the soul imprint, I would have found him directly, and we wouldn't be in this situation."

Facing Siosand's aggressive demeanor, Sart couldn't hold back and scoffed, "With you?"

"Can you really solve this problem alone?"

"You..."

Seeing their tense exchange, Bals couldn't help but clear his throat and ask, "So, what's going on now?"

"That cultist might be a fallen member of the Gold Coin Path. While I was performing the ritual, he sensed my presence and tried to counter-contaminate us," Sart said nonchalantly. "Of course, he didn't succeed, and I didn't fail."

He paused, glancing at Siosand. "He is indeed currently in some sewer in Leyden City."

Thanks to Fantian, Steam Fairy Ball, Nobody Understands Voting Better Than Me, and Book Friend 20201228145555263 for the rewards

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But in reality, I'm craving recommendation tickets and free monthly tickets...

I'll be very happy if you guys can give me your votes~

Also, tomorrow is a recommended slot, a test push...

So there will be an extra chapter tomorrow.

As everyone knows, working 996 to produce a 4k chapter is already the limit...

But the quality will be... TAT

Those who know, know...

If the data doesn't pick up, this book will...

Although I really won't drop it (too many people are holding knives watching me, dropping it would be social death...)

("Ah, you're that pit god who's missing the bottom?")

emmmm

But it's impossible not to be a little disappointed...

How should I put it? The pacing of this book might be unimaginably slow...

I'll try my best to speed things up...

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