"Mother..."
After running for a while, Lin hid in a cave, wrapped her arms around herself, and began to tremble.
Her nighttime hunts were more like an instinctive hunger. Even though her body had grown, in essence she was still a child who had been forced to mature too soon.
"I'm so scared..."
Lin thought of that night again. As she gazed at the moon, she had inexplicably thought of her mother.
Then strange knowledge had appeared in her mind, accompanied by an intense hunger.
Driven by that hunger, she had gone out at night and attacked members of the Black Sun Cult.
Deep in the little girl's heart, there was also hatred for those cultists.
After all, they had sacrificed her Aunt Xiu!
And in the end, things had turned out this way.
The high priest's terror had made her feel as if she would be killed the moment they met. So without hesitation, she had left a false body to face him and fled after growing up in an instant.
After trembling with fear for a while, Lin began to draw a ritual on the ground.
Although she lacked the candles and essential oils the ritual called for, and her ritual diagram was far from standard, she still began to pray: "I beseech the gods... or any unknowable being wandering through the void. Whoever you are, please... help me!"
"This ritual's diagram is nonstandard, and the prayer contains a grave error... There's no clear recipient. Did that being on the moon never tell Lin its honorific name? Oh... no, that wouldn't do. Lin would be done for if she looked at an entity like that. She only sensed a ray of its radiance... No wonder she set up a ritual like this. Her knowledge is clearly incomplete."
Aaron slowly commented from the sidelines, "This girl's already half-mad, isn't she?"
Suddenly, an echo seemed to ring in his ears.
It was indistinct and faint. Unless he concentrated, he could hardly hear it.
"Unknowable being wandering through the void... please help me..."
Aaron's expression shifted. "I heard that... A prayer? This ritual is directed at me? No... It must be a matter of range. I should've realized sooner!"
His expression brightened with excitement. As expected, there should be no shortage of madmen in this world who performed rituals addressed to unclear recipients. The reason he hadn't received any signals was entirely because he was too weak, and his reception range too limited.
And now, a ritual addressed to an unknown entity was right in front of him!
Aaron could sense a connection forming as he accepted the intention behind the prayer.
He regarded the girl before him from an entirely new perspective.
In his "vision," her entire body was filled with flowing crimson. In terms of mysterious fluctuations, she even surpassed an ordinary Son of Burning!
However, that flowing crimson completely covered the girl's brain and was still trying to seep further inside.
"The connection's established. What can I do?"
Aaron thought for a moment. "Well, I still have one unit of mysterious energy left for today's dream visit... A third can be used for movement, another third for storage, and the last third was meant to strengthen myself. I suppose I can give this a try."
Lin had only prayed on instinct.
She had also wanted to add her mother's honorific name.
But before she could speak, she felt a connection form in the unseen realm.
The world before her seemed to transform into a kaleidoscope of brilliant colors.
Amid countless shards of light, a terrifying gaze looked out at her.
A mere glance was too much for Lin to bear. She collapsed to her knees.
Not only that, cracks appeared one after another across her body, forcing out clumps of bloodied flesh in the shape of not-yet-fully-formed embryos.
"Ugh!"
Lin couldn't take it anymore and began to vomit. Among the vomit were strange, blood-red worms, writhing like fish stranded on dry land.
Her body kept shrinking until she was once again the little girl she had been before. The crimson in her eyes gradually faded.
"I... What have I done?"
Lin murmured to herself, her eyes full of terror.
Hmm? It seems my mysterious energy washed away the contamination and madness in her.
Aaron could still see the crimson in Lin, but it had become utterly pure, no longer writhing with that revolting sensation.
He thought for a moment, then spoke through their connection in a teasing tone: "I purified its gift. I imagine you wouldn't want to start bearing countless offspring at such a young age, either?"
Lin froze. She heard the voice ring directly in her heart, and her whole body trembled. "Y-You... Which entity of the void are you?"
She knew that her ritual had truly summoned an unknowable entity.
At last, the opportunity has come!
Aaron's heart stirred, but he sighed and said, "You may call me the Spirit of Unknown Void, the Absolute Neutral Entity, the Silent Observer!"
It wasn't that he didn't want to say, "I am the Creator Above the Creator, the source of all mysteries."
But after thinking it over, he decided that honorific name sounded like it was asking for trouble. If the beings of the Black Sun noticed him, his current feeble self wouldn't stand a chance of fighting back. So he let it go.
"Lord Spirit of Void, thank you for answering my prayer."
Lin had no idea how astonishing it was for an entity to answer a ritual and even converse with her.
After all, she was just a child, and her knowledge of the occult had been woefully limited.
"You seem to be in trouble..."
Aaron spoke in an extremely calm tone.
"Yes. The Black Sun Cult is hunting me..." Lin lowered her head, her voice full of longing.
"I am absolutely neutral. I won't help you of my own accord, unless... we make a deal!"
Aaron smiled faintly.
He had his eye on the mysterious knowledge Lin possessed.
Controlling flesh and blood was revolting, but at least it could enrich his learning and collection.
Yes, the miserable truth was that he couldn't even dig into her brain and examine her memories. What a pathetic evil god.
"A deal?"
"Offer a sacrifice that pleases me, and I'll answer your prayer."
Aaron said, "Anything tangible or intangible can be offered as a sacrifice. For example... mysterious knowledge!"
"I... The most precious thing I have is probably what I know about 'Crimson.' I'm willing to offer it to you. Please get me out of danger!"
The moment Lin spoke, Aaron's gaze suddenly pierced through her body and saw a crimson orb of light.
His thoughts brushed against it, and streams of information appeared in his consciousness:
['Crimson' exists in all living things, within their flesh and blood. Its taste is delicious, and its aftertaste lingers...]
[Method for making flesh puppets:...]
[Feast ritual:...]
Taken together, all of it should be enough to form an incomplete Secret Lore of Crimson.
"Not bad!"
Aaron glanced at Lin and saw that the orb of light in her memories hadn't disappeared. Clearly, transmitting the knowledge hadn't cost her anything. She still remembered it all.
"Very good. You have a portion of food, and I have a portion of food. After we exchange them, we'll still have one portion of food each. But you have a piece of knowledge, and I have a piece of knowledge. After exchanging them, we'll both have two pieces of knowledge."
Aaron grumbled to himself, then said, "You can go now. I'll protect you. Remember, don't pray to the being on the moon unless you want to have children..."
Before you continue