"Two ignorant fools!"
Clark Das snorted and went over to the hiking backpack, rummaging through it until he pulled out a sealed glass jar.
The contents made Aaron freeze. "Is that... a placenta?!"
"Hm?"
Clark looked slightly surprised. "You recognized it? That's right. I paid a high price for it from a hospital before I came here."
"For a while, this was all the rage among the kingdom's upper classes. They believed it had remarkable restorative properties and could bring back youth and vitality!"
Aaron nodded. He remembered that in his previous life, dried human placenta had been a famous ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, known as Purple River Cart.
Of course, it was also part of the human body.
Still, it was somewhat easier to accept.
"I'm a Beyonder who follows only the path of Secrecy. I won't cultivate another path as well. This time, I'm only doing this for the Historical Retrospection ritual. Once it succeeds, I won't need to satisfy any need for flesh and blood, because the 'secret history' here will pay the price of power for me..."
Clark stood before the altar, seeming to talk to himself—or perhaps to hypnotize himself.
It was clear he wasn't entirely comfortable with the bloody mess, either. "It's just a steak. A steak... a rare steak..."
Bruce covered his mouth as he watched his mentor begin.
Clark took out candles, essential oils, and incense, and quickly set up a spiritual wall to isolate himself. Then he lit the candles, added the essential oil, and began the ritual.
"I beseech the Keeper of Secrets, the Deity of the Tenth Month!"
"I ask to retrace the history of this region!"
"I solemnly swear here: throughout the long passage of history, I will keep its secrets until death. I do so today,