It hurt!
It hurt so much!
His head hurt so much!
Even though the wound on his head had completely healed, leaving only a faint mark, Zhou Mingrui still felt a dull ache whenever he recalled what had happened early that morning.
This truly mind-blowing way of transmigrating had certainly opened his eyes. Fortunately, what seemed to be a perk of transmigration had repaired that trifling fatal injury. Otherwise, he would probably have dropped dead on the spot, with no chance to stand here preparing the Luck Enhancement Ritual.
Once the tenants on the second floor had all left, Zhou Mingrui did not rush into the ritual. First, he translated phrases such as "Immortal Venerable of Heaven and Earth for Blessings" from the Luck Enhancement Ritual into Ancient Feysac Script and Loenese. Then he took four loaves of rye bread out of a paper bag and placed them in the four corners of the room.
"I wonder whether this bread will still be edible after the Luck Enhancement Ritual." He frowned slightly, instinctively beginning to consider the question. After all, some people claimed that food used as an offering would become tasteless as wax and inedible. Who knew whether the ritual would do the same?
Four loaves of rye bread, weighing two pounds, cost a full two and a quarter pence. And that was only because the Grain Act had been repealed. A couple of days earlier, they would have cost another halfpenny, and two months ago, another penny and a half...
Zhou Mingrui took a deep breath and decided not to think about any of that for now. Even if the bread became tasteless as wax, it should still fill his stomach, right? He went to the center of the room and spent a few minutes calming himself. Only then did he solemnly begin walking counterclockwise in a square.
He took four steps, recited the honorific names, and returned to his starting position. Zhou Mingrui closed his eyes and waited for the result. If this Luck Enhancement Ritual really had brought him here, he hoped it could send him back as well.
Mother's surgery is tomorrow. I wonder how it will turn out. Please don't let my transmigration affect the outcome.
Roselle seems to have been a transmigrator who came before me. Did his story really end in assassination? Could he have... made it back?
And Lin Chuan-could that guy really be a transmigrator? He swore he was going off to seek immortals and pursue the Dao. Could the world I came from actually have hidden depths? Surely the Classic of Mountains and Seas wasn't nonfiction.
The darkness before his eyes was tinged with the crimson of filtering light, while thoughts surged through Zhou Mingrui's mind, refusing to settle.
Just then, he suddenly felt as though the air around him had stopped moving, turning viscous and strange. A jumble of overlapping murmurs rose beside his ears, only to recede when he could no longer bear them.
When he opened his eyes again, Zhou Mingrui was stunned to discover that he was floating at the edge of an endless expanse of gray fog. The fog spread out, hazy and indistinct, boundless yet flowing like water, with crimson "stars" scattered throughout it.
"What's going on?" he wondered.
"Should I try touching one?" he asked, curious.
"I can't just stay stuck here. Might as well give it a try..." He reached out his hand.
Two "stars" blazed with light. Crimson waves erupted simultaneously inside a villa in Backlund's Empress Borough and aboard a three-masted sailing ship caught in a storm on the Sonia Sea, engulfing their surroundings.
Zhou Mingrui felt his mind go blank and his concentration scatter, as though he had been completely drained.
Meanwhile, Above the Gray Fog.
A brilliant door of light, stained with traces of bluish black, stood atop condensed gray clouds. Thin black threads hung down from it, suspending one nearly transparent "cocoon" after another.
Those "cocoons" each contained a different soul, representing every race. Three had already broken open and hung empty, swaying in the wind. As the gray fog repeatedly churned, shifted, and stirred, a young man wearing black-framed glasses quietly opened his eyes inside another "cocoon."
"Your Excellency, have you finished your experiment? Can you let us go back?"
Audrey Hall looked apprehensively at the mysterious man shrouded in grayish-white fog and ventured the question. Alger, meanwhile, had kept himself silent after instinctively asking a question at the very beginning, merely watching everything unfold.
She heard the man chuckle softly before replying in a calm, easygoing tone, "Of course. If you formally request it, I can send you back right now."
Hearing no malice in his voice, Audrey sighed in relief and settled down a little. With his promise that she could leave at any time, she was no longer in a hurry to ask to go. Instead, she put her earlier fear and unease behind her and spoke with eager anticipation:
"This is such a wonderful experience... Um, I've always hoped for something like this. I mean, I like mysteries and miracles that transcend nature. No, what I'm trying to say, what I mean is, Your Excellency, what must I do to become a Beyonder?"
Before Audrey received an answer, she saw the gray fog suddenly churn, startling both her and Alger. In an instant, towering stone pillars appeared around them, and a vast dome covered the space overhead.
The entire structure was magnificent, grand, and imposing, like the royal hall of giants from legend. Directly beneath the dome, amid the clustered gray fog, a Bronze Long Table appeared. Ten high-backed chairs lined each side, with matching seats at either end. Brilliant glimmers and muted crimson light traced strange constellations on the backs of the chairs, none corresponding to those of the real world.
The two of them were seated opposite each other, in the seats closest to the head of the table.
"How incredible..."
The girl looked from side to side and marveled sincerely. Alger felt the same. After surveying the palace, he was about to answer Audrey's earlier question on the mysterious man's behalf. It would serve as a natural way to probe the situation while also demonstrating his own value. Although someone of the mysterious man's lofty standing could not possibly be ignorant of such common knowledge, it was still better than saying nothing.
Just then, someone spoke:
"It certainly is incredible, isn't it?"
The unexpected voice carried a hint of pleasure, and its owner seemed to be in a very good mood. He broke the brief silence within the palace.
Audrey instinctively wanted to agree. Everything that had happened today was nothing short of a miracle: bringing people straight here from Backlund, then conjuring such a magnificent palace in an instant... How wonderful, how inconceivable. But she quickly realized something, and the words she had been about to say caught in her throat. She froze where she sat.
Wait! That voice didn't come from the mysterious man wrapped in gray fog, nor from the silent gentleman opposite me. Is there a fourth person here?
Audrey turned toward the voice and saw a young man with a somewhat thin face and black-framed glasses emerge from the gray fog beside the long table. He tilted his head slightly, surveying the surrounding stone pillars, then walked forward with easy familiarity, pulled out the seventh bronze high-backed chair on the left, and sat down.
Before you continue