Chapter 33 Advancement Ceremony

When making the phantom cards, Aiwass was still able to sit in a wheelchair.

But this is not possible when performing advanced rituals.

Fortunately, Aiwass had fed the Shadow Fiend early this morning. Even when he stood up, his body completely connected to his shadow, the awakened Shadow Fiend did not lose control at all.

The shadow under Aiwass's feet squirmed slightly, and occasionally rose slightly to prove that it was still alive and still there.

The shadows that occasionally floated up at that time would remind people of the "fairy air" special effects made with dry ice - but this fairy air was pure black without any other colors.

The evil spirit is lingering.

In fact, the materials and rituals of the advanced rituals are not exactly the same.

Universal rituals themselves are not so rigid. The complexity of many rituals and the difficulty of obtaining materials are actually due to artificial encryption. In essence, it is similar to the cryptic language in alchemical works. The purpose is to prevent people from deciphering the essence of the ritual.

That's why Aiwas can easily create phantom cards.

As a new ritual that was born only three years later, it had not yet gone through the process of repeated encryption, incorrect decryption, and re-encryption, and its original meaning had not been distorted. Therefore, it could be easily replicated by Aiwass, who was only at the first level of the "Basic Ritual".

The advancement ceremony is just the opposite.

The advancement rituals of various schools of inheritance have slight differences in subtle details.

The ritual Aiwass used was a simplified version he had seen in his adoptive father's collection of books. This was a ritual commonly circulated in the Avalon Knight family circle.

The advantage is that it's easy to do, but the disadvantage is that it requires a small piece of white crystal...about the size of a thumbnail, about the thickness of a coin. But since it's inexpensive, it's not a big deal. Aiwass punched a hole in it and strung it onto a string, creating a one-time pendant.

He prepared six types of silver jewelry, including two bracelets, a necklace, two rings and a forehead ring.

Then apply clove essential oil, cinnamon essential oil, cypress essential oil, benzoin essential oil, helichrysum essential oil and chamomile essential oil on them respectively, and place them on the six vertices of the hexagram carved by Aiwass - these six plant essential oils and the hexagram magic circle carved by a sharp silver tool are the most important core of this ceremony, the only irreplaceable part.

Afterwards, Aiwass prepared three foods that he didn't like.

He chose radish, bitter melon, and green pepper. He only symbolically cut a thin slice and placed it in the center of the hexagram.

In this way, the preparations for the ceremony are complete.

Aiwass put on his seminary uniform. Although it was a school uniform, it was also the official uniform of a clergyman.

It had a pure white clerical collar, embossed with two rose-shaped golden thorns at the collar—this ornament even contained real gold. A tan shawl draped over its shoulders and chest, again decorated with golden thorns resembling antlers. The robe fell to mid-thigh. Below that were brown trousers and cloth shoes.

Anyone who sees this attire can tell that this is a pastor of the Nine Pillars Church.

Close the door of the room and wait until the full moon rises above 40 degrees, then the ceremony will officially begin.

"—All nine are complete."

Aiwass murmured.

As he spoke, he lit a stick of dried sage and mugwort mixed together.

He repeatedly seared the tip of the vanilla stick like he was burning a cigar.

And in fact, it can indeed be considered a kind of cigar - just like coffee is considered soy milk in a sense.

Sage is the most commonly used herb for fumigation and burning rituals. Its effects vary depending on the herb it's mixed with. When combined with mugwort, its primary function is to block the influence of other spiritual forces on advanced rituals.

For Aiwass, it is used to suppress the interference of his own transcendent path on the ritual.

"Discard the third..."

Aiwass whispered as he pressed the vanilla stick that was emitting green smoke into the center of the hexagram.

"——Hengwo, 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 Dusk.

This is a necessary process for the full moon ceremony.

No extraordinary person can be smooth-talking. Even the Full Moon Ceremony does not allow for opportunistic behavior.

Before meeting your teammates and enemies, you must declare your three least favorite paths to show your resolve.

During this ceremony, he could not cooperate with his teammates from these three paths. Even if those three paths were all powerful, they could not secretly switch sides.

These three paths were also carefully selected by Aiwass.

Although the Adaptive Dao is good at survival, it will definitely sell out its teammates when necessary. Self-preservation and retreat are the characteristics of the Adaptive Dao.

As for The Path of Dusk and The Path of Love, there are simply too many weirdos in them.

——The so-called path of love is just a nice name.

It is a path related to savagery, bestiality, and impulsiveness, and it pursues the animalistic desires of reproduction and eating.

Who are the people inside?

Old perverts, gourmets, welfare girls, big eaters... they are not serious at all. But they are quite suitable for the modern Internet environment.

The twilight path emphasizes that "the sun will eventually set, and all things will eventually perish." It is a path to fight against death and disappearance, and to pursue eternal life and solidification.

Undertakers, taxidermists, grave keepers, and even painters and sculptors who create portraits of the deceased may all practice the Twilight Path. Mummification and wax sculptures are also considered Twilight Path practices, as are the summoning of the dead and the practice of reincarnation.

It is not easy to find excellent teammates on these three paths.

As Aiwass read out the names of the three pillar gods one by one, a gust of wind suddenly blew in the room.

Three pieces of food that Aiwass didn't like suddenly ignited with flames of three colors.

They are black, emerald green and amber.

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

But the strange thing was—even though there was a strange whirlwind in the room, swirling around Aiwass, the smoke from the vanilla sticks igniting the three foods shot straight up, converging into a stream only as thick as a wrist, reaching the white crystal pendant hanging below the chandelier.

Then, Aiwas began to circle around the ritual circle, holding a vanilla stick outside the ritual circle, lowering his body and smoking the outer ring of the ritual circle.

"Six, bless me..."

He pointed the vanilla stick at the six silver ornaments in turn, while chanting the names of the remaining six pillar gods:

"Sand Clock. Candle Master. Great Master. Silver Crowned Dragon. Twin Mirrors. Snake Father."

As he clicked one by one, the six silver ornaments gradually turned black.

It wasn't blackened by smoke, but rather like it had come into contact with something poisonous. Or like it had absorbed something harmful from the surrounding air.

The whirlwind in the room suddenly grew stronger - all the lit candles in Aiwas's room were blown out by the wind, but nothing was blown down, not even a piece of light paper.

"I follow the way of the candle."

The next moment, the vanilla stick in Aiwas's hand suddenly exploded.

He let go, dropping it into the center of the hexagram. It crackled repeatedly, and a beautiful plume of pure white smoke rose up, covering the suspended white crystal pendant, already blackened by the previous smoke.

——The ceremony was successful.

Seeing that his "Basic Ritual" had suddenly increased by 20%, Aiwass breathed a sigh of relief and confirmed that the ritual had been successful.

He took down the white crystal pendant hanging from the chandelier and wore it close to his body.

Although he knew that this ritual was simple, it was still the first time for Aiwas to use it to advance.

It was all done in the cloud before, but this time I was able to actually operate it.

When Aiwass put on the pendant, he felt a vague sense of tranquility and sleepiness.

It's not strong and can be resisted with willpower.

It's roughly like feeling sleepy after a full meal, or the same as taking melatonin before going to bed.

But Aiwass didn't resist. Instead, he sat in his wheelchair, closed his eyes, and felt the drag.

Just like slowly sinking into the dark deep sea, he clearly felt that his consciousness was being dragged into a deeper level by some force while he was awake.

"Good evening, Reverend."

Just when Aiwass woke up again, a cold voice with a tone that sounded familiar to Aiwass sounded.

He opened his eyes and found himself in a pitch-black space. There was no light source, but he could see everything clearly.

He sat in a tall, wide-backed chair. Aiwass was over 1.80 meters tall, but even he couldn't completely fill the chair. When he rested his elbow on one armrest, his free arm couldn't reach the other.

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

Nine chairs formed a circle, and in the center was a giant stone hourglass statue, about five or six meters tall, like the giant ornaments in shopping malls.

Aiwass found himself the fourth to arrive.

Before him, three other people had already arrived.

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

The third one looked a little shabby - he wore a fully enclosed knight's helmet on his head, but wore a shirt and sweater that was convenient for movement.

Although Aiwass couldn't see their faces clearly, just like he couldn't see the faces of passersby in a dream, he could immediately realize that the second one must be Sherlock!

Because his accent is so iconic, and the look is completely unpretentious.

It's as if to say - yes, I am Sherlock Hermes.

Aiwass's clothes are the cover! It was drawn by the book's marketing officer, Can Can!

(End of this chapter)