When the plot-skips players into the game world

Fortunately, Aiwass had fed the Shadow Demon enough that morning. Even when he stood up and was fully linked with his own shadow, the Shadow Demon that awoke didn't lose control at all.

The shadow under Aiwass's feet wriggled slightly, occasionally lifting a bit to show that it was still alive, still present.

The shadow that occasionally floated up reminded one of the "Aura of Immortality" special effect created from dry ice—except this aura was of a pure black, without any other colors.

It was really more like an aura of dark magic.

In actuality, the materials and process of the advanced ritual were not entirely consistent.

The general ritual itself was not that rigid; much of a ritual's complexity, and the difficulty in obtaining the materials, actually came from deliberate obfuscation. Essentially, this obfuscation was similar to the coded language found in alchemical texts. The purpose was to prevent the essence of the ritual from being deciphered.

That is why Aiwass was able to create the Phantom Card effortlessly.

As a ritual that would only come into existence three years later, it had not yet gone through the process of repeated encoding, misinterpretation, and re-encoding, so its essential meaning had not been distorted. This allowed Aiwass, with only a level 1 in Basic Ritual, to replicate it easily.

The advanced ritual, on the other hand, was just the opposite.

The advanced rituals of various heritages had slight differences among them.

The ritual Aiwass used was a simplified version he had seen in his foster father's library, a rite widely circulated among the Avalon Knight Families—

The advantage was that it wasn't too troublesome; the downside was that it required the consumption of a small piece of white crystal... about the size of a thumbnail nail, as thin as a coin. But since the crystal itself was not expensive, it was a minor issue. Aiwass had drilled a hole in it and strung it on a cord to make a disposable pendant.

He had prepared six silver ornaments: two bracelets, a necklace, two rings, and a tiara.

Then, he coated them with Clove Essential Oil, Cinnamon Essential Oil, Cypress Essential Oil, Parthia Essential Oil, Everlasting Flower Essential Oil, and Chamomile Essential Oil, placing each at the six points of the six-pointed star he had carved out—these six plant oils, combined with the silver six-pointed star Array carved out with a sharp tool, were the core of the ritual, the irreplaceable parts.

Afterward, Aiwass prepared three kinds of food that he disliked.

He chose radishes, bitter melon, and green pepper. He cut a thin slice of each symbolically and placed them in the center of the six-pointed star.

With that, the pre-ritual preparations were complete.

Aiwass dressed in the school uniform from Theological Seminary. Although it was a school uniform, it also served as formal priest attire.

It featured a Pure White priest collar with two embossed rose patterns adorned with golden thorns at the neckline—these ornaments even contained real gold. His shoulders and chest were adorned with brown drapes, again decorated with antler-like golden thorns. The robe reached down past his thighs. Below that were brown trousers and cloth shoes.

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Anyone at a glance could tell that this was a priest from the Nine Pillars Divine Church.

He closed the door tightly, waiting until the full moon rose above forty degrees. It was then time for the ritual to officially begin.

"—The Nine are complete."

Aiwass chanted softly.

As he spoke, he lit a bundle of dry sage mixed with mugwort, bound into a herbal stick.

Like toasting a cigar, he repeatedly seared the tip of the herbal stick.

In fact, it could be considered a kind of cigar—just as coffee could be regarded as a sort of soy milk in a certain sense.

Sage is the most commonly used herb for smudging and sacrificial burning, having different effects when mixed with various herbs. Combined with mugwort, its primary purpose was to block the influence of other Paths' power on the advancement ritual.

In Aiwass's case, it was to suppress the interference of his own Transcendence Path on the ritual.

"Forsake the three..."

Aiwass murmured, pressing the smoldering herbal stick into the center of the six-pointed star.

"—Eternal Self, Lord of Scalefeather, Amber."

These three names were the names of the gods of the Path of Love, the Path of Adaptation, and the Path of Dusk respectively.

This was a necessary part of the full moon ritual.

No Transcendent could be all things to all people. Even the full moon ritual would not tolerate opportunism.

One had to declare the three Paths they liked the least before seeing their allies and enemies, signaling their resolve.

In this ritual, he could not collaborate with allies from these three Paths. Even if they were all powerful, he could not covertly switch allegiances.

These three Paths were carefully selected by Aiwass.

The Path of Adaptation, although adept at survival, would surely betray a teammate at a critical moment, exemplifying its penchant for self-preservation and flight.

And the Path of Dusk and the Path of Love simply had too many eccentrics.

—The so-called Path of Love was nothing more than a euphemism.

It related to barbarism, bestiality, impulse, venerating the basic animal desires of reproduction and feeding.

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What kind of people are inside?

Lustful critics, gourmets, welfare princesses, big eaters... None of them seem serious. But they are quite suitable for the modern internet environment.

And the Path of Dusk speaks of "The Sun will eventually set, all things will eventually perish," which is the path of resisting death and disappearance, and pursuing immortality and permanence.

Morticians, specimen artisans, gravekeepers, including painters and sculptors who create portraits and statues of the deceased, might all believe in the Path of Dusk. Making mummies and wax figures are also skills of the Path of Dusk, as well as summoning the undead and reincarnation.

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

As Aiwass read the names of these three Pillar Gods in succession, a gust of wind suddenly rose in the room.

On top of the three pieces of food that Aiwass didn't like, suddenly flames of three different colors ignited.

They were black, emerald, and amber respectively.

They quickly burnt to ashes in the fire, turning into a stream of black smoke.

But what's odd is—despite the strange whirlwind in the room, swirling around Aiwass continuously, the green smoke that wafted up after the herb stick ignited the three foods rose straight up, converging into a wisp of smoke as thick as a wrist, directly reaching the white crystal pendant hanging below the chandelier above.

Following that, Aiwass began to circle the Ritual Array with the herb stick in hand, outside the array, bending over in circles, fumigating the outer ring of the Ritual Array.

"Six guide me…"

He pointed the herb stick towards the six silver ornaments, chanting the names of the remaining six Pillar Gods:

"Hourglass. Candle Master. Great Sage. Silver-Crowned Dragon. Gemini Mirror. Serpent Father."

As he pointed to them in turn, the six silver ornaments gradually turned black.

Not as if they were soiled, but as if they had touched some poison. It was as if they were extracting something harmful from the surrounding air.

And the whirlwind in the room suddenly intensified—every lit candle in Aiwass's room was extinguished by the wind, yet nothing was blown down, not even a piece of light paper.

"I pursue the path of the Candle Master."

The next moment, the herb stick in Aiwass's hand suddenly burst.

He let go, tossing it into the very center of the hexagram. It crackled loudly, emitting a beautiful stream of pure white smoke. Once more, it covered the white crystal pendant hanging above, which was already blackened by the previous smoke.

—The ritual was a success.

Seeing that his "Basic Ritual" progress suddenly increased by 20%, Aiwass finally let out a sigh of relief, confirming 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 the ritual was simple, it was Aiwass's first time advancing through a ritual.

All the previous ones were in the cloud; this was the first he truly handled.

When Aiwass put on the pendant, he felt a faint sense of tranquility and drowsiness.

Not strong, resisted easily with willpower.

It was roughly like the sleepiness after a full meal, or the effect of taking melatonin before bed.

But Aiwass didn't resist, and instead, he sat in his wheelchair. He closed his eyes to sense that dragging sensation.

It was like slowly sinking into the dark depths of the sea, his consciousness clearly being dragged into a deeper layer by some force while he was still awake.

"Good evening, Priest."

As Aiwass awoke once more, a familiar cold voice rang out.

He opened his eyes and found himself in a pitch-black space. Even though there was no source of light here, he could see everything clearly.

He was seated in a large, broad armchair. Aiwass was over one meter eighty tall, but even he couldn't fully fill this chair. When he rested his elbow on one armrest, his other arm couldn't reach the other side.

Looking up, he found there were eight more chairs like his.

Nine chairs were arranged in a circle, and at the very center was a huge stone hourglass statue. It was about five or six meters tall, like those large ornaments found in shopping malls.

Aiwass realized he was the fourth to arrive.

Before him, three others were already present.

The four of them sat side by side. The first was an old man with a bowed head, holding onto a walking stick. The second was a young man wearing a brown double-breasted overcoat and a top hat.

The third was dressed rather awkwardly—a fully enclosed knight's helmet on his head, yet wearing a shirt and sweater for easier movement.

Even though Aiwass couldn't see their faces clearly, as one cannot recognize faces in a dream, he could immediately tell that the second one must be Sherlock!

Because his accent was so distinctive, and the outfit was without any disguise.

It was as if he was saying—yes, I am Sherlock Hermes.

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