Chapter 421: Sacrificial Ceremony

Three days later, on the Moon Festival, Xia Duo gave all the residents a day off. During the day, residents who had been assigned houses invited others to their homes as guests. Although conditions were still relatively difficult, it did not hinder them from finding joy in their hardships; a strip of dried fresh meat was the best hospitality they could offer their guests.

At the same time, Xia Duo was also discussing the evening's sacrificial ceremony with Laidun and Mote. Both of them were novices; although they had learned the corresponding knowledge while at the Temple, they appeared flustered when it came time for them to preside over it personally.

And what made them even more flustered was Xia Duo.

While he had the intention to change customs and habits, and subtle influence was the norm, Xia Duo had his own persistence regarding key nodes.

"In addition to sacrificing to the dead, the ceremony must also sacrifice to the moon. I have already prepared the offerings!"

Laidun naturally did not dare to object, but Mote raised an objection, "But my lord, doing this will destroy the integrity of the ceremony, and the blessing effect will be reduced."

"Do not worry about any blessing effect; what I need is the ceremony itself, do you understand?"

This time, compared to the substance, Xia Duo abandoned it without hesitation. In fact, the form of the ceremony itself was the true substance to him.

The so-called sacrificial ceremony was nothing more than eliminating negative energy, increasing positive energy, and providing protection from holy power, but these things could actually be done on ordinary days as well.

But the Moon Festival did not happen every day, and he had also made quite a few preparations in advance for this day.

After several discussions, Xia Duo finally persuaded Mote. The three of them reorganized the ceremony process, and while Mote and Laidun were conducting a rehearsal of the ceremony, Xia Duo went to the cemetery alone. He also wanted to rehearse once to avoid mistakes in the evening.

What he was going to rehearse was not the ceremony, but just a spell, or rather, a large-scale illusion.

The difficulty of the spellcasting itself was not very high; the difficulty lay outside the spell, as it required the illusion to fit perfectly with the real scene. This actually tested the spellcaster's artistic ability.

It was like wanting to make a realistic illusion, but ending up with a cartoon; it was self-evident that it certainly wouldn't be able to fool anyone.

Currently, Xia Duo had not yet mastered mind-related spells. The illusions he could provide were only at the audiovisual level and could not penetrate the mind. Therefore, this illusion actually required all those affected to be unable to spot any flaws simultaneously.

This was difficult.

Fortunately, magic existed in this world. As long as it wasn't too exaggerated to the point of causing their worldview to collapse directly, ordinary people's acceptance of counter-intuitive phenomena was still quite high.

Regarding this illusion, even if it were regarded as magic by the residents, Xia Duo could accept it. After all, his original intention was just to create a concept.

It was just that compared to it being caused by the lord's spellcasting, it would appear more natural if discovered by the residents themselves.

After rehearsing twice, Xia Duo felt there shouldn't be much of a problem, though it was still a bit strange to rehearse the evening's illusion scene during the day.

Soon, the daytime passed, and the round full moon quietly arrived in the middle of the sky without anyone knowing when.

The residents of Daxia Territory, led by the heads of their respective working groups, arrived outside the cemetery. The cemetery had only been built for a short time, and there were not many graves inside. There was plenty of open space, more than enough to accommodate several hundred people.

In the future, when there were more graves, perhaps only those with a certain status would be able to enter.

Laidun, as one of the presiding officers of the ceremony, appeared first. Although he did not have the Priest's vestments, surrounded by holy light, he appeared very dignified and sacred. Following him was Mote, who was also surrounded by holy light, but death holy power was not as sacred and dazzling as radiant holy power; dimness and mystery were its true colors.

As for Xia Duo, as the lord, he naturally did not need to preside over it personally. As long as he was present, he would inevitably be the focus of the entire scene.

At this moment, he stood to the side of the ceremonial site, watching quietly. Before tonight, other than watching two rehearsals, he had not looked at it any more. There was still a certain difference between a rehearsal and the actual event; the biggest difference was that the rehearsal had no holy power involved and was mostly just a rehearsal of the process and form.

Xia Duo had never openly asked Laidun or Mote for holy power to conduct research, but every time he had the opportunity to witness holy power, he would observe it intently, trying to discover the mysteries of holy power from it.

Right now, as the ceremony was about to begin, Xia Duo was even more focused.

"Lord of All Things, Lord of Order, Guide of Holy Spirits, sweep away the haze."

Laidun only recited two prayers and dispersed the sacred radiance before giving way to Mote. At this time, bonfires were lit only at the four corners of the cemetery and at the ceremonial site. Laidun's holy power seemed to have averaged out the light within the cemetery; although it was still slightly dim, combined with the bright moonlight, it was already comparable to dusk.

However, as soon as Mote appeared and took over the ceremony, the light remained like dusk, but in the personal perception of everyone present, it suddenly became much darker, as if even the moonlight overhead had dimmed significantly.

Mote did not recite any Proverbs or prayers; he just walked around the cemetery, dispersing holy power everywhere, especially among those few new graves.

And in Xia Duo's field of vision, a peaceful and calm aura dispersed, shrouding the entire cemetery, making people feel calm, as if they were no longer afraid of death itself, and even had a faint feeling of joy because of death.

"Truly worthy of being the Lord of the End of All Things!"

Xia Duo watched quietly. The change in the aura caused by the death holy power was only the appearance, which was the easiest for people to perceive. But in a deeper essence, Xia Duo saw that the Magic Net here had also undergone some subtle changes, becoming somewhat sluggish.

This was not an illusion. When he tried to cast a spell, he clearly felt an extremely weak resistance. Any spell related to positive and negative energy was restricted, which affected almost all spells, because positive and negative energy were not just positive and negative energy themselves, but also involved the positive and negative tendencies of other elements.

Any spell was more or less related to positive and negative energy. Even for evocation spells, positive and negative energy were needed in the guidance and shaping of energy; otherwise, it would not be a spell, but pure elemental energy.

In addition, Xia Duo noticed that this influence of holy power on the Magic Net was not constant. As the holy power dissipated and faded, the Magic Net also recovered. Or rather, divine spellcasters could also use holy power to cast the exact same spells as arcane spellcasters.

Of course, this required the divine spellcaster to have the same level of magical attainment as the arcane spellcaster.

Then what about the reverse? Xia Duo thought of arcane energy, but arcane energy was just a pure form of energy, unlike holy power which was a force with specific attributes, but relative imitation might be feasible.

At the same time, Xia Duo also thought of a saying circulating in Netheril—gods are just more powerful Arcanists! Of course, this was not the mainstream view, but to some extent, it also reflected an ambition of Arcanists—to become beings equal to gods.

Perhaps arcane energy was a type of power created to benchmark against holy power.

For a moment, Xia Duo's heart was a little chaotic, and he became even more eager to become an Arcanist.

(End of chapter)