Chapter 320: Price

According to the orthodox summoning ritual described in Aurore's witchcraft notes and the mystical knowledge brought by "Contractee," Lu Mian chanted in ancient Hermes in a low voice:

"The 'Fool' that doesn't belong to this era;

"You are the master above the gray fog;

"You are the King of Yellow and Black who holds good luck.

"I pray for your favor;

"Pray for your gaze;

"I!

"I summon in the name of the great 'Fool':

"Strange creature wandering in the Upper Realm, severed hand of a mysterious existence, blue-black swollen throat-crusher."

This was a summoning incantation Lu Mian designed himself based on the data of "Abscessed Severed Hand." Because this ritual would obtain protection from the object of prayer to a certain extent, and "Abscessed Severed Hand" couldn't be called dangerous, he removed descriptions related to "weak" and "friendly," added other sentences, and sought to point precisely to the target creature.

The candle flame, which was already dyed a blue-black color, suddenly expanded and intertwined, forming an illusory door covered with mysterious patterns, while the surroundings had long been filled with thin gray fog, full of unsettling implications.

That door opened slowly, and a blue-black severed hand that had rotted to the point of swelling and pus flew out. It was two sizes larger than Lu Mian's palm, as if it could directly crush a human's head.

This swollen severed hand hovered in front of the mysterious illusory door, five fingers spread, aimed at Lu Mian's neck, but didn't launch an attack.

Lu Mian took out another military flask of a different color, unscrewed the cap, and splashed some strong liquor toward the location of the "Abscessed Severed Hand" in the direction of the altar.

That liquor had already fallen to the ground halfway, but with a flash of light from the golden flower-shaped brooch, the "bribery" was quietly completed.

Only then did Lu Mian open his mouth, his throat and chest cavity resonating, and spat out one by one strange-sounding words.

Those words he had never learned before, all coming from the mystical knowledge brought by "Contractee," which allowed him to directly master the pronunciation and meaning.

They belonged to the "Secret Language of Fate" and were part of this language.

As Lu Mian's voice stirred up airflow, one by one silver-black words like symbols were outlined out of thin air.

They fell one after another on the imitation parchment placed on the altar, forming a short but weird contract.

At the same time the contract was generated, Lu Mian established a subtle connection with the "Abscessed Severed Hand," just like using "Dance of Incitement" to let it possess himself.

Through this, Lu Mian grasped the general abilities and characteristics of the "Abscessed Severed Hand" and sensed its thirst.

The latter was the price Lu Mian needed to pay:

"Find my body, otherwise you will never be able to obtain divinity!"

Actually can advance the reward, the price is owed... Is this "bribery" having a certain effect? No, it's not. Once the contract is signed, I will immediately pay the price, but what I pay is the "fate of becoming a demigod." Once I find the rest of the "Abscessed Severed Hand's" body, the reward will naturally replace the price... Now it's equivalent to paying enough collateral first... Thoughts flashed through Lu Mian's mind, roughly understanding the essence of this contract.

At the same time, he found the "Spirit World traversal" he wanted from the abilities and characteristics of the "Abscessed Severed Hand," including "anti-divination," "hard to destroy," and "can crush the necks of those without divinity."

This was a characteristic of the "Abscessed Severed Hand" itself, not an ability. The effect was a bit worse than Lu Mian expected, but it was also within the range he could accept.

Because "Decent" could only be used for a quarter of an hour, and the price was bearable, and the ability barely met the requirements, Lu Mian didn't waste time summoning backup creatures and made a promise directly in ancient Hermes:

"I will help you find your body. Before that, I cannot obtain divinity."

These words merged with the surrounding environment, turning into strands of blue-black mist, penetrating into that imitation parchment.

The "Abscessed Severed Hand" then fell, leaving yellow-tinged pus with blood in the blank space of the contract.

The contract burned instantly, burning out multiple silver-black symbols and characters.

They were connected end to end, forming an illusory complex pattern, and suddenly shrank into Lu Mian's shoulder.

Although covered by clothes, the situation on his right shoulder naturally appeared in Lu Mian's mind.

There was an extra weird seal-like black thing there.

Lu Mian instinctively believed that as long as he stimulated this contract mark, he could borrow the characteristic of the "Abscessed Severed Hand" to traverse the Spirit World. And unless one of the two died, the contract couldn't be lifted. This was a destined fate.

Unable to care about testing "Spirit World traversal," Lu Mian ended this summoning and began to hold a new ritual:

"..."

"I summon in the name of the great 'Fool':

"Wraith wandering in falsehood, bride who lost her head, source of the clan bloodline curse."

That mysterious illusory door appeared again due to the intertwining of blue-black firelight, and cold wind blew from inside, making the summer night become like a winter night.

Lu Mian saw a figure walk out from behind the illusory door. It was wearing a bright red, festive long dress, with a large number of patterns embroidered with gold thread on the dress.

Undoubtedly, this figure had no head, and strong resentful and painful emotions spread outward like substance.

Lu Mian followed the process just now, "bribed" with liquor, chanted the contract, and sensed the price requested by the "Headless Bride":

"Sacrifice a blood relative or friend."

"Thank you for your hard work." Lu Mian laughed self-deprecatingly and ended this summoning directly.

This ineffective summoning actually gave him a little harvest, which was confirming that "bribery" could produce a certain effect:

The "Headless Bride" should have only requested sacrificing blood relatives, but after being "bribed," the condition was relaxed to friends.

Lu Mian's next target was "Human-Faced Mantis," and the summoning incantation he designed was:

"Wraith wandering in falsehood, hunter shaped like a mantis, human face good at changing."

Amidst the strange sound of swooshing, a huge, semi-transparent cyan mantis crawled out from behind the illusory door.

Its head was topped with a young, handsome, and sunny face, making people subconsciously relax their guard.

Sensing the summoner's existence and gender, the human-faced mantis quickly turned into a beautiful woman wearing a black evening dress.

Lu Mian secretly "heh"ed, went through the complete process of "bribery," chanting, and sensing.

The "Human-Faced Mantis" requested three kinds of "sacrifices," and only one needed to be paid:

"The contractor's reproductive organs; the contractor's lying ability; the contractor's burning at the stake."

After being "bribed," the conditions were relaxed, and there was one or two more choices? This guy actually only wanted one thing, which was "torture of humans"... The first one corresponded to the jealousy of those men. If I were a woman, this choice shouldn't appear... The second one corresponded to slanderers and accusers, and the third one corresponded to the burning at the stake he suffered himself... Lu Mian quickly made a judgment.

As a "Pyromaniac," he felt that the third price was completely fine. On one hand, he himself had strong resistance to flames, and on the other hand, enduring pain was his strong point.

If there wasn't this choice, Lu Mian intended to give up and go back to find a few similar Spirit World creatures to summon. After all, depriving him of lying would significantly weaken him, even making him unable to survive in a place like Trier, and he wasn't sure whether the reproductive organs could come back after being sacrificed by 6 AM, so he didn't want to take the risk.

He quickly found the "Nisse's Face" he wanted from a series of abilities of the "Human-Faced Mantis."

"Nisse" was the name of the human-faced mantis before death. This ability was closer to illusion, not the change of body flesh and bones, but as long as there was no ability to restrain it and it didn't possess divinity, it was impossible to see through the illusion.

This time, the black seal-like thing fell on Lu Mian's left shoulder, accompanied by crimson flames surging from the soles of his feet.

They were unaffected by Lu Mian, ignited his clothes, and roasted his body.

Lu Mian seemed to have returned to the time he fought Susanna Mattis, feeling familiar yet strange pain surging like a tide, trying to drown his mind.

He hurriedly threw all the valuable items on his body to the side and held the "Decent" brooch in his palm.

The burning at the stake lasted for a full three minutes. Lu Mian had no intact skin left, and there were scorch marks left by his clothes on his body surface.

For a "Pyromaniac," such injuries couldn't be counted as fatal, not even serious. He even had the energy to prepare for the next summoning.

"Strange creature wandering in the Upper Realm, meat block with many eyes, participant in deep nightmares."

As the incantation was chanted, a mass of creatures composed of many flesh and blood rolled out from the illusory door, and each piece of flesh and blood grew a white-eyed black-pupil eye.

After being seen by those countless eyes, Lu Mian, who was holding an aluminum-white military flask, suddenly fell down and fell into a deep sleep.

I don't know how long it had been, but he woke up with a start, discovering that the ritual had ended naturally, and the "Thousand-Eyed Evil Thing" had returned to the Spirit World without truly attacking him.

Seeing it would make you fall asleep, completely unable to communicate... And this degree of influence wasn't within the protection of the ritual itself... Lu Mian exhaled, picked up the pocket watch from the Breeze Ballroom that he had thrown to the side, and confirmed the time.

Thank goodness, thank goodness, only slept for a few minutes, there's still about three minutes... Lu Mian gathered his spirit, restarted the ritual, and summoned "Screaming Shadow":

"..."

"Wraith wandering in falsehood, combination of many shadows, creator of coma screams."

The mysterious illusory door opened, but what Lu Mian saw wasn't a weird shadow entangled together, but a blurred shadow wearing fish-scale-like pitch-black armor.

The surface of its scale armor, which was different from all the armor Lu Mian had seen in newspapers and magazines, seemed to lock up micro-wriggling shadows in every scale.

Uh... This is the summoning incantation not being precise enough, bringing in a similar Spirit World creature? It should also have coma screams. Try first to see if a contract can be signed... Lu Mian roughly understood what was going on and began a new round of "bribery," chanting, and sensing.

The sacrifice requested by the armor shadow was:

"Blood sacrifice of more than ten people or 100,000 gold pounds."

Because of "bribery," the condition was relaxed to sacrifice within three months, otherwise he would suffer the backlash of the contract.

That would likely bring loss of control, even death.

100,000 gold pounds... Lu Mian felt that this was barely acceptable, so he looked for coma screams from the abilities and characteristics of the armor shadow.

In the quick browsing, he found a strangely named ability:

"Hum-Ha Technique."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 321 =====