Chapter 48

Regarding Aurora's words, Lu Mian had a deep understanding.

When he was still wandering, he understood that one should not underestimate anyone. Some adult vagrants suffered a great loss precisely because they looked down on him, a child, thinking he was weak. And some donors, clearly having good intentions by providing food, forgot to consider the physical state of the vagrants who had been hungry for a long time, leading to doing the wrong thing.

Lu Mian thought seriously for a while and said:

"Looking at it this way, a description that can relatively accurately summon the desired creature is very precious."

"Yes." Aurora nodded with deep feeling, "Notes that record corresponding summoning incantations are very valuable. Every incantation, every segment of description, and every note on them is exchanged for life, blood, or pain. The simplest example: the three-segment description when I summon 'White Paper' is 'Spirit wandering in the void, friendly creature available for driving, fragile sphere that can communicate with my heart.' This last sentence—if you want to try relying on yourself, you don't know how many failures you have to experience before you can piece it together, and every failure means great risk."

Fragile sphere that can communicate with my heart? Is this a description a normal person can think of, especially the two words fragile and sphere... Lu Mian asked while slandering in his heart:

"So, you bought this from someone else's hands?"

"No." Aurora shook her head and said with a somewhat bitter expression, "The 'Seer' pathway is different from others. From time to time, you will be chased by a large amount of knowledge. You can't help but want to know, and you have no way to refuse if you can't bear it. And when taking potions to advance, this situation of 'knowledge chasing people' is even more serious.

"Although most of this knowledge is useless, there will always be some that possess value. The incantation for summoning 'White Paper' is one of them."

"Instilled by the 'Hidden Sage'?" Lu Mian understood his sister's meaning.

Aurora looked at him in surprise:

"You know? The teachings of that lady?"

"Hmm." Lu Mian nodded.

Aurora pursed her lips thoughtfully:

"From my personal experience, 'knowledge chasing people' doesn't come entirely from the instillation of the 'Hidden Sage.' What I call 'tinnitus' is indeed hearing His voice and receiving the knowledge He gave. This always makes me painful, my head is close to exploding, and I wish I could just lose control.

"But occasionally, especially when I'm in a bad state and about to show signs of losing control, there will be a hallucination that the knowledge of the entire world has come alive, a small amount chasing me, running toward me, and I cannot hide. The incantation for summoning 'White Paper' entered my brain actively like this.

"When taking potions, the situation of 'knowledge chasing people' probably comes 99% from the 'Hidden Sage,' and 1% is related to the knowledge that has come alive."

"Very wonderful, and also very horrific, enough to scare everyone in the village." Lu Mian sighed quite objectively while thinking for his sister if there was any way to solve the problem of "knowledge chasing people," or rather, reduce the impact it brought.

Aurora responded with a bitter smile:

"It is precisely because I suffer such torture often that I am unwilling for you to step onto the path of the supernatural, but in the current situation, becoming a Beyonder is indeed better than being an ordinary person."

In order to make her younger brother remember the madness and danger of the path of the supernatural, she pointed to her own head:

"Being chased by knowledge for a long time, accompanied by pain, I feel that my spirit and personality have shown a certain alienation.

"Don't I often tell you that I have social phobia, but in a small number of times, I am particularly talkative, like to go out and chat with the old ladies in the village, tell stories to the children, and occasionally go crazy, borrowing a pony from Madame Pualis to gallop in the mountains, shouting and screaming?"

"Being particularly talkative belongs to a rebound of staying at home for a long time, unable to return to my hometown, and the path of the supernatural being oppressive.

"And the occasional going crazy..."

Speaking of this, Aurora looked at Lu Mian and chuckled:

"You don't think this is just an exaggerated adjective, do you?"

Lu Mian was silent, only feeling that this smile of his sister was self-deprecating, blank, and carried unspeakable pain and struggle.

Aurora then sighed:

"At those times, I don't even recognize myself a little."

"There should be a way to solve it." At this moment, Lu Mian felt his own powerlessness deeply.

"Hope, let's continue." Aurora pointed to the altar, "After signing a contract with the summoned Spirit World creature, it will be simple to summon it later. The last sentence of the description can be changed to 'Contract creature belonging exclusively to Aurora Li.' Very accurate, isn't it? And before the contract is dissolved, others cannot summon it again."

"Can everyone only have one contract creature?" Lu Mian was very concerned about this question.

"That's not the case. I'm not clear about the specific upper limit, but it's definitely more than one, especially for some special sequences. Hmm, when summoning, use so-and-so's first contract creature, second contract creature to distinguish." Aurora told the truth, "In addition, you must also remember that summoning Spirit World creatures will consume your own spirituality. The more you summon, the greater the consumption. With a 'Hunter's' spirituality, I estimate you can bear at most one contract creature."

Knowing her younger brother's personality, she further blocked the loopholes Lu Mian might find:

"After each Spirit World creature is summoned to reality, the time it can stay is limited. The weaker it is, the longer it stays. You don't need to think about summoning one first and then summoning the next one after your spirituality recovers, unless you choose the very weak kind and your spirituality is significantly enhanced compared to now."

She then used "White Paper" as an example:

"If I didn't let 'White Paper' carry my ability, it could stay in reality for twelve hours. If I shared the specialty of my eyes with it and let it do things for me, it could persist for at most three hours, and my own spirituality would also be consumed continuously."

Lu Mian, who originally wanted to build a Spirit World creature army, was very disappointed.

He thought for a moment and turned to ask:

"Can I only summon Spirit World creatures? Can I only summon spirits?"

"No." Aurora shook her head, "You can also summon creatures from other-dimensional spaces attached to the Spirit World, the real world, and the Astral World, such as the Netherworld and the Mirror World, as well as certain creatures from other worlds or alien planets, regardless of whether they are spirits. However, this is very dangerous. Most Beyonders who try to do this die miserably, and a small number disappear mysteriously, leaving only corresponding notes to prove what things they once did."

"Then can I summon something from the real world?" Lu Mian asked curiously.

Aurora thought for a while and said:

"Theoretically, as long as the other party has a close relationship with the Spirit World or has reached a certain level, they should be able to hear the summoning and decide for themselves whether to respond. But such targets are either very special or very powerful. If you still want to live well, absolutely do not experiment.

"Moreover, when the summoning target is not a spirit, the requirements for the corresponding ritual will be higher, more spirituality will be needed, and even a large amount of sacrifice will be needed. Only in this way can the gate of summoning be opened for non-spirit creatures to pass through.

"With a 'Hunter's' spirituality, you are barely able to summon 'White Paper.' If you want to try more powerful ones, you can only pray to a certain deity or hidden existence, and for this, you might have to prepare things full of spirituality to sacrifice."

Lu Mian roughly figured out this kind of ritual magic of summoning. He said to his sister:

"Are you going to chant the incantation next and complete the summoning?"

"How is that possible?" Aurora sneered, "The ritual has been interrupted so many times, how can it continue? Actually, normally speaking, as long as you interrupt according to the process, you can continue from the breakpoint, but I was mainly explaining just now and didn't divide my attention to do the corresponding things."

You must have forgotten... Lu Mian muttered in his heart, not daring to say it out loud.

Aurora immediately added:

"However, I do need to hold a summoning ritual. On one hand, it's to demonstrate the full process to you completely, and on the other hand, it's to ask for help."

"Ask for help?" Lu Mian asked suspiciously.

Summoning a powerful Spirit World creature to help?

Aurora explained:

"Among the countless Spirit World creatures, a very small number can serve as messengers, private messengers. Uh, messengers can be summoned by others based on a special contract.

"For example, if I have a contract messenger, then someone in Trier can summon it, give it the written letter, and it will immediately pass through the Spirit World and deliver the letter to my hands.

"Because of the specialty of the Spirit World and the connection of the contract, it only needs one or two seconds to complete the letter-delivery task."

"Very powerful, as fast as sending a telegram." Lu Mian sighed sincerely.

The thought that turned in his heart was:

I want one too!

"Don't think about it." Aurora saw through his thoughts, "Summoning a messenger is very difficult. Unless you get the accurate incantation directly, it's unlikely to be tried out by relying on yourself, and accurate incantations can only be mastered by a few special sequences. Even your sister doesn't have them."

Lu Mian was disappointed and turned to ask:

"Are you going to summon someone's messenger and write a letter to ask him for help?"

"Hmm." Aurora nodded, "She is one of the few among us who has walked the furthest on the path of the supernatural and has her own messenger. I don't expect her to come to save me, but she should be able to give me some advice."

I'm afraid it's very difficult. That mysterious lady said we can only rely on ourselves... Lu Mian asked curiously:

"Us? Does that refer to those pen pals of yours?"

Aurora nodded first, then asked suspiciously:

"When did I mention pen pals to you?"

"Last time, no, the cycle before last." Lu Mian answered honestly.

"Alright." Aurora covered her forehead, "Actually, that is a mutual aid organization gradually established by those of us who cannot return to our hometowns. We communicate daily through letters, share knowledge, solve problems, and regularly have small-scale gatherings or communicate through messengers and other ways. She is the vice president of our organization and one of the initiators. Her code name is 'Hela'."

"Code name?" Lu Mian was a little puzzled.

Aurora said "Hmm":

"In the organization, everyone uses code names and does not expose their real names. When writing letters, they emphasize that it is a pen name to avoid being discovered by the official authorities."

"What is your code name?" Lu Mian was very curious about this.

Aurora was silent for a while and answered with a hint of sighing:

"'Muggle'."

"What does that mean?" Lu Mian didn't understand.

Aurora answered with slightly dimmed eyes:

"Ordinary people without supernatural abilities."

Lu Mian knew that his sister wanted more to be an ordinary person living in her hometown, so he hurriedly changed the topic:

"What is the name of that organization of yours?"

Aurora's expression became complex:

"Originally, everyone wanted to take a high-class name, but considering that we would write letters daily, too conspicuous names would attract the attention of certain forces, so finally, we decided on a name that looked like animal lovers."

"What is it?" Lu Mian asked.

Aurora answered with a little embarrassment:

"Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society."

PS: I explained ritual magic in detail because the second part will use it a lot. After all, we have to pray to deities for favors and obtain power. This is the new system I mentioned, and things involving Spirit World creatures and contracts will appear very soon in the later parts.

PS2: Thanks to the gaze of Nahida for the Silver Alliance reward.

(End of chapter)