Chapter 72

They? Lu Mian was very surprised to hear Raymond's answer.

He had originally thought Raymond had "voluntarily" drowned in the river and become a sacrifice for some existence, but now it seemed there was human involvement, not just an invisible force dragging Raymond into the water.

"Who are they?" Aurora asked this question.

Raymond's expression was twisted and rigid, his eyes filled with both hatred and dullness. He shouted with extreme anger:

"Ponce Bene, it was Ponce Bene and his men!

"They held me down in the water!"

After we left the water with Ava, Ponce Bene and those thugs appeared where Raymond had come ashore, held him down in the river, and drowned him alive to become a sacrifice? Lu Mian reconstructed the situation back then based on Raymond's fragmented words.

The entire Lent festival had completely turned into a ritual of sacrifice to evil things!

Aurora inquired further about the details, but Raymond kept repeating those few sentences; it seemed this was his entire memory.

*Sigh*, sure enough, the best time for spirit mediumship had been missed; only residual obsessions could be harvested... Aurora thought for a moment, intending to ask about something Raymond might have a deep impression of, or might not:

"Did they sacrifice you to some existence?

"What are its characteristics, and where is it?"

Aurora was smarter this time; she didn't ask for the full honorific name directly, intending only to collect some side information to assist in her judgment.

She believed that during the process of Raymond being sacrificed, if his spirit still had consciousness, it would definitely have "seen," "heard," and felt certain things, leaving a sufficiently deep impression; otherwise, it wouldn't.

Raymond froze there, the transparent tears at the corners of his eyes becoming increasingly blood-stained.

Lu Mian looked at him with a grim face, his hands already clenched tight without him realizing it.

Suddenly, Raymond screamed:

"Underground! Under the church!"

What? Aurora almost doubted her own ears.

Combined with her question, Raymond was clearly saying that the hidden existence he had been offered to as a sacrifice was located under the church!

That's impossible, right? It's the Fifth Era; how could a god walk upon the earth? Aurora steadied herself, thinking that Raymond's spirit only had partial obsessions and a sliver of spirituality left, making his answers to questions very chaotic, always fixated on those few points. In other words, he might not be pointing out that *that* existence was hidden under the church; it was just a stress response.

But regardless, whether Raymond was giving a truthful answer or repeating his own obsession, there was definitely a problem under the church, hiding the key part of the sacrificial ritual!

Aurora only hoped that the secret hidden there wouldn't be too terrifying or too exaggerated.

She asked about other things, but Raymond's spirit only repeated answers like "They drowned me," "Ponce Bene," and "Under the church."

Seeing that there would be no other gains, Aurora ended the spirit mediumship, watching Raymond's figure disappear above the candlelight and the deep blue color on the altar fade away rapidly.

After she dispelled the Wall of Spirituality, she found Lu Mian standing there in a daze, not saying a word.

"What are you thinking about?" Aurora waved her hand in front of her brother's eyes.

Lu Mian pulled at the corners of his mouth, struggling to squeeze out a smile:

"I'm regretting not using more force when I beat up Ponce Bene yesterday."

Although he had given Ponce Bene a knee to the gut, causing the other party great pain, considering he had to wait for the Twelfth Night, he had rationally held back his strength to avoid escalating the conflict with the parish priest and the others, not directly turning Ponce Bene into a cripple.

"There will be opportunities," Aurora comforted him.

Lu Mian nodded and let out a "Heh":

"Actually, we fell into a misunderstanding. Before Lent, not only were we afraid of escalating the conflict, but the parish priest and the others were too. They weren't ready yet and hadn't started the ritual."

In other words, if he really had caused Ponce Bene some irreversible injury, the parish priest and the others would likely only have put on a show of wanting revenge without taking any real action.

They would endure until Lent, and regardless of whether Lu Mian had offended them or not, once the Lent festival "started," everyone in the village who was still normal would be their target.

Aurora understood what Lu Mian meant and nodded gently:

"Decide for yourself how to take revenge on Ponce Bene.

"The problem we need to consider now is, once Lent arrives and the parish priest and the others gain powerful strength, how we should survive and live until the Twelfth Night."

Lu Mian immediately fell into thought over this question.

Aurora shared her own thoughts:

"Looking at it now, there are only two choices: one is to join forces with those three outsiders, and the other is to find a way to improve ourselves."

She hesitated for a moment and added:

"If we can confirm that Lady Pualis has nothing to do with the cycle and is also trapped here, we could even cooperate with her appropriately."

"Huh?" Lu Mian was stunned.

Lady Pualis was such a terrifying and evil Beyonder!

Aurora sighed and said:

"A philosopher from my hometown once said that when doing things, one must distinguish between the principal contradiction and the secondary contradiction, and unite all forces that can be united.

"Mm, there is definitely a problem under the church, hiding key clues. Before Lent, we must explore it; after that, I'm afraid there won't be any opportunity."

As far as Aurora knew, most churches in this world had underground areas, some used to store sealed artifacts, others to bury the remains of important figures. Although the church in Kordu Village had neither sealed artifacts nor important figures needing burial, it had still been equipped with a fairly large basement according to regulations when it was built.

"Alright," Lu Mian agreed. "I'll discuss it with those three outsiders tomorrow."

He turned to mention Raymond's state:

"Why could he only say those few sentences? Didn't we successfully summon his spirit?"

Aurora sighed once more:

"There is a critical time point for spirit mediumship: within one hour after death.

"After one hour, the spirit of the deceased dissipates rapidly, no longer possessing its original memories, leaving only some thoughts, emotions, and images they couldn't let go of. In the professional terminology of my hometown, that is, obsession."

Lu Mian nodded slightly upon hearing this:

"Next cycle, if we summon Raymond right at the beginning, does that count as within one hour of death?

"No, wait, why would Raymond have memories of the cycle before last?"

Only then did he discover the problem: after the cycle restarted, shouldn't Raymond have forgotten about being drowned?

This stumped Aurora. Combining it with her reflections during the ritual, she deliberated and said:

"I think it counts.

"At this time point, Lent hasn't arrived yet. According to the world line, Raymond hasn't been drowned yet at this moment, so he shouldn't know who the murderer is. But because he lost his body, he can only exist in the state of a spirit, which is equivalent to being dead, so he has residual obsessions. Therefore, the him we just summoned remembers certain things that happened in the cycle before last.

"Simply put, Raymond's state became special due to the loss of his body, to the extent that he retains certain memories when the cycle restarts!

"Heh, this is a bug."

The cycle produced a small error because Raymond's body was sacrificed? Lu Mian roughly understood his sister's meaning.

Aurora then smiled:

"Looking at it this way, the force making us cycle is very mechanical and rigid. It shouldn't be under the control of its original owner anymore and is in a state of self-operation; otherwise, it could have handled Raymond's spirit in a targeted manner."

Speaking of this, she seemed to relax a little:

"Haha, if that's the case, we still have a certain hope of breaking the cycle."

Infected by his sister's mood, Lu Mian's gloomy state brightened somewhat:

After so much effort, he finally saw a glimmer of hope.

The two worked together to tidy up the altar and went up to the study on the second floor, where Aurora taught him the corresponding Hermes and Ancient Hermes words, one by one, following the chaotic and incorrect ritual sequence Lu Mian had written down from memory.

Some of these were things Lu Mian had already mastered, so his progress was quite good.

Under the bright light of the electric desk lamp, Aurora would occasionally explain the pronunciation and structure of the words to her brother, and at other times, while he was consolidating his review, she would use musk, cloves, blood, and other materials to make the candles needed next.

While studying diligently, Lu Mian would occasionally look up at his sister busy beside him, having a feeling of returning to their original warm life, with no more cycles and no more evil gods.

The night outside the window was tranquil.

…………

In the bedroom filled with a faint gray mist, Lu Mian woke up.

He flipped out of bed, walked to the table, took out paper and pen, and wrote down the Ancient Hermes and Hermes words he still remembered in the incorrect order, only giving them the correct numbering at the very end.

After finishing this, Lu Mian let out a breath and surveyed the front.

Near the window on the wooden table were four things: first, the two gray-white musk candles Aurora had made (one with Lu Mian's blood, one without); second, the bottle of gray ambergris perfume; third, the small metal bottle containing tulip powder; and fourth, the silver dagger Aurora had provided.

That lady really did send them in for me... Seeing this scene, Lu Mian's heart immediately settled quite a bit.

Carrying these items, he dug out some incense Aurora had made herself, went down to the first floor, placed them on the dining table, and then went to the kitchen area to get a glass of water and a saucer of coarse salt.

The materials related to the ritual were now ready.

Before going to sleep, Aurora had been worried that her brother didn't have the symbols corresponding to the gift, unable to draw them on imitation parchment and burn them to inform the target deity of his desires. But thinking about it, since that mysterious lady hadn't mentioned it, it probably wasn't needed. After all, he was essentially praying to the power within Lu Mian's body, which could "hear" the entire prayer language directly without needing additional "documents."

Looking at the items on the dining table, Lu Mian took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

He no longer hesitated, placing the gray-white candle with his blood at the position representing the deity at the top of the altar, while placing the other one in front of himself.

After lighting the candles using the method of rubbing spirituality, following the order of deity first and human second, Lu Mian sanctified the ritual silver dagger not-so-skillfully and created a Wall of Spirituality.

As spirituality gushed from the tip of the ritual silver dagger, connecting with the surrounding air, he inexplicably felt that *this* was what mysticism was.

Soon, the Wall of Spirituality was complete, and a small half of Lu Mian's spirituality had been drained.

With the help of the incense found in the house and his own meditation, he made his senses ethereal, entering a state where he could perform ritual magic.

Amidst a *zzt* sound, Lu Mian "dripped" the gray ambergris perfume and tulip powder into the candle representing the deity, respectively.

A strange fragrance permeated the air, and everything seemed to become magical.

Lu Mian glanced at the cheat sheet placed beside the altar, took a step back, looked at the burning candle, and shouted in a deep voice in Ancient Hermes:

"Power of Fate!"

PS: Seeking monthly votes~

(End of chapter)