Chapter 1496: The Ritual of the [Spirit Cultivation Sect]

The cat on the second-floor windowsill watching the pigeons spotted Xia De at a glance. Thus, when Xia De opened the door from downstairs, he received a warm welcome from his own cat.

They were eating at home tonight; before the maids left yesterday, they had stocked up on enough food in the kitchen. As for the cooking, it was naturally done by the twin sisters who had come to visit.

In their long lives, they had learned many useful life skills. Compared to the Outlander who could only make simple meals, Helen and Grace's culinary skills were much better.

"A long time ago, I thought about cooking in the kitchen with my sister, and not having to worry about next week, one of us strangling the other, and then waiting alone for another 21 years."

Grace was preparing the final soup in the kitchen, while Helen had taken off her apron and was already sitting beside Xia De.

The gas lamp illuminated the dining room, which was simply decorated but had a very homey atmosphere; the oil painting Hela Osenfort had painted for Xia De hung on the wall behind him. The young girl in the black dress sat beside Xia De, resting her chin on one hand, turning her head to look at her sister in the kitchen.

Xia De was holding Little Mia, who was looking forward to dinner:

"You will have plenty of time to live together in the future, just don't get bored of it."

Helen turned her head to look at him:

"How could we get bored? My sister is me, and I am my sister. Sometimes I even feel that perhaps when God created us, He split one whole into two individuals. We are destined to be together, forever and ever, never to be separated."

"Helen, you'll make me shy saying things like that."

Grace, wearing a white dress and an apron, walked over. To be honest, watching two fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls prepare dinner for him still felt very strange to Xia De. Especially since the two had the same appearance and inexplicably seemed very mature.

"Sit down and eat. After dinner, we still have to see Sister Devlin. The nun said to let me bring you two; helping me learn the miracle requires your assistance."

"Of course, no problem."

Grace said, pulling up her sister, and together they sat opposite Xia De. Xia De stood up, took Mia's special small bowl from the cupboard, and placed it aside to prepare dinner for her.

"Actually, I am a little afraid of that nun."

Helen sat on the chair, her body very relaxed; she really liked nights like this.

"Why? Sister Devlin probably couldn't beat you two, right?"

Xia De asked curiously, picking up the ladle to serve soup for everyone.

"Relics are mostly very difficult to destroy, not to mention humanoid relics like us, and that blind nun's Primordial Fire..."

Helen pursed her lips as she took the soup bowl:

"We can become firewood."

Xia De looked at them in surprise:

"Don't say such things, how could Sister Devlin do such a thing?"

However, this also gave Xia De a hint: besides subspace evil things and ancient evil spirits, humanoid relics also fell into the category of things that could be burned.

"In short, I just feel that nun is very scary."

Helen swung her legs under the table, and Grace tied her napkin for her:

"Before Qina, we knew almost every generation of the Dark Great Witch, so we have known about the 【Spirit Cultivation Sect】 group for a long time. Those fire-bearing nuns are all very great, even greater than the Guardians. Even among the successive generations of fire-bearing nuns, Sister Devlin is a relatively special one."

Grace finished tying her sister's napkin and went to handle her own:

"She is simply a born fire-keeper; it seems she was born for that flame. But correspondingly, it is as if the 【Primordial Fire】 has also sucked away all her heat. Sir, don't look at how gentle she is to you; in fact, that nun is as cold as..."

"Charred wood."

Helen added, then explained:

"This doesn't count as speaking ill of others behind their backs; she really looks very scary."

【Desire】 had also once evaluated Sister Devlin as "charred wood" on the island in the center of the Pantanal Xiewu.

"What exactly is the Primordial Fire? Is it just the first flame in the world?"

Xia De asked curiously, and the Red Butterfly twins looked at each other:

"Strictly speaking, it is not; the sun is the world's first fire, first light, and first thunder."

"Meow~"

Mia, who was eating dinner, let out a cry.

"The Primordial Fire comes from before everything, from the beginning of the beginning. It is an existence older than this world, which is why it can represent our world."

Helen said very cautiously:

"The mysteriousness of that flame is absolutely no less than any special item in your hands. Even the Old Gods..."

"Helen!"

Grace said very seriously, so the girl, knowing she had said the wrong thing, covered her mouth and made an apologetic expression to Xia De:

"Some things we are only guessing; you just need to know that the 【Primordial Fire】 and the fire-bearing nun are very important to this world."

Grace finished tying her napkin and even gave an example:

"The fire-bearing nun has never been a protagonist of an era epic like a 'Chosen One'. They are the guardians of everything; when everything comes to an end, that fire will still illuminate this world. Therefore, the inheritance of successive fire-bearing nuns is very cautious. We heard from Qina that this generation's Sister Devlin has yet to find a suitable candidate."

But Xia De knew the suitable candidate, which was Luweiya. However, he had seen in a dream the scene where the nun turned to ash and passed the fire to Luweiya before she died, and he would never let that happen again.

After enjoying dinner at home, Mia, as usual, did not want to follow, so Xia De went to Mid-Hill Fort with Helen and Grace.

Because it was already late, they went directly to the Snake Heart Hospital in the city, and then arrived at the sacrificial ground on the peak of the mountains.

Xia De rarely came here at night, so when he and the Red Butterfly twins stepped out of the picture frame, he was immediately attracted by the boundless sea of stars above his head.

"This is really..."

The galaxy seemed to be hanging upside down above his head, and he could even touch it if he reached out his hand. All the stars were so bright, and even the stars that were rarely observed on ordinary days could bloom with their own brilliance.

"Very beautiful, right."

Grace asked softly from the side. Xia De nodded, then realized that having experienced such long years, they must have seen similar scenery countless times.

"But only this time, there is someone accompanying me."

Helen suddenly said, and Xia De was startled:

"You learned to read minds?"

"Oh, sir, you simply wrote your thoughts directly on your face."

Although the Red Butterflies said they were a bit afraid of Sister Devlin during dinner, they behaved very naturally when greeting the nun.

The weather near the mountaintop tonight was excellent, without a single cloud, which was the most suitable time to learn 【Moon Dream】. Sister Devlin was already waiting for them, but the learning venue was not inside the sacrificial ground, but at the Fire Keeper cemetery (Note) located slightly below the mountains, which Xia De had visited once before, connected to the mountaintop sacrificial ground by steps.

Although this was a cemetery, it was actually just a very empty and open outdoor space, because after a Fire Keeper died, the body would also turn into firewood, and in reality, no remains could be buried. The cemetery, as empty as a square, had stone walls and stone gates on both sides, while the opposite two sides were cliff walls and nearly vertical ten-thousand-foot precipices.

The nuns of the 【Spirit Cultivation Sect】 had already prepared for the ritual here this afternoon. To be precise, they had drawn the "Sun, Moon, and Stars" pattern from the open space of the 【Night Temple】 in Randel Valley onto the flat ground sprinkled with white ash.

After the preparations were made, those blind nuns left one after another, leaving only Sister Devlin and the Red Butterfly girls.

Xia De took off his coat and shirt according to the nun's instructions, and then Sister Devlin used the tail hair of a strange alien creature, the "Moon-Faced Rabbit," to apply a special pigment to Xia De's body. Centered on his chest, the pigment, which contained a small amount of mithril shavings and emitted a faint light, extended to his throat and the center of his back.

The "Moon-Faced Rabbit" was a type of extremely ugly rabbit whose face shape was a crescent moon. Xia De had only seen them in books before; these rabbits were considered the ugliest rabbits to have ever appeared in the material world.

After everything was ready, Xia De, shirtless, sat cross-legged in the center of the huge ritual base array on the ground, while the nun and the Red Butterfly girls retreated outside the field.

Looking up at the stars and vaguely remembering the appearance of the galaxy, Xia De closed his eyes and gradually entered a meditative state—this was very simple for him. For this world, because the "spirit" of a Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi was not purely energy, meditation alone could not quickly restore spirit, which led to meditation, which seemed very useful to supernatural beings, actually being just a means to assist rituals, enhance mental power, and echo certain miracles.

Correspondence students had not been guided by professional professors in meditation, but the high-level Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi's mastery of their own spirit and body allowed them to quickly master meditation techniques even without frequent practice.

Xia De belonged to those who were very gifted in "meditation." After relaxing his spirit, he slowly let his physical senses disappear, and then forced his spirit to gradually sink into the "starry sky" illusion he had just remembered within his dark field of vision.

Deep meditation was very close to a sleep state. When Xia De found that he could vaguely see the boundless wilderness around him, he knew he had succeeded.

In the real world, the silver patterns on Xia De's body were the first to emit light like real moonlight as his spirit entered the deep meditation state. As the light "ignited" the ritual base array on the ground, the Sun, Moon, and Stars pattern simultaneously emitted the faint light of a silver moon.

The light transmitted on the ground like ripples, the shimmering light attached to the surface until it seemed as if the galaxy was projected onto the ground of the Fire Keeper cemetery. ===== CHAPTER 1497 =====