Late at night, the waxing gibbous moon had almost sunk into the earth again. The sky was already slightly brighter.
The clock in Aiwas's room swung its pendulum rhythmically, and the pointer on it had already pointed to 4:20 in the morning.
And he still sat in the wheelchair like a sculpture, flipping through the Shepherd's Tantra motionlessly.
Two strange purple tears of blood kept falling from the corners of Aiwas' eyes as he sat at the table in a daze, as if he had lost his soul, and dripped onto the pages of the book. Then they sank directly into it and were absorbed by it.
Aiwass was fascinated by the secrets in the book.
The skin on his face turned red, and the blood vessels on his forehead and forearms were visibly bulging. The blood vessels that should have been blue were now showing dark purple spider web patterns.
Although it was winter, Aiwas' room was still warm. But with Aiwas's deep and heavy breathing, pale white high-heat mist continued to exhale from his mouth. Occasionally, when he coughed, a few sparks would burst out.
It was not until the early morning when birds chirped outside that Aiwas suddenly woke up from his dream.
His eyes became clear again, and the purple lines on his face slowly retracted.
At this moment, he had unknowingly turned to the end of this thin black leather booklet. The knowledge had been deeply engraved in Aiwas' memory, and he could recall it clearly the moment he closed his eyes. The words even began to sparkle.
“… It turned out to be something like this.”
Aiwass's expression was solemn, and he murmured in a low voice.
This black tantric book tells about a mysterious skill called "shepherding".
That is a mysterious skill that existed more than a thousand years ago, when the concept of "profession" did not yet exist.
At that time, almost all extraordinary people were walking on multiple paths at the same time, because at that time, the extraordinary common sense of "minimizing the number of paths you are walking on at the same time" had not yet been summarized.
Walking on multiple paths at the same time is not only easy to drive people crazy and make it difficult to advance on each path, but it is also very unfavorable to inheritance. In such an environment, the mysterious skills that every extraordinary person has developed and mastered with all his life's energy must be passed on to a successor who has the same personality, hobbies, and nature as himself.
Therefore, in ancient times, extraordinary people were a minority in human society, and their extraordinary powers were not strong enough.
Because there is no inheritance system, almost all extraordinary people cannot pass beyond three generations. And the depth of advancement that each person can make on the path is also very limited if they rely solely on their own exploration.
It was not until the fourth or fifth century that the concept of "profession" gradually emerged. Through various means of cultivation, the extraordinary people gradually made their personalities pure and extreme, and eliminated the paths they did not intend to take. At the same time, they were vigilant not to pollute their personality essence, and on the premise of maintaining their original intentions, they tried their best to move closer to the safe paths that their ancestors had explored.
The principles of the nine great paths are actually very vague. Their boundaries overlap with each other and are constantly changing.
For example, the path of "beauty" related to art has changed most obviously. Almost every few hundred years, people's understanding of "beauty" changes. Many arts that were previously considered inferior have become "ancient trends" after decades or hundreds of years.
But if a person is extraordinary without guidance, it is easy to go astray.
Because all ordinary people who are mentally healthy must meet multiple path criteria at the same time.
For example, wild extraordinary people on the path of dedication may also be able to figure out the art of illumination. But if they don't know that the core principle of the path of dedication is "altruism", they will easily take the path of "using their healing ability to seize the right to speak". For example, they may become the leader of a small sect.
It would be easy to unknowingly embark on the path of authoritarianism.
Similarly, if one is too obsessed with the truth or believes that one is smarter and more talented than ordinary people, one will embark on the path of wisdom in pursuit of truth, which is a balanced path of pursuing knowledge and science and analyzing everything to dispel mystification.
If one is too obsessed with becoming a pope or a bishop, and desires advancement within the church system, then one has already embarked on the path of transcendence.
It would be fine if we were walking on two paths at the same time, but everyone's mental and physical strength is limited, and humans are forgetful.
If you completely forget your original intention and become a completely different person from your original self... then the original power from the path of dedication will continue to weaken until it disappears.
The most important inheritance of the so-called "professional" is the "bottom line of the Tao". Even if the scope of the Tao is vague, its core must be clear. So don't test the boundaries of the Tao, just follow the most core part of the rules and use the safest part of the power, so that you can obtain relatively pure Tao power.
Even if a priest is eager to be promoted, or uses this to seek wealth, power, or sex, as long as he remembers that the core principle of the path of dedication is "altruism", he will not lose his priest professional level.
With the "professional" system, extraordinary knowledge can be officially passed on. From then until now, the extraordinary people have generally become stronger and stronger.
But this does not mean that the ancient mysterious arts are weak.
Almost every mysterious skill from the pre-professional era is a legacy left by the powerful men of that time.
For example, the "Shepherd's Secret Sutra" obtained by Aiwass is a mysterious skill engraved from the memory of a man named "Shepherd".
This skill requires adaptability to both the path of devotion and the path of transcendence, and requires that these two paths must be kept as balanced as possible - only when the depth of the two paths is consistent can the "art of pastoral care" be used.
When Aiwas's priest class advanced, he was temporarily unusable before the demonologist advanced.
This mysterious skill can be called a sorcery.
Its basic principle is "to use the visible to nourish the invisible, and to use the invisible to nourish the visible."
Overall, it tells the story of a mysterious skill that can make anyone stronger...
After opening the book, Aiwas fell into a hallucination. From the text, he vaguely saw a hooded man in a black robe, feeding the weak demon with his own flesh and blood.
He did not sign a contract with the demons, but simply lured the demons to follow him with his flesh and blood. It was like raising a pet or herding cattle and sheep. These weak demons were raised by him and became stronger and stronger.
As a result, he became skinny and covered with scars.
After that, Aiwass saw someone kneeling in front of the man in black robe, begging for something.
The man used a special method to infuse the demon's invisible power into the body of the supplicant, causing it to undergo a drastic change in a burst of fire, and also giving it strength.
So the supplicant became the man's follower. He killed many people and offered them as sacrifices to more and more demons. And when he became weaker, he was ruthlessly thrown to the new batch of demons as blood food.
After repeated use, the demons gradually became stronger and more numerous. After that, he used the same secret method to inject these demons into the bodies of other followers who were thirsty for power.
In this way, he gained an evil army of demon-possessed people.
The legion collected all kinds of treasures and wealth for him. The thinner man began to cultivate more and more phantom demons. It was no longer just the demons that followed him. Even phantom demons with light attributes appeared beside him.
They are all raised by men since childhood. Without signing a contract, they are willing to accept the man's dispatch and share some of their power with others.
Under the operation of the man in black robe, he has more and more followers, and they are getting stronger and stronger.
Like a snowball, they formed a terrifying force in a short period of time, and attracted encirclement and suppression from all sides.
Finally, when he was surrounded by the coalition forces, he sacrificed his followers as food and fed them to the powerful phantom demon using the art of shepherding.
Anyone who has been shepherded by him is powerless to resist the forced sacrifice of shepherding techniques.
They were used as food to summon more powerful phantom demons.
Aiwass saw it clearly in the illusion.
Although it is just a silhouette, there is no doubt that it is the "Fallen Angel" who arrived and was defeated in version 3.0!
The black-robed man's plan went awry at the last moment - he tried to use the shepherding technique to inject the power of the Fallen Angel into himself.
—But unexpectedly, the pastoral technique suddenly failed at this moment.
He himself was unable to properly contain the power of the Fallen Angel and missed the best opportunity.
Without using the pastoral method that can extract the essence of the phantom demon without damaging its essence, his behavior became stealing the essence of the phantom demon. The angry Fallen Angel hit him hard, and he was killed by the coalition assassin.
The evil legacy of the man known as "The Shepherd" was cut short.
“… Because when he tried to inject the power he had seized into himself, he had already strayed from the path of dedication.”
Aiwass sighed.
He really did not make a mistake in choosing this name.
Use humans as sacrifices to feed the phantom demons, then extract power from the phantom demons, or directly sacrifice the entire phantom demon to feed humans.
Just like a real shepherd.
Use the ubiquitous grass to graze cattle and sheep, and then get milk and meat from them.
That grass is the mortal.
Cows and sheep are phantom demons.
Such a bad metaphor.
—If the endless grass is not considered a cost, "raising" cattle and sheep will become a secret art that comes out of nothing.