When making the Phantom Cards, Aiwass was still able to sit in a wheelchair.
But this is not the case when performing advanced rituals.
Fortunately, Aiwass had fed the shadow demon early this morning. Even if he stood up and his body was completely connected to his shadow, the awakened shadow demon did not lose control at all.
The shadow under Aiwas's feet squirmed slightly, and occasionally floated up a little to prove that it was still alive and still there.
The shadows that occasionally floated up at that time would remind people of the "fairy air" special effects made with dry ice - but this fairy air was pure black without any other colors.
The evil spirit is lingering.
In fact, the materials and rituals of the advanced rituals are not exactly the same.
Universal rituals are not so rigid in themselves. The complexity of many rituals and the difficulty of obtaining materials are actually due to artificial encryption. It is essentially similar to the codewords in alchemical works. The purpose is to prevent people from analyzing the essence of the ritual.
That's why Aiwas can create phantom cards so easily.
As a new ritual that was born three years later, it had not yet gone through the process of repeated encryption, incorrect decryption, and re-encryption, and its original meaning had not been distorted. Therefore, it could be easily reproduced by Aiwass, who was only at level 1 in the "Basic Ritual".
The advancement ceremony is just the opposite.
The advancement rituals of various inherited schools have slight differences in subtle details.
The ritual Aiwass used was a simplified version he had seen in his adoptive father's collection of books. This was a ritual commonly circulated in the Avalon Knight family circle.
The advantage is that it doesn't require much effort, but the disadvantage is that it consumes a small piece of white crystal... about the size of a thumbnail and as thin as a coin. But this thing itself is not expensive, so it's not a big deal. Aiwass punched a hole in it, strung it on a rope, and made it into a disposable pendant.
He prepared six kinds of silver jewelry, including two bracelets, a necklace, two rings and a forehead ring.
Then, they were respectively smeared with clove essential oil, cinnamon essential oil, cypress essential oil, benzoin essential oil, helichrysum essential oil and chamomile essential oil, and placed on the six vertices of the hexagram carved by Aiwass - these six plant essential oils and the hexagram magic circle carved with a sharp silver tool were the most important core of this ritual, the only irreplaceable part.
Afterwards, Aiwass prepared three foods that he didn't like.
He chose radish, bitter melon and green pepper. He only cut a thin slice symbolically and placed it in the center of the hexagram.
In this way, the preparations for the ceremony are complete.
Aiwass put on his seminary uniform. Although it was a school uniform, it was also a formal clergy uniform.
It has a pure white clerical collar with two golden thorn patterns with roses embossed on the collar - this ornament even contains real gold. It has a tan shawl on its shoulders and chest, which is still decorated with golden thorns like deer antlers. The robe hangs down to halfway up the thigh. Below is brown trousers and cloth shoes.
Anyone who sees this attire can tell that this is a pastor of the Ennead Church.
Close the door of the room and wait until the full moon rises above 40 degrees, then the ceremony will officially begin.
"—All nine are complete."
Aiwass chanted in a low voice.
As he spoke, he lit a stick of dried sage and wormwood.
He repeatedly seared the tip of the vanilla stick like he was burning a cigar.
And in fact, it can indeed be considered a kind of cigar - just like coffee is considered soy milk in a sense.
Sage is the most commonly used herb for fumigation and burning sacrifices. It has different effects when mixed with different herbs. When mixed with moxa leaves, its main significance is to block the influence of other spiritual forces on advanced rituals.
For Aiwass, it is used to suppress the interference of his own transcendental path to the ritual.
"Discard the third..."
Aiwass whispered as he pressed the vanilla stick that was emitting green smoke into the center of the hexagram.
"—Hengwo, Lord of Scales and Feathers, Amber."
These three names are the names of the pillar gods of the Path of Love, the Path of Adaptation, and the Path of Dusk.
This is a necessary process for the full moon ceremony.
No extraordinary person can be smooth in dealing with all kinds of people. Even the full moon ceremony does not allow for opportunistic behavior.
Before meeting your teammates and enemies, you must declare the three paths you dislike the most in advance to show your determination.
In this ceremony, he could not cooperate with his teammates from these three paths. Even if those three paths were all strong, they could not secretly change sides.
These three paths were also carefully selected by Aiwass.
Although the Adaptive Dao is good at survival, it will definitely sell out its teammates when necessary. Self-preservation and retreat are the characteristics of the Adaptive Dao.
As for The Path of Dusk and The Path of Love, there are simply too many weirdos in them.
—The so-called path of love is just a nice name.
It is a path that is related to barbarism, bestiality, and impulsiveness, and pursues the animal desires of reproduction and eating.
Who are the people in there
Old pervert, gourmet, welfare girl, big eater... they are not serious at all. But they are quite suitable for the modern Internet environment.
The twilight path emphasizes that "the sun will eventually set, and all things will eventually perish." It is a path to fight against death and disappearance, and to pursue eternal life and solidification.
Undertakers, taxidermists, grave keepers, painters and sculptors who draw portraits of the dead may all believe in the Twilight Path. Making mummies and wax figures is also a skill of the Twilight Path, as is summoning the dead and reincarnation.
It is not easy to find excellent teammates on these three paths.
As Aiwass read out the names of the three pillar gods one by one, a gust of wind suddenly blew in the room.
Three colors of flames suddenly ignited on the three pieces of food that Aiwas didn't like to eat.
They are black, emerald green and amber.
They quickly burned up in the fire, turning into a black smoke.
But the strange thing was that there was a strange whirlwind in the room, constantly spinning around Aiwass. But the green smoke emitted by the bunch of vanilla sticks after igniting the three kinds of food went straight up, converging into a smoke only as thick as a wrist, and went straight up to the white crystal pendant hanging below the chandelier.
Then, Aiwas began to circle around the ritual formation, holding a vanilla stick outside the ritual formation, lowering his body and smoking the outer ring of the ritual formation.
"Six, bless me..."
He pointed the vanilla stick at the six silver ornaments one by one, and chanted the names of the remaining six pillar gods:
"Sand Clock. Candle Master. Great Master. Silver Crowned Dragon. Twin Mirrors. Snake Father."
As he clicked accordingly, the six silver ornaments gradually turned black.
It wasn't that it was blackened by smoke, but rather that it seemed to have come into contact with something poisonous. It was also as if something unfavorable had been drawn from the surrounding air.
The whirlwind in the room suddenly grew stronger - all the lit candles in Aiwas' room were blown out by the wind, but nothing was blown down, not even a piece of light paper.
"I follow the way of the candle."
The next moment, the vanilla stick in Aiwas's hand suddenly exploded.
He let go and dropped it in the middle of the hexagram. It kept making crackling sounds, and a beautiful pure white smoke rose up. It once again covered the suspended white crystal pendant that had been blackened by the previous smoke.
—The ceremony was successful.
Seeing that his "Basic Ritual" had suddenly increased by 20%, Aiwass breathed a sigh of relief and confirmed that the ritual had been successful.
He took down the white crystal pendant hanging on the chandelier and wore it close to his body.
Although he knew that this ritual was simple, it was the first time for Aiwas to use the ritual to advance.
It was all done in the cloud before, but this time I was able to actually operate it.
When Aiwass put on the pendant, he felt a vague sense of tranquility and sleepiness.
It is not strong and can be resisted by willpower.
It's roughly like feeling sleepy after a full meal, or the same level as taking melatonin before going to bed.
But Aiwass did not resist, but sat in his wheelchair, closing his eyes to feel the drag.
Just like slowly sinking into the dark deep sea, he clearly felt that his consciousness was being dragged into a deeper level by some force while he was awake.
"Good evening, priest."
Just when Aiwas woke up again, a cold voice with a familiar tone sounded.
He opened his eyes and found himself in a dark space. There was no light source, but he could see everything clearly.
He sat in a tall, wide chair with a backrest. Aiwass was over 1.8 meters tall, but even he couldn't fill the chair completely. When he put his elbow on one armrest, his other arm couldn't reach the other armrest.
When he looked up, he found there were eight more chairs like this.
Nine chairs were arranged in a circle, and in the center was a huge stone hourglass statue. It was about five or six meters high, like the huge ornaments in shopping malls.
Aiwass found himself the fourth to arrive.
Before him, three more people had already arrived.
The four of them were sitting next to each other. The first one was an old man with his head bowed and holding a cane. The second one was a young man wearing a tan double-breasted trench coat and a top hat.
The third one looked a little shabby in his attire—he wore a fully enclosed knight's helmet on his head, but wore a shirt and sweater that was convenient for movement.
Although Aiwass couldn't see their faces clearly, just like he couldn't see the faces of passers-by in a dream, he could immediately realize that the second person must be Sherlock!
Because his accent is so iconic and there's no disguise in this look.
It's as if to say - yes, I am Sherlock Hermes.