bookpub Chapter 37 The Influence of Atmosphere
Chapter 37 The Influence of Atmosphere
At 6:30 p.m., Lucius left the secret library ahead of schedule.
The entire afternoon of self-study allowed him to fill in a lot of the gaps in his knowledge of the mysticism that Felix hadn't had time to elaborate on before.
For example, regarding the rules governing the transformation of sexual characteristics, he found a monograph on the bookshelf against the wall on the first floor of the library that specifically discussed the history of sexual evolution. It explained that the nine principles followed a strict order:
【Lamp】→【Casting】→【Blade】→【Winter】→【Heart】→【Cup】→【Moth】→【Lamp】, and any criterion other than 【Secret History】 can be transformed into 【Enlightenment】.
When Lucius went downstairs, the gaslights were already on in the room. He noticed that Felix and Oliver seemed to be playing pick cards.
Felix held a deck of cards in his hand, his brow furrowed, his drawn eyebrows forming a short, shallow vertical line between his brows.
Oliver sat opposite him, legs crossed, a gentle and composed smile on his face, but his card-playing movements were unusually swift.
Lucius approached and saw the numbers on the scoreboard, and couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Before the six innings were even over, Oliver's score had already soared to 96, clearly indicating that Felix's luck wasn't very good.
"Lucius, you've come at the perfect time," Felix said, calmly placing his cards face down on the table upon hearing Lucius's laughter.
He stood up and said regretfully, "Looks like we won't be able to finish this game of Pique. It's time to prepare for your promotion ceremony."
Oliver shook his head, not pointing out Felix's obvious attempt to fold.
His gaze swept over Lucius, sizing him up, before he asked, "Is your secret modification complete?"
"It's a little faster than expected," Lucius nodded affirmatively. "I can feel that when the secret modification is complete, I will gain access to the Phase Realm, which only Sequencers can see."
As he spoke, a deep red glint flashed in his eyes, and he activated his perception mask to look at the two people in front of him.
The color in the living room quickly faded, leaving only two intense beams of light emanating from Felix and Oliver.
One is bright yellow and the other is golden red; upon closer inspection, the golden red appears to be more intense.
"Is the captain's third promotion that makes him shine brighter than Oliver?" Lucius wondered to himself.
"That's a good thing." Felix's words drew Lucius's attention away from his perception of the face.
He first turned to Oliver and said in a serious tone:
"The moonlight prayer ritual must not go wrong in the slightest. We can begin now, and let the ritual last a little longer."
After he finished speaking, he looked at Lucius and said, "You need to be there to learn while Oliver sets up the ritual. This is one of the basics of mysticism."
Lucius looked at Oliver, the two nodded to each other, and walked together toward the side door.
After Felix and the other two left, he looked down at the Pick card Oliver had placed on the coffee table.
"Did Oliver use divination?" Felix had no doubt about his luck.
Lucius's office didn't have gaslights, so he opened the door to let the hallway light in. Oliver then came out of his office with his briefcase.
After the two entered, they gently closed the door behind them, plunging the office into complete darkness.
"Snap!" Oliver struck a match.
He held the match up in front of him, took a silver candlestick from his briefcase, lit it, and placed it in the center of his desk. Then he took out materials one by one from his briefcase.
He began his explanation while arranging the materials:
"If newlyweds do not have sufficient knowledge of occultism and want to try to set up a worship ceremony, they usually need to choose an appropriate time based on the deity to whom the ceremony is directed."
Take this moonlight prayer ritual, for example; the success rate is significantly higher if it's performed at 11 PM.
Lucius listened attentively, and indeed, it was mentioned in "The History of Religion":
The 24 hours of a day are governed by different gods in turn.
The most famous is, of course, the setting sun. The blood-red light that descends precisely at noon every day is direct evidence of the existence of this deity.
As for the daytime forge, this god who ends the night reigns over 8 PM.
Therefore, in some areas of South Road, there is a practice of referring to deities as "Sichen".
Lucius compared these points of knowledge with Oliver's explanation one by one, and then refocused his attention on the ritual preparations that Oliver was currently undertaking.
He took all the materials out of the suitcase: four thumb-sized pieces of metal, a piece of amber, and a silver mirror.
Oliver, holding four pieces of metal, noticed Lucius's questioning look and explained:
"These four metals are silver, gold, tin, and antimony."
Silver corresponds to the crescent moon, gold to the dawn, tin to the setting sun, and antimony to the splitting wolf.
As for the Night's Watch, their corresponding material is amber.
He arranged the five materials on the ground according to the vertices of the pentagon, then picked up the small silver mirror and placed it flat in the center.
"The crescent moon is the god of revelation, and His 'strange face with nothing in it' refers to a mirror."
Lucius silently memorized everything, just as Oliver blew out the candle, and his voice came from the darkness:
"Alright, all those contents are in the library. Just take notes of the key points and look them up in the books. Now I'm going to perform the prayer ritual, and you must not be disturbed during the whole process."
"Understood!" Lucius took two steps back until his back was against the wall.
The office fell silent for a moment, then Oliver's voice rang out from the darkness:
"Drink deeply of this cup of moonlight."
"Drink deeply of this magical charm."
"We should savor the poetry in the moonlight (to hold back the setting moon)."
…………
The syllables of the prayer overlapped in the darkness, and the moment Oliver finished speaking, Lucius saw moonlight begin to flow from the surface of the silver mirror.
It was like some kind of viscous, luminous liquid. As time passed, more and more moonlight flowed out of the mirror, covering everything in its path with a layer of silvery white.
Lucius was immersed in the moonlight that reached above his head, feeling the stark contrast to the coldness of natural moonlight, which was far more intense, sublime, and inescapable.
He looked in Oliver's direction, and Oliver shook his head seriously, indicating that he couldn't speak yet.
The moonlight continued to rise until the entire room was filled with the moonlight cast by the divine crescent moon, and Oliver finally relaxed his shoulders.
"It's a success," he whispered, then bent down to gather the ritual materials on his desk, including the candle, and put them into his briefcase.
"There's still some time. You can adjust your mindset. The moonlight will last until 8 o'clock. I hope you can get promoted successfully."
Before leaving, Oliver gave Lucius a final word of encouragement, then opened the office door and slipped out.
As Lucius heard the office door close, he took a deep breath and pulled a pocket watch from the inside pocket of his coat.
The pointer points to 6:59.
He waited a minute and then took the red crystal from the other pocket.
The dark red liquid flowed slowly within the hollow chamber of the crystal. He put the crystal in his mouth and crushed it with his molars.