After it was completely dark, Aiwass put on the priest's uniform that he had not worn for a long time, and solemnly lit three brand new candles from his bedroom.

In front of Aiwass was a silver basin placed on the table, filled with salt that was consecrated by Aiwass during the day.

Yulia and Ligeia sat side by side on the edge of the bed, while Agnes peered into the room from the landscape hanging on the wall.

Aiwass closed his eyes against the candlelight for a long time, brewing his emotions.

The sacred and weak candlelight shone on Aiwass. Behind him, a twisted and writhing shadow was projected like a living creature.

"I would like to pay my respects to Si Zhu, the god whose holy number is three, the god who binds the body with sin thorns, the god who burns the body to chase away the darkness..."

Aiwass murmured in a low voice and closed his eyes repeatedly to pray: "Please look after the fire of my heart...look after me like the candle in the corner...

"I would like to pay my respects to Si Zhu, the god whose holy number is three..."

His solemnity also made Yulia become nervous unconsciously and tense her back.

She had always known that her brother had the ability to strengthen the Shadow Demon and the Butterfly of Flames through self-sacrifice.

But Aiwass never showed it in front of her.

There were many things that Aiwass did not show to Yulia. Some were to prevent her from worrying, and others were to prevent her from coming into contact with anything too dangerous.

Yulia knew this very well, but she couldn't argue with it. After all, this came from Aiwass's care and love for her, and the root cause was the personality she constructed in front of Aiwass - in Aiwass

In Si's understanding, Yulia is a weak girl who needs to be taken care of.

There are no emergencies now, and Yulia can't suddenly change herself.

After chanting three times, Aiwass plunged his hands into the salt basin in front of him that had been consecrated with the blessing spell.

He scooped up the salt with both hands, spread out his arms, and sprinkled it around casually.

Like sparks flying upward, these white salt powders seem to have gained life, flying and circling around.

They gradually shone with a faint light - slowly lighting up like stars in this dim bedroom.

The shoulder straps wrapped around Aiwass's neck moved automatically in the wind, twisting and flying like two slippery sea snakes.

He lowered his head, gently stroked the salt in the basin, and sighed in a low voice: "My child, the fleshless daughter I fed..."

"——Arise and return from the flesh of all things."

Salt symbolizes physical flesh and blood.

After hearing Aiwass's call, the Shadow Demon, who had lost consciousness and fell into a drowsy dream, emerged from the shadow in the salt basin in front of him like a puppy that had been called by its owner.

It was a vague shadow. It looked like mud or a swamp.

Under Aiwas's caress, the salt in the basin flows autonomously, making a sound like the ebb and flow of waves.

"I am your totem, I am your father, I am your god."

Aiwass chanted in a low voice: "You must not touch my holiness, you must not harm my body——

"However, when I die, you should be sad; however, after the day of my death, you should celebrate!"

Aiwass said, taking out a short gun from the shadow formed by the salt.

He raised the salt gun high, and then fiercely inserted the gun into his abdomen!

Yulia suddenly shivered in shock and almost screamed.

But at this moment, a pair of cold hands stretched out from behind her and covered her mouth.

"Don't be afraid, child," Yanis's voice sounded softly from behind her, "This is how sacrifice works."

"...Does one have to hurt oneself to make a sacrifice?!"

Yulia lowered her voice and said in a somewhat anxious and frightened voice: "Is there something wrong?"

"correct."

Yanis said softly: "This is the ritual. The essence of the ritual is to imitate, and the purpose is to transcend."

Ligeia on the side also nodded.

Today, she has also deepened her understanding of the path to transcendence through study.

The white-haired dragon girl replied softly: "There is a desire in human hearts, which is an unstoppable and unavoidable instinct of 'imitation'. It is the most essential thing of human beings, and it will be repeated with external sounds.

And strengthen.

"When we still don't understand anything and don't know what 'self' is, we will instinctively imitate people in the outside world. Imitate their language, imitate their expressions, and imitate their every move. That comes from the snake

The Father's compassion allows people to transcend the beastly path of love.

"——Thus, we changed from beasts to humans."

On the other side, after Aiwass penetrated the salt spear, the blood flowed out along the priest's uniform and leached to the ground at an extremely slow speed.

The shadow in the salt pond instantly began to boil violently.

It's like adding some kind of reagent - Yulia thought.

And Aiwass is still chanting the secret words above "":

"You will celebrate my death, you will sing my holiness. You will start the celebrations, you will hold up the scepter."

Aiwass said this and took out the second salt gun from the salt pond.

He turned his head slightly and inserted the salt gun directly into his collarbone from the side of his neck!

The severe pain caused Aiwass's pupils to contract and relax, and his lips trembled violently.

He choked and coughed up pink foam.

And a line of dark red blood gushed out along the neck and submerged into the pure white priest uniform.

The thin blood energy instantly spurted out in spherical shapes in all directions, and the candlelight around Aiwass seemed to dim a little, reflecting the dark red blood light.

On the other side, Ligeia was still whispering: "Some children are too good at imitating, too focused on the 'imitate me' commands, and enthusiastically follow the shadows cast by those lights. So they become 'good children'

', 'smart children'... But what they imitate is not a holy and flawless icon, but a person with bad character.

"So this kind of incompleteness will also be reflected in imitation. In the end, they will eventually encounter problems that cannot be solved by just imitating the people around them - and the more enthusiastic children are in imitating, the more likely they are to imitate when they first hit the wall.

The stimulation you endure will become more intense.

"Young children have no right to refuse in front of adults. Therefore, for those who issue the command of 'imitate me', every 'no' in their mouths is like thunder, which cannot be exceeded or vetoed.

"The inevitable failure faced in the process of imitation will strengthen the desire to imitate. This cycle repeats and falls into the abyss of being manipulated.

"And during this process, if the seeds of evil thoughts breed in the soul, they will want to escape from this cycle. This desire is [transcendence], and the seed is [fall], it is [change], it is

[Violence]. And this kind of violence is also an extension of authority.

"——Among many acts of transcendence, the essence of 'sacrifice' is violence."

Ligeia said softly as if she was missing someone or remembering someone.

Yulia looked at her as if she were looking at another person leaching out of her body.

That was another person who once shared the knowledge of these "secrets about sacrifice" with Ligeia...or rather, with Meg. A person who belonged to the Beyond Path.

"Either because of fear of drought, or wanting to prolong life, or looking for a scapegoat, or seeking sleep after death, or seeking victory in war, or enjoying the intoxication of carnival... Ancient humans all over the world

, in the end, they chose 'sacrifice' without exception. No matter whether the victim is a human or an animal, it is a kind of group violence, a kind of violence recognized by the group.

"——The essence of ritual is imitation, and the essence of sacrifice is violence. Imitation is the proof that human beings are the sons of the snake father, while sacrifice is the fallen instinct soaked with desire deep in the human soul."

When Ligeia said this, she paused slightly and subconsciously clenched her fingers.

She said softly: "Extraordinary people who transcend the path will have such self-destructive tendencies. They will regard themselves as a vessel, and the vessel is a kind of shackles. Those who seek transcendence will eventually have the desire to smash the shackles.

.

"They will hurt themselves for their own purposes...not for greed, but for the purpose itself.

"...I once knew an extraordinary person who transcended the path. He completed self-sacrifice before a near-death battle. By then, even if he won, he would not be able to return, so this cannot be regarded as a struggle for survival.

The sacrifice they made; they probably couldn't win, so it wasn't about success; no one valued their death, so it wasn't about honor.

"I have also thought about why they are like this for a long time... It was not until recently that I understood that the goal itself is the goal, and the extension of desire is still desire. Transcendents are always like this."

Watching Aiwass raise the third salt gun, the shadows in the salt basin instantly became silent. Ligeia's voice became hoarse.

Yulia suddenly turned around and noticed that Ligeia's pupils were shining with a bright purple glow.

Observing such a transcendent ritual created a resonance between the transcendent path. Just like an artist will feel beauty when appreciating other people's works, and Ligeia's originally stable physical condition was also due to the resonance of this pastoral ritual.

A deflection occurred.

The dragon scales on her body creaked, and worms seemed to be crawling under her flesh. Her whole body was growing slowly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

And Aiwass's deep and hoarse voice still sounded in the bedroom:

"Who will be sacrificed? What will end? What words will be passed down through the ages?

"——I offer you my sacrificial song!

"My love, my son, my flesh, my inheritance, my altar, obey me—"

The salt grains suspended in the air turned into brilliant stars, and Aiwass seemed to be standing in the Milky Way at this moment.
To be continued...