He is the leader of the Tantric sect in Chagdu.

Generally speaking, the ultimate goal that a tantric practitioner who studies the arts of the invisible can reach in their entire life is to come into contact with the echo or gaze of a certain oracle.

Sichen, the pinnacle of the mysterious world, holds the sacredness of law and the grandeur of principles.

This kind of sophisticated ceiling shouldn't exist like cabbages on the street, popping up every other day.

Yesterday it was a moth that would snatch people up when it lay down; today it's a crow that's cawing loudly.

Eileen felt that someone was definitely playing a joke on him.

He doesn't even dare to move his shoulder now, as half of his body is numb, and he's been holding his breath all this time.

—Si Chen is standing right next to your face, who the hell dares to move?

"Gurgle."

The crow cawed again, but there were too many things to say about it.

Will He peck my eyes?

Eileen shrank back, then looked around again, discovering that everyone except her was trapped behind a layer of darkness, frozen into silhouettes. It was similar to the silent domain that Nie had previously created, but the effect was even more exaggerated.

Now no one can make a decision, and no one can save me.

Eileen thought for a moment, then tried calling out to the door, "Hello, are you there?"

"Hush - be quiet!"

It actually reacted... but it didn't seem to cooperate very well.

"Brother Men, this expert has been staring at me for five minutes, and apart from making a couple of 'coo' sounds, he hasn't given me any other reaction..."

Stealing a glance at the crow's charred black eyes, Eileen thought she could still salvage the situation: "How am I supposed to communicate with it? Should I coo along? Will it understand? Or does it simply not want to talk to me...?"

As he spoke, he puffed out his cheeks and made two "gurgling" sounds from a strange part of his body.

Eileen: "Coo, coo."

Crow: "Caw!"

He suddenly flapped his wings twice, startling Eileen. He couldn't possibly read any emotion from a bird's eyes—what did he mean? Was he unhappy?

Or is there a grammatical error in my own "prompt"?

Damn, who understands this?

The wait for trial was always agonizing. Ellen could only pray that this celestial being wouldn't be as aggressive as the moth from yesterday. She stared at the crow in silence for another ten minutes, until her eyes started to sting, before finally hearing its next "coo."

"Gurgle—"

Eileen: "?"

The next instant, something unexpected happened. The crow slightly raised its head, its white beak pecking straight at one of Eileen's eyeballs—

"Holy crap!"

Eileen instinctively covered her eyes.

However, the expected excruciating pain did not strike, nor did the crow perch on his face like a moth, thirsting for the light within his skull. The white beak passed through his pupils like a phantom, leaving a wisp of invisible substance in his red fluid.

.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in front of that familiar red pool, and a tightly closed pure white door.

Eileen's lips twitched: "Yo, Brother Men, we meet again."

A faint light shone through the crack in the door in response, and a line of small characters, as if afraid of being discovered, was carefully arranged in an inconspicuous gap in the field of vision—

"He didn't fully recognize you."

Eileen nodded, roughly understanding the meaning of the sentence: Mo Ya recognized the remnant belonging to the original body, but did not recognize the current Ai Yi.

The original owner of this body was truly a formidable individual... As a cult leader looked down upon by Sherlock, his connections had all reached Si Chen.

But this is not good news for him.

Because the enemy could very well be at the same level as Si Chen.

This is completely unmanageable...

With a soft sigh, Ellen looked around. This was the first time he had entered the Grand Ceremony Pool at night. When he used "Moth's Disguise" before, he had only secretly glanced at this place from the real world.

The red pool beneath my feet, once vibrant and bright in the daytime, has lost its life, becoming lifeless, murky, and black. I didn't see the dense, shadowy insects from last time.

It's likely that he was affected by some kind of influence from the Ashes of the Celestial, which scared away the Shadow Insects.

"Why did He bring me to this place?"

The Ash Wood Door: "In an attempt to communicate, He just tried to connect with your soul, but your mind is too fragile... To prevent you from going mad, He is bringing things to you in a gentler way."

So those cooing sounds were Him talking to Him...

Eileen was sweating a little, feeling that her reaction just now was like inflicting silent violence on Si Chenxing.

A gentler approach, such as pecking at the eyes?

Where exactly is it softened...?

Now is not the time to dwell on these things. Ellen prepared herself and looked at the door again.

The red liquid flowing from the white beak of the silent raven into his eyes was being diluted little by little by the ash wood gate, transforming into a meaning he could understand:

"Guh, Lightbringer...you seem to be in trouble."

"Gulp, your red liquid is murky and murky, your three cavities are narrow and cramped, your essence is small and frail—if it weren't for that door, and the 'gray matter' flowing here, I wouldn't even recognize you."

Eileen seemed lost in thought...

The door refers to the ash wood door. My door is indeed special; no wonder it looks a bit abnormal.

And Gray Matter, perhaps the "Mr. Gray" that Veltin just mentioned, is the name that attracted Mo Raven. It seems that his original self had some kind of signal hidden in this codename, allowing him to be recognized by the great beings within the Great Gift Pool.

As Eileen pondered, she continued to look at the door:

"Gulp, the path to ascension has been interrupted, and you have fallen back to the starting point. It turns out that after that criterion sank, the path of light can no longer lead to the grand...Gulp, this path is blocked, let's try other methods."

"Coo, Ash of the Light, friend of the Raven—it is truly unbelievable that you are so weak now… And I, Coo, dwell in the depths of the pool, the land of the winged Ravens still has enemies to face, and cannot always look after you."

Was the original owner of this body a friend of Si Chen?

Eileen felt like she could stand up straighter; that's the power of having big thighs!

Although this backer doesn't seem very reliable.

.

"Goo, Radiance is dying, and Gray, you look like you're about to die too. This won't do; I have to help you. However, you have that ugly moth's scent on you, as well as Radiance's remnants, so I can't elevate you to be my familiar. I can only give you a little something good. Goo, get ready to receive my gift!"

That's quite a jinx...

Feeling that Si Chen's style was somewhat different from what she had imagined, Ai Lian forcibly suppressed her urge to complain. She stared at the characters on the door for a few seconds, as if they were signaling to her: "Guh, are you ready?"

"Come on," Eileen nodded, "Let me see the gift a siren prepared for me..."

"Gurgle—"

After the next croak, Eileen felt a sudden darkness before his eyes, and a wild, unseen pain surged forth, like a flood engulfing the world, almost threatening to completely crush his humble mind.

Almost simultaneously, he went limp and fell helplessly into the Great Ritual Pool, his head sinking beneath the red liquid—suffocation, pain, despair… From the back of his pupil, where he had just been pecked by the white beak, the hidden wound revealed its true form. Fine black ash covered his entire gray eye like countless black ants, and between the itching and pain of the bite, it felt as if tentacles were taking root deep into his eyeball, growing towards the edge of his pupil.

Until that sharp, white beak emerged from the center of the gray eyes, the tiny, almost imperceptible wound dissolved into a liquefied principle in that instant, and within seconds it healed into a jet-black scar.

In just half a minute, Eileen felt all the red fluid in her three cavities dry up. On the other side of reality, beads of blood-soaked sweat stained the back of her clothes red, while in the Great Ritual Pool, countless tiny specks of ashes floated in the red fluid surrounding her.

"Damn it..."

So the gift you spoke of is also a scar?!

Is this all Si Chen knows?!

The door explained to the crow, "Qualified individuals cannot access advanced rituals yet. The criteria you can collect... can only come from nourishment, secret knowledge, or scars. Nourishment cannot be given by others, and secret knowledge can lead to loss of control. Therefore, provided that the wound can heal, scars are the simplest way to obtain criteria."

"bite--"

The door emitted a strange sound effect, like an upgrade:

"The blackbird's white beak, filled with liquefied 'ashes,' poured into your eye, leaving a jet-black scar at its center—but unlike the mottled scar on your abdomen, this is a wound to your eyeball. Even if it heals, it will be rejected by your body and become an independent part."

"Remember: The colorless liquid in the pupil is different from the red liquid in the three cavities."

Eileen had a bad feeling. He inexplicably remembered a little-known fact: the eyeball is not included in the human immune system. It is a foreign object that is not recognized. Once injured, it is extremely difficult to cure... and you may not even be able to save the other eyeball.

What did that crow do to itself?

Door: "The emptiness of the scars is filled with the liquid of silence, and black ashes fill the gaps in your pupils—"

You have received a gift!

A line of characters made of fly ash was imprinted in the center of his vision. Eileen silently lowered her head and saw her reflection in the glowing red pool. In her gray eyes, which belonged only to "Eileen", there was a subtle and invisible substance like black ashes flowing, and a pure white crack in the middle looked beautiful and sacred.

Eileen froze, realizing that his eyes seemed to be enchanted, with a long string of characters floating beside them—

-Condensed Organs·Gift of the White Beak (Eyeball)/Phase One

- Ember (rules) / Scar / Organ / Peck etiquette / Old news about Neverwinter (rules that are not yet ripe) / Goo!

- Remains: Cough! All things are remains that have not yet decayed. You observe the world through the eyes of a black crow—it is loose and porous, waiting to burn. You may be able to glimpse the past of mysterious things through the charred remains. This is the principle of recollection.

-The Secret of the Black Ashes: Guh, the red liquid you are watching is mixed with black ashes. It can be harmless or deadly poison. Death has never been so tangible and clearly visible when the black crow was still the white dove.

- White Essence: Gush, your scars are bleeding, and white essence flows from your eyes. You can inject this white essence into any ritual or experiment. It is a primordial, formless solute, applicable to all mystical reactions.

-The Bone-White Elegy: Caw, this is an old tale. In the distant season of no winter, white doves died, and black crows hatched from their remains, taking over the doves' duties, chanting an elegy in the bone-white sky, guiding the dead back to the "Land of the Winged"...

-Coo: Coo, coo coo, coo coo coo coo coo, coo. (You can understand the language of the winged beings, the language of the cooers, that's an amazing skill!)

-Goo, this is a special scar, the Ember Criterion flows within it, it makes you tilt two horizontal lines towards silence.

"Your current inclinations: Moth 2, Ash 3."

Eileen: "...Goo?"

There are still many flaws, but it must be admitted that as a gift from Sichen, this gift is indeed very precious—although the descriptive text is still obscure and difficult to understand, Ailian can still see some relatively clear functions in it.

Looking back into the past can be used to explore mysterious objects; the permeating black ashes mention death and poison, suggesting it is a means of killing.

As for Bai Su... it seems to be usable as a consumable. Although she hasn't mastered any secret techniques yet, Ai Lian has already keenly perceived the essence of this ability: saving money!

As we all know, both ceremonies and experiments are extremely expensive, but now he can produce and sell primary materials on his own, which is a perfect example of energy conservation and emission reduction.

Having assumed the established identity of a cult leader, Ellen was quite satisfied with the eyeball.

Great product!

Nodding towards the sky, Ellen gladly accepted the gift. Just as she was about to leave the Grand Gift Pool, the doors began to glow faintly again: "It's not over yet, He has something else to give you."

besides?

Eileen covered her other eye in lingering fear.

"Gurgle..."

The next second, the raven's cry echoed in the pool, and now, Eileen herself could understand its meaning from it:

"Grey, before that criterion returns to the top of the tower, why not walk my path first? It's a pity you are not a winged being and cannot see the end of this path, but for you now, it is certainly much better than walking the path of 'Dawn'..."

way……?

Before Ellen could react, a pitch-black book rose from nothingness and quietly appeared before him.

.

At the same moment, gray-black snow began to fall from the sky.

Eileen felt her feet were rooted to the ground. The Grand Ceremony Pool was like a tomb filled with charred ashes after some colossal object had burned out, no longer bearing even the slightest trace of movement.

Here, everything freezes.

The pond was silent, the red liquid still.

All sound was frozen in the scorched earth... The rustling and crackling sounds of the shadows crawling in the distance were uneasy and silent, the ripples of the pool calmed down, the whispers of the door tightened, and even the omnipresent glimmer of light went out.

Eileen's own heartbeat and breath froze at the sight of the charred remains before him. In the utter silence, he saw the book, which seemed to be made of charcoal, burning silently in the flames. The fragmented, black characters, like countless drifting embers, buried all the gazes that fell upon it.

Ashes surged, and the flames before him transformed into a bottomless abyss.

Beneath the abyss, the "secret essence," carefully selected by the crows to ensure its safety, flowed into his red liquid—

First, the title of this book:

The Original Text: The Silent Sequel

Original text...

This is a mysterious book, a "original text" woven by the principles and even directly written by Sichen, recording the secret knowledge passed down from the top to the grandeur.

Eileen, suppressing her excitement, turned to the title page:

"I witnessed the charred remains sprouting thin wings at the end of 'winter,' soaring high against the cold wind. They celebrated their birth on the bones of the remaining snow; for these light and delicate things, death, burned to ashes, was a rebirth." — "The Birthday of 'Ashes'"

Winter... This seems to be the same as the "criterion" that Raven mentioned, a criterion that has already fallen, fallen from the top of the tower.

But unlike "that principle", winter did not die completely, but changed its way of existing.

Eileen tried to turn to the next page, only to find more cryptic text hovering like ashes in the center of his vision, avoiding his eyes with a natural, scattering trajectory.

"Can't I see what happens next?"

Or perhaps I'm just too inexperienced, only able to grasp the most basic and superficial secrets in my current state.

Eileen tried to continue reading the original text, and finally, after feeling dizzy and her vision blurred, she found the only passage that Raven had specially marked, the only one she could understand:

-Method: Implicit

- Demand preference: Jhin 3, Enlight 2

-Required: The Gift of Sprouting, a black raven tail feather, an ounce of charcoal remains, the last phalanx of the mute, a revelation, the influence of Ember/Memories of Winter

- Ritual: Touching Death in Silence

-Phase 1: Raven

"This is a silent path, where birds use the scorched walls to signify the inevitable end, and sing elegiac songs for the creatures heading toward their end, forever remembering them."

.

Eileen tilted his head, and in the swirling red pool, he saw the mist dissipate on the map of insight, revealing a charred road quietly before him.

That's really great...

Eileen thought for a moment and felt that she should thank him now. Although Si Chen probably wouldn't care about such details, she still had to be polite.

He raised his head and spoke solemnly:

"Goo! (Thank you!)"

Mo Ya: "Coo! (You're welcome), coo... (I'm off then.)"

The rain stopped silently.

.

.

…Eileen opened her eyes in reality.