He is the leader of the Tantric sect in Chagdu.

Chapter 82 Tilt: The Raven

"Gu, the winged lion doesn't like rituals. Our paws are too big, so we can't draw those crooked lines or place those tiny, barely visible materials properly."

Simba walked around Ai, drawing a circle on the ground with his feather while muttering, "Goo—the King said, just draw another circle, and He'll take care of the rest. That'll do!"

Are you sure?

Aiyi clutched the feather in her hand, staring blankly at the crooked circle at her feet, which just enclosed her entire fox form—there were no secret codes, magic circles, or mystical elements—nothing at all.

He carefully tucked his tail in, pulling the fluffy tail that was sticking out of the circle back inside—but then he thought about it and became a little worried, so he simply tucked the tip of his tail into his arms to make sure it was safe.

"I didn't see that the ceremony at the Ash's place was this simple."

The doorman grumbled, "Rituals come in different kinds—your current tilting ritual, simply put, is like 'making a phone call,' greeting the person passing by to ask for their way and then letting them through."

"And the ritual of gray—is a giant machine that transforms and strengthens itself: each link is a lever to move nature, a container to hold power, a gear to run concepts—none of these are of the same kind."

"All right----"

Ai nodded, while Simba was making final preparations. He flapped his four pairs of wings, nervously tilted his head back, and looked up with his jewel-like blue eyes.

Then, from deep in his throat, he squeezed out a bright sound—

"Gurgle—" (Boss! Look here!)

After saying that, the winged lion covered its head and curled up silently in a ball, as if something terrible was about to happen.

Ai tilted his head, feeling a little confused—he looked around.

The "gurgling" sound contained a secret substance, which lingered repeatedly at the starting point, stirring up the red liquid and creating ripples that spread towards the edge of this shallow beach.

The ripples then turned into questions in the next instant.

?

Like a video roll that was abruptly cut off, everything that was still flowing was suspended at a very abrupt moment—the fox's still-active pupils could see everything in front of him, and he saw those ripples frozen in place like a photograph whose shutter button had been pressed.

The splashing water droplets and the spreading ripples faded in the gap between reality and illusion, faintly coated with a layer of charred blackness from an object being burned and then cooled—like distortion in an overexposed filter.

"?"

Ai opened his mouth, as if he wanted to speak.

But the voice has also turned into a question.

All things were silent except for the radiance that still flowed slowly through the doors; the principle of silence almost ruled over everything.

Then, pitch-black snowflakes began to fall—

In truth, Ai couldn't comprehend what those seemingly weightless, sourceless things that were fluttering in the air were—he could only identify them as snowflakes or ashes, yet they were even more silent, lighter, and heavier than that. He knew they were definitely not some kind of substance that existed in the real world.

Because things that mortals can understand cannot simultaneously present contradictory concepts of lightness and heaviness, coldness and heat.

The charred blackness became the underlying color in Ai Yi's eyes.

This is----

Ai used all her thoughts to try to understand what was happening at this moment—it was so easy to understand, yet difficult to define, like a speck of dust seeping from some enormous, unknowable existence. It was clearly an insignificant ember, but in the grand scheme of the world, it was as constant as a "base".

It's too "big," so big that it transcends logic and is an abstraction.

His appearance was as commonplace as the laws governing the world's underbelly, but the apprentices who tried to measure its size with their eyes found even their thoughts on it ridiculously laughable.

It's like seeing colors, light and darkness, the movement of clock hands representing the passage of time, and the shadows cast by objects in the sunlight: the same "ordinary" things.

Within the invisible realm of insight, it is the dividing line between life and death, the lingering trace of the past, and one of the ten pillars that support the world.

Its charred black color is its mark, forever etched into the foundation of the world.

He gradually understood everything: "Gurgle—"

Ai Yi moved his lips, thinking in the resolute silence: inspiration and reason, like tentacles on his body, sensed the silence of the red liquid and spread to a deeper level.

With the permission of a certain will, he briefly glimpsed an image; Ai saw a charred silhouette: different from the enormous one he had imagined—

It was a tiny bird, even smaller than the raven that Gugu had entrusted to her, with a slender and delicate body—as if a gentle squeeze in the palm of your hand could crush it into a handful of bird bones.

But He is incredibly great.

Countless lost and burned histories and kingdoms rise and fall beside him, then are smeared onto that pitch-black original text with charcoal, turning into engraved marks—an endless red tide that cannot shake that silent authority. Spreading its wings at the bottom of the pool, all the cooled colors silently hatch, born from the remnants of ashes, charcoal, and embers—and then the colors that have just returned, breaking out of ivory, bones, and marble.

"Burnt black" and "pale white" are the colors that arise from its eyes—this is a bird that constantly reminisces and forever remembers everything.

He was incredibly gentle.

now.

It surpasses the colors that the world originally possesses.

The eyes of the silent raven.

He is looking this way, from the bottom of the distant pool.

now.

He cast a glance—a glance heavier than death.

"A genuine gaze from Si Chen himself"

Ai knew what this was:

The ultimate "influence" that the world can bear is the gaze of the silent raven.

"6

""

It descended upon the deathly silence.

Silently, his body tilted, his spirit rising infinitely in the stillness: until a road piled with ashes and remnants of snow appeared beneath his feet.

Countless tiny fragments, the remains of which had been burned, fluttered and danced around him, then were controlled and confined to the circle beneath him. The immense impact, equivalent to death, was fully projected into Ai's pupils.

And so—everything began to drift away from him.

Ai struggles in a silent world, watching everything fade in his eyes, withering into the soil like a flower that has lost all its moisture.

He felt himself become light—when he looked down, a petite figure fell silently to the ground without making a sound.

That face, pale and bloodless, was the fox itself.

"To touch death in silence"

"die----

Ai stood there, looking at his own corpse beneath him. His eyes were initially filled with confusion, then turned into a daze and calm.

My body felt like it was falling.

There is no fear in my soul.

-die.

He was lost in thought.

When a flower blooms, the bud disappears, and people say that the bud has been negated by the flower; similarly, when a flower withers and bears fruit, the flower is negated by the fruit.

—Can we say this is one death, or two deaths?

"What is death? The apprentices who immerse their souls in the pool still cannot fully understand it—we only know that it is downward, in the same direction as gravity, dragging the dead to the ground, then the flesh withers and the skeleton decays."

When something is burned into charcoal, then crushed into dust and incorporated into the earth's cycle, who can still know what it once looked like?

The black rain continued until it gradually subsided.

Ai raised her head.

Then came a spark of understanding, appearing silently—

It's like a spring suddenly gushing out in the desert.

"yes."

he thinks.

Even if I forget, there will always be people who remember.

There is also "memory," which knows everything that has passed away.

Lightness and heaviness are both part of it, and when I understood its essence, I truly approached it.

This is the lesson "Ashes" taught me: "Death is the rejection of all understanding."

Ai shook her head and laughed: "And I will eventually understand everything."

"Gurgle"

The sky full of black embers paused at this moment, then gathered around this petite figure.

A gentle and poignant song, like a lament, began to play.

"My body is either charred black or pale white."

"I sing with the voice of a bird, to bid farewell to the dying bird."

"I refuse to forget and instead cherish everything —"

Ai's gaze swept over the ashes until they completely covered their bodies, not an inch of skin exposed, their curled-up shadows resembling a thin, frail bird—

"The Dark Crow".

The black embers fell into his blue eyes.

The next moment, Ai grabbed the fox on the ground who was breathing peacefully and had just risen from the brink of death, patted his back, and then stumbled along, helping each other to their feet.

The two are like snowflakes falling into water, merging into one.

So he took a step forward, leaning as he stepped onto the silent road.

"Implication"

—Phase One: Inherent Characteristics of the Raven—

—Basic Enhancement: All "Extreme" level skills have improved effects, increased Secret Essence capacity, and increased Mystery.

—The Cry of Death: Leaning close to his ear—the speaker pours the principles of death into his vessel in the form of a bird's song, questioning him: "Do you understand true death?" (Mystery level assessment)

—Premonition of Death: When someone is nearing death, you might be able to capture the process—its specific manifestations could be illusions, dreams, or suddenly resurrected memories—

—Charcoal Pen for Drawing Memories: Memory is the Crow's Territory—When you know someone else's memories, wield your charcoal pencil to carve or alter them, as you wish. (Mystery Level Assessment)

— "Remembered" (Special): You are a friend of the crow, and He has recorded you separately in His little notebook — What's the use?

no one knows.

The next stage of promotion was also before him:

Phase Two: The Gravedigger—You need to study "Ember" more deeply: remembering, commemorating, honoring, and bidding farewell to death—or a death itself, all of which will become interpretations of the principles of the law.

—Essential: The Gift of Growth, the Triple Foundation.

Xiao Bai: "For a second-generation secret agent like you, the ritual and materials have already been omitted for you. Anyway, Boss Crow will cover for you."

"Okay————"

Ai slowly got up from the ground, as if she had just had a very deep dream.

The next moment, the ashes that were scattered all over the sky eventually returned to his eyes like birds returning to their nests, turning into a deeper color, plated with arcs of blue, black and white light, sacred and beautiful.

"The White-beaked Etiquette has been upgraded."

Condensed Organs - White Beak Ritual (Eyeball) / Phase Two - Ashes (Criteria) / Scar / Organ / Peck Ritual / Beacon Lighted: Land of the Winged / Goo!

—"Remains", "Secret of the Black Ashes", "White Scripture", "Whispers"

(The effects of the original entry have been fully enhanced)

—The bone-white elegy has revealed to you the path to the realm of the winged—"Depth 2: The Land of the Winged":

The road signs are lit!

Add a new entry —

—Carving a whiteboard: Walking alongside white doves and black crows, you have become the proxy recorder. What has been recorded in your eyes will never be lost, never fade, never disappear. (The world may forget, but you will not.)

—Hush: Everything you gaze upon is considered within the Silence spell's influence. When your will takes hold, hush—they should be silent! (Equivalent to the effect of Mastery, group silence)

"call----"

After the tilting ceremony finally ended, Ai simply plopped down on the ground, exclaiming, "I'm exhausted!"

"Why didn't Boss Crow skip the 'silent encounter with death' ritual for me too? — It scared me to death!"

Despite saying this, the fox didn't seem frightened at all; on the contrary, it seemed more excited.

The radiance within the door resumed its previous flow, and Xiaobai murmured from the side, "Touching death is not an experience that can be easily obtained—it is a deep study of the power of the criterion. After this ritual, future advancements will be smoother, which is all good."

After exchanging a few casual words with the doorman, Ai quickly turned his attention back to the scene. He looked at the red pool to the side, where the dumb lion was still covering its ears, its eyes tightly closed, and huddled motionless in the corner.

"Wake up."

Ai walked over and nudged him twice. Simba slowly snapped out of his feigned death mode, paused for a moment when he saw the fox, and then quickly retorted, "Guh, congratulations on your promotion!"

He flapped his wings and carefully checked the surrounding area for any potential leaks. However, Mo Ya was still very reliable and didn't let even a single glance from him spill over into the mortal world.

So Simba nodded: "Guh, I guess I'm done here, so I'll be going now."

Thank you.

Ai casually suggested, "How about we exchange contact information?"

"Gurgle—"

Simba thought for a moment with his not-so-bright brain and felt that getting to know the King's friend should be a happy thing, so he excitedly said.

"No problem, here's my contact information: any general summoning ritual will do, then one barrel of sesame oil, one barrel of feather care essential oil (preferably sage flavor), forty barrels of orange juice, and 170 kilograms of fresh meat (preferably roasted, smoked is also fine, lamb is the best)."

Ai: "?"

Now, not only winged lions, but even foxes are starting to hate ritual studies.

Grabbing the silly lion by the ear, Ai began to teach this naturally mysterious being what normal communication between friends is.

Suddenly, he felt a weight on his shoulder near his ear, followed by two simultaneous "gurgles".

Black and white cuckoo are back.

Foundation's internal think tank:

"Introduction to Modern Ritual Studies: Deconstruction (People's Education Press Edition)": "The essence of modern ritual studies is to package and encrypt the 'symbolic meaning' of the registration layer, then decompress the obtained 'key', and then pass it layer by layer until it rises to the expression layer: Don't understand? That's right."

Before embarking on a true study of ritual studies, the editor suggests that those with no prior background in mysticism should first take either "Key Science" or "Compilation Science," two non-mystic courses offered by the academy—writing code won't make you rich, but it might help you avoid failing in your studies of modern ritual studies.

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