Chapter 137: Sacrificial Ritual

Wilde walked into the room and surveyed his unfinished sacrificial ritual.

The purpose of this ritual was to extract the blood of the Sky Wolf within Heris, and tracing back to the source using the power of this ‘evil’ god, to reconstruct an actual Sky Wolf that controlled space and time.

If successful, he would have a Destructive-rank dream beast as a familiar spirit.

For this ritual, he had chosen to use ‘Precant’ Morphey’s Coffin of Eternal Slumber as the ‘altar’. With its power of ‘resurrection’, it would simplify and bring much stronger purpose to this ritual.

This powerful sorcery tool belonging to the leader of Scarlet Cult had been sought out and fought over after her death before eventually falling into the hands of Wilde.

In addition, the offerings in this ritual were ‘a two-winged messenger of the sun with a red crown and sharp talons’, ‘a pale, fat and four-limbed body signifying the sins of avarice, incompetence, and foolishness’, as well as ‘an intoxicating fluid that could cause excitement, paralysis, and loss of rationality’.

Wilde, a well-learned black magician, quickly understood that the offerings in this ritual were the ‘crimson brimstone wyvern’, a ‘sinner of avarice’ as well as ‘depraved potion’.

For this ritual, it wasn’t difficult to acquire the offerings. However, the steps needed were way more complicated than any other ceremony he had done in the past. Currently, Wilde was on his third try.

To ensure the effectiveness of the ritual, Wilde had done his utmost to acquire the best possible offerings.

For example, Wilde had chosen the illustrious head of a noble family from Norzin as his offering for the ‘sinner of avarice’.

This fellow’s true identity was actually the son of a commoner and had no relation to this family at all.

That’s right. He had assumed an identity within the family, and eventually became the patriarch.

Back then, this noble family was experiencing a crisis and entrusted a loyal servant with their newly born son to flee and bring him out of harm’s way.

The loyal servant fled with the youngest son but was unwittingly discovered. Thus, he handed the young boy to his friend and his wife before luring the pursuers and eventually sacrificing himself.

The couple themselves had recently given birth to a boy, and thus pretended to have had twins, raising them both together.

In the end, that noble family escaped disaster and rose again, but had unfortunately lost all their heirs because of the turmoil.

Hence, they sent people out to look for that young son.

One day, the commoner son inadvertently overheard his parents talking about it and avarice started to cloud his heart. He suggested an idea of swapping his identity with that of the noble family’s heir but his parents didn’t agree with it.

Because of his parent's objection, the commoner son killed them.

After that, he also killed the true son of the noble family and used a keepsake to fake his identity and enter the noble family.

During the entire process, his avarice swelled. By cooperating with black magicians, he turned his fake identity's mother and sisters into his slaves. He also killed anyone who might know the truth and treated them cruelly till they died. Eventually, he also managed to get the old family patriarch killed, installing himself as the new patriarch, and taking control of this noble family.

Such a remarkable history made him the perfect sin offering, and he was now a corpse on the altar dripping with blood.

Most of the blood that had flowed onto the ground came from this avaricious man known as Jeffrey Norton.

Wilde approached the altar constructed from the Coffin of Eternal Slumber. Going from the bright hall to the dark gloomy corner shrouded his sinister face in the shadows, leaving only his beady, green serpentine eyes reflecting the cold light.

His gaze fell on the pale and plump limbs on the altar.

With some chagrin, he sighed. "I've just done the bloodletting stage... The rituals in your book are really quite difficult and the descriptions used are rather cryptic. It takes me quite a bit of time to digest and understand all these. 

"You even have to personally guide me, because of my ineptitude. I truly apologize for this."

Lin Jie took his seat once more and drank some tea. "Don't be sad, Old Wil. I already said from the start that this can only provide you with some ideas, after all the language and culture gulf is just too vast. It's normal that you wouldn't understand. Everyone has their own specializations and perhaps you need to find someone adept in this area to help you."

This book had crossed over two worlds and it was only natural that Old Wil wouldn't understand a lot of things written inside.

And there was also the issue of cooking which required some skill and moreover, the cuisines were completely different.

"You are right." Old Wil let out a sigh of relief.

Lin Jie returned to the issue at hand. "Bloodletting... It's rather difficult for a beginner. Actually, I'm not very good at it too and have gotten it all over the floor too. Hahahaha."

Old Wil laughed dryly. "You are kidding me."

"Alright, no more jokes." Lin Jie toned down a little and went on, "You will continue to prepare the offerings next by removing the innards."

"Remov...Removing the innards?"

"Yes. Later on, each different viscera has to be cleaned separately. Now, first use your hands. Oh... this step can't be done with tools. Old Wil, I suggest you wear a glove if you are afraid of getting dirty. Use your hands to dig out all the organs. Remember to scoop them all out till it’s clean."

"Alright... I'll try my best. All of it?" Old Wil was somewhat hesitant. He might be a brutal black magician, but he had never done something so cruel and perverse before.

Boss Lin is a preacher of an evil god indeed. He's able to easily achieve what the other faiths can't.

"Yes, all of it. Remember to clean the intestines another time. It would also be better to stuff it with strong spices. After all, I don't think that the gods would want to eat an offering that has a peculiar aftertaste," Lin Jie smiled and cracked a joke.

Wilde acknowledged, thinking to himself that the spices probably meant the depraving potion. 

After that, Lin Jie heard all sorts of weird sounds from behind the partition wall.

It's probably just the sound of cooking. There's nothing strange to it.

After waiting for a while, Lin Jie received word that Wilde was done. 

Smiling, he resumed giving out instructions. "Now that these innards are ready for use, I'll teach you an interesting rite. Cut out a large piece of meat without any bone, then use..."

Lin Jie paused mid sentence. He had wanted to say chopsticks, but realized that Wilde had never used chopsticks nor knew what they were. Thus, he modified his instructions. 

"Use four thin wooden sticks and thrust them into the four corners of the meat. Then, place the intestines within and wrap them up into a ball."

Old Wil seemed to gasp, hesitating for a moment before asking cautiously, "W-What does this rite do?"

This cruel ritual reeking of blood had an ancient barbarism that was peculiar, devious, and terrifying.

"Uhh... This ceremony is to pray for blessings and it can bring about good fortune and goodwill from others."

Lin Jie changed the original saying 'bless our children and grandchildren to meet benefactors everywhere they go' into a fat white lie to protect Wilde. 

After explaining it, he chuckled, "It's a special sacrificial ceremony from a certain region that I've written about in my book before. Isn't it very interesting?"

Wilde couldn't help but shudder. Is this the blessing of the corpse devourers? To lightly treat these offerings in such a twisted manner, as if everything were just playthings...

"Interesting, very interesting indeed." The black magician mused, feeling as if he had stepped into the gates of a new world. 

[Author Note: This is an actual sacrificial ritual in the Shaoxing during the Spring Festival where they roll up chicken or duck intestines inside pork on chopsticks.]