13 Mink Street

Chapter 81: Time To Practice

Early the next morning, Rudd, his wife Elena, and their daughter Camilla saw Ms. Jenny and Karon’s group off as they boarded a cargo ship.

Once the ship had left the harbor, Karon was about to go to his cabin when Ms. Jenny deliberately walked over to him and stated, “I heard you drank with Rudd last night.”

“I drank orange juice,” Karon replied.

“Rudd is a very straightforward man. He doesn’t have bad intentions, at least not toward his own people.”

“Yes. I could tell. Mr. Rudd is a good man.”

“And Camilla?” Ms. Jenny asked suddenly.

“Camilla? Who is that?”

“Rudd’s daughter.”

“Oh. So her name is Camilla.”

Ms. Jenny stared closely at Karon, while Karon looked back with sincere confusion.

After a moment, a faint smile appeared at the corner of Ms. Jenny’s mouth. “When we boarded and said goodbye, I noticed Elena and Camilla looking at you in a slightly odd way.”

“Did they? I didn’t notice.”

Ms. Jenny pointed at her own nose. “Camilla even took off her nose ring, and didn’t you notice what she was wearing today? She looked almost too gentle, even if she still isn’t used to dressing that way.”

“Madam, I think it’s rude to stare at other young ladies.”

Ms. Jenny leaned in and brought her mouth close to Karon’s ear. He caught the warmth of her perfume. “You need to remember this at all times. You and Eunice are engaged. Both grandfathers set it.”

“I’ve always remembered, madam.”

“Good.” Ms. Jenny backed away slightly and continued, “Very good.”

She turned to go to her cabin. Eunice stepped forward to take her mother’s coat, but Ms. Jenny shoved her aside. “Go help your man.”

Eunice stopped where she was and turned to give Karon an apologetic smile.

Nearby, Pu’er was sprawled atop the golden retriever, lightly pawing at one of its ears. She commented in a low voice, “When there’s someone else fighting over the food bowl, the meal tastes better.”

Eunice accompanied Karon into his cabin and started making up the bed. When she finished, she said, “Don’t take Mother’s words to heart.”

“I won’t.” Karon shook his head. “I was happy to hear them.”

It was probably a matter of perspective. From a man’s point of view, hearing a future mother-in-law telling you to stay away from her daughter, or hearing a future mother-in-law telling her daughter to keep a close eye on you, the latter naturally sounded more pleasant.

Eunice stepped forward and reached to hug Karon.

Pu’er rode in on the dog’s back just in time to see this. She immediately patted the golden retriever’s other ear as well, leaving it so aggrieved that it flattened both ears against its head. “Good. Everyone has a strong sense of competition.”

They held the embrace for a long time before Eunice finally left the room.

Karon sat in the nearby chair. Pu’er jumped onto the newly made bed. The golden retriever pawed at the edge, hoping to climb up, only to receive Pu’er’s glare. “You think you belong on the bed?”

Whine...

The dog grudgingly went to the corner and lay down.

Pu’er lay on her side on the bed, waved her paws a few times, and said, “On this trip home, I felt the stupidity of my family.”

If they weren’t stupid, they would never have run the family into such a state.

“But I’m also somewhat relieved, and I even hope they can all be as stupid as Rudd. Stupid isn’t frightening. Stupid, but lovable, is fine.”

Rudd’s temperament, strictly speaking, did not meet the standard for a member of the direct line of a major family. He was impulsive and too emotional. He had a personality that was great for making friends, but made it hard to truly accomplish great things, let alone return a family to its former glory.

To be willful was fine. To be carefree was fine too, but the premise was that you needed at least Tiz’s strength, the kind that let you confront the Church of Order and still protect your family so they could continue living quietly and safely.

A family’s rise required a great many people to cut through thorns, to dedicate themselves, and sometimes to make sacrifices. Maintaining a family’s position also demanded all kinds of payment. Rudd did not meet those requirements. The greatest achievement of his life would be running a smuggling post on an island. Even so, Pu’er was satisfied with his performance. If she were not currently a cat, she would have wanted to pat his shoulder and tell him that he was a lovable descendant of hers.

“Karon, the ship will reach York City’s harbor tomorrow morning. After that, we’ll ride by carriage, and will reach the Allen manor at around midday or early afternoon. I hope the people in the manor are the same kind of stupid and lovable.

“You know what’s truly frightening in this world? Not a truly intelligent person, and not a truly stupid person, but the sort who thinks he’s clever while actually being stupid.”

“Are you standards for your family already so low?” Karon teased.

“Because I’ve placed the hope of my family’s revival on you,” Pu’er stated in a tone that sounded as if it was perfectly natural. “Didn’t I tell you? You’re not a heretical god.”

“But I did steal a body that had been prepared for a heretical god.”

“That’s too high up. I can’t see it. People... no, cats are like that. They fear the darkness in front of them and yearn for the boundless stars. Besides, I think you’re a good person, Karon. Truly, you are. You’re a refined egoist, but you’ve always had a bottom line.”

“Is that praise?”

“Of course.”

“I think we can spend less time talking about things like that.”

“As long as you drink water and eat meals, you’ll have saliva,” Pu’er continued. “For the last ten years, I didn’t speak as much as I have in these past few months with you. When Tiz was young, it was fine, but after he grew up, he didn’t like talking to me. Of course, that might also be because of the height he stood at and the things he saw. I can’t really understand them anymore.”

Karon opened his notebook and placed his fountain pen beside it. He then turned to face Pu’er, who was still lying on the bed. She was affected by his seriousness and sat up.

“We’re about to reach Veyn,” Karon said. “In fact, you could say we’ve already arrived.”

“Of course.”

“So there’s something important: I think we can begin preparing now.”

“For example?”

“For me to become a Divine Servant.”

Pu’er nodded. “Naturally. I wasn’t going to leave you without a way forward. So, have you decided which system you’re going to walk?”

“Tiz never mentioned anything like that to me.”

“Tiz told me that if I secretly helped you to purify yourself, he’d throw me into the sea.”

“Now you can.”

“Yes.”

Karon and Pu’er sat facing each other. About three minutes passed before Karon spoke. “Don’t tell me you never once thought about how to help me practice?”

Pu’er cried out, “Why would I think about which path Tiz’s grandson should take in his place?”

“So you’ve made no preparations?”

“Uh... I can think on the spot. Does that work?”

“I’ve learned a little from books and from what I’ve seen. I’m asking you now; systems, how many kinds are there?”

“Many.” Pu’er answered seriously. “In this world, there isn’t only the church system. Of course, the church system is the thickest of them all. Its foundation is deep, its trunk is thick, its branches are dense, and it reaches high.”

Pu’er began pacing across the bed. “That’s why the church system is universally acknowledged as the most stable and the best. But even within that, there are different churches. A major church’s system is definitely better than a minor church’s system, but that isn’t absolute. Some minor churches have systems that are hard to walk, but once you step onto them, you can become very formidable. Some major churches aren’t particularly good at fighting, or from the beginning, their original trunk was not for fighting, like the Church of Principle that Mr. Hoffen belonged to. Also, in different regions, different environments, and under different needs, it’s hard to say precisely which is superior and which is inferior.”

“What about the Church of Order?”

“The Church of Order is the best at fighting out of all the church systems!” Pu’er waved a fleshy paw. “If your fist isn’t hard enough, who would be willing to follow the order you set?”

“Good, I understand. Then what about outside the church systems?”

“Then there are even more types, like family systems. Every family has its own inherited legacy. For example, Rudd, who you saw yesterday. When you shook his hand, didn’t it feel like your hand was burning?”

“Yes.”

“The Allen family’s system is tightly linked to water and fire. If you keep walking that faith system, the practitioner’s ability to control water and fire can be strengthened. For example, when I was still human, I was best at dealing with fire. Long ago, Aseros’s favorite thing to do was find a deserted beach, lie there, and have me use fire to roast off the barnacles clinging to its lower body.”

“What’s the difference between a family system and a church system? Or is it that if a system isn’t big enough it’s called a family system, and once a family is large enough and has enough branches, it becomes a church system?”

“No, no, no! You can’t summarize it by size. Because in a family system, one basic point is involved, and that is bloodline.”

“Bloodline?”

“Yes. A family system can exist as a branch of a church system, as internal supplementation to a church system, but a family system can never become a church system. Like your Immers family. You are an Inquisitor family under the Church of Order. Your family can produce members above the level of Inquisitor generation after generation. That proves there is a legacy within the Immers bloodline. But can that legacy branch out into a church? That’s impossible. A family system can’t take in outsiders. The only way it grows is by producing descendants.

“The Church of Principle once studied this issue. The more descendants a family system produces, the more diluted its legacy becomes. It’s like throwing a sugar cube into a cup of coffee, you can taste sweetness. But if you throw it into a swimming pool and drink from it, you won’t taste anything. When it reaches that point, there’s no need to walk the family system at all. It may even be better to walk a church system instead, because a church system is designed to suit the masses out of necessity. It only requires spirituality from you. Only after you go upward do things start to depend on your own comprehension.”

“I see. Then how does a family system form?”

“It’s similar to a church system. Tiz’s view is that people first had faith, and only then would a deity that carries that faith appear. The first ancestor of a family system could have been someone from a church, or someone who comprehended something elsewhere that caused a profound change to his body and bloodline. Then that faith, or you could call it conviction, can be passed down through the bloodline generation after generation.

“So a church system has faith in a god, while a family system has faith in an ancestor. Believers pray to a god and receive power from that god. Family members pray to their ancestor, or to the conviction that ancestor forged and left behind, and receive empowerment. The source is different, but the process in the middle is actually very similar.”

“Besides these two systems, what other systems are there?”

“There are too many. You can’t count them. Some strange forms of faith may not be suitable for proselytizing, or are too extreme, so they aren’t accepted by the masses, like the totems of primitive tribes. Even faith in a stone, faith in a bone, faith in a copper coin, all of that is possible. This kind of primitive worship can also give birth to a corresponding system. It may not be able to expand to many believers, and it may not have a universally strong path, but you can’t rule out that in some era, at some time, a genius suddenly appears and rises very far within that system.

“These messy systems could take three days and three nights to talk through. But there is one that can be singled out for discussion, and that is the heretical god system.”

“The heretical god system?”

In the corner, the golden retriever perked up its ears.

“A heretical god is a special kind of existence. Do you know why a heretical god is labeled heretical?”

“It should have no direct relation to the heretical god itself.”

“Correct. A god that is defeated by a true god, formally judged, and stripped of legitimacy at the level of belief is called a heretical god. Of course, there are also cases where the god itself acts with ruthless methods until inciting public outrage, and there are cases like Rilsaar. The Wall God Church was originally a tiny church, and the Wall God was only a minor god, but she insisted on painting a mural of the God of Order’s end while the God of Order was at the height of power. Then, she was suppressed by the God of Order and identified as a heretical god, becoming a heretical god.

“There is another pattern. A god that is labeled a heretical god will generally have its church system on earth erased as well. This is easy to understand. If you have no believers in the human world, there is no one to speak for you. If they say you are a heretical god, then you are a heretical god.”

“Understood. Then this system...”

“But even a heretical god at its lowest is still a god. When a delicacy is contested by a crowd, compared to being fed from a heretical god’s broken bowl, the latter often yields more. That’s why heretical god legacies tend to be small, but unusually concentrated.

“Of course, there have been precedents of heretical gods making a comeback, rebuilding their church, and washing away the stigma of being heretical, but the proportion is extremely low. Take Linda, trying to use a grand divine descent ritual to summon Rilsaar. It wouldn’t even require the God of Order to act. Those elders like Sithe could casually slap Rilsaar back down again. Even if the divine descent had succeeded, they would most likely have immediately tracked her down and strangled her before she recovered.”

The golden retriever listening in the corner swallowed.

“But the heretical god system is alluring. The radio demon probably had that intention toward you from the beginning. That is to say, if you want to walk the heretical god system, well...”

Pu’er glanced at the golden retriever in the corner. “Just kneel before it and pray devoutly. ‘Great heretical god dog,’ or ‘great dog heretical god,’ or call its true name. Then when it responds to you, you can enter that system. It’s just that, if you say it out loud, it might be embarrassing. For example, someone says, ‘I have faith in the God of Abyss,’ ‘I have faith in the God of Principle,’ ‘I have faith in the God of Nature,’ and then you come out with, ‘I have faith in a dog.’ Hahahaha, meow!”

Pu’er laughed so hard she rolled around on the bed. The golden retriever frowned, its dog face grave.

“Then which system do you think suits me?” Pu’er stopped laughing. In her mind, images surfaced of Karon in the basement workshop on Mink Street, again and again awakening the dead.

Finally, she said, “The Church of Order’s system.”

But very quickly, Pu’er added, “Only, when Tiz reached the end, it seems that he discovered the road is blocked. Even though Tiz was far, far along, and very, very high, I think you have a chance to reach those same heights. Besides that, your family legacy, your familiarity, the ability you’ve shown, to make the dead dance, I think that what fits you best is still the Church of Order’s system.”

“Then we’ll go with the Church of Order’s system.”

“Aren’t you worried?”

“Because Tiz never told me I can’t go with the Church of Order’s system?”

“You’re very reasonable. There must be something different about you, which is why Tiz thinks you can avoid his mistake.”

“The specifics,” Karon asked. “How do we do it?”

“The proper method is to find a local branch of the Church of Order when we reach York City, become an ordinary believer, and let long-term prayer bring about the first signs of purification in your soul and body.”

“And the improper method? I remember it requires a holy relic?”

“Yes. The former is casting a wide net that can discover truly good seedlings, but it takes too long, and it’s too slow. So normally, anyone with conditions will choose to use a holy relic as assistance. The aura of a holy relic can help you complete a purification more effectively, and the grade of the holy relic can also influence the degree of purification. The more solid and stable your first step is, the more the later road benefits, like laying a foundation.”

“You can help with purification. I remember.”

“Of course.” Pu’er lifted her chin. “It feels strange to call myself this, but I really am a very high grade holy relic, to the point that grade might not even be the right word.

“When you prepare the purification ritual, place a copy of the Light of Order in front of you. If you can recite it, you don’t even need to place it there. I will press my paw to your forehead. As you recite the Doctrine of Order, you will also call to the God of Order with all your heart. Once you receive a response, your body will undergo subtle changes. I will seize that change and catalyze it, accelerate it, so that it will proceed more thoroughly and more perfectly.

“Once this ritual is complete, you will be a Divine Servant. You can even present yourself as an unaffiliated Divine Servant of the Church of Order and report to a local branch to join them, but you must not use the Immers surname.”

“Can we do it now?”

“No.”

“What else do we need?”

“First, we need blessed holy water, or leaves, or even playing cards. In any case, we need a large quantity of blessed objects placed around you. Once the purification ritual begins, these things can help offset some bad, hm, balefulness. That’s a word you can use.”

“Like drinking milk immediately after accidentally swallowing heavy metals?”

“Yes, about that. Those blessed things are actually cheap. You can buy a lot with money, because there are specialized Divine Servants or Divine Seekers who make a living blessing these things and selling them. Also, the most important thing is time. We need a quiet private space, no interruptions, so the ritual can be completed properly.”

“How much blessed holy water? How much time?”

“For an ordinary person, one bowl is enough. The ritual takes five minutes.”

“Oh, then that’s easy to prepare.”

Woof. Woof. Woof. The golden retriever suddenly barked.

Karon pointed at it. “What is Kevin barking about?”

“It says it isn’t enough, it isn’t safe, and it isn’t stable.”

Woof. Woof.

“It says you need a swimming pool of blessed holy water, and you need three days and three nights.”

“That much.” Karon said in surprise.

Woof.

“It says yes.”

Woof. Woof. Woof.

“It says, first, your body has to be modified by it, and second, your soul must be able to compress it, so you must be even more extraordinary.”

Woof. Woof. (You can worship me and walk my system.)

“What did it just say?”

“It’s daydreaming.”

“...”

“Then what do you think?” Karon asked.

“I think its requirements make sense, but if it’s that large a quantity, we’ll have to wait until we reach the Allen estate and ask them to help prepare it. Or you can gather it yourself by buying it. That radio demon definitely has a lot of money.”

“Then we can only wait until we’re ashore and settled.” Karon shook his head helplessly. Three days and three nights were easy to arrange, but a swimming pool of blessed water was a major project.

“One last thing, Karon. Normally I wouldn’t say what comes next until just before purification, but your preparations are too large, so I’m saying it now. Be serious. This is procedure. Whether it’s a church system, a family system, or a heretical god system, before you enter it, there is a question that is always asked. Think it through, carefully, and then answer honestly.”

Karon straightened slightly and nodded to Pu’er. In an extremely solemn voice, she asked, “This is a road fated to be lonely. This is a road with no way back. This is a road full of confusion. So are you truly ready to step onto this road?”

Karon closed his eyes and began to think. He spoke slowly, “Actually, I’m not ready.”

In Karon’s mind appeared Ms. Molly’s huge mouth, Mr. Mossan’s crying, the little girl who danced her final dance before his eyes, the Sisso family who did not choose vengeance but instead chose to embrace each other, and Mandira, who had given him a farewell kiss. In the end, the image that surfaced in Karon’s mind was the family which had surrounded him from the moment he first opened his eyes in this world, and especially, Tiz.

“Because from the moment I first opened my eyes in this world, I was already on that road.”