novelraw Chapter 311: Opening a New Chapter, The Monastery’s Sacred Ritual
Chapter 311: Opening a New Chapter, The Monastery’s Sacred Ritual
[You have chosen the sixth difficulty chapter (Hell)!]
[You have entered the apocalyptic chapter.]
[Chapter 76324956]
[A powerful wandering soul awakens in a dark confessional…]
[The place you are in is extremely cramped. The space enclosed by wooden wall panels can only hold two or three people standing.]
[In front of you is a large window covered by a veil of black gauze. In the dim candlelight, through the black gauze you can vaguely see the scene on the other side of the confessional.]
[There, a corpse is curled up. The corpse is wearing a gray-white hooded cloak…]
[Because the black gauze blocks your view, you cannot see clearly, and your vision is quite blurred.]
[You lift the black gauze to carefully inspect the corpse, but your hand touches a patch of sticky liquid on the veil.]
[It is a patch of gray-white viscous liquid, giving off a nauseating, fishy stench.][You casually wipe your fingertips twice on the veil to get rid of the disgusting slime, then continue observing the corpse…]
[It is curled into a ball. You cannot see its face beneath the hood, and can only see a pair of fluffy white wings embroidered on the back of its cloak.]
[Ascended Monastery Monk Shell: The Sacred Ritual does not necessarily bring about great Ascension. It can also bring about corruption or death. Unfortunately, as the last monk in the monastery to undergo the Sacred Ritual, it did not become that lucky one. Compatibility: 135% (+55%)]
[Do you want to possess this Shell?]
Looking at the text description of the Shell, Lin Xun had already filled in the rest in his mind as some kind of bloody and evil ritual from ancient Western times.
“Sacred Ritual? Going by the usual hellish style of this game, there is no way it is any proper ritual!”
The spawn point was the safe zone, so there generally would not be any danger. He chose to possess the Shell and check its memories to learn the world background of this chapter.
[You have possessed the Ascended Monastery Monk Shell!]
[Fragmented memories left behind from the monk’s life remain within the Shell…]
[…]
[I have sinned!]
[I am unworthy to question the greatness of the Sacred Ritual, even more unworthy to refuse joining the glorious and holy Ascension!]
[Stubborn as I am, I am the last monk in the entire monastery to undergo the Ascension ritual.]
[After witnessing my former brethren grasp that wondrous power, I finally realized that arrogance, foolishness, and obstinacy are my greatest sins.]
[It is time for me to accept the Sacred Ritual…]
[…]
[The best time to hold the Sacred Ritual is during the just-past White-Fleece Snow Season. Bathed in the falling snow bestowed by the god, there is a great chance to achieve successful Ascension.]
[Unfortunately, because of my stubbornness, I missed the White-Fleece Snow Season.]
[Holding the Sacred Ritual now, I can only pray that the abbot will share some of its power with me so that I can succeed.]
[If the abbot refuses, then I will have no choice but to seek out that greedy and stingy Grand Monk…]
[Having witnessed that wondrous power, even if I must exhaust all my family wealth, I must undergo the Sacred Ritual and become one of them.]
[Perhaps even the most obstinate me having been moved was enough. The abbot is willing to take nothing in payment and perform the Sacred Ritual for me.]
[…]
[When the abbot plunged its barbed stinger into my body and injected that gray-white ritual blood…]
[In that moment, I felt as if I beheld God!]
At first, Lin Xun had thought that the Sacred Ritual might be some sort of bloody and evil rite.
But when he saw this part, he could not help showing the expression of an old man on the subway looking at his phone.
A barbed stinger?
What in the world was this abbot supposed to be?!
[…]
[After the ritual ended, the abbot told me an extremely unfortunate piece of news… the ritual failed!]
[The reason for the failure did not lie in any mishap during the Sacred Ritual itself, but in myself… my faith was not devout enough.]
[To me, this was like a bolt from the blue!]
[I knew that now I had only two paths I could choose…]
[One was to let the corrupting power rampage through my body and ultimately become a demon.]
[The second was also the most dignified choice, to end my own life!]
[After seeking the abbot’s permission, I came alone to the confessional, to confess to God the sins I have committed and pray that I may use death to obtain forgiveness for everything…]
[If only I had not been so stubborn, if only I had undergone the Sacred Ritual during the White-Fleece Snow Season, perhaps the outcome would have been different…]
[…]
[The fragmented memories end here!]
Lin Xun finished reading the monk’s memories, frowning.
The memories contained a lot of information, but the intel he knew at the moment was too little. He could not string together the key pieces from the memories to restore a complete chapter background.
He memorized several key terms: Sacred Ritual, Ascension, White-Fleece Snow Season, stinger, failure and corruption…
Then he controlled the newly obtained monk Shell and began exploring.
[You stand up and push open the small door, leaving the confessional…]
[In front of you is a huge page floating in midair.]
[You have discovered a fragment of The Book of Salvation – Resting Page!]
[Do you want to touch the Resting Page?]
[You ignore the Resting Page and look around…]
[The vast confessional hall is empty, with only a few confessionals set up.]
[It is currently the dead of night, and all is silent. You can only hear the occasional crackle of burning candle flames.]
[Through the stained-glass windows of the confessional hall, you can see that the sky outside is shrouded in dark clouds, and the monastery courtyard is overgrown with weeds, desolate and barren.]
[You bypass the Resting Page to explore the remaining confessionals…]
[Exploring…]
[…]
[In the corner of one confessional, you discover a piece of incomplete gray-white skin…]
[You have obtained Broken Shed Skin of an Unknown Creature (Junk)!]
[Searching…]
[You find no other items of value.]
Lin Xun opened the Inventory and checked the item information.
[Broken Shed Skin of an Unknown Creature (Junk): A gray-white shed skin sloughed off by some creature due to growth. It is composed of a waxy layer and a chitinous layer. Because the skin is incomplete, you cannot determine which creature the shed skin came from.]
Looking at the item description and combining it with the key information he had just obtained, he vaguely guessed what kind of creature it might be.
[On the left and right sides of the confessional hall are each a large door leading elsewhere. You ponder where you should go…]
[You remember that the door on the left connects to the Sacred Hall, and the door on the right connects to the Prayer Hall.]
[Where do you want to go?]
[You stride forward and open the door on the left, heading to the Sacred Hall…]
[You look around. The hall is filled with rows of wooden benches, and at the far end is a raised platform covered with a red carpet.]
[As the name suggests, the Sacred Hall is the place where the Sacred Ritual is held. Usually, the abbot of the monastery or the Grand Monk performs the Sacred Ritual here for believers who yearn for Ascension.]
[You remember clearly that it was right here that the abbot held your Sacred Ritual for you, and all the priests and monks of the monastery came to witness the ceremony, though you unfortunately did not become that lucky one.]
[You move your feet and walk toward the platform…]
[The red carpet on the platform feels soft underfoot, but it is soaked in a layer of gray-white viscous liquid. Every step you take, threads of slime are drawn between your soles and the carpet as you lift your feet…]
[At the very center of the platform stands a ritual vessel as large as a bathtub, and what is soaking inside it is that familiar gray-white slime.]
[You notice that beside the ritual vessel, there is also a small bottle. It too is filled with gray-white slime, but unlike the rest, the liquid inside the bottle glimmers with a strange luster.]
[You have obtained Ritual Blood (Ruined item)!]
[Ritual Blood (Ruined item): The bottle contains blood used for the Sacred Ritual, within which tiny egg-shaped objects are floating. The blood seems to have only recently been poured into the bottle and has not yet lost its Ascension activity.]
[By using this item, you will have a certain chance to enter the first stage of Ascension!]
[Please note, Ascension can fail. Please use this item with caution!]
Lin Xun frowned and did not recklessly use the item.
Since he had not yet figured out the background of this chapter, it was better to be cautious.
He continued exploring the Sacred Hall, but aside from the one bottle of Ritual Blood, there were no other items of value.
The large quantity of ritual blood in the bathtub had clearly lost its activity and no longer had any Ascension effect.
[On the left and right sides of the Sacred Hall, there are still two large doors. The door on the right connects to the confessional hall you explored earlier, and the door on the left connects to the monastery courtyard.]
[Where do you want to go?]
Just as Lin Xun was about to click an option, he saw the text start to scroll rapidly…
[The door on the left suddenly swings open, and a tall figure walks in…]
[A gray cloak covers the figure tightly, stopping you from seeing the newcomer’s face. You can only see on its chest the same wing symbol as yours.]
[The tall figure suddenly stops, then lunges forward sharply as a flash of cold light streaks before your eyes…]
Lin Xun had been on high alert and fully prepared.
Naturally, he reacted extremely fast. Knowing the newcomer was hostile, he hurriedly switched Shells.
[You possess the Desire-Bearing Greedy Wolf Star Lord Shell!]
[You form the sword seal, and the Star-Shifting Celestial Sword turns into a streak of fierce sword light that swiftly pierces through the newcomer’s chest…]
[The sword light is so swift that it not only punches through the figure’s chest, the force it stirs up also flips back its hood, letting you see the newcomer’s true face.]
[Its head is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. Within the two fist-sized eyes glimmers a densely packed, hair-raising light, formed by honeycomb-like hexagonal facets of compound eyes.]
[You have discovered the Ascended Monastery Cleric!]
[The Ascended Monastery Cleric stumbles for a moment, then continues lunging toward you. As it attacks, its sleeves fly open, revealing half a length of sharp blade-like legs!]
[It seems that the grave wound of having its chest pierced is far from enough to deal it a fatal blow.]
[You once again drive the sword seal, and a fierce sword light flashes!]
[The cleric’s bizarre head flies off, yet its body is unaffected. It repeatedly swings its blade legs down at you…]
[You twist aside to dodge the cleric’s attack. Headless, it continues hacking madly forward until it crashes over several benches, whereupon its limbs twitch and it slowly dies…]
[You have defeated the Ascended Monastery Cleric. Your experience increases slightly!]
[You look at the headless corpse lying on the ground…]
[Ascended Monastery Cleric: A cleric who has successfully achieved first stage of Ascension through the Sacred Ritual. Having already grasped transcendent power, such clerics desire nothing else. Their final wish is to cross the strait and reach the divine kingdom of their dreams.]
Lin Xun’s mouth twitched.
Ascension, Ascension. So it was not Ascension into immortality, but Ascension into bugs…
So the Sacred Ritual was the transformation from human into bug?
This new chapter was really… as hellish as it gets!
[T/N: Ascension mentioned here is 羽化 which literally means ‘to grow feathers’ or ‘to transform into a being with wings.’Just thought you should know since feathers, wings etc constantly pop up during this arc.]