musicians of old

Chapter 838 Ritual, Path, Radiance
Thanks to China's years of exam-oriented education, Fan Ning's English is pretty good, but his German and Italian are only half-baked, purely self-taught by a "classical music enthusiast" who dabbles in various subjects.

"The Most Secret Chamber of the Core of the Umitra Faith"—Fanning didn't even know how accurate his translation of this German title was.

The "Mitra" in this context is also a pronunciation he made up randomly.

As for the main text
The reading comprehension of the main text was quite challenging for Fan Ning.

If he were to sit down and spend time reading it carefully, he might understand two or three tenths of it, but Fan Ning still felt that it would be better to first carefully search this area of ​​victims to see if there was anything else. Therefore, he understood almost nothing during this first quick glance.

After searching for a while, Fanning found some similar booklets elsewhere, some in the bottom compartments of instrument cases and toolboxes, and others scattered on the ground, broken and incomplete.

"The Ultimate Secrets of the Core Chambers of the Umitra Religion," "The Orthodox Lineage of the Umitra Religion and the Debate on Right and Wrong," and "The True and Supreme Grand Vision of the Umitra Religion."
The titles are generally similar, but the languages ​​are becoming more diverse, mainly English, German, Italian, and Russian, with others as well. Some booklets even contain several languages, and there are also some strange languages ​​that Fanning does not recognize.

"Umitra religion"

"Could it be that 'Mitra' is a secret society on Earth?"

"Could it be that these artists invited to Himachal Pradesh for the 'Scriabin Tribute Event' have, in addition to their public identities, another identity in the hidden world—that is, are they all members of this secret society? Or perhaps not all, but most of them are? My father, with such an ordinary background, only takes commissions to make money; he must be one of the very few who have been drawn in."

Fanning had never heard of the name "Mitra" before, but as a young person who grew up with the development of the internet, he had heard some conspiracy theories from what he had heard.

For example, the much-discussed "Freemasons"—aren't there many famous and powerful people in the world who are "Freemason members"?

Secret societies might actually exist.
"Clatter, crash, crash -"

After gathering a thick stack of booklets in his hands, Fanning spread them out on the ground.

Using the flashlight's illumination, he began to read the main text one by one, selectively skimming through it, of course.

There are many languages, and with English, it's relatively easier to understand.

Fanning managed to understand a small portion of the text by piecing together what was almost half of it in English, along with his mediocre German and Italian.

The text is overly mystical, with many metaphors that are vague and ambiguous. Some words are clearly common vocabulary and not difficult to translate, yet their meanings remain unclear.

Even so, a strange flash of insight within his mind was still driving Fan Ning's understanding. He felt that if he were in another time or state, he would be able to comprehend the hidden knowledge more clearly than he was now, but not now, not yet. Only a kind of cognition, like looking through a murky frosted glass, was driving him.

This secret society, the Mithras, worshipped or served the "Sun"—yes, no quotes, it should be the Sun. In Fanning's somewhat haphazard understanding, the core content of the pamphlet was to describe their "supreme mission," or the "grand plan" or "great achievement" guided to them by the oracle of the Sun.

What they want to do can perhaps be described as a...
"A plan to enter, possess, and even surpass Radiance?" Fan Ning frowned, pondering the implications.

The sentence that follows says, "It must lead us all into eternity," which contains both "must" and "should," making the use of modal verbs quite mixed and contradictory.
Moreover, what exactly will the so-called "original light that everyone yearns for" turn them into, and what does eternity mean? It seems that no booklet can explain it clearly, or perhaps Fanning himself just couldn't understand it.

Fanning continued reading.

This "plan to enter, possess, and even surpass the Radiance" has two key points regarding its implementation. These points seem to be in no particular order, but rather are two sides of the same coin, mutually dependent and complementary.

One key point is to design a ritual to achieve "disenchantment";
The second key point is to construct the "path".

Is this translation of the two words accurate? Fanning wasn't sure. How exactly will it be implemented, and how will it be constructed? The comprehensible parts of the booklet don't seem to explain that; instead, a large amount of redundant text is used to describe, envision, or imagine the scenarios after their plans are realized.

What they plan to build is not just a one-way "path" to the radiance, but a "path" that is winding, unobstructed, and accessible in all directions.

This section continues to include some obscure words that Fanning had no idea how to translate, such as "Aeon" and "Pleroma".
Or the vocabulary itself is very basic, but even if it is translated semantically, the meaning is still unknown, such as "Glorious Tower", "Door", and "Awake World".
For the first case, Fanning could only pronounce it purely and transliterate it as "Yiyong" or "Pulei Ruoma". For the second case, he would temporarily translate it literally, such as "Glorious Tower", "Gate", or "Wake-up World".
So, with Fanning's forced translation and imaginative interpretation, this "path" would first connect all the key nodes of the "Tower of Glory," "Pureroma," into the "Radiance," and its outer edge would connect to the shifting mountains, basins, and wastelands. Finally, it would even connect to the world of the waking world!
However, such a grand undertaking, like building a very tall and large structure, carries construction risks; the "path" is actually quite prone to collapse and decay.

Therefore, the key to building a stable "path" lies in establishing "pillars"!
But what exactly is this "pillar"? No booklet can explain it.

The repeated emphasis on the process of erecting the pillars is "a supplement or perfection of an ultimate truth".
Upon reaching this point, Fan Ning encountered the situation again where he was faced with vocabulary difficult for elementary school students, but still couldn't understand it, and he couldn't help but sigh.

These brochures describe "pillars" as being like "triangles," and the following pages are filled with references to "triangles."

triangle?
Who knows what that means?

In addition, there is a hand-drawn illustration that frequently appears in various sections of these booklets.

The main subject of the illustration is a human wearing a crown and a starry cape, straddling the back of a bull, with his left hand lifting the bull's head high and his right hand holding a blade stabbing into its body.

A bunch of grapes hangs from the cow's wound, and its tail is depicted as a stalk of rice. Hounds and snakes bite it from the side, and moths, lions, the moon, and torches are also vaguely depicted in the picture.

"The Slaughtering of Cattle?" Fan Ning subconsciously came up with the name.