I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Chapter 149 Ignition of Fire

"Everything that needed to be said has been said. Let's begin the dive," Captain Field said. "Maggie has experience; she'll go first."

The freckled girl walked to the center of the stone house circle.

She placed her oak cane horizontally in front of her and closed her eyes.

Richard used his spiritual vision to observe her condition.

As Maggie recited a nursery rhyme in ancient Gaelic, she shifted her silhouette slightly to the left and behind the half-circle wall as she reached the third line.

Her feet didn't move, but she did move her whole body less than an inch to the side and back, and then moved back the next second.

Richard then realized that this was a "test".

Her microcirculation had already located the door, and she was confirming the angle at which to open it.

"I've found the door." Maggie opened her eyes.

"Then let's go," Captain Field instructed.

Maggie took a half step to the side and back, and then she disappeared completely.

The newlyweds were speechless with astonishment at the sight of this miraculous transformation.

Theodore, in particular, reached out and touched it twice, only to find that he had only touched thin air.

"She's still there," Sarah said to the other three newcomers. "Use your clairvoyance to see."

Richard, Edmund, and Theodore each pushed their visions out.

Maggie, on the other side of the gray screen, waved to them and then moved back from that side.

As she stood in the center of the stone house circle, she opened her eyes.

"...How are you feeling?" Theodore asked hurriedly.

Maggie took a deep breath.

"It was similar to the time my mom took me," she said. "My eyes were blurry, my ears felt stuffy, and my skin was a little itchy."

"Itchy?" Edmund asked, somewhat puzzled.

"When the ether concentration increases, the skin reacts a bit."

Maggie explained, "My mom said that most newcomers experience this reaction, and it stops itching once you get used to it."

"Did you see anything?" Richard asked.

"I see you," Maggie said, "but I can't see you very clearly."

Edmund was the second to go up.

He took the cross pendant from his chest, held it in his palm, and softly recited an evening prayer.

Upon reciting the third line, he took a step to the side and rear of the stone house circle and disappeared.

Edmund, standing on the other side of the gray curtain, turned and looked toward their side.

The third was Richard, who walked to the center of the stone house circle.

Richard didn't learn to recite nursery rhymes like the locals, nor did he learn to recite prayers like the priests.

He used a fourfold breathing technique that he had mastered.

When the second complete cycle ended, he could feel that the leaves of the Sun Constellation's light tree had opened to a certain critical angle.

He could sense where the "door" was.

During the exhalation phase of the third cycle, he took a step in that direction.

Things happened very quickly, and the view of the material world completely disappeared from the corner of my eye.

The outline of the entire highland summer village turned gray.

Richard stood on the other side of the door.

For the first time, he directly experienced the world behind the curtain.

But this first experience wasn't very good; he seemed to have accidentally dived a little too deep...

The enhancement brought by [perception] is a clear and helpful force in the material world.

However, this infiltration behind the curtain turned into an overly sensitive fall.

My feet kept sinking, and it felt almost like I was sinking into quicksand.

He heard a voice in his chest that didn't belong to him.

That was an invitation.

Go down, to the lower level.

This layer isn't as thin; there's something else in this layer.

This is a distortion of inspiration amplified in a high concentration of ether; his own inspiration is deceiving himself.

Richard was a little anxious, but he knew that he couldn't panic, especially at times like these.

The rhythm of the four breaths had not yet broken.

He immediately reversed the direction of the push and pulled himself back with the same force.

The whole process took less than three seconds.

Soon, the stone house in Highland Summer, Captain Field's face, the shotgun belt in Sarah's hand, and the real world returned to their field of vision.

Richard opened his eyes, and in those few seconds, he felt as if he had been transported to another world.

"You came out pretty quickly," Captain Field said, looking at him. "What's wrong?"

"You slid too deep." Richard wiped his sweat. "I accidentally went a little too far in."

"A little too much?" Captain Field's expression changed drastically.

"Um."

"...How many seconds were you in there?" The huntress's expression changed as well.

"It took me about two or three seconds to pull it back along the original path."

The two breathed a sigh of relief.

"Go through the breathing technique again," Captain Field said. "Let's steady ourselves for now."

Richard completed another full cycle using four breaths.

The leaves of the tree returned to their normal positions, and the constellation of the sun resumed its stable operation.

"Let's do it again," Captain Field said. "This time, reduce the push by half. If anything happens, remember to blow the whistle, and we'll come and pull you back."

Richard restarted the machine as instructed.

The second push was much lighter, and he could see the gray silhouette of Highland Summer House at the same time.

Richard withdrew again.

When he opened his eyes, Captain Field's face was very close.

"Your inspiration level is higher than average for newcomers, which is both a good and a bad thing. Pay more attention next time."

"understood."

The last one is Theodore.

The boy from the horse farm wasn't so lucky. He muttered incantations, but he still couldn't complete the infiltration.

"Don't worry," Captain Field reassured him. "It's not that you can't do it, it's that you haven't found the right approach."

"Don't force it." Sarah walked over and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Follow my breathing rhythm."

With help, Theodore finally completed his infiltration.

After being pulled back, he squatted on the ground and vomited.

After vomiting, he wiped his mouth, but his face was still white.

"I spent ten years looking at that darkness underground in the mines," he said to the person next to him, "but it didn't disgust me as much as this place."

“The mines are dead,” Sarah said. “The shore is alive.”

"Living a more disgusting life."

All four newcomers successfully completed their first attempt to cross into the nearshore area.

Captain Field looked at the sky; the sun had already begun to set from its highest point.

"Back to the main topic," he said. "Today's cleaning area is within two hundred meters of this summer house."

"Is it safe?" The boy from the horse farm asked worriedly; his face was still pale.

"Relatively safe." Captain Field nodded.

"Today I'm showing you the world, not making you risk your lives. Most of the targets we're clearing out are the lowest-level evil beings."

"Mostly?" Edmund grasped the key word.

"Mostly." Captain Field nodded.

"The Summer House in the Highlands is a sacrificial scar left by the Midsummer Fire, and the concentration of ether is not very high."

"The main targets are the lowest-level evil creatures, with one or two low-level evil creatures occasionally passing by."

"Above this level, the low concentration environment here will make them uncomfortable."

After infiltrating again, Richard stood at the easternmost position.

The outline of the Highland Summer Lodge is still there, with the fallen lintel stone, half a broken wall, and a clump of reeds on the ground... but everything has turned grayish-white.

The grass is still there, but there is sediment under the grass roots.

The fear, hatred, love, and resentment of those who died on this land over thousands of years have settled on this side of the veil, slowly churning it up by the etheric layer.

There were indeed some other things around...

Aside from the afterimage in the basement, this was the first time Richard had directly seen an evil entity.

Their shapes are blurry, and they look like a grayish-white cloud.

The center of the air mass bulged, resembling the umbrella of a jellyfish.

This thing moves slowly on the ground, stopping every so often to press the umbrella into the soil.

"That's a bewitching lamp, the lowest level of evil artifact," Maggie whispered from the side.

"What is it doing?"

"Eat, eat the ether left on the ground."

"Is it like an ethereal version of a moss-eating animal?" Theodore used a metaphor.

"similar."

Will it attack people?

"Normally, it won't actively seek out enemies, but if you stand nearby, it will quickly cover your face and drain your life force."

Maggie glanced at Theodore's face:

"Being covered up is similar to having your head covered by a wet blanket."

And he will continuously drain your strength, leaving you weak and unable to struggle.

In the following time, the four newcomers practiced their skills.

Edmund's spellcasting method is similar to Richard's Moon Nail, but the dart strikes out as a small cross.

The cross pierced the umbrella of the bewitching lamp, and the mist began to dissipate from the point of impact.

Maggie's knife skills were so proficient that they didn't seem like those of a scholar.

Before stepping into a bewitching lamp, she held her oak staff horizontally in front of her, transforming herself into a tree on the ethereal level.

The knife was lifted from the bottom up, the umbrella was cut open, and the fog dissipated with a whoosh.

"That's a hunter's method," Captain Field commented from the side.

“My family is full of hunters.” Maggie wiped the blade. “I’ve watched them work since I was a child.”

"Then why don't you become a hunter?"

"Hunters risk their lives every day." The freckled girl smiled. "I have five hunters in my family, and my mom said she wanted to keep one who uses their brain."

Theodore fired three shots.

The third shot was a lead-silver bullet, and the reload speed was so slow that Sarah frowned. But this shot cleanly shattered the bewitching lamp.

"Do you know why the second shot didn't work?" Sarah asked.

"Regular bullets won't work," Theodore admitted.

"What about the first shot?"

"...My hands were shaking."

Why are your hands shaking?

Theodore thought for a few seconds, then honestly replied, "Because I'm scared."

Sarah nodded: "Don't pull the trigger when you're scared. Hold your breath until you're not scared anymore, then pull it. Taking a second longer is easier than missing a shot."

"Yes."

Richard used a moon nail to make one.

The tiny, bluish-white nail heads, about the size of rice grains, pierced through the umbrella of the bewitching lamp, but did not disintegrate as quickly as those struck by a cross-shaped nail.

"The characteristic of the Moon Spike is its penetrating power," Captain Field observed.

"It's more effective against thick-skinned evil spirits, but against those without skin, like the Bewitching Lamp, it's not as efficient as the Cross Nail."

"Understood."

"You just need to know where the Moon Nail's advantages lie. Today, I'm letting you test it out."

Around the twenty-fifth minute of the cleaning, things changed.

Richard's inspiration started by sounding the alarm.

Near the shore, on the high ground of Xiashe, there was a ball of fire in mid-air about five steps away from where he was standing.

It hangs there quietly, about a person's height off the ground.

Richard retreated quickly while keeping an eye on the others.

Captain Field waved for them to retreat quickly, and Sarah raised her shotgun.

The boy from the horse farm retreated the fastest; his bronze compass played a crucial role, allowing him to be almost the first to discover the situation.

Maggie's face turned pale instantly: "...Ignite the fire."

The young priest ignored him and walked toward the orange light.

Richard shouted.

"Edmund!"

The young priest did not look back; he left resolutely.

"The three of you retreat one after another." Captain Field strode after them.

Edmund was now just one step away from igniting the fire.

Richard's right hand touched the revolver at his waist, but after thinking about it, he gave up the idea of ​​firing.

"Don't fire, it's easy to accidentally injure someone." Captain Field seemed to know what Richard was thinking.

On the other side, the huntress kept aiming.

"Bang!"

Sparks flew from the gun muzzle, and the sound rippled through the gray-white landscape of the entire hillside summer village.

The silver bullet grazed past the young man's shoulder, less than a finger's width from the outside.

The bullet hit its target, and the detonator popped with a "pop," just like a bubble.

A swarm of random light condensed into a small clump of powder on the ground.

Edmund lay on the grass, his clothes smoking from the top half of his body, but he suddenly regained consciousness.

Captain Field checked it out.

"It's a minor burn, nothing serious."

"Williams, your keen perception saved you." He glanced back at Richard: "You were the first target when the fire was set."

He told the other three newcomers, "Return to the material world."

Richard, Maggie, and Theodore immediately retreated back into the stone house area and quickly crossed back to the material world side.

The colors of the material world rushed back to Richard's eyes, stinging him.

He resisted the urge to rub his eyes.

Meanwhile, Captain Field pulls Edmund back into the real world.

He sneaked back in, took a glass bottle from his backpack, and used a small silver spoon to sweep the powder into the bottle.

After collecting their loot, he and Sarah returned to the real world.

"This clump of powder is called 'Taoist Ashes'," he said, holding up the glass bottle.

"The fear of a traveler who gets lost and dies in the wilderness will solidify, and this fear will emerge from behind the veil by borrowing the image of a falling fire from highland legends."

"What's it for?" Theodore asked.

"Grind it into ink."

"Words written with ink ground from 'Taoist remnants' have a 'guiding' function on the ethereal level, and seal masters use them as guiding symbols."

"That sounds useful."

"Of course it's useful." Captain Field nodded. "A body that ignites a fire usually yields three grams, and the market price is five shillings per gram."

"One ball weighs three grams... fifteen shillings," Theodore calculated quickly.

"As is customary," Captain Field said, "this regiment belongs to Sarah today."

But after Sarah took the glass bottle, she casually tossed it to Edmund, who was half-lying down.

Edmund caught it with difficulty, looking somewhat puzzled.

"……Give me?"

"You used yourself as bait." The huntress glanced at him. "Consider it compensation."

"I didn't 'offer myself'," Edmund said, his face slightly flushed. "I took the bait myself."

"Here you go." Captain Field also came over.

"The church sent you here. Take this bottle of 'residual ashes of the Way' back with you. At least you'll have something to show for it."

Edmund gripped the bottle tightly in his hand.

"……Thanks."

"Don't thank us." Sarah slung her shotgun back over her shoulder. "Thank yourself for not dying today."

She turned and walked toward the carriage.

Edmund walked last, his left hand resting on his burned right shoulder.

After walking a few steps, he said to Richard beside him, "Just now... you called my name."

"Um."

"I didn't hear it; it was a different voice in my ears."

"What is it?"

The wind blew down from the top of the hill, sweeping across the young man's charred coat.

He let the wind blow on him, and breathed a sigh of relief, feeling like he had just escaped a disaster.

"It's my father."

"He's telling me to go home."