I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Chapter 188 Silence and Sacrifice

The first group of guiding symbols in the third paragraph is drawn the most fully, with the gaps almost completely closed.

He drew out the ether and pushed it in.

This time, after the room was removed, two images appeared underneath.

The image on the left shows water, the bottom of which is not visible. Looking down from above, the surface of the water is perfectly flat without a single ripple.

The picture on the right shows a fire, burning fiercely, with flames leaping upwards, turning the sky above bright.

Between the two images, there is a vertical slit.

This time, Richard couldn't tell the age or gender of the voice.

There are two kinds of people who walk through the door.

"One is to drink slowly, the other is to gulp it down."

As soon as the voice finished speaking, the image of water on the left moved.

There are people in the water.

He kept his mouth shut, tightly shut, and the water around him seeped into his body little by little, but he didn't move even as it seeped in.

He was sinking, very slowly. Richard stared at him for a long time before he could tell that he was indeed sinking.

Those who drink slowly are called the Silent Ones.

"The first rule of their lineage is to shut up."

The thing behind the door has a name, and once that name is spoken, it knows that someone is calling it.

Therefore, the taciturnists never utter their real names throughout their lives, not only uttering nothing else, but also never revealing which level they have reached.

They sank down little by little by controlling their breathing.

The slower they sink, the less likely the thing behind the door will find them.

"Some of them can stay in the water their whole lives, until they die of old age, and that thing behind the door never bothers them."

The sound paused for a moment, but the image on the left did not fade.

"But look at him."

Richard looked at the man who had sunk into the water.

He's still going down.

"He didn't lose to the thing behind the door, he lost to the water itself."

He stayed in the water for so long that he couldn't even remember why he had gone in in the first place.

He's just keeping his mouth shut, still going downhill; it's addictive to go downhill.

The image on the left didn't fade, but the image of fire on the right moved.

There are people in the fire too.

Richard didn't see it clearly at first; the fire was too bright.

"Those who drink like cattle are called the 'burnt offering' faction."

"The rules of their lineage are exactly the opposite."

They felt that the price was unavoidable; the thing behind the door would be taken away sooner or later, and hiding it was useless—it would sink no matter how slowly it sank.

Since it's unavoidable, then pay in full, all at once.

Burn it, burn it as brightly as possible.

In the video, the person in the fire is chanting louder and louder.

The flames on his body shot up so high that they turned the sky above white.

They read it aloud, facing the door.

The thing behind the door was summoned, and they traded places with it.

Two images, one on the left and one on the right, were hung in front of Richard.

One slowly sank into the water, sinking so deep that no one knew.

One was burning fiercely in the fire, burning so intensely that everyone could see it.

The scene before him returned to normal, and Richard began to record the two major schools of thought in the Abyss tradition—Silence and Sacrifice.

He had already understood what his aunt meant.

The sweetness, the strength, and the lethality of the Abyss are all found in the story.

………………

Richard went downstairs for dinner.

"Brother!" Evelyn poked half her head out from the kitchen. "We have chicken today!"

"chicken?"

"Roast chicken." The little girl held up one finger.

"When Dad got off work, he passed by Fielding's shop and went in to ask if they still had chicken."

The shopkeeper said there was only one left, and he gave Dad a 20% discount.

Richard changed into slippers and went into the kitchen.

Margaret is taking the roast chicken out of the oven.

The chicken skin was roasted to a caramel color, and the oil underneath was baked out, forming a small pool of amber on the bottom of the enamel plate.

"Sit down." The mother retied her apron around her waist. "The food will be ready soon."

There was more than just roast chicken on the table.

Next to the roast chicken was a small white porcelain bowl containing his favorite cream stew, with caramel and milky white coating clinging to the surface.

There was also a baked macaroni and cheese dish, with a crispy crust made of coarse salt at the bottom. Just by looking at that layer, he could tell how much patience his mother had put into baking this dish today.

There wasn't a single dish on the table that he didn't like.

Richard sat down.

His father also came out of the study, washed his hands, and sat down diagonally opposite him.

"Let's eat something good today." Rogers spread a napkin on his lap. "It's rare that I don't have to work overtime today."

"Um."

Evelyn set out the cutlery and sat down next to her mother first.

She glanced at her brother secretly.

Richard picked up his knife and fork.

The aroma of the cream stew wafted straight into his nose, and he could almost taste the smooth texture of the potatoes after they had soaked up all the cream.

He stuck his fork into a diced potato on the plate, raised it to his mouth, but had little appetite.

"elder brother?"

Evelyn was the first to notice something was wrong.

The small knife she was using to cut chicken stopped in mid-air.

"What's wrong?"

"It's alright." Richard picked up his knife and fork again.

"You don't look well."

I'm a little tired today.

His mother wasn't looking at him; she was adding another spoonful of stew to Evelyn's plate.

"I'm full." Richard placed his knife and fork back on either side of the plate.

"You've only taken two bites." Evelyn frowned. "Brother, this whole table of food is your favorite."

"I had a snack this afternoon," Richard made up an excuse on the spot.

"What snacks?"

"chocolate."

"Who gave it to you?"

"Grey." It's a trivial matter; my sister probably wouldn't go to Grey to verify it.

"She gave it to you again?"

"Um."

"She's too good to you..." Evelyn's brows furrowed even deeper, but her mother stopped her.

"Go upstairs and rest after you've eaten," Margaret said. "I'll make you porridge tomorrow."

"Um."

Richard stood up and gently pushed his chair in a little further.

As he reached the top of the stairs, he glanced back at the dining table.

The father had already cut off a piece of chicken leg and reached out to fork it onto his plate.

"If my son won't eat, I'll eat first, so it won't go to waste."

Evelyn angrily forked off a piece as well: "Dad, don't eat it all by yourself!"

"Alright, alright," the father said, chewing on some chicken. "Keep yours, keep yours."

My mother didn't participate in the dispute over the food.

Her gaze lingered on her son's back for a few seconds before returning to her own spoon.

Richard walked to his desk and sat down. He quickly regained his composure and began to think rationally.

The reversal rule of "Shadow Reversal" is to reverse the direction of the same spell.

From the inside out to the outside in, from oneself to the other.

"If the direction of execution can be reversed, can the cost of the spell also be reversed?"

He originally only drew a small question mark under this line of text.

Richard crossed out the little question mark with his pen.

He wrote a few more lines below in neater handwriting.

Premise 1: Shadow Reversal is currently only applicable to 'Formal Spells'.

The Fog Wall spell won't work because its core relies on the ether carried by the Grey Root Grass itself, while the caster's ether isn't truly involved.

"Premise 2: The Stone Armor can be reversed because its core is the etheric flow, and its direction of movement can be reversed."

Hypothesis: A certain type of technique in the Abyss tradition.

If one can master the 'reversal' judgment condition, can its direction of movement be reversed?

"If possible..."

He paused, his hand holding the pen hovering on the table for a few seconds.

"If possible, wouldn't the cost of this type of technique also be reversed?"

Then he wrote below.

"Possibility 1: The cost of the reversed spell is transferred to the designated object."

But how do I select the 'specified object'?

Shadow Armor can only be used on living beings with shadows, and the costs of Abyss traditions are often too high for simple shadows to bear.

"Possibility 2: After the reversal of the technique, the cost will flow back to the veil itself."

But this is unlikely, because the veil was the source from the beginning, and the cost cannot flow back to the source.

"Possibility Three: The reversal fails, and the reverse flow returns to the cultivator himself, with double the cost."

Finally, he wrote a separate line under the three possibilities.

"Possibility 4: The reversal is successful, but the reversed technique does not belong to any existing traditional category, attracting the attention of higher-level authorities."

Richard put down his pen.

Of the four possibilities, possibilities three and four would be utterly disastrous for him.

Possibility two is theoretically impossible, leaving possibility one.

He turned his attention back to the line for "designated objects".

How do I select the "specified object"?

He remembered the drawing on the white paper his aunt had drawn.

The inscribed object itself is a part of the cultivator's soul.

In other words, if there were something that could hold a part of a cultivator's soul.

Theoretically, the cost of the Abyss tradition can be transferred to this thing.

Richard's pen stopped on "The Substitute".

The traditional sweetness of the abyss is truly sweet.

Who wouldn't want to be able to annihilate the enemy with a wave of their hand?

But the price is real.

Richard closed the notebook.

The enhanced senses brought about by [Perception] allowed him to hear Evelyn still arguing with her father.

"...Leave me a piece!"

"It's still there, it's still there in my mouth."