I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Richard leaned back, and the back of his chair creaked.

I already have a plan.

The scepter rejects the replacement.

He walked over by himself, using all the techniques of a master who could replace his clothes.

He took his thieving tools and knocked on the judge's door, only to be met with peanuts.

What if he went there in his own capacity?

Richard Williams, scholar and practitioner.

His relationship with Thoth was far cleaner than that between the Black Earth River Dad and Thoth.

What does Thurton manage? He manages recording, writing, weighing, and real names.

What do scholars do? They read, decipher, authenticate, and keep accounts.

The two things are the same thing.

His eyes lit up, but then dimmed again.

The Seed Trial is the seed of the Black Soil River Master, and he uses the Master's shell in the trial.

The entire trial was conducted within that framework.

Moreover, nothing can be brought into the environment created by the seed.

The two Thoth artifacts in his hands had no corresponding counterparts in the trial.

Richard stared at the three cards again.

But what if he changed his approach...?

The object itself cannot be taken in, but the things that the object does for him can remain in his mind and go in with it.

He used these two Thoth artifacts to first complete a full set of rituals for “correcting the bookkeeping”.

After completing the entire process, the results and procedures of the ritual are internalized.

Upon reaching the scepter, he used ethereal transmission to completely hand over the completed work, along with his identity, purpose, and reasons for doing so.

Richard slowly stood up and paced back and forth in the cramped dormitory room.

He shoved the chair against the wall, making a dull thud as it collided with the desk leg.

His inspiration came from the copper paperweight and bronze scales on the table.

He had found this set of ritual documents in the museum's ancient book section.

The standard procedure for priests in the Black Soil River basin to record the merits and demerits of the deceased in the courtroom.

The first section is "The Register of Those Who Have Arrived".

Establish files to record the identity and origin of visitors.

The second section is "The Record Presented".

List out which line was altered and what it should have been.

The third section is "The Oath of the Recorder".

The recorder signs and affixes their fingerprint, declaring the record to be true and accurate. By signing, they are essentially welding their credibility onto the ledger.

He sat at his desk, his fingertips lightly touching the beak of the copper paperweight.

When Thoth first met him, he asked him a question.

"What does the clerk want?"

If you "remember the name," it's equivalent to taking it away.

He wouldn't need to move any physical items out of the warehouse at all.

What he had to do was to find the altered labels on those thirteen old items, correct them one by one, and record the real names in his own accounts.

Once the accounts are settled, the rituals are completed, and the names are returned to their proper places.

He had the names of all thirteen old items.

According to Thoth's rules, this means taking everything.

Richard sat back down, and the chair back creaked again.

There is also an operational issue.

During the trial, he moved deep within the warehouse, using Donald's shell.

The scepter reads the shell, first revealing the label of the replacement, and then there's no time to look at anything else.

Unless he removes the shell when he gets to the scepter.

To verify his conjecture, Richard went to the library the next morning and found an old annotated edition about Thoth's relationship with the courtroom.

There was a passage in the annotation that he should pay attention to.

Before entering the courtroom, the court clerk must first wash his hands and be weighed in the outer hall.

Wash your hands, removing anything unrelated to the trial.

To weigh, to weigh one's purpose on a balance scale.

Once he had done both things, even the monster in the courtroom that was always devouring people wouldn't touch him.

This part finally put Richard's mind at ease.

Every step of the ritual is documented and traceable.

The next night.

The paperweight and the calming mirror rested quietly on the desk; Richard had already used them to complete a whole set of tasks ahead of schedule.

[Seed entry point is now open.]

[Entrance Selection: V. Deep within the Museum Storage (Sealing Array Area)]

When he opened his eyes again, he was already standing at the deepest part of the warehouse.

All the preliminary steps were skipped.

The true names of all five old items were read out, the mirror-like seawater turned upside down, and the sun and the hearth fire were drawn out.

The city's sensing network has found the window of opportunity he needs.

All five shells were in place, and Richard was now inside Donald's body.

Deep within the storeroom, the sacred bird on the scepter's head had its eyes half-closed.

This time, he stopped outside the silver line and shed his shell.

The shadow peeled away from Donald's body, the whole process like a snake shedding its skin.

The shadow stood outside the silver line.

Pure black, without facial features, a black mass slightly shorter than a human figure.

But in the very center of the black mass, the inverted tree of light in the Sun Constellation faintly emitted a warm glow.

The watermark left by the ritual procession in the dormitory was illuminated with exceptional clarity.

The sacred bird on the scepter twitched its eyelids.

Richard felt an extremely subtle force sweep across the shadow's entire body.

Replacement traces... there are, remaining on the outermost ring of the shadow.

Beneath the replaceable traces are his own etheric traces.

The sacred bird's eyes widened slightly; it recognized the traces of its own kind, and the scepter hesitated.

Richard didn't give it much time to hesitate.

He began using ether to transmit information.

"Richard Williams, scholar, practitioner, signed at the Sphinx Lamp."

Work already done: reconciling accounts.

This paragraph is short and clear.

The scepter was verified as he passed it on.

It was only when the signature on the Sphinx lamp was discovered that its identity was fully confirmed.

In the second message, Richard pushed out all the information he had accumulated from the three trials, one by one.

"The real name of the person who falsified the accounts has been lost; only three segments of his name remain."

"The first act of falsification: taking the real name of a living person for one's own use."

The scope of this project spans the capital city area, the Black Soil River basin, the Levant, and the Greek states.

"The second act of alteration: using a 'mirror' to reflect the form of a living person, and using a 'substitute' to penetrate the shell of a living person."

The replaced entity loses its original name and becomes merely a vessel.

"The third act of tampering: covering thirteen old artifacts from the Black Soil River in the Imperial Capital Museum with forged ether labels."

The original owner of the old items was unknown, and they were forcibly incorporated into their network.

He handed over nothing but the truth; not a single word was false.

In transmissive tube recording, the key is to record "not a single word more or less".

The more stacks there are, the more carefully the scepter is read.

The more carefully you read it, the more certain you will be that the account is genuine.

The sacred bird's neck began to tilt slightly forward.

In the third message, Richard pushed out the last one.

"The oath of the recorder."

"I, Richard Williams, declare that the record presented is true and accurate."

"If there is any falsehood, I am willing to accept the judgment."

By signing and affixing their seals, they welded their credibility to this account.

On the scepter, the long, reed-pen-like beak of the sacred bird points towards the ceiling.

The nine silver lines gradually dimmed outwards from the center.

The cage didn't come down, and Richard walked into the passage.

As he walked past the scepter, the sacred bird on the top of the scepter closed its eyes.

The name of the wondrous object was already in his hands.

Every detail that needs to be recorded is included, and every sentence that needs to be written is written without omission.

This is what he has been guided to do all along.

Richard withdrew his inspiration and gave a slight bow towards the scepter.

The scene before him changed again, and he returned to the stone chamber with its four walls tightly closed.

In the very center of the stone chamber stood the figure of the holy figure with a scimitar-shaped head.

After these four trials, Richard had gained some insight.

The statue of Thoth in the stone chamber and the holy scepter in the storeroom are actually the same one.

This time, Richard's image was reflected on the bronze mirror.

"You've come over." Thoth used Richard's own voice.

He held the reed pen upright, with the tip pointing downwards.

"The power of the recorder has never been light."

"When you write something down, that thing is nailed to the curtain."

"When you write a name on something, that thing is forever bound to that name."

Thoth's mirrored head tilted slightly.

"The name you give must be 'real'."

"You see what it is, you write down what you see... that is the name."

"If you write it wrong, your name will come back to haunt you."

"If the writing is off-target, the name will be distorted."

"You wrote down a name that even you don't believe in..."

Thoth placed the notepad in front of him.

The line of text on the board lit up.

"...That's isfet (fake)."

"The name of the false will eventually devour the one named."

Richard stood on the stone slab.

Thoth placed the reed pen horizontally on the memo board.

"It is not a force."

"It is a right."

"The right of the recorder—to name."

"You spoke words that no one taught you to say in front of the scepter."

"Do not usurp, do not fake, and do not use the name of others to seek personal gain."

"Only record what you have seen."

Thoth disappeared, and the dense inscriptions on the stone chamber walls began to glow.

Light seeped through the walls and gathered in the center of the stone chamber.

The panel lit up at the bottom of the field of view:

The seeds have all germinated.

[Gained Ability: The Recorder's Pen (m??wn mntw s?)]

[Nature: Classical texts (fragments)]

"Effect: Allows you to name a specified target and grant it a temporary bonus."

"Trigger condition: The target is completely resolved from the ether layer to the matter layer."

"Warning: Naming must not be fabricated or made up. Excessive deviation will lead to backlash, the degree of which depends on the extent of the deviation."

There is a line of supplementary explanation at the very bottom.

"The name of inscription is the pen, the analysis is the ink, and the ether is the paper."

If any one of the three is missing, the character cannot be written.

Richard was pondering the effects of this naming ability when he was drawn to a new line of text.

[Bonus Extract: Its Real Name (Full)]

Status: Sealed.

[Reason for sealing: The holder's rank is insufficient to bear the burden.]

[Warning: Any form of active recall, silent recitation, writing, or transmission will trigger resonance.]

Once resonance occurs, the holder will be locked.

Richard was somewhat dizzy from the sudden message.

He had already guessed what abilities he would gain after completing the trial when he attempted the ritual.

This information caught him completely off guard.

The stone chamber began to darken.

Tote stands in the center of the stone chamber, Richard's reflection shimmering in the mirror.

It's even clearer now than when I first came in.

"Go." Thoth's voice was still Richard's own.

"The first day of the Year of Truth begins the moment you open your eyes."

The grayish-white light faded, the outline of the stone chamber blurred, and a pulling force came from behind.

My gaze returned to that dormitory room.

Richard lay in bed, recalling the three passages of honor he had read during the trials.

"He who walks in the land without light, and breathes with the shadow."

"He who once used a mirror to reflect the names of all things."

"The flesh is sealed, the bones are engraved, only the shadow remains forever in the world."

Reciting the name in the real world will only bring misfortune, but will not have the slightest effect on that master.

The one that was sealed on the panel was actually a real name!

Richard recalled the ancient story of Isis and Ra.

The true name of the sun god has been seized, and it is no longer invincible.

Now, Richard holds the real name of this Black Soil River expert in his hand.

Although it was sealed away by the panel and he couldn't even think about it, it was definitely there.

Her real name is Chains.

You grabbed it, and the other end of the chain was tied to that expert.

The two ends of the chain are connected; you can reach him by following the chain, and he can find you by following the chain.

If that expert were to follow the trail... Richard dared not think any further.

He glanced at the small print on the panel one last time, then folded it back up.

I repeatedly told myself: Don't think about it, don't remember it, don't write about it, don't touch it, pretend it doesn't exist.

At the same time, a very secretive yet somewhat ambitious idea rose from the depths of his heart.

He's not high enough in rank to lift the chain.

But the chain was sealed there, waiting for him to use it at any time.

One day, perhaps a long time from now, perhaps not so long... his rank will reach a point where he can bear his true name.

That day, he picked up the chain again...

Richard put his thoughts to rest, staring at the ceiling, trying his best to suppress the upward curve of his lips.

Don't laugh, hold it in!

Laughter can make you feel lightheaded, and when you feel lightheaded, you tend to overthink.

But even if Richard himself didn't want to, the other side vaguely sensed that something was wrong...