A pure silver pocket watch, a small bag of dreamlily powder, and the glow-amber solution.
Elias dipped his finger into the glow-amber solution and, using the elemental revolver as the center, quickly sketched a complex circular pattern on the rough wooden tabletop after removing the tablecloth.
In the center of the pattern, he carved a holy emblem representing the Moon Lord.
He placed the pure silver pocket watch directly above the ritual pattern to serve as an anchor.
Next, he carefully sprinkled the dreamlily powder in a uniform circle along the inner ring of the diagram.
Everything was ready.
Elias closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He guided the spirituality within his body through his fingertips, slowly injecting it into the array on the table.
In his dry throat, he began to chant the obscure prayer in a low voice:
"To the Waxing Moon phase, the Maiden of Spirituality."
"Pray, with Your veil-like radiance, brush over my sleeping consciousness."
"Grant me entry into the dream without losing my way, to see illusions without falling into depravity."
"Let the eyes of spirituality remain open in the depths of the dream..."
As the final syllable fell.
In the center of the array on the wooden table, the drops of glow-amber solution suddenly began to glow faintly, emitting a cold silver light.
This glimmer instantly activated the dreamlily powder in the inner circle.
Without any open flame, the powder began to melt at a visible rate.
A strange fragrance immediately filled the enclosed room.
The mechanical ticking of the gears inside the silver pocket watch was suddenly amplified infinitely.
At first, the sound was on the table, but after a few seconds, it seemed to ring directly in the depths of Elias's mind. Each tick felt like a heavy hammer smashing against his nerves, bringing waves of intense dizziness.
Old Ed's raspy voice rang out in his mind at the right moment, carrying the arrogance of a veteran guiding a newcomer:
'Kid, close your eyes and wait patiently.'
'Spirituality needs to pass through the Origin Web to eventually reach the edge of the Moon Lord's dream.'
'You must not be distracted during this period; you need to wait for the Moon Lord's res...'
Before Old Ed could finish, his voice stopped abruptly.
'What the hell? Damn it? You entered the dream already?!'
'The Moon Lord responded that fast?!'
'How is that even possible?!'
While Old Ed was fuming in reality out of jealousy and shock.
Elias's consciousness had completely left the room.
When he opened his eyes again, a cold wind hit his face.
He found himself stepping on soft soil, walking along a dream path hidden in grass that reached his knees.
This was an endless grassland that stretched as far as the eye could see.
On the distant horizon lay a continuous, massive mountain range covered in white snow.
Just like when he was forcibly pulled into the woodland Audience before, this dream world was also set at night.
The sky was cloudless and filled with stars.
In the very center of the night sky hung a huge, cold, and lonely single moon.
Elias stood in the wind, shivering from the cold, his mind filled with confusion.
'This isn't what Old Ed said at all!'
He complained wildly in his heart.
According to the old man, when entering a dream for the first time, to prevent consciousness from being assimilated by the spirit world, the scene the dreamer sees should be the most familiar and common things in their subconscious.
When Elias closed his eyes and recited the prayer, he had even envisioned it in his mind.
He thought he would likely dream of his cluttered modern urban bachelor apartment from his previous life.
Or perhaps a miserable office filled with computer screens.
According to the original plan.
He needed to quickly find a mirror in that familiar setting.
Then, he would whisper to himself in the mirror: 'I am dreaming, and I know I am dreaming.'
This was the critically important 'dream anchor' in mysticism.
This was used to lock one's cognition and prevent the fragile consciousness from sliding into the depths of the spirit world.
Only after completing this step could he draw the three moon phases—'Waxing', 'Full', and 'Waning'—on a table or wall in the dream.
Then he would call upon the deity corresponding to that authority, state the question he wanted to ask, and loudly declare his willingness to accept all unknown consequences.
The steps were clear.
But now a problem had arisen.
Jiang Huan looked at the absurdly large wild grassland before him.
'Where am I supposed to find a mirror here?!'
Moreover, there was nothing here but grass and snowy mountains; it wasn't a place familiar to his subconscious at all.
Faced with this sudden situation that was completely outside the textbook, what should he do next?
Old Ed's oral textbook hadn't mentioned this at all!
Elias could only bite the bullet and follow the path at his feet, looking around.
As he walked.
Finally, under the faint starlight, he saw a shimmering lake appear ahead.
Water would work.
'Using the lake as a mirror should follow the rules.'
He made a snap decision and quickened his pace toward the lakeshore.
As the distance closed, the sight before him made his steps slow down involuntarily.
It was a lake as large as an inland sea, its surface so calm there wasn't a single ripple. It was like a giant mirror, perfectly reflecting the stars in the sky and that lonely moon.
And all around the lake.
A dense crowd of animals stood, heads bowed as they drank.
To the left was a pack of grassland wolves as large as calves.
To the right was a large herd of wild horses with shiny coats.
These two groups, which should have been mortal enemies as predator and prey, were now eerily close to each other.
They stood quietly by the water, bowing their heads to lick the lake.
This strange sight, which defied biological common sense, gave Elias a sense of inexplicable familiarity.
He suddenly thought back to the previous Audience.
That silent woodland.
He couldn't help but wonder about the relationship between this grassland dream and that woodland from the Audience.
Unfortunately, he currently knew too little about the secrets of this world; even if he racked his brain, he couldn't come up with a reason.
Since he was here, he might as well make the best of it.
Elias took a deep breath, forced down the creepy sense of weirdness in his heart, and walked toward the lake.
He carefully threaded through the gaps between the wolves and the horses.
Elias reached the lakeshore and crouched down.
He joined this bizarre drinking party.
Of course, he was only there to look in the mirror; he wasn't thirsty.
The biting chill of the lake water hit him through the air.
Elias leaned forward and cast his gaze upon the lake surface, which was as flat as a mirror.
However, the moment he saw the reflection.
Elias's entire body shuddered. It was as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight, and he fell back onto the grass in fright.
Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
The face reflected in the lake was not Elias's otherworldly vessel with its slight mixed-race features!
It was a face with black hair and black eyes, radiating the unique exhaustion of a modern worker!
It was his original face!
It was the shadow of Jiang Huan!
The intense sense of ontological dissonance made him feel a wave of physiological dizziness.
He raised his trembling hand and couldn't help but touch his cheek.
The 'Jiang Huan' on the lake surface also touched his cheek with a terrified expression.
This dream could actually reflect the truest card held in the depths of his soul?!
'This is bad, I'm going to be exposed!'
Alarm bells rang wildly in Elias's heart, his heartbeat like a drum.
This wasn't right. Was he being watched by some entity?
Act natural!
He had to act as if nothing was wrong!
He forced himself to look away and scrambled away from the water.
In his panic, he found a patch of exposed, dry, hard earth by the lakeside.
He had to confirm it!
He reached out his finger and quickly drew the patterns of the three moon phases on the dirt.
Waning Moon.
Full Moon.
Waxing Moon.
According to Old Ed: after asking, close your eyes and quietly count seven breaths.
If a certain moon drawn in the dream glows, it means you need to look in a certain direction in the dream for the answer.
If all three moons go out at the same time, it means the deity refuses to answer; get lost.
But if the three moons turn blood red, you must immediately and forcibly end the ritual and cut off your spirituality, because that means an extremely dangerous high-level entity is watching you.
Ssss—
The moment Elias finished the final stroke with his fingertip.
The three moon patterns on the dirt lit up simultaneously.
Elias stared fixedly at the light on the ground.
But the moment he saw the color, his expression, which had been tense to the limit, became extremely strange.
"Blue?"
Elias rubbed his eyes.
"What the hell?"
It wasn't the silver light that represented guidance, nor the darkness of rejection, nor the fatal blood red.
It was a blue light.
A blue moon?
What did this represent?
Laundry detergent?
He searched wildly through his memories of Old Ed's previous rambling, but that damn old man hadn't said a word about what blue meant!
Was it that the old man had senile dementia and forgot to mention it, or did the Dream Prayer Ritual manual simply not have this damn rule?
He was caught between a rock and a hard place.
Elias gritted his teeth and could only put the strange blue light aside for now.
Since he had already come this far, he couldn't go back empty-handed.
He sat cross-legged on the dirt, closed his eyes, forced himself to calm down, and tried to ask the void.
His voice echoed by the empty lakeshore, carrying a hint of a tremble he couldn't hide:
"In the name of the Waxing Moon phase, the Maiden of Spirituality."
"I wish to know: Is my contaminated elemental revolver completely scrapped?"
"I am aware that the answer may be presented in symbols, allegories, or forms that I fear."
"Whatever You bestow, I am willing to bear."
After finishing the long, chuunibyou lines.
Close eyes.
Quietly count seven breaths.
One.
Two.
...
Seven.
After counting, Elias opened his eyes and sat by the lake, waiting nervously like a well-behaved student.
There were no earth-shattering phenomena.
No holy, ethereal divine whispers.
And no symbolic allegorical images smashed into his forehead.
Aside from the sound of the wind, there were only the faint sounds of animals licking the lake water.
Just as Elias thought the ritual had completely failed and was preparing to pack up and forcibly cut off his spirituality to wake up.
Chomp.
The wild horse that had been standing beside him, bowing its head to drink, suddenly stopped.
It raised its massive head.
It turned its neck and stared at Elias, who was sitting on the ground.
Then, the horse's mouth slowly opened.
"No, try again in half a month."
"The horse?"
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