56 The Gain: Part 2

Faint moonlight came through the only window in the storeroom.

Lin Sheng stood alone in the dark, chanting in a strange rhythm smoothly and naturally like he was singing a special musical piece in an unknown language.

The Initiator needed to be repeated over and over again, and in the standard ritual, it had to be repeated nine times.

When Lin Sheng finished chanting, he did not find anything unusual, so he did it a second time, then a third time, and a fourth time…

He had practiced alone before, but nothing unusual happened. But now, as he stood in front of the circle, watching the three dark red masses gradually solidifying, he felt a vague and sleepy feeling well up in his heart. His consciousness seemed a little confused.

His brain drifted into a half-asleep, half-awake state, and his eyes, as the ritual required, remained fixed on the blank spaces in the middle of the circle. The blank spaces were now slowly twisting and turning.

Not long after, a basin-sized whirlpool formed at the center of the plastic sheet.

He suspected that he was hallucinating, but he was halfway through the ceremony, and it could not be stopped. Lin Sheng continued chanting the strange and mysterious Initiator.

Swayed by the inexplicable melody, the whirlpool in the middle of the circle gradually stabilized.

He managed to lift the bowl in his hand and pour the mixture of the three materials into the whirlpool.

The great mass of thick liquid seemingly fell into the water with a splash and disappeared in the middle of the circle.

*Shhh…*

Suddenly, a faint sound came from the whirlpool.

Lin Sheng stared at the whirlpool as a blurred human face slowly emerged from the surface of the whirlpool.

It was as if the face was being covered by a cloth, and it was growing clearer by the second, protruding from the whirlpool. It looked like it wanted to break free from the whirlpool, open its mouth, and shout.

At that moment, Lin Sheng struggled with all his strength as he grabbed the redwood block and threw it into the whirlpool.

The block hit the face.

*Boom!!!*

In an instant, Lin Sheng was stunned by a sudden roar.

Unable to support his limp body, he dropped to his knees, his hands touching the greasy floor.

He could vaguely hear a myriad of noises echoing in his ear. The voices, like hallucinations, interwove and mingled until they became whispers.

The soft, seductive murmurs kept resonating in Lin Sheng's ear, as though they were passing down some evil knowledge.

After a while…

Under the moonlight, Lin Sheng shook his head vigorously. He felt cold all over, and his face was wet.

He wiped the moisture away and looked at it in the moonlight.

"Blood...?!" Lin Sheng was startled.

He got up slowly and quickly examined his face.

There were blood clots in his ears, nostrils, mouth, and eyes.

Lin Sheng quickly peeled off the blood clots and rubbed off the residual blood.

"So… I did it?"

He tried to recall the process, but it was so nightmarish that he could not remember what had been whispered in his ear.

He just knew that he was cold, and there seemed to be a subtle change in his body.

There appeared to be a chill in the space between his chest and stomach. It was like an ice cube, releasing a constant stream of coldness into the depths of his internal organs.

Strangely, the chill did not pierce into his bones. It was not too hard to endure.

After a moment, the chill was gone as if his body had absorbed it.

"That's it?" 

Lin Sheng stretched out his hand and looked at it. His body seemed to be the same as before, just a little lighter. Though, his muscles trembled as he tried to clench his fists.

"The Sacred Blood... Burning…" Suddenly, a few words unexpectedly came out of his mouth.

It felt like something was slowly burning deep under his skin.

A huge, inexplicable force had apparently been born out of nothing, and it was spreading rapidly from Lin sheng's heart.

Power... An endless stream of power gushed into Lin Sheng's body.

Under the moonlight, spots of blood began to appear all over his skin.

Lin Sheng covered his heart and tore open his collar all of a sudden.

In the middle of his bare chest, a mass of dark purple veins were clearly protruding from his skin, similar to a spider's web crawling across his chest.

"This!?"

Lin Sheng gnashed his teeth and reached out to touch the dark purple veins.

It was as though a second heart was growing on the surface of his skin. The icy cold veins were pulsing.

"Damn it! What have I done?"

Lin Sheng loosened his collar and punched the wall.

*Bam!!!*

The entire storeroom shook as if it had been smashed by a heavy object.

He looked at the wall in the moonlight. A fist-sized hole was visible on the wall.

"My strength has grown so much?!" Lin Sheng raised his hands in disbelief and examined them carefully.

He knew from the fragments of Annie's memory that the ritual was extremely dark. The stronger the host's spiritual will, the stronger the power he would gain.

And for some reason, the ritual could only be carried out once.

He did not expect the ritual to be successful and give him such strong power!

Lin Sheng just wanted to give it a try to see if the knowledge he gained in the dream realm would work in the real world.

But now…

"It works!"

He looked at the plastic sheet on the floor. The moonlight on his face reflected his ferocious expression, especially the protruding dark purple veins between his eyebrows.

There was a big round hole in the middle of the plastic sheet on the ground. The blood mixture had disappeared, and only the celadon round bowl remained.

"The redwood's gone?"

Lin Sheng squatted down and rolled up the plastic sheet.

He could feel that his strength and explosive power were now far from normal. 

It was not just his power, his mind was calmer and clearer than usual too. It was as if he would not be emotionally affected in that state.

With that in place, Lin Sheng wanted to see how long the ability would last. He did not believe that the power could last forever.

According to the person who taught Annie the ritual, if the ritual was a success, the spiritual will of the host would attract some unknown evil spirit.

The evil spirit would then exchange and transmit a special ability to the host based on the materials and sacrifices prepared by the host as well as the mental power of the host. 

As for what abilities one would acquire, it was random.

After all, different people summoned different evil spirits, and the abilities that those evil spirits were willing to transmit would not be the same.