Falling into the Abyss

Due to the shortage of dormitories, Ethan and Samuel were arranged in the Puji District rooms used to help the poor or homeless.The furnishings in the room, which can accommodate six people, are simple but complete. Almost all furniture such as refrigerators are embedded in the walls, and there is even an automatic drink synthesis machine.Tanithel never came to meet them, but sent another apprentice to bring them over.

In the room, the four Eve vagabonds who looked very down-and-out gathered together to talk about the huge requiem ceremony that will be held in the temple on Holy Spirit Day two days later.Ethan heard them say that this time the Requiem Ceremony is not open to the public, only invited priests, royal nobles or officials can participate, it is very mysterious.Ethan seemed to have heard them talking about Tanithel, saying that it was a pity that the priest in white couldn't see the Tianyinqin performance, and that last year's performance was so wonderful that it was even like a fairyland.It's just that these conversations stopped abruptly after seeing them coming in, and the wanderers scattered, as if they were very afraid of them as apprentices.

Ethan greeted them friendly, and others also greeted him with an almost humble attitude.

It seems that in this country, priests are indeed a high-status occupation.Even apprentices can follow suit.

And Ethan became more and more curious.He imagined what it would be like for Tanisel to play the Tianyinqin, and he actually looked forward to it.

Tanithel didn't appear until dinner time, leading them to an octagonal building.Apparently this is where all the priests and apprentices dined. The long tables were arranged in rows, while the higher-ranking priests in blue, white and the only priest in purple in the temple—the chief priest, Sioneil, sat at the front of the hall. Several rows of long tables.As soon as he entered the door after Tanisel, bunches of curious eyes shot over.Tanithel is famous for not accepting apprentices, but now he accepts two for the first time, which makes people wonder who the two apprentices are.

Ethan suddenly felt that it was a stupid idea to come in with Tanithel.At the same time, a feeling of eating made him feel a little uncomfortable...

Tanithel was still smiling at all the priests or apprentices who passed by him, and he was still smiling so charmingly. Does this person always discharge casually like this?

For the third time, the urge to hide him from others to see swirled through his mind.

Dinner is a buffet. Tanithel took his two "apprentices" to familiarize himself with where the rice is served, pointed to the bathroom, and thoughtfully put a few extra pieces on Ethan's plate Eve's specialty meat that looks like a deer and a horse, said "You are too thin" as if half-complaining, causing the priests in front of and behind them to shoot a burst of strange look……

Then, Tanithel actually planned to sit with them at the ordinary long table to eat, instead of joining the three white-clothed priests of the same level as him in front of the long table at the front. The priests, even the high-ranking priests began to look at them.Ethan hurriedly said in a low voice, "Hey! Hurry up and sit where you should sit!"

"I'll eat here today." Taniser Shi Shiran replied.

Samuel still pretended to be deaf and dumb and didn't speak, just a look of watching the show.

"Ethan, I'll take you to a place during the evening prayer later. As for Samuel, you can wander around as you like. By the way, this is for you." Tanithel handed Samuel a coin that seemed to be worth ten thousand breaths. Ball thing, "If you want to leave the temple and go outside, take this with you, and you can get in touch with me anytime."

Samuel put the ball away and nodded at him.

During evening prayer, almost all the priests and apprentices gathered in the prayer hall. Tanithel led Ethan through the empty and magnificent corridor, along the revolving stairs all the way into the underground, and then turned around along the winding corridor several bends.There are many zigzag straight lines criss-crossing on a tall stone gate. The pattern is somewhat similar to the lines on the Egg of the Preface God. Tanithel drew a few patterns on it, and a beam of light radiated out to scan his pupils. The gate It opened slowly.

The holy and pure blue suddenly overflowed, and the originally dark underground corridor suddenly became bright.At the same time, a clean and clear breath blows towards the face in the form of a breeze, which makes people unable to open their eyes for a while.

It's just that for some reason, Ethan felt very uncomfortable despite the light breath, just like the nausea he would feel after eating something disgusting.

Ethan narrowed his eyes and gradually adapted to the sudden light, and then he could see the palace in front of him clearly.

There is a tall statue of Eve in the empty hall. She has a dignified appearance, a holy look, a graceful figure, and a plate in her hand.

On that plate, there were three eggs of the Preface God.

Ethan was surprised, "This is...the place where you specially collect the eggs of the Preface God?"

"That's right." Tanithel took a step forward, and the door behind him slammed shut.He came to the statue of the goddess, "If you can come and stay here for an hour every day, maybe you can suppress the development of mutations in your body. It's just that this method treats the symptoms but not the root cause, and even the entropy in your body is too much to a certain extent It may harm you later, so be careful."

Ethan nodded gratefully and moved closer to look at the blue things.For some reason, he didn't feel very excited, and even felt a little disgusted with that blue color.

At this moment Tanithel suddenly asked, "Ethan, do you really want to be cured?"

Ethan glanced at him, and many memories flashed through his mind.

He remembered Roland's cold eyes, the condemning eyes of the Moral Tribunal, people's abuse of him, his father's alienated expression, the ignorance and betrayal he saw in the Forbidden City, and the people's attitude when facing the crisis of death. cruel.He also remembered the almost blissful thrill of killing and devouring, the feeling of liberating body and mind, and what the black man had said to him.

As long as you accept it, you can have everything, including Tanithel.

Ethan hesitated, he whispered, "I don't know...I just...want to live..."

"But the so-called 'alive' is just an illusion. A group of DNAs are temporarily combined to generate embryos and cells, temporarily forming a fragile creature, the purpose is to continue to reproduce and copy its own DNA. All these are short-lived, Only death is eternal." Tanithel reached out and took out the flawed egg of the prologue from the tray, "You know, I became a priest for this. I thought that as long as I got it, It can save my father, because at that time I believed so much in the power of the gods, I thought they were as benevolent as written in the scriptures. But in the end, it can't change anything, no matter how much energy of the gods is absorbed, my father's body is still Withering day by day, I could almost watch how the entropy devoured his body bit by bit. At that time, I realized that life and order were nothing but illusions."

Tanithel's voice was very calm, but Ethan could see a trace of continuous sadness from his lowered eyes.His heart also ached, and he thought of his mother's haggard face.

His mother's once beautiful face had become his deepest nightmare.

"But, if you die, don't you have nothing?" Ethan said sadly, "No matter how much you worship the entropy god, they still won't show any kindness to you? Wouldn't they just go to death faster instead?"

"The God of Entropy and the God of Order are two sides of one body, and there is no way to separate them. If there is no power of order in the body of the God of Entropy, it is impossible to exist, and if there is no power of entropy in the body of the God of Order, it would have already been extremely sequenced. They are just more advanced than us. Life forms are just creatures who understand the rules of the universe better than us. As long as they have a purpose, as long as I can be used by them, I have the opportunity to benefit from their confrontation, and even finally achieve my own purpose. This is actually what we believe in Nature."

"Then..." Ethan looked at the priest seriously, "What is your ultimate goal?"

Tanithel was silent for a moment, and said in a tone of lost soul, "I hope that all orders and rules will be broken, I hope that the boundary between life and death will be blurred, and I hope that everyone, whether alive or dead, can Integrating into one body, no distinction between each other, no hatred, no past and future, forever together. That is the real eternal life."

Ethan stared at the priest dumbfounded, as if he was so shocked by his words that he didn't know what to say.

The priest suddenly laughed, "I'm joking, did I scare you?"

Ethan breathed a sigh of relief, and patted his arm, "...don't make such a joke!"

**********

On the day of the Holy Spirit's Day, the gates of the Red Moon Temple were closed, and even the royal guards surrounded the temple layer by layer, and martial law was imposed on the blocks within a radius of one mile.

The Soul Sacrifice Ceremony starts at 25 o'clock at night (Eve star has 28 hours a day).Ethan and Samuel were lucky enough to be chosen to wait in the prayer hall with a dozen other apprentices.There are about a hundred priests invited to participate today. Except for the officiant who has not yet appeared, all the priests in white and blue are there. Tanithel is wearing the same official sacrificial robes as the other priests in white, but still It is the most dazzling one among the crowd.In addition to the senior priests, there are about 50 Qingyi priests.Hadir, whom he had seen before, was also among them. Ethan greeted him, but the other party seemed to pretend not to see it, and did not return the greeting.

Samuel smiled and said that he had been secretly in love with Tanithel for many years, and he regarded Ethan, the "disciple who broke into the house" who appeared suddenly, as a thorn in his side.

There is not a single lighting lamp in the lobby, all the light comes from thousands of candles on the walls, reflecting the entire magnificent hall. From 24 o'clock, some elegantly dressed Eves entered the lobby one after another, and Hadir humbly led them to the rows of seats behind the priests.Ethan noticed that all ABOs, male and female, were covered with black veils, and they seldom talked. The whole hall was filled with a strange silence.

About half an hour to 25:[-], someone suddenly shouted, "Evelian and the King of the Star Kingdom—His Majesty Krones arrived—"

Everyone stood up to greet him, and Ethan quietly raised his head curiously.First came a few guard soldiers, and then the tall man who entered did not look much older than him. He was wearing a pure black long coat that dragged to the ground, and the same blond hair and silver eyes as Tanithel were probably family characteristics. Even the eyebrows are somewhat similar, except that Tanisel is more refined, while King Eve is more masculine and handsome.

While everyone was bowing and saluting, the king went straight to the front without squinting.At this time, the priest had already appeared to greet him in person. King Eve greeted him a few words, then turned to Tanisel behind him, even hugged him, and talked with him intimately like an elder.

Ethan heard several apprentices near him whispering.

"The king really cares about Tanithel's sacrifice!"

"Of course, the king has no heirs until now, and the outside world has already rumored that he may not be able to bear children. If this continues, Tanisel will be his heir."

"But he is already a priest in white, how can he be his heir?"

"It's not easy. When it comes to that time, just find an excuse to let him leave the temple."

Ethan was shocked, it turned out that there was another reason...

No wonder Tanisel was so lawless before, and even dared to steal the egg of the order god without authorization.

Now he was even more suspicious.With such a noble status, why did Tanithel take the risk to go to Earth?Why do you risk your life for him again and again?Is his ultimate goal really what he said?

The time is up, and the ceremony begins on time.The door also closed with a bang.

At that moment Ethan was suddenly a little uneasy.

It was so quiet that the air seemed stagnant.In the huge hall, no one spoke.All the priests and visitors were silent, their faces could not be seen clearly under layers of black veils, they did not know who those people were, and what was going on in their minds.But outside the window, the sky that should have been dark was glowing with a strange crimson color. I don't know if it was an illusion, but a faint rancid smell permeated the sandalwood scent from the burning candles.

Ethan suddenly began to wonder, is this really a routine ceremony to commemorate the dead?

In silence, Lionel stood on the podium, placed an old, heavy book of unknown age on the podium, and opened it gently.

He said in Eve language, "Eternity is about to end, and the sleeping king is about to wake up."

Ethan's body trembled suddenly, his breathing seemed to be suddenly choked by an invisible hand.

Did he hear wrong?

Are the people on stage really reading this sentence?

He turned his head and looked around, but the people around him just stared forward with a pair of focused and fanatical eyes, and they didn't seem to think there was anything wrong.

Theo Neal continued, "When order collapses, worms cry out in the hollow earth, and shadows swallow entire galaxies, the extradition of the gods will open the gates of chaos. That is the end of the old world and the beginning of a new world, and the sleeping in the sea The isolated island will wake up with the sleeping prisoners, the forgotten gods will swallow all rational illusions, the source of ignorance and chaos will nourish the entire universe, and we will witness heaven!"

There was a certain yearning passion in his cadenced voice, which caused a sudden shout of joy from the crowd.

How is this going?Ethan stood up abruptly from his seat and wanted to leave, but at this moment he saw Tanisel slowly walking towards the "stage" in front of Tianyinqin.

Almost at the same time, a soldier stood in front of their row, staring at him with indifferent eyes, "Please sit down."

The deterrence in that voice made Ethan know that if he refused to obey at this moment, there might be more forceful means to force him to sit down.He suddenly felt that his reaction was too big, but he heard what the black man in the dream told him in reality, maybe he just saw this passage accidentally, and then stored it in his subconscious before doing it such a dream...

Thinking that Tanithel was still there, he hesitated and sat back.

The handsome priest in white stepped on a disc in the center of the stage covered with pedals. It seemed to be a platform used to balance the weight of the body.He paused there for a moment, then turned to look at Theo Neal.

His mentor said loudly, "The great crouching chaos has already sowed the seeds of chaos in the world, and these seeds will start to take root and sprout today, and eventually he will throw more seeds all over the universe. He accepts the core of the universe The gift of God, becoming its incarnation in the universe of Xu Shen, will lead us to eternity!"

As soon as the voice fell, Tanisel suddenly took the first step.

A burst of ethereal and distant music gurgled out along with his flowing steps, and huge glazed discs interweaved in the air into a dazzling round dance.Tanithel's white robe bloomed into a beautiful lotus flower in the air. His steps were nimble and easy, and his posture was stretched and elegant, like a white swan dancing on the ice lake.With his dance steps, the moving music trembled in the frozen air. Ethan had never heard such a music, as if it did not belong to the world, but floated down from the eternal sky.

The music is undoubtedly beautiful, but in this beauty, there is still something wrong.After listening to it for a long time, I feel that my whole body is being sucked in by something, I can't concentrate my consciousness, and my thoughts seem to be caught by the melody.

The dancing steps of the priest in white became more intensive, with a pious smile on his beautiful face, and the melody was woven like fine spider silk, causing everything in the hall to tremble with its frequency.Ethan noticed that the people around him, including Samuel, seemed to have a hypnotized blank expression on their faces, their eyes were staring straight ahead, and they didn't know what they were looking at, right? focal length.

Those empty expressions that seemed to have no soul made him a little scared, and at the same time the back of his neck suddenly began to itch and hurt.

Oops……

how so?Ethan didn't understand, he wanted to escape, but found that he couldn't move his body.It turned out that at some point, that melody had also entered his brain, and he couldn't control himself not to listen to the mandala-like music that carried fatal temptation.

There were bursts of buzzing in his head, as if he was responding to the continuous Tianyin piano music.The more I listened, the more I felt that everything around me became unreal, a kind of bewilderment like a dream.

"Ethan."

The sudden gentle voice shook Ethan's body violently.

He turned his head slowly and stiffly, and saw the beautiful woman sitting beside him.

She is about 30 years old, with dark brown long curly hair that seems to be chocolate-colored satin, a pair of beautiful green eyes like emerald lake water, with a breathtaking beauty, staring at it for a long time seems to lose the soul in there.Her skin is so fair, so white that you can almost see blue blood vessels, so white that it seems to reflect a faint candlelight.Her lips were so bright red, as if she had been bitten through and oozes out.Her hands are so white and slender, so suitable for rubbing the strings of the cello.Her ankles are so slender, so light that she seems to be able to fly.

"Mom... Mom..." Ethan choked up.

The mother in front of her was the most beautiful three days after she passed through adulthood.

"Ethan, my baby." She reached out and stroked the corner of his eyes that were crying uncontrollably, her fingers were so cold that he shivered slightly.There was a rotten smell coming from her body, but Ethan didn't think the smell was bad at this moment.

On the day he entered the Forbidden City, he knew that he might never see his mother again in this life.Later, in the dream, the man said that his mother had died, and his whole body was also very numb, as if he felt that it would happen sooner or later.

But until now, he didn't know how much he missed his mother.Miss the feeling of being touched by those gentle hands on the cheeks and the top of the head, miss the blueberry pie she baked for him, and miss the melodious music of the piano in her house.

"Mom, I miss you so much..." The moment she reached out to hug him, he whispered this sentence on her shoulder.His mother's body could no longer smell the old light perfume, but the familiar touch still told him that this was his mother, the beautiful woman who gave birth to him.

"Ethan, your father has been waiting for you." His mother stroked the back of his head tenderly.

"Wait for me...?" Ethan shook his head with a wry smile, "No, he has severed ties with me..."

But she chuckled and whispered in his ear, "Silly boy, I'm not talking about my husband, but your real father."

Ethan's body froze.

However, her whispers continued, and Ethan fell into an ice cave with that whispering voice, "I was just engaged to my husband at that time, and then he came to my dream. He is so beautiful, so gentle, begging me Bear him an heir. I can't refuse him."

Ethan broke free from his mother's embrace, not caring about wiping the tears on his face, "Mom, what are you talking about!"

"At the moment when the gods are dead, he has walked alone on the earth for thousands of years, deceiving and tempting the stupid lambs." As she chanted, her originally fair and young skin was rapidly aging, and her wrinkled and ruddy lips It quickly became shriveled, showing yellow teeth, and the bright green eyes were rotted and maggoted in an instant, leaving only two holes, "You are his pride, my baby!"