In the cave of sleep, in the silver light, Maxwell appeared next to the sublimation ceremony site at some point, glanced at Hermes beside him, and asked softly:

"It's time to start, right?"

Hermes nodded, and the wings of light behind him floated silently, illuminating Maxwell's pupils, making him laugh:

"I haven't seen you look like this in years. 'Merlin's-sama. ”

Hermes glanced at him, "Call me Hermes, Merlin is just a name you gave me, I never accepted it." ”

"After you show your true nature, you have a lot less popularity. I still like the way you look like you're a child. At least it makes me feel like the same kind. ”

"Don't come to me looking for identity, Maxwell, no one is like you. Hermes dismissed: "No one." ”

Maxwell laughed, "That's why we're the same, aren't we?"

"Huh. ”

Hermes laughed too.

Maxwell didn't think it was wrong, he just squatted down and stared at the evaporating mercury on the ground, and his eyes became clear: "You have chosen the classical style of sublimation ceremony, and the danger has increased a lot." ”

This is the true nature of the ascension ceremony, and only in this way can its own ability reach its fullest. Hermes scoffed, "And what you like and value—the enhancement of the connection between the musician and the aether—is only a side effect.

Over the years, you've changed and changed so much that you have forgotten what it was. ”

"Worthy of the fallen serpent, the oldest alchemist. ”

Maxwell said, "I want to hear about it." ”

"The purpose of the Ascension Ritual is to enhance the sense between humanity and the Great Source, and to give humanity the right to truly mobilize the ether.

Human beings call it 'celestial induction', which is the induction between man and the heavens, and you see the heavens. Heaven can see you.

But before that, you got one thing wrong. ”

Hermes said lightly: "The purpose of the sublimation ceremony is not to induce the celestials, but to complete the preparations before the celestial induction. ”

"What preparation?"

"'Dayuan' never needs to prepare, what you need to prepare is yourself. Hermes said, "You have to understand who you are. What is the true self.

If you don't even understand where you are and what you are, how can you sense the Great Source?

Therefore, you can only be like now, like a long night walk, a blind man touching an elephant, or relying on illusory luck and experience, or relying on night and day training to endure hardship.

Although it is feasible, it is already stepping into the evil way. The true way. Where is it so difficult and troublesome to walk?"

"The right way?"

Maxwell was silent for a long time, and couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Perhaps, for human beings, knowing their own 'right path' is the most difficult thing, right?"

After all, what humans are best at is 'not self-sufficient'. ”

"That's why there's a 'sublimation ceremony,' isn't it?"

Hermes stared at the young man in the sadhana, looking at his pained expression: "Burning spices, crushing precious stones, pouring mercury...... The ether will settle into his body, and he will see himself. See your true soul. ”――

It was like an instant, and everything thinned out. I stay away quickly.

Ye Qingxuan forgot what year and month it was, where he was, and what the occasion was. He just looked down in astonishment and looked at the exam paper in front of him.

All that is left in the world is an exam paper, and a pen.

"It's time to answer the questions. ”

It was as if someone had put the pen in the palm of his hand and curled his fingers up one by one. Let him hold it firmly: "There is only one chance, and it will never come again." ”

But for some reason, he felt a little scared.

On the test paper, the first question had already caught his eye.

Questions:

Xiao Ming has a happy family, with a father who loves him and a mother who loves him. Xiao Ming's father made a mistake and disappeared when Xiao Ming was very young, and Xiao Ming and his mother were banished to other places because they were involved by their father.

In the winter of that year, Xiao Ming's mother died. Xiao Ming has become lonely and alone.

Please describe Ming's mood.

"Xiao Ming?"

Ye Qingxuan muttered in a low voice.

Xiao Ming, why the fuck is Xiao Ming again?

How did you grow up?

Xiao Ming went grocery shopping, Xiao Ming went to take a ride, and Xiao Ming went to play with friends...... And then something went wrong in the middle. You have to help him figure out how much cabbage costs a pound, how long it will take for the car to arrive at the station, and how four people can cut three knives to divide a cake......

He knew that this was Xiao Ming's story.

So, take it easy, it's just Xiao Ming's story.

It's just that something has happened to him now, and you need to help him, just like you help yourself. He's such an unlucky ghost, he will do anything, but he can't do anything, and if no one helps, he can't even buy a fruit. If you don't help him, he won't live.

But Ye Qingxuan didn't understand, what would Xiao Ming's mood be when he encountered this kind of thing?

'Xiao Ming'

Ye Qingxuan wrote down two words, stopped again, hesitated, and wrote in the gap after a long time: 'Xiao Ming is very sad. ’

Question 2: What should Xiao Ming do?

Ye Qingxuan was silent for a long time, and wrote the answer below:

Xiao Ming didn't know. ’

Question 3: Xiao Ming was sitting in a carriage and saw a child playing on the road, and the child was about to be hit and killed. Xiao Ming can adjust the direction and choose to kill another innocent elderly couple, what should Xiao Ming do?

Ye Qingxuan thought for a while and replied: "Hit and kill the child." ’

Why?

Ye Qingxuan wrote down the answer without hesitation: Because Xiao Ming hates dead children the most.

Question 4: There are two boats, one on the left with fifty people and one on the right with a hundred people. There is a ship that must be blown up and sunk, which ship should Xiao Ming choose?

Answer: Left

If there are 500 people on a boat on the left, but only his mother is on a boat on the right, which boat should Xiao Ming choose?

Ye Qingxuan didn't think twice: 'Left'

If there are 10,000 people sitting in the boat on the left......

Still without thinking, left

If there are 100,000 people......

Or on the left.

Suppose there are a million people......

Enough is enough! Where the fuck can a million people on board? Even if it's 10 million, 100 million, 1 billion, all of them are in that boat.

It's still on the left, too!

As long as she can live, even if the whole world is sitting on the boat on the left, Xiao Ming will not hesitate to blow it up!

The answer was silent.

After a long time. A new line of handwriting emerged:

What would happen if an underworld uncle with many big eyes told Xiao Ming that as long as Xiao Ming was his little brother, he could resurrect Xiao Ming's mother?

Ye Qingxuan wrote his answer expressionlessly:

'Xiao Ming will let him eat. ’

If Xiao Ming's father has joined the underworld, Xiao Ming will ......

Xiao Ming will let him eat too.

What if Xiao Ming's father is actually an undercover agent......

Xiao Ming will still let him eat.

Suppose there is a virus...... Suppose a meteorite falls from the sky...... Suppose there is a large ball of light...... Suppose Jade Perry had an old grandfather......

Where in the world is there so much if!

Why don't you ask me how good it would have been if nothing had happened, and how happy and wonderful their lives would have been if she hadn't died, if her father hadn't abandoned them?

Even if there is nothing. Even if it's wandering the world.

Even if the whole world is abandoned.

Until the end, the answer sheet was turned page by page, and only the last big question remained, which made Ye Qingxuan fall into a long silence:

[Do you think Xiao Ming's father deliberately abandoned his mother and Xiao Ming back then, or did he have a last resort?]

Is it intentional or is there a bitterness?

Xiao Ming didn't know, and Ye Qingxuan didn't know either.

His pen came to a standstill, letting the clock tick by and tick on the wall. Everyone handed in the exam papers one by one, and he was the only one left in the examination room.

Lonely the light illuminates the boy's gray hair. The countdown begins.

In the last few seconds, he wrote down his answer and put the exam paper into the teacher's hand.

Xiao Ming's story ends here.

The lights went out, and the classroom fell into darkness and silence.

He sat in his place, leaning against the table behind him. He closed his eyes in the darkness and let out a breath of pain, as if he was about to vomit into his inner caverns.

A wave of sleepiness hit, and he lowered his head and fell into a deep sleep.

The Long Night-

Right in the deepest depths of darkness. A light slowly turned on.

The teacher at the marking site made a cup of hot tea, looked at the only exam paper on the table that needed to be marked, and sat down in his chair.

The middle-aged teacher pushed open the window and let the moonlight shine on him and his gray hair.

He also shines like moonlight.

Behind him, there was a knock on the door.

"Is Teacher Ye here?"

Outside the door, someone asked softly, but without waiting for him to answer, he pushed the door and entered. The lights illuminated his fine clothes, his blonde hair, and his feminine and handsome face, which looked like that of a teenager.

He stared at the middle-aged man in front of the window, his eyes were complicated, and after a long time, he sighed softly:

"It's not easy to see you, Ye Lanzhou. ”

In front of the window, the middle-aged man in the chair shook his head slightly: "Mr. Hermes, you have found the wrong person, I am not Ye Lanzhou." ”

"Moon in the mirror. ”

Hermes said its true face expressionlessly: "I know that you have hidden part of your own memories in Ye Qingxuan's heart.

Now you are just a reflection of that part of your memory after it has been given a personality. It's not, but it's not bad. ”

Ye Lanzhou shrugged slightly, as if he agreed with his statement.

The moon in the mirror, the flower in the water, the phantom in the fire, the mirage. At this moment, Ye Lanzhou does not exist here, he is just an illusion that will only respond mechanically according to preset instructions.

"You're really thinking long-term. ”

Hermes unceremoniously pulled a chair and sat down, looking at him coldly: "First the seed in the Nine Heavens Ring, and then the various guides along the way...... It was really painstaking to let his son inherit his mantle. ”

"The leaf is not me, he has his own ideas and his own choices. ”

Ye Lanzhou shook his head: "From the beginning, I didn't let him inherit the Ye family's things and curses first, he will go out of his own way."

That's why I never taught him any of the power and notation of the Ye lineage."

"But what about you?"

Hermes asked, "Do you think that you will get rid of the cause and effect of your own creation? What did you do back then, and I don't need to repeat it?"

Ye Lanzhou responded lightly, "Whether the evil fruit is self-inflicted, or fate, whether I am dead or alive now, and to what extent I have fallen, is my own choice." Nothing to do with anyone else. ”

"I spent so much effort here not to talk to you about my illusory fate, I only have one question for you, Ye Lanzhou, one question. ”

Hermes held up a finger and looked at him with a grim expression, his voice like the fiery sound of the gray iron in the cauldron as it was transformed into gold:

"- What exactly did you bring out of the Shadow of Avalon?"

Ye Lanzhou didn't answer, just shook his head: "Hermes, this has nothing to do with you." ”

"Of course it is!"

Hermes got up, took three steps forward, three steps, and he changed from a feminine and emaciated nobleman to a god with wings on his back and immeasurable majesty, and his voice made the whole world roar and make this dream tremble:

"Ye Lanzhou, tell me, what you took away...... Is it the art of ascending to the gods engraved on the sword in the stone?"

Ye Lanzhou smiled, he stared at the pair of eyes that contained endless divine might, and said softly:

"It's time for you to go. ”

"Wait ......" Hermes's face changed greatly, but Ye Lanzhou waved his hand, and his figure dissipated: he was expelled from here.

In the silence, the room returned to its original desertion.

Ye Lanzhou picked up a pair of glasses from the table and put them on his face, pulled out the cap of the pen, and began to judge the exam papers in the color of vermilion.

It's just that when he saw the last question, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Did Xiao Ming's father deliberately abandon Xiao Ming and his mother, or did he have other difficulties?

Underneath that question, the boy wrote his answer in resolute handwriting: 'Whatever the purpose, the result cannot be changed. ’

Yes, even if there is a hardship, what can be changed? The evil result has been cast, and the woman who is the most important to the two people has died because of it.

Everything is irretrievable.

Ye Lanzhou was silent for a long time and slowly took off his glasses.

It's like being able to see the boy sleeping in the dark, his eyes full of complexity and exhaustion.

"After all these years, leaves, you look so realistic. But after all, I still live in my dreams. He whispered, "Maybe this is fate, the future you have chosen for yourself." ”

"The Ye clan has inherited the blood of heaven and man for thousands of years, and the curse and prophecy that it has been carrying will be fulfilled in your hands. ”

Ye Lanzhou picked up his pen and wrote his own comment at the end of the examination paper, the ancient name that traveled between reality and dreams, and brewed from the minds and dreams of all beings:

- The Dream Weaver. (To be continued.) )