There is a saying since ancient times: "Water and fire have gas but no life, plants and trees are born and ignorant, birds and beasts have knowledge but no righteousness, people have gas and life and knowledge and righteousness, so they are the most precious in the world." (Note 1)

While Fermi was still around, Iris often saw her lover sitting at the counter of the fabric shop with an ancient book he had picked up from nowhere, and a cheat notebook to record what he had copied from the books, and occasionally he would use it to keep accounts, and then willingly accept his wife's accusations.

"Dear Iris," the monster remembered living in anthropomorphic forms in human settlements, tapping the back of his index finger on the pages of the book, "do you know how everyone in my family understands this sentence? ”

I don't remember how I answered at the time, but I guess I was very helpless and impatient.

She took a fancy to Mr. Hao, and opened this textile cloth store with her, but he didn't do anything every day, and always asked about boring things that had nothing to do with his livelihood.

However, the reply given by the other party always made her feel that the words were still in her ears.

The meaning of this sentence is: fire and water have breath, but there is no life; Plants and trees have life, but they have no sense; Birds and animals are sentient, but they have no morality; But humans have both. He closed the cheat sheet and said to her with a smile, "So, you humans are the most precious creatures in the world. ”

"For such an old person, I don't feel irritated when I say this!" Iris saw her roll up the ledger and jokingly hammer it on the shoulder of another "person", "Why don't you go to work?" Excerpts can be done after closing. ”

Although the demon beasts have opened their spiritual intelligence, they cannot be expected to preach morality...... Iris covered with a gray cloth cloak shook her head slightly, withdrew her gaze from the blood-red sky above her head, looked around, and asked impatiently:

"Alternate Space-Time Illusion...... So what? I haven't seen any of the treasures you mentioned here. ”

"You said it yourself, time is tight, that's why you need to hurry up and get things done - you plan to leave this mountain, and I'm in a hurry to get them on their way." She clasped her hands to her chest and urged in a hoarse voice.

"Legend has it that if you make a wish to another time and space, He will give power......" Naga stared at the "black hole" in the sky, and there was a hint of obsession in his eyes.

After hearing his companion's voice, he slowly came back to his senses and realized that he was afraid that he had just fallen into the Tao.

"We need to break this sky." Naga, who reacted, immediately came up with a countermeasure, "You should be able to feel it, it's fake, and it's still creating illusions......"

Humans can't be relied upon, he glared angrily at his companion beside him, and thought to himself.

However, a small trap like this can be easily destroyed by simply using the spiritual power collected along the way, which is full of majestic resentment.

Naga removed the vortex of spiritual power from his chest, raised his hand, arched his body, and threw it into the air.

Then, he opened his mouth wide and spat out a turquoise arrow, hitting the condensation of spiritual power that he had thrown out earlier, causing it to burst open as he had expected.

The next moment, all illusions vanished, and in their place was a silent, bleak, and desolate space.

The walls were made of red brick, and in one of them was a small door behind the corner they had passed.

On each wall near the ceiling, there was a white flower on the verge of dying, its blue stamen hanging listlessly and pointing to the ground, presumably to blame for the crimson sky and other illusions.

"Dream Awakening Grass ......" The well-informed snake demon beast recognized them, "Tsk, what a dangerous joke." ”

"Did someone deliberately let us see that scene?" Iris tensed as she felt like she had stepped into the trap of some mysterious being.

"It's not human,......" Naga subconsciously retorted, wanting to tell his companion that there are other sapient beings in this world besides humans.

But he immediately thought of his previous guess, and also remembered the "gossip" he heard from the mouth of the passing demon beast when he watched Xiong Zhen gather partners from a distance before.

"The witch bears the curse of the Flower Emperor...... Is there a connection between the waking grass that happens to be one of the plants that He has favored? He thought to himself.

"That woman is trying to get her hands on the power of the Divine Beast? She's crazy? According to the usual thinking of the beasts, Naga quickly thought of his own answer, "Hiss...... It is worthy of being a gifted human being, if all the 'capable people' are like her, our orc's position in this world will be in jeopardy. ”

"Fortunately, she paid the price after all, and was sanctioned by the divine beast." He comforted himself inwardly.

"Don't overthink it." Then, he took care of his companion's emotions, but still did not share his various speculations and discoveries, "Hehe, have you ever had the illusion that the place where the treasure is buried must be golden and dazzling?" ”

"Reality isn't as adventurous as fantasy." He opened his arms and took in all the things in this space that released spiritual power.

Some of them were packed in plain wooden boxes covered in dust, some were embedded in red brick walls and kept with the now-withered waking grass, and some had long ago been transformed into a separate object and thrown in the corner of this underground room.

"Well, as agreed." Naga turned his head to look at his companions and his dependents, "I'll show you how to build the circle needed for the ritual." ”

For creatures with low personality and poor or no ability to perceive spiritual power, the "magic circle" or "magic circle" is one of the necessary elements to perform miracles or perform magic rituals.

It can help the caster contain more spiritual power to make up for the lack of space in their body.

At the same time, it can also help the caster withstand the psionic pressure during the spellcasting process, and share a part of the risk of casting, so that he does not die on the spot because he is too weak and unqualified.

In addition to these uses, the circle can also be used to store physical objects, i.e., to be used as a personal space—a usage invented by gifted humans after awakening their abilities.

In this regard, the orcs have different opinions, some express admiration and continue to use this function, while for some ancient orcs, they are proud to no longer use the magic circle to assist in spellcasting, and naturally disdain to do such a self-degrading thing.

Humans who were born with spell-casting defects have also developed different ways to use magic circles, such as summoning, the "Guardian Beast's Seal", which was once all the rage in human territory, and is rumored to have this effect.

For example, refining - in the world beyond the mountains, it is said that there is a group of "capable people" who call themselves "alchemists" to deceive, they will put different substances into the magic array, and create useful things by luck, but it is rumored that the probability of refining waste is higher.

Naga had heard an elder who had lived for many years mentioned that if the beast clan with a very high vision witnessed the alchemy miracle created by the human beings, I am afraid that it would not be directly reversed and the life span would be greatly reduced.

"Why would they force two things whose elemental attributes are mutually exclusive?" "How can they throw props carrying sheltering effects and weapons with devastating effects into the same magic circle? It's a big waste! It's a waste of those materials! "Oh...... I heard the crying of those materials. ”

and, sacrifice.

In the past, humans coveted the position of the master of the world, and delusionally wanted to be side by side with the ancient beasts who had dominated the world for thousands, even tens of millions, or "billions" of years, and had survived all the disasters of the past since the dawn of the planet, so they invented this vicious spell in order to make up for their lack of spiritual power.

The blood of living beings is an excellent medium for using and storing spiritual power, even for ordinary people who are not gifted, the blood flowing from their bodies can still be used as auxiliary materials for some rituals.

And the soul of each creature is the source of the birth of spiritual power, and it is the best material for casting spells, and any miracle that is extremely difficult to be cast can be piled up with a 100% success rate by relying on the number of heads.

"Sacrifice is actually a variant of refining." Naga explained to his companions who were about to become "capable people", "It is by absorbing a certain amount of life force to refine the 'talent'. ”

Talent, Iris took a deep breath, she felt as if she had regained her vitality, her heart pounding and pounding, you know, this word has a great appeal to her.

As long as she crosses that hurdle, she thinks, she will be able to get one step closer to the outside world and "him".

can make the hateful witch suffer retribution and pay the price of her life.

Despite the cover of the hat, Naga still sensed the old lady's emotional changes through atmospheric spiritual power.

He didn't know how he should feel about this, and after scribbling instructions on how to draw the most basic sacrificial circle, he silently swallowed other knowledge about the circle, such as "Elemental Circle", "Healing Circle", "Spirit Treasure Circle", as well as decomposition, runes, aggregation, etc., and felt that there was no need to popularize these contents to a human being.

When gifted to them, humans force themselves to learn, and then they think they have too little time to expose them to more about miracles......

As a result, they will pursue "eternal life", and in the process, they will also strive for concepts such as "power" or "ideals".

In this world now, whether it is a high-ranking "capable person" or an obscure "gifted person", most of them are like this, Naga thought to himself, these conditions are all seen by their beast clan.

Humans are obviously "latecomers", but they are gradually catching up with these "firsters", whether it is in the way they use spiritual power, or on the way to achieve their ambitions, some humans seem to always be better than the orcs who are veteran users of spiritual power.

"It's their unique talent." "They are the darlings of nature, as they should be, and parents always pamper their younger children, even if they are always in trouble and not as good as the older children." ”

In the past, I seem to have heard of a being called a "child of nature" who is specially cared for by nature......

But that was a long time ago, at least more than ten years ago, Naga shook his head, and after that, he never heard that rumor again, and the demon beast involved was probably dead a long time ago.

"I shouldn't have thought about it so much." The anthropomorphic serpent refocused on the humans who were concentrating on setting up the circle, and subconsciously recalled that he had been so keen to change his fate.

But the result of countless efforts is who he is now.

For so many years, he has never been able to find a treasure to help the snake clan molt into immortals, and he had to be ordered by Xiong Zhen due to environmental problems.

It was then that he finally heard the voice of "a certain being" that had been following them all along.

The other party probably listened and watched all the way, even if he didn't drink his own blood and couldn't understand his own words, he must have listened to everything Iris said and felt the malice from her heart.

Da, da, da, da, the impatient stalker, has finally decided to show up?

Unfortunately, he didn't have a chance to take the scarlet liquid in the silver cup, and he couldn't understand what he was trying to say.

A hideous smile bloomed on Naga's face in an instant, and together with the old lady who heard the movement, he turned his head to look at the only entrance and exit of this place—

"I'm sorry," said a third person's voice in such a small space, "I must stop you, Lady Iris. ”

—

Note 1: From "Xunzi Zhengming".