005 Ceremony

Free? The things that are free are often the most precious! Zhou Mingrui murmured silently, determined to refuse any additional services later on, no matter what they might be.

If you have the ability, then tell me if I've traveled through time!

With this thought in mind, Zhou Mingrui followed behind the woman with red and yellow face paint, stooping to enter the low tent.

Inside the tent, it was very dark, with only a small amount of light filtering in, faintly illuminating a table covered with cards.

The woman with the pointed hat was unaffected, her black dress flowing like water around the table as she sat across from Zhou Mingrui, lighting a candle.

The flickering candlelight cast shadows, creating an instant sense of mystery inside the tent.

Zhou Mingrui sat down calmly, his gaze sweeping over the tarot cards on the table, noticing familiar cards such as "Magician," "Emperor," "Hanged Man," and "Temperance."

"Could Comrade Russell really be a 'predecessor'... I wonder if he's from my beloved Empire of Gluttons..." Zhou Mingrui's lips twitched, feeling a sense of disbelief.

Before he could finish looking at the cards on the table, the woman claiming to have an accurate fortune-telling ability reached out and gathered all the tarot cards together, stacking them into a pile and pushing them towards him.

"You shuffle and cut the cards," the circus fortune-teller said hoarsely.

"Me shuffle?" Zhou Mingrui instinctively asked.

The fortune-teller's face paint wriggled, revealing a faint smile as she said, "Of course, everyone's destiny can only be divined by themselves. I am merely an interpreter."

Zhou Mingrui immediately asked cautiously, "Interpretation doesn't come with an extra charge, does it?"

As a folklorist of keyboards, I've seen similar tricks before!

The fortune-teller hesitated visibly for a moment before saying, "It's free."

Relieved, Zhou Mingrui put down his guard, adjusted the revolver in his pocket, and then calmly extended his palms, skillfully shuffling and cutting the cards.

"Done," he placed the shuffled tarot cards in the center of the table.

The fortune-teller clasped her hands together, carefully examining the cards for a moment before suddenly speaking, "Sorry, I forgot to ask, what do you want to know about in the reading?"

Back when he was pursuing his unrequited first love, Zhou Mingrui had also studied tarot cards, so without hesitation, he said, "The past, the present, and the future."

The fortune-teller nodded first, then her lips curled up into a smile as she said, "Then please shuffle the cards again. Only when you understand what you truly want to inquire about can you draw cards with real symbolic significance."

Are you trying to play me? Do you have to be so stingy, even though you've emphasized that it's free all along... Zhou Mingrui's facial muscles twitched slightly, but he took a deep breath, retrieved the tarot cards, and shuffled them again.

"Is it okay now?" he placed the cut cards back on the table.

"That's it," the fortune-teller reached out and picked up a card from the top, placing it on the left side of Zhou Mingrui, her voice becoming even hoarser, "This card represents the past."

"This card symbolizes the present," the fortune-teller placed the second card directly in front of Zhou Mingrui.

She then picked up the third card and placed it on the right side of Zhou Mingrui, saying, "This card represents the future."

"Alright, which card do you want to look at first?" After doing all this, the fortune-teller lifted her head, deep blue eyes gazing intently at Zhou Mingrui.

"Let's start with the 'present'," Zhou Mingrui said after a moment's thought.

The fortune-teller nodded slowly and turned over the card placed directly in front of them.

This card depicted a young man dressed in splendid clothes, wearing ornate headgear, carrying a staff over his shoulder with luggage hanging from it, and being dragged by a small dog behind him. The number on the card was "0."

"The Fool," the fortune-teller softly pronounced the name of the card, her gray-blue eyes fixed on Zhou Mingrui.

The Fool? The zero card of the tarot? The beginning? A representation of all possible beginnings? Zhou Mingrui wasn't even considered an amateur tarot enthusiast, so he could only make a superficial interpretation based on his impression.

Just as the fortune-teller was about to speak, the tent's cloth door suddenly lifted, and bright sunlight poured in, causing Zhou Mingrui, who was facing away from the entrance, to instinctively squint his eyes.

"How dare you impersonate me again! Fortune-telling is my job!" a female voice roared angrily from outside, "Go back! Remember, you're just an animal tamer!"

An animal tamer? Zhou Mingrui, adjusting to the light, saw that it was another woman with a pointed hat, wearing a black dress and the same red and yellow face paint, but taller and thinner.

The woman sitting in front of Zhou Mingrui hurriedly stood up and said apologetically, "Please forgive me, I just enjoy this, and I must say, sometimes my fortune-telling and interpretations are quite accurate, really..."

As she spoke, she gathered her skirts and walked around the table from the side, quickly leaving the tent.

"Sir, would you like me to interpret for you?" the real fortune-teller looked at Zhou Mingrui, smiling gently.

Zhou Mingrui's lips twitched slightly as he asked sincerely, "Is it free?"

"...No," the real fortune-teller replied.

"In that case, never mind," Zhou Mingrui tucked his hands back into his pockets, gripping the revolver and the banknote, then bent down and left the tent.

What a surprise, they actually got an animal tamer to do tarot readings! Isn't it true that a clown who doesn't want to be a fortune-teller isn't a good clown?

Zhou Mingrui quickly pushed this matter out of his mind, spending 7 pence at the "Lettuce and Meat" market to buy 1 pound of not-so-good lamb meat, along with tender peas, cabbage, onions, potatoes, and other items, adding up to a total of 25 copper pence, which was 2 su-lè and 1 penny.

"Money just can't help but be spent, poor Benson..." Zhou Mingrui not only lost the two banknotes he brought out with him, but also sacrificed one of the pennies he had in his pocket.

He muttered this sentence casually and stopped thinking about it, hurrying back home.

With the staple food, the ritual could begin!

...

When the tenants on the second floor had all left, Zhou Mingrui didn't rush to perform the ritual. Instead, he translated words such as "Fusheng Xuanyuang Immortal Sovereign" into ancient Gufasak and Runen languages, intending to try again the next day in the local language if the original incantation didn't work! After all, he had to consider the

 differences between the two worlds and adapt accordingly.

As for translating into the ancient Hermes language used specifically for prayers and sacrifices, Zhou Mingrui found it difficult due to his limited vocabulary.

After completing all this, he took out four loaves of black rye bread from the paper bag, placing one in the corner where the coal stove used to be, one on the bottom inside edge of the dressing mirror, one where the two walls intersected at the top of the cupboard, and one at the cluttered spot to the right of the desk.

Taking a deep breath, Zhou Mingrui walked to the center of the room, first calming down for a few minutes before stepping solemnly, walking counter-clockwise in a square.

With each step he took, he quietly recited, "Fusheng Xuanyuang Immortal Sovereign."

With the second step, he earnestly murmured, "Fusheng Xuanyuang Celestial Lord."

With the third step, Zhou Mingrui held his breath and whispered, "Fusheng Xuanyuang God."

With the fourth step, he exhaled and silently said, "Fusheng Xuanyuang Celestial Being."

After completing the circuit, Zhou Mingrui closed his eyes, waiting in place for the results, feeling a mix of anticipation, anxiety, hope, and fear.

Can I go back?

Will it work?

Will there be any unexpected situations?

The darkness before his eyes was tinged with a deep red brought by the light, and Zhou Mingrui's mind was filled with thoughts, difficult to calm.

Just then, he suddenly felt the air around him seem to stop flowing, becoming thick and eerie.

Immediately afterward, his ears were filled with murmurs, sometimes faint, sometimes sharp, sometimes surreal, sometimes tempting, sometimes manic, sometimes insane.

Although he couldn't understand what these whispers were saying, Zhou Mingrui couldn't help but listen and try to distinguish them.

His head began to ache again, as if a steel drill had been inserted into it.

Zhou Mingrui felt like his head was about to explode, his thoughts tinged with hallucinatory colors.

He knew something was wrong, desperately trying to open his eyes, but couldn't manage this simple action.

His entire body tensed, on the verge of breaking, and Zhou Mingrui couldn't help but think with a self-deprecating thought, "If you don't court death, you won't die..."

Unable to bear it any longer, as the string in his mind was about to snap, the cacophony of murmurs faded away, and the surroundings became very quiet, the atmosphere somewhat elusive.

Not only the atmosphere, but Zhou Mingrui felt that his body was also similarly elusive.

He tried to open his eyes again, this time feeling very easy.

The pervasive mist entered his eyes, hazy, blurred, endless.

"What's going on?" Zhou Mingrui looked around in astonishment, then lowered his head, discovering that he was floating on the edge of an endless gray mist.

The mist flowed like water, dotted with deep red "stars," some large, some tiny, some hidden in the depths, some floating on the surface.

Looking at this holographic scene, Zhou Mingrui reached out his right hand half in confusion and half in exploration, trying to touch a deep red "star" floating on the surface on his right side, looking for a way out.

When his finger touched the surface of that star, ripples suddenly surged from his body, causing the "deep red" to erupt like a dreamy fireworks.

Startled, Zhou Mingrui quickly withdrew his right hand, accidentally touching another "deep red" star.

As a result, this "star" also burst into brightness.

As a result, Zhou Mingrui felt his head emptying, his spirit dispersing.

...

Above a gray-white mist, Audrey Hall regained her sight, then looked around in shock and bewilderment, scanning the blurred figure of the man opposite her who was doing almost the same thing.

Immediately after, they both almost simultaneously noticed a mysterious figure shrouded in gray-white mist standing not far away.

"Sir, where are we?"

"What do you want to do?"

Audrey and Algernon were first stunned, then fell into silence, and then spoke almost at the same time.