Nightmare’s Call

“Arghh!!!”

Lin Sheng fell from high in the air and crashed violently against the verdant sea of trees.

*Uff!!*

Countless branches tore into him.

Under the powerful impact, Lin Sheng’s supposedly strong body was torn into shreds like a soft persimmon.

Countless pieces of flesh and blood rained alongside the broken branches onto the ground.

The verdant grassland was soon painted red by blood.

And the last thing Lin Sheng saw was the massive tree roots that crawled about in the woods.

…

“Another new way to die that was.”

Lin Sheng calmly opened his eyes and got up, as he lay against the headboard.

He then looked at the alarm clock. It was five o’clock.

“What is that translucent root thing? What was that monster knocking on the door? Why did it want to attack me? And what was that crimson light on me…”

Lin Sheng’s mind was in flux.

He quickly got up and wrote the three questions he had into his notebook.

“Ever since something had changed to Blackfeather City, I had never been able to return there. What about this then? I was brought to that island by the root…”

Lin Sheng was intrigued by the castle on the island.

However, he had just got his hands on the Beckoning ritual, and he had to record it down. He sat at his study and wrote everything he could remember about the ritual onto the notebook.

This time around, he used a mix of Hanzi and pinyin this time around.

With that, even if someone were to try to decipher the meaning of the Hanzi, the difficulty would be increased many folds.

But what surprised him was that he was able to memorize and write out about ninety percent of the ritual details and diagrams in a single go.

He only could not fully replicate the drawing of some of the ingredients, and that aside, he believed that it was the same as the scroll.

He then went through the content of the ritual again.

Lin Sheng felt that his memory was photographic as he could clearly recall most of the details.

“While I may have died again this time around, but I still managed to get some good loots. Guess I’ll go find the materials today!”

Lin Sheng was eager.

“Now, I need to confirm if Blackbloom exists or not.”

He quickly got up and changed into his casual wear. It was Saturday after all, and he had plenty of free time to spend.

After washing up, he took his sword case and greeted his parents who had just woke up.

Lin Sheng was just about to leave the house before Lin Zhounian called out to him while yawning.

“Wait up, even if you are going out with friends, still have some breakfast will you?”

Lin Zhounian pulled a big red apple out of a red pocket by the edge of the sofa and tossed it at Lin Sheng.

“Your cousin Yueyue gave them yesterday. Eat it on the way.”

Lin Sheng deftly grabbed the apple and bite into it.

It was a juicy ripe apple that was fragrant and crunchy at the same time, quenching his rather dry throat.

“Oh yeah, dad. You know about the flower called the Blackbloom?”

“What flower? Is it the one with the jagged leaves, six-petal flower that looked like charcoal?”

Lin Zhounian took an apple for himself too and bit it without rinsing it.

“That’s it!” Lin Sheng perked up. It was just a random question after all and he never thought his father would actually know it.

“We call that Coalbloom here, it grows in those mountainous, dark and damp areas. Why that question? We used to feed the pigs with them last time.” Lin Zhounian queried.

“Nothing, just asking. Where can I get it now?” Lin Sheng asked.

“Nanxi Mountain I guess. I saw some smattering of Coalblooms around the rock steps when we went hiking last year.” Lin Zhounian ran through his memory for a bit before answering.

“Got it, I’ll be heading off now.” Lin Sheng was relieved as he bit the apple and went downstairs.

Since Blackblooms are available in reality, which means that is a possibility of the Beckoning ritual materializing in the real world is there as well.

And now he needed to look for the ingredients, pronto.

“Ten Blackblooms, one standard unit of gold, nine standard units of silver powder, ten standard units of red crystal powder. And one standard unit of the host’s blood.”

And the first thing he got was silver powder.

It was the same pure silver powder he got from that shop last time.

Gold, on the other hand, was expensive, for the single standard unit of gold, Lin Sheng straight up bought a billion, the ones usually kept by the banks.

The gold price in Huaisha City had been rising lately, about four hundred bucks a gram, and a standard unit would need about eighty grams.

And that meant, on gold alone, he had spent about 32,000…

Then there was the red crystal powder.

After some querying, he decided to buy natural ones; and in contrast to his expectations, a natural crystal was about 80 a gram, and he needed ten standard units or 800gram.

And that meant, on the crystal powder alone, he had spent about sixty thousand…

As for the few thousand spent on the silver powder, it was almost spare change…

Lin Sheng was out and about shopping for the entire day just to get all the materials.

And only until late evening did he managed to get everything.

He had gotten dried Blackbloom from the medicine shop, and aside from that, there was a need for him to bleed this time.

So Lin Sheng had bought a kerosene lamp, and a fruit knife plus a medical set with bandages and antiseptics.

He then placed everything in his bag, and after dinner, he went through it again.

After confirming that everything was in place, he decided to choose what sort of living being he would like to control.

The Beckoning ritual in essence, was a dominating ritual use to control the spirit weaker than the caster.

At the same time, he could not control any humanoid or any being with too big a difference in size.

From the fragmented memories, Lin Sheng knew that the ritual was a side-product of Sir Kaarman’s research, and was meant to increase the understanding between the caster and his mount.

Aside from that, due to its monumental cost, this ritual could not be done en masse.

Plus there were other systems that have similar methods to increase the bond with the mount, at a much cheaper cost.

And that resulted in the Beckoning being one of the occult rituals held in lower standing in Blackfeather City.

It’s just that Lin Sheng had no other choice, and he was thankful if it could succeed.

He then brought his back and took a cab to the abandoned factory he had performed his ritual last time.

And the factory was still deserted as usual.

Abandoned farming fields surrounded it, and behind it was a rather tall hill near Huaisha City, called Ironedge Hill.

He then went into the same warehouse room he had performed his ritual.

Lin Sheng looked about, and there was a clean spot where the last ritual was held.

He had cleaned that place up on purpose and had laid a plastic sheet over it.

Lin Sheng looked around and quickly put down his bag and pulled out a torch for some illumination.

He placed the light against the wall and using the reflection to light up the room, giving it an ominous atmosphere.

Lin Sheng opened up the plastic bag and pulled out the various materials and powder for the ritual. He then placed them into the small basin and mixed them in.

Compared with the last time, he was much more confident this time around.

As the Beckoning ritual was a proper ritual, and none a sinister, evil sacrificial ritual like the last.

And from his memories, aside from the expensive materials, there was no inherent danger to it.