The Secret Code of Monsters.

Chapter 10: Crying is the puzzle, blood is the answer

Fresh snake grass.

Sharp pure sapphire.

Female cat whiskers.

Look at the oil in the lamp where the woman cried all night.

A cup of his own blood.

Roland placed the five items on the ground one by one.

After seeing off the thief lady who returned with a lot of loot, Roland came to Nina's room at night.

Tonight was the perfect time for her to say that.

"You seem to have not yet told me the purpose of this ceremony."

"You don't believe it."

"I believe it now?"

"I don't want to talk about it now."

Although she was in a bad temper, she still patiently instructed Roland: First, sprinkle the blood on the ground and form a closed circle around the bed.

"I guess the ring is definitely not round enough."

How can two people draw a circle if they can't see?

"You think the 'circle' is more important." Nina asked Roland to put the snake grass in her mouth, and her voice was a little unclear: "Well, listen to me. Next, you can't make any mistakes in every step..."

Nina said, and Roland did as she was told.

After chewing the snaketail grass, she put it into her mouth. Then, Roland had to swallow the lamp oil in the glass bottle.

Then light the beard.

Read out…

Nina repeated the prayer she told him.

What surprised Roland was that when he endured the discomfort and poured the lamp oil into his mouth and it slid into his stomach...

He felt like an oil lamp—

It really started burning.

When I opened my mouth, the sound was no longer familiar.

It seemed as if an invisible creature stood before him, covering his mouth with its hands and gripping his throat.

He could "hear" himself speaking, and he also knew that he actually didn't make any sound.

It seems that the direction conveyed by each word does not point to this world.

He felt something staring at him in the darkness...

This time, it's more real than any other time.

He heard curses, the sobbing of a young girl, voices calling for her mother and a certain name, and Rose's comforting voice...

It's lamp oil.

It was the girl that Dengyou had been 'looking at' all night.

Occultism.

The ritual that Ms. Nina mentioned...

it is true.

Those are all true.

Roland felt every hair on his skin stand up.

"The cry is the puzzle, the blood is the answer."

"I enlightened a consciousness, and she remained stable."

He walked and talked, lighting the beards in his hands one by one. The blue flames climbed up in the room like growing branches.

They are entangled like a spider web, and the brilliant blue fills the entire space.

expand.

Expand further.

Spread until it can't spread any further.

A lake blue thorn forest.

The stench disappeared and the fragrance of green grass was released.

A wonderfully overlapping world, a home where dreams exist.

“Destroy, transform, shape.”

"Flourishing in the shadow of the absurd."

"The soul thrives, the bones and skin shine."

Roland heard the crackling sound of the flames burning the wood, crisp and dense.

But he felt no warmth at all.

He just let his voice become louder:

"finally!"

"I saw!"

"Its raggedness and its brilliance..."

The flames in my ears seemed to be erupting like a fountain.

In the blooming and boiling flames, Roland actually felt the cold - it wrapped around his body and pulled him towards a place.

Nina's bedside.

It was as if a hurricane passed through the abode of the gods and blew away the dust of their laziness to the earth.

"Give me the gem."

Nina's voice became deep and powerful, and the wounds on her body healed miraculously. Before Roland could help her up, she sat up first - she pushed Roland's shoulder and flicked his forehead with her fingers.

Vitality filled her body.

She smiled heartily.

She was a new person.

"Give me the gem, little brother." "Ms. Nina."

"Give me the gem." Nina held Roland's hand. Seeing that he was still holding the gem tightly, she couldn't help but lower her voice and soothed him softly: "...Didn't we agree on this before? I can't survive."

"I can't survive."

"This ritual is like an experimental process - well... I only did the middle step. After that, the reagents that are no longer used will be discarded. Anyway, Roland, do you want me to use the rest of my life to comfort you?"

"Do you need me to comfort you?"

Roland stood for a moment.

Slowly loosening his hand, he pursed his lips, sat down on the bed, and his voice was filled with deep anger: "I spent so much effort to find these things, and you use them to commit suicide?"

"Don't be ungrateful. Who is this for?"

Nina took the gem by force.

The sharp and solid blue gem melted into a dark blue dagger in the woman's hand.

She tilted her head back, stared intently at the densely tangled branches, and began to cut them carefully with a dagger.

At the same time, the room was gradually filled with light blue dust.

"Let me see, my beginner's gift pack can give you..."

"Memory, just a little bit..."

"No, this won't work. I can't let you see that..."

"Oh, soul fragments, take some too, maybe they can be useful to you..."

Roland didn't know what she was doing, so he reached out and looked around - nothing.

But he knew something was happening.

"Ms. Nina?"

"Shhhhhh!"

Nina suddenly came over and stuffed something into his hand - something like ice flakes, thin and cold.

Before Roland could react, the piece of "ice" melted in his palm and disappeared without a trace.

"This is a gift."

She clapped her hands.

A few cuts, a few trims.

Finally, the dark blue dagger could no longer hold on and burned into a handful of ashes like a feather falling into flames.

"There's still a little time, listen carefully."

She held Roland's hand tightly:
"You should understand now that this world doesn't just have one layer."

"I'm assuming you're happy to step into another world."

"Then, the Maelstrom and the Wanderers are good choices... At least the first half is safe." Nina covered Roland's mouth with her other hand, asking him to just listen and not talk. "Holy Cross should consider this carefully, especially after hearing so many stories like you."

The cold feeling gradually faded away. In fact, the room was indeed returning to silence: the creeping blue branches shrank and disappeared one by one, without further rituals and operations...

Nina's soul is disintegrating and dissipating.

This is exactly what she expected.

"It's okay if you don't want to be exposed to that world."

"With the gift I gave you and the memories in the fragment, you will live a good life in this life - it will probably wake up tomorrow, it's a little sore, you've never worn contact lenses, have you?"

Nina let go of her hand from his mouth and climbed onto Roland's face.

She became particularly gentle: "...I really didn't lie, you are really beautiful. Now I know why some people are willing to spend so much money on paper figures. If it were me, I would definitely raise a cub like you..."

Roland tilted his head, using the upturned corners of his lips to melt the indifference, and his face pressed abnormally close to her thin palm - just like a cat on a hospital bed squatting in front of its dying owner, no longer sparing its body.

He pressed his face into Nina's palm.

Rubbed it gently.

“…You’re going to die,” he said.

Nina laughed without a care in the world, as high-spirited as a knight riding a horse:

"I'm going home, pretty boy. I can't just sit there and do nothing while those idiots downstairs suck my soul out of me, can I?"

"When I die, they will have no choice but to draw your blood first - remember, don't run away, just be patient for a while. Wait for the plot to start, wait for the church's executive to pass by, and scatter my ashes for them!"

This was the first time in many days that Rolando felt the difference in the woman in front of him.

This may be her true character.

Flying and passionate.

"I finally got my revenge...! I cultivated the blood cocoon for so many days, but in the end, I didn't keep an eye on Kucha and she disappeared. I never expected that, hahahaha..."

She laughed out loud, feeling both pain and pleasure.

He coughed up pieces of smelly pus and blood from his throat, but he didn't care at all.

Roland helped her lie down, but his hand was still tightly grasped.

"I'll give you some tips... although I don't know much. Remember, if you just want to be an ordinary person, use the formula in my fragment... it's enough for you to become a rich man. But if you choose to step into the mysterious world——"

"You must stay away from heresy and serious sins..."

Roland held her hand.

Now, there is not even a last bit of skin left on the withered palm.

Just a bone.

She seemed to be being 'erased' bit by bit by some unknown existence, her flesh and bones, starting from her feet and spreading all the way up.

She is leaving.

"Cult, cradle..."

"sin…"

"Fen...Lily..."

"Son of...Bai...ne..."

"Eye Collector Luo..."

She said a lot in a disjointed manner.