Chapter 300

An apple? Save my life? Leon couldn’t help but ask in confusion after being baffled by the lazy youth’s suggestion:

“Why an apple?”

“It doesn’t have to be an apple. A four-leaf clover, a rabbit’s foot, a translucent amethyst, coins produced on a specific date and carried for a long time, or some red items symbolizing good luck would work too.

I chose apples because they’re the easiest to obtain. Unlike four-leaf clovers that easily wither, or lucky coins that need to be carried for a long time, apples are especially cheap. One piece of amethyst can buy dozens of carts of apples.

As for why I said it could save your life… eating the apple and throwing away the core is a simple mystical ritual for praying for good luck.”

“Ritual?”

“Yes, a ritual.”

The lazy youth pointed at Leon’s forehead and explained slowly:

“For instance, this gesture pointing at you has a mystical meaning as a simple ritual signifying ‘guidance,’ ‘selection,’ or ‘locking.’ When combined with your name, its effect can be enhanced.

Eating an apple is similar; this sweet fruit with mostly red skin carries four meanings: ‘good luck,’ ‘peace,’ ‘temptation,’ and ‘enlightenment,’ making it a classic ritual prop in mysticism.

By eating the flesh, you consume temptation; by discarding the apple, you lose peace; by not eating or planting the seeds, you forsake enlightenment. With three out of four meanings gone, what remains is pure good luck, magnified fourfold.”

After explaining a bunch of mystical stuff, the lazy youth drew a wavy line in the air and continued explaining to the somewhat bewildered Leon:

“I’ve mentioned before that we’re much more unlucky than others due to being disliked by the world’s will. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have any luck; our luck has just been forcibly suppressed by the world’s will.

So if we take something representing luck and proudly throw it at the world, it equals linking up with the jerk who suppresses our luck, completing a simple lucky secret rite.

In that case, the large amount of luck forcefully suppressed by it will spout out through the opening provided by the lucky secret rite, bringing us sudden good fortune and reducing the fluctuations of fate, making our ‘wavy lines’ relatively stable, avoiding those overly dangerous troughs.

Of course, after learning this secret rite, it’s best not to eat apples regularly. This luck isn’t created out of nothing; it’s exchanged for our accumulated misfortune, so the total amount is limited.

And unlike me, you don’t have an anomalous item that can directly see through fate. Randomly altering your fate too frequently is very dangerous, so it’s best to use it only when necessary, ensuring you don’t die from bad luck.”

…

So that’s how it is…

After roughly understanding why throwing away an apple core brings good luck, Leon nodded in realization but couldn’t help but ask again while looking at the cat paw badge on his chest: “But earlier, I only spat out a piece of the apple, yet it still brought good luck and got me the badge to enter the Scale Gold Religion gathering?”

“Because that bite was too big, carrying the seeds inside the apple core, which barely counts as completing the secret rite.”

“I see…”

Leon nodded in understanding, then asked worriedly: “Senior Tom, are there other ‘simple secret rites’ we should be aware of? Like eating an orange or black fruit, won’t that suddenly bring bad luck?”

“No problem. Only when the initiator clearly understands the effects of the secret rite and consciously performs it will it fully take effect.”

Moreover, the reason our secret rites are so powerful is because we’re already disliked by the world’s will. This qualification isn’t something ordinary people can have. For those who don’t know, doing anything is impossible to activate a secret rite.

Even if they somehow gather all the conditions and accidentally activate a simple secret rite, with the soul strength and qualifications of ordinary people, they’d probably just pick up a few copper coins… Get ready, beyond this door is the gathering place of the Scale Gold Religion. First, put away all the anomalous items on your body!”

After reminding Leon, the lazy youth stopped, standing in front of a massive door studded with one hundred eleven copper wheels. He then rummaged around in his pocket and pulled out a bunch of strange things.

A small bottle of mercury, sulfur powder wrapped in moisture-proof paper, a bag of salt marked “Chal Department Store”…

Two sets of pure copper weights, a tin scale with an iron plate, a small silver mirror, two large golden teeth from somewhere…

Amber, matches, clipped nails, blood-stained draft papers, curved horns resembling those of cattle or sheep, and the tail of some unknown creature…

It was quite bizarre.

Watching the lazy youth pull out a bunch of random things from his seemingly small pocket like Doraemon and start setting up a ritual altar outside the door, despite the urgency of the situation, Leon couldn’t help but ask:

“What are these things…?”

“The mercury represents the sacred trinity, symbolizing the spirit and essence of fire, adaptable water, and solid material reality. It also signifies the body, soul, and bridge connecting them.”

Seeming to anticipate Leon’s question, the lazy youth answered without even looking up while setting up the ritual area: “The next two groups are five symbolic elemental metals and three pairs of opposing materials. Amber represents permanence and solidity, matches represent brevity and extinction; children’s nails signify growth, old men’s wills indicate endings; horns and tails hint at beginnings and conclusions… Alright, I’m almost ready. Let’s go!”

After taking an apple, devouring it quickly, and tossing the core into the middle of the ritual site, Tom, with heavy dark circles under his eyes, looking more like a gaming addict than a “wizard,” pushed open the massive door and entered the Scale Gold Religion gathering hall first.

“…”

So what exactly did you prepare?

Looking at the ritual site on the ground, which wasn’t messy per se but looked like a pile of garbage, Leon was completely clueless. After hesitating for a moment, he carefully bypassed these items with unclear significance and followed into the Scale Gold Religion gathering hall.

Then…

“Ding ding dang dang”

The instant Leon stepped across the threshold, a sound akin to precious metal coins colliding rang out. The cat paw badge on Leon’s chest trembled slightly, abruptly throwing a rather heavy cloth money bag onto the floor before him.

What appeared in front of Leon next wasn’t a group of robed believers bowing their heads to a central statue, but rather a bustling grand square.

Numerous elegantly dressed men and women with obscured faces wore badges composed of three animals and moved about the square, occasionally stopping briefly at certain “stalls” to purchase items they desired…

Wait!

Seeing the shelves of nearby stalls displaying several dozen roaring fishmen sealed in aquariums and an entire miniature estate no bigger than a palm, yet with fluttering flags, blaring horns, and even clearly visible textures of the outer wall stones, Leon couldn’t help but widen his eyes in surprise.

Are the goods sold here… a bit off?(Chapter End)