I! Cleaner!-Chapter 352 - 0300 Rituals and Gatherings_1

"Apple? Salvation?"

*Confused by the lazy young man’s suggestion, Leon couldn’t help but ask,*

"Why an apple?"

"It doesn’t have to be an apple. A four-leaf clover, a rabbit’s foot, a clear amethyst, a coin minted on a specific date that you’ve carried for a long time, or any red items that symbolize good luck can work.

I chose an apple because it’s the easiest to get, unlike a four-leaf clover that wilts easily, or a lucky coin that needs to be carried for a long time, plus it’s extraordinarily cheap. You can buy dozens of carts full with just one amethyst.

As for why I said it could save your life... that’s because eating the apple and then throwing away the core counts as the simplest mystical ritual to pray for good luck."

"Ritual?"

"Yes, it’s a ritual."

Raising his hand to point at Leon’s forehead, the lazy young man explained slowly,

"For instance, my pointing at you is a simple ritual in the context of mysticism, meaning ’guidance,’ ’chosen,’ or ’locking in,’ and it could be amplified if it fits with your name.

Eating an apple is similar. This sweet fruit, whose skin is mostly red, bears the four meanings of ’luck,’ ’safety,’ ’temptation,’ and ’enlightenment’ in mysticism, being a classic prop for rituals.

By eating the flesh, you consume the temptation. By throwing away the apple, you lose safety. Not eating or planting the seeds means you forgo enlightenment. When three of the apple’s meanings are gone, what’s left is the fourfold pure luck."

*After spewing a bunch of mystical mumbo jumbo, the lazy youth gestured a wave in the air, then continued explaining to the somewhat stunned Leon,*

"I told you before, both of us are more unfortunate than the average person because the world’s will dislikes us, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have luck. It’s just that our luck is suppressed by the world’s will.

So, when we hurl a symbol of luck towards this world with pride, it’s like linking with the entity suppressing our luck and completing a simple lucky ritual.

In doing so, the vast amount of luck oppressed by it would blast out partially via the ritual’s opening, bringing us sudden fortune, reducing the volatility of fate, and making our ’wavy line’ relatively more stable to avoid overly perilous troughs.

Of course, once you’ve learned this ritual, it’s best not to eat apples arbitrarily since this luck doesn’t appear out of nowhere. We exchanged it for our accumulated misfortune, so the total amount is limited.

Moreover, unlike me, you don’t possess anomalous objects that can directly see fate, so randomly altering your fate too often is dangerous. It’s best used only when needed to ensure you don’t die from misfortune."

...

*So that’s what it was about...*

Understanding roughly why throwing an apple core could bring good luck, Leon nodded with sudden enlightenment but couldn’t help glancing at the cat paw badge on his chest and asking confusedly again, freёwebnoѵel.com

"But before, I only spat out a bite of flesh; why did it also bring good luck and get me the badge to enter the Scales Gold Sect gathering?"

"Because you took such a big bite that you even got the seeds out of the apple core. It can just barely count as having completed the ritual."

"Oh, I see..."

Leon nodded in understanding, then asked somewhat worriedly,

"Senior Tom, are there any other ’simple rituals’ like this that I need to be cautious of? For instance, eating an orange or some black fruit won’t suddenly bring misfortune, will it?"

"No worries, these things only take full effect when the practitioner is aware of the ritual’s effects and consciously carries it out."

The lazy youth answered in a steady tone as he strode down the dim underground alley,

"You just managed to successfully activate the simple ritual, probably because you thought spitting out the apple like me would bring good luck, and subconsciously mimicked my stance, fulfilling the basic conditions for initiation. Otherwise, the ritual isn’t so easy to succeed.

Moreover, our ritual’s effect is so powerful because we’re already despised by the world’s will—a qualification not everyone has. For those who don’t know, it’s impossible to activate the ritual by doing anything.

Even if they somehow meet all the conditions and luckily activate a simple ritual, given the general person’s soul strength and aptitude, they might only pick up a few Copper Wheels at most... Get ready, past this door is the gathering place of the Scales Gold Sect. Put away all the anomalous objects on you first!"

After reminding Leon, the lazy youth stopped in his tracks, standing before a heavy door studded with one hundred eleven Copper Wheels. He then rummaged in his pocket, pulling out a heap of strange items.

A small bottle of mercury, sulfur powder wrapped in moisture-proof paper, a packet of table salt with "Charl Department Store" printed on the packaging...

Two sets of pure copper weights, a tin balance with an iron plate, a small silver mirror, two large gold teeth from God knows where...

Amber, matches, clipped nails, bloodstained scraps of paper, curved horns resembling cattle or sheep, an unknown creature’s tail...

All very bizarre.

Watching as if Doraemon pulling out a pile of oddities from a tiny pocket and setting up a "ritual altar" outside the door, even under the urgent circumstances, Leon couldn’t help but ask,

"What are these things...?"

"This set of mercury constitutes the Holy Trinity of elements, representing the spirit and fire of the soul, the mutable water of adaptation, and the stable substance of reality, also signifying the body, the soul, and the bridge connecting them."

*Knowing Leon would ask, the lazy youth fiddling with the ritual site answered without lifting his head,*

"The last two sets are five symbolic metals and three pairs of oppositional materials: amber signifies solidification and eternity, matches represent transience and extinction; children’s nails stand for growth, old folks’ wills imply termination; horns and tails respectively hint at beginnings and ends... Alright, I’m almost ready, let’s go!"

Pulling out an apple, he quickly gnawed it clean and tossed the core into the center of the ritual site. With large dark circles under his eyes, more like an internet-addicted youth than a ’Witch,’ Tom directly pushed open the large door before him and entered the gathering hall of the Scales Gold Sect first.

"..."

So what did you actually prepare?

*Looking at the jumbled mess of a ritual site on the ground, which could only be described as resembling a garbage heap, Leon paused in confusion but cautiously navigated around the meaningless items, following into the Scales Gold Sect gathering and then...*

"Ding clang"

*As he stepped over the threshold, the sound of precious metal coins clinking together echoed. Leon’s cat paw badge on his chest trembled slightly before unexpectedly tossing out a somewhat heavy cloth coin bag, dropping it at Leon’s feet.*

*What appeared before Leon wasn’t a group of robed believers cupping their buttocks towards the central idol in a secretive scene, but instead, a bustling large plaza.*

*A large number of men and women in luxurious attire with indistinct faces wore badges made from three animals, moving back and forth in the plaza, occasionally pausing briefly by some ’booth,’ purchasing goods of interest to them... Wait!*

*Glancing at the nearby booth’s shelf, where a dozen howling fish-men were housed in sealed tanks and an entire miniature estate, only palm-sized but with fluttering flags and blaring horns, even the texture of the stone walls was clearly visible, Leon instantly widened his eyes in surprise.*

*The merchandise sold here... seems a bit off?*

This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦