Book 3: Chapter 282: Meleranke Strolling Through the Forest

"Three grains, six grains... seventeen grains."

Sylutia sat on her bed, carefully counting the Moon Essence Crystals she had collected. She now had fifty-eight Moon Essence Crystals, already exceeding her original estimate. But considering the Essence Extraction process that would follow, there could be losses and other unexpected situations, so it was better to collect as many as possible.

One last trip, and then she would begin the advancement process. Sylutia closed her eyes and sensed her current state. Her accumulated Luminous Moon Aspect had gradually reached the Fourth Tier, and after a while longer, it would barely catch up to the rank where Secret Word resided.

When advancing, the two Aspects didn't need to reach absolute balance, but they couldn't be too far apart either. They just needed to be kept within an appropriate range.

After preparing all the established ritual procedures, Sylutia lay down on her bed and entered her dreams once more.

This was the final exploration before advancement, and throughout her continued expeditions into the Land of the Moon, she had slowly pieced together a rough picture of that region.

Now, the only place she hadn't visited was near the top of the Silver Wax Tree Hill. Sylutia thought she might as well go there for this last visit, so there would be no omissions or regrets afterward.

Time passed slowly. After collecting three Moon Essence Crystals in the Land of the Moon, she gradually arrived at the most central part of that realm.

As she made her way up the slope lined with dense, lush silver wax trees, Sylutia felt an invisible pressure continuously bearing down on her. It was the residual might left behind by the Silver Moon Dragon. Even though that being had passed away over a thousand years ago, the lingering traces of its authority still imposed tremendous pressure on any living creature that ventured here.

No wonder she had never seen any records in the scriptures of anyone approaching the top of this hill. It seemed that reaching this place required enduring an exceptionally immense mental burden.

For the next half day, every hundred meters she climbed, the pressure increased by another tenth. Advancing like this, by the latter stretch, the mental weight she bore was already over fifty times what it had been at the foot of the hill.

At this point, Sylutia could no longer maintain her usual human form. She could only compress herself into a tiny point of light, no larger than a firefly, and drift slowly upward.

Still not there yet? Sylutia felt herself reaching her limits.

Her ascent grew slower and slower. Compared to a slowly drifting balloon, she wasn't much faster now.

Gradually, exhaustion swept over her, fatigue rising like a tide, crashing against the shores of her consciousness.

Just hold on a little longer. She felt that giving up now would be far too wasteful.

Sylutia activated the special protective charm she carried. A brilliant flash of silver light surged forth, and the crushing pressure that had been building up suddenly dissipated. Caught off guard, she was launched upward, crossing hundreds of meters in an instant, then continuing to soar straight up for several more kilometers, until finally, the view before her opened up dramatically.

The dense expanse of silver wax trees gradually thinned, revealing the ridgeline and the land below. Looking up into the distance, the mountaintop was now within sight.

At last, Sylutia passed through the endless slope of silver wax trees and reached the top of this hill. Here, there was a relatively flat and expansive stretch of land, dotted with sparse flowers and trees, remarkably beautiful.

This is...

Sylutia descended to the ground, reforming her human shape, then walked slowly toward a tree blooming with thick, layered petals.

Purple petals unfolded in overlapping layers, densely packed across the branches, so thoroughly adorning the entire canopy that neither leaves nor twigs could be seen. The blossoms of these purple jacarandas hung in clusters like narrow, elongated trumpets, swaying among the branches. Standing beneath the tree and looking up, it seemed as if the very sky was filled with these purple jacarandas, extraordinarily beautiful.

So beautiful...

Sylutia couldn't help but let out this exclamation. The lustrous, pale purple petals stacked upon one another, exuding a pure and pristine aura. It wasn't the mingled, heavy sense of power that came with the ancient moonlight, but rather carried a different kind of freshness and gentleness.

Walking through this grove of purple jacarandas, the ground was dotted with fallen petals, covering the rough ridgeline soil and presenting a scene of beauty that one would hate to disturb.

She regretted not having learned how to paint. Back when she was little, she should have studied this wondrous painting art properly with her mother.

Standing amidst that forest of flowers, she remained still, her eyes gently closed, sensing the tranquility and beauty of that world.

The faint, hair-thin currents of wind became visible in her mind's eye. Not only that, even with her eyes shut, she could clearly perceive every detail of the petals beneath her feet, and could even idly count how many purple and silver blossoms were blooming across the mountainside.

The answer was eighty-one thousand eight hundred seventy-seven blooms.

When that number surfaced in her mind, the young woman herself was startled. She had no idea how she had managed to tally them all in an instant. That strange sensation came and went in a flash, simply delivering the answer to her.

How wondrous. Sylutia slowly opened her eyes, raised her fair wrist, and gently touched the soft petals hanging above her head with her fingertips, blinking as she did so.

Minutes later, she slowly stepped through the sea of flowers, arriving before one of the purple jacaranda trees. She bent down and gently swept aside the layers of fallen petals, revealing a stone slab hidden beneath.

This stone slab was utterly unremarkable, showing no sign of anything special, yet Sylutia felt a faint sense of familiarity with it.

She lifted the stone slab, recalling in her mind the two volumes of the Silver Radiance Church holy scriptures she had once read, and a gentle Luminous Moon aura began to emanate from her body.

Before long, fine cracks appeared on the stone slab, and then the plain, unadorned stone shattered, revealing a holy scripture with silver leaf patterns on its cover. Seeing this familiar sight, Sylutia had already guessed what it might be.

Sure enough, after being unsealed through the Silver Radiance Church's special mystic methods, its true form finally emerged, now fully revealed before Sylutia's eyes.

"Meleranke Strolling Through the Forest"

A poetic scripture recording the life experiences of the Named One Meleranke. One of the Silver Radiance Church's three holy scriptures. (According to its legends, two rituals can be performed, and it provides a clue to the Sixth Tier progression path [Healing Leaf Saintess]. Meleranke had once obtained the title of 'Healing Leaf Saintess' in her youth.)

[Purification Ritual: Flower-Soul Healing Leaf] (Luminous Moon, Verdant Nectar, Snail Fish)

[Wake-Dream Ritual: Silver Leaf Incense] (Luminous Moon, Verdant Nectar, Castle)

[Ascension Ritual: Moonlight Angel] (Luminous Moon, Castle, Vaulted Sky) (Obtained after deciphering all three holy scriptures together. This ritual can transform a living being into a high-tier Angel form.)

Warning: Advancing to the [Healing Leaf Saintess] progression path will be sensed by high-ranking officers of hostile factions (the Golden Honey Dynasty, the Moon Parliament).

...

So this was the complete inheritance of the Silver Radiance Church? She never imagined they had finally completed the brand-new 'Ascension Ritual.' If Meleranke had successfully ascended to become one of the Hours back then, then the high-ranking members of the Silver Radiance Church would also have transformed into Angels. And not those incomplete angel forms either, but a complete metamorphosis into true, high-ranking beings.

They would be true angels who no longer aged, no longer fell ill, who remained eternally youthful like the Upper-tier Fairies, who could freely traverse the heavens and the deep seas, and who could share in Meleranke's Authority of Purification.

In other words, messengers who conveyed the decrees of the heavens (the Hours) above.