In Glamorgan, within the hidden space concealed by Dazzle Star Lake, inside the tall, colorless Church, beneath the dome of the extremely spacious chapel, Dorothy stood in place, looking at the tall, complete mirror moon statue of the Mirror Moon Goddess before her, gazing at the finely carved face that bore a seventy percent resemblance to her own. She couldn't help but slightly open her mouth and stand stunned. After being stunned for a long while, Dorothy slowly shook her head and slowly spoke.
"Mom... what is your identity anyway..."
Dorothy had always had doubts about the hidden secrets within her family. From her and Grego's names, which didn't quite conform to the traditional customs of the Prit people, to her hair color, which was quite different from ordinary people, and finally to the family heirloom ring on her hand that had the function of the Mirror Moon Saint Emblem and could also conceal Spirituality... everything indicated the extraordinary nature hidden within the Mesi Horse family, who should have been ordinary hunters in a small village.
Dorothy herself didn't have many memories of her family, but according to Grego's account and the memento left on her hand, her family's extraordinary nature should have come from her mother. Dorothy's ring and hair color were inherited from her, and her appearance was likely the same.
And now, the face of the mirror moon statue of the Mirror Moon Goddess before her actually bore a seventy percent resemblance to Dorothy's own. So what was the situation with Dorothy's mother? What was her relationship with the Mirror Moon Goddess faith, with the Mirror Moon Church that was active in Prit, and even with the Mirror Moon Goddess herself?
Looking at the face of the tall mirror moon statue before her, Dorothy felt a bit confused in her mind. After spending some time, she finally managed to recover.
'Although the relationship between Mom and the Mirror Moon faith is worth exploring, now isn't the time. The primary goal now should be to prepare for the ritual...'
Dorothy thought this in her heart. As for the current situation, the most important thing was not to explore her family's past, but her own ritual. Now Dorothy needed to test if her ritual could be performed effectively.
Thinking this, Dorothy silently walked forward. She slowly walked to the center of the colorless chapel, opened her magic box there, and took out some simple ritual setup tools.
Dorothy first used a box of silver powder to draw a magic array on the ground of the chapel that had both ""enlightenment"" and ""Shadow"" properties. Then, she placed the ""enlightenment"" Saint Emblem she had kneaded and the ring of concealment as ""Shadow"" on the magic array. After that, she sat cross-legged in front of the magic array, closed her eyes, and began to silently chant while sensing.
To be promoted to Scarlet, Dorothy needed to perform three consecutive rituals. This was the first of the three rituals, a small prerequisite ritual within the symbol replacement ritual. Dorothy used this ritual to verify whether the current temple could successfully perform the replacement ritual and if it met the conditions for holding the replacement ritual.
After this small prerequisite ritual had been going on for a while, Dorothy slowly opened her eyes again. Compared to when she closed them, there was a hint of solemnity in her eyes at this moment. It could be seen that the result of her ritual verification just now was not very good.
'It seems... in its current state, this temple does not meet the conditions for holding larger rituals...'
Sitting in front of the ritual magic array, Dorothy thought with a slight frown. Through the prerequisite ritual just now, she simply tested the replacement ability of the current temple. However, unfortunately, this temple could not hold the replacement ritual. More accurately, the temple in its current state could not perform replacement.
'Many functions of a temple need to be realized in the real world, just like the Qiwen Temple in Adis. Although many important functions were hidden in the hidden space, the functional areas of the temple still remained in the real world, and then were subjected to the replacement ritual by someone, causing the temple's functions to fail...'
'And the situation with this Mirror Moon Church now is a bit different. All of its functions are hidden in the hidden space, leaving no trace in the real world. However, the temple's functions cannot be exerted in this space. This temple must return to the real world for the ritual to be held normally.'
Standing up slowly from in front of the magic array, Dorothy thought this as she looked at the huge mirror moon statue before her. Obviously, if she wanted to directly complete all the rituals now, she would have to find a way to move the entire temple out, into the real world.
'It seems that simply solving a puzzle is not enough for me to complete all these rituals...'
Dorothy sighed like this in her heart, and then, she temporarily stopped thinking about the ritual issue and shifted her thoughts to another aspect.
Dorothy raised her hand. On her right hand, a ring decorated with a crescent moon was emitting a faint glow. This glow appeared when Dorothy was on the invisible door in the real world.
The moment this glow appeared, Dorothy felt that her ring of concealment had undergone some changes, especially after arriving at this Mirror Moon Church, this change became even stronger.
Dorothy didn't know what changes had occurred to the ring of concealment, but fortunately, she had the Appraisal spell. She re-appraised her changed ring, and the result showed new content compared to before.
Ring of Concealment, a token passed down among the upper echelons of the Moon Court, can consume "Shadow" Spirituality to shield against any extraordinary detection effects. It can also serve as a credential for the Moon Court. Supplemented by the Night Oracle, it can command various institutions subordinate to the Moon Court within the Empire, mobilize armies and various restrictions. It was generally worn by Moon Court Imperial Envoys or other important personnel during the era of the Empire's Dual Emperors.
"Ring of Concealment... Credential Ring?"
Looking at the ring in her hand using the Appraisal spell, Dorothy fell into thought for a moment.
Dorothy's Appraisal spell appraises the relatively superficial and immediately usable direct abilities of an extraordinary item. It does not appraise the essence of the extraordinary item or hidden abilities that can only be activated under specific conditions. For example, when she appraised the Heart Devouring Sword before, she only appraised the basic function of fleshly body recovery, and there was no introduction or mention of the sword's essence as a biological weapon, which Dorothy discovered herself.
This example also appeared when Dorothy appraised the black jade fragment. Dorothy knew through Ku Chi's secret transmission that the black jade fragment was part of the Moon Crown and had other functions when combined, but the Appraisal spell would not tell Dorothy such hidden information. It would only tell Dorothy that this black jade fragment had a special use for her at the moment. Its essence and hidden functions would not be appraised unless these essence and hidden functions were activated under specific conditions, only then could Dorothy's Appraisal spell update the appraisal result. Just like now, it is clear that this colorless Church has activated some hidden abilities within Dorothy's ring, from which Dorothy has obtained very interesting and important information.
'So... the main function of my ring is as a token and credential? It's a credential for Imperial Envoys and important figures within some Moon Court... Is this so-called Moon Court the official name of the Mirror Moon Goddess faith?'
'According to the new information appraised, this Moon Court is less like a mere religious group or Church organization and more like an administrative institution within a country. Since the appraisal also mentioned the Empire, then this should be some important department of the official government within the Third Era Empire. Did the Mirror Moon faith actually have such status during the Empire period? It was directly within the official ruling system of the Empire, and it also had countless different subordinate institutions, and even had the power to mobilize armies...'
'Finally... what's with this era of Dual Emperors? Does the so-called Dual Emperors refer to two emperors? Shouldn't the Emperor of the Empire just be the Light King? How did two emperors suddenly appear? Are they not afraid of a split appearing with two emperors ruling one country?'
Thinking about the new information appraised by the Appraisal spell, Dorothy thought like this in her heart. Looking at the so-called era of Dual Emperors, she couldn't help but recall the copy of the painting she had obtained from the Savior Sect Scarlet Mukhtar before. That painting depicted a man suspected to be the Light King, and two children, one male and one female. After seeing the new results from the Appraisal spell, she had new conjectures about the content of this painting.
Slightly shaking her head, Dorothy sorted out her thoughts and stopped thinking about other excessive matters, instead focusing more on the problem at hand. What Dorothy needed to do now was mainly to find a way to move the entire Church to the real world to complete her ritual, and this opportunity was clearly on the ring on her hand.
'Since this ring is said to have the ability to mobilize the various restrictions of the institutions subordinate to the Moon Court... are the restrictions within this Church also the same?'
Dorothy thought this in her heart, and then she extended her hand wearing the ring, closed her eyes, and then used her intention to sense the entire Church, and even the entire space, through the ring.
As Dorothy sensed, she found that her ring had established a link with the Church in an invisible way, entering a certain further activated state. Looking at the ring whose function was further activated, Dorothy used the Appraisal spell again to appraise the ring's function, thus deciphering all the control and operations she could perform on the Church using the ring.
After reading through all the operations, Dorothy tried to see if she could further activate the ring, but the result was negative. Within this Church, the degree of activation the ring could achieve had already reached its maximum.
Upon seeing that she could not obtain any more information, Dorothy slowly opened her eyes, then fell into deep thought with a solemn expression.
According to the information obtained before, this Church and even the entire secret realm have many functions, not only the hidden function of concealing itself, but also the auxiliary execution function for large rituals, and even powerful self-defense functions, etc... It has similar places to the Qiwen Temple that Dorothy had entered before, all centered around the temple's functions and integrated with many functions, forming a large and complex system.
However, compared to the Qiwen Temple, Dorothy's control over this Mirror Moon Church was clearly insufficient. This was because she was still lacking some other things.
Dorothy could now control and adjust the entire Church and even the secret realm using the ring given by her mother, but the extent of this adjustment was not very large, because to truly control all the functions within the Church and this space, it required not only the ring as a credential for the Imperial Envoy, but also the oracle decree from the Moon Court. The combination of the two could exert the maximum authority. Currently, Dorothy only had the ring as a credential, but lacked the decree from the Moon Court, so the functions of the Mirror Moon Church that could be utilized were extremely limited.
'Compared to the Qiwen Temple, which was built in the Second Era and has existed for over seven thousand years, this Mirror Moon Church, built in the late Third Era, has only a history of over two thousand years. The wear and tear of time on it is not as severe as that on the Qiwen Temple. Without maintenance, most of the functions of the Mirror Moon Church are still preserved, and its intactness is much better than that of the Qiwen Temple.
'But unfortunately, compared to when I was in the Qiwen Temple, my authority here is much smaller... It is not very realistic for me to control this place like I controlled the Qiwen Temple... This ring alone is far from being able to drive all the functions here, but fortunately, among the functions that can be driven, there is exactly what I need most...'
Dorothy thought this. As of now, Dorothy could not control most of the functions in the Church, including the self-defense function. Only a small part of the ritual auxiliary functions and realm adjustment functions could be controlled by Dorothy, among which was the function that was very crucial to Dorothy, the function that could convert the Church to the real world.
From the information deciphered just now, Dorothy learned that this Church, from the time it was designed and built, could be converted between the hidden space and the real world, using Dazzle Star Lake as a mirror. Normally, this Church was in the hidden space. Every month, during different moon phases, the Church's clergy or other related personnel could enter here through the hidden door on Dazzle Star Lake using a key to conduct activities.
And at the time of the full moon, the entire Church would automatically convert to the surface of the lake in the real world, welcoming the general public of believers to perform rituals and sacrifices. At this time, the Church would be open to ordinary people. As long as the public rowed boats through the hidden barrier set up around the Church during the full moon phase, they could enter the Church and participate in the sacrifices.
And after Dorothy obtained the ring, she could use the limited authority to directly activate the Church's realm function, allowing it to convert to the real world, without even needing to wait for the full moon. After the conversion, Dorothy could unlock most of the ritual abilities here and perform the replacement and subsequent two rituals.
However, the current problem was that although Dorothy could move the Church to the real world, in the current Dazzle Star Lake in the real world, the Eight-Pointed Nest people were frantically searching for this place. Once it was moved there, the Church in the real world would be immediately discovered by them.