Rachel Lan had already returned to the pendant. I sat quietly on the ground, my hands ceaselessly rubbing the pendant as scenes from the past flashed through my mind. My shadow stood before me, silently gazing at the invitation.
"There's no time left for you to sink into despair."
I raised my head. My shadow handed the invitation to me, and I reached out to take it. When I opened it, I found it filled with words I couldn't comprehend at all.
"Can you read it?"
My shadow nodded and said.
"It lists the names of nine dishes, ten days and nine nights. Each night, one dish will be served to entertain the banquet's participants, and each night, one person will be chosen from among them to tell a dark story. If your story earns more than half the guests' applause, you will receive a gift. On the ninth night, the one who tells the best story will be given a huge surprise."
I gave a bitter smile, quietly watching the invitation.
"What exactly do they want?"
At that moment, I noticed the invitation could be flipped through. I turned the page and saw densely packed, bizarre-looking characters and some diagrams, each with annotations. The further I flipped, the more of the same I found. Though I couldn't understand the writing, the diagrams seemed like some kind of ritual array, each with detailed construction.
"What is this?"
"It's a gift given to every invitee, a power from the darkness—a ritual array. But I don't understand these things, and only those born of darkness can use them. So for others, it doesn’t mean much. Whether or not to use this power is up to you."
My shadow pointed at me with one hand. I closed the invitation and tossed it aside. With a snap, the invitation hit the ground, and a wisp of crimson particles drifted up. Instantly, my eyes widened as I stared at the invitation.
"John Chou..."
My eyes widened in astonishment. Suddenly, a flash of red light swept by—it was Slaughter. He immediately reached out his hand, and the crimson particles gathered in his palm.
"Is it John Chou?"
I immediately asked, and Slaughter nodded.
"He was clearly dead, it was impossible, but it really is his aura and power—I couldn't be mistaken about that."
A smile briefly appeared on my face, but my expression soon grew complicated. John Chou was at the Dark Banquet, not in the Nether Syndicate. Before, I had only guessed he might still be alive—or perhaps it was my deepest wish that he was.
"It looks like John Chou is plotting something, or maybe he wants to tell us something."
As Slaughter spoke, I hurriedly picked up the invitation and kept flipping through it. There was something strange about it—no matter how many pages I turned, the invitation remained just a thin sheet, yet it contained so many pages.