"It's not just me and Bubble. Everyone else in the castle will do the same. As long as they can keep playing their role and fit the role, they'll be able to create corresponding offerings.
"I saw offerings such as the maid's apple, the servant's letter, the cook's pea, and so on."
Ai Dehua saw all these offerings with his own eyes. There had to be more where he couldn't see them.
"Also, as long as we get our hands on these offerings, they'll belong to us."
Ai Dehua specifically mentioned "ownership" because once the sacrificial item belonged to them, they would have absolute control over it. If an outsider used the sacrificial item, it would be equivalent to using an item with an owner, and they would have to pay a certain price.
The first choice was soul coins.
However, outsiders usually didn't have soul coins, which were only found in the Instrument World.
Therefore, the outsiders could only pay the price of the second choice — their own physical bodies.
Why did Siluda activate the Spirit Substitution Ritual and get trapped in the castle? Because she couldn't pay the price for using Ai Dehua's item, she had to pay with her own body.
Hearing this, everyone understood the relationship between an offering and a character.
Roleplaying could attract offerings, and once an offering appeared in a character's hand, the character would have absolute control over it and could use it to attract or lure an outsider to use it to escape.
"From the looks of it, the reason why every character in the Knight's Castle has to conform to the character setting is for the sacrificial object … What a strange rule." Luigi was the one who spoke. After listening to Ai Dehua's explanation, he could not help but sigh.
"Rules …" Gleipnir murmured. Suddenly, he thought of something and looked at Luigi. "You're right. This is indeed like a kind of rule. It's similar to the Dark Mirror's rule ability!"
Luigi: "Huh?"
Luigi didn't say anything about such a rule. Still, when he saw Glepnir's glowing eyes, Luigi scratched his head and said, "Fine, I did say that."
Glepnir didn't notice Luigi's expression. "Do you remember the three oracles of Bu Luo City?"
Angor nodded, still in a daze. He didn't know why Glepnir suddenly asked, but he did remember the strange rules of Bu Luo City.
Bu Luo City had eighteen laws, six prohibitions, and three oracles.
According to Laplace's previous explanation, these were actually powers derived from the laws. This special rule ability came from the Gloomy Mirror Domain.
The Six Forbidden Acts were six things that couldn't be done.
As for the Three Great Oracles, as long as you did them, you would be rewarded.
For example, the first oracle of the Three Great Oracles: Every evening, in the inner city square of Bu Luo Royal City, recite the prayers of the gods, and you will be able to obtain the effect of twenty-four hours of spiritual thoughts.
This kind of spiritual effect was a reward from the Oracle.
Its origin was unknown, but no matter who you were, as long as you followed the rules, you would definitely be able to obtain the corresponding benefits.
This was a form of Rule Force. It was very idealistic, but it still existed.
He rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes. "Now that you mention it, Knight's Castle does have some rules."
Take Bu Luo City's number one oracle as a comparison.
[Time: Every evening. "
[Location: The inner city square of Bu Luo Royal City. "
[Behavior: Recite a prayer. "
[Reward: 24 hours of Spiritual Thought effect. "
— —
[Time: Every moment. "
[Location: Within the range of the Knights' Castle. "]
[Behavior: Roleplay. "]
[Reward: Offerings. "]
Now that he thought about it, the two oracles were quite similar. As long as you followed the rules, you would be rewarded.
The only difference was that you wouldn't be punished if you didn't become the number one oracle of Bu Luo City.
However, in Knight's Castle, if you didn't perform your roleplay, you would be punished by having your soul weakened or even dissipated.
It wasn't hard to understand.
After all, the reward for becoming the number one oracle of Bu Luo City wasn't that great, and there was a time limit. Also, don't forget that other than the Three Great Oracles, there are also the Six Great Forbidden Practices. Perhaps the punishment has been incorporated into the Six Great Forbidden Practices to regulate your behavior. This is also a punishment.
The rules in Knight's Castle, on the other hand, were real benefits. Offerings would always belong to you once they appeared, and many of them contained incredible power, which made them extremely valuable.
If you obtained them out of thin air, you would have to pay a higher price.
Therefore, it was understandable that there were some differences between the two.
Even Steward Fan, who had been quiet all this time, couldn't help but nod in agreement. "It does feel like the rules in the Gloomy Mirror. And there might be more than one rule in Knight's Castle. Maybe the Spirit Substitution Ritual is included in the rules as well. "
Steward Fan's words immediately made everyone think of a new rule.
[Time: After the arrival of an outsider. "]
[Location: Within the range of Knight's Castle. "]
[Behavior: Take an item that has an owner. "]
[Reward: Offerings. "]
[Reward: Soul coins. Without soul coins, the Spirit Substitution Ritual will be activated. "]
It did feel like an evolution of the rules.
It seemed that the reason why Knight's Castle had so many strange rules and gave Ai Dehua a strange feeling was because of the rules manifested.
When everyone was convinced by the "rules", Angor suddenly spoke up, "I think so too. But if that's the case, why didn't Shiluda have to pay a price for taking away the offerings in the hall?"
Siluda used Ai Dehua's dressing mirror without permission, so she triggered the "reward" and was trapped in the castle.
But before that, Siluda looted a lot of offerings in the hall.
Previously, they believed that Ghost Rider and the servants were two different factions. Ghost Rider was more "kind", so Siluda would not trigger the Spirit Substitution Ritual even if she took the offerings.
But now, if they blamed everything on the "rules", it would be a different matter altogether.
The "rules" could not be based on personal feelings.
Since it was based on the "rules", the offerings Siluda took, whether they were in the hall or in the Black Forest outside the castle, all belonged to Ghost Rider.
Because Ghost Rider was the owner of the castle and the owner of this secret place, he had the right to control everything in the secret place.
If that was the case, why didn't Siluda trigger the "reward" when she took the offerings?
Everyone fell silent.
Because this was indeed the case. Once one accepted the theory of the rules, then what about these "exceptions"?
Everyone pondered for a while, and no one spoke. In the end, it was Laplace who broke the silence and replied, "There are three possibilities. First, Ghost Rider is the owner of the secret place, which means he has the highest authority and can freely decide the rules.
"Second, Ghost Rider is not the owner of the castle. As you said, he is an 'outsider'. The items Siluda took from the castle were ownerless, so they were not affected by the rules.
"Third, there are other rules in the castle, and this one is related to Ghost Rider. And this rule takes precedence over all the other rules. The reason why Shiluda didn't trigger a backlash is because she entered the Ghost Rider's rule. In this rule, she can take sacrifices without paying a price. "
Laplace concluded that there were three possibilities, but no one knew which one it was.
Angor looked at Ai Dehua. "Which one do you think?"
Ai Dehua scratched his head. "I don't know. But I'm sure the second one is wrong. Ghost Rider is the owner of the castle."
Ai Dehua was sure of this because when he entered the castle and received his character, he received a lot of information.
A lot of information appeared in his mind.
These included the rules of the castle, character settings, etiquette, and so on. There was also a clear mention of "class", which meant Ghost Rider was at the top of the hierarchy.
There was no doubt that Ghost Rider was the owner of the castle.
Ai Dehua did not give an answer, but he helped to eliminate one possibility. Of the two remaining possibilities, which one was true?
As far as Angor was concerned, both were possible.
In fact, it was even possible that the two situations were parallel. Since Ghost Rider had the highest authority, it must have some kind of hidden rule.
As for what kind of rule it was, Angor would have to wait until Granny Dragon Crow talked to Ghost Rider.
He had to put this question aside for the time being.
"Apart from this, there's something else I don't understand."
Everyone looked at Angor. "What is it?" Laplace asked.
"Why a sacrifice?" Angor muttered in a low voice.
"What do you mean?" Luigi was puzzled.
Angor did not answer. Instead, he frowned as if thinking about something.
Glepnir also spoke up, "I think so too. There's something strange about the sacrifice."
"Is the sacrifice in the castle only used to check if the character is getting into character?"
This was because according to Ai Dehua, the appearance of a sacrifice not only meant that his character had been successfully created, but it also meant that he could trick an outsider.
Apart from that, the sacrifice did not seem to have any other purpose.
It was as if the sacrifice's only purpose was to trick people.
What was the point of going through so much trouble to come up with something like this, but it didn't even bring out the actual use of the sacrifice?
And at first glance, it was obvious that something was wrong.
Angor looked at Ai Dehua. "Did anyone try to use the offerings? Will Ghost Rider retrieve these offerings? "
Ai Dehua thought about it carefully. "Ghost Rider didn't come to retrieve the offerings in our hands, and I've never seen anyone use them. But … "
Ai Dehua paused as if he was trying to recall something.
After a long time, Ai Dehua said, "It seems that the sacrifice without an owner in the forest will be taken away every once in a while."
Because of the character settings, most people would be trapped in the castle, and it would be very difficult for them to leave.
Ai Dehua was an exception. As a hairdresser, he often needed to make cosmetics. Some of the ingredients for these cosmetics, including dyes for hair coloring, came from outside, such as some plants in the forest.
Therefore, Ai Dehua could occasionally leave the castle and pick some plants from the forest. This fit his character settings.
Ai Dehua was one of the few people in Knight's Castle who could come into contact with the sacrifice in the Black Forest.
"Because of the role-playing game, most of the sacrifice will respawn in the hands of our characters. But sometimes, they will appear outside the castle and become ownerless. It's rare, but because of years of accumulation and the fact that most people can't leave the castle, there are quite a lot of them in the forest.
"However, because these sacrifices don't respawn in our hands, they don't belong to me. So, even if I encounter an ownerless sacrifice outside, I usually don't touch it."
For Ai Dehua, the greatest use of a sacrifice was to induce outsiders to seek their own freedom.
Because ownerless sacrifices didn't belong to anyone, he couldn't trick outsiders. So, even if he could go out, he wouldn't pick them.
"Although I don't pick these sacrifices, I've discovered that the sacrifices in the forest will occasionally disappear.
"For example, one time when I went out, I encountered a sacrifice …"
It was a Dead Man's Rope hanging from the top of a tree.
The Dead Man's Rope referred to the rope that the hanged ghost had used to strangle his neck before he died.
At that time, Ai Dehua went out to pick plants and extract dyes. He saw this Dead Man's Rope, which emitted a faint glow. It was clearly a rope sacrifice.
Although Ai Dehua didn't know much about rituals, he could guess that this kind of Dead Man's Rope was usually used in rituals related to souls and death.
Anyway, he wasn't interested. Even if he took it back, he couldn't induce outsiders. So, he left after taking a look.
About half a month later, the arrogant Miss Bubbles wanted to change her wig to a new hair color. So, Ai Dehua carried big and small bags to the forest to look for dyes again.
When he passed by the tree again, he found that the Dead Man's Rope was gone.
The sacrifice couldn't have disappeared by itself. Someone must have taken it.
But Ai Dehua was very sure that in the past half a month, no one had left the Knight's Castle on the surface.
After all, everyone had to maintain their own personas, and it was impossible for them to do anything that went against the rules.
And in the past half a month, no outsiders came to the secret place through the window. So, who took the Dead Man's Rope?
But at that time, Ai Dehua's mind was all on the dyes and didn't pay much attention to this matter.
It was only after he returned to the castle at night that he felt that something was wrong.
He regretted not looking around the tree to see if there were any footprints. If there were, he might be able to find some clues by following the footprints.
That night, Ai Dehua thought of "hinting" to Bubbles the next day to ask her to order him to look for dyes again.
But the weather was unpredictable. When Ai Dehua woke up the next day, it was already raining.
The rain would cover all traces.
Even if he went out now, it would be difficult to find footprints.
However, because of this matter, Ai Dehua also paid attention to the sacrifices in the forest.
Every time he went to the forest, he would secretly record the style and location of these sacrifices in his heart. The next time he saw them, he would compare them to see if there were any changes.
In the end, he really found that sacrifices would occasionally disappear in the forest.
Some sacrificial plants and flowers could be claimed to have been eaten by wild beasts in the forest or buried by rain or snow. However, for sacrificial plants like the Dead Man's Rope, it was very difficult for natural phenomena, wild beasts, and insects to destroy the evidence.
In particular, Ai Dehua once found that a tombstone-like sacrifice in the forest had disappeared.
Only a muddy puddle was left behind.
There was no doubt that this was man-made!
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