The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 310

Chapter 311
New Moon Ritual

Just in case, Eivass kept everyone else with him and quietly waited until nightfall.
All sorts of potions and equipment were prepared in advance, and even Eivass’s mana had been fully restored through praying. This was all to prevent another surprise attack from that Punisher Demon during twilight.

Demons healed quite quickly. As long as they weren’t dead and could still move, eating a few people could bring them back to roughly seventy to eighty percent of their strength within a day.
But by the time darkness completely fell and the moon rose, the Punisher Demon still hadn’t appeared.

“Did he give up?” Haina asked solemnly.
When Eivass and Lily were in danger before, she, as the team’s shield, had been absent. This made her feel very guilty.
At the Royal Law University, they repeatedly studied an important concept—that armored classes must absolutely never allow their fragile, unarmored companions to be directly exposed to enemy threats.
This was the mark of an absolutely disqualified protector.
Regardless of whether these fragile Extraordinary companions possessed the ability to deal with the opponent, the supervisors within the team had to step forward. The same spell falling on them might not even cause serious injury, but it could be fatal to others. Moreover, even if they suffered the same fatal injury, those supervisors with robust life force would last much longer and recover more easily after treatment without lingering issues.

It was like the Inspection Bureau that was attacked before—if the Court of Justice had been attacked instead, they likely wouldn’t have lasted until Eivass’s rescue. The same applied to the supervisors who were severely injured during Eivass’s awarding ceremony.

“I think that Punisher Demon is making further preparations,” Eivass shook his head.
The Demon Scholar troops he had brought before were all wiped out by Little Butterfly’s self-detonation. From an emotional perspective, Eivass hoped he could bring more next time; but from a rational perspective, he shouldn’t bring so many people again.
Because they had become a burden when facing Eivass.
If it weren’t for protecting them, he wouldn’t have needed to use the [Flame Immunity Barrier] and stand still. As a Demon Avatar, his own life force was abundant, and his mobility and burst power were strong. He could have used other offensive rituals to launch a more ferocious attack.

And the most crucial point was—the Butterfly’s status clearly suppressed him.
Generally speaking, among spells of the same rank, defense definitely took priority over offense, otherwise defensive spells would be meaningless.
The [Elemental Immunity Barrier] was a Sixth Tier Grand Ritual that could nullify pure mana projection attacks from the six elements of Light, Dark, Wind, Earth, Water, and Fire within its area of effect. As long as one stood inside, all pure elemental spells of the Sixth Tier and below within the continuous range could be ignored. The negative effect was that it would also nullify spells within the barrier—meaning one couldn’t cast spells either.
The [Flame Immunity Barrier] was a low-spec version of it, a Fourth Tier ritual.
Calling it a low-spec version, it was still a legitimate Fourth Tier defensive ritual.
Even attacks of the same Fourth Tier rank could not penetrate the barrier.
But Little Butterfly’s flames and lasers clearly couldn’t be blocked by that barrier. That Punisher Demon was intelligent, an old Extraordinary being who had lived for hundreds of years. He would certainly know what this meant.
—An Upper Phantom Demon.
Because if the Butterfly was Fifth Tier, then it would be a Phantom Demon of the same rank as the Punisher Demon after hatching and could easily kill them all. There would be no need for it to self-detonate upon seeing him transform into a Punisher Demon.

So there was only one possibility: Little Butterfly’s spell power was only Fourth Tier. But with the status priority bonus of an Upper Phantom Demon, it pierced through the Flame Immunity Barrier’s resistance.
And lower-ranked Upper Phantom Demons were not impossible to defeat.
In game terms, although spell penetration, effect hit rate, and abnormal status resistance had a one-rank priority bonus, their four-dimensional attributes, Path Traits, and spell lists were all ten ranks lower. An enemy at level forty with a priority bonus would definitely be much easier to fight than an enemy at level fifty without a priority bonus.

If that Giant’s memory hadn’t deteriorated, he should still remember that the first time he saw him, he used a dispersal-type Flame Butterfly on the street, even in front of the Grand Guardian.
That “spell” and the Butterfly were both in the form of fire butterflies. He should easily associate these two abilities. This would naturally lead him to identify it as Eivass’s Path of Devotion ability… and from that distance, he should have been able to sense that Eivass’s Transcendent Path was only Second Tier.
In other words, in his perception, Eivass must have revealed all his trump cards. And even the Butterfly could at most only make him feel “troubled” and “difficult to deal with,” not “fear.”
Then he definitely wouldn’t chicken out.

“They will definitely come back,” Eivass asserted. “Although I don’t know why they came here in the first place—but I killed a squad of their elites, so they must seek revenge.”
Especially when victory was certain.

“He must be looking for special countermeasures against flames,” Sherlock commented with a frown. “From your description, the only way you can harm him is with flames. And Demon Scholars, due to their habit of using ritual spells, are more inclined towards ‘preparation’ and are not accustomed to surprise encounters.”
“Now that your information has been exposed, he will definitely make thorough preparations—this is dangerous.”

Is that so?
Eivass’s lips curved slightly upward.
—He didn’t think so.
After this Ascension, he could use the Shepherd’s Method again; and as long as Lily gained Shadow Affinity one more time, her Shadow Affinity level would reach Four. This meant she could further unleash the power of the Shadow Demon.
A Third Tier Shadow Affinity allowed full accommodation of the Shadow Demon’s power, meaning the Shadow Demon could hide in her shadow without being discovered; and only at Fifth Tier Shadow Affinity could she merge with the Shadow Demon and fully unleash a strength where 1+1 was greater than 3.
Lily herself had received the essence of the Shadow Demon’s Shepherd’s Method. Half of the power within her came from the Shadow Demon.
Whether it was continuing to enhance the strength of the Fifth Tier Shadow Demon or upgrading the peak Fourth Tier Butterfly to Fifth Tier, it would give that Punisher Demon a big surprise.
—This Punisher Demon, I’m definitely going to seal him!
Eivass thought.

“Prepare the Ascension Ritual, both of you,” Eivass said softly to Haina and Lily when the New Moon above had already risen high into the sky.
Haina nodded solemnly, and Lily calmly responded.
Sherlock remained in the room as the ritual guardian. He had already pasted red window paper onto the windows, filling the room with a blood-red radiance.

“—Nine are complete,” Eivass chanted in a low voice. “And I am among them.”
Strangle a seabird; shatter a mirror;
Pierce the heart of a lamb with a nail dipped in poisoned blood;
Melt a great man’s wax effigy with a candle, and soak black salt with blood;
Stab a well-fed rat with a knife, and skin a snake;
Pierce a horse’s phallus from tip to end with a nail; pry open an oyster and drip one’s own blood into it.
Eivass left the snake, Lily left the rat, and Haina left the horse’s phallus.

“Save for me, eight are dead.”
The three said in unison.
The next moment, black and red flames blazed within the room.
The Ritual Array was lit, shimmering with red radiance.
A scarlet and evil radiance, like blood, filled the entire room—

Yesterday I was still feeling unwell and only fell asleep past 4 AM, so I woke up late this morning. The first chapter is a few minutes late…
My exhales are still hot, my face is red, and my throat is dry and I’m still coughing. My skin hurts a bit, but I genuinely don’t have a fever…
I’ll write the second chapter first, and we’ll talk more after I finish the rest!