# 226
**Chapter 226: The Ritual**
An Qingyu fell silent.
Indeed, if their assumption were correct, then two victims had been nailed to the wall that night. However, the blood analysis at the scene had only revealed Sun Xiao’s blood. That alone made their theory fall apart.
“Besides, if there really was a second victim that night, where’s the body?” Lin Qiye continued. “He was wearing the uniform of a server from this tavern, but none of the other servers died. So… who exactly died?”
At this point in their deduction, both began to suspect their reasoning was flawed. But if not this, then the direction of the wounds on the corpse couldn’t be explained…
The case was becoming more and more baffling.
Just as the two were lost in thought, Lin Qiye’s phone rang. He took it out, glanced at the screen, and a glint appeared in his eyes.
“The deputy captain says they’ve found some clues about this Mystery. I need to head back,” Lin Qiye said, putting away his phone. He turned to An Qingyu. “You’ve seen the body. You should leave now.”
An Qingyu sighed helplessly. “This case is more complicated than I thought. With just these four corpses, there’s too little to analyze… I think I need to revisit the crime scene.”
“Here’s my number. If you find anything, call me.”
“…I don’t remember saying I’d help you solve the case. I just wanted to look at the corpse.” An Qingyu’s expression turned odd.
Lin Qiye turned his head and stared into An Qingyu’s eyes without saying a word.
An Qingyu gave a bitter smile. “Alright, I get it. Since you didn’t turn me over to the Night Watch, I’ll let you know if I find anything.”
“Mm.”
…
Peace Office.
Underground.
All members of Squad 136 were seated around the long table. Wu Xiangnan held a thick stack of documents, his expression grave.
“After Wen Qimo reported the characteristics of the East City Mystery the day before yesterday, I immediately searched the Night Watch’s internal database, trying to identify what it is…”
For the Night Watch, the most crucial step in handling a mysterious event was confirming the identity of the “Mystery.” Once they knew what it was, they could roughly determine its abilities, strength, habits, and weaknesses.
Some Mysteries were easy to identify at a glance—like the Ghost-Faced Man or the Flame-Vein Earth Dragon, which had very distinctive traits. Others were harder to pin down from the events alone, like the Nanda Serpent Demon or the current Mystery.
“Based on Wen Qimo’s keywords—invisibility, telekinesis, finger-cutting, and electronic interference—I couldn’t find any Mystery that matched all of them. The closest was the Ten-Cut Ghost Child, but it doesn’t have invisibility or telekinesis, and it’s not intelligent enough to carry out such a complex case.
In other words, what we’re facing is likely a Mystery that has never been recorded before.”
Wu Xiangnan handed out the documents to everyone, his expression turning even more serious.
“Then, I searched for rituals involving finger-cutting and nailing victims to walls… and found something alarming.”
Lin Qiye took one of the documents and opened it, frowning.
“Long ago, before the Fog descended, a small Western religion had an ancient legend. It spoke of a ritual for vengeful ghosts to ascend. This ritual was meant to transform weak ghosts into powerful ones. Historically, two ghosts did indeed use this ritual to advance from the River Realm directly to the Sea Realm.
To complete the ritual, a human soul must be sacrificed every two days. Within ten seconds before death, the victim’s ten fingers must be severed. Their feet must not touch the ground at the moment of death. And the time of death must be exactly 3:33 AM.”
Lin Qiye’s eyes narrowed when he saw the time. The forensic estimate for the tavern corpse’s time of death was between 3:00 and 4:00 AM—this matched.
And the method used was completely consistent with the ritual.
“After five human souls are sacrificed, the ritual will be partially complete. Then, by injecting a large amount of soul power, the weak ghost will be reborn through the ritual and become a truly powerful entity…”
“Soul power?” Hongying scratched her head in confusion.
“You can think of it as sacrificing the souls of hundreds of ordinary people. Of course, it’s just a matter of total soul energy—it doesn’t necessarily require that many people. Some individuals have incredibly powerful souls. One of them might equal dozens. For example, people with Forbidden Ruins, or even Mysteries themselves.”
“You mean, to complete the ritual, after killing five people, it’ll have to kill hundreds more in one go?” Chen Muye’s expression darkened.
“Exactly. And the location of the ritual is strictly defined.” Wu Xiangnan continued, “In the documents you’re holding, there’s a diagram of the ritual site.”
Lin Qiye flipped through the pages and found a photo. It showed a pattern carved into an ancient stone tablet. Five black dots were arranged like a five-pointed star, connected by lines. Along the lines were distorted characters, seemingly annotations.
“Based on the locations of the previous four incidents, I created a planar model. When I overlaid it with the ritual diagram, I was able to extrapolate the approximate location of the final ritual.”
Wu Xiangnan pulled out a map and drew a small red circle on it.
“A high-end residential area?” Wen Qimo exclaimed when he saw the circled area.
“Correct.” Wu Xiangnan nodded. “According to the ritual’s steps, it will definitely sacrifice the fifth victim here, then kill hundreds more to meet the soul sacrifice requirement, and ascend to the Sea Realm.”
“Based on the timeline… tonight—tomorrow at 3:33 AM—it will strike,” Lin Qiye said grimly.
Everyone turned to look at Chen Muye.
Chen Muye nodded and spoke slowly: “In that case, our next phase of action is clear. This red zone isn’t large. Tonight, all seven of us will spread out and monitor the area.
Once anyone spots the Mystery, immediately fire a signal flare. Within twenty seconds, we can all converge and take it down.
This is a residential area, and the crime will happen in the early morning. To kill so many people at once, it’ll definitely need to prepare…
Get ready. We’ll head out early and lie in wait. Maybe we can catch it before the ritual even begins.”
“Yes, sir!”