Chapter 227: Sacrifice and Return

In the depths of a certain abandoned jade mine in Emerald City, Piao Kingdom, lies a natural cavern formed by erosion.

The cavern is not dark; pale white mycelium with dark red, vein-like patterns clings to the walls, emitting a cold bioluminescence that illuminates the entire space, resembling the innards of some colossal beast.

The air is thick, permeated with a scent mixing rust and cloying decay; every breath feels like swallowing congealed blood plasma.

Wade stood on a slightly raised platform in the center of the cavern, looking down.

His attire differed from the other believers: a simple dark casual suit, making him look like a scholar who had wandered into a pagan sanctuary. Yet in those eyes burned a flicker of fanatical clarity.

"Is the coordinate calibration complete?" His voice was unusually clear in the vast cave, its echo immediately absorbed by the damp mycelial walls.

"My lord," a high priest bowed, his voice hoarse, "Anchor 1 is locked on the Yangtze River Delta of Xia Kingdom, Anchor 2 on Mengmai of Yin Kingdom, Anchor 3 on Bali of France, Anchor 4 on Xincheng of Aka Kingdom..."

Every location he named was a critical node within key human gathering areas on Earth, covering the globe.

Wade nodded slightly.

"Excellent. This will be the last grand performance of human civilization..."

His gaze shifted to the cavern dome, where a massive inverted vortex pattern, inlaid and woven from countless human skeletons and cyan-black sacrificial stones, formed a structurally precise altar base.

Every skeleton came from actual victims of previous sacrifices; believers called them "Holy Bones," believing they were the earliest pioneers to "Return."

"Begin resonance testing of the altar."

"Critical value reached at 92%; resonance with the low-frequency fluctuations of the fragment within her... continues to rise," another high priest replied, the screen of the instrument in his hand flowing with a waterfall of eerie waveforms.

This was Wade's true weapon; stealing Yang Yi's DNA information, spreading panic, and manufacturing public opinion were not merely to cause her trouble.

Rather, to force her onto that path, to that extreme, awakening the fragment suppressed by her consciousness...

"Sacrifice is never slaughter," Wade whispered to the void, and also to the few core believers beside him, "but 'Return.' This is not evil; it is executing a higher-level ecological cycle of the universe. All colonies flourish and decay; this has nothing to do with morality, only with the efficiency of energy conversion..."

He paused, cold light flickering in his brown-black pupils.

"... She is always hungry... We are not destroying anyone; it is feeding, it is returning to the source... A person resisting addiction, suddenly immersed in an ocean of 100% concentrated poison; her will, her humanity, her so-called ideals... will at that moment, through the tribute offered by those she seeks to save, be completely submerged, merged, and reshaped..."

He descended from the platform to the cavern's edge, where a small, tranquil underground dark lake lay, its water black as ink.

Wade knelt on one knee, reaching out to touch the water's surface; the lake water actually boiled slightly, reflecting countless flickering, chaotic human faces—angry, weeping, cursing, praying in churches, attacking Yang Yi online, protesting in the streets...

"The tide of public opinion is sufficient to drown the altar," he said softly, as if admiring a nearly completed work of art, "Now, only one final gust of wind remains—a betrayal, perfectly timed, to make her utterly isolated, desperate, perhaps shake her belief in guardianship..."

He stood up and accepted the final "sacred artifact" handed to him by a believer—a sealed transparent container holding a small, constantly writhing mass of dark energy, constantly attempting to breach the container walls, its fluctuation frequency astonishingly similar to Yang Yi's power.

"Extracted from the remains of cloned monsters in Aka Kingdom... a derivative..." Wade explained, his tone gentle and refined, as if introducing a newly researched experimental product: "At the climax of the ritual, it will serve as the fuse, ensuring the energy torrent precisely 'detonates' her. This is science, gentlemen, an elegant application of thermodynamics and psychology on a cosmic scale."

One of the high priests hesitated slightly, then crossed his arms over his chest in a salute to Wade, "The Divine Punishment Organization pledges to forever prostrate beneath the altar, offering lambs to my lord..."

Wade smiled, his gaunt cheeks hidden in shadow: "Rest assured; as the Eternal Servant of the Lord, I never deceive my own people..."

He surveyed the cavern, waved his hand, and the believers began chanting twisted incantations.

The mycelial fluorescence flickered rapidly with the chants; the altar rose and fell like a living creature; the dark lake erupted with ripples shaped like human faces.

The entire space was slowly activating, forming a dual bomb targeting both civilization and the individual.

"Await the signal," Wade gave his final order, his voice merging into the twisted chanting: "The moment she transforms in the world's eyes from a flawed savior into a monster that must be eradicated—the instant the last thread of trust connecting her and humanity snaps..."

"We shall crown her."