Chapter 918: The Apocalyptic Ritual

When it happened, Akiyo Sixteen Nights was still asleep.

In her dream, she saw You Xuan—the man who had firmly told her at the Lucky Cup arena to learn to love herself, to learn to think for herself.

Then she saw Godwin. This man had given her a chance at rebirth, allowing her to break free from her cursed past and accept everything about herself as she moved toward a new future.

But compared to You Xuan, though both had given her a chance to change her life, she felt Godwin still had more hidden sides. Sometimes she even felt she had never truly known this silver-haired officer.

Perhaps that was precisely why she had had such a terrifying dream.

She dreamed that beneath Godwin’s gentle facade lurked a terrifying entity—an entity like an Dark Sealer, like an Earth-Bound God—beyond her comprehension, harboring unimaginable ambitions.

“Mmmmm.”

Akiyo jolted awake to find her sheets and blankets soaked.

Soaked in sweat.

She sat up abruptly, clutching her chest as she gasped for breath.

Why had she dreamed such a bizarre dream?

“Pain.”

Only then did Akiyo realize the sensation that had woken her was a sharp pain. She instinctively covered her arm and saw the red glow of the Long Yin flickering erratically.

“Long Yin.” Akiyo frowned.

After the Dark Sealers were defeated, the Long Yin had never reacted again. She had once thought their duty as Long Yin bearers was complete, and the mark would never glow again.

Why now?

Akiyo looked out the window and suddenly narrowed her pupils.

She saw an anomaly in heaven and earth.

In the bustling heart of New Dou Shi Ye, beneath the night sky, neon lights refracted through the damp air before rain, casting hazy halos—yet above this glow, the sky itself seemed torn apart by invisible force. Lightning and thunder wove into a breathtaking celestial curtain, each flash like the heavens roaring in fury.

A vortex of dimensions opened silently amid the dense clouds, emitting a profound cold radiance, as if connecting reality to the unknown. Natural forces were twisted beyond imagination; colossal Nazca lines miraculously reappeared in the sky, forming the image of a soaring condor.

Yes, just like the Nazca ground drawing of the condor. But now, those once-abstract lines were vividly lifelike—the broad wings, the piercing gaze—standing firm between heaven and earth as if piercing through the barrier of time, ready to come alive at any moment.

At the same moment, across the city, in the satellite district forgotten by the neon-lit New Dou Shi Ye, the long-abandoned perpetual motion machine suddenly revived.

The perpetual motion machine, once a symbol of human wisdom and later discarded as a machine of destruction, erupted with a brilliant multicolored pillar of light shooting straight into the sky. The light shimmered in swirling hues, radiant as a rainbow, as if forcibly tearing open a massive rift in the void.

“What’s going on?”

Akiyo was stunned, instinctively gripping her arm.

“Wasn’t the Dark Sealer battle already over? Why this pain?”

And the direction of the Nazca condor lines—seen from afar—seemed to point toward... the Peacekeeping Bureau?

“Godwin!”

Without hesitation, Akiyo leapt from bed and rushed toward the Peacekeeping Bureau.

When Akiyo arrived at the site of the condor image, she was even more astonished.

She saw an altar.

A towering altar, its steps stretching as if reaching into the heavens, directly beneath the Nazca condor figure.

As she drew closer, she noticed You Xuan, Jack, Cro, even the little girl Long Ke—who was also a Long Yin bearer—and Long Ke’s brother Long Ya, all already gathered there.

“Everyone?” Akiyo asked in surprise. “Were you all drawn here by the Long Yin? What’s happening?”

You Xuan said: “I don’t know. But the Long Yin suddenly reacted, and then we saw this outside.”

Before he finished, Cro suddenly shouted: “Hey! Look up there!”

Everyone turned—and saw the figure standing atop the altar.

Silver hair, handsome face, upright posture, white suit, hands clasped behind his back, as if controlling everything.

“Godwin?”

You Xuan called out.

“What’s going on?”

The figure atop the altar smiled and replied: “What’s going on? It’s exactly what you see.

The power of the demon god resonates with the old perpetual motion machine in the satellite district. The gates of the netherworld are about to open.”

At these words, everyone’s faces turned pale.

“The gates of the netherworld opening? Does that mean the world is going to be destroyed!?” You Xuan asked.

The “Godwin” replied calmly: “Precisely.”

You Xuan gritted his teeth: “But why? Didn’t we win? Weren’t the Dark Sealers defeated? Then why is this still happening?”

Jack snapped: “Godwin! Did you do something? I’ve always suspected you were suspicious!”

The “Godwin” laughed heartily: “The original king’s intuition is sharp. By the way, haven’t you all been wondering where the final Long Yin bearer is?

Why, after the Dark Sealer battle ended, has your final companion not appeared?”

Everyone was stunned.

Akiyo couldn’t help speaking first: “Isn’t the final Long Yin bearer you, Godwin?”

The “Godwin” snorted coldly twice, then said calmly: “I never claimed to be. You simply assumed it. Since you’re so curious, I’ll tell you the truth now.”

As he spoke, he suddenly pulled from behind him a transparent glass jar filled with nutrient fluid, countless transparent bubbles rising and bubbling within.

Everyone stared in shock—the fluid inside clearly contained a severed hand!

A cleanly amputated forearm, cut at the elbow, bearing the Long Yin mark identical to their own.

This hand belonged to the final Long Yin bearer!

Akiyo gasped aloud.

How?

The final Long Yin bearer—the one with the Long Head Mark—wasn’t Godwin?

And now his arm had been severed, held in Godwin’s hand... what had he done to the final Long Yin bearer?

Akiyo’s mind flashed back to her nightmare.

Rex Godwin—beneath this gentle exterior, was there truly a demon no one had noticed?

“I used the power of this final Long Yin to summon all of you here.”

The “Godwin” said calmly.

“Only this way can the final ritual be completed.”

You Xuan asked grimly: “What ritual?”

The “Godwin” revealed a sinister smile: “Of course—the ritual to summon the King of the Netherworld, the ritual to destroy the world.”

(End of Chapter)