PD -Chapter 198 The Evil God of Non-Existence

I sighed and shook my head as I watched Liu Xiaopeng’s back disappear into the crowd.

On the side, Tang Shanshan was still fuming. She pointed at his figure and said, “He just wants to meet that woman privately! What kind of lousy excuse is that?”

“Alright, alright… maybe what he said actually makes some sense,” I said, patting her shoulder, though I was still thinking about Liu Xiaopeng’s words.

Tang Shanshan and I hailed a taxi at the mouth of the alley. Then I called Yan Shu. She said she was still at the bureau checking records, so we took a cab straight to the municipal public security bureau.

The bureau was still brightly lit—clearly, she wasn’t the only one working overtime.

We quickly found Yan Shu in the archives room. She was sitting at a large table, which was cluttered with documents, a computer, and several discs.

The eye-shaped blood pattern from the victim’s stall had been printed out in multiple copies. Yan Shu had stuck them onto a small blackboard behind her.

“Our direction seems to be wrong!” Yan Shu said, holding up the eye pattern.

“At first, we assumed it was an eye. But it actually isn’t.” She pointed at the diagram she had drawn on the paper.

“Oh? Then what is it?” I narrowed my eyes and asked.

“A lotus. An unopened lotus bud,” Yan Shu said, gesturing on the paper.

I froze. After she said that, I looked again—and indeed, the image resembled a lotus bud just emerging from underwater. Even the pupil in the eye now looked like petals hidden inside the bud.

“This is the emblem of the White Lotus Sect,” Yan Shu said, motioning for us to look at the data on her computer.

“The White Lotus Sect?” I was stunned. I had seen this name many times in novels and TV dramas.

But it wasn’t entirely fictional. The White Lotus Sect could be said to be one of the most mysterious folk organizations in Chinese history.

It originated in the Southern Song Dynasty and continued to exist in various forms until after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Because its doctrines were strange and highly inflammatory, it was labeled a heretical cult early on.

Over the centuries, it was repeatedly suppressed by successive dynasties, yet it was never completely eradicated.

Instead, the White Lotus Sect gradually went further down the path of rebellion.

Famines, droughts, plagues, land loss—any of these disasters could trigger their uprisings. In history, the White Lotus Sect became synonymous with rebellion, appearing in almost every dynasty’s peasant revolts.

It had essentially become the representative of rebellion itself.

What I didn’t expect was that this cult still had remnants surviving in the present era.

So… why did they kill that girl?

“Looks like this is some kind of ritual sacrifice. That poor girl was probably treated as an offering,” Yan Shu continued.

“This case is more complicated than we thought. We need to move quickly, or these cultists may strike again.”

“What are they trying to summon with these sacrifices?” I asked, frowning at the computer screen.

Yan Shu opened more classified police database files—an internal system not accessible to the public, containing extremely detailed records.

She searched quickly and stopped at a historical research document about the White Lotus Sect. After skimming it, she said:

“The ‘Eternal Death Evil God’.”

I froze for a moment, trying to recall any meaning behind that name—but nothing came to mind.

The White Lotus Sect itself was already a strange folk organization, and its beliefs and objects of worship were even more bizarre. This kind of obscure evil god was something I had never heard of, which was normal.

“According to records, during periods of chaos in multiple dynasties, before launching rebellions, White Lotus believers would sacrifice flesh and hearts to summon the Eternal Death Evil God. It was said to grant their soldiers divine power to overthrow tyrannical rule. The summoning requires a ritual involving human hearts offered by sect members.”

Listening to Yan Shu, my heart suddenly tightened.

I immediately thought of the black shadow from the surveillance footage—the one that had chased the girl through the alley and eventually killed her in the apartment, tearing out her heart and devouring it…

Could that shadow be the so-called Eternal Death Evil God?

“By the way,” I suddenly remembered something and turned to Yan Shu. “Help me check another person.”

“Who?” she asked.

I took out my phone and showed her a photo I had secretly taken at the bar—the woman named Ai Lin.

“Check this woman. All we know is her name is Ai Lin. She seems to be mixed-race, but that’s all.”

“Right, didn’t Liu Xiaopeng say she’s from the same hometown as him?” Tang Shanshan added.

I nodded. “Yes. That’s all we have. Not sure if it’s enough to trace her.”

“Is she related to the case?” Yan Shu asked, looking at the photo.

“I’m not sure yet,” I said, shaking my head.

After thinking for a moment, Yan Shu took the photo and said, “It can be traced, but it may take some time.”

She had me send the image to her, then began locating Liu Xiaopeng’s hometown and running facial recognition along with the name I provided.

After about an hour, the system finally returned a result—it actually found her.

Her full name was Chen Ai Lin. Her father was Chinese, and her mother was British. They were overseas returnees, and her ancestral home was the same as Liu Xiaopeng’s hometown.

But her parents went missing when she was twelve, leaving her with an adoptive father who raised her.

Her background didn’t seem like anything directly connected to the supernatural case—at least not on the surface.

I sighed and picked up the phone, dialing Liu Xiaopeng’s number to inform him.

The phone rang a few times before he answered.

But before I could speak, a terrified scream suddenly came through the line.

“Aah!”

It sounded like a woman’s voice—like she had just seen something terrifying.

“What happened?” My heart tightened instantly as I frowned and shouted into the phone at Liu Xiaopeng.