PD -Chapter 199 Summoning the Demon

“Pervert! Peeping Tom!” the woman on the other end of the line, who had just sounded frightened, now shifted into anger. “If you don’t leave right now, I’m calling the police!”

“You’ve misunderstood… I’m not…” Liu Xiaopeng’s embarrassed voice came through the phone.

Only then did I finally understand what was going on. This guy must have been staking out Ai Lin’s place, and someone passing by spotted him and mistook him for a voyeuristic pervert. That was why the whole ridiculous scene had just unfolded.

“You’re really outside spying on her?” I asked him, half-amused.

There was a brief silence on Liu Xiaopeng’s end. He was clearly embarrassed. After a moment, he finally asked, “Did you find anything about that symbol?”

“It’s not an eye. It’s a lotus flower—it’s the symbol of the White Lotus Sect.” I began explaining what we had just discovered.

“Oh right, we also looked into Ai Lin…” I was still speaking when I suddenly heard Liu Xiaopeng lower his voice and say, “She’s coming out.”

I froze slightly, not fully understanding what he meant. I was about to ask again, but there was no response. The call hadn’t been hung up though—I could still hear ambient sounds and his breathing through the receiver.

Occasional sounds of passing cars and honking came through the phone. It seemed Liu Xiaopeng had quietly begun following her.

That line he just said—“she’s coming out”—was probably referring to Ai Lin.

I didn’t hang up. Instead, I asked Tang Shanshan to check the time. It was already close to midnight. For a girl like Ai Lin to go out of her residence at this hour after returning home was indeed unusual.

“Help me locate Liu Xiaopeng’s phone!” I ordered, still listening closely to the sounds on the other end.

Yan Shu immediately nodded and called the technical department. Soon after, she received a tracking interface on her computer. Once opened, it displayed Liu Xiaopeng’s movement path.

Right now, he was moving quickly along a narrow road.

“Should we follow him?” Yan Shu asked.

I thought about it. If we followed now, we might ruin everything. Besides, we didn’t yet have concrete evidence proving that the woman had any real problem.

I shook my head. “Let’s wait and see for now.”

“Hey, Xiaopeng, if you can hear me, turn on your camera. Use a video call so we can see what’s going on.”

I spoke into the phone, but still got no response. After a while, a video feed finally popped up.

The image was dark and full of noise.

By now, Liu Xiaopeng had been following Ai Lin for about fifteen minutes.

The two of them had entered a suburban path. After turning several corners, they had reached what looked like a demolition zone—ruined buildings and piles of construction waste everywhere.

Liu Xiaopeng had placed his phone in his chest pocket, with the camera facing forward from his point of view.

Under the moonlight, Ai Lin passed through several broken walls and entered a relatively intact gatehouse.

The gatehouse looked quite old, still retaining its upturned eaves and an old plaque… but it was too dark to make out any details through the phone camera.

Liu Xiaopeng followed closely behind her, pressing himself against the doorway.

Fortunately, the building was dilapidated, and the door gap was wide enough for us to see inside.

Ai Lin walked in and immediately lit several candles with a lighter.

The candles were placed on what looked like an altar table, surrounded by miscellaneous objects.

After lighting them, she scanned the surroundings as if sensing something unusual behind her.

Liu Xiaopeng quickly pulled back, pressing himself tightly against the outer wall. Watching through the phone camera, we all held our breath, worried he would be discovered.

Fortunately, after a while, Ai Lin showed no intention of coming out to investigate. Liu Xiaopeng cautiously leaned back toward the crack in the door again.

At some point, Ai Lin had tied up her hair and put on a white cloak. Standing in front of the altar, her entire aura had changed.

She slowly picked up a dagger from among the clutter on the altar.

My heart tightened. I thought—had she discovered Liu Xiaopeng and was preparing to fight to the death?

But my worry was immediately dispelled by her actions.

She raised the dagger in her right hand and stretched out her left—then slashed hard across her own palm.

After that, she set the dagger down and picked up a bowl shaped like a lotus flower from nearby. She placed her bleeding left hand over it.

Blood began to flow steadily from her palm into the lotus-shaped bowl… and then something astonishing happened.

The bowl, originally a pure white porcelain vessel with no impurities, began to slowly turn a dark red as it filled with her blood.

Once the strange lotus bowl had completely transformed into a deep crimson, Ai Lin closed her eyes. She dipped her fingers into her own blood inside the bowl and began stirring it in circles while chanting something under her breath—uttering sounds that were incomprehensible, like a dialect or some kind of sinister incantation.

When her chanting ended, the dim lighting inside the room suddenly turned red. The candles flickered violently, then their flames shot up and turned blood-red.

That red light was dizzying. The entire room looked as if it had been soaked in blood. It reminded me of the crime scene we had seen earlier—the apartment filled with that same dark crimson glow, blood covering the walls and floor.

“Great and honored evil god, I am your faithful believer. The White Lotus Sect shall be with you!” Ai Lin’s voice echoed through the crimson-lit room.

My heart leapt into my throat.

Yan Shu, witnessing this bizarre scene through the screen, stared in disbelief.

“What kind of trick is she using to pretend to be supernatural like this?” she couldn’t help but ask, pointing at my phone screen.

But at that moment, none of us had the mind to answer her.

Right now, I felt a surge of regret. I should have trusted Liu Xiaopeng’s instincts and gone with him to monitor this woman. Instead, he was now alone in danger, and I couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt.

If that heart-eating “evil god” really was being summoned by her… then Liu Xiaopeng’s situation was extremely dangerous.