Beneath the Dome, Sin within Sins - Chapter 83 - Mutation
The car drove for another half hour or so before finally reaching the mountain summit. When Su Mo and I were dragged out, I was completely stunned by the scene in front of me.
At the top of the mountain was an observation deck, which was filled with offerings for the sacrificial ritual-mostly food.
Above these offerings stood an altar, and on the altar were two coffins. There was no need to guess; the coffins were clearly prepared for Su Mo and me.
Below the altar, a crowd had gathered. There were about forty or fifty people kneeling below the observation deck, their faces filled with devout reverence.
Heads bowed, they muttered unintelligible chants under their breath. The nonsensical incantations overlapped into a chaotic chorus that nearly scrambled my brain.
“So, this is what you call a sacrifice to heaven? You people are really something. All this spectacle just to kill someone,” I said mockingly as I looked at the scene before me.
Jiang Wu frowned at my words. He replied, “Is a human life so trivial in your eyes? ‘Just to kill someone’? You speak as if it’s nothing.”
Before I had the chance to respond, Su Mo let out a cold laugh. “Someone with hands soaked in blood lecturing someone who tirelessly protects the people-now that’s rich.”
The moment Su Mo finished speaking, Jiang Wu punched him fiercely in the stomach. Su Mo doubled over like a shrimp from the force of the blow.
“Hey! What are you doing?!” I called out, my voice laced with panic.
Jiang Wu glanced at me and curled his lips into a mocking smile. “What do you think? You’re just a prisoner-yet you dare to talk back to me. Your courage is impressive, I’ll give you that.”
I shot Su Mo a warning look, signaling him to stay quiet. The situation was already against us; the more we said, the higher the risk of making things worse. It was better to conserve our energy and wait for the right moment.
Although frustration was evident in Su Mo’s expression, he understood my intention. He nodded gently, silently agreeing with my plan.
And so, we were forced onto the altar.
I thought we’d immediately be stuffed into those coffins. Surprisingly, the bandaged man had no such plans. Instead, the first thing he did was force Su Mo and me to walk in circles around the believers.
The sensation was eerily similar to how death row inmates were paraded through the streets before execution in ancient times.
This bandaged man really thought of himself as some sort of emperor-only someone with an emperor complex could come up with an idea like this.
But perhaps there was a silver lining in this charade. The believers were numerous, but they seemed utterly numb. If we could act swiftly and effectively, we might just find a chance to escape.
Su Mo seemed to share my thoughts. I could see a glimmer of hope in his eyes-a determination to seize any opportunity that presented itself.
The knots tying us up had been tied by Jiang Wu, and they offered almost no real restraint. For Su Mo, undoing them was a piece of cake. As for me, ever since I became a detective, I had gained quite a knack for handling this sort of thing.
Though untying the ropes while walking was a bit cumbersome, it was still advantageous for us. At least during the parade, they had lowered their guard.
When Su Mo and I reached the corner of the plaza, I suddenly stopped in my tracks and shouted, “Su Mo! Now!”
The moment the words left my mouth, Su Mo lunged forward with a swift stride, closing the distance to Jiang Wu. He wrapped the rope around Jiang Wu and tied a special kind of knot-a knot that tightened the more one struggled!
Su Mo’s sudden action threw the entire group into chaos. At that moment, I caught sight of a man in a black robe slipping through the crowd.
I frowned, instincts urging me to give chase, but Su Mo grabbed my arm, his face filled with urgency as he said, “What are you waiting for? Run!”
He was right. Figuring out the identity of the man in the black robe could wait. The most important thing was to escape this hellish place before it was too late!
With that thought, I nodded and followed Su Mo in the opposite direction, running as fast as I could.
We hadn’t gotten far when a group of believers blocked our way. These fanatics were nothing if not persistent!
“What do we do?” I asked Su Mo, backing away instinctively as we retreated step by step.
“I don’t know,” he responded. “Just break through! Right now, we can’t worry about whether they’re just ordinary people or not. If they’ve already surrendered to the demon, then they are demons. And when facing demons, we cannot-and must not-show mercy!”
Su Mo’s words were solemn, but they struck a chord in me. He was right. These weren’t ordinary civilians anymore. They had been corrupted by the wicked sect, their souls no longer pure as they once were.
With that realization, the two of us grabbed some sticks lying on the ground and assumed a defensive stance, ready to fight our way through.
At that very moment, the bandaged man began clapping as he walked toward us through the crowd.
“Well, well, the exceptional detective and the admirable police officer are now ready to strike down innocent civilians, are they?”
His voice carried a mocking tone, and the faint smirk lingering on his lips made my skin crawl. There was something bone-chillingly sinister about him-enough to make anyone’s hair stand on end.
“What the hell do you want?!” I demanded.
“I’ve already told you-I plan to use you in the sacrifice to heaven. But since you’ve put up such fierce resistance, I suppose I’ll have to let the deity punish you instead,” he replied, his smile deepening.
“What are you talking about?!” I asked, eyes narrowing.
The bandaged man ignored my question. Instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a whistle. Without hesitation, he blew it right in front of us.
I braced myself, thinking reinforcements for them would arrive any second. But to my surprise, that’s not what happened at all. As the sound of the whistle echoed, the believers standing around us each pulled out a small glass vial from their mouths and, without hesitation, drank its contents.
Then, in an instant, their skin began to change. It was grotesque, otherworldly. And one by one, they collapsed to the ground.
“What… What’s going on here?” Su Mo muttered, his eyes wide with shock as he stared at the fallen believers.
But I couldn’t respond to him. My mind was already racing, connecting this horrifying scene to something I had investigated not long ago-those corpses I’d come into contact with.
The puncture marks on the necks of the victims… they had to be deliberate. And as for the substances causing these transformations, they were undoubtedly tied to the perfume being sold by that shady workshop we had been tracking. That so-called “perfume” wasn’t perfume at all-it was a virus designed to induce mutation.
This virus turned people into bloodless corpses-creatures stripped of their humanity. And once these creatures lost control, they transformed into what the legends termed “bloodless killers.”
So this was the “revolution” the bandaged man had been talking about. He wanted to turn the entire population into his puppets-bloodless corpses under his absolute control. His ultimate goal was to create a so-called “perfect empire” where he alone reigned supreme. In this empire, there would be no one else-no competition, no rivals. Just him. This was the bandaged man’s twisted, horrifying ambition.
As I pieced this together and spoke the words out loud, I was unsurprised when he gave me a slow, deliberate round of applause, his expression one of grotesque delight.
“Exactly,” he said, his voice dripping with smug satisfaction. “You’ve figured it out. But so what?”