When forensic doctor Chen Yan found the seventh corpse posed as a kneeling clay figure in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city, he realized he was dealing not with an ordinary serial killer, but with a lunatic obsessed with dark rituals. The victim's abdominal cavity was stuffed with yellow paper covered in strange writing. Traces of fluorescent paint beneath the fingernails led the police to an upscale art gallery. There, an abstract painting titled Judgment Day dripped with still-wet "red paint," and a twisted letter C was signed in the corner.
As the investigation deepened, Chen Yan and veteran detective Xing Weiguo uncovered a carefully planned fourfold sacrifice: "earth, fire, water, and sun." Each step pointed toward something more terrifying. Gallery owner Su Wanqing vanished without a trace. Artist Chen Xinghui was burned in a cremation furnace. A kneeling figure hidden in the silt at the bottom of the river held a secret, and the final bloody stage lay beneath the "Ruins of Light" at an abandoned observatory. The killer used an inverted triangle as his mark, constructing a ritual of judgment from paintings, blood, and fire. Behind the truth lay a cold case buried for many years, and a vengeful ghost branded with a cross-shaped scar...
