Detective Conan: Shadow Legion Office

131: Chapter 131 The Dark Kingdom is About to Transform into the Real WorldAs Lin Long pushed open the heavy alloy door where the Kudo couple was imprisoned, the motion-sensor lights in the corridor flickered out.

The moment his foot landed on the final step, the mechanical lock behind him let out a soft ’click,’ completely sealing off the clamor of the outside world.

Soon, Lin Long arrived at the top floor alone. This was the manor’s attic and the highest point of the entire island.

No guards, no surveillance, and even the ventilation system was equipped with an independent encryption device—this was Lin Long’s true private domain, a space where he could be alone with his soul after shedding all his identity labels.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the raging waves of the Pacific Ocean were crashing against the reefs. The ink-blue waves rolled with white foam, like countless roaring beasts battering the embankment.

Lin Long walked to the window, his fingertips pressing against the cool glass. His gaze pierced through the night, landing on the horizon where the sea met the inky sky.

There was no starlight there, only a darkness as thick as ink, much like the world taking shape in the depths of his consciousness.

He slowly closed his eyes and sank into the deep sea of his mind.

The Dark Kingdom churned within his mental domain. It wasn’t simple chaos, but a three-dimensional structure woven from billions of strands of black energy—the jagged mountains were cast from blood-qi solidified in war, the rushing rivers flowed with never-extinguishing resentment, and the islands floating in mid-air were condensed from the fear of countless dying souls.

The chaotic land he had personally opened two years ago had now grown a complete network of veins:

There were wastelands for evil thoughts to reside, battlefields for killing intent to breed, and one could even see ’primordial creatures’ condensed from pure negative emotions hunting and slaughtering in the shadows.

”Buzz—”

A tremor suddenly radiated from the core of the Dark Kingdom. Lin Long could clearly perceive that the ’membrane’ wrapping the entire world was thinning and glowing. Golden specks of light seeped through countless tiny cracks—a sign that the world’s origin was beginning to transform.

He lightly stroked the void in his consciousness with his fingertips, touching the forming chains of laws—greed birthed the Law of Trade, hatred wove the Law of War, and betrayal transformed into the Law of Stealth... These rules, condensed from human evil, were propping up the skeleton of this world like bones.

”Soon.”

Lin Long whispered softly, his voice echoing in the empty attic, carrying a hint of a tremble that even he hadn’t noticed.

Two years ago, when he first split open that darkness in the depths of his consciousness, he never imagined he would reach this point.

Back then, the Dark Kingdom was just a blurred outline, needing to absorb the hostility of street brawls and the schemes of business rivalries to grow slowly.

Until he discovered that large-scale war and slaughter could catalyze the purest black energy—the despair in the smoke, the hatred in the pools of blood, the resentment in partings. These energies, concentrated from extreme negative emotions, acted like fertilizer, causing the Dark Kingdom to grow wildly.

Thus came the armed conflict between Eagle Nation and Japan, the great riot of the Tokyo Joker, and the slaughter carried out by underground forces revolving around Kudo Shinichi... Those wars and conspiracies despised by the world were, in Lin Long’s eyes, the dew that nourished his world.

He was like the most precise chess player, placing pieces all over the globe, using a single rumor to ignite gang wars, a piece of fake intelligence to trigger friction between nations, and a bounty to turn countless people into puppets of evil thoughts.

In the center of the attic floated a black crystal the size of a walnut.

That was the core of the Dark Kingdom, currently emitting a faint purple glow. Inside the crystal, one could vaguely see the reflection of a miniature world—mountains rising, rivers changing course, and even the air was filled with the scent of solidifying laws.

Lin Long reached out, and the crystal automatically fell into his palm, transmitting a pulse-like warmth.

He could clearly sense the countdown to the transformation. When the last strand of the law chain clicked into place, this Dark Kingdom would completely break free from the shackles of his consciousness and become a truly independent small world.

And he, Lin Long, would become the ’Heavenly Dao’ of this world—not a ruler, not a master, but an existence fused as one with the world itself.

Eternal and indestructible.

As this thought crossed his mind, a very faint curve appeared at the corner of Lin Long’s mouth.

Those factions using any means necessary for ’rejuvenation,’ those politicians driven mad by the pursuit of ’immortality’—they would never understand that their hard-won goals were nothing more than glass marbles in a child’s hand compared to the truth that ’as long as the world exists, I shall remain.’

Becoming the Heavenly Dao of a small world meant he would transcend the concept of life and death.

The operation of the world required his will to maintain, while his existence would in turn nourish the stability of the world. This cycle of mutual foundation was a closed loop that even time could not break.

Even if this kexue world world eventually returned to silence, as long as his small world remained, he would be like a seed, waiting in the void for the next germination.

”Crack.”

A fine crack suddenly appeared on the crystal in his palm, and a golden flow of light surged from the gap, condensing into dense law runes in the air.

Lin Long closed his eyes, letting his consciousness sink into a deeper dimension—he ’saw’ new continents forming at the edges of the Dark Kingdom, ’heard’ thunder coming from the clouds condensed from negative emotions, and ’smelled’ the sweet scent of life sprouting from the soil nourished by blood-qi.

The transformation had entered its final stage.

He hadn’t completely obliterated his humanity. When his consciousness swept over the paradise reserved within the Dark Kingdom, Lin Long’s eyes softened for a moment.

There was a replica of Tokyo’s streetscape, a reproduction of the Mouri Detective Agency, and even the arc of the falling cherry blossoms was exactly as it was in his memory.

Once he became the Lord of the World, he would bring everyone connected to him—directly or indirectly—to this place. Everything would happen silently; they wouldn’t even realize they had changed worlds.

They would live in this paradise forever, undisturbed by the darkness of the outside world, unscarred by the blade of time.

This was perhaps his last remaining tenderness, the final piece of pure land he kept for himself after devouring so much evil.

But this was far from enough.

Lin Long opened his eyes, casting his gaze back toward the kexue world world outside the window.

The transformation of the Dark Kingdom was only the first step. His ultimate chessboard was this massive world that gave birth to Conan, Kaitou Kid, and the Black Organization.

That young detective known as the ’Son of Heaven’s Mandate’ had the most primordial ’Conan Laws’ of this world flowing through him, and this was the best medium for him to erode the entire world.

After the Dark Kingdom completely transformed into a small world, he would use Conan as a fulcrum to silently infiltrate the rules of this world—making bizarre cases more frequent, the organization’s conspiracies darker, and the evil thoughts of humanity more turbulent.

These amplified negative energies would wrap around the foundations of the kexue world like vines, pulling it bit by bit into his own small world.

Eventually, this world would merge completely into the small world he created, like a drop of water joining the ocean.

At that time, his small world would welcome its second transformation, and he would become the supreme will covering both worlds.

More and more cracks appeared on the crystal in his palm, and the golden flow of light poured out like a waterfall. Lin Long held it in his hand, feeling the majestic power about to burst from the cocoon, and the smile on his face finally became clear.

”Soon...”

The sound of the waves outside seemed louder, as if accompanying the upcoming rebirth.

Lin Long knew that before long, when the final law chain closed and the Dark Kingdom completely transformed into an independent small world, he would become a ’Creator God’ in the truest sense.

Eternal and indestructible—that was the final answer to this grand scheme spanning several worlds.