Eight at the Start, I Became a God

In the 14th year of the Republic, in the fog of Linjiang City, someone called my name. When I woke up, I was clutching the last letter of the deputy commander, with seven corpses before me and a lamp that shouldn't exist. In the cellar, Captain Gu pointed his gun at us: 'Find the murderer, or we all die.' But I knew—this interrogation was a lie from the start. Because I could see what others couldn't: those blue-gray words floating in the air, written with rules. [Authority must not be challenged. Challengers die.] [Find the murderer within the time limit to live. Fail, and all die.] [Time limit: before the rooster crows.] I thought I was solving a case. But when the lamp went out, I realized I was unraveling a thirty-year-old offering. The wick was made of human hair. The oil was rendered from the living. Every three years, the Gu family had to offer a person to the lamp. And the seventh sacrifice, before dying, left me a rope. That rope wrapped around my wrist, and the rule text floated up: [The wishless gain wishes. Seven strands of obsession, forged into the 'Soul-Binding Rope'.] [Soul-Binding Rope: Can bind anything that calls.] [Hint: On the day the god awakens, the call will come. The first living person called, surnamed Lu.] The fog of Linjiang City dispersed. But I knew the lamp was just a shell. What was truly about to awaken was the god within the lamp. — Description from novelcodex.org