Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 192 - 192 Forty-nine

192: Forty-nine.

Swamp Cabin 192: Forty-nine.

Swamp Cabin Anna’s naive ideas didn’t last long.

In the Gloomy Marsh, where it was hard to distinguish the swamp from the land, a figure holding a staff moved forward across the fragmented ground, leaving behind a line of footprints.

A translucent young girl floated behind Lu Li, her back towards him, facing the way they had come.

A few dozen meters away, after weaving through twisted tree roots, five Six-legged Savages maintained a distance, following them quietly.

Over the past several minutes, the number of Six-legged Savages had started to increase, until it became the scene they now faced.

They moved as flexibly as monkeys in a forest, their six limbs rapidly crawling, trailing behind Lu Li as if waiting for the right moment.

She no longer believed that these Six-legged Savages had come to repay a favor.

Stepping over a trench three to four decimeters long on the ground, Lu Li stepped onto a relatively intact piece of land.

The surroundings had become even darker than before, as if night were about to fall.

But it wasn’t even nine in the morning yet.

Lu Li slightly raised his head, his gaze piercing through the dry branches that obscured the sky.

The gloomy weather was not just because the surrounding twisted dead wood was becoming more crowded, but also because the branches overhead were getting denser and a mass of dark rain clouds from the east was fast approaching above the marsh.

The wind had picked up, and the upper branches swayed with the wind, while only a faint breeze could be felt on the ground.

Retracting his gaze, Lu Li used his staff to test the path ahead, resolutely walking towards the direction from where the blood-red tendrils had fallen.

Gradually, a light breeze began to surface on the ground, stirring Lu Li’s hair.

A stronger wind shook the branches, producing a whistling sound that echoed over the swamp forest.

Anna couldn’t help but lift her head.

The terrifyingly thick dark clouds were extremely low and close to this part of the swamp.

Dense, snake-like lightning surged through the clouds, yet no thunder was heard.

In comparison, the other half of the sky looked like a clear day.

Lu Li quickened his steps, no longer avoiding shallow water and mud but stepping directly over them under Anna’s protection, leaving a trail of deep footprints that were quickly filled and covered by the muddy water.

The leather boots he wore provided some water resistance, but they were not fully suitable as rain boots.

This reckless water-traversing, although the mud was kept out of the shoes, the water had long seeped inside, bringing a bone-chilling coldness.

Whoo—

The rising wind stirred the dust and rotten leaves, echoing the whistling sound above.

A pool of water reflecting the sky where Lu Li passed rippled, disturbed by the first drop of rain that had fallen.

The first raindrop had fallen.

Lu Li suddenly stopped walking, took off the backpack slung behind him, and pulled out a black oilcloth rain cape, putting it on.

The ever-persistent Six-legged Savages slowed down, not leaving despite the impending harsh weather.

Anna faced them, protecting Lu Li as he donned his rain cape.

The dark purple clouds had already covered most of the sky, leaving only a small patch desperately lingering.

The Shadow Swamp became dim and gloomy, the trees in the distance hidden in the shadows.

At the same time, Lu Li struck a match to light the oil lamp, the warm, faint yellow light illuminating a small area around him.

The oil lamp was indispensable, even if its light might attract some unfriendly creatures.

“Should we continue moving forward!”

Feeling the glow surrounding them, Anna turned her head and shouted.

The howling wind was everywhere, making it pointless to stay quiet by then, or rather, it was necessary to shout to communicate.

“It’s too late to turn back now,” Lu Li spoke normally, but if it weren’t for Anna’s keen ghostly senses, she wouldn’t have been able to hear what Lu Li was saying.

“We could head to that abandoned village!” Anna stared at Lu Li under the hood and yelled into his deep black pupils.

Lu Li looked to the left, where their position was already deeper into the marsh than the abandoned village, but not by much.

If they changed their course towards it now, they might reach the abandoned village before the storm hit.

Lu Li silently analyzed for a few seconds, then resumed walking, but still towards the front.

“No.”

He answered succinctly.

It might be a good place to shelter from the rain, but who knew what else might be hiding inside the cabin…

“All right…”

Anna also realized that this idea wasn’t much better than traveling out in the open.

She turned her head to look at the Six-legged Savages catching up again and followed Lu Li as he quickened his pace.

Anna could only hope that the storm was just as formidable in appearance—otherwise, they would face more than just a lack of shelter.

There were the rising water levels, the presence in the swamp, and nightfall.

No one had expected the storm to strike so suddenly and without warning.

Lighting the oil lamp was Lu Li’s bright idea.

With the last gleam of light disappearing on the horizon, a gloomy marsh under the oppressive clouds emerged.

Lightning from within the clouds brought brief illumination, revealing the entire outline of the marsh before recoiling back into the darkness.

“Those Six-legged Monsters are still following us…

why don’t we just kill them off!”

Anna said impatiently, shedding her fear and losing her dread of the Six-legged Savages.

“There’s no time.”

Lu Li said, observing the surroundings as he broke into a jog.

The rainfall was still just sporadic drops, hitting the water like large beans, splashing up, but still sparse.

But that might not be the case soon.

If rainwater seeped into the oil lamp and kerosene, everything would be over.

Lu Li searched for a sufficiently thick dead tree and a hollow that could provide shelter.

Anna noticed that after the oil lamp was lit, some firefly-like strange spots of light gathered around it.

But these light spots drawn by the lamp’s glow seemed to only hover up and down around the lamp, so she ignored them.

Suddenly, the rain stopped falling, and the wind ceased too.

The swamp, chaotic just seconds earlier, brusquely turned silent and still.

The floating lights around the oil lamp, as if sensing the calm before the storm, gradually drifted away, vanishing outside the woods.

Lu Li also realized something and, no longer paying attention to the terrain, ran quickly.

Anna’s telekinesis clung tightly to Lu Li, pulling him out as soon as he stepped on the water bubble mud under the fallen leaves.

After numerous such instances, as the raindrops began to fall, Anna suddenly pointed ahead and exclaimed,

“There’s light ahead!”

The twisted dead trees parted to either side, revealing a small cabin in the middle of a cleared space, its windows glowing with lights, standing solitary between the swamp clearing.

Both Lu Li and Anna sensed something unusual about a lived-in cabin appearing within the swamp, but they kept silent in agreement.

There were no other choices now.

The raindrops pitter-pattered down, obscuring the view and drowning all other sounds but their noise.

Lu Li sped through the forest and a fence, racing toward the cabin.

Anna looked back in a flash of lightning, seeing those Six-legged Monsters halted at the edge of the forest, as if an invisible wall prevented them from coming closer, reluctantly roaming restlessly on the periphery.

Anna instinctively hid her specter and followed Lu Li to the front of the cabin.

Lu Li raised his palm, his knuckles knocking on the wooden door.

Knock, knock, knock—