Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 204 - 204 Sixty-one

204: Sixty-one.

Shadow in the Sky 204: Sixty-one.

Shadow in the Sky The sound of panting was scattered by the rain and carried away by the storm, disappearing without a trace.

In the storm, Lu Li, who was running through the swamp jungle following the Six-legged Savages, keenly noticed that the leading Six-legged Savage’s crawling was now almost in a straight line.

Directly forward, no longer avoiding the mud, only detouring around dead trees and intricate roots.

This meant the mud was lessening, and they were nearing the edge of Marsh Road.

Just as they were about to escape the swamp, a bizarre scene suddenly unfolded.

Among the layers of tree shadows ahead, a giant black spider, larger than a human and with a swollen abdomen, dangled down from a few meters away.

Lu Li’s dark pupils tightened, and he abruptly stopped his feet, reaching for the Spirit-Calling Gun under his rain cape.

“What’s wrong?”

Anna looked curiously towards the front where Lu Li was gazing, but saw nothing.

“An illusion from the Inner World.”

The dangling spider was merely a black silhouette, its four elongated limbs flailing at the front, tightly entangling some unseen prey.

Lu Li still bypassed the eerily huge illusion, looking ahead, only to find that the figure of the Six-legged Savage had disappeared into the curtain of rain.

“It’s gone…?”

Anna turned her head in search, following the bemused Lu Li who continued forward.

The surrounding jungle began to thin out, and after several tens of meters, the view suddenly cleared, no longer obstructed by twisted dead trees.

They were back on Marsh Road.

“We made it out!”

Anna let out a cheer of delight as they exited the swamp, the oppressive feeling that had not dissipated since they had entered finally lifting.

Lu Li stood at the edge of Marsh Road, and with the jungle’s cover gone, the storm turned more ferocious.

The rain fell like peas pounding on them, and the wind changed direction violently, sometimes from behind, sometimes from the front.

His body relaxed slightly, then tensed up in an instant.

The danger had not completely passed.

He was nearly ten miles from Shadow Town, which meant Lu Li had to walk for about an hour through the perilous swamp.

Unless a passing carriage appeared.

But the chances were slim—no one wanted to travel in such ghastly weather, not even the meanest boss.

Walking on Marsh Road, the ground was no longer soft and muddy but hard, providing a firm footing.

In the torrential rain, visibility was very low.

On the straight Marsh Road, two figures advanced side by side.

Anna’s lace white skirt fluttered, and her short hair, silky smooth, remained impeccable despite the storm, giving her a sense of accomplishment as she silently counted the increasing numbers, feeling closer to their destination.

Though slow.

She was somewhat concerned about Lu Li’s physical condition, but she couldn’t read any emotion from his face, and his pace remained unchanged.

The frequent flashes of lightning were harsh on the eyes, but still better than nothing.

The rain flowed into the swamps on both sides of the road, but still, some water accumulated in the uneven puddles on the road.

Lu Li looked down, avoiding a puddle beneath his feet.

Under the grim, uncertain white light of lightning, the rippling water reflected the view above Lu Li’s head.

In that moment, Lu Li saw in the water’s reflection a huge, indescribable black shadow suspended in the sky.

Lu Li raised his head, slightly squinting his dark pupils, and looked behind at the sky.

It was a ship, which at first glance resembled a shuttle-shaped hot air balloon.

It floated a hundred meters above the ground, traveling in the sky at approximately eight knots.

“A ship…?”

Anna’s voice, unable to suppress her astonishment and panic, sounded by her ear.

This time it wasn’t an illusion.

The wind direction was unpredictable and stung her face.

The understanding Anna created a telekinetic shield in front of Lu Li, and the falling rain slid down as if blocked by a layer of glass.

The bottom of this steamship was rust-stained, spanning around twenty meters in length—typical of Rodest Port, a medium-sized fishing boat.

Its speed was about 20 miles per hour, akin to the speed of a running adult male.

The bare mast stood upright.

Surprisingly, this sailboat had a physical body.

As lightning flashed, the ground revealed the ship’s shadow.

Rain fell into the fishing boat and overflowed from what seemed to be already water-filled edges, forming a curtain of water.

Under the close gaze of Lu Li and Anna, this mysterious ship, appearing under the dark clouds and sailing from an unknown origin, passed over their heads, intersected the straight Marsh Road, entered the Northern Swamp, and gradually disappeared.

The occasional flashes of lightning revealed an increasingly smaller silhouette.

“Where is this ship heading…?” Anna withdrew her gaze and at the same time withdrew her telekinesis.

Although she could recover her strength outside, during the recovery process, she would lose consciousness.

Without Lu Li’s touch, the next time she opened her eyes, she might find herself alone in the middle of Marsh Road.

“It might be heading to Belfast,” Lu Li discerned the ship’s general direction while also noting the direction from which it had come.

They could use a map to determine its route once they returned to Shadow Town.

The journey thereafter resumed as a silent, hurried trek.

Lu Li hung his head slightly, observing his surroundings, pondering over some matters.

The recent surge of peculiar incidents seemed to indicate that the world was progressively worsening…

He hoped these were just accidental occurrences, not as bad as he feared—that the world was turning malevolent.

…

Rain meandered down the windows.

At the edge of Shadow Town, near Marsh Road, at a “dock”.

Trucks were neatly stacked at the roadside, horses and some rain-sensitive important goods piled under the sheds where some workers huddled, standing underneath and whispering among themselves.

Not far from the stables, a tavern was bustling with activity.

Commoners in plain clothes and the wealthy or nobles in expensive attire crowded around tables, their loud clamor almost seemed to rattle the wooden cabin.

On the outer perimeters of the tavern, closer to the swamp, inside a small shack, a figure in a thin shirt huddled near a stove, shivering as he brought his palms closer to the charcoal.

“Quite the wretched weather, right?”

A dishevelled middle-aged man with his legs thrown over the table held a steaming cup of coffee, looking out of the shack.

With just two people, this particular shack felt cramped.

Windows on all sides revealed its purpose: an observation post.

The young man by the stove went on complaining non-stop: “Several carriages have already been blown apart, and I heard some houses in town were destroyed…

What are those scholars doing!

The hurricane has reached Shadow Town and not a single message!”

The middle-aged man gently rocked the chair beneath him: “That’s normal for them, always the case.

Maybe those weather forecasts are just scribbled down in drunken stupors because no sober person could make such blunders.”

The young man, growing increasingly agitated, couldn’t help but utter a curse under his breath: “Old Joy’s rheumatic leg predicts better than they do.”

Snap—

The middle-aged suddenly lowered his legs.

He looked towards the outside of the shack in shock: “There’s someone walking outside!

They just came out from the Marsh Road, wait…

They came from the Marsh Road!?”