Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 481 - 481 Three hundred and thirty-eight

481: Three hundred and thirty-eight.

The end and the beginning.

481: Three hundred and thirty-eight.

The end and the beginning.

Gloomy Marsh, Banyan Jungle.

The straight path extended into the distance.

Lu Li, carrying an oil lamp, proceeded along the path with Anna’s company.

Heading south from here, Lu Li would smoothly reach the southern shore of Shadow Swamp, and then follow the coastline to bypass the swamp, returning to Shadow Town where everything would end.

In fact, the Mother of the Marsh had made two suggestions; the other was to wait until it regained control of the Banyan Tree guards, so that Lu Li could safely cut straight through the swamp to return.

Lu Li needed to replace his wound dressings and rest, but he still declined this more time-saving option.

Although there was a basis for cooperation and he had learned about the Mother of the Marsh’s past, Lu Li still did not trust it.

He did not have anyone to help him deal with the Mother of the Marsh now.

“Could it go back on its word…” Anna murmured, sharing Lu Li’s concern.

“Let’s hope not.”

The Mother of the Marsh had no reason to kill Lu Li, but the characteristics of an Evil God were indefinable and incomprehensible.

Even if it possessed a semblance of humanity.

“What about moving the large ship in the creek?” Anna asked again.

“It will.”

The Mother of the Marsh would not ignore an uncontrollable anomaly in its domain.

If the large ship wished to leave, the Mother of the Marsh would be glad to see it off the swamp.

Anna fell silent again, resuming her quiet march.

Occasionally, her voice rose on the damp and dark path, asking questions of unclear meaning, as if intentionally engaging in conversation with Lu Li.

It was as if to keep the injured and weary Lu Li from losing consciousness.

Jojo had also left via this path, but Lu Li and Anna had not encountered her along the way; hopefully, she had safely returned to Rose Town by now.

Trudging wearily for nearly two hours, Lu Li sensed the faint hint of sea breeze in the air.

As time passed, the banyan trees along the path were replaced by twisted and desiccated trees, and the oppressive blood-red clouds in the sky finally dissipated, revealing gray, dismal cloud cover.

It was not a sunny day.

But in any case, the jungle path was no longer so dark.

Gazing toward the path’s end, the lead-gray expanse of the sea loomed faintly, the sound of the waves brought to their ears by the moist, fishy sea breeze.

Finally stepping out of the swamp jungle and onto the gray-brown sandy beach, Anna felt a profound sense of relief, experiencing the true relaxation that came with the end of it all.

“I’ll show you the way back to Rose Town.”

Now out of the swamp, Anna didn’t have to repress her presence.

Lu Li was in no condition to walk dozens more miles back to Rose Town.

“Hmm.”

The grim sea was even more gloomy than the sky, but the cool sea breeze and the sound of the waves dispelled the lingering oppressiveness.

“There’s a ship over there.”

Anna pointed toward a rocky area to the east, where a severely damaged sailing ship was stranded on rocks near the beach.

The broken mast and gaping hole in the hull brought a sense of familiarity.

Not long ago, Lu Li had seen this shipwreck in a Death Fragment.

“Is there something wrong with it?”

Lu Li showed no expression, but Anna sensed something from his prolonged gaze.

“I’ve seen this scene in a Death Fragment,” Lu Li said softly, recounting the Death Fragment to Anna.

The story moved Anna, but the chances of finding the photo frame were almost nonexistent: “It must have fallen into the sea, we can’t search the ocean for a photo frame.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Anna noticed a sharp corner peeking out from the sand in front of her.

An intuition nudged Anna to beckon lightly, and a shape hidden beneath the sand and gravel revealed itself—that was…

a photo frame.

“Is this it…” Anna said, her expression incredulous.

The scene felt so coincidental as if something had deliberately delivered it directly to Lu Li.

Lu Li reached for it, but Anna dodged his hand.

“Be careful, it might be a trap.

I’ll hold it,” she said.

The glass of the photo frame was already shattered, and the picture that was once inside had vanished, long ago torn and dissolved by the seawater.

The only thing left for identification was this picture frame, and now, whether it was the same frame Lu Li had once seen was no longer important.

“Can it be thrown back onto the ship?” Lu Li said.

“Hmm.”

Anna looked towards the wrecked ship among the rocks hundreds of meters away, her breath clinging to the frame as she gently tossed it out.

The frame turned into a fading image, leaving behind a twisted scar in the air, and in the blink of an eye, disappeared into the distant hull.

After the interlude, what awaited Lu Li and Anna was to continue their journey.

Anna, with a flicker of an unusual color passing through the depths of her indifferent crimson eyes, walked up to Lu Li, ready to pick him up.

But at that moment, Lu Li’s gaze turned towards the sea: “There’s a ship on the water.”

The shape on the lead-gray sea surface was reflected in his eyes.

The unusual color disappeared, and Anna, her emotions returning to indifference, coldly swept over the steamship on the sea: “I’ll go make them come closer.”

“No need, it’s probably heading here.” Lu Li, gazing at the sea, said.

The steamship, puffing thick smoke, was heading towards the coast.

On the beach, unaffected by the tide, Anna supported Lu Li as he sat down.

“Has the wound opened up?” she asked Lu Li, who frowned slightly and shook his head in response, then she lowered her gaze to his wrist: “It’s still ticking…”

Back on the gloomy path, Anna had thought that the clicking counter originated from Shadow Swamp.

Now it seemed…

it was not because of the swamp.

Anna quietly backed away a bit.

“Move a bit further away.”

Suddenly, Lu Li’s voice rang in her ears, and after a brief pause, Anna silently retreated six or seven meters away.

“It’s not you.”

At that moment, Lu Li gently shook his head; the Sanity Value Counter did not stop ticking even as Anna moved away.

He suddenly remembered something and reached his hand towards the holster containing Sequence 1.

The moment his palm touched it, the counter ticked rapidly.

“The Spirit-Calling Gun?

How could it…”

Anna was surprised, watching as Lu Li took off the gun holster and threw the wrapping containing Sequence 1 far away.

The holster traced an arc and crashed into the gravel a dozen meters away.

The counter stopped ticking, and Lu Li replied, “The rose on the gun has fully bloomed; it’s not surprising that the holster can’t block it.”

“Is it because of your experience in Old Mother’s shell?”

Lu Li didn’t say what he had encountered, but Anna could imagine that he must have been through a strangely dangerous and tough battle.

“Hmm.”

The sea breeze seemed to carry away the fatigue; his black hair fluttered as Lu Li squinted his eyes, looking at the ship on the sea, vaguely seeing a figure on the ship’s deck waving semaphore signals towards them.

They had already spotted Lu Li on the beach.

[Lu Li…]

In the depths of his mind, a murmur of consciousness whispered, calling out Lu Li’s name.

“What is it?”

Lu Li responded to the call of the Mother of the Marsh.

Anna glanced sideways, but in the next few minutes, the whispering voice did not rise again.

“Is it the Mother of the Marsh?” Anna noticed Lu Li looking back towards Shadow Swamp.

A surge of unease welled up within Lu Li as he murmured slowly, “Perhaps not…”

It was the whisper of “the door.”

“The door” had received a response.

The steamship on the sea, a symbol of hope, was approaching.

And an endless, dark shadow was enveloping Lu Li.