Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 511 - 511 Thirty

511: Thirty.

Disappearance 511: Thirty.

Disappearance This house…

is a living thing?

Lu Li thought to himself, reaching out to touch the moldy wooden board walls.

This was just an ordinary seaside cottage that had stood here more than a decade ago.

“What is that?”

Lu Li’s searching gaze fell on the middle of the cottage’s floor, where a mysterious dark stain had been eroded into visibility.

It was not among the clues previously summarized by Richard.

“Hmm…

we haven’t seen it before, could it be the erosion from the sea breeze?” Richard also looked as if he was seeing it for the first time.

“The sea breeze cannot erode something to look like this,” Lu Li muttered to himself as he stared at the circle of wood planks that were even darker in color.

In the depths of his intuition, a breeze from an unknown source blew out from beneath the sinister wooden planks, and if their color were to deepen even further, they would resemble an unfathomable abyss.

A low Sanity Value always brought Lu Li a sharp intuition that seldom erred, and whatever he sensed often indeed existed—

So an abyss was forming inside this wooden house?

In any case, the Blood-Colored Tentacles and this profound wooden board must be intricately related.

“If we can’t find it, we can destroy this place,” Anna said.

“Wait,” Lu Li said.

Destroying the location of the tentacles was a last resort.

If possible, Lu Li wanted to first understand what it truly was.

“Shall we bring the journal and try?” Anna suggested.

That was a good idea; maybe it would lure out the hidden Blood-Colored Tentacles, so they left the wooden house and headed far away along the coastline to return.

Twenty minutes later, they arrived back at Sea Wind Street.

Richard sat on the steps, hastily putting on his socks and shoes, then stood up and asked, “Should I come with you guys?”

He looked utterly exhausted, and despite the mere teens in temperature, he was drenched in sweat.

Lu Li calmly said, “Follow if you want to.”

In the end, Richard opted to follow; his identity did not allow him to give up halfway—well, mainly because of curiosity.

When they returned to the abandoned house, it remained as it was minutes earlier; no new changes had occurred.

Anna entered the room with the oil lamp and opened the journal once again.

In front of the door, Lu Li touched his holster, quietly looking towards the edge of the light from the oil lamp as if he could see that graceful, illusory figure.

The book pages sprawled on the dining table remained still for a while, then began to turn backwards.

“The rest are blank,”

Richard’s mutter echoed beside him.

Anna was aware of this, she checked for any newly emerged content.

But as she flipped quickly through the pages until the last one, she didn’t pause at all.

The pages shifted back at a faster pace, the bottom growing thicker, but at a certain moment, the journal that returned to the title page stopped, and Anna let out a slightly indifferent soft gasp.

“There is a second page.”

The thickness of the first page wasn’t quite right; it was stuck to the second page.

She gently peeled apart the glued pages, turning to the second page.

Stay in the light

Stay in the light

Stay in the light

Stay in the light

Stay in the light

Stay in the light

Stay in the light

Stay in the light

Stay in the light

Stay in the light

…

Lu Li waited quietly for Anna to finish reading, and a voice came from the void tinged with confusion, “It says…

‘Stay in the light.'”

Richard couldn’t help but interject with a question, “Just one sentence?”

Anna’s tone turned cold again with visible speed, “It’s just repeated many times over.”

Stay in the light; this seemed to be connected to the disasters of the night.

But there was no need to write such a well-known content so many times in a diary.

“Did the Blood-Colored Tentacles fall into this diary?” Anna suddenly asked.

“Yes.”

Lu Li looked up towards the void from where the voice originated, “Why do you ask?”

Pfft.

The diary closed with a soft pfft, and Anna said amidst the sound, “What if these words were ground and smeared by that thing?”

The raised texture and color of these blood-red letters were indistinguishable from real flesh and blood, and because of this, they stuck to the second page after the flesh and blood seeped through.

Moreover, the repeated text on the second page grew fainter towards the end; if it were just plain flesh and blood…

Anna thought that the murderer shouldn’t be lacking it.

After all, including him, there were three people in the cottage.

Perhaps new clues would emerge upon reaching the cottage.

Anna picked up the diary, and she and Lu Li headed back to the seaside cottage.

The diary floating beside Lu Li attracted puzzled looks from the townspeople along the way, prompting Richard to rummage for his police badge to wear, to avoid unnecessary trouble.

Upon returning to the cabin, Richard stayed on the beach, while Lu Li walked up the steps and stood in front of the door.

As the two Blood-Colored Tentacles neared, the low-hanging ones reconverged into a single tentacle, connecting to the clouds, swaying like seaweed.

“Let it go,” said Lu Li.

The diary beside him floated towards the solemn wooden plank and then settled in the middle.

A chill filled the air, protecting Lu Li.

Anna made ready for any sudden occurrences.

But as time passed, after several minutes, neither the diary nor the solemn plank showed any new changes.

“Bring it back.”

Anna waved her hand, controlling the airflow to retrieve the diary.

Still, no new clues appeared inside the diary.

Anna looked at Lu Li, who seemed to feel her gaze, took out a match, and turned to meet her eyes, “Burn it.”

Hiss—

Once Lu Li descended the steps and joined Richard, Anna struck the match.

The match emitted a faint glow, levitated by a force and moved close to the bottom of the diary.

No strange phenomena occurred, and the diary burned like any ordinary book, the flames spreading.

But as the fire reached the bottom third of the diary, an odious, strange black smoke rose, making people want to gag.

Lu Li grabbed the baffled Richard and quickly retreated out of the nauseating smell’s range.

The fire soon spread to the entire diary, which floated in the air while the ash fell like snowflakes.

The indescribable stench rose with the black fog, disappearing as the smoke cleared.

Anna dissipated the force and watched the remaining diary ashes drift gently down.

She suddenly tilted her head slightly, looking at Lu Li, who was gazing up at the sky.

After about fifteen seconds, he withdrew his gaze and spoke calmly, “The Blood-Colored Tentacles have disappeared.”

As the black fog dispersed, the Blood-Colored Tentacles that descended from the clouds, connecting the diary and the cottage, vanished as well.

The solemn plank remained in the cottage, but it seemed that it was just an irrelevant coincidence.

“Is it resolved?”

“Yes.”

The disappearance of the hanging Blood-Colored Tentacles meant that one part of Richard’s plan had been thwarted.

Whether he was the one behind the scenes insisting that Lu Li remain on Ailen Peninsula or not, as his pawns were removed one by one, he would inevitably come to light.

Meanwhile, from the direction of Seaside Town, a figure ran toward them panting heavily on the beach.

Richard, who had been idle this whole time, noticed him first and recognized him as his colleague, “Are you looking for us?”

The officer, catching his breath, looked towards Lu Li.

“The investigator sent from Ryan City has arrived, and then there was a bit of trouble…

he would like to have a few words with you.”