Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 549 - 549 Sixty-eight

549: Sixty-eight.

Confrontation 549: Sixty-eight.

Confrontation “`

The United Organization personnel hidden at the cash stash told Lu Li that the person who appeared was not Richard.

Because the height and build did not match, they ruled out the possibility of a disguise and were following that person.

Lu Li asked them to continue following and hung up the phone as he walked out of the phone booth.

“Should we keep going or turn back?” Anna asked.

“Keep going.”

Lu Li got on the carriage and picked up the reins.

…

Watch Town, the last time he was there was shortly after arriving in this world.

It wasn’t Lu Li’s first encounter with the strange, but it was the first time he was exposed to the quirks and darkness of this world.

Half an hour later, the carriage entered Watch Town.

Backed by Watch Town, this place remained one of the few bustling towns.

The Exorcist he first met, Hades, had moved here, but Lu Li’s aim was neither him nor this town.

Crossing through Watch Town and contacting the Exorcist United Organization again from a street-side phone booth, and after confirming that Richard had not yet appeared, the carriage headed straight for the Abandoned Asylum on the outskirts.

After a while, the building standing in the wasteland came into view.

Anna also looked in that direction with a hint of reminiscence.

Last time she was here, she was just a Little Ghost who used to drag Lu Li back and needed his protection.

The Asylum still maintained its abandoned appearance, its muddy path covered with rotting leaves, all its windows broken, the mottled walls bearing traces of crawling vines.

Richard knew of Anna’s existence, but not the strength she commanded now, thus Anna hid in the Inner World, waiting for the opportune moment.

After parking the carriage outside the Asylum’s garden, Lu Li took up an oil lamp and walked across the garden up the steps.

Broken glass and stones crunched underfoot, the crisp noise disturbing the quiet silence of the Asylum.

Police tape surrounded the entrance to the Asylum.

Since Lu Li’s last escape and his call to the Police Station, the place had been blockaded by police officers.

Ducking under the tape, Lu Li entered the hall and turned down the corridor on the right side of the Asylum, walls covered with bizarre graffiti appearing before him.

The sloppy eyeball that Lu Li had once prepared for with vigilance was still on the wall.

Realizing something, Lu Li turned his attention to the other graffiti—the Blood-Colored Tentacles clustering like seaweed, the droplets of blood from chunks of flesh.

The sloppy, childlike drawings were abstract, yet enough for Lu Li to piece together an answer.

The solution lay within the puzzle itself.

Stepping over the cluttered debris in the hallway, Lu Li arrived at the stairs.

The police who had handled the situation last time had already cleared the stairs blocked leading to the basement.

After a short pause below the broken steps on the second floor, Lu Li stepped into the increasingly dark basement.

Thump—

As he descended the last stair, Lu Li noticed a taut rope hidden in the darkness meant to trip him.

As the rope tensed, a whooshing sound came from the dark.

An object came into the light of the oil lamp, revealing the outline of a bucket.

Half a meter from Lu Li, it hit an unseen wall of air, crashed over, and spilled a bucket of water.

Splash—

The water cascading along the barrier momentarily distorted Lu Li’s view as he surveyed the surroundings, his dark eyes slightly narrowed as he scrutinized the deeper darkness.

Nothing else emerged from the dark.

The empty bucket hanging from the rope swayed overhead.

Anna noticed a piece of cloth at the bottom of the bucket and pulled it out.

“There’s a note.”

Anna handed it to Lu Li.

Holding up the oil lamp, he read the line of crooked writing on the damp, water-stained cloth.

[This is just a small punishment.

Proceed any further, and your life will no longer belong to you]

“Child’s play,” Anna scoffed.

“`

“`

However, this was indeed Richard’s style of doing things.

After all, just two hours before, he had betrayed himself for some shillings.

But Anna didn’t want to imagine this enemy, who had framed Lu Li, as too easy to deal with, “But it could also be a trap to catch you off guard.”

Lu Li was well aware of this, but the note reminded him—there might be danger ahead waiting for him.

Discarding the cloth strip, Lu Li began to retrace his steps, back through the murky corridors of the first floor.

“We’re not going to explore the basement?”

“Change of plan,” Lu Li said.

He didn’t plan to personally test the traps set by Richard, whether they were childish pranks or deadly hazards.

Lu Li had Anna pile up flammable twigs or wooden sticks at the last step leading to the basement, douse them in kerosene, and then light the fire.

The flames slowly rose, and the acrid smoke twisted upward, gradually filling the surrounding space.

If Richard was in the basement, he wouldn’t be able to endure the irritating smoke—and even if he could, his character had nothing to do with patience.

A patient person wouldn’t risk sending a letter of provocation.

The fire grew bigger, the heat and smoke continually forced Lu Li to step back, and it seemed that the fire had also ignited other things inside the abandoned asylum; smoke started coming out from within the walls, enveloping the corridor like mist.

Realizing that the entire abandoned asylum might be engulfed by flames, Lu Li retreated to the garden.

The fire spread quickly, and the cold, rainy weather of the previous few days didn’t stop the flames from burning; the thick black smoke rising from the damp wood gathered above the asylum, the robust column of smoke visible from miles away.

It wouldn’t take long for the police station in Watch Town to notice the anomaly and send people here.

Lu Li waited quietly, waiting for the smoke to fill the asylum and flush out Richard.

If he was hiding there.

The fire was no longer content with just the basement; flickers of firelight were now vaguely visible in the thick smoke of the first floor.

The smoke had filled the entire asylum, and outside in the garden, all was silent as he looked up attentively.

A new change occurred, as a shadow suddenly flitted across an intact window.

It was no longer an illusion created by the rising smoke; Lu Li gazed intently, watching the figure become clearer, open the window, and throw down a rope.

Richard appeared.

He wasn’t hiding in the basement, but in the third-floor of the asylum.

Richard’s message was true; he had indeed sold himself out.

Anna’s eyes grew cold, the repeatedly escaping fox, who had been hiding from Lu Li, had finally shown himself.

Her power surged, targeting Richard who was a few dozen meters away, emerging clumsily from the window, seemingly still coughing violently.

But the next moment, her brow furrowed.

“My powers can’t get close to him…”

In the cryptic sense within her, an indescribable eerie aura twisted around Richard.

“Maybe it’s related to the Remnant of the Ancient God he carries,” Lu Li said, watching Richard on the rope.

Richard moved downwards, and his angry shouts resonated through the abandoned garden, “That’s against the rules!”

“This is not in accordance with the rules…

You actually burned this place!”

“It’s worth it if it flushes you out,” Lu Li replied.

Before the flames could spread to the upper floor, Richard finally reached the bottom of the rope and jumped down, landing in front of the steps.

But he didn’t notice a stone under his feet, his ankle twisted outward, and the unsteady Richard, with a scream of pain, rolled down the stairs.

In Lu Li’s gaze, Richard, who kept screaming, rolled all the way to the bottom of the staircase, hitting his face until it was bloody.

“I surrender!”

Ricahrd, with a look of misery, raised his hands and screamed.

“`