Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 552 - 552 Seventy-one

552: Seventy-one.

Going out to sea.

552: Seventy-one.

Going out to sea.

The existence behind him felt like a cold rock, motionless, and breathless.

His right hand pressed on the holster of salvation while the other reached behind him.

The cold, rough touch was flat, like a dead object.

It was merely a gray reef rock standing under the wooden hut, and its shape did not remind one of any monster.

Lu Li looked back at the wooden steps because his earlier caution had not disturbed the presence at the door.

However, he felt something unusual.

The knocking had ceased for quite a while.

Lu Li plucked a pebble from the reef rock and threw it into the hut through the open window above.

Rattle—

The sound of the pebble rolling on the floor echoed, accompanied by the movements inside the hut, causing a slight change at the entrance.

Creak—Shhh—

The same sound as when Lu Li had opened the door.

Creak—Creak—

The floor creaked with the movements of the presence.

The presence entered the hut.

Slightly hesitant, Lu Li under the floor dimmed the oil lamp, letting it barely illuminate the surroundings while he looked down at the gravel underfoot, preparing to leave the hut.

A small piece of gravel stained by congealed blood caught Lu Li’s eye; he paused briefly and then turned to look around.

He saw the trail of blood extending from under the hut towards the shoreline, gradually becoming invisible.

About a dozen meters from the trail, a wooden boat lay capsized on the beach.

Next to the wooden boat was a conspicuous drag mark that extended into the sea.

Lu Li imagined that just minutes earlier, Richard had dragged the boat into shallow water, clumsily climbed in, and rowed into the boundless and dim depth of the open sea.

Looking up through the cracks between the wooden planks, Lu Li stepped backward out of the hut’s range, avoiding the window, and approached the overturned boat.

The presence still lingering inside the hut with a strong fishy smell gave Lu Li enough time to overturn the boat and push it to the shallows.

He flipped the small wooden boat, threw his shoes into it, rolled up his pants, and pushed the boat closer to the shoreline.

The cold tide surged, wrapping around his ankles, and retreating while taking away some of the warmth.

Walking into the shallow water that submerged his calves, the boat entirely lifted off the seabed.

As the tide that had reached his knees receded, Lu Li looked towards the deep sea with hesitation for the first time.

Do I really want to leave the shadowy shore and venture into the deep seabed?

Is it worth risking the encounter with the Blood-Colored Tentacles?

Lu Li did not know where the wooden boat would take him after leaving—would it lead to Richard’s traces, the truth, or the end of his life?

But Richard knew.

That was why he had come here undeterred, to venture into the deep sea aboard the boat.

Or perhaps the boat was just a trap, and Richard was only fabricating the appearance of going out to sea.

Perhaps, just hundreds of meters away on the shoreline, an unclaimed boat lay stranded before the tide.

Perhaps sensing Lu Li’s hesitation, or because Lu Li stared too long into the deep sea, an indescribable, murky consciousness, like invisible tendrils one cannot see, gently wrapped around Lu Li.

In the deep sea, an indescribable presence was calling for Lu Li.

This consciousness, this presence, tried its best to contain all its malice, as Lu Li might have gone insane from the sheer malice that it emitted undiluted.

Lu Li thought of the “Ancient God’s Body.” Was it the so-called “Ancient God” that was calling him?

Regardless, with the guidance of the call, Lu Li seemed not to need to worry about losing his way in the shadowy deep sea.

He was not entirely at a disadvantage; at least, he and Richard started from the same starting line.

“The ownership of the Ancient God’s Body.”

Suddenly, a shrill, raspy noise, like that of a damaged record player, emanated from the beach.

Lu Li withdrew his gaze from the deep sea and looked in the direction of the cabin from which the sound came—

A figure stood where the tide could not reach, resembling a human, but every detail starkly differed.

Its head was like that of the most vicious piranha, its dark green body similar to a human’s, but its palms and soles featured the webbing of a fish.

The gills on its cheeks, bulging wide-open eyes that could not close, its wet, slimy body and scales all suggested that this creature lived in the sea.

This mermaid’s ferocious head displayed usually human-like emotions as it lay prostrate on the beach, like a frog, more so like a praying believer.

The mermaid evidently possessed some intelligence, and perhaps its kind even had a language.

Lu Li realized something, glanced at the wooden boat that would not drift away, and suddenly waded towards the mermaid.

At first, the mermaid did not move, but when Lu Li got within about ten meters of it, it suddenly rose anxiously, retreating backwards with a low roar.

Lu Li stopped, and the mermaid no longer retreated, prostrating itself again on the sand.

It seemed not to want Lu Li too close.

Watching the mermaid with its head buried deep in the sand, Lu Li continued towards it.

The mermaid rose and backed away, issuing a call once more, but this time the sound was sharp and clear, filled with panic and irritability.

It conflictedly respected and feared Lu Li, yet bore a natural hostility towards humans.

Realizing that getting any closer might cause it to lose control and attack, Lu Li no longer pressed the mermaid, took a long look at it, and turned back towards the wooden boat.

Behind him, the mermaid lay on the sand, murmuring in its unique language.

Lu Li boarded the wooden boat without hesitating.

As if alive, the boat floating in the shallow sea automatically set sail, heading towards the boundless deep sea underground.

…

Lu Li had still not appeared.

The fire completely engulfed the asylum, fortunately the vegetation no longer grew, and the fire struggled to spread outside, only a few dead trees too close to the asylum were ignited by the high heat.

In front of the woodshed, Anna anxiously waited for Lu Li’s return.

Meanwhile, a hint of doubt surfaced in her mind.

Since the black smoke first began to rise until now, it had been almost half an hour, but not a single policeman had appeared.

Watch Town was only a few miles from the asylum, even if the people coming were walking, they should have arrived by now…

…

Watch Town.

Since the surge of immigrants from Lennon Islands, this small town backed by Belfast was no longer quiet.

Noisy and bustling became its new norm, with thousands of visitors from all over passing through and staying in the town each day.

This brought considerable profits to the locals—in an increasingly harsh environment, nothing was more comforting than the shillings falling into their pockets.

But at this time, what surged through Watch Town was not noise and warmth, but unrest and chaos.

People gathered in the streets, staring blankly toward the top of Sugard Mountain.

They were not looking at the noble manors that could be vaguely seen on the peak, but at the crowds of running, screaming people emerging from the other side of the mountain.

They were like ants from a destroyed anthill, a colony with no home.

Against this backdrop, the thick smoke rising a few miles away seemed inconsequential.

On the street, a lumberjack’s hand holding an axe trembled, terrible speculations pressuring his nerves, he muttered, “Why…what happened…what’s wrong with Belfast…”