Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 665 - 665 One hundred eighty-four

665: One hundred eighty-four.

Separately 665: One hundred eighty-four.

Separately “`

At dawn, the plains were still shrouded in dimness.

A few miles away from the ruins of Arlen Royal City, Ryko Farm welcomed a group of figures that brought surprise to those hidden here.

“It’s simply…

I thought you…” In the living room of a civilian home, Avar Montes was so excited he almost rushed up to hug Lu Li.

Luckily, the people here didn’t look up at the sky because of the roof sheltering them when everything happened; they only heard the roar echoing over the plains.

Only the four Exorcists upstairs noticed something, and fortunately, they leaned more towards being watchers than investigators, so none met with misfortune.

“They are…” Avar Montes looked towards the others standing at the doorway behind Lu Li.

“Survivors of the Arlen Royal City, the only ones remaining,” Lu Li scanned the living room for familiar faces and found Lilia, who seemed to be in a good state.

“The only ones…

What do you mean by that?” a woman couldn’t help but ask, her haggard eyes unable to hide her concern.

Her husband and child were still in the Royal City.

“The Royal City has been destroyed, it’s highly unlikely that there are any survivors inside.”

The bizarre hours of slaughter had already left few survivors in the Royal City, and the Centipede…

or rather Prada, when it awoke, indiscriminately eradicated everything in the Royal City except for them.

Muffled cries of grief began to arise in the living room, spreading gradually.

With a pained expression, Avar Montes and his four companions exchanged looks, then headed to the loft, indicating it wasn’t the place for conversation.

“I’ll stay to comfort them…” the female Exorcist spoke, not following to the loft.

Apart from York and Webb, the elderly couple didn’t go upstairs either.

“We saw that giant…

Is it because of it?” A middle-aged Exorcist asked impatiently as he stepped into the loft.

Since they weren’t locals, the collapse of the Royal City itself spurred more of an emotional change in them compared to grief.

“To some extent, it’s on our side,” Lu Li explained briefly what happened inside the Royal City, including the Centipede deity, Prada.

After speaking, Lu Li returned to the second floor, warmed himself beside the cozy stone hearth, and watched the clouds outside gradually brighten.

The eerie fog had dissipated, and perhaps in a few dozen minutes, the outside world would be bright enough to see.

The cries downstairs also weakened, and the lightened world outside reassured the elderly, women, and children, who fell asleep from exhaustion.

Avar Montes came down from the loft after a while, stood by the window observing for a moment, then asked Lu Li with some confusion, “What is that shadow outside?”

A dark outline as large as a shed crawled along the carriages encircling the farmstead.

“A ‘horse’,” Anna said.

Avar Montes looked at Anna, feeling puzzled—not because the shadow obviously wasn’t shaped like a horse, but because Anna herself presented him with a contradiction.

Her indifferent exterior was no different from when she left, yet beneath the frostiness seemed to hide a burning passion…

It was hard to grasp.

Similar changes occurred with Lu Li, in fact, Avar Montes had clearly sensed Lu Li’s transformation as soon as he returned.

He became more…

alluring, making one unable to resist the urge to draw close, then deeply inhaling as if intoxicated—

This thought made Avar Montes conclude that his own Sanity Value must have dropped, but oddly, the Sanity Value Counter hadn’t sounded all night.

Therefore, he left the second floor to ask his Exorcist companions, and it turned out they all felt the same, giving such remarks as “fresh as grass and apples,” “like walking into a forest,” “dispelling the gloom with a sweep,” and so on.

“`

This had a lot to do with the fact that Lu Li had already possessed three parts of humanity before entering the Royal City of Arlen, he had only just over two parts.

Anna’s changes were equally clear—the loss of her body simultaneously stripped her of her sense of taste, smell, and even her heartbeat.

Pastries were no longer fragrant and sweet, but tasteless like wax.

This loss, mixed with her emotions, became complicated.

A few minutes later, York came down from the attic, seemingly wanting to say something to Lu Li, but seeing Lu Li asleep in the wooden chair with his head drooping, he held back for the time being.

Ten minutes later, Anna floated out of the attic and made the Centipede Monster outside the farm burrow into the ground.

If it was Anna from just over a dozen hours ago, she would have killed it without hesitation and plundered its humanity, but at this moment when her body’s residual warmth hadn’t faded, her thought was to bring the Centipede Monster back to the refuge.

They needed a mount that could avoid unnecessary trouble, relatively docile, and to expand the population of Elm Forest.

As for the food problem, there was no need to worry.

Jimmy and the children on the cliff could not finish what Anna hunted every day, and the rest could be given to it.

Anna quickly floated back to the second floor, only to find Lu Li had woken up, his dark pupils lazily narrowed because he had just awakened, “What’s wrong?”

“I hid Amber underground.”

Amber was the name Anna gave the Centipede Monster, “I think Amber isn’t like the ordinary monsters, it might have been domesticated by something.”

It was more docile and more honest.

As a monster, upon sensing that aside from Anna, everyone else was human, it surprisingly didn’t choose to fight, but instead continued to carry them to Ryko Farm.

Moreover, it didn’t emit the aura of the Inner World, almost like an overly ferocious and enormous native animal.

Of course, Anna could sense the source of its power—indeed, Amber was one of the monsters.

“Perhaps.” Lu Li responded noncommittally, his gaze turning toward the window.

In the distance, the desolate Arlen Kingdom’s mottled city walls stood lonely upon the plains.

The roads extending out to it like spider webs, with carriages and people heading in the direction away from the Royal City.

“Humanity is forced to flee their cities, hiding in the wilderness, barely clinging to life…”

York’s low whisper came from behind, his eyes filled with sadness as he looked toward the distant plains.

Lu Li didn’t respond, the Spark Project and the plans of the three major organizations must remain hidden.

Although they were all part of the plan, they had been abandoned on the surface.

“Where are you guys heading next?” Avar Montes came over and asked.

Both he and York carried a sense of confusion about the future—they didn’t know where to go after the destruction of the Royal City.

“Anna and I are going to Tuka Town to do something,” Lu Li planned to leave them later and reminded after a moment of thought, “Head to Himfast or Tafeng City.”

With a group of elderly and children, they couldn’t survive in the wilderness, only by depending on a town.

And those two were the only human settlements Lu Li knew of.

Tuka Town was not en route to Himfast or Tafeng City unless they could wait for Lu Li here—but aside from heading to Tuka Town, Lu Li had another matter to tend to.

Regrettably, they had to part ways here.

York told Lu Li that if that place wasn’t suitable for them, they would go to Himfast.

It was said that there was enough land there, with swamps creating a barrier, which might be safer, and besides, Lu Li lived near Belfast on the Ailen Peninsula.

Psychologically speaking, those who were saved by Lu Li, like York, preferred to go there.