Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 668 - 668 One hundred eighty-seven

668: One hundred eighty-seven.

Cleaner 668: One hundred eighty-seven.

Cleaner Lu Li and Anna landed outside the walls of Flarend City.

The Blood Dandelions around them hadn’t diminished; they still enveloped the land, confirming the city’s affliction by their invasion.

However, they feared fire, so perhaps Flarend City wasn’t as…irreversible as the Arlen Kingdom.

When one looked through the blood-red veil, they could see smoke rising from various parts of the city, indicating that some people had survived and knew the dandelions’ weakness.

Lu Li and Anna, who had donned a black robe, walked into the eerily silent city from the gate.

The fog-like Blood Dandelions parted from around them.

The streets were littered with mummified corpses, desiccated as if baked dry, with a layer of red fuzz growing on their emaciated bodies—no need to get close to know what it was.

It was after dawn when they arrived, the only time residents would leave their homes.

Lu Li looked at the buildings along the streets, searching for the Police Station sign.

There, they could find a map of the city to locate the Flarend Sanatorium.

However, after walking two blocks, faint silhouettes in a blood-colored mist slowly materialized ahead on the street.

These figures, wearing strange Bird Beak Masks and sealed coats, wandered the streets, approached the ground corpses, murmured something, doused them with kerosene, lit them on fire, and sent both the Blood Dandelions’ breeding grounds and the dead away from this world, like the city’s Cleaners.

The figures noticed Lu Li and Anna on the street and approached them.

It wasn’t until they were close enough to see the tall and short figures unprotected in the Blood Dandelions, which parted from them as if confronting a natural enemy, that their pace became uneasy.

“Senior Investigator Lu Li.” Lu Li took out his badge to ease their anxiety.

The Cleaners quickly believed Lu Li’s words and walked towards them.

Anna was a bit puzzled, but quickly remembered that not everyone here was mutually suspicious like in the chaotic Royal City of Arlen.

“Are you from the Exorcists’ United Organization sent to support us?” a muffled voice from behind the Bird Beak Mask asked with surprise.

“I am here for another matter,” Lu Li said, his gaze shifting to the burning corpses behind them as the Blood Dandelions parted to avoid that area.

“I don’t have a better way to deal with them.”

The Cleaners showed disappointment, but still asked, “Then, how can we assist you?”

This was exactly what Lu Li needed: “Where is the Flarend Sanatorium?”

“The sanatorium…” They exchanged looks, whispered for a moment, then turned back and said, “Rend doesn’t have a sanatorium by that name.

Are you sure it’s here?”

The Flarend Sanatorium might not be in Flarend City—just as Tranquil Fort was located over two thousand miles away in the western part of the Main Affinity Continent from the Tranquil Plains.

“It was established decades or a century ago; perhaps other buildings have been constructed over it,” Lu Li said.

The Cleaners suggested, “Perhaps you could ask at the City Hall; they know more about the past than anyone.”

“How do I get there?”

“We are about to head to a supply point to replenish kerosene; we can take you there,” said the Cleaner, shaking an empty oil drum in hand.

“Thank you.”

Following the Cleaners through the blood-colored mist, Lu Li inquired about the city’s condition.

“It’s severe, but under control.

They can’t penetrate houses and leather jackets and are very afraid of fire.

As long as people stay inside and block all the cracks, they can’t get in.”

The lead Cleaner replied, “We’ve cleared the streets around City Hall, but there are too many of these monsters still being produced.

We had no choice but to go out and burn the bodies of the victims.”

“Do you still want to stay in this city?” Lu Li asked.

“Of course…

Why do you ask?” The Cleaner paused; as a member of Valrend, they naturally wanted to stay in their ancestors’ land—

“Even if the dandelions are cleaned up, as long as there is one left, touching a body will spawn tens of thousands more dandelions, spreading rapidly like a plague.”

Unless the residents of Flarend City only went out in airtight leather jackets and masks and didn’t leave any cracks at home, the Blood Dandelions lingering somewhere would eventually erupt again.

It was much easier to deal with than a plague, but its horror was incomparable to a plague.

“Then we’ll destroy all the dandelions!” a stubborn young voice protested from among a Cleaner.

“Even burning down the entire city wouldn’t achieve that,” Lu Li said bluntly, making it hard to accept.

“They can avoid detection in water, basements, high places, around the city.

As long as there is wind, they can always make a comeback.”

Dead towns and villages ravaged by the plague often remained deserted for decades—not only because people feared the plague but also because the plague might still linger on that land.

After a silence that spanned half a street, the thoughtful leader told Lu Li, “I hope you can tell the City Lord about this, whether he thinks we should stay…

or leave.”

“I will.”

It wasn’t a hassle.

Lu Li’s directness also revealed its downsides: it alienated those who wanted to save Rend, not flee, until twenty minutes later when they neared City Hall—a marble building surrounded by a ring of burning fences that dispersed the dandelions.

The leader told Lu Li they could enter the lobby to find the City Lord, and dispersed in front of the fence.

Just before leaving, the young voice that had opposed Lu Li suddenly asked quietly, “Is it an evil spirit?”

“I don’t know,” Lu Li shook his head.

They had a physical form, resembling some sort of mutated plant.

Yet, Blood Dandelions had never appeared before the bizarre invasion.

The young man regretfully caught up with the group while Lu Li and Anna headed towards the fence.

Despite the area around City Hall, including the rooftops and windows, being studded with torches to disperse the dandelions, people still wore sealed leather jackets to isolate themselves from the outside.

The unshielded duo became the focus of those bustling around City Hall; under their gaze, Lu Li inquired of the staff beside the fence, “Senior Investigator Lu Li, looking for your City Lord.”

“The City Lord is currently arranging things in the hall; you can see him once you go inside.” The staff, who was taken aback and didn’t even notice the badge, said blankly and then couldn’t help but ask, “The way you disperse the monstrous dandelions…”

“Not replicable.”

Unless they could cooperate with ghosts.

Disappointed, the staff watched as Lu Li and Anna walked past him and ascended the steps into the City Hall lobby.

The City Lord of Flarend City, a middle-aged man with brown curly hair and a weary expression, was writing something at a desk in front of the podium.

A servant walked up to him, whispered something, and the City Lord, who had been writing, looked up and gazed at Lu Li and Anna as they entered the hall.