Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 677 - 677 One hundred ninety-six

677: One hundred ninety-six.

Destination 677: One hundred ninety-six.

Destination Lu Li reached out towards her back, but Dorin, facing away from him, dodged in a bizarrely contorted manner as if she were a soft-bodied creature.

Anna also stretched out an invisible hand towards Dorin’s back, but just as it was about to connect, it dissolved quietly like a snowflake on a chimney.

“My power is being suppressed…” Anna frowned.

“You stay here.”

Lu Li said, pushing through the chaotic crowd and chasing after Dorin.

“Mom!

Mom, where are you—” Cries echoed, barely audible among the people’s screams.

Lu Li saw a small boy standing helplessly by the wall, narrowly missing being hit by passing figures several times.

He walked over, picked up the boy, found the woman who was searching for her child, returned the child to her, and continued running towards the fork.

The crazed citizens had completely dismantled the wooden boards blocking the fork, smashing through the Exorcists’ blockade and rushing into the fork like wild beasts.

The two Exorcists struggled to their feet and saw the approaching Dorin, trying to stop her.

Dorin, nearing them, suddenly burst out with agility…or rather, a warped agility, dodging the Exorcists’ blockade and charging into the fork.

“Leave it to me.”

Lu Li, following swiftly, left a message to the hesitant Exorcists and rushed into the fork.

The darkness instantly enveloped him; Lu Li took out a flashlight, turned it on, and used the faint light to gauge the distance by the sounds of footsteps ahead.

Dorin was getting farther from him, and the running sounds of the citizens who had rushed into the fork had vanished.

Splat—

Deep in the dark fork, there suddenly came a sound of Dorin falling.

Apparently, the excavation of the fork was not completed, and the uneven ground was difficult to navigate.

However, what caused Dorin to fall was not the fork itself; she tripped over a suitcase that blended with the color of the rock wall, spilling Gold Coins from inside.

The fate of the previous City Lord was obviously clear.

Lu Li caught up with the rising Dorin; she fell at the end of the fork, in front of the Bottomless Abyss.

The fall seemed to have restored her sanity, stopping her from running away.

Yet, she eerily stood still, indifferent to the scrapes on her body.

Dorin hung her head, her face hidden behind shadows and strands of hair.

As Lu Li took a step forward, she slowly raised her arm, extending it towards the wall at her side.

The dim light circle fell on the uneven rock wall, revealing Dorin’s shadow…but it was not a shadow.

The shadow was entirely etched into the rock layer, bizarrely identical to Dorin’s silhouette.

Lu Li moved the flashlight around the shadow on the rock wall, discovering more human-shaped shadows.

Shadows of people stood within the rock walls, some far, some near; their outlines appeared on the rock, as if silently observing Lu Li, who stood among them.

Dorin’s slowly lowering arm drew Lu Li’s attention back to her.

“This is my end…”

Dorin said softly, stepping backward, one foot landing on the abyss, and then another foot also stepping out—

The fragile young life vanished in an instant before Lu Li’s eyes.

Darkness and silence enveloped Lu Li from all sides; faintly, he seemed to hear some kind of calling emerging from the abyss that had swallowed both Dorin and the citizens.

Lu Li ignored the calling, stepping back gradually.

The human-shaped shadows in the rock walls occasionally leapt into view, and he suddenly realized that these shadows might belong to the citizens who had jumped into the Bottomless Abyss.

Perhaps because Lu Li’s will was strong enough, or because human nature resisted the temptation, or perhaps because there was no shadow of him on the wall…Lu Li safely walked out of the fork.

Facing Anna’s worried gaze, Lu Li gently shook his head.

The chaos beneath the secret passage had been calmed, and the sudden accident must have reached the ears of the City Lord Valenteel.

However, unless no one could pass through the fork, there was no stopping now.

The panicked workers asked Lu Li for his opinion, clinging to the walls as they hurried back.

The two exorcists barely blocked the fork, and the evacuation plan continued.

Yet the shadow of the twenty-odd people who vanished in an instant continued to haunt everyone; passersby instinctively clung to the walls to skirt far around the area, while parents covered their children’s eyes to avoid seeing the terrifying things they shouldn’t see.

Lu Li and Anna followed the crowd, moving further and further from the fork until it was no longer visible.

Lu Li recounted to Anna the strange occurrences at the fork, and after finishing, he thought of the Bottomless Abyss in the Barren Lands that had devoured dozens of exorcists.

Had they, like Dorin, found their fate written on the walls?

Dorin’s experience was just as she had said at the end: this was her endpoint.

The things that entangled her seemed not the monstrous shadows of her nightmares, but herself, her fate…

In any case, Lu Li had failed to fulfill Dom’s request; his sister had ultimately been found by that shadow and had perished in the Bottomless Abyss of the secret passage.

Thirty minutes later, Lu Li and Anna reached the other end of the secret passage’s exit.

Darkness once again enveloped the land.

Lu Li and Anna left the group, watching from afar as Rend lay nestled in the night, entering a corridor that stretched straight to the horizon.

Along the corridor, bonfires were lit at intervals, providing light to drive away the Dandelions.

For most of the townspeople, they were fortunate.

Until one hour before dawn, when support from Saint An Bastion arrived, no oddities disturbed this migrating crowd.

Lu Li and Anna didn’t meet with those exorcists and prepared to return to Flarend City after hearing of their arrival.

But before leaving, Lu Li saw the evacuating Dom.

He seemed to completely ignore the outside world, nor did he notice Lu Li and Anna not far away; losing his sister, he moved forward numbly with the crowd in the final darkness before dawn, like a walking corpse.

Lu Li and Anna flew back to Flarend, and the City Lord Valenteel was surprised at their return, then remembering Lu Li and Anna’s initial purpose, he asked, “Do you need help?”

“We’ll handle it,” said Lu Li.

“A undisturbed bedroom and food,” Anna added.

Since the incident at Arlen Kingdom three days ago, Lu Li had only slept for a few hours.

“Of course,”

said Valenteel, ordering the servants to lead them to the guest room and prepare a lavish meal.

Lu Li was indeed extremely tired and fell into a deep sleep before the food arrived.

When he woke up again, Anna was sitting in a wooden chair by the fireplace.

Cold food was placed on the dining table, with only the crackling sounds from the fireplace breaking the silence.

Lu Li looked out the window; it was still as dim as when they had arrived in the early morning.

“What time is it?”

“Approaching evening.”

Lu Li had slept through the entire day.

He got out of bed and walked to the window.

The disheveled square outside was devoid of any human figure, only occasional black smoke rising from extinguished bonfires.

The Dandelion mist had completely enveloped this deathly silent city.

Anna came from behind and handed Lu Li a map marked with the location of Flarend Sanatorium.

“Valenteel left an hour ago as the last to leave; now it’s just us in this city.”