Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 749 - 749 268

749: 268.

At the Foot of the World’s Spine 749: 268.

At the Foot of the World’s Spine Morning.

The townspeople stand at the edge of the town, watching as the Exorcist Lu Li and Elena walk into the wilderness, their figures disappearing behind the low hill.

For the people of the Barren Lands, unending disasters and scarce resources force them to move out from the interior.

But the clouds that cloak the sky shield them from the scorching sun that bakes the earth.

Elena is wearing a Leather Jacket commonly seen in the villages of the Barren Lands, revealing her bronze-colored, robust build.

After a dull journey, Lu Li and Elena travel more than ten miles away from Helen Town.

“There’s a wolf pack in that forest, stay away.”

Elena’s spear points to a distant grove of poplar trees.

The withered and dead poplar trees still stand tall on the parched land.

Lu Li and Elena bypass the poplar grove, but the hungry wolf pack still sets its sights on them.

After a lone wolf howl, a chorus of howls echoes, and the shadows of running wolves appear between the trees.

“Retreat to there!” Elena points to a boulder ten meters away, draws the hunting knife hanging from her leg, and climbs the boulder while keeping an eye on the encircling wolves.

Elena’s gaze is as fierce as a wolf’s, sweeping through the pack, searching for the lead wolf.

Bam!

A deafening roar reverberates across the wilderness, scaring away the wolves, who flee with their tails between their legs.

The crisis quickly subsides.

Elena tilts her head to look at Lu Li, who has the Spirit-Calling Gun raised, muzzle smoking: “You should have killed the lead wolf just now.”

“We’re passing through, not exterminating the wolf pack,” Lu Li says, holstering the gun and loading a new Inscribed Bullet into the chamber.

“If they go hungry for a few more days, they won’t retreat so easily,” Elena says, putting away her hunting knife.

They resume their journey shortly, and the ghost broadcast in Lu Li’s pocket rings with a chime: The Time of Silence has arrived.

Elena asks Lu Li to sit down.

Standing would attract the attention of wild beasts or eagles.

They don’t need to hide, The Time of Silence only targets humans.

Lu Li and Elena are lucky.

If The Time of Silence had come during their encounter with the wolf pack, they would’ve been in big trouble.

Twenty-three minutes later, The Time of Silence retreats, and they continue on their way.

The vast barren land and the northern Spine of the World Mountains form a spectacular view, and Lu Li occasionally looks ahead.

A hundred miles away is the Gauss Basin.

There is still no sign of the Eye Demon Worms above.

Lu Li guesses that maybe the time hasn’t come yet, or perhaps his Sanity Value is too high to see them.

Based on percentage calculations, reinforced by the “Doomsday Apocalypse” piece, Lu Li’s Sanity Value is above 110%, and his high humanity grants him resistance to Sanity Value pollution.

Eagles soar in the sky, while vultures atop rocks reflect the images of two figures walking across the wilderness in their eyes.

In the afternoon, in front of a dry riverbed and under a dead acacia tree, Lu Li unfolds a map, roughly determining their location: 50 miles northeast of Helen Town.

A slight deviation in direction, but it can be corrected.

Thirty miles ahead lies a village where they can spend the night.

If that village still exists.

Elena opens a canteen and takes a sip of water.

She drinks sparingly.

The canteen is still nearly full.

“I remember the way from here, we don’t need this thing.” Elena seems disdainful of the compass in Lu Li’s hand.

After he puts away the map and compass, she grabs her spear and walks ahead.

The wilderness is not entirely lifeless; some small animals and insects still survive here.

Like a fox peering from under a pile of rubble or a beetle crawling by.

Elena says that the greatest threat here is the hyenas.

They outnumber the wolf packs and are more cunning.

Unless you kill the queen lurking behind or eliminate a quarter of them, they won’t retreat.

But as they approach the village, the hyenas don’t show up.

However, in the meantime, Lu Li and Elena encounter a bizarre pit.

It suddenly appears in the wild, just the right size to fit a person, and its pitch-black walls swallow the sight.

As they approach, a faint voice calls in their minds.

“Go around it,” Lu Li says.

They detour around it from afar.

The further away they get, the weaker the voice becomes, until it disappears.

Once they’re far enough, Lu Li turns back to look.

The pit has become nothing but a dense black point.

As the clouds to the west grow more dark red, the outline of a dilapidated village emerges in the distance.

Figures move between the primitive huts made of straw and earth, and a bonfire is rising in the village center.

Elena leads Lu Li into the village.

Perhaps few outsiders visit here, as the villagers busy with their tasks stop one by one, their eyes following their movement.

“Something feels off…

be careful,” Elena scans their numb faces, gripping her spear.

“My suggestion is, we leave.”

Lu Li’s dark eyes fall on a skinny child.

He stands blankly at his doorstep, grasping a human finger bone in his hand, gnawing on the scraps of meat on it.

“Too late.”

Elena stops in front of the bonfire, turning around.

The villagers, weapons in hand, block their way back.

The bonfire blazes, its heat swaying the hems of Lu Li’s clothes, casting shadows over the villagers’ faces.

“I know your village chief Abdel.

We know nothing, let us leave,” Elena tells them.

A brawny villager steps out from the crowd, speaking in broken words: “Master…

starving…

needs food…

you…

stay…”

As his words fall, the villagers close in on them by the bonfire.

A burst of eerie mocking laughter suddenly rises from behind the villagers.

Lu Li thinks it’s their “master,” but from the villagers’ panicked reactions, it’s not.

“It’s the hyena pack!”

In the firelight, Elena’s eyes become bright.

The hyenas have started attacking the villagers who have their backs to them.

Cries rise behind the human wall, and the child gnawing on the finger bone is knocked down by a similarly-sized hyena in a daze.

“Let’s go.”

Elena grabs Lu Li, rushing toward a nearby shack.

Running into the wilderness amidst a pack of hyenas, or at night, is nothing short of suicidal.

The spear is thrust forward, piercing through the chest of a villager blocking their way.

Elena pulls out the spear, coldly flicking off the blood, and dashes into the wooden house with Lu Li.

Bam!

Inside, Elena braces the wooden door, and the next moment, the villagers crash against it from outside.

With icy resolve, Elena draws her hunting knife and stabs through the gap between the door boards, slicing upward.

When she retracts it, half of the knife is stained with blood.

“Step aside.”

Lu Li’s voice comes from behind.

Elena moves, letting Lu Li brace a table against the door.

The chaos of screams and hyenas’ cackling is shut outside.

Elena turns her head, finding a woman standing in the shack, watching them with eyes full of hatred.

“Tell me what’s going on.” Elena steps quickly toward the woman, pressing the still-warm hunting knife against her throat.

“The ma…

will not…

spare…

you…”

Elena smirks mockingly, grabbing her wrist and pinning it against the wall, demanding once more: “You might want to think about whether I will spare you.”