Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 760 - 760 279

760: 279.

At the Foot of the World’s Spine 760: 279.

At the Foot of the World’s Spine Crack—crack—

The soles of shoes crunch on wood chips, and the figure holding an oil lamp steps onto the scarred ruins.

The figure seems to be searching for something but finds nothing, only bending to pick up a fragment from the ruins upon leaving.

Mist rolls in from outside the town, and the figure leaves the ravaged street, limping from a sprained ankle.

There is a series of knocks on the houses with lit windows.

But the occupants either ignore or extinguish the oil lamps by the windowsill.

As the Mist of Strangeness is about to engulf him, an old couple takes him in, letting him enter their warm, fire-lit home.

“Are you injured?”

They see the abrasions on the figure and his dust-covered clothes.

“What is your name?”

“Lu Li,” he answers.

Realizing that this young man seems to have experienced something and needs peace and rest, the old couple arranges for him to stay upstairs.

“…We don’t have much food left either.

If you’re hungry, you can drink some vegetable soup.”

Lu Li politely declines the old couple’s kindness, asking only for a basin of clean water to clean his wounds upstairs.

Besides abrasions from falls and rolls, only the sprained ankle is the most severe, needing time to heal.

Having cleaned his wounds, Lu Li’s gaze falls on the bedside table, reaching to pick up the fragment he found from the ruins.

The surface is silver-plated, engraved with pieces of a broken rose; it is a fragment of “redemption.”

Now, Lu Li can only find this fragment.

The Mist of Strangeness engulfs the entire town, and something seems to be roaming in the fog.

In the silent room, Lu Li reflects on everything he saw earlier.

Anna’s projection possessed the guide but failed;

Anna was irrigated by the aura of the Inner World, transforming into an evil spirit;

She once growled, “Get out”;

At the moment she became an evil spirit, a phantom rope floated above Anna’s head like a noose;

After the transformation ended, Anna…

was crying;

Lu Li lifted his head, looking at the dilapidated ceiling, imagining a hemp rope hanging, the loop holding a still silhouette.

The position was wrong; the rope should be behind the neck, but above Anna’s head was more like—

A sudden surge of fatigue interrupts Lu Li’s thoughts.

It becomes difficult to concentrate, and his weary body urges him to rest.

Lu Li only manages to place the “lighthouse” by his pillow before falling into a deep sleep.

The quiet and sorrowful night gradually fades with sleep.

In the morning, the Mist of Strangeness drifts away from the town, and Lu Li slowly awakens.

Extinguishing the oil lamp on the bedside table, Lu Li, with the “lighthouse” and the fragment of redemption, goes downstairs.

The old couple is by the fireplace, cooking breakfast: a soup boiled with dried spices and some salt, without any food.

It cannot sustain life but can fill the stomach.

Lu Li crushes the Stone Badge, waiting for the merchant to arrive, continuing his thoughts from last night.

Anna’s transformation occurred after possessing the guide.

The guide was a believer of The Time of Silence…

Was she out of control due to The Time of Silence’s attack?

Lu Li reaches into his pocket.

The scarecrow given to him by the guide is still there.

If it can still resist The Time of Silence’s ritual…

The soup is ready.

The husband of the old couple fills a wooden bowl and walks over to Lu Li, who refuses it.

“You can wait to eat,” Lu Li says.

He plans to buy some canned food.

“If the soup gets cold, it won’t fill the stomach,” the old man smiles, holding the wooden bowl and stirring the pot by the fireplace.

Lu Li quietly watches the old man sit back by the fireplace, pour the slightly cooled soup back into the pot, and serve another bowl of steaming soup.

He suddenly tilts his head, looking behind the old man.

Beside the elongated shadow, a shadow of a girl appears, not belonging to anyone present.

The jet-black girl’s shadow walks toward the old man’s shadow, merging into it before Lu Li can do anything.

Pop—

The wooden bowl filled with meat soup suddenly drops into the pot, and the scalding hot soup splashes out.

The old man shows no concern for the hot soup splashing on his arms and face, turning to stare at Lu Li with a strange tone, “Lu Li, it’s me.”

Lu Li pauses.

“We’re in the Rope of Descent ritual.

I got rid of it, but you haven’t.”

Before the next sentence is spoken, the old man’s body melts like a candle, collapsing into the floor, leaving only Anna’s shadow.

The shadow on the floor turns its head, once again heading toward the dazed old woman.

A gentle light suddenly spills from Lu Li’s hands, the glow of humanity shining through the wooden house, also driving the old woman’s shadow to the other side.

Anna’s shadow pauses, seeming to turn to look at Lu Li, then walks toward the door, disappearing under the door crack.

The “lighthouse” dims, and Lu Li follows Anna’s tracks to the sparsely populated street.

A gentle breeze carries sand and dust, blowing through the empty street, and Anna’s shadow has disappeared.

The “lighthouse” lights up again but reveals no shadows that Lu Li seeks.

Boom—

The wooden door of a house by the street is suddenly slammed open, a shape staggers toward Lu Li, speaking in an incongruent tone, “It affected you before, and it affected me.”

Before reaching Lu Li, he falls, merging into the sand and stone ground.

Crash—

Lu Li turns his head, looking at another house, the second-floor window shatters, glass shards fly, and a blood-stained face appears behind the window, speaking with a numb tone, “This is the epic it weaves for you.”

The face twists, melts, and disappears behind the window.

Lu Li looks toward the depths of the alley, where a shabby middle-aged man is running toward here.

“Aunt Mary is on the Lennon Islands.”

Leaving only this sentence, the middle-aged man falls into the sand and stone ground.

From behind comes the sound of stumbling footsteps; Lu Li turns to see the old woman dragging her broken leg, moving forward, her aged face carrying a chilling numbness, “She was the bait the Rope of God used to lure you.”

Wind-blown sand skirts the street, blinding the view, only the approaching chaotic footsteps and the voice carried by the wind resonate.

“It blinded my reason, made me occupy other bodies.”

Shadows fall, new ones coming.

“Emin…”

The old man’s voice.

“Elena…”

A child’s voice.

“I’ve always been by your side…”

“Stop, Anna,” Lu Li whispers to the newly emerging figure.

The approaching figure pauses, speaking unrelated words, “…Rhode don’t go!

It’s all over—”

The figure melts into the ground.

An old man struggles against the sand and wind, shakily emerging from a small alley.

The old man falls to the ground but stubbornly crawls to Lu Li, his dry hands grasping Lu Li’s ankle.

“…I love you.”

The weak voice fades into the air with the sweeping wind.

No more contours emerge; there are no more survivors in this town.

The sand and wind on the street grow stronger; in the blurred distance, a tall silhouette appears.

The merchant stands before Lu Li.

“What is the content of the trade.”

“A new evil spirit.”

Lu Li’s dark eyes lower, seemingly calmly speaking, “Her form is a girl’s shadow, the ritual is the shadow diving into another person’s shadow.

Controlling the body, obtaining memory.”