Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 798 - 31. Increasingly More Tentacles

Chapter 798: 31. Increasingly More Tentacles

Inside and outside the room, a strange balance is maintained.

Outside, no one noticed anything amiss; inside, the elder quietly watches them play Mahjong.

"Six Bamboo."

"Hold on! Pee Hu!"

"Why is it always Pee Hu, damn it."

"Heh, Pee Hu is still Hu. Fork over the money."

Amidst a flurry of curses, the tiles are pushed over, and the sound of shuffling fills the air.

"Still playing?"

An inquiry comes suddenly from the side.

The three pairs of arms shuffling tiles freeze instantly.

The lean old man with a cigarette between his lips squints and chuckles: "Of course, why not, we need to keep watch until tomorrow morning, otherwise what would we do... Hmm? Who just spoke?"

With his eyes widened a notch, he sees his three relatives glance upward to look behind him.

A shadow blocks the light from the doorway, and the lean old man, delayed in realizing, turns around, seeing a slender silhouette standing at the door.

"Who are you?"

"Exorcist."

The voice is steady, devoid of any color.

"What? From where?" The lean old man turns his ear.

Lu Li speaks again, changing his line: "...I am a Taoist."

"Taoist?" The accented mutter rings out, and the lean old man suspiciously sizes him up and down, noticing that Lu Li doesn’t look ordinary and speaks mildly: "We’ve already invited someone, don’t need you folks, check another place."

"Are you sure?" Lu Li suggests otherwise. His gaze falls toward the inner room, and he speaks calmly: "The person inside should have been watching you play for quite a while."

They instinctively follow Lu Li’s gaze toward the inner room, simultaneously seeing the frail elder, attire in burial clothes, rising from the coffin with clouded eyes.

Four people shiver all over, petrified.

"Leave it to me, I will handle this," Lu Li says at the moment.

The tense four find relief, and shakily stand up.

The lean old man’s cigarette drops onto the Mahjong table, forgetting to speak, and he and the other three rush past Lu Li out of the flat.

Lu Li moves inwards, walking into the flat.

The smoke in the outer room makes him frown slightly, and as he passes the Mahjong table, he gently tips over a cup of tea.

Sss—

Thin smoke rises, extinguishing the cigarette butt on the table with tea.

Without stopping, Lu Li walks into the inner room, with Yang Chunxue appearing behind him.

The four, peeking from outside the door, see another ghost appear, and are too frightened to look further, retreating even more.

The elder rotates his head blankly, facing Lu Li. In Lu Li’s view, a shrunken tendril, as coarse as yarn, penetrates the ceiling and stretches into the top of the elder’s head, thinning to the width of a hair.

Perhaps there’s also a Blood-Colored Tentacle inside him.

"Was he just watching them play Mahjong?"

Yang Chunxue curiously observes the elder. He appears more gaunt than the black-and-white photo, bones almost jutting out.

This is why Lu Li hasn’t acted hastily: unlike the previous two Blood-Colored Tentacle hosts encountered, this host shows no signs of decay.

Perhaps the blood-colored tendril stretching from the sky doesn’t relate directly to Blood-Colored Tentacle hosts? Or maybe there’s another hidden story.

"Can you still speak?"

Lu Li walks around, addressing the elder, whose head stiffly follows him.

"Young man..." The elder makes a hoarse, cold sound. Dull eyes unfocused, unable to move.

Thankfully they can communicate, Lu Li asks: "Do you remember how you died?"

"I... was walking on the road... possessed by a ghost..." The elder slowly opens his mouth, uttering each word languidly. Thinking and speaking seems to be laborious for him.

"And then?"

"That ghost... used my body... to go home... and then, I died..."

Though some information is missing, it’s enough for Lu Li to piece together the truth.

A Blood-Colored Tentacle host’s body decayed, and the ghost aimlessly roamed the human world. Upon encountering the elder, it instinctively possessed him. Possession succeeded, but the elder already aged, didn’t last long after the sinister energy entered his body, dying before his body even had a chance to decay. Thus, the previous Blood-Colored Tentacle host left, and the elder’s spirit, now similarly a Blood-Colored Tentacle host, was separated, left in his corpse.

The elder’s slowed reflexes left him with only some instincts—this is why he sat up and watched the people outside playing Mahjong for a long time.

"Young man..."

The elder hoarsely calls again, his eyes still clouded, his body stiff, but his mind clearing slightly.

"Am I... already dead..."

Lu Li always speaks the truth: "Yes, your memorial photo is placed over there. Don’t turn your head, lest it falls off."

The elder’s cold lips slightly curled up: "Could you... do me a favor?"

"If it’s not too much trouble, sure," Lu Li nods, not refusing.

The elder’s stubborn neck moves, sweeping across every corner of the inner room, finally settling on the bed, motionless: "My savings account... and house deed... in... the stove under the bed... they can’t find it... please... give it to my brother..."

His brother should be the lean old man playing Mahjong previously, sharing a resemblance of four or five points.

"Oh... how touching."

Yang Chunxue meaningfully utters a tender call, her eyes slightly reddened—not related to the realm of spirits, simply moved.

An emotional spirit can easily be swayed by emotions. Ordinary compassion can be amplified to the brink of sentiment, common rifts magnified into resentment.

In this regard, it’s closer than ever to the Fierce Ghost: killing without reason, claiming lives.

Lu Li opens the stove beside the bed, rolls up his sleeves, and reaches into the ashes to fumble around, pulling out a plastic bag moments later.

Inside are several booklets.

"That’s... it."

The elder stiffly says, with his last wish fulfilled, freeing his vital energy from his body.

But in the next moment, the elder clutches his head, his wrinkled and cold face contorting: "Young man, my head... hurts so much!!!"

In the elder’s hoarse wailing, his brow splits open, a blood-colored tentacle burst from his skull like a sprouted bud.

It rests atop the elder’s skull, but neither the living Lu Li nor the specter Yang Chunxue reacts.

Lu Li understands this might relate to having eaten a Blood-Colored Tentacle before. So the question arises, should he eat another Blood-Colored Tentacle...

Suddenly, a large black shadow flashes before his eyes, crashing down with chilling aura.

Bang!

The stool scatters, the coffin shatters, and a square meter of black cube shadows along with the elder’s head get included in the attack range.

The coffin falls apart, and amidst the wreckage, Yang Chunxue disperses the aura, revealing the elder’s crushed skull.

"Done!" Yang Chunxue stands proudly, awaiting praise.

"...Thank you for your hard work." Lu Li feels warmth in his palm, says nothing, and turns to leave the room.

The blood-colored tentacle descending from the sky had disappeared.

This unexpected success of the operation—

Lu Li’s black eyes suddenly freeze.

Thirteen blood-colored tendrils hang from the clouds, swaying gently in the air like deep-sea seaweed.