Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 814: Seven. The Lost Underground

Chapter 814: Seven. The Lost Underground

A warm and gentle breeze caressed Lu Li’s damp body.

The wind carried a faint scent of sulfur.

Lu Li climbed out of the hole and stood up, gazing at the not-so-dark space.

It was no longer appropriate to describe this subterranean place as an underground cavern.

The vast underground world was more spectacular than the surface. Countless natural stone pillars, hundreds of meters high, supported the underground realm. Lava rivers branched like tree limbs, meandering around the grand and magnificent structures akin to a city, finally flowing into the distant lava sea.

Lu Li gazed silently.

Where exactly was he?

The tides of the underground cavern spilled from the hole, flowing down along the terrace-like rock layers. A hundred meters away, the lava river emitted sounds of evaporation, shrouding the area in white mist and steam.

Whether Lu Li was a few thousand meters deep underground or in a deeper layer of hell, it became irrelevant with these sights.

Whichever it was, it meant the surface was utterly unattainable for Lu Li.

But despair did not envelop Lu Li.

He pondered. If the mysterious Friday truly existed, she must have had her intention.

His gaze fell upon the underground city, guarded by a moat-like ring of lava. If there were clues in this underground world, they could only be found in that Lost City.

Lu Li walked along with the outpouring water, heading toward the lava river.

The temperature rose steadily, and as Lu Li reached the shore, the air became distorted, obscuring his vision, unbearably hot.

Lu Li donned his wet coat, the biting cold warding off the heat. The cold that had previously stolen Lu Li’s body warmth now became his protection.

The lava river was less than five meters wide, yet it was like a chasm. Lu Li looked downstream and found that, tens of meters away, the river narrowed to just three meters.

He could leap across the lava river from there, though the consequences of failure would be terrifying.

Or he could wait for the spreading water to cool the lava, but that would take forever—

Lu Li retreated to the narrow section of the riverbank, lightly tapped the solid rock bank, then retreated and suddenly accelerated toward the lava river, jumping at the riverbank—

The movement was neither elegant nor beautiful, but it was filled with power and speed, swiftly landing on the opposite bank.

Three more branches of lava rivers blocked the way, yet Lu Li leapt over them as if passing a test, reaching the edge of the underground city, also arriving downstream.

The lava sea was no longer far off, the searing heat reached Lu Li’s face from hundreds of meters away, baking half his cheek.

The final obstacle stood before Lu Li: the moat outside the city walls.

The stream in the river was not water but bubbling, surging lava.

A bridge spanned the moat, leading to the empty Lost City.

Lu Li wrung the water from his coat hem, letting it drip onto the bridge. The water droplets danced like glass balls, shrinking and evaporating under the heat.

The shoes left black, glue-like marks after just a brief touch on the bridge edge.

The bridge wasn’t sturdy either. A mere twenty-pound rock could crack it like a spider’s web.

But Lu Li had no other choice.

He took off his coat, wetting his dry trousers again, and put them back on, stepping lightly and swiftly onto the stone bridge that stretched a dozen meters long.

The heat instantly engulfed Lu Li, disquieting cracking sounds rising from underfoot, spreading outward, the bridge frail like a layer of ice.

Plop—plop—

Fragments fell into the lava with a deeper sound than water.

His quick strides brought Lu Li to the center of the bridge soon. Here it was hottest, also the most fragile—

Lu Li could almost feel the searing heat through the thinning soles, the spreading cracks on the bridge growing denser, like fragile glass under pressure.

Taking a few more steps forward, the bridge suddenly trembled and sank slightly.

A visible gap lay several meters ahead.

A sudden crackling sound behind urged Lu Li not to hesitate, he pounded heavily, leaping towards the city gate, landing and rolling on the edge, reaching underneath the gate.

Lu Li’s steps were the final ones for the bridge, which was riddled with cracks and began collapsing into the protective lava moat. The sticky lava splattered, devouring the falling bridge vividly like a lit cigar.

If he were any later, the same fate would await Lu Li.

Now, there was no way back for him.

The water impression from his roll shrank and vanished, steam rising from his coat as it dried from the heat, while his soles lost their protection, stepping on scorching rock.

Withdrawing his gaze from the lava, Lu Li looked towards the city.

Behind the city gate, an empty and straight street stretched out. At the street’s end, stone pillars supporting the underground world descended into the city center.

There were faint traces of artificial engravings on them.

Lu Li raised his lantern, removed the boots from his ankles, and walked on the warm stone bricks into the city.

The origins of this underground city seemed unfathomable. Who would build such a magnificent city buried at unknown depths beneath the surface?

City walls nearly ten meters high rivaled the strongholds from thousands of years ago during war times, spacious streets allowed eight carriages to travel side by side, grid-like blocks were arranged neatly, and stone buildings still stood tall after centuries.

However, as Lu Li stepped into the city, he felt a strange sense as though he had been shrunk.

Stone bricks over a meter wide and long, colossal buildings flanking the streets, and doorways nearly three meters tall—

As if the city belonged to creatures larger than humans and equally wise.

Underground beings?

Lu Li moved into a house with the lantern’s light, exploring the interior, but each house was empty, devoid of furniture, dust, or even stairs leading upward, only outlines of a structure.

Neither the houses nor the stone bricks of the street held any remnants of life, only the wear and dust resulting from the passage of time.

The empty city lacked signs of habitation, as if no residents had ever moved in.

Approaching the city center, a stone monument stood at the street corner.

The surface of the monument once bore drawings, but after centuries of oxidation and harsh conditions, only patches and indistinct colors remained.

Lu Li had ventured close enough to the city center.

The stone pillars connecting the underground world above and below were fully revealed.

The artificial markings on the pillars were not engravings but spiral staircases curling upward.

Clues in the underground city were more straightforward and overt than imagined—they led directly to the upper layers.

Lu Li walked into the circular plaza at the city’s center, the spiral staircases on the stone pillars lay bare, towering in the square’s center.

Standing in the plaza’s center, the street leading to the city’s four gates was completely visible.

This empty city seemed merely decorative, solely guiding Lu Li to find his way upward.

He looked up and examined the spiral stone pillar, noting the staircase was incomplete.

The corrosive sulfur wind swept through the deep places, leaving the unprotected stone pillars badly damaged. Beginning several dozen meters above the ground, cracks and gaps became frequent; near the top, a near ten-meter segment lacked steps and was bald stone.

The staircase’s end disappeared into the blackness of the rock face above, fading out of sight.

Giving one last look around the empty Lost Giant City, Lu Li stepped onto the first step of the spiral staircase.