The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 1012: Escape from the Heretic Camp

The carriage, having departed from the inner city, rolled along the main road toward the more remote districts.

“We still have a chance, Lu Li... Your Excellency... My wife... she used her real identity. The Academy of Giant Trees will soon notice our disappearance and launch a search...”

Professor Haig spoke in a whisper.

But not yet.

The carriage carrying the abducted Lu Li and Professor Haig traveled unimpeded down the long street. It left the outer city and entered a cave that led to the surface and the Old Sewer—a passage known as the Road of Sighs.

An oil lamp hanging on the carriage wall cast a dim, yellow glow. A chill seeped into the cabin, cutting through the musty air.

The Primordial Darkness seeped into the cabin as well, circling and pulsing like moths drawn to a flame on a summer night.

After nearly two months, Lu Li had set foot on the surface once again.

As Lu Li wondered whether Professor Haig's wife and son had taken them out of Midnight, the carriage slowed and turned onto a muddy dirt track, unpaved with stone slabs.

They were close to their destination.Twenty or thirty minutes later, the carriage came to a halt.

The carriage door was opened from the outside, revealing a heretic camp pitched on the outskirts of Midnight.

Led by Sisoran, Lu Li raised his head and surveyed his surroundings. The midday twilight was just bright enough for him to make out the distant silhouette of the Giant Tree and an alchemical tower, its spire shimmering with light.

His gaze returned to the immediate vicinity. Heretics in black cloaks gathered like a dense fog around bonfires that pushed back the Primordial Darkness, dotting the entire square.

Lu Li and Professor Haig were escorted across the crude square and deeper into the camp, toward a few scattered huts.

A church loomed in the gloom, its bell replaced by a giant eyeball in the high tower. The pupil of the eye emitted a dim red glow that swept across the long street as it rotated.

They were separated. Professor Haig was led to a house by the road, while Lu Li was taken past the church to the deepest part of the camp, into a hut shrouded in shadows.

Slam—

The door slammed shut, leaving Lu Li tied to a wooden post with only an oil lamp for company.

The footsteps gradually faded. Lu Li tested his bonds; the ropes were tied so tightly that escape was nearly impossible.

Before the ropes could leave deep marks, Lu Li stopped struggling. He relaxed his body and let himself drift into sleep—

The unchanging, misty glow of the dreamscape was maddening. Lu Li wandered through the chaotic vision, searching for a sphere of light.

No one in the camp was asleep. Fearing discovery, Lu Li avoided the camp's main square, instead recalling the details of its outskirts and drifting outward.

But it seemed the heretics had long since cleared the surrounding area, or perhaps it simply wasn't a time for rest. The chaotic dreamscape was empty.

Finding nothing, Lu Li retraced his path. As he passed the deeper part of the camp, however, he spotted a faint glow.

Someone had just fallen asleep.

He waited for the nascent, misty glow to coalesce into a sphere of light and for the dream to stabilize before immersing himself within it.

A clamor arose nearby, and Lu Li's consciousness descended upon a bustling street.

This was the core of the dream. The more distant landscapes were blurry and chaotic, a product of the dream's simplicity, and could not be explored in depth.

Drifting toward the dreamer's consciousness, Lu Li witnessed various anomalies. Passersby shopping on the street meticulously tore shillings in half to pay for goods. In a fighting pit, a victor whose left arm had been severed by his opponent raised a bloodied long-ax—and then chopped off his own right arm. The street itself was perfectly symmetrical, like a mirror image: an equal number of men and women, an equal number of old and young...

Lu Li found the dream's host—a heretic with a blurred face. He was sitting behind a coffee shop window. He picked up a cup of coffee, drank exactly half, and left the rest.

Using a dream technique he had mastered with the help of the Emerald Dream, Lu Li plunged the heretic's consciousness into a deeper sleep, leaving his body to act on subconscious instinct alone—

But in an instant, the dream shattered, and Lu Li's consciousness was violently expelled.

Had something amiss been detected, or were these heretics simply unsuitable for dream manipulation?

Lingering in the chaotic dreamscape, Lu Li saw the misty glow reappear.

The heretic had fallen asleep again.

The sphere of light began to form, like a gradually ripening fruit. But it was impossible to tell whether it was a sweet, mature fruit or a dark, rotten trap.

Lu Li approached the sphere of light and plunged into the unknown dream.

A majestic, sacred church appeared, floating in the void like a set of scales, and the prayers of heretics echoed through its empty hall.

“O Lord of Equilibrium, sustainer of all that exists, your humble believer feels your tendrils and implores you to grant your guidance—”

Under Lu Li's subtle guidance, the heretic believed that his lord's consciousness had descended upon him.

“Find Lu Li, the one brought into the depths, and save him...”

Lu Li touched the dream, bestowing a “divine revelation” that sent the heretic into a frenzied rapture.

The dreamscape abruptly shifted, returning to the dark, simple room.

It was still a dream. Lu Li watched as the fanatical believer rushed from the room and ran deeper into the camp.

Within the dream, everything went smoothly. None of the other heretics stood in his way. But when the believer stepped onto the long street patrolled by the giant eyeball, a red beam swept over him. The running figure melted and collapsed like a candle—

The dream shattered with the dreamer's death, and Lu Li slowly awoke.

It seemed escape on his own was impossible. All he could do was wait for someone in Midnight to discover Professor Haig’s disappearance or the suspicious plants and raise the alarm.

As Lu Li was contemplating this, the sound of shuffling footsteps came from outside the hut. The door swung open, revealing a figure holding an oil lamp.

“My Lord has commanded me to save you.”

The believer whose dream Lu Li had just infiltrated stood in the doorway. His face was no longer blurry, and it wore an expression of pious, dream-like devotion. In his hand, he held a dagger.

The dagger sliced through the ropes. As he was freed, Lu Li felt his body relax as the bonds slid away.

“How do I get out of here?”

“By avoiding the camp...”

The drowsy obedience suddenly shattered. The awakened heretic snarled, baring his fangs:

“No! You are a sacrifice, an offering for my Lord!”

But he was too late.

Rustle—

Lu Li tied the stunned heretic to the wooden post, draped the man’s black cloak over himself, extinguished the oil lamp, and slipped out of the hut, lamp in hand.

The encroaching darkness was cold. Lu Li moved silently, mindful of the dangerous eyeball on the church tower. Whenever its blood-red gaze swept past, Lu Li was already hidden in the shadow of a corner or inside an unlocked hut, concealing himself.

This area was deserted, and Lu Li successfully made his way to the edge of the square, toward a small, windowless hut with a tightly shut door.

He remembered that this was where they had locked up Professor Haig.

He listened under the eaves for a moment, confirming that the only sound from within was Professor Haig's faint breathing and that there were no guards. Lu Li waited for the eyeball's gaze to pass once more, then opened the door and slipped through the crack.

At the edge of the dim glow cast by an oil lamp, Professor Haig was tied to a wooden post, just as Lu Li had been moments before.

“Lu Li! Your Excellency...!”

Hearing the sound, Professor Haig looked up and whispered in disbelief.

The dagger sliced through his ropes, and Professor Haig stumbled and fell. His limbs, numb from the lack of circulation, would need time to recover.

“Lu Li, Your Excellency, you should escape first and find help...” Professor Haig urged.

“The camp is surrounded by heretics. There's no way out.” Lu Li shook his head.

Without the Book of the Apocalypse, Lu Li couldn't sustain the strength and stamina needed to escape the camp.

“Can you still summon the Merchant Antoni?” Professor Haig asked.

“Only if I have an eyeball.”

“...Then use my eye...”

Professor Haig was about to commit to his decision, but Lu Li cut him off.

“The eyeball he needs is the fruit of an anomalous plant. Our eyes are useless.”

They were running out of time. There was no telling when the heretics would discover their escape.