The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 463: Atonement

The soul fragment could hardly be called a ghost. Devoid of reason, it merely coiled around Lu Li on pure instinct.

Lu Li unfastened his holster and gripped the handle of the Atonement. The moment he drew the Spirit Gun, his Mind Level counter began to click, and he tossed the weapon toward the wandering wisp of soul.

Not even a ghost could withstand the essence of the Atonement. The soul fragment dissolved like snow, vanishing without a trace. The Spirit Gun spun through the air before clattering onto the deck.

Perhaps because the soul was incomplete, there were no dying memories to witness.

Lu Li's brow furrowed slightly. As the soul fragment vanished, he felt as if he had gained something, yet at the same time, nothing at all.

With no time to dwell on the sensation, Lu Li looked up at the husks Anna held suspended in the air.

More soul fragments erupted from the bodies of the crew and passengers. Just like the first, they sensed the presence of a living being and drifted toward Lu Li, circling the protective barrier Anna had formed around him.

"I'll get the Spirit Gun," Anna declared. The incessant clicking of the counter was fraying her nerves.

A tendril of Anna's essence reached for the Spirit Gun, but like the first soul fragment, it instantly dissipated upon contact.

Even a Vengeful Spirit couldn't withstand the fully unleashed power of the Atonement, embodied by its bloomed rose.Had she fully manifested, Anna likely could have lifted the Spirit Gun, but she was reluctant to reveal the full extent of her Mental Projection to Lu Li. After a moment's hesitation, she moved toward the pistol, intending to touch the Atonement with her physical form.

"Here, take this."

Lu Li unbuckled the holster and tossed it to Anna. "Put the gun in the holster, then throw it."

This was hardly the proper way to handle a Spirit Gun, and the impact might damage it... but it was the most efficient method.

In his current state, Lu Li couldn't afford to wield the Atonement for even thirty seconds straight.

Anna followed Lu Li's advice. She placed the Spirit Gun into the holster, then used her essence to herd the circling soul fragments together before flinging the holstered pistol at them.

Whether it was one soul fragment or a dozen made no difference. The moment the pistol touched them, they dissolved into the air as if they had never existed.

As they vanished, an intangible essence they left behind flowed back to Lu Li through the mark of the Atonement.

Lu Li and Anna both felt it at the same time—a surge of... vitality filling their bodies.

This, perhaps, was the power of the third rose: the Atonement.

Anna felt the effect more keenly than Lu Li. As a spirit, she could clearly sense that he now felt like a sprawling, growing tree, brimming with life.

Before, Lu Li had been no different from any other human.

"This has to be a good thing, like..." Anna trailed off.

A longer life was meaningless right now.

After stowing the Spirit Gun, Anna released her power, letting the lifeless husks drop to the deck.

Lu Li turned and looked toward the upper deck, where the Bloody Tentacles descended.

There, moving with clumsy steps, several more husks containing soul fragments were shuffling toward them.

Lu Li headed for the upper deck, while Anna, after a brief effort, destroyed the remaining soul fragments within the husks—she could have just as easily crushed them with her essence.

Every soul fragment dispersed by the Spirit Gun granted Lu Li a sliver of vitality. It wasn't much, but the ship still held plenty of husks...

Reaching the upper deck, Lu Li walked toward the captain's cabin, the source of the Bloody Tentacles.

The thick, almost tangible Bloody Tentacles sank into the mahogany floor. The host was not here.

"Is it below?" Anna asked.

After getting a nod from Lu Li, she asked him to step back toward the edge of the cabin. She raised a finger and lightly traced a line across the floorboards.

A thread-thin line appeared on the surface of the floor, closing into a rough oval. Anna raised her palm slightly, and a section of the thick flooring, several square meters in size, shot into the air, shattering a window before crashing onto the deck outside.

Anna picked up an oil lamp from the table, lit it, and aimed its light into the dark space below.

The Bloody Tentacles continued down into the lower deck. The host wasn't here, either.

From the lower compartments came the thudding of many feet. Sensing a threat, the anomaly was sending more and more husks after Lu Li.

"Let's go to the hold. The host should be there," Lu Li said, leaving the captain's cabin and rejoining Anna on the deck.

The position of the Bloody Tentacles descending upon the ship hadn't changed. A theory began to form in Lu Li's mind.

Perhaps the host of the tentacles was the cause of all this...

Taking the oil lamp, Lu Li descended into the hold and saw what Anna had described: "walls covered in living flesh."

Blood vessels, like twisting vines, covered the walls and ceiling of the hold. They tried to attack Lu Li but couldn't breach his protective barrier. The endless stream of husks only slightly slowed his advance.

The anomaly that had seized this ship was so weak that Anna was getting bored—or perhaps she was just too strong.

Lu Li remained silent. With every step he took, several long-cold bodies fell.

On this small passenger vessel, built for five hundred people, only one living person remained—Lu Li. Everyone else had perished, claimed by the anomaly.

And the remnants of the souls in their husks were becoming nourishment for Lu Li.

As Lu Li approached the door leading to the main cabin, the last of the husks in sight collapsed. By now, Lu Li's aura felt to Anna like that of a great, vibrant tree. His life force was so potent that even she, a Vengeful Spirit, felt a strange sense of rejection from it.

Was Lu Li's body becoming resistant to anomalies?

The thought delighted Anna, and she was about to share it with Lu Li. But in that same instant, she sensed a faint aura emanating from the dark depths of the main cabin.

Lu Li stopped as well.

At the edge of the lamplight, a blurry human figure was visible, encased in a massive glob of flesh, like a person who had been flayed alive. Vile blood vessels, like roots, extended from the flesh, forming the very same gory mass that covered the walls.

Lu Li saw the Bloody Tentacles descending toward its head.

"We... can talk..." a muffled, indistinct voice echoed from the main cabin.

Lu Li took the holster from Anna.

Sensing the coldness in Lu Li's gaze, the blood-soaked figure—a monster that had retained its mind—tried to threaten him. "I know many secrets, and I know what you did. If you kill me, you'll never—"

Bang!

A deafening roar echoed through the main cabin.

The bloody figure's head exploded, and the dark aura dissipated.

The descending Bloody Tentacles gradually dissolved into the air, vanishing from sight.

Anna looked at Lu Li in surprise.

"I had no intention of talking to it," Lu Li stated calmly, lowering his arm.