The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 504: An Urgent Return

Lu Li slowly regained consciousness.

As his awareness returned, the ceaseless roar of the surf filled his ears once more, and the damp, salty scent of the sea hung heavy in the air.

He hadn't woken up in the psychiatric hospital.

Realizing this, Lu Li opened his eyes and sat up on the bed in a wooden cabin.

On the dining table, a candle had burned down to a stub the size of a little finger. Through the grimy window, a long shoreline and a lead-gray sea were visible.

He had been transported to the Coastal Town.

Lu Li had fallen asleep in the coastal cabin projected within the subterranean ocean, so waking up in the real cabin seemed perfectly logical.

The black hole in the real floor had also vanished without a trace.

"A problem,"

Lu Li whispered.He had no time to ponder the mysteries of this place. He stood, walked to the door, and pushed it open. Just as he was about to leave, Lu Li turned back, blew out the smoldering candle on the table, and took it with him.

A chain of footprints marked the soft sand. Lu Li returned to the coastal street and asked the townsfolk where he could find the carriage workshop.

The townspeople gave Lu Li some bad news: due to a decline in tourists, the carriage workshop had moved out of town two weeks ago.

To hire a carriage, Lu Li had to go to the police station, reveal his identity, and instruct them to find him one as quickly as possible.

Thanks to Lu Li's special status, the police station, assuming some strange event was unfolding, quickly dispatched officers to find an available carriage.

Fortunately, his sleep in the subterranean ocean didn't seem to have consumed any precious time; rather, it had served as a means of returning him to reality.

Though the candle had burned down almost completely.

However, time had still slipped away due to the delay. He and Anna had entered the passage separately early this morning, and now it was already noon.

Anna was still waiting for him at the psychiatric hospital.

Lu Li thought.

While waiting, Lu Li saw the real Richard Feldman—the demon who had impersonated him had, surprisingly, left him alive.

He had already learned from his colleagues that Lu Li was connected to the recent events involving the demon and the coastal cabin. Richard Feldman approached him and began to speak about the matter.

Representatives from the United Exorcist Organization had arrived the day after Lu Li's departure, but by then, the problem had been resolved by the demon's disappearance. Richard Feldman only knew about a malevolent demon that had impersonated him. Fortunately, nothing terrible had happened, aside from the unfortunate Mrs. Marylin.

Richard Feldman, much like the persona the demon had adopted, showed a keen interest in the case, but he wasn't as impulsive or talkative as the imposter.

Soon, the police station found a carriage and a driver for Lu Li.

The carriage was privately owned by the driver, who would have to make the return trip after dropping Lu Li off at his destination.

After bidding farewell to the police officers, Lu Li climbed into the carriage and slowly pulled away, disappearing at the end of the street under their watchful eyes.

Only a few days had passed since he last traveled this way, and the scenery along the road had not yet faded from his memory.

The driver, feeling a sense of awe toward Lu Li, didn't dare to speak first. Finding a moment of peace in the gently rattling carriage, Lu Li dozed off.

An hour later, a violent jolt of the carriage woke Lu Li. He looked up to see the driver peering anxiously inside.

"S-Sorry, sir, the road is blocked by a rock that rolled down from the mountain."

"It's fine," Lu Li replied. "Where are we?"

"We just turned off at the fork into the central part of the Fallen Leaves Mountains. The town of Fallen Leaves is about ten kilometers ahead." Sensing that Lu Li wasn't as cold as he seemed, the driver grew more talkative and asked curiously, "Are you heading to the Allen Peninsula to save someone, sir?"

"Save someone?"

Before Lu Li could ask more, a carriage came speeding toward them down the road.

The driver hastily pulled the reins and veered to the side of the road to avoid a collision with the rushing carriage. As it passed, Lu Li saw the terrified faces of a mother and daughter through the window.

They looked as if they were fleeing for their lives...

The kicked-up dust slowly settled, revealing the silhouettes of other carriages on the road ahead, but none were moving with the same urgency as the one that had just passed.

Port Roadster must have recovered by now. Why were these carriages, coming from the direction of the Swamp Road, leaving the Allen Peninsula in such a hurry...?

"Did something happen on the Allen Peninsula?" Lu Li asked the driver, a realization dawning on him.

"You don't know? Three terrifying monsters appeared in Belfast Bay..."

Lu Li's brow gradually furrowed.

The event was broadcast on the radio, so there was no reason to doubt its authenticity. At the same time, it revealed the stance of the Council of Elders and the United Exorcist Organization: they were no longer trying to hide the appearance of anomalies.

The driver told Lu Li that the news had come over the radio early that morning, right around the time Lu Li had arrived at the psychiatric hospital. It reported that three enormous, fog-spewing anomalies had appeared in Belfast Bay before their silhouettes vanished soon after.

Since the nature of the anomalies was unknown, the radio warned people to stay as far away from Belfast and the Allen Peninsula as possible.

Unfortunately, there were few details.

They drove on in silence for a few more minutes before a stopped carriage appeared on the roadside ahead. A middle-aged man was changing a wooden wheel under the watchful eyes of his family.

"Pull up alongside them,"

Lu Li told the driver.

After waiting for another carriage to pass, the driver pulled up next to them. Lu Li stepped out of his carriage, much to the family's confusion, and revealed his identity.

"Are you from Belfast?"

After receiving an affirmative answer, Lu Li asked them what exactly had happened in Belfast.

The man's face contorted with fear. He glanced at his wife, who was covering their son's ears, and stammered, "Three... I don't know what they were, but they were alive! They could spew fog! The exorcists said it's an anomalous fog, and that yesterday's fog was created by them!"

What was their purpose in approaching Belfast, and what did it mean?

The answer was unknown, but one thing had become clear: the anomalous fog had once again enveloped Belfast.

"Let's keep going."

Lu Li returned to the carriage and continued on, heading against the stream of fleeing vehicles.

An hour later, the carriage reached the Swamp Road.

Lu Li pulled back the curtain and looked out at the southern swamp. Among the vague outlines of the trees, he saw the silhouettes of people.

The Mother of the Swamp had noticed Lu Li, or rather, she was constantly watching the people passing along the Swamp Road.

Perhaps the Mother of the Swamp knew something, but unfortunately, Lu Li had no time to venture into the swamp to ask her beneath the giant ficus tree.

They pressed on, and half an hour later, the carriage left the Swamp Road behind, heading toward the distant Sugard Mountain.

On the road, the stream of refugees merged, forming an even more impressive, endless line of carriages than the one they had seen on their way to Belfast.

In the afternoon, about an hour before dusk, a plume of black smoke finally appeared on the road ahead.

The carriage stopped at the psychiatric hospital. Lu Li stepped out and walked toward the shed.

A ghostly figure in a white dress sat alone, hugging her knees, before the charred ruins from which thick smoke was rising. Sensing his approach, she looked over coldly, but then the ice in her gaze melted, and she rushed toward Lu Li.

In the next moment, the weightless Anna fell lightly into Lu Li's arms.