The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 717: A Terrifying Collision

Heat from the sea of lava permeated the entire underworld.

This was especially noticeable on the massive stone pillar supporting this world. On the side facing the lava sea, the stone was more brittle and riddled with cracks. A gentle press of a palm was enough to send dry stone fragments showering down onto the city dozens of meters below.

A hot, sulfur-scented wind whipped through Lu Li's hair as he surveyed the underworld from his vantage point.

The lost city of giants where he stood was situated in the very heart of this world. On one side, a sea of lava stretched out, the air above it so warped by the heat that it was impossible to tell if there was an opposing shore. On the other, the land, illuminated by rivers of lava, disappeared into a gray haze.

Even at its narrowest points, this world was several kilometers wide.

The underworld resembled a vast river.

Lu Li peered into its depths.

Had he not noticed the city, he likely would have headed upstream upon exiting the opening.

Averting his gaze, Lu Li resumed his ascent up the spiral staircase.

The pillar stood about 600 meters tall. The steps, like those in the city below, were oversized—roughly one and a half times larger than those in human-built structures. Thanks to the sheer thickness of the stone, the spiral staircase had endured centuries of erosion.However, at a height of about a hundred meters, the steps began to deteriorate.

The stairs were chipped and pitted all over. On the side facing the lava sea, they resembled charred bread crusts—each footfall crushed the stone into fine dust, leaving a clear imprint.

From two hundred meters up, the currents of hot air rising from the lava sea intensified, feeling like the oppressive wind that seeps into a house on a scorching summer day.

Lu Li's cloak grew damp with sweat, only to be baked dry again by the heat. After a few minutes, it would be completely dry.

Nearing the pillar's midpoint, unsettling changes began to occur.

The steps beneath his feet suddenly began to tremble, and a fine shower of stone grit cascaded down.

Lu Li abruptly quickened his pace, taking a dozen steps in a rush, but the tremors continued.

Fragments of stone rained down from above. The source of the tremors was not the stairs, nor the pillar, but the entire underworld.

After a few dozen seconds, the trembling gradually subsided. A shroud of dust and debris, shaken loose from the walls, enveloped the underworld.

The light of the lava sea cast a pale-yellow hue over the underworld, as if draping it in a thin, luminous veil.

At the edge of this veil, halfway up the pillar, a barely perceptible black dot was moving.

Lu Li lowered the hand shielding his eyes, glanced at the underworld, now looking as if it were caught in a sandstorm, and resumed his climb.

Whatever was causing the tremors, it could not be anything good.

Lu Li stopped conserving his strength and quickened his pace.

However, upon reaching the three-hundred-meter mark, he was forced to slow his pace. The damage to the staircase had grown even more severe; chips and cracks were now the least of his worries.

Large sections of the stairs had crumbled away, leaving gaping holes. A single misstep could send a stair plummeting, and through some of the wider cracks, he could see the ground far below.

But this wasn't even the hardest part. Earlier, looking up from the plaza, Lu Li had noticed that from the pillar's midpoint onward, the stairs grew increasingly ruined, resembling a sheer cliff face. There was even a stretch of nearly ten meters where the steps had vanished completely, leaving only bare stone.

Having reached the four-hundred-meter mark, Lu Li was forced to test each step before putting his weight on it.

However, at a height of 450 meters, disaster struck.

A step he had just tested suddenly gave way, and Lu Li plummeted.

Reacting in a flash, he managed to grab the edge of the stair above with his right hand, his fingers gouging deep into the fragile surface. Luckily, the stone was solid enough to hold his weight as he dangled more than four hundred meters above the city.

He tore his gaze from the drop below, reached up with his left hand, and hauled himself back onto the staircase.

Almost as soon as he had scrambled to safety, a new set of tremors began.

This time, Lu Li felt their origin—from the depths of the underworld, somewhere upstream.

This second wave of tremors was stronger than the first. The entire underworld shuddered like a locomotive on the rails. But the shaking lasted only a few seconds, leaving nothing but billowing clouds of dust in its wake.

Yellowish dust filled the air, reducing visibility to mere dozens of meters. It felt as if the world was ending, cutting Lu Li off from everything else. The light from the lava sea stretched his long shadow, casting it against the curtain of dust.

The air turned acrid. Lu Li lowered his head, waited for the tremors to cease, and then continued his ascent.

Whatever was causing the tremors, he had to reach the top of the pillar before the next wave hit.

A few minutes later, he reached the five-hundred-meter mark.

A little over a hundred meters remained to the top.

And this was the most difficult part of the journey.

Most of the stairs had been reduced to mere stubs, forming a steep, treacherous slope. Although relatively intact sections appeared at intervals, there was no way to know if they would hold his weight or turn into a deadly trap.

Lu Li pressed himself tightly against the pillar and began to slowly inch his way upward.

It had taken him as long to climb the first hundred meters from the base as it now took him to cover a mere ten meters at this five-hundred-meter altitude.

The third wave of tremors came about fifteen minutes later, but it was not as violent as Lu Li had anticipated—weaker, even, than the first. It was as if the danger had passed.

Only a deep rumble, echoing from the depths of the underworld, suggested it was not over yet.

Lu Li unclenched his fingers from the wall and resumed his climb.

Three minutes later, he reached the 570-meter mark. The summit was now tantalizingly close.

But a nearly ten-meter stretch of bare rock, dotted with only a few sparse handholds, remained above his head.

And from the depths of the underworld, an ever-louder rumbling echoed.

Lu Li grabbed onto the stone protrusions and began to scramble upward in a spiral.

Fortunately, the stone was sturdy enough, only crumbling occasionally.

His muscles began to ache, but Lu Li drew ever closer to the top of the stairs—until he rounded the pillar and found himself facing the source of the rumble.

The rumble, distorted by the terrain, had transformed into the roar of approaching water.

A mighty torrent surged from upstream, filling the entire space.

Seeing this, Lu Li understood why the lost city, which had stood here for hundreds of years, was so clean.

The water itself wasn't the danger. It couldn't destroy the city, nor the pillar.

The horror lay in the moment of its collision with the sea of lava.

With a thunderous roar, the water surged forward at dozens of meters per second, rapidly closing in on the edge of the city.

Lu Li scrambled faster, reaching the top of the bare section. He kicked off with his feet and leaped, catching the edge of the ruined staircase.

At that very moment, the step his right hand was gripping snapped off. It fell to the step below, ricocheted, and vanished into the surging flood.

Simultaneously, the leading edge of the flood reached the lava sea, sending up billowing clouds of white steam.

Hauling himself onto the stairs, with only thirty meters to the top, Lu Li leaned forward and broke into a stumbling but desperate run. The steps beneath his feet disintegrated and plunged into the abyss.

Lava and water clashed, throwing up clouds of steam that could boil a man alive in an instant. The steam slammed into the ceiling of the underworld and began to billow outward.

The heat in the underworld became unbearable. The cloud of steam closed in on the pillar.

The dark opening above was now very close.

The light of the Beacon lit his way. Lu Li dashed into the opening, pushed off, and leaped for the edge...

A terrifying blast of hot steam surged into the opening right behind him.