The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 784: Diversion

"Maybe it's not such a coincidence..." Katerina's confidence was beginning to waver.

The route was protected and controlled, and the likelihood of an anomaly intrusion, especially a powerful one, was extremely low.

"I can feel it getting closer," Lu Li said calmly.

They had made a mistake.

The mark the Mother of the Model had left on Lu Li was still there. He hadn't gotten rid of it back in Midnight.

Fragmented descriptions of the lead anomaly drifted from outside, confirming their suspicion.

The Mother of the Model was hunting them.

"You and Prusius stay here," Lu Li said, opening the carriage door.

A light breeze swept into the carriage, ruffling their hair and stirring a sense of unease in Katerina and the others.

"Where are you going?" Katerina called out, frowning."It came for me," Lu Li replied as he climbed out of the carriage.

Restlessness spread through the caravan. Heads poked out from wagons, all looking back down the trail.

Lu Li walked along the long line of wagons toward the front, where a vague clamor could be heard.

"It ignored our bait."

"Use the live bait."

"It's useless! The slave is nearly bled dry, and it still won't back off."

"Check the cargo and passengers! See what damn ghost attracted it!"

Outside one of the wagons, Lu Li approached a knight standing guard.

"I have information about the lead anomaly."

"Wait here," the stunned knight said, recovering himself. He jumped onto the wagon and disappeared inside.

"Let him in!"

A rough shout, audible even from outside, summoned Lu Li. "The boss wants to see you."

Lu Li stepped onto the wagon.

The leader of the Prisi caravan, Bastos, sat in a large chair, his left arm, as thick as a man's waist, resting on the armrest. He stared grimly at Lu Li, who was completely concealed in a black cloak.

"Are you a heretic? You have information on that leader?"

"It came for me."

Bastos's servant, holding an oil lamp, approached Lu Li. The light drove back the shadows under his hood, revealing the lower half of his face.

"It came for you?" Bastos whispered.

Lu Li's frankness infuriated him, but he couldn't let his anger show.

"Listen, I don't care who you are. You solve the problems you've caused, or I'll throw you out myself!"

The servant, who resembled a scrawny monkey, rubbed his claws together, and eerie shadows danced along the carriage walls.

"Master, perhaps he's hiding a treasure he stole from the lead anomaly," the servant suggested, grinning as he took a deep whiff of the wonderful aroma emanating from Lu Li.

"A treasure..." Bastos narrowed his eyes, studying Lu Li.

"It's chasing me because I killed its child," Lu Li said before the situation could escalate.

Bastos seemed to have lost all patience. He waved his ordinary left hand. "Get out of my caravan and take your trouble with you."

He had changed his mind. Lu Li's composure and attire made him wary, and who knew if the monster he'd angered would attack the caravan.

"Prepare a horse and a map for me."

Lu Li's words made the air in the carriage freeze. Bastos stared at him in silent fury.

"It's faster than the caravan," Lu Li answered simply.

"...Do as he says. Get him a fast horse," Bastos said after a few seconds, turning to his servant without taking his eyes off Lu Li.

Clutching a parchment map in his powerful hand, Bastos walked over to Lu Li and slapped it against his chest.

"Kid, if you make it out alive, you can look me up. The name's Bastos."

Lu Li didn't reply. He tucked the map away, left the carriage, mounted the prepared horse, and pulled on the reins, leaving the caravan behind.

Bastos watched him go for a few moments, then turned his head and barked at a subordinate standing nearby.

"What are you gawking at? Get back there and check if the anomaly is still following us!"

The fungus horse trotted slowly across the brown wasteland.

The fungus that infected the horses was more of a symbiont than a parasite. While the mold slowed the horse's nerves and muscles, hindering its speed, it also granted the creature incredible endurance and resilience—not to mention intelligence.

Infected fungus horses were smarter than ordinary ones and could even understand a few words.

This type of fungus could also parasitize humans. People usually avoided letting it come into contact with open wounds, but even touching it wasn't a major issue—one simply had to scrape off the skin where the fungus was growing.

The saddle separated Lu Li from the rotting, disgusting fur of the fungus horse.

The direction Lu Li was leading the anomaly was not random. Twenty-five kilometers away was a village similar to a sanctuary, with its main part located in the Old Sewer.

That was, assuming Lu Li could get there before the Mother of the Model caught up to him.

Behind him, the caravan had dwindled to a barely discernible smudge on the horizon.

"Save me..."

A faint cry suddenly came from behind a rock, almost drowned out by the thud of hooves and the whistle of the wind.

Lu Li glanced toward the sound. A man in rags was leaning against the rock, a trail of blood stretching out behind him.

An anomaly wandering the wasteland would not leave a human being alone. A man who looked like a slave shouldn't be lying in the wilderness with such severe injuries.

Lu Li remembered the "live bait" the Prisi caravan had mentioned.

Pulling on the reins, Lu Li dismounted the fungus horse and walked over to the slave.

The slave had lost too much blood. His face was so pale that not even the dirt could hide it. He was pressing a hand feebly against a bleeding wound on his forearm.

Lu Li lifted his cloak, tore off a strip of fabric, and wrapped it around the slave's wound like a bandage. The man twitched in pain, jolted back to consciousness.

"Can you walk?" Lu Li asked.

"I've lost too much blood..." the slave pleaded softly.

"Get me out of here. I don't want to die here... I'm not an inhuman, I'm a human..."

"The monster is chasing me. I can't take you."

Lu Li stood up and looked back.

In the distance, dust was rising—too fine to be a dust storm.

The Mother of the Model was approaching.

"I'm going to die... I don't want to... I don't want to..." the slave mumbled incoherently.

His heart, numb from blood loss, had awakened with a desperate hope.

Lu Li froze for a few seconds, then lifted the slave, pushed him onto the fungus horse, and stuffed the parchment map, which he had already memorized, into the man's pocket.

"Take him wherever you think is safe," Lu Li told the fungus horse.

As if it understood, the fungus horse flicked its tail and galloped away.

Lu Li glanced again at the swirling dust in the distance and broke into a run, heading deeper into the wasteland.

"You're a fool!"

Elder Sister appeared on Lu Li's shoulder.

"I'm faster than the fungus horse," Lu Li said, understanding what she meant. He answered curtly, "Do you have a way to deal with the Mother of the Model?"

Lu Li couldn't run fifty kilometers without stopping; the original plan was no longer viable.

"I won't help you!" Elder Sister leaped from his shoulder and disappeared into his hood.

"If I get killed, your journey ends too," Lu Li said.

"...I can't beat her!" Elder Sister paused for a moment.

"Use other methods, like shaking her off or creating a diversion."

"No!"

"What about removing the mark?"

"...It will take time!" Elder Sister finally relented, crying out hesitantly. "And it can see you, so removing the mark will be noticed!"

"Then find a place where its sight can be blocked."

Lu Li remembered a forest about thirty kilometers from here.

On the parchment map, the place was marked as an area requiring caution: [Breeding Ground].