The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 855: Lu Li is Busy

As they approached the three-meter log wall, the howling wind whistling through its cracks, they also heard the sound of crashing waves.

"Is there an ocean near Himpfast?" Prusius asked, looking around in surprise.

The answer was no.

"It's the contamination."

Katerina lowered her head, her gaze falling on her Sanity Counter, which had begun to chime.

On the open sea or in other terrestrial areas, the counter would go off every six to seven minutes, but as they approached Himpfast, the interval had shortened to just three.

Twenty years had passed, but the contamination from the blood sacrifice had still not dissipated.

The faint ticking from the counter intensified sharply the moment they passed through a collapsed section of the wall and entered the city.

Katerina didn't know the concentration of the contamination, but she knew it had become far more severe.

"No, we have to leave the city," Katerina said, frowning as she retreated.This city, encircled by its wooden wall, was like a self-contained contamination zone.

They left the breach, walked some distance along the wall, and entered the city through another gap. But it was no use; the ticking dogged their steps. The contamination was everywhere.

"I'll try!"

Prusius volunteered. As an anomaly, he possessed a natural resistance to contamination.

To prevent any mishaps, Lu Li tied a rope to Prusius's hind leg and put the Sanity Counter on him.

Prusius scrambled around a leaning log and slipped into the city. The counter, hanging like a collar around his neck, began to chime again, and as he ventured deeper, the sound grew more frequent, like a flickering flame.

Lu Li watched Prusius's condition and suddenly yanked on the rope, pulling him back.

"What's happening?!" Prusius's body was already deforming.

Dragged back behind the wooden wall without a struggle, Katerina saw that one of Prusius's limbs had deformed, swelling to nearly the size of his tail. Patches of fur seemed to have fallen out, and what remained was matted with grime, exuding a strong, fishy stench like deep-sea silt.

The unconscious Prusius slowly came to and recounted in terror how he had lost his senses and, following a whisper, had wandered deeper into the city.

Anomalies aren't afraid of contamination itself, but the aura contained within it can corrupt them. If Prusius had gotten lost in Himpfast and then regained his senses, his warped mind would have already become a faithful servant to the master of that aura.

This is how most powerful beings gain their minions and servants.

"So there's no way for us to enter this city..." Katerina said.

It was hard to say whether that was good news or bad.

"I can... resist... the intrusion," Ophelia said.

She couldn't truly resist it either; being a more powerful anomaly would simply help her last longer inside the contaminated Himpfast.

Lu Li did not agree to Ophelia's request.

Ophelia was not the best candidate.

She was weaker than Anna, had difficulty communicating freely, and, more importantly, considered herself Anna's rival.

That was reason enough for the Anna who had fallen into the abyss to kill her.

Elder Sister was also unsuitable; she had shrunk into her hood and trembled as they approached Himpfast. The only one who could enter safely was the Merchant, but he did nothing but trade.

Regardless, Lu Li had to find a way into this lost city-state.

"Let's return to Belfast. The contamination that caused Prusius's deformation might share the same source as the being worshipped by the tentacle cultist," Lu Li said.

Hopefully, it knows something.

The fruitless return disappointed everyone. They had felt so optimistic since arriving in Belfast, but the subsequent Hour of Silence brought a quiet that only prolonged the gloomy atmosphere.

...

"Mr. Lu Li, would you like mushrooms in your portion?"

Prusius, immune to the Hour of Silence, became a busy man. After Lu Li shook his head, he dumped all the dried mushrooms into Katerina's dinner.

They had already returned to the waters outside the port of Belfast, waiting for dawn to head to the Church of Twisted Vines.

The Hour of Silence had fallen in the evening, and they hoped it wouldn't last until morning.

Slop!

A pot of canned mushroom soup was poured into a bowl, sending up clouds of steam. Prusius, holding the empty pot, sat back down by the stove to prepare Lu Li's portion.

Once it had cooled enough, Katerina untied the cloth from her mouth and began to eat calmly.

After dinner, night fell, quieter than usual.

...

A few minutes before dawn, a ghostly horn blast echoed from the depths of the spiraling passages, waking the sleepers.

The Hour of Silence had receded.

When the anomalous fog dissipated, they disembarked on the coast of Belfast and once again passed through the secret passage of the Andreis Brothers' Repair Station to the True Library.

"You've returned sooner than expected..."

When the Distorted Figure learned they were stuck outside Himpfast and needed help, she summoned the tentacle cultist for them.

But the tentacle cultist who arrived at the church showed nothing but hatred for Prusius.

The being that had left the contamination had no connection to his faith; in fact, it was an enemy.

According to the tentacle cultist, the being that had sacrificed Himpfast was a loathsome monster that had stolen the divine station of their deity and was now parasitizing its body. To confuse the two was to defile his god.

If the tentacle cultist had been a radical, he might have already executed Prusius.

After the enraged tentacle cultist left, the Distorted Figure explained the differences to Lu Li.

The tentacle cultist worshipped sleeping ancient gods who were native to this world. The blood sacrifice in Himpfast was committed by a being from outside this world, one that had once ruled the land.

The Ancient Gods were as hostile to the Old Gods as humans were to anomalies.

The Distorted Figure couldn't help Lu Li figure out how to set foot on this contaminated land of the Old Gods.

"Maybe we should ask the Prophet again—"

Leaving the church, a bewildered Katerina muttered under her breath.

Passing through the True Library, they emerged at the Church of the Vine on the other side.

But they were unable to meet with the Eternal Dreamer. His followers said He had already fallen asleep. His next awakening would be in half a month.

For the Eternal Dreamer, whose dreams lasted longer each time, reducing the frequency of his slumbers was a good solution. But Lu Li and the others couldn't stay here and wait for him to wake.

"Did the Prophet leave a message?" Prusius asked, after receiving a negative response from the followers.

"I think the Prophet knew we were coming, but he didn't say anything... Maybe he 'saw' that we'd find a way?"

"The abyss of the previous generation?" Katerina said, almost unconsciously.

Then, the Church of Twisted Vines escorted them back to the coast, where they boarded the Andrea. The busy heretics at the port noticed them but did not approach.

Back at the ruins, they once again asked the Merchant to retrieve the two statues so they could speak with them when night fell.

This time, Lu Li asked the precursors about the details of Sugra-Dno, and interestingly, they unexpectedly received information from them about the deep-sea Old Gods.

The sealing of the deep-sea Old Gods was related to them. Or rather, they had lived through it.

A long time had made the Guardian forget many things; he only remembered that a fragment of the divine artifact the Ancient God used to seal the Old Gods had been placed by the precursors in an abyss called Sugra-Dno.

The fragment could help them enter Himpfast.

Ruins, abyss, cultists, tree, a brown carriage.

Everything was just as the Eternal Dreamer had prophesied.