The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 897: The Rare Anomaly Treasure Auction

The auction had a limited number of participants, so only Lu Li, Ofelia, and Bishop John would be attending.

The penalty for breaking the hidden rules had yet to manifest. Lu Li headed straight from the Spiral Hall to the seventh level—a place the Dark Twins could not set foot.

The auction house, carved into the rock face, revealed a passage leading deep within. No anomalies roamed the area.

Dark red lava glowed within Ofelia's cracks, and runic incantations covered Bishop John's body beneath his cassock. Together with Lu Li, they entered a dim, empty cavern hall.

Several dozen stone pillars were scattered throughout the corners of the hall. Some of them emanated a faint light, revealing round tables set beside them and the silhouettes of figures seated there.

The invitation in Lu Li's hand abruptly burst into flames, turning to ash before he could toss it aside. In response, a distant stone pillar began to glow.

Ignoring the strange gazes of the anomalies directed at him, Lu Li made his way to the glowing stone pillar in the center of the hall, the one indicated by his invitation. He took a seat at the round table and settled in for a long wait.

The invitation holders arrived one after another, taking their seats.

Bishop John mentioned to Lu Li that the stone pillars seemed to possess some kind of isolating power, capable of blocking intrusion from the outside as well as escape from within.

More and more stone pillars lit up. Ofelia began to count the ones that remained dark.When only a single unlit stone pillar remained, a new silhouette materialized at the entrance.

Roiling steam billowed from the solitary figure, shrouding it from view. Unseen blood flowed beneath its feet. It followed the invitation's guidance, approaching the final stone pillar.

All the invited guests had now assembled. The cavern hall began to tremble, and a figure materialized in the center.

Lava flowed down from above, streaming across a transparent, crystalline rock formation in the ceiling.

The pulsating, dark-red ceiling illuminated the cavern hall, allowing the guests before the stone pillars to see one another—and the desiccated, ancient tree-man in the center.

"Do not stray from the lava-lit pillar; it protects from within and without."

The desiccated, ancient tree-man opened his mouth, speaking in a slow, indistinct drone. Then, he gradually faded from view.

"Let the bidding for the first lot begin."

As the echo of his final words faded, three silhouettes by the stone pillars dimmed, only to reappear in the center of the hall.

They resembled skeletons, and from their bellies, they produced a wine bottle in the shape of a human, crafted back in the Ancient Era.

When one of the skeletons stirred, its identity was revealed:

"An Evil Spirit... the Shadow of the Evil Friend... its true body."

The dark-red fissures in Ofelia's form flared for a moment.

It was unclear whether she was stunned by the gravity of the auction or by the fact that one of her own kind was being sold off like a common commodity.

Few guests showed interest in the true body of the Shadow of the Evil Friend. The first bidder offered a price in Anomaly Currency, but ultimately, the evil spirit's true form was purchased by the third bidder for a dragon-butterfly hatchling.

Behind the elegant name lurked a grotesque, decaying anomaly. Its description was recorded in the "Anomaly Bestiary," but since losing his humanity, Lu Li no longer dared to open the tome.

The three skeletal anomalies returned to their stone pillars. On the round table before them lay a pile of silt-like dragon-butterfly hatchlings, while the wine bottle containing the evil spirit's true form now rested on the buyer's table.

The second lot was a simple Rubik's Cube. The seller offered no explanation of its purpose, yet it ultimately sold for the price of an entire block of the Central Station of Midnight.

Lu Li watched in silence, awaiting the lot the Deep God had yet to tell him about.

After several more rounds of bidding, the twelfth guest came forward, presenting their lot:

"An intact body."

Ofelia's voice pulled Lu Li from his thoughts, drawing his gaze to the center of the hall.

His black eyes, reflecting the dark-red lava on the ceiling, fixed on the center of the hall. A gigantic palm held a corpse. The scarf, the coat, the backpack—it all confirmed the identity of the Merchant.

Lu Li understood the significance of the Merchant's identity and the layer of the In-Between that lay behind it. The other guests, however, did not. Neither did the seller—or perhaps they were simply too inept to explain.

Lu Li spent 100 Anomaly Currency to purchase the Merchant from the mumbling seller.

The Merchant's awakening at Lu Li's prompting inevitably drew a host of strange stares.

"Return to the In-Between. Merchant Antoni will tell you what happened," Lu Li told the third Merchant he had found.

The auction continued. The value of the items varied; the Merchant, at 100 Anomaly Currency, was not the cheapest lot, and several items were withdrawn when the bidding failed to meet the reserve price.

The auction was drawing to a close. The final guest to have entered the auction house now appeared in the center of the hall.

Blood streamed forth, and a scarlet mist obscured its silhouette. A whisper carried on the air reached them:

"Three-sevenths of a crystal Anomaly Currency. It's useless to me incomplete."

Clink—

A coin flew out from the steam in a wide arc, clattering as it bounced across the floor.

The guests stared silently at the partial crystal Anomaly Currency, their true anomalous natures showing through: fanaticism and greed.

"A town of anomalies..."

"One town, ruled by a deity!"

"One hundred thousand standard souls."

The value of the crystal Anomaly Currency surpassed all of Lu Li's and his companions' expectations, even with only three-sevenths of it remaining.

In the end, the bidding stopped at "an entire territory within Midnight, located in Hell." The winning bidder was a demonic, two-horned humanoid lizard.

The blood-red silhouette vanished from the center of the hall. After a few minutes of silence allowed the guests to compose themselves, another one of them appeared in the center with the final lot.

She wore an impeccable, wrinkle-free black tailcoat. Mysterious black hair was tied back in a ponytail, and her makeup was exquisite. On a palm clad in a white lace glove rested an enormous, head-sized, faded eyeball.

"The faded eyeball of an ancient god, drained of its life force," the human woman announced quietly, a smile playing on her lips.

A low murmur rippled through the cavern hall.

"She and you... are the same... black-haired."

In the center of the cavern, the strangely serene, black-haired woman continued:

"Allow me to introduce it. This eyeball was once part of an ancient god. In a terrible battle, they were wounded; the outcome remains unknown. This eye was lost for many long years before we finally came into possession of it. With it, you will gain control over all low-level water magic... at no cost whatsoever."

As the black-haired woman spoke in a seductive whisper, a stream of water condensed before her, weaving around her body like a playful sprite.

"A branch line, bordering the Central Station of Midnight."

The guests began to call out their bids.

"Lu Li..." Ofelia whispered.

This was the purpose of their journey.

"A living core worm from the Plague of the Dead interstice..." a sinister, repugnant monster offered.

In the lull that followed, Lu Li spoke:

"One crystal Anomaly Currency."

The cavern plunged into a dead silence at his calm words, a chaotic undercurrent of desire and greed brewing beneath the quiet.

The black-haired woman looked at Lu Li, then suddenly tilted her head back. She wrinkled her nose above her scarlet lips, quietly inhaling.

Lu Li's brow furrowed slightly. He raised his right hand to cover the burning brand of an inverted pentagram on the back of his left.

The black-haired woman watched Lu Li's movement as if she had discovered something fascinating. Her narrow, almost-black eyes slowly narrowed further.

"First, show me that you truly possess a crystal Anomaly Currency."