The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 926: God-Devouring Journey

White snow blanketed the bare black rocks, a sacred expanse towering over the gloomy land.

The shadows cast by the Eye-Worm enveloped the Gauss Basin, and the anomalies swarming at the mountain's base scrambled up the trails like ants on a hill.

Lu Li, one of those ants, averted his gaze from the mountains.

The Worm could not approach the snowy mountain, so from here, he had to walk on his own. Yet he wasn't entirely alone—

At the humble base of the World's Spine Mountains, the anomalies had established a marketplace.

It was so primitive that it consisted only of rickety stone huts and long-extinguished campfires. But this was little more than a stage set, a symbolic gesture declaring, "This is a settlement."

Countless anomalies on pilgrimage converged here on their journey.

Lu Li approached the settlement, but no anomaly paid him any attention, not a single one noticed him. A far more enticing prize lay before them, waiting high on the snowy mountain.

They traded in only one thing: the blood of the Deep God.

The divine blood took many forms: soil saturated with it, stones streaked with crimson veins, a pale red liquid diluted with meltwater.Their actions seemed to have nothing to do with worship or pilgrimage, but perhaps this was simply the way of things, a custom born from the anomalies' wild and primitive minds.

After a brief stop, Lu Li left the settlement and resumed his ascent. The mountain path ahead stretched on, seemingly endless.

Whether he looked up or glanced back, Lu Li could see stark silhouettes against the snow. There were too many to count, but most would never cross his path.

As a human, Lu Li clearly had no physical advantage. But as mentioned before, a far more enticing prize lay ahead. The anomalies had no time to waste on malice or even curiosity toward a human who possessed the aura of one of their own.

Lu Li climbed steadily, observing the stories unfolding along the way.

An anomaly with four jointed limbs, ignoring the steep incline and the snow, scrambled confidently up the slope. It overtook Lu Li from behind and scuttled swiftly away.

Some anomalies discovered a fresh trace of divine blood, and others nearby swarmed to the spot, fighting over every last drop.

Countless smaller, more scattered and chaotic markets dotted the entire mountain range.

Predators more interested in the pilgrim anomalies than in the divine blood.

The temperature dropped steadily, from the cool air of the Gauss foothills to the biting cold near the midway point of the slope. As night fell, Lu Li abandoned his conspicuous oil lamp, relying only on a faint fluorescent glow to keep the consuming darkness at bay.

The sky, clouded over for decades, was grim and starless. Fortunately, the snow on the mountain itself radiated a faint yellow light.

No anomalous fog shrouded this place. This was the domain of the Deep God, his power still lingering in the World's Spine Mountains.

If it weren't for the anomalies and these encounters, the climb itself might have been a soul-cleansing journey.

Lu Li didn't rest. He watched the dormant brand of an inverted pentagram on the back of his hand. It could activate at any moment, and he had to reach the summit as quickly as possible—assuming the Deep God was still there.

Then, Lu Li contacted Vinnelag and Midnight.

Vinnelag was out of reach again. This time, it wasn't an anomaly incursion, but Mayor Matteus being imprisoned once more by the Inquisition.

The nobleman who had secretly contacted Lu Li informed him that the Inquisition had seized control of the city. They had taken credit for Lu Li's accomplishments and slandered him, claiming he was the one who had summoned the Deep God.

Prusius and the others, naturally, had not been released.

“What is the Inquisition planning?”

The nobleman replied that he didn't know either. Vinnelag was on lockdown; citizens were forbidden to enter or leave. The only places still functioning were the factories and the port, which continued to handle cargo.

Beyond that, the Inquisition had done nothing since seizing power—no suspicious sermons or missionary work, for instance.

Lu Li informed Midnight of the situation in Vinnelag. Midnight replied that they had dispatched students from the Academy of Giant Trees, led by a professor, to the snowy mountain for a trial. They hoped Lu Li might encounter them and share some intelligence.

Already far from the base of the mountain, Lu Li couldn't turn back, so he simply wrote down his observations and asked the Merchant to retrieve them.

Lu Li didn't sleep through the night. Instead, he rested in short, fragmented bursts. Though it was difficult to truly fall asleep and shake off his exhaustion, it was better than vanishing into the long, cold darkness.

The Book of the Apocalypse also gave him enough strength to maintain his current condition for a while.

An hour before dawn, the light reflecting off the snow began to soften the darkness.

Lu Li crawled out from his tightly wrapped blanket, had the Merchant retrieve it and the warmer, and resumed his climb.

The higher he climbed, the fewer anomaly silhouettes he saw, but they were more concentrated... and far more sinister.

On the parts of the slope not yet plundered by the anomalies from below, divine blood was more common. They would gather at or occupy these sites, devouring and absorbing the spilled essence.

This no longer resembled a pilgrimage. Instead, they frantically grabbed handfuls of blood-soaked snow or rock, shoving them into their mouths, or pressed themselves against the cliffs, licking the stone.

Their condition made Lu Li realize something was amiss. As he drew closer, the anomalies snarled, warning him away.

“Get lost... bastard!”

Lu Li had no interest in the blood of the Deep God, and fortunately, the anomalies had no interest in him. After spending some time skirting the blood-spilled sites they occupied, the only remaining obstacle was the snowy mountain itself.

On the second day, as night fell, Lu Li had already reached the upper part of the snowy mountain's slope.

He contacted Vinnelag and Midnight again. Vinnelag was still unreachable, as was the nobleman he'd spoken with the day before. It was impossible to know if the man now regretted their contact or if something else had happened. Midnight, however, reported that many of the anomalies from the settlements at the base of the mountain had vanished.

The divine blood at the mountain's base had been completely scavenged, forcing the anomalies to push higher in search of more.

With anomalies now clustered around the pools of blood, Lu Li increased the duration of his brief, fragmented rests. After two days of climbing, his body was sending insistent signals for him to stop.

After an uneventful night, Lu Li skirted the anomalies and continued his ascent.

Changes also occurred as he approached the misty haze near the mountain's peak.

He could hear the faint sound of a river up ahead, which he assumed was formed from the mountain's meltwater.

Lu Li quickly got his answer: it was the blood of the Deep God.

Like lava, like a river of blood flowing down the snowy mountain, the divine essence churned and surged downstream.

Lu Li saw anomalies immersed in the river of divine blood and devouring it on the bank. Tainted by the divine blood, they radiated a vile aura, one filled with loathing for the world.

Perhaps the divine blood meant not only power, but also a price.

This was not the only river of divine blood; what Lu Li had seen was but a mere tributary. The higher he climbed, the more of them he found, growing ever more turbulent as they poured horrifically down toward the base of the World's Spine Mountains.

Rather than blood that might eventually run dry, Lu Li suspected this was the very power of the Deep God—

His suspicion was confirmed a few hours later. The river's upper course narrowed to a stream, and higher still, to a channel.

And the aura of the anomalies that occupied this place grew increasingly misanthropic and vile.

The alpha anomalies ignored Lu Li as he walked by, but when he overtook them and continued his ascent, the sinister creatures—as if despised by the world itself—all turned to look at him at once.

A hunched, emaciated, ghoul-like alpha with dry, fluorescent skin crawled toward Lu Li, only to slam into an invisible, blocking force.

“Go back... go back...!”

It snarled hoarsely at Lu Li.

Lu Li glanced at it and the other alpha anomalies, then looked away and set foot on the final stretch of his journey.

The Deep God knew he was coming and was waiting for him.