The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 990: Lu Li's Cake

The edges of the dim underworld were shrouded in a mist from the halos of oil lamps, and a tiny elevator, like a speck of dust, crawled along the roots of the World Tree.

After descending into the Swamps, Lu Li followed the gracefully walking Professor Kris, leaving the Safe Zone around the roots and stepping onto a path amidst the wetlands.

This swamp had nothing to do with gloom; the quiet mire, as if mixed with butter, was a brownish-yellow, and sparse, withered forests were scattered all around.

The elegant figure beside him radiated a faint glow, dispelling the surrounding dangers. In addition to being an alchemist, Professor Kris was also an exceptional Lord of mystic powers.

About a kilometer from the Safe Zone, a hut appeared at the edge of the swamp.

Passing by the tree roots left from clearing, Lu Li and Professor Kris approached the humble hut. Noticing their arrival, a figure in the hut threw on a cloak to greet the guests.

Kane was also among them. These Lords were similar in nature. They were surrounded by a paranoid, exhausted, and undeniable aura, as well as a hope born from the depths of their souls.

One of the figures bowed slightly.

"I, Feroz Greym Rod, ask for the exorcist's help."

"To give one's true name is a symbol of absolute trust," Professor Kris said quietly. "My dear, would you like to know my true name?"

"I know the true names of many people, including strangers," Lu Li replied.

"Perhaps they trust you, perhaps they hide or alter a part of their names, or perhaps they are so insignificant that they won't be cursed by an anomaly... If you're talking about the girl from the Lince family, their bloodline hides a key middle name, just as you say your name is simply Lu Li."

But Lu Li's name was indeed just Lu Li.

Feroz Greym Rod's example prompted the other Lords to follow suit, or perhaps they had already agreed to show Lu Li sufficient trust, and they stated their true names one after another.

A force, with Lu Li at its center, was taking shape.

When all seven Lords had given their true names, Kane, who had been waiting nearby, asked respectfully,

"Lu Li... Your Excellency, would you prefer the appetizers or the main course first?"

"Let's start with the other anomalies."

Following Kane and the Lords, he walked around the humble hut and approached a nearby pen.

The anomalies captured by the Lords had been thrown into the enclosure, mixed in with the mud, barely alive, their repulsive auras mingling.

"Your Excellency Lu Li, will using this affect how much humanity you absorb?" The elderly Silver Cross Elephant, whom Lu Li recognized from a book, asked like an old servant as he raised a crossbow that had ghastly vertical pupils growing on it. When Lu Li nodded, he presented it to him.

This silver crossbow was also well-known.

"It shoots wherever you look."

Lu Li took the crossbow, his gaze fell upon the nearest anomaly in the pen, and he pulled the trigger.

A silver beam shot out, and the dying anomaly was swiftly dispatched. A small amount of humanity surged into Lu Li's body.

A new bolt materialized on its own, waiting for Lu Li to pull the trigger a second time.

It was a massacre. Not born of cruelty, but of vengeance.

Fourteen anomalies. Besides the prey the Lords had brought from outside, there were several more captured in the Swamps, which was why Lu Li had encountered nothing on his way here.

Although these were merely "appetizers," it still yielded Lu Li nearly two portions of humanity—a harvest not enhanced by the Book of the Apocalypse.

Before proceeding to the main course, Lu Li distributed the two portions of humanity and one of his own among the Lords, keeping only a single enhanced portion for himself.

The lack of humanity had made the Lords resemble seven dangerous, hideous anomaly leaders, radiating an aura of terrifying hatred every second.

Although Lu Li's replenishment couldn't fully restore the Lords, whose humanity was below half, the cursed aura that enveloped them, so hated by the world, vanished.

Professor Kris and the Lords had made this place one of the safest in the world. Amidst this safety, Lu Li saw the gift the Lords had prepared—several hundred meters from the hut stood cocoons, each one slightly shorter than the hut itself.

The cocoons were still alive, slowly pulsating and contracting as if they could hatch at any moment.

"It is my power that binds It," whispered Mildred Humphrey, the former professor of combat arts at the Academy of Giant Trees.

"Web Messenger."

A Cursed Title capable of controlling the behavior of others; after she became a Lord, its mystic power materialized.

The evil god they had captured was inside the cocoon.

Oro Sheloto Ki Papa approached the cocoon and cast a seemingly useless verbal curse—it wasn't the power of a Cursed Title, but an ability from the divination system where spoken words become reality.

Having weakened the bound evil god's power and defenses, it was Lu Li's turn to reap.

The silver bolt from the crossbow, like a stream of light, pierced the cocoon, and a soul-shaking wave erupted from the hole, like a piercing scream. But before the restored Lords, this evil god was powerless.

The ninth silver bolt pierced the cocoon, and Lu Li received the harvest of this trip—an abundant flood of humanity surging into his body.

It was as if they saw a sapling grow explosively, its branches spreading, its green leaves stretching out to form a colossal tree that cast a shadow sheltering them all.

The soil, no longer foul, exuded a pleasant fragrance, and warm sunlight, like pearls, trickled through the shade of the trees.

Professor Kris's enormous shadow pressed against Lu Li as if embracing him.

"Seventeen portions."

This was the true humanity Lu Li could use. After being enhanced by the Book of the Apocalypse... thirty-four portions.

Even the Lords were stunned and felt a sense of nostalgia at the change in Lu Li.

"Less than expected," Professor Kris said, her voice very calm.

A single evil god should have yielded more humanity.

"It had few followers left, and almost no power remaining," answered Oro Sheloto Ki Papa.

The dead evil god, sealed within the cocoon, was contaminating the land, and Simone Wooda, who held the title of legendary hunter, cleansed the corruption.

Lu Li offered the humanity back, but as if by agreement, the Lords refused the larger share.

"Having realized the value of humanity and witnessed the terrifying abyss, the restored humanity will be enough for us for a long time. You need it more."

"I don't need it."

Aside from forming a Shield against contamination, Lu Li had not yet mastered any other way to use humanity.

"You don't understand what your power symbolizes..." Silver Cross Elephant said dreamily.

"The Lords are no longer a 'cursed gift'; we might even be able to counter-attack and reclaim lost territories."

And then there was the answer everyone knew but no one mentioned: what Lu Li, accumulating all this humanity, would eventually become.

A deity that needs no faith?

Compared to that, the side effect of Lu Li becoming "seductively delicious" seemed insignificant.

"As long as he doesn't go to the surface or the Old Sewer, our dear boy will be fine," said Professor Kris.

Silver Cross Elephant respected her as well.

"With your guarantee, I am at ease."

These Lords, who had once stepped into darkness and lost their glory, warmly invited Lu Li to visit again so they could go Hunting for more "food", but Lu Li had other matters to attend to.

All that was left was to agree that Lu Li would come to the hut in the Swamps once a week to reap humanity.

And to bring more old, abandoned friends with him.