Bizarre Detective Agency

  Chapter 1390 Thirty-two. The truth

  Below the night city, above the old sewer.

  Without the shackles of the guardian of the land boundary, the swampland is still restricted and difficult to spread.

   But the swamp is not always silent. Just like Lu Li wanted to restrict the swamp, the swamp also wanted to get rid of restrictions.

   Now, it's starting to do that.

  Start in Midnight City.

  Lu Li hoped that this was just an accident, for example, that the smell of the swamp on the rotting ghoul was accidentally picked up, or it was just a wrong perception.

  No matter what, Lu Li must approach the pit to confirm the truth.

   Returning to the farm, Lu Li and Claire summoned Anthony the merchant in the basement.

  The businessman said that there was no change in the main station of Midnight City, and the swamp was still calm, or its change was not noticed.

Lu Li used dreams in front of the businessman and Ophelia to guide Claire to the scene in the deep pit: the bottom of the pit was filled with surging black tide, and as Claire circled closer, the thick and flowing black water revealed its true appearance: countless Rotting ghouls swarm the bottom of the pit, squirming foully.

  The tide formed beat the shore, and those "stranded" rotting ghouls collapsed back into the black tide like melting.

   "Rotten Weird wins?"

   They're rotten too deep, but so are the ghouls, like a cross between ghoul and rot.

   Lu Li stared at the deep pit covered by the surging Kuroshio. Occasionally they set off waves, but never revealed the bottom of the pit.

  There must be something hidden under the deep pit.

  Lu Li recalled the rotten ghoul that followed Claire, took the alienation potion and began to shape it.

   A rotting ghoul dripping with black water gradually appeared in front of them. Hunched like a ghoul, the severely rotted flesh was as black as charcoal, and the internal organs fell into the chest cavity like a bunch of rotten grapes.

   "There's something wrong." Claire shook her head and refused, "There's something missing."

   “They feel alive to me…”

   "Aren't they alive?" Ophelia was puzzled.

  Lu Li realized what Claire was talking about, controlled his body, and stopped writhing and wriggling all the time. The dripping black water seemed to be activated, wriggling and reintegrating into the body surface.

   "Evil... It looks a little disgusting."

  Lu Li's new image outlines Claire's shadow.

   But there was still something missing—the smell of the swamp that I felt earlier.

  Lu Li can't imitate it, he can only hope that the Black Tide and the existence at the bottom of the pit won't notice these tiny "sea water".

  Dressed in a black robe covering the silhouette, Lu Li walked through the falling dust to the east again, sliding into the deep pit of the blood plague tribe.

  Scattered obsidian fragments and loose gravel fell as Lu Li passed by, allowing Lu Li to actually see the surging Kuroshio and at the same time startle them.

   Wow-wow-

Tidal viscous waves beat against the shore, gravel sank into the surging black tide, and the rotting ghouls drifting with the waves did not respond. Lu Li tentatively approached a stranded shore, wriggling and rotting corpses into the deep pit ghost. It didn't recognize Lu Li, and even took the initiative to stick together.

  Lu Li let the rotting ghouls lead him into the black tide, and was gradually separated by the crowded tide, sinking into the depths,

   As far as the line of sight is concerned, there is only a foul and surging black tide. As he lost his direction, Lu Li no longer drifted with the current, and resisted the squeeze and repulsion from the "bottom of the lake" and actively sank.

   After disorientation, vision follows. There are only two evil spirit chess pieces falling naturally in the chest to guide the direction.

  Lu Li continued to sink, but the crowded and wriggling sensation reminded him that he had not yet reached the bottom of the pit, and the darkness made it difficult for him to see.

  While Lu Li was thinking about whether to temporarily float out of the deep pit to bring a fluorescent stone, the eyes protected by the ribs saw a faint light shining through the black tide gap at the bottom.

  Lu Li swims towards the only light. Regardless of the core or the trap, there are variables in this abyss of black tide.

  The changing vortex brought him closer to the depths. The depths of the Kuroshio seemed to become thinner, and more and more light appeared in the gaps.

  Unexpectedly, Lu Li saw a familiar feature on the rotten ghoul: rotten skin inlaid with iron plates with inscriptions.

   Ghoul Warlock Blood Spirit.

  …

   "I disagree."

   At that time, Lu Li did not keep silent: "They are all independent individuals just like us. Those who struggle to survive in the dark and cold are human beings, and those who cry and surrender are also human. They are only because of their greatness."

  Blood Spirit grinned at the corners of his rotten lips, showing a humane smile: "...Do you know, I appreciate your thoughts more than agreeing with mine."

   "Arrogance... This is the weakness of our ethnic group. We were born from the corpses of other races, thinking that we have inherited their advantages and discarded their shortcomings... Therefore, we have arrogance. But no matter how small a life is, its existence has merits..."

  "We are strong because our race was strong, and we are weak because we are weak, as if we are being manipulated by fate... But what if we can change these? No longer crawl out of the corpse, but be conceived by the corpse..."

   "Are we still ghouls then?"

   "It doesn't matter...we are ghouls as long as we bathe in the blessings of the ghoul king."

  …

  With his consciousness separated from the conversation that day, Lu Li stared at the numb Blood Spirit in front of him.

  It seems to have assimilated with the rotting ghouls around it, its empty eye sockets are no longer wise, and it is swept away by the opposite vortex close at hand.

  Lu Li moved his gaze away, and squeezed towards the light that was only at the last distance.

  The rotting ghouls were silhouetted in the dappled twilight, as if the light was shining on them through a grating. Soon, Lu Li became one of them, his eyes covered by his ribs reflected the core of the pit.

  Indescribable terror gripped Lu Li's soul.

  Lu Li gave up on spying, and also gave up on thinking, maintaining a perpetual, death-like stillness. Let the vortex gradually roll him away from the oozing and filling gap, and drift with the current. Until the vortex sent him back to the surface of the black tide, until countless rotting ghouls surged and stranded him, lying motionless on the shore like a black mud.

  After a long period of stillness, Lu Li seemed to wake up from a long sleep, like a tired person waking up from sleep, slowly and lightly, he crawled out of the deep pit.

   After spending dozens of minutes climbing up, he used the pit cautiously for a few minutes to slide down, and slowly crawled to a few blocks away from the edge of the pit, and retrieved his black robe. Lu Li finally regained his speed and quickly moved away from the black tide in the pit.

  Lest he would bring terror to the farm, Lu Li lingered half a circle in the east before returning to the south, from the support to the tunnel, and from the tunnel back to the farm.

   "You leave Midnight City and go to Ghost Town immediately. Tell 'Mother' that Ghost Town may no longer be safe, and prepare to evacuate westward."

  Lu Li opened the bag, drank the sesame oil to return to a human, and put on a cloak.

  Lu Li's mood made them feel uneasy, because they had never seen Lu Li so solemn.

  After Ophelia asked what he found, Lu Li told them the terrifying truth he saw at the bottom of the pit:

  The black tide has imprisoned the king of ghouls in the pit, eaten by the swamp.

  (end of this chapter)