Chapter 203 - 203 60

Words : 1471 Updated : Sep 23rd, 2025

203: 60. Helper in the Swamp 203: 60. Helper in the Swamp Anna carefully walked around the figure wearing the Bird Beak Mask and joined Lu Li at his side. She felt a pang of longing for the warm cabin, but she missed the Detective Agency in Belfast even more. Lu Li put on his raincoat hood, took hold of the door handle, and was about to pull it open when the figure with the Bird Beak Mask suddenly spoke. “Wait a minute.” Lu Li turned to look, as the figure with the Bird Beak Mask reached toward a pocket at the waist, seemingly about to take something out. “You’re leaving? Why?” The Seeker, sitting by the fire, asked, puzzled. The suffocating gale outside had almost choked him to death; he couldn’t think of any reason that would make Lu Li leave the cabin. “The swamp is very dangerous after dark,” Lu Li replied. “Alright, I understand, if I weren’t injured I wouldn’t want to stay here overnight either. Then, I wish you luck in escaping the swamp... ssst.” The Seeker inhaled sharply as he aggravated his wound. At this moment, the figure with the Bird Beak Mask took something out of the pocket and silently offered it to Lu Li. Even Lu Li, who was holding the object in his leather gloves, couldn’t help but be momentarily taken aback. “This is called a hand electric,” said the figure in the Bird Beak Mask in explanation. “I know,” Lu Li took the hand electric from the hands of the figure with the Bird Beak Mask. It was not big, but heavier than he had imagined. Finding the switch and pressing it, a stream of dim yellow light, similar to that of an oil lamp, shone from the bulb in the front. “Crow, are you giving this to him?” The Seeker’s tone was full of surprise, as if he had witnessed something inconceivable. “Token for a token,” the figure in the Bird Beak Mask replied. The Seeker suddenly realized: “So the invitation was originally obtained from Lu Li...” It appeared that the hand electric was some kind of token like the invitation, but Lu Li still decided to keep the hand electric. It was carved with something all over its body, but Lu Li didn’t have time to observe and looked up to ask, “Can it be charged?” “Battery.” “Thank you.” Putting the hand electric into his pocket, Lu Li turned, pulled open the cabin door, and stepped into the cold wind and rain, his figure disappearing outside the closing door. ... The torrential rain fell, obscuring vision. In the sky, terrifying bolts of lightning slithered through the clouds, yet eerily not a hint of thunder could be heard. The violent wind buffeted his body, and Lu Li’s figure appeared to waver. The oil lamp he was holding swayed in the wind, its frail flame seemingly on the verge of being snuffed out at any moment. Lu Li simply discarded the oil lamp and, using the sporadic flashes of lightning within the clouds as guidance, headed toward the north side of the cabin, the direction from which he had come. Anna anxiously followed behind Lu Li, filled with guilt. As a ghost, she couldn’t feel the storm, and it was this very thing that made her feel guilty for the comfort she felt. The suffocating discomfort endured by the Seeker quickly manifested in Lu Li as well. The cyclonic winds cut off the air in front of him, and he covered his mouth with his palm, sucking in deep breaths as he ran out of the cabin range and into the jungle. Darkness and bright light fiercely clashed, and the pale lights flickered, suddenly illuminating the swamp area. A figure ran swiftly, weaving through the trees in the marsh jungle. But this was a swamp, not a forest. The always-temperamental swamp did not allow anyone to run freely over it. The running figure suddenly sank, as one leg plunged into the mud pit that was almost indistinguishable from the surrounding area. Anna, floating behind and following, instantly used her ability to pull Lu Li, yanking him out of the mud that had trapped his knee. The hood of his raincoat slipped off due to the sudden scare, and for a few brief moments, Lu Li was almost completely drenched. Ignoring the raincoat, Lu Li stood up straight against a withered tree, squinting his eyes to look ahead. Under the frequent flashes of lightning, the jungle ahead had turned into a watery marsh, making it impossible to distinguish where solid ground ended and the swamp began. Amidst the copious rainfall, some originally dry and cracked puddles refilled, slowly revealing the swamp’s true ferocious face, a no-go zone for life. Sighing lightly, Lu Li took a step and began a new round of running. The gaps between Lu Li’s steps in the swampy bubbles were visibly narrowing. Anna pulled him back to the ground time after time, but after Lu Li had run four or five hundred meters, Anna gradually exhausted her strength. “I’m running out of strength!” Once again lifting Lu Li to the side of a withered tree, Anna shouted, “How much farther from the road!” “One quarter.” Lu Li panted in reply, rainwater meandering down his chin, gathering into a stream. With his black hair clinging to his wet skin, the drenched Lu Li looked somewhat disheveled and weary, but his eyes still held an unchanged calmness. None of the hundreds of thousands of lightning strikes within the hurricane had struck the Shadow Swamp, seemingly prevented by the power of the Mother of the Marsh, but undoubtedly sparing Lu Li from being struck by lightning. “Only one quarter left?!” Anna exclaimed in surprise. “We’ve gone one quarter.” Lu Li took out a water bottle from his bosom, unscrewed the cap, and drank the lukewarm water that barely retained any warmth—it had been boiling hot when he left three minutes ago. The faint warmth lasted only a few seconds before it was shattered by the icy gusts and the pouring rain. Anna clenched her teeth tightly and suddenly shouted, “You wait here for me, I’ll go find a nearby place to take cover!” “Wait.” Lu Li called out to Anna, who was about to drift away, and without a word, extended his hand to point ahead. Following the direction Lu Li pointed, Anna saw in the pale glow of light, about ten meters away, a six-legged creature with segmented limbs lying prostrate on the ground, looking their way. “Six-legged Savages...?” Anna murmured its name, noticing that the Six-legged Savage turned its body on the spot and burrowed into the rain curtain ahead. “Follow it.” Lu Li walked past Anna and followed the Six-legged Savage. The Six-legged Savage seemed to be guiding Lu Li. It crawled quickly through the swamp in the storm, stopping each time it maneuvered around what appeared to be a swampy patch of ground to wait for Lu Li to catch up. “It’s guiding us!” Anna confirmed her inner guess and shouted in surprise. Without a word, Lu Li pressed his pale lips together and ran in the torrential rain, following the crawling figure ten meters ahead. One-half, two-thirds, the Marsh Road was within reach. But just then, a cold gleam flew toward Lu Li! The cold gleam passed straight through Anna’s body and shot towards Lu Li. With a buzz in her head, Anna instinctively mustered all her strength and rammed into the cold gleam. The cold gleam was knocked off course and embedded itself into the trunk of a withered tree Lu Li had just passed. Sensing something, Lu Li glanced aside and saw a familiar axe. He stopped walking and turned to look back, and there, standing in the rain curtain ten meters behind him, was the charred body of the cabin’s mistress. “Mother wants to see you.” She roared, her body twisting as she lunged at Lu Li. Suddenly, a branch shot out slanted from below, wrapping around the “mistress’s” waist and yanking her to the side. It was a stout, eerie-looking tree. Its countless branches came alive, dancing wildly in the storm, reaching out towards the “mistress,” engulfing her in its limbs. “Let’s go.” Lu Li took a deep look at the tree that twirled its branches around the “mistress” and turned to follow the Six-legged Savage. Lu Li’s figure disappeared into the rain curtain. At the original spot, a charred arm stretched out from the enveloping branches, futilely reaching for Lu Li’s fading figure— More branches entangled down from the canopy of the tree, completely enveloping her.

Chapter 203 - 203 60

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