Chapter 74 Seventy Four. Something in the Darkness

   Hades didn't answer the question, he got under the bar, and there was a sound of rummaging. After more than ten seconds, he held a candle that was as pure as cream and popped out of his head.

   This seems to be some kind of rare item, which can be seen from Hades' attitude towards it - Lu Li only showed a similar expression when he saw Shilling.

   Haders removed the protective cover of the oil lamp beside him, tilted the white candle, and set it on fire.

   A faint fire light appeared, and the intertwined color of light yellow and light red was no different from ordinary fire. The wax around the flame was melted, but it didn't drip, but turned into steam like water vapor, rising up and dissipating into the void.

  Lu Li stared at the flames, and suddenly there was an indescribable feeling in his heart.

The faint candlelight    seemed to dispel some kind of ubiquitous fog, revealing the most essential truth in his eyes. It was as if the mist covering the eyes was suddenly wiped away, and everything became clear.

"It's called Broken Candle. It allows you to see things you can't usually see, like a psychic gun. But it won't have any negative effects." Hades whispered a little distressed, he stared behind Lu Li, as if there something. "Look around you now."

   Haders might blow out the candle when Lu Li turned his head, or run away with 1,000 shillings, because that was his style. However, Lu Li still listened to Hades's wishes and turned his head.

  The gloomy and rainy weather was darker than the fog of the previous day, and the windows had a weak halo. The oil lamps and candles on the bar only illuminate a few meters around, and the round tables and chairs farther away have only black outlines.

   Lu Li was sure that the seats were empty when he came in. But after looking back, the originally empty tables and chairs were crowded with black silhouettes of various shapes.

  These dark shadows reveal ominous dark outlines that make it difficult to tell what they are from the silhouette alone. There are some silhouettes that appear to be similar in structure to humans, but also distinctly different.

   is like a black silhouette of grass that is magnified several times, with tentacles dancing like seagrass. It's like an iron ball is being dragged by the ankle, but the head is a humanoid silhouette like the spire of a clock tower. It looks like a sea urchin-like black sphere that is densely packed with hundreds of slender limbs extending from the torso. It is like a pool of ooze, but its shape is constantly changing, a viscous liquid like the pool of water on the drum that is being beaten.

   These beings are like things that children inadvertently fabricated out of wet sand on the beach. They are strange and specious. They seem to be something that people are familiar with, but they carry a terrifying strangeness that goes straight to the deepest part of the heart.

  They are in the seats, under the round table, on the ceiling, in the gaps of the stairs, beside them, everywhere.

   This tavern-style detective agency suddenly became extremely "lively".

"This is……"

  Lu Li's expression gradually became serious.

   "What you've always wanted to know, the nature of the world."

   Hades grinned and said cruelly.

   "These are the things in the dark."

   Lu Li did not answer, he quietly observed these black silhouettes.

   There are some black silhouettes moving. Occasionally, black silhouettes will leave the "tavern", but new black silhouettes will also appear.

   Some are simply moving, others are slowly fading and disappearing into the distance.

  Lu Li tilted his head and set his eyes on the corner of the bar that was separated by two stools.

   A black silhouette sat there, one of the few with a near-complete human silhouette.

   It is holding something unrecognizable in its hand, and it will lift it up from time to time, and at the same time make a head-up motion, as if drinking.

   Lu Li quietly observed it, until at a certain moment, the silhouette head turned and seemed to face Lu Li.

   "Don't keep staring! They can sense you!"

   A sharp shout suddenly sounded in my ears!

   Lu Li's black eyes regained clarity, and in an instant he withdrew his gaze and turned his head.

  The two kept silent at the same time, and observed the black silhouette in the corner of the bar from the corner of their eyes. Fortunately, it didn't move and didn't notice anything, but turned its head back and repeated its previous movements.

   Having survived without any danger, Hades breathed a sigh of relief, his heartbeat could be clearly heard even by Lu Li on the opposite side.

   "What are they?" Lu Li asked. He started to observe the black silhouettes behind him again, but instead of keeping his gaze like before, he kept wandering and moving.

Hades shrugged: "I don't know, our theoretical research on the inner world has just started. Oh, the inner world is the name we call that space. There are also people who call the spiritual space of the void world at the spiritual level or something... There is no official name, so Call it whatever you want."

   "Can they feel this is a tavern?"

"I need to remind you that this is the Detective Agency." Hades raised his face and seriously corrected Lu Li's cognitive errors before answering the question: "Why not, we are at the material level, they are at the spiritual level. We What happens changes them there. To put it another way — we and them are the outside and the inside of the world, just not usually in touch with each other.”

   "But darkness brings opportunities." Lu Li added.

   "That's right."

"what are they?"

   "I don't know. Evil spirits? Evil gods? Indescribable things? You shouldn't ask an ordinary, uncharacteristic, greedy exorcist."

   Hades folded his shoulders, his words revealing self-knowledge of himself.

   "Are they all outside?"

   Hades shook his head, trying to break Lu Li's innocence: "Don't you understand? Our world is full of these things. It's just that the world is our living people's world in the daytime, and their world in the dark."

   "So as long as there is light, it's safe?"

   "Yes, at least until the first fog appeared."

   "Fog?"

   Lu Li asked, his mind returned to the strange bells that he encountered that night in the gallery office, and the mist that shrouded the sea for dozens of seconds.

   "That's it. They walk in the dark, and we just need to avoid it. But if there's fog, they're right around us—and can't be dispelled by light."

   Hades noticed Lu Li's memory and snapped his fingers.

   "If you don't understand yet, I can give an example."

"In the daytime, we are ordinary tourists in the circus, and there is no danger. At most, we scare ourselves. At night, we are ordinary tourists standing in front of the lion cage. As long as we stay away from the lion cage, we are still safe. …”

   Lu Li's black eyes suddenly became deep. He lowered his eyes, raised his head again, and continued.

   "It's a tourist in front of an open cage."

   (end of this chapter)