Lu Li did not reply, silently staring at him.
Hades leaned back behind the counter and waved his hand, "Don't look at me like that, you might need several shots to solve it."
"What are the real methods of an Exorcist?"
The Spirit-Calling Gun is just one of the methods, not the only one.
"You wouldn't want to know."
"I want to know."
"It won't do you any good."
"I think it would be very beneficial."
"...Come back when you bring 1000 Shillings."
The conversation ended rather unpleasantly, and it was clear that Hades did not want to tell Lu Li—whether he did not want him to get involved in murky waters, or for some other reason.
Upon leaving Hades's Detective Agency, Lu Li took a carriage back to Sailor Street.
Sailor Street was entering the busiest time of the day as the seamen finished their breakfast and headed to the harbor.
At Mrs. Phelin's bakery, he bought two pieces of white bread, gave one to the children gathered outside the bakery, and finished the other with some hot water, then called Oliver.
"Hey, boss."
"Asina Leslie, formerly employed by Madam Anne's Art Gallery, is deceased. Send all her details over by this afternoon. Focus on her personality and the cause of her death."
"Okay."
After arranging these, Lu Li took off his coat, hung it over the back of a chair, rolled up his sleeves, and walked into the kitchen.
Soon, the sound of running water started, continued for a while, then stopped. A few seconds later, a water-streaked Lu Li emerged from the kitchen, wiping his face with a towel.
Returning to his desk chair, Lu Li lay down on the desktop.
Seconds ticked by, and the figure on the desk gradually stabilized, and the Detective Agency returned to its cold and lonely state.
The sleeping experience this time was not pleasant. Lu Li felt his consciousness sinking, penetrating the floor, the soil, and the rocks.
The surrounding water vapor grew heavier, clinging to his consciousness, making it heavier, pulling it downward.
He did not know how long it had been when the increasingly hard rocks around him gave way, replaced by the eerily silent and desolate depths of the sea.
Faintly, there seemed to be a light overhead, but as his consciousness plunged into the vast abyss, that glint of light grew farther and farther away until it was blocked by the immeasurably deep seawater.
Light could not penetrate the depths of the deep sea; an unbearable pressure squeezed from all sides, but it did not intensify.
Lu Li thought he would keep sinking until he lightly landed in the sea-bed mud and perhaps see relics covered in seaweed in the perpetual gloom.
But a change occurred.
The seawater enveloping him suddenly turned into bizarre and myriad colors, shifting and mixing as if layers of paint were blending and twisting together.
This scene was certainly not what one would find in the abyss; it was more like... it had been intercepted by some indescribable entity.
Lu Li's consciousness could not think, only quietly observe and watch.
The oddly mixing colors may have been chance or fate, forming a door.
An ordinary, old wooden door.
The colors continued to shift, causing the door's form to change every moment—metal doors, ornately carved grand doors, fence gates, bronze doors...
But without exception, each door had a key inserted into its keyhole.
Thud, thud, thud—
A familiar knocking sound suddenly resonated deep in his consciousness.
The observing consciousness suddenly conceived the ability to think in that moment and discerned the source of the sound.
[Is someone knocking?]
The instant this thought was born, an irresistible force emerged from an unknown distance above his head. It pulled at Lu Li's consciousness, dragging him with a speed that nearly twisted the surroundings, towards it.
In that instant, Lu Li saw only a dazzling white light filling his vision, and then...
Bang!
Subconsciously standing up, Lu Li bumped into the chair, which fell backward with a moderate crash.
Like a fish stranded on the shore, Lu Li gasped hurriedly for a few breaths, then suppressed it with his willpower, his indifferent dark eyes lifting toward the door.
...
Click—
The door opened a crack.
Oliver looked up at Lu Li and shrank his neck, "Boss, you don't seem to have rested well..."
A bloodshot rim appeared around Lu Li's dark pupils.
"Mhm."
Lu Li turned back and sat down at his desk, massaging between his eyebrows.
The clock now showed it was already afternoon.
"This is the information I found." Oliver handed a few pieces of leather paper to Lu Li.
Lu Li took them, his gaze landing on them.
Lu Li recognized each character, but when strung together into words and sentences, he suddenly couldn't understand their meaning.
The problem was not with the content but with Lu Li himself.
He still felt tired, the bizarre dream he had just had did not relieve his weariness, but rather intensified it.
Perplexed, Oliver saw Lu Li temporarily set aside the leather paper and stood up to walk to the kitchen.
The sound of running water continued for a long time, and when Lu Li came back out, he was wiping his wet black hair.
He finally seemed somewhat rejuvenated, not as wooden as before.
Sitting back down at his desk, Lu Li slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and picked up the leather paper again, the content finally familiar and not foreign.
Asina Leslie, living close to the industrial area in Blackwater District, worked as a textile worker for a long period before working in the gallery and met Bill Eddy there, the man who impregnated her.
From acquaintance to romance, they quickly moved in together until Asina became pregnant.
The textile factory was unsuitable for a pregnant woman to stay, so Asina quit her job and found a new job with Bill's help: working in the gallery.
The job was relaxed and the salary was about the same as her textile job, Asina cherished her new job and often stayed at the gallery beyond her working hours.
Things were meant to continue blissfully.
But one day, Bill Eddy suddenly disappeared. No one saw where he went, and the Police Station only narrowed it down to near the Abandoned Asylum in the suburbs.
Just over ten days later, Bill Eddy came back, acting as usual.
Then came the tragedy on the seventh day after his return, Bill Eddy crazily attacked Asina, cutting out their child, an act that directly killed Asina and their unborn child, who was less than seven months old.
That was all the content on the leather paper.
"So, Asina was murdered?" Lu Li massaged his temples, putting the paper back.
"Very likely."
"Bill Eddy?"
"Missing. My brother told me the Police Station's been looking for him, but no sign of him."
"How did the Police Station classify this case?"
"They said it was the work of cultists, that Bill Eddy had joined them, but what exactly they think internally, I'm not sure."
Lu Li found it hard to think and instead asked, "Are you busy now?"
"Uh... not really," Oliver answered subconsciously.
Lu Li nodded and leaned into his chair.
"You can stay here, or go out and take care of your business, but remember to wake me up before five o'clock in the afternoon."