Chapter 30.1 The Promised Land
Forget it, don’t worry about these details with Li Ye. Lin Banxia stuffed the last biscuit into his mouth, took another sip of water, and said, “Where did you find this thing?”
“There are many other items scattered on the edge of the swamp.” Li Ye said, “They may have been attacked by wild beasts and then fled to the other side of the swamp.”
“There are eight of them in total, right?” Alexei felt a little doubtful, “They should be well prepared. What kind of beast can scare them like this?”
Li Ye said: “There is always something beyond common sense.”
At this point, Lin Banxia told everyone what he and Alexei discovered last night, and Li Ye became the translator again. Sergey and Irina glanced at Alexei while listening. It was unknown if that look was happiness or sympathy, or both.
After everyone finished their unappetizing breakfast, they quickly decided on their next trip – going to the swamp that suddenly appeared to have a look, it would be best to find some clues about the previous team.
The weather was quite good, with clear skies and a chilly breeze that was refreshing.
The village was still as silent as yesterday, but there seemed to be something else unpleasant hidden in the silence.
They followed Li Ye to the southeast corner of the village. Sure enough, as Li Ye said, there was a beach covered with reeds. The beach was covered with thick moss and green grass. At first glance, the plush grass looked a bit attractive.
Song Qingluo asked: “Where did you find the skull?”
Li Ye pointed, and Lin Banxia looked in the direction he pointed, only to see a lush patch of grass with colorful flowers blooming on it. At first glance, it looked very pleasing. No one would have thought that such a thing was hidden in the lush grass.
“It’s impossible to cross this swamp.” Alexei whispered beside him, “We don’t know how big it is, and we don’t know where they went, so if we go up there rashly…”
Li Ye glanced at him, his green eyes showing a coldness.
Alexei closed his mouth slowly.
Song Qingluo didn’t say anything. He observed the swamp in front of him for a moment, then picked up a wooden stick from the roadside and headed towards the swamp.
Lin Banxia was shocked when he saw this and said hurriedly: “Song Qingluo, are you going up like this? It’s very dangerous.”
Song Qingluo said softly: “It’s okay.”
He said it was okay, but it seemed that there was really no danger. The originally terrifying swamp seemed like flat ground under his feet, and in a blink of an eye, he reached the center of the swamp.
Although it was the first time for Lin Banxia to see such a landform, he also knew that areas with grass growing on the swamp should generally not be stepped on, because there were possibly blisters underneath, but Song Qingluo did not avoid these places at all, and just like that it was a smooth journey.
The three recorders were all very surprised. Lin Banxia looked at him and suddenly remembered the last time he pulled Song Qingluo in the mountain village. Song Qingluo’s weight seemed to be much lighter than ordinary people. Could this be the reason why he was not afraid that his body would fall into the swamp?
Song Qingluo walked forward for about ten minutes and then started to head back. When he came back, he started to use the wooden stick in his hand to explore the soil under his feet, as if he wanted to find a road that could be passed by. This went back and forth for half an hour, but everyone was waiting in place and did not dare to wander around.
“This swamp is not too big.” After Song Qingluo came back, he gave the message, “Walking slowly, you can reach the end in twenty minutes.”
“Did you find anything?” Li Ye asked.
Song Qingluo said calmly: “No.”
Although he gave a negative answer, Lin Banxia strangely tasted something different in his tone. As expected, Li Ye also glanced at him, but in the end, he chose silence tacitly.
“You’ll know if you go there.” Song Qingluo said, “Follow me.”
“Is this really okay?” Alexei was still a little worried, but with Li Ye standing next to him, he did not dare to complain loudly, so he could only mutter to Lin Banxia quietly, “A place like this is a trap. If we go down, there will really be no people left.”
“It’s okay.” Lin Banxia was very worried, “He won’t knowingly let us die.”
The group of people slowly passed through the swamp, and the village behind them was getting further and further away from them. They stepped on dark mud under their feet. The mud exuded an unpleasant smell. It was not fishy, but it seemed like something was rotten. Lin Banxia didn’t think much about it at first, just thinking that his feet were stepping on ordinary mud, but after he walked a certain distance, he suddenly realized what Song Qingluo’s silence previously meant.
This black sludge was very much like the strange liquid they saw on TV last night. It was dark, sticky, and as thick as asphalt. Lin Banxia wondered if it was his own illusion, but he even vaguely felt it. These things were undulating slightly, as if they were alive.
Fortunately, he seemed to be the only one who noticed such a strange thing. Alexei, who also saw the scene at night, just walked forward and did not notice the unusualness of the soil under his feet. This actually made Lin Banxia breathe a sigh of relief. If he found out, Lin Banxia didn’t know if he would be too scared to walk.
Following Song Qingluo, the group passed through this strange swamp in silence.
When his feet touched solid ground, Lin Banxia breathed a sigh of relief.
However, Alexei’s face didn’t look good. He whispered: “I came here like this. What should I do when I go back? What if he is not here…?”
Li Ye gave him an indifferent look: “If you had told me earlier, there would have been no need for you to come over. Is this your first time doing a mission, for you to be so unprofessional?”
Alexei didn’t dare to refute and kept his mouth shut.
Lin Banxia finally looked back at the strange swamp, without thinking about why it was there and what formed it.
On this side of the swamp, there were more trees. The surrounding coniferous trees were lush and green, like a dense jungle. Trying to find Li Su and the others in the woods was like finding a needle in a haystack, but even so, they had to keep moving forward. The group walked into the woods and took out daggers to clear the way. However, not long after entering the woods, Lin Banxia felt a strange sense of violation.
The sun was just right at this time, falling through the treetops to form mottled shadows on the ground. The grass was full of tiny flowers, and Lin Banxia even saw some deep red roses among them, which looked very romantic. It stood to reason that if the scenery in front of them was as beautiful as a picture scroll, those who saw it should be in a good mood. However, none of the six people in the group showed a relaxed expression.
“Why do I feel a little uncomfortable?” Alexei has a lively personality. He couldn’t hold it back at all. He started talking to Lin Banxia in a low voice again. He said, “Do you feel something is wrong?”
Lin Banxia said: “It seems a bit.”
“Where is it?” Alexei picked a wildflower on the roadside and put it underneath his nose and smelled it, “But if I want to pinpoint it, I can’t tell…”
Lin Banxia watched his movements, and also moved his eyes to the flowers and grass on the roadside. The clusters of flowers were so delicate and beautiful, each flower bloomed with soft stamens, revealing the delicate heart of the flower, and the colors on it also seemed as if it had been washed with water, and it was as soft as a treasure that had been carefully cared for in a greenhouse. At this point, Lin Banxia finally realized the strangeness in this patch of flowers. Everywhere he looked, everything was perfect. Every flower and every leaf was growing in its best form, without any defects or withering. The color of the plants was emerald green like spring. Where they stepped, not even a fallen leaf could be seen. Lin Banxia tried to find a broken leaf from the nearby bushes, but when he looked carefully, he found that every leaf was almost exactly the same in length and width. They are uniform and green all over, not like a product of nature, but like the same plastic product processed in factories.
Every corner of this forest was perfect, and because of this, it was full of false flavor. It seemed to be something deliberately created. In an instant, everything in front of him was lost, and its original vitality changed into a lifelessness so evident that it made one’s hair stand on end.
Alexei saw the change in Lin Banxia’s expression. His reaction was a little slow, but he still found something strange and forced a smile and said: “The flowers and plants here all look the same.”
Li Ye said: “They are all the same.”
Alexei: “So, does this forest appear on the map?”
This question was really stupid, and everyone else laughed. It was unknown what Irina said to Alexei, but Alexei looked embarrassed and replied in Russian.
Nothing in nature is perfect. Perfect things are all created by humans.
Lin Banxia was thinking about who created this forest when he heard a strange noise in her ears. It seemed like something huge was moving deep in the forest. The sound was so obvious that Lin Banxia couldn’t ignore it even if he wanted to. Everyone’s movements stopped, Song Qingluo’s face changed slightly, and he said: “Be alert.” The next moment, everyone quickly took out the weapons that had been prepared.
The sound was getting closer and closer and was even accompanied by the tremor of the earth. Lin Banxia was looking around with a dagger in his hand, and then he felt a darkness above his head, as if something was covering most of the sun. He raised his head and saw a scene that he would never forget.
It was a creature he had never seen before. It was two or three meters tall and looked like a bear at first glance, but its head was covered with large amounts of black mucus. At this time, the mucus was dripping down bit by bit onto the ground. Wherever the mucus was, twisted human faces were formed. Some of these faces were howling, crying, and some laughing, which was extremely terrifying. Most of the giant bear’s head was eroded by mucus. One side still looked like a bear, but the other side was mangled with blood, revealing dense white bones. It opened its mouth, revealing a scarlet tongue and sharp teeth. Lin Banxia could clearly see, above its teeth, there was some broken flesh and blood hanging on it.
“Bang!” There was a harsh gunshot, as Sergey had already taken out his shotgun and shot at the terrifying monster. At such a distance, it stood to reason that the power of the shotgun was powerful enough, but when the bullet hit the monster, it was like a stone sinking into the sea. The monster’s fur offset most of the attack, only causing a small scratch.
Nevertheless, his actions angered the terrifying creature in front of him. It let out a terrifying roar and ran towards the group!
Translator’s comments:
Hey guys. So due to life being a bit crazy lately due to my new job, I have to make a decision and I would like the reader’s input. So the two options I am faced with is to either only publish chapters every second day for this novel and I’m Really a Dragon (due to their extremely long chapters), or I will have to start splitting all of the long chapter in two as I have been doing for the last few day. If I split the chapters I would keep posting everyday.
Anyway, I wanted to leave the choice up to the readers. I don’t want to become unreliable in my updates, yet I can’t currently cope with work and translating two of these extremely long chapters everyday.
