Phantom Skeleton Painting

Chapter 31.1 The Promised Land 

“Then I’ll leave soon.” Alexei said gloomily, “Don’t stop me.”

Lin Banxia waved his hand, indicating that he was free to do it, and got up from the bed and started packing his luggage to prepare for departure.

Alexei stood by and watched him. It wasn’t until Lin Banxia opened the door that he realized that he really planned to leave. He panicked and said, “Banxia, are you really going to leave?”

Lin Banxia said: “What else?”

Alexei said: “Maybe there is still undiscovered gold in this house. Are you really willing to leave like this?”

Lin Banxia glanced at him, his eyes only filled with calmness and suspicion.

This look made Alexei feel bad, and he said eagerly: “Just wait, I will look for it! I will definitely find something else.”

As he spoke, he rushed to the corner of the wall and began to tap the wall tiles with the tool in his hand. He knocked off the gray wall tiles piece by piece, revealing the dusty soil inside. After wiping the soil vigorously, a brilliant golden color was actually revealed.

“Look, look!” Alexei exclaimed excitedly, “Look, there is really gold behind this!!!”

Lin Banxia gently held the dagger in his pocket and said, “So what? Can you take it all away?”

“I can’t, but we can.” Alexei said excitedly, “The two of us can carry the gold out – as much as we want – as much as we want.”

Lin Banxia said: “No need.”

Alexei looked at him in shock, as if looking at a monster: “What did you say?”

“I said no,” Lin Banxia said, “You can take as much as you want. It has nothing to do with me.”

Alexei stopped talking. The muscles on his cheeks twitched slightly, and his whole expression seemed to be out of control. He reluctantly raised the corners of his mouth and tried to show a difficult smile: “You really don’t want money at all? Then what do you want?”

Lin Banxia was an honest person, so he said honestly: “Money.”

Alexei: “…”

Lin Banxia: “Is there anything else? If not, I’ll leave first.”

Alexei went completely crazy. He pointed at the wall of gold bricks behind him and burst into screams. His face turned red with anger, his veins popped out, and his expression was hideous and terrifying: “The money is all here, it’s all here. Don’t go! Don’t go! Why don’t you take this gold and leave with me?!!”

Lin Banxia ignored him and went out. Originally, he was worried that Alexei would follow him out, but fortunately, Alexei did not come out. It was just that Russian curses kept coming from the hut. Although Lin Banxia could not understand it, he knew that Alexei would definitely not come out at this time. He was very angry, but he couldn’t figure out why he was so angry when he refused his invitation. Logically speaking, shouldn’t it be a good thing to take all the treasure for yourself?

Lin Banxia was thinking this way, and for some reason, he felt that Alexei seemed a little strange, and even exuded a dangerous aura, which made him want to get out of there quickly.

Because he felt these strange things, Lin Banxia gave up persuading Alexei, who was already crazy, because he knew very well how a person who desperately needed money felt when they saw that box of gold. That’s not gold, it’s life. Whoever dared to covet it would need to fight to the death.

When Lin Banxia was the poorest, he couldn’t even afford to live in a basement. When he was hungry, he would go to the supermarket to buy some noodles, cook them with boiling hot water, and survive for a month. He didn’t know how he would have felt if he saw this box of gold at that time, but at least now, he felt that Song Qingluo’s life was more important than the gold, so he turned around and left without any hesitation.

Alexei finally stayed in the hut, his curses growing quieter.

Lin Banxia walked forward and soon entered the forest ahead. He was worried about Song Qingluo in his heart, but he didn’t have to worry about Alexei who had difficulty moving. He strode forward with great strides, hoping to leave quickly and find Song Qingluo’s traces. However, things did not go as smoothly as he imagined. He circled around in the forest and ended up back near the cabin. Without Alexei’s guidance, he unsurprisingly got lost again.

How come?

Lin Banxia stared at the compass in his hand and fell into a dilemma for a moment. He thought for a moment and decided to see if Alexei was still there. If he was, he wanted to ask him for advice on how to find the way in the forest.

With this plan, Lin Banxia walked to the side of the hut, trying to find Alexei, but who would have thought that when he passed by the wooden house, he would suddenly notice something hanging on the branches of the big tree next to the wooden house. The thing was covered by leaves and couldn’t be seen clearly for a while. Lin Banxia’s first reaction was that it looked like a bird’s nest, but he soon realized that there were no birds or other animals in the forest. So, he walked towards the tree with doubts. When he reached a certain distance, Lin Banxia finally saw what was hanging on the tree.

No, it wasn’t a thing, but a person.

A corpse of a man, his limbs twisted in strange postures, his body almost rolled into a ball, and he hung on a tree branch in an incredible posture. Lin Banxia saw from a distance that he was wearing the same clothes as himself and had short red hair, which was particularly glaring in the green jungle.

Lin Banxia’s expression froze for a moment. In this team, Alexei was the only one with short red hair.

Lin Banxia took a few steps forward and saw the man’s face clearly – yes, it was Alexei, and he was dead.

What happened? He had only been away for ten minutes. Lin Banxia stood there a little confused. He looked up at Alexei’s body but could not remove him from the tall tree.

How could this happen? Who killed Alexei? Was there a murderer hiding near the hut? Lin Banxia thought. Then why didn’t he attack himself first? It was obvious that he was also defenseless.

Lin Banxia stood under the tree for a long time, before finally turning around and heading towards the wooden house. He wanted to find some clues from the wooden house, but when he looked through the window of the wooden house and saw the situation inside, his steps paused.

In the wooden house, there was a red-haired man sitting. He turned his back to Lin Banxia, ​​lowered his head, and gently stroked the wooden box on his knees. In the wooden box, the light of gold was still bright, attracting everyone. The greedy man seemed to hear Lin Banxia’s footsteps, and slowly turned his head, revealing Alexei’s young face.

Lin Banxia was stunned. He turned his head and looked in the direction where he saw the body just now. He was not surprised to see that the body was still hanging in the same place. Alexei had died on the tree, so who was this person in front of him who looked exactly like him… no, this thing?

‘Alexei’ heard Lin Banxia’s footsteps and showed a bright smile. He walked to the door excitedly and opened the door for Lin Banxia. He said, “You are back. Have you changed your mind? I knew I just had to keep waiting for you.”

Lin Banxia licked his lips and said nothing.

Alexei said: “What’s wrong with you? Why do you have this expression?”

Lin Banxia suppressed the turbulence in his heart and tried to use the calmest tone to ask the question in his heart. He said: “Alexei…are you still alive?”

Alexei’s smile froze on his face.

“When did you die?” Lin Banxia asked, “Was the you that I… saw after we were separated already… dead?”

Alexei’s smile disappeared, and he stared at Lin Banxia, ​​his blue eyes full of complex expressions.

Lin Banxia took a step back, pulled out the dagger, and said warily: “Who the hell are you? What did you do to Alexei?”

Alexei let go, and the wooden box filled with gold bars that he held like treasure fell to the ground. The gold bars fell out of the wooden box and landed with a clatter, but Alexei did not move. He seemed to have turned into a stiff puppet, unable to speak, and just stared at Lin Banxia silently.

Lin Banxia said: “What… do you want to do?”

As soon as he asked this sentence, a change occurred in Alexei’s body. His facial features, like melting candles, gradually collapsed and twisted. He let out a shrill scream, but his body was still slowly melting. The liquid dripped and eventually turned into a black liquid. The liquid soaked into the surface of the floor and disappeared along the gaps in front of Lin Banxia. At the last moment of his disappearance, Lin Banxia’s ears were surrounded by the shrill sound of screams.

Everything returned to calm again, and only a few pieces of clothing were left, quietly left in front of Lin Banxia.

Alexei disappeared, just like the woman who disappeared in Li Su’s record, no one knew what happened to them.

Lin Banxia walked into the house again. He bent down and picked up the clothes Alexei had dropped on the ground one by one. After neatly folding them, he put them into his backpack. Lin Banxia did not try to touch the gold. He was not afraid of what was on the gold, but he was afraid that after touching it, he would be like Alexei and would become unable to resist its temptation. The gold was lying quietly on the ground, and its smooth appearance still exuded a golden luster. However, this luster now had a gloomy shadow of death.

After Lin Banxia had done all this, he went to the tree next to the hut. Alexei’s body was still hanging quietly on it. He looked at it for a while, lowered his head and made a mark on the approximate location on the map, and then he found stones nearby and gathered it in a circle under the tree before leaving again.

Everything around him was quiet. It was obviously morning, but Lin Banxia felt a chill that belonged only to the cold night.

He moved on, and this time the forest didn’t try to keep him.

After hiking for a whole day, around dusk, Lin Banxia finally heard the sound of water flowing in his ears. Although the sound was very small, there was indeed a river passing by. It seemed that he was about to reach the location marked on the map.

The monotonous forest finally changed when the river appeared. There were some low shrubs around. On these shrubs, Lin Banxia saw some withered yellow leaves. These withered yellow leaves meant that he had left the limits of the forest. Lin Banxia followed the sound of rushing water and saw a river that was not too wide. The scenery on the other side of the river was completely different from on this side. There were no tall trees there, and it was almost all sand, stones and bushes. At first glance, it looked very consistent with the landscape in Li Su’s video.

This probably meant that he was heading in the right direction. Lin Banxia sat by the river, scooped up a handful of river water, and washed his face.

He had been walking all day, and now it was getting dark again. Lin Banxia took advantage of the fact that the sun had not yet set, and quickly went to find some firewood and built a campfire.

He was a little hungry, so he took out some food from his backpack and stuffed some into his mouth to satisfy his hunger.

What to do next? Continue walking in that direction, or wait here for a while to see if anyone joins him? Lin Banxia calculated that the dry food in his bag could last for about a month, but there was not that much water. It could only last for a week, but there was a river next to him. It would definitely be safer if he waited there, but what if something happened to Song Qingluo and the others and they couldn’t come over? It was not a simple matter for him to wait like this.

Just as Lin Banxia was contemplating, there was a sudden burst of footsteps deep in the forest. Lin Banxia immediately took out the dagger and asked warily: “Who is there?”

The sound of rustling sounded for a while, and finally a figure appeared. Seeing that it was a person, Lin Banxia breathed a sigh of relief, but after seeing the person’s face clearly, he was shocked: “Li Su? Are you Li Su?? Why are you here??”

That’s right, the person who came was not anyone from Lin Banxia’s team, it was actually Li Su who they were looking for!! Although he was wearing a mask and sunglasses, Lin Banxia still recognized his identity from his special hair color.

“Shouldn’t I ask you this question?” Li Su did not come over, but stood observing Lin Banxia from a distance, “Why are you here too?”

“We received your video.” Lin Banxia thought Li Su’s way of questioning was a bit strange, but didn’t think much about it, “So I followed them.”

“Where are Song Qingluo and the others?” Li Su asked.

“We met a bear in the forest and got separated.” Lin Banxia put away the dagger in his hand, “Are you okay? What’s going on in that video?”

Li Su said: “I’m fine.” He curved his eyes, showed his beautiful smile, and slowly walked to Lin Banxia, ​​”What are you eating? Give me some, I’m so hungry.” When he came over, Lin Banxia noticed that there was a tall figure following him. Lin Banxia took a closer look and was even more surprised: “Li Ye? Li Ye is following you? When did you… meet?” Because of Alexei’s previous example, Lin Banxia immediately became wary of the two people who suddenly appeared in front of him. The timing of their appearance was so coincidental that Lin Banxia could not help but suspect them.

 

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. If I haven’t received any feedback by Monday, I will have to make the decision myself. So, if you have anything to say, please drop a comment.