Chapter 35.1 The Promised Land
Nothing could be seen in the darkness. Lin Banxia took two tentative steps forward and felt something wet on his forehead. He stretched out his hand to grab it and immediately realized that something was wrong with it. When he started to touch it, it was moist and soft. As if… grabbing a piece of skinless flesh, Lin Banxia didn’t dare to move forward. He turned around and took out the flashlight from his backpack and pressed the button.
The darkness in the room was instantly illuminated by a beam of light. Lin Banxia could see clearly where he was. He seemed to be in a room made of stone. The floor of the room was painted with white patterns that he could not understand. When he shined the flashlight above his head, Sergey’s horrified scream came from beside him.
On the roof of the house, dozens of human corpses were hung. All of the corpses had been skinned, and the scarlet muscles were exposed. They were pierced by ropes and hung in a sacrificial posture. Blood kept dripping from their bodies, hitting Lin Banxia’s face and body.
Of course, Sergey saw it too and let out a cry of fear.
Lin Banxia wanted to comfort him, but after thinking for a long time, he could only say “OK”. Fortunately, Sergey quickly recovered and wiped the blood on his face with his hand, and reluctantly moved towards Lin Banxia. He smiled to show that nothing was wrong with him.
Lin Banxia called Li Su a few more times, and from a corner where he couldn’t see clearly, Li Su’s weak voice came: “I am here.”
Lin Banxia quickly followed the sound and saw Li Su sitting on the ground: “Are you okay?”
“It’s nothing.” Li Su got up from the ground. He took off his sunglasses and mask and coughed a few times. “I’m sorry, I was too rough this time. I’d better be gentle next time.”
Lin Banxia couldn’t laugh or cry.
“We should be at the bottom of the city now.” Li Su said, “Be careful, there may be something inside.”
Since the corpses hanging above their heads were still fresh, it meant that there must be people who did all this nearby, Lin Ban Xia looked around and determined that there was no way to go back the way they came. The place where they came down had completely collapsed, so they could only walk inside.
Lin Banxia stared at the horrific corpses for a while, and suddenly found it a little strange. These corpses seemed to be women with black hair. Because the skin was peeled off, it was impossible to judge the face, but judging from the body shape, it seemed that every corpse looked pretty much the same.
“Is it a sacrifice?” Li Su was also surprised. “It looks very fresh…” He also felt a little uncomfortable and said, “It’s better to leave first.”
The three of them searched for a while and finally found a long and narrow passage in the corner of the room. Li Su walked in and decided to try his luck there.
This passage was very narrow and could only be passed sideways. Li Su took the lead and Sergey was forced to go last due to his size. After passing the passage with difficulty, the three of them finally arrived at another room. It was an empty room. There were just some messy words painted on the walls, which seemed to be in Russian. Lin Banxia couldn’t understand it. Can I ask Li Su what is written there?
Li Su’s face didn’t look very good: “Some…messages for help.”
The words “help, madman, monster” appeared repeatedly, as if a desperate person left these words in a frenzy at the last moment of their life.
Sergey stood next to them and could naturally understand these words. He crossed his arms and seemed a little cold. He couldn’t help but swallow the saliva in his throat. His eyes glanced behind him from time to time, looking nervous and uncomfortable.
Li Su saw this and asked him what was wrong.
“My back hurts a bit.” Sergey said hoarsely, “I wonder if it was injured when I rolled down.”
Li Su said, “Let me check.” He asked Sergey to turn around and shone the flashlight in his hand upwards. His expression immediately changed. From Lin Banxia’s angle, he could also see Sergey. On his back, they saw a group of purple marks in the center of his back. If it were an ordinary mark, it would be fine, but the shape of this mark was clearly that of a person’s palm print. All five fingers are there, and the palm was clearly defined.
Li Su glanced at Sergey and said, “When did you start feeling pain? Did it start hurting when you came down?”
Sergey said: “No, it started to hurt only after passing through this tunnel.”
Li Su licked his lips and said vaguely: “It’s okay. You just bumped yourself accidentally.” As he said that, he looked around the room with a flashlight. When the flashlight illuminated a corner of the room, goosebumps on his body instantly exploded. He stood up! At some point, a person appeared, squatting in the corner of the room. It was a woman. Her long hair covered her face, so it could not be seen clearly, but her green eyes looked like those of a cat. Her pupils stood out, looking terrifying, as if an evil ghost had suddenly appeared.
“Fuck!!!” Li Su cursed, grabbed the shotgun in his hand and wanted to attack. However, before the gun was loaded, Sergey stopped him. He hissed: “You can’t shoot, she is my teammate.”
“Who? Who??” Li Su went crazy, “Which teammate?”
“Irina, it’s Irina!!!” Sergey stared with bloodshot eyes and shouted, “She’s not dead yet, she’s not dead yet!!”
Li Su glanced at Sergey in disbelief. Just as the two were talking, the woman who looked exactly like Irina climbed to the ceiling like a spider. Li Su threw Sergey away and faced her. A shot hit the ceiling, but the accuracy was poor, and it only hit her foot, causing blood to fall on the ground. Irina let out a shrill scream and ran away along the ceiling towards other rooms, disappearing into the darkness.
“Irina…” Sergey shouted and wanted to chase after him. Lin Banxia hurriedly stopped him and shouted: “Sergey, wake up, Irina is dead! That thing you saw was not her!!!”
Sergey was stunned, and suddenly burst into tears, shouting that he had killed Irina, and that he was a damn murderer.
“Shut up.” Li Su shouted, “Someone is coming!!”
The three of them stopped talking at the same time.
Sure enough, not long after Li Su finished calling, crisp footsteps could be heard in the darkness. Li Su shone a flashlight in that direction, and Lin Banxia actually saw Li Ye’s face in the passage.
“Fuck.” Li Su had almost finished all the dirty words he had said this year today. He looked at Li Ye with no trace of joy on his face. He raised his chin slightly and said to Li Ye, “Come here.”
Li Ye walked up to Li Su.
Li Su said expressionlessly: “Kneel down and lick my feet.”
Lin Banxia: “…” You went there a bit abruptly.
When Li Ye heard this, he actually squatted down and wanted to put Li Su’s feet on his knees. Li Ye cursed and fired without hesitation, killing ‘Li Ye’ again. When the black mud melted in front of their eyes, Li Su pointed at it and said to Sergey: “See? This is the fate of counterfeiters.”
Sergey let out a low sob and said: “Irina, my poor Irina…”
Lin Banxia whispered: “Is this how you usually communicate with Li Ye?”
Li Su smiled: “Yes, but usually after I say those words, he will be the one who shoots. It is impossible for him to lick my feet. Li Ye is in a good mood if he does not break my feet…
Lin Banxia: “…”
Sergey stared at the mud that Li Ye had turned into, and suddenly his eyes lit up, as if he had grasped the last straw. He said: “Irina is bleeding, she is not dead yet…”
Li Su said coldly: “You are wrong about this. It will not make such a low-level mistake. As long as it is not fatal and the blood is flowing, you will not find out that she is fake unless you destroy her head.”
Hearing this, Sergey showed a painful and confused expression, but in the end, he made no attempt to argue with Li Su.
Lin Banxia noticed that Sergey’s spirit seemed to be in a fluctuating state, sometimes good and sometimes bad. Sometimes he could still talk sense, but when he saw Irina like he just did, he wanted to chase after her regardless.
After barely calming Sergey’s mood, the three of them continued to explore. This time they were much more careful. They would check every corner before entering a room. After walking around for a long time, Lin Banxia also figured out the pattern and determined that there were countless identical stone rooms here. Some rooms were empty, and some rooms were filled with human things, but there were no traces of human life in any of them.
In the darkness, time passed by so quickly that it was already twelve o’clock in the morning by the time Lin Banxia reacted.
“Let’s rest for a while.” Li Su was a little tired. When he fell, his hand had a dull pain. He didn’t know if it was a fracture. Now the pain became more and more obvious. He suggested, “Sleep for a while before continuing and then we’ll find an exit.”
Lin Banxia and Sergey had no reason to object.
Then, they found a room with a bed, and one person kept watch while the other two rested. The person watching for the night watched the door with a flashlight to prevent anything else from entering. Lin Banxia was indeed a little sleepy. He lay down on the hard stone bed and fell asleep. The surroundings were dark. He didn’t know how long he had slept. However, when he woke up and turned on the flashlight, he found Li Su and Sergey were gone. He lay alone in the empty stone room, surrounded by silence.
Lin Banxia got up from the bed and called Li Su’s name, but there was no reply.
He looked around and found a series of blood stains on the ground outside. His heart tightened and he immediately guessed that something must have happened to Li Su and Sergey.
“Li Su? Li Su?” Calling Li Su’s name, Lin Banxia walked in the dark, surrounded by identical rooms. He seemed to have entered a weird maze, “Li Su? Where are you? Li Su???” He explored forward for a time but found nothing until he walked past a certain room. A series of panicked footsteps came to his ears. Lin Banxia was stunned and turned toward the sound. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw a Chinese man whose face was covered with blood. He was also stunned when he saw Lin Banxia, and then shouted: “Run!!!”
Before Lin Banxia could react, he was grabbed by him, and the two of them ran wildly together.
At the last moment of running forward, Lin Banxia glanced behind him. In the darkness, countless green eyes appeared, and human faces appeared and disappeared in the darkness. At first glance, In the narrow corridor, there seemed to be dozens of people standing densely packed…
Lin Banxia ran all the way. He didn’t know how long he ran. After a while, he couldn’t see any more eyes behind him. He held onto the wall and gasped. Only then did he have time to look at the Chinese man next to him. That man was a young man who was also out of breath. Seeing Lin Banxia looking over, he stammered: “Are you a human? Are you…a human??”
Lin Banxia was helpless: “You didn’t know whether I was a human or a ghost, yet you dragged me away?”
The man said: “It’s okay, if you are a ghost, I still have this.” He took out a pistol from his pocket and gestured in front of Lin Banxia.
“Did you come in from behind? I knew they would definitely send someone in, but what exactly did you bring in? Oh my God.” The man muttered to himself, wiped the sweat from his head, and complained. He said, “It’s already troublesome enough here, and yet you’re actually here to make it more difficult.”
When Lin Banxia heard what he said, he immediately realized that he was a member of the previous team and asked, “Do you know Li Su?”
Translator’s comments:
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