Trafford’s Trading Club

As they moved towards the mysterious oasis mentioned by Mr. Otto, animal skeletons occasionally appeared buried in the sand on the way… but only animal skeletons.

Just as Mr. Adili, the Bedouin, had said, the vicinity was rarely visited by people… even though they knew there was a well-watered oasis here, they preferred to live in areas with harsher conditions.

The more primitive the tribe, the deeper their worship and awe of the primitive.

Luo Qiu and Mr. Otto no longer talked about the “Gospel of Judas.” Perhaps it was because they were getting closer to their destination that everyone gradually became silent, including Aria, who seemed like she would die if she didn’t talk.

“The camels can’t go any further ahead,” Aria suddenly shouted loudly, “If you go further, the camels will go out of control and throw you to the ground! Don’t say I didn’t warn you when you fall off.”

Claudia glanced skeptically at Boss Luo—who just nodded slightly.

This time, Claudia didn’t mutter anything either… she had a vague feeling that controlling the camel she was riding was becoming increasingly difficult—the camel’s desire to move forward was continuously diminishing.

“What exactly is up ahead?” Claudia couldn’t help frowning and asking.

“Gods!” Aria said at this moment, placing both hands prayerfully on his chest as he bowed towards the distant oasis, “We humans shouldn’t offend the great Heavenly Deity; it will bring us punishment!”

Claudia sneered, “But you offended once half a year ago, and now you do it again!”

Aria naturally had a twisted logic and bluntly stated, “Heavenly Deities are not too harsh on those who work hard. I’m a diligent worker, and I have a reverent heart for the Heavenly Deity.”

“That Heavenly Deity must be blind!” Claudia snorted coldly, just about to climb down from the camel… unexpectedly, the camel beneath her suddenly panicked, spinning in place frantically.

Sure enough, Claudia was thrown off the camel’s back, but fortunately, the ground was full of fine sand, leaving her unharmed.

The camel then broke free and quickly fled in the direction away from the oasis. Claudia tried to chase for a few steps but, naturally, couldn’t catch up, and she had to give up, returning with a sullen face.

“Why didn’t your camel go out of control?” Claudia asked Luo Qiu in surprise when she returned.

Since Boss Luo chose to walk together with Mr. Otto, he hadn’t ridden a camel again; instead, he was just leading it by holding the rope tied to the camel… This camel, at the moment, appeared obedient, showing no signs of losing control.

“Animals go out of control because they sense unease and danger,” Mr. Otto spoke up suddenly, “Their senses are countless times sharper than humans… Take this camel, for instance. Its ability to sense danger in the desert is unchallenged—perhaps it hasn’t felt any danger yet, or maybe what it perceives is only safety.”

“Is this a female camel?” Claudia rolled her eyes in irritation.

Just then, Luo Qiu suddenly released the rope in his hand and patted the camel’s body gently, saying softly, “You’ve worked hard along the way; go find your companion.”

The camel seemed to understand, making two soft cries before heading in the direction where the out-of-control camel had left, occasionally pausing and looking back… until it too disappeared into the distant sand dunes along the path they came from.

“Why… why did you let it go! How are we supposed to ride now?” Claudia was almost crazed with anger, “This is a desert; there are no animal protection agents to find you! Animal lover!”

Boss Luo replied, “Since there’s only one camel left, it wouldn’t be fair for any of us to ride it, would it?”

Claudia opened her mouth, stomped her feet, and muttered, “We could ride together.”

“Stop arguing! Look—!” Aria suddenly ended the conversation, pointing ahead with a look of panic—at the location of the oasis!

In the shimmering heat-distorted air on the road ahead, in that patch of brown-green oasis, they vaguely saw a massive swaying structure!

The swaying of the structure was naturally due to light refraction, but even so, they could clearly make out the outline of this massive structure… Claudia hastily grabbed the notebook from Boss Luo’s hand, the one with Otto’s sketched drawings, and compared it to the buildings ahead.

“There really is… ruins.” She steadied herself, looking slightly excitedly at Boss Luo and said, “And it’s exactly the same! And also…”

Claudia suddenly turned sharply towards Aria and Mr. Otto, smirking coldly, “The fact also proves you were lying… Didn’t you say the main temple disappeared? Then what’s this? This is the same temple you drew as disappeared!”

Mr. Otto, however, did not respond, only frowning slightly, with a trace of confusion in his expression, staring straight at the oasis ahead.

“Aren’t you going to speak, Mr. Liar?” Claudia sneered again.

Mr. Otto merely glanced indifferently at Claudia, said nothing, and walked straight towards the oasis, bypassing everyone.

Claudia tried to stop him, pulling hard on the rope tied to Mr. Otto… but what she pulled back was just a broken nylon rope!

Mr. Otto, with his hands tied behind his back, subtly twisted them a few times, and surprisingly the ropes binding him untied themselves and fell loose.

He continued walking forward, his steps visibly lighter and quicker than before.

“How… how did he do that? I used a specific knot, not an ordinary one!” Claudia pointed at Mr. Otto’s magician-like escape, looking dumbfounded at the new classmate who had joined, a face full of shock.

Boss Luo just smiled and casually remarked, “What kind of knot was that?”

Claudia opened her mouth, a trace of confusion crossed her face… she shook her head, “Nothing really… this Otto guy is strange all over, we need to keep a close watch on him to prevent him from secretly doing something… so far, he’s the only guy left who knows what happened when my father was researching the ruins. I don’t believe for a second what he said about losing his memory.”

As she spoke, Claudia even took out her phone, opened the recording mode, and hurried after him, gun in hand, intending to document everything comprehensively.

At this time, Aria mimicked Otto’s movements, trying to twist and loosen the rope on his wrist… but the more he twisted, the tighter it became, cutting into his skin as if he would cry from the pain.

He met Boss Luo’s gaze and could only sheepishly smile, keeping his head down and walking in silence.

The distance between them and the mysterious ruins in the oasis was gradually closing… without any unexpected incidents on the path, they reached the outskirts of the oasis.

And at that point, Mr. Otto, always leading the way, finally stopped… standing outside the oasis, lifting his head to look at everything within, suddenly said in a low voice, “I have been to this place… more than once.”

Just that no one heard him say this.

Claudia finally caught up because Otto finally stopped here, but unexpectedly, Mr. Otto suddenly started walking forward, and in the blink of an eye disappeared into the oasis shrubs.

…

It’s hard to imagine that in the center of a desolate and extremely harsh desert, there could be such a lush oasis—the plants here seem full of juice… there’s even fruit—fruit trees are everywhere.

Despite the harsh environment with the scorching sun, the tall plants providing shade bring a rare coolness here.

Even the water… the water is refreshing, sweet like well water.

The localized contrasting geographical environment made Claudia, a science-believing smart student, exclaim in wonder… Claudia, using her imperfect geographical knowledge, speculated that there must be an abundant underground river beneath this oasis, otherwise it couldn’t grow so lushly.

“Those Bedouins actually abandoned such a good place, it’s incomprehensible.” Claudia casually picked a bunch of red fruits from a fruit tree, broke them apart and stuffed them into her mouth. “These are dates, don’t worry about eating them, they’re not poisonous, and they’re highly nutritious. Eating a few usually suffices for a day’s energy consumption… mainly sugar.”

Boss Luo took two pieces, tasted them lightly, and found the flavor quite good.

“You… what kind of look is that?” Claudia felt the newcomer’s gaze was somewhat unusual at the moment, and curiously asked, “Afraid I’m tricking you?”

Boss Luo smiled and said, “I said before, Claudia, you’re very impressive. You just haven’t had the chance to show it… look, isn’t this your chance now?”

She shrugged expressionlessly but was somewhat smug internally, even slightly shaking her head and neck, as if a little innocent girl lived within her body.

“Stop eating! Hurry up and move!”

The next second, Claudia knocked Aria’s head with her semi-automatic rifle—this desert guide was incredibly hungry, tiptoeing to bite the fruits on the tree, munching vigorously.

Hmm… a grown girl lives within.

…

…

The further they walked in, the denser the plants became, making it nearly impossible to proceed… Mr. Otto kept his head up, constantly observing the structures deep within the dense vegetation.

His body even bore many small wounds from the sharp leaves—from formation to healing, nearly disappearing completely, all happened within a very brief timeframe… His face looked weathered and dusty, but the skin inside his clothes appeared very smooth.

“I’ve been here… I’ve been here… I’ve been here.”

He kept repeating the same words until he finally pushed aside the last obstacle and entirely emerged from the barrier-like vegetation, standing before a gigantic temple.

He continued walking forward, reaching the entrance of this trapezoidal pyramid temple, only to be blocked by a completely sealed large stone gate.

Mr. Otto took a deep breath, placing his palm on the large stone gate, carefully feeling the engraved patterns on the stone gate—at this moment, the stone gate suddenly began to tremble and then slowly rose.

He frowned, the rising stone gate led to a pitch-black passageway… as if the image deep within the passage was transmitting a voice, like a snake’s language… sound!

The pitch-black passageway seemed like the road leading to the Netherworld, Mr. Otto suddenly felt a chilling coldness… He hesitated for a moment, eventually stepping forward, stepping into the stone gate.

“Stop—!”

But just at this moment, a loud voice came from behind—Claudia’s voice!

The voice made Mr. Otto shiver intensely—only now did he realize he was drenched—at this instant, a large amount of sweat was expelled from his body!

Although he did sweat, due to his constitution, it was much less than a normal person’s—such a large amount of sweat, there haven’t been many times like this throughout the years.

His heart also leapt at this time, Mr. Otto retracted his foot at once, only feeling the snake-like voice transmitted vaguely was getting increasingly loud in his mind… His complexion suddenly turned pale, then felt dizzy.

“What do you really want to do?” Claudia caught up from behind, forcefully grabbed Otto’s arm, and asked sternly, “Do you still have something you’re hiding… ah—!”

Only to find Mr. Otto turned around to glance at Claudia, and this look simultaneously allowed Claudia to clearly see Mr. Otto’s current facial appearance—she screamed in horror instantly!

On Otto’s face, dense small cracks appeared… as if his entire person was made of clay… his face, his neck, even the skin exposed was showing cracks like those of a clay figurine overly dried!

This terrifying look was the reason Claudia screamed instantly.

She instinctively released the hand gripping Otto’s arm… Mr. Otto suddenly lost support, his eyes rolled, and he directly fell to the ground.

“What happened.”

“I… I don’t know, he… he suddenly…” Claudia turned back, looking at Luo Qiu walking from behind, the whole person became particularly flustered, “I… I just grabbed him once, then he suddenly fell down! His… his look became very scary… very, very scary!”

Upon hearing this, Aria promptly turned Mr. Otto who was lying on the ground over, but seeing Otto’s appearance at this moment, he was also shocked, sitting paralyzed, “This… this… this… this? Could there really be a Heavenly Deity? The Heavenly Deity is punishing… going to punish us!”

Saying so, Aria lay down on the ground at once, trembling all over, muttering words he didn’t know what—Boss Luo could tell it was Bedouin language—looks like Aria, like Mr. Adili from the small tribe they encountered earlier, was also of Bedouin descent.

Boss Luo glanced at unconscious Otto at this moment, just about to examine carefully, when a voice suddenly came from the red Lamp Spirit hiding in the Magic Lamp.

A suppressed voice.

“Inside here… there’s an evil presence… I can feel it, a power far stronger than me—how on earth can there be a power stronger than the spirit of the magic lamp in this world! Let’s go… take me away… the thing inside seems to have awakened! Quick—!”

In the end, the red Lamp Spirit’s voice was already becoming tense…

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