Chapter Ch117.2 - Ghost

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

The Crosson Show broadcast studio.

Ying Xiangxiang smiled and praised, “They’re the first group to figure out the rules again. Little Witch and Vera work well together.”

Blood Pigeon laughed briefly, “Yes, but––”

The director switched the camera to show the scene at the other end of the gallery in the King’s suite.

A little red faced young woman was stuttering as she tried to speak to Wei Yan: “Behind the frame… there seems to be something…”

To the west of the suite.

Wu Jin pulled out the fifth card, and it was once again sent away by Vera.

Even before they had time to find the sixth card, the card in their hands turned a little hot.

The two of them moved at the same time, bowing their heads to look down at the card.

“The other two cards have been found by other contestants…” Vera narrowed her eyes, “…What is this?”

What appeared to be a section of a painting appeared in the middle of the card.

A man with white hair was surrounded by angels as he looked up towards the gates to the gods up in the clouds. Light shone down from above, holy and solemn.

Wu Jin looked at it for a long time and finally shook his head, “Greek mythology. As for the rest… this painting must be in the Palace of Versailles. We’ll look for it.”

Vera understood. She looked carefully at the portion of the painting in the card, then helped Wu Jin look at every painting. In the King’s suite and the entire wing of the building, all the walls were covered with large-scale murals. The French court paintings were all similar in style with varied details, and by the time they’d finished searching the entire corridor, it was already nearly dark.

The candle holders across the entire palace finally lit up.

Vera smiled wryly, “I thought we were coming to a dance. I didn’t think we’d end up looking for paintings.”

Wu Jin comforted her, “At least we have peace-loving ghosts here––no threatening piano playing, and the cards are stuffed behind painting frames.” He then added, “At least, we haven’t met any yet.”

Wu Jin suddenly froze, his mind flashing back to the vague shadow in the window when they’d landed by parachute.

However, he pushed that image to the back of his mind.

After looking through the wing, the two of them went on to look through the war corridor, encountering the loudly singly Caesar twice, Zoe, who was carrying a sculpture, once, Thin Fire, who was pouring water over porcelain, once, and the Wei Yan, who was standing in front of the wall quietly, like a stone statue, three times. The A-level and S-level trainees who didn’t want to use up their fighting power showed a friendly surface level brotherhood to each other one after another.

Wu Jin looked slowly out the window. It seemed that the big boss hadn’t landed in the main Palace of Versailles. It was likely that he was clearing the jungle in the farmhouses. At this hour, he might even be roasting a rabbit for himself…

Wu Jin breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to eliminate the big boss if they drew the same card.

All of a sudden, he turned to look at Vera, “Just now&#k2013;&#k2013;what was Brother Wei Yan looking at?”

Vera shrugged, “I don’t know. He was looking at the wall.”

Wu Jin spoke slowly, “There are murals on the wall.”

Vera was shocked, then reacted instantly, “He’s looking for paintings? Is he also looking for paintings?”

Wu Jin shifted his eyes slightly as his memory flashed back, “We met Brother Wei Yan three times. The first two times, he was staring at the murals. The first time, he was looking at us––at the oil paintings behind us.”

“His card is the same as ours.”

Vera sucked in a breath of cold air, and then smiled bitterly a while later, “Now what?”

Wu Jin glanced at the card in his hand, “There’s only one option. Eliminate Wei Yan. Where have we already looked?”

Vera: “The Hall of Mirrors, the war hall, and the promenade in the wing. We’ve gone through all the places with frames––this is already the second time through.”

Wu Jin exhaled softly.

Neither they nor Wei Yan had found any clues to the card. Wu Jin simply decided to switch the topic, “Just now, I didn’t see a ghost playing the piano…”

Vera laughed, “The ghost wasn’t on the piano bench.”

Wu Jin froze.

Vera: “The ghost was a 4D projection. It was right at dusk, and the light was too bright, it’s normal not to have seen it.”

“The ghost was floating beside the grand piano. His hands weren’t on the keys, but in the body of the piano, pressing…”

Vera paused between finishing off her words, and Wu Jin immediately connected it together, “Holding down the wooden hammers, driving the levers to move. From the front of the grand piano, the keys will sink, making it appear like an invisible hand is playing the piano––”

Vera smiled and nodded, “Later, more players crowded in. Other players might have originally had a chance to see him, but everyone was paying attention to the piano keys, and so he slowly drifted up to the ceiling and started to scatter the cards. This ghost is very interesting. He played the piano to attract the players’ attention, then hid himself and his deeds.”

Wu Jin asked about the ghost’s clothing, but he already knew, “It should be a court musician.”

Vera: “Yes. The piano card is a court musician. Logically speaking, the one to put the cards behind the paintings should then be a court painter.”

Wu Jin nodded, then went back over the scene beside the piano in his mind. He suddenly came up with two words, “The ceiling.”

Vera was confused, “What?”

Wu Jin quickly explained, “The palace musician floated up to the ceiling. We’ve looked at all the galleries, but we haven’t seen a hint of the ghost who gave us the blue card. Is it possible that it’s floating above us and hasn’t come down?”

“Also––” Wu Jin suddenly thought of something. He took out the card again, his fingertips sliding across the clouds.

“Clouds, angels. Not only does the Palace of Versailles have paintings and murals, there’s another type of art that we haven’t looked at.”

Vera narrowed her eyes at the clouds that Wu Jin was pointing to and seemed to realize something in her mind––

She suddenly opened her mouth, “… Ceiling murals.”

Wu Jin led Vera back through the marble courtyard and breathed a sigh of relief. He tried to avoid Wei Yan’s line of sight, “Ceiling murals mostly appear in churches, and they usually have religious themes. After Louis XIV came into power, he unified the monarchy with the idea of the divine right of kings and weakened the religious faction, making it possible for paintings of Greek mythology to appear in the ceilings. Clouds, angels, and gates to the gods are images that were originally very suitable for ceiling art.”

“Let’s go back to the King’s suite and start looking.”

Vera agreed immediately, her eyes shining.

Wu Jin even started to have the sense that, for this spartan-like contestant, rather than finding clues, she was much more looking forward to ‘pushing forward the progress of the instance’, ‘having a fight’, and ‘going back to fight with the female armored warrior’, and so on.

The two of them passed through the corridor in front of the suit. Beneath the platform, there was a player trying to dismantle the piano, but ended up being violently stopped by Caesar.

The first door opened. In the ceiling lit by the light of the fires, Artemis smiled down from above.

Behind the second door was Apollo, charged with a vigorous spirit.

Wu Jin affirmed, “The moon god, the sun god. If we’re right, then the card clue should be here––”

The third door.

Wu Jin’s eyes widened as he looked up.

A dome mural that covered nearly 500 square meters covered the entire Hercules Salon, depicting an entire story from mythology. Nearly 100 gods and goddesses from Mount Olympus all had benign smiles, and the middle of the painting was the same as the prompt on the card.

The strong and powerful Hercules who fought bravely, conquering ancient primitive powers, protecting the Greek people, living and dying for the sake of his friends, and finally rose up to ascend up to the Kingdom of the Gods with the guidance of the other gods.

“It’s Hercules. This painting depicts Hercules.” Wu Jin’s tense shoulders finally relaxed. He looked back to speak to Vera, but he discovered that his teammate was staring at a corner of the wall.

Wu Jin lifted his head, but couldn’t see anything but the colorful dome.

Vera’s lips moved before she spoke, “I can see it, it’s right there––it was there just now, but then it suddenly disappeared––”

There was a bang.

Something was there in the corner of the wall.

Wu Jin reached out to pat Vera on the shoulder to steady her. The female contestant was a little shorter than he was and would still be scared when she saw a ghost.

“I’ll go and take a look. Don’t be scared.” Wu Jin comforted her like a gentleman.

Vera spoke after half a beat, “It––that ghost, it’s a little different––”

Wu Jin went to the corner and picked up a black sheepskin parchment notebook.

He frowned slightly as soon as it touched his hands. The second half of the paper was twisted and deformed. It seemed as though it had been soaked in dark brown liquid and then dried again.

Vera leaned in.

––“Nobody wanted to be the chief painter more than he did. His desire for honor and fame was stronger than anyone else. He took over the assignment for the ceiling mural, but Louis XV wasn’t so easy to please.”

––“He really did it. The <Apotheosis of Hercules>, 142 figures, painted on 43 canvases and pasted on the dome. Even the curves of the figures along the dome were executed exactly the way he’d wanted.”

––“He really became Louis XV’s chief painter.”

––“He’s dead. François Lemoyne. He slit his throat and stabbed himself in the chest nine times

with a knife.”

––“He died because of his last painting, the most outstanding one.”

Vera suddenly made a sound of shock.

Wu Jin looked up, and his expression stiffened.

The long-haired painter’s ghost had appeared at some unknown time to stand in front of the two. His features were twisted by pain, and his eyes were sad.

There were many wounds and blood beneath his neck.

“Careful––” Vera was anxious.

The ghost suddenly reached out to Wu Jin with pale, bloody hands!

Juurensha: GHOST!

xiin: boo!