novelonline Chapter 2569 Treasure and Time Rules
Chapter 2569 Treasure and Time Rules
Chapter 2569 Treasure and Time Rules
Instead of checking the building separately to save time, the two decided to check it together starting from the basement.
Of course, Xia De did not forget to use "Strong Spatial Perception" to determine the internal structure of this building with three floors above ground and one floor underground, to make sure there was no secret passage connecting to the outside.
Although the former baronial residence looked almost the same as it did a hundred years ago, it was still dilapidated. The brilliance seemed to be only on the surface. A closer look revealed dust all over the floor and walls, and spider webs everywhere in the inconspicuous corners.
The basement is quite large and was used as a wine cellar in the past. Even now, there are still more than ten bottles of red wine stored on a row of shelves in the wine cellar, but after Miss Winslet's inspection, the red wine is not valuable:
"They are all recent red wines produced by a large winery in Huntington. Old Bennett probably stored them and planned to take them out when his four daughters got married. This is a tradition in central Carson Creek."
Xia De summoned a silver ball of light, which illuminated the surroundings of the two people. She put the red wine back.
"Come to think of it, Carina gave me a bottle of delicious red wine at the end of last year, and she was so secretive that she refused to say which winery it was from. Could this matter also be related to you?"
The walls of the basement were all stone, which reminded Shad of the damp chapel in the basement of Aurora Manor in Coldwater Harbor. Fortunately, there was no chapel of the cultists in the old Bennett house, but when Shad used "Echoes of the Past", he actually heard the sound here.
He raised his finger to signal the witch beside him to keep her voice down, then followed the faint breathing and footsteps he heard, turned around the straw-covered shelves in the wine cellar and came to the southeast corner of the basement:
“There is a secret room here, but it’s not very large.”
He pointed to the corner, but because the area was too small, "Enhanced Spatial Perception" did not find it.
The man in "Echoes of the Past" seemed to have turned some mechanism to open the dark room. Shad and Miss Winslet looked around and found that the supporting legs of the shelf next to it could be rotated.
Then a keyhole appeared on the stone wall of the basement. Shad reached out and knocked again. A series of clicking sounds came from inside the stone wall, and then the stone door opened inward.
The hidden dark room is indeed not big, or it is just a secret compartment on the wall.
There were neatly arranged picture frames and some scattered miscellaneous items such as harmonicas and pens lying inside. The picture frames were all wrapped in waterproof oilcloth. Miss Winslet took out one of the pictures and examined it, and immediately frowned:
"This is... Oh my god, 'First Breakfast'?!"
"what?"
Xia De asked curiously, and the witch explained in a low voice:
"This is a masterpiece by Heinz Konsa, a famous painter from the Deringor Kingdom period before the unification of the southern territory. It was stolen about 200 years ago. I didn't expect it to be here."
“Is it genuine?”
Shade asked, and Miss Winslet nodded slightly, not even daring to touch the painting directly with her hands:
"I'm a professional painter, I can say this is most likely authentic."
"So how much is this painting worth?"
Xia De asked again, and the witch frowned and thought for a while:
"Based on another painting by Master Konsa that was sold at Cassandra Auction House some time ago, the painting I have in my hand is probably worth any floor of the house you own in Saint Teresa Square (note)."
She quickly checked the remaining paintings and found that they were all antique oil paintings as expected. Although the most valuable one was "First Breakfast", the value of the remaining paintings was also astronomical.
As for the other sundries besides the paintings, Miss Winslet found them to be antiques after checking. The pens and harmonicas were all masterpieces of masters, and they were all uniquely numbered and marked, making them easy to identify:
"With all these things added together, even the powerful Duke of the royal capital, Willendel, would be tempted."
She sighed softly, and thought of the same question as Xia De:
"If these things belong to the Bennet family, where did they get so many antiques?"
"Maybe someone else used this as a treasure room? But it's unlikely."
After checking to make sure there were no other clues, Miss Winslet recorded all the antiques one by one, intending to investigate later whether they had any commonalities before they disappeared.
In order not to disturb the owner of these antiques, after putting everything back, Shade asked the witch to step back, and he put on the [Eternal Life Magic Ring] and took a deep breath:
"Breath of Time!"
Time goes back and everything returns to its original state, even the opened doors close automatically.
"Time travel? So what are you good at? If you have a gift for time, why did you learn moon magic from her?"
The witch felt that she was even more curious about Shade, but because the "Chosen One of Time" had not yet shown any signs, she did not think of this:
"During the month that your teacher lived with me, he just kept praising you for being so amazing. I didn't expect that you could also master the spell to turn back time."
"If I didn't have the gift of time, how would I have found you?"
Shade asked, taking off the [Eternal Life Ring]. This was the one he used most often among the current "Mia Seven Rings":
“Let’s get back to business, there is definitely something wrong with the Bennet family now.
Even if only half of these antiques are genuine, it would be enough for them to leave Ximu Town and go to big cities like Willendal or Moon Bay to buy a steam factory and become truly wealthy in the country. "
"Even if there is a way, it is not impossible to become a noble again. I know the value of these antiques, and the Anjou royal family will not mind rewarding a title to the generous merchant who donated the "First Breakfast"."
Miss Winslet added that although she was not in the capital all year round like Miss Sylvia, she knew a lot about it:
"I originally thought that the appearance of the cabinet in the hotel and this mansion was just a coincidence, but now it seems that an investigation is really necessary. I have a hunch that the owner of these antiques is definitely related to time travel, but I don't know if he is from the Bennet family."
The study room where the cabinet was placed a hundred years ago is located on the first floor of the mansion. After the two pushed the door and entered, they saw that the furnishings inside were not much different from those of the past. Some furniture and paintings disappeared, and a floor-standing gas lamp covered with a white cloth was now placed where the bookcase used to be.
The imposing solid wood desk was still placed in front of the window, but there was nothing on the table. The windows were closed, and the windows that the owl and the cat had rushed out of were now locked from the inside. There were three flower pots on the windowsill, and there was only hardened soil in the pots.
"Everything looks normal. Let's search carefully."
Xia De was startled, and immediately looked at the witch beside him. The latter met Xia De's eyes suspiciously, then looked down and saw that her body was becoming transparent:
"What's going on? I, I feel something is wrong."
The light and shadows around her changed, and the phantom of the study room in the dead of winter a hundred years ago was superimposed on the modern study room. Flora Winslet's body became transparent, and she was clearly being pulled back to the past little by little.
She looked at the scene in front of her in amazement, and then subconsciously reached out to Xia De, and Xia De also reached out to her:
"catch me!"
The two hands were held together, the witch's hand became solid while Shad's hand became illusory. This scene was exactly the same as when Shad brought them back from the broom, and when Shad tried to pull her towards him, he once again felt like he was dragging a mountain.
The life ring appeared behind Xia De, and the light of [Time and Space] illuminated them. Xia De, who had already had this experience, said the time point just like last time:
"Sunday, the twenty-first day of the Harvest Moon, ten fifty-one in the morning!"
She fell into Shad's arms, but the phantom of the study in midwinter did not disappear, and the pulling feeling from the past still existed.
Xia De held her and tried to rush to the corridor, but the air seemed to have turned into a sticky liquid, and the resistance from all directions made it difficult for them to move forward.
Seeing that Miss Winslet's body was about to become transparent again, Shade closed his eyes to sense the spatial position, then hugged her and jumped:
"Raglai's Leap!"
The spellcasting materials were prepared before entering the manor, and this spellcasting was also the most difficult space movement after Shade mastered this magical skill.
In the past, space jumps only took a moment, but this time he felt like he was squeezed into a narrow water pipe. After a dizzying sway, he finally appeared in the bedroom above the study, panting.
"Ugh~"
He covered his chest and retched, then hurriedly dug out the bottle of umbilical cord from his pocket and wanted to hand it to the witch. Even if she touched the umbilical cord now, the curse would deepen, but it was better than going back a hundred years.
"It's okay now."
The retching witch also shook her head to avoid the umbilical cord because of the obviously wrong spatial movement just now, with a very ugly expression:
"Another me told me that I couldn't stay in the place where I stayed for a long time in the past, such as the study, otherwise I would be pulled back to the past.
I don’t understand the specific principle, but I can’t get close to that study room no matter what.”
Xia De was sensing the current time, and only let go of her hand after confirming that it was still "now", but he didn't notice that the witch secretly glanced at his hand, that temperature.
"It doesn't matter. At least we should all be thankful that you spent most of the past hundred years in just this one place."
The umbilical cord was turned back into a toy by Shade. He took out a bottle of diluted Holy Water No. 3 and handed it to Miss Winslet. He also drank a bottle himself:
"Let's take a rest here. I'm a little glad that I didn't eat too much this morning. We have already gained something from this investigation, including the treasure in the basement and the extra time rules. Don't worry, we can take our time."
PS: This painting is equivalent to the masterpieces of masters like Picasso, and Xia De’s house is equivalent to the courtyard house on the edge of the imperial city of Beijing.
This analogy should be clear.
(End of this chapter)