novelonline Chapter 2757: The Ghost Chamber and the Fire
Chapter 2757: The Ghost Chamber and the Fire
Chapter 2757: The Ghost Chamber and the Fire
"We folklorists don't easily believe in claims of supernatural phenomena."
The professor immediately emphasized, but lowered his voice:
"But this statement is most likely true. I have seen similar records. Also, do you know where the bodies of the Hoy family were found after the fire was put out?"
Seeing that Xia De and his "female assistant" both shook their heads, Professor Wood said mysteriously:
"The whole house almost collapsed, but strangely, the tables and benches in the banquet hall on the first floor were only charred black. And those charred bodies were all sitting around the table after the house collapsed. It is said that many of the people who put out the fire were scared crazy on the spot."
After the manor was rebuilt, the banquet hall is still a banquet hall, or in other words, the layout of the first floor of the rebuilt building is almost exactly the same as it was back then. This sounds quite unlucky, but no one knows what Director Kant is thinking.
Today, the banquet hall on the first floor was also used as the auction venue, and it was the most important venue in this charity auction. Out of curiosity, Shade wanted to see if he could really encounter a ghost, so after saying goodbye to Professor Wood, he and Miss Danister returned to the first floor to check the situation.
Although the ghost didn't see it, Shad saw something that surprised him:
"arrow?"
In the display cabinet against the wall, there was the "elven antique arrows" that the elf girl had been asking Shade to find. Although he had not touched them directly, Shade had already found two of them, so he was definitely not mistaken.
The auction item was labeled "Antique Arrow Excavated from Vesta Woodland", and the starting price was 10 crowns, which is about 130 pounds. Even for charity auctions, it was a bit too high.
"You definitely want this."
Miss Danister looked at the other information:
"The auction will start at 8:15 p.m. Let's buy the book and come back. But do you have so much cash with you?"
"Of course. How could I come to the auction without money?"
There was no trouble in purchasing "Ximu Town and the World Tree". Only a few people were interested in this unknown ancient book, and seeing that Xia De was determined to raise the price, no one competed with him.
But it was a bit troublesome to go back to the first floor to auction the arrow. Shade didn't know why so many people were interested in it. In a short time after the auction started, the price of the arrow increased from 10 crowns to 50 crowns.
However, Xia De was determined to buy the arrow, so he would continue to bid no matter who bid. People gradually gave up, and in the end, the only person left to bid with him was a young man who looked very familiar.
George Kant, the son of Director Kant who had awakened from the Love Lake, also noticed Shade, and after bidding with Shade for several rounds and raising the price to 80 kronor, he finally stopped bidding.
Therefore, Shade bought the arrow at a price 8 times higher than the reserve price. Although he no longer cares about money, it does not mean that he is happy about this happening.
"The sign says this is an antique donated by Chief Kant himself. Why would his son want to compete with you for this? That's very rude."
Professor Wood, who was sitting next to Shade, asked. He had also raised his placard to bid, but gave up after the price exceeded 20 crowns:
"That young man, is he trying to raise the price with malicious intent? Mr. Watson, did you know him before?"
Shade shook his head:
"Of course I don't know him, but I heard that he was seriously ill some time ago. Is he recovered so quickly?"
Although it cost a little more money, it was good to buy the arrow. However, the arrow was not delivered directly to Xia De. He had to pay the money with others and get what he bought after the auction.
However, Shad was not interested in other items at the auction. After making sure that he had bought the arrow, he wanted to leave with Miss Danister and take a look at other corners of the manor.
He just tilted his head to talk to the red-haired girl, but suddenly noticed a dark translucent figure appeared next to the auctioneer. When he glanced over a few seconds ago, he was sure that there was nothing there.
"Are there really vengeful spirits?"
The figure was obviously severely burned, so it could only be seen that it was a middle-aged man. It was obviously facing Xia De, and when Xia De looked over, it stretched out its finger and pointed in the direction of the banquet hall's door.
"what to do?"
Xia De was surprised when he heard the red-haired girl's complaining voice again. Then he noticed that his tilted head had rested on her shoulder.
The 18-year-old girl pushed Xia De lightly, but the force was not strong. She probably thought Xia De did it on purpose:
"This is a public place, be more cautious, or have you done something similar to Flora?"
"I'm sorry, you can't see that?"
Xia De pointed at the soul next to the auctioneer, who still stretched out his right hand and pointed towards the door.
"what?"
Miss Danister also looked over, and then asked suspiciously:
"I don't see anything here, what do you see?"
So here’s where things start to get interesting.
Anyway, Xia De first took her to say goodbye to Professor Wood and left the banquet hall. When he came to the corridor and saw that there was no one in the corridor, he whispered what he saw:
"A burnt wraith, but he just pointed to the door."
The red-haired girl was still confused:
"There really are vengeful spirits here? But this is not right, right? Hasn't the church noticed anything wrong in all these years?"
As Miss Danister was talking, the soul appeared again on the east side of the corridor, still pointing out the direction with its finger, and still only Shade could see it. But after Shade took a few quick steps closer, the soul disappeared:
"Follow me. No matter what that evil spirit is, let's go and see where he wants us to go."
Xia De was not a reckless person. Of course, he considered that this vengeful spirit that only he could see was a trap. After all, its spirit was tainted with genuine demonic power.
But the soul did not guide Shad to leave Hoy Manor. Instead, it led the two of them out of the building first, and then went around from the courtyard in front of the manor to the garden at the back.
The charred souls were sometimes missed in the dark, but fortunately, Shade's perception was strong. They finally came to the back of the manor house and stopped in front of a low building in the corner of the garden.
This seemed to be where the servants lived, and there was a well next to the building. The vengeful spirit finally appeared in front of the well, with his hand lowered and pointing at the well mouth.
"Are you sure you want to go down?"
Miss Danister asked. Shade stood at the mouth of the well and looked down. He closed his eyes and used "Strong Spatial Perception" to determine the environment in the well:
"There is a small secret room under this well. I want to take a look. You wait here for me."
"I really can't do anything with you. I'll wait for you for ten minutes, and then I'll go downstairs to find you."
Xia De made a gesture to her that it was okay, then leaped up and turned into a flock of butterflies and flew into the well.
There was no entrance to the secret room at the bottom of the well, but the ventilation window of the secret room was opened on the side wall of the well. So the red butterflies flew in through the ventilation window. When Xia De turned into a human form and stood in the secret room, he did not encounter the attack he had guessed:
"So the vengeful spirit really just wanted me to find this place?"
Using the powerful spatial perception to determine the location again, it can be found that the real entrance to the secret room should be in the manor house. When Shade summoned the light ball to illuminate the surroundings, he saw a few lonely boxes placed in the corner.
Apart from that there was nothing else, and it looked rather odd to have such a large area empty.
The box was not locked, and when it was opened, it contained some gold and silver jewelry and antique oil paintings. Xia De was not very proficient in antique appraisal, but at least he could be sure that the precious metals were real:
"Vision Demon."
As expected, all the gold and silver jewelry and antique paintings have demonic power, which means that these things were obtained through transactions with the devil. Of course, being contaminated with demonic power does not mean that these items are harmful to the holder, but keeping these properties will definitely make the holder's luck worse.
There wasn't much dust on the ground. After careful inspection, I found that although these boxes were of styles from hundreds of years ago, they should have been delivered recently.
In other words, it was not the Hoy family three hundred years ago that left these things here, but the current owner of the mansion or someone who knew the location of the secret room moved these treasures here:
"Isn't Mr. Kant making a deal with the devil?"
He continued to examine the antiques, taking note of their styles and appearances, intending to ask Miss Bell to confirm when he returned whether these antiques were from the same source as those he had found in the basement of the old Bennett house.
But he soon found that he didn't need to bother Miss Bell, because among those antique oil paintings, there was a portrait with a "Klein Hoy" nameplate:
“Is this an antique from the Hoy family?”
Xia De was even more confused:
"So is the legend of the Hoy family's treasure true? Did the devil help Director Kant find the treasure? Or did the Hoy family make a deal with the devil, and Director Kant just discovered the long-buried treasure by accident?"
Although the secret room and clues were found, the doubts increased instead of decreased, and Shade still didn't know what the vengeful spirit that led him to find this secret room was. The other party did not appear again, and there was no power of death in the secret room.
With this doubt, he turned into a red butterfly and flew out of the well, but just as he landed, he found that the night sky was reflected red. Amid screams, the mansion of Hoy Manor suddenly caught fire.
The fire must have just started, and the location of the fire was above the front of the mansion, so Shade, who was in the back garden, couldn't see clearly which room was burning. Just from the sound, people were evacuating in a panic, and the fire should not have blocked the passage for people on the first and second floors to leave.