Chapter 1408

"Although this person has all sorts of faults, I like that he keeps his word."

Xia De muttered, putting the card into his deck. Although he tried his best to restrain himself, a smile still appeared on his face. The scene of him smiling in the faint candlelight at the desk, with his back to the woman's corpse on the bed, was strange, but fortunately, no one could see it.

And after getting the card, the ostensible purpose of Xia De's visit to the manor tonight was achieved, but there were still many things he had to do.

Turning to look at the woman's corpse, he muttered softly:

"Oh, since Lady Hela has been murdered, perhaps I can find the murderer who killed her."

As the words fell, the wind and snow blowing in from the half-open window suddenly intensified. And the howling wind sounded more like ghosts wailing.

When Xia De turned to look at the window, he only saw a huge fireball in the direction of the distant city, which rushed directly into the night sky, followed by a delayed, thunderous explosion. It seemed that the church had already begun to face the enemy head-on.

【Then, how are you going to investigate?】

"She" asked softly in Xia De's ear, and Xia De looked at the corpse again:

"There are no wounds on the exterior, nor are there any traces of poisoning. Unless I dissect the corpse, I cannot find clues by normal means. But fortunately, I am a Ring-Ringed Ringed Shushi."

He took out bone powder and sprinkled it over the corpse: "Sorcery—Guide to Death."

The soul that should have been summoned did not appear. Instead, under the perspective of "Demon Sight," the petrified rose vines squirmed and grew, fixing the corpse more firmly to the bed.

But Xia De's sorcery was not without effect. He heard the woman's sigh, and then saw transparent footprints appear by the bedside. The footprints paced by the bed and then extended toward the door. In normal perspective, these footprints were very blurry, but under the perspective of Demon Sight, the glowing footprints were even brighter than the candle.

Xia De did not follow them immediately, but used a small knife to take a drop of blood from Hela Osenfort's finger, and then dripped it into his own eyes:

"Blood Echo."

A sorcery that can see blood traces in a normal state can see all trajectories within one hour before death and one hour after death when blood from a dead person is dripped into it.

Sure enough, when the blood entered his eyes, Xia De almost immediately saw a phantom appear on the bed, overlapping with the actual position. But there was only such a phantom, which meant that both before and after death, she was lying in this position.

"Was she sleeping before she died?"

Xia De was a bit puzzled and took off the sapphire earring from Hela Osenfort's ear. With a hard squeeze, the glass sealing a drop of Stone Osenfort's blood shattered directly, and that drop of blood, guided by the curse, floated into Xia De's right eye:

"Blood Echo."

When a living person's blood is dripped into his eyes, Xia De can see the phantom formed by a target's movement trajectory within twenty-four hours for the next hour. When he was looking for the missing Priest Ao Gu Si in Mid-Hill Fort, he relied on this sorcery.

Stone Osenfort's blood-colored shadow appeared before his eyes, and the position of his feet was the position of the footprints on the ground. He checked his wife's condition by the bed, and then walked out of the room, overlapping with the series of footprints on the ground.

Xia De held the longsword in one hand and the candlestick from the desk in the other, and followed.

With "Demon Sight" and "Blood Echo" working together, Xia De found that the details he saw became more numerous; it was almost like seeing what happened in the past directly.

The footprints extended to the corridor, and when Xia De also crossed the bedroom door, he actually took a step out and appeared in the manor's courtyard, where gray snowflakes were dancing.

【Some kind of power connected the bedroom door to the manor gate. Entering the room is normal space; leaving the room leads to another space. Osenfort left this way too.】

"She" explained softly. Xia De was also a Ring-Ringed Ringed Shushi who mastered spatial power, and he understood what "she" meant. And "she" was right; whether it was the footprints on the ground or the blood-colored light and shadow in Xia De's eyes, they still continued before his eyes.

That figure did not head toward the mansion entrance again, but turned and walked

toward the manor's fence gate.

Osenfort's footprints clearly lingered for two steps on the right side of the fence gate, and the blood-colored figure prompted Xia De that he had stuffed something into the brick seam.

Xia De reached out and hooked gently, and a smooth gray stone shard floated out from the brick seam, the stone shard covered with ant-sized demonic runes.

Xia De thought for a moment, injected his own spirit, and then threw it into the snow.

Light and shadow rose from the snow, and the translucent figures of Hela Osenfort and Stone Osenfort, who looked much younger, appeared.

"I have bought back this manor that originally belonged to the Osenfort family."

Stone Osenfort in the illusion carried luggage and said to the young girl beside him:

"In a while, I will go to your house to propose marriage. Now I have money too, and your parents, old Mr. Watson and Mrs. Watson, will no longer reject me."

"We can finally be together."

Because he had seen Lady Hela's expressionless appearance, the happy look on Hela Watson's face in the illusion made Xia De feel very strange.

"Stone, can you tell me now what kind of business you are doing?"

Hela asked again. She looked at her future husband with concern, while the slightly younger Osenfort smiled and said:

"You don't need to worry about this. I will become richer and richer. Yes, richer than any of my ancestors, and your parents will never look down on me again."

The illusion ended here; the function of that stone shard was just to release the illusion. So Xia De continued to follow the footprints and the blood-colored phantom forward, still not heading toward the mansion, but toward the flower bed covered by snowflakes.

The footprints lingered here again, and the blood-colored figure told Xia De that Osenfort had hidden something under the snow surface again.

It was still a smooth gray stone shard, and this time it was still an illusion.

Stone Osenfort stood in the center of the flower bed, while Hela was painting in front of an easel. Hela Watson was very good at painting; when Xia De visited for the second time, he had been a model in the back garden.

"The wedding date is getting closer and closer."

Osenfort maintained his pose. His attire at this time was very similar to when Xia De first saw him at Count Granger's banquet.

"I received a letter from your father. He gave me a... prenuptial agreement." Hela Watson's hand painting the oil painting paused, and she said softly:

"That was my father's own idea, you don't have to mind." Osenfort, maintaining his motionless posture, said:

"It doesn't matter, that agreement is also very necessary. It proves the assets we each held before marriage and agrees on the distribution of assets after divorce... after divorce. In addition to the part that originally belonged to you, the agreement also stipulates that once we divorce, under any circumstances, I must give you half of my private property."

"I..."

A look of guilt appeared on the woman's face in front of the easel.

"It doesn't matter. I left Captain Woody's ship and got this family business just to marry you. If one day I change my heart, I would rather compensate you with my heart, let alone half of the property?"

Stone Osenfort, whose face was extremely rugged, had been thought by Xia De to be more like a robber before, but at this moment, he showed a kind of rough handsomeness:

"I will love you for a lifetime, no matter what the price."

The illusion smiled and winked at the woman behind the drawing board, and Hela Osenfort also smiled: "You love me, without paying any price, just as I love you."

Roughly estimating from the timeline, since he had already become wealthy, Osenfort at this time must have long completed the contract with the demon, so Xia De could feel the determination in this sentence. And after Hela Watson finished this sentence, she hid her face behind the drawing board again, so the manor owner did not see the slight guilt that still existed on her face.

The illusion ended, and Xia De sighed and shook his head in the snow, illuminating the snow surface with the flickering light of the candlestick in his hand:

"Although everyone who knows Stone Osenfort

says he has always loved her deeply, I didn't expect it to be this situation." 【Will you let him go because of this?】

"How is that possible?"

The western night sky was suddenly illuminated by a golden light, followed by a dull sound sweeping over. The ground trembled slightly, and even the trajectory of the dancing snowflakes was changed by the impact of the sound wave.

Xia De looked at that direction with great worry, and then continued to track the footprints and the blood-colored figure. After leaving the flower bed, the footprints and the blood-colored figure circled the courtyard in front of the manor for a large circle before finally arriving in front of the mansion.

The footsteps lingered again, and another stone shard was hidden.

When the illusion was activated, the transparent figures appearing at the entrance, besides Hela and Stone, actually included the former's father, old Mr. Watson, whom Xia De had seen at the haunted Watson Manor. Of course, at this time, he was not in the form of an old ghoul with four arms, but a healthy living person.

A translucent phantom carriage drove into the courtyard, and old Mr. Watson stepped out of the carriage, leaning on a cane, and then looked up at the manor mansion:

"This place is very open and looks good, it's just a bit too old. If you two really want to get married, this place still needs to be renovated."

"Father, Stone said it will be renovated soon."

Young Hela Watson said, and old Mr. Watson looked at his daughter with a smile. But when he looked at Stone Osenfort, the look of disgust on his face was undisguised:

"I came today to sign that prenuptial agreement with you. If Hela hadn't insisted on marrying you, I wouldn't have any connection with someone like you, no matter what."

Stone Osenfort was actually not a person with a very good temper, but in the illusion, although he was angry, he still tried hard to endure it:

"Then let's go in, we can sign now."

"No, I won't enter such a dilapidated house. Although this is your ancestral home, in my opinion, it is not only dilapidated, but the level of artistic aesthetics is really poor."

Old Mr. Watson said, then put his hands in his pockets, and with his back to his daughter and future son-in-law, turned to look at the scenery in the courtyard.