Chapter 1420: The Answer

【Maybe, you can let your cat out and let it distinguish; its sense of smell is very sensitive.】

While Xia De was hesitating, "She" whispered in Xia De's ear, but Xia De refused without even thinking:

"No, it's too dangerous. Although in the description of "Hamilton Detective Stories", Little Mia is a very capable detective cat, those are all plots fabricated by Dorothy. I know Mia doesn't have such great ability. Bringing it to this manor for an adventure tonight is already my fault; how can I expose it to the demon?"

"She" laughed gently in Xia De's ear, and the laughter echoing in the gray world turned into the demon's mocking words:

【Want to try your luck? With the blessing given to you by the God of Gambling.】

"She" whispered in Xia De's ear again, but Xia De still refused:

"Although the blessing of the God of Gambling is very effective, you can't just rely on luck at this time. The Goddess of the Lake treats this demon game as a test for me, which proves that the game itself has an answer, and this answer needs my thinking, absolutely not something that can be guessed by betting on luck."

He narrowed his eyes slightly, as if thinking of something. There was a possibility that none of the remaining two animals in front of him were Xia De's target, and that demon was actually hiding elsewhere. After all, if Xia De were the one setting up the game, Xia De would also play such tricks to deceive.

"Say the game rules the demon proposed just now again."

Xia De said to "She" in his heart. While the whispering sound in his ear repeated gently, the demon's voice appeared in the gray sky above his head again:

"There are ten more minutes left. Oh, look at you, it's really pitiful. Do you need me to give you some hints? I am a kind person, hahaha..."

Xia De used the 【Blasphemous Cross】 to approach the brown bear and the black snake, but just like facing 【Night Watcher】, both animals showed similar uncomfortable reactions.

The Stone Mirror Demon-Gede was extremely good at hiding itself, and disguising itself as other lives after reflecting itself was its best trick. Under such circumstances, even if Xia De had Priest Ao Gu Si's eye drops and the help of 【Night Watcher】, it was very difficult to distinguish which one was the real demon by relying on the confrontation of supernatural powers.

But fortunately, after "She" repeated the rules again, Xia De suddenly understood what means the demon had used. The demon was good at word games, and the answer was actually in the rules.

He didn't point it out immediately, but whispered:

"Let me try that ritual."

As he spoke, he drew the mystery ritual base corresponding to 【Magician's Escape Box】 on the ground with his long sword. He didn't worry about being seen by the demon for what this ritual was used for. After all, the owner of the magic box was a male from the Fifth Era, and the ritual base he drew randomly at that time had no meaning in occultism.

Of course, the location now was in the demon domain, so Xia De just drew the ritual in advance and didn't call Doctor Shi Nai De for the time being.

And after drawing it, in order to cover up his behavior, Xia De pretended to put the black snake on the brown bear's back in the last few minutes, and moved them to the ritual base together.

That ritual didn't have the ability to distinguish demons, so naturally, nothing happened.

Xia De nodded gently:

"In this way, I can only bet on luck and guess. A one-in-two probability, I won't be that unlucky."

"She" laughed in Xia De's ear, and the laughter echoing in the gray world turned into the demon's mocking words:

"You finally took this step. Mortals always try to prove that they are the ones favored by fate, but they don't know that it is just the arrogant babble of poor people before defeat. Five more minutes, you are doomed to lose."

"You are deliberately guiding and distracting my attention."

Xia De stared at the two animals in front of him:

"What is it that you don't want me to notice?"

The demon didn't answer, and the annoying laughter kept echoing in this gray world.

"But I don't know if you noticed that when setting the rules, I was clearly on such good terms with 【Desire】, but I didn't ask that both sides cannot make a move on each other after this game to protect my own safety. I just proposed the ridiculous requirement that the loser cannot leave the manor. You are very confident in yourself, so you wouldn't propose that we cannot make a move on each other after the game, after all, you are stronger than me. But you seem to have no realization at all that I didn't propose similar requirements, which means I have such thoughts."

There was no smile in Xia De's tone. On the contrary, if Luweiya or Dorothy and Princess Lei Qianya were here, they would know that Xia De was going to be serious:

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"You are very good at playing word games; I knew this from the beginning. And now, you actually still want to play such tricks with me. Are you ready, Gede? Are you ready to fight for your life with me after the game ends?"

The laughter continued, and Xia De was still talking:

"My compassion saved that squirrel, my curiosity led me to learn the story of the tiger and the folk scholar, and my honesty made me keep my promise and give the demon servants their freedom. These together helped me rule out three answers in advance. If it weren't for these, my attention would still be on one out of five, instead of starting to consider your tricks."

He took out a small bottle containing water from his pocket, and the liquid was splashed into the air, and then under the effect of the spell "Manipulate Water Flow", it formed a thin water curtain in front of Xia De.

"You said in the rules when setting them that 'I will reflect myself into the appearance of any animal'."

Xia De looked at the water curtain. Although the burning forest could not illuminate this gloomy courtyard, the silver sword light of 【Night Watcher】 in his hand could still illuminate the water curtain, making that water curtain almost become a mirror, reflecting the reflections of the snake and the brown bear:

"So..."

Xia De's eyes were still looking at the two animals, but his left hand reached into the water curtain, grabbing at the 'Stone Osenfort' riding on the brown bear's back in the mirror reflection:

"You just like you described, you didn't turn into animals at all; you turned into their reflections in the mirror!"

Splash!

The gray world cracked, and large pieces of gray peeled off. The firelight of the normal world illuminated Xia De's somewhat pale side face stained with blood, and also illuminated the huge, ancient, old stone mirror that

Petrified rose vines adorned the surface of the black stone mirror frame, and ancient, evil demonic runes told the stories of demons. The blood of the innocent stained the mirror, and the souls of the fallen wailed upon the frame.

"Stone Ossenfort," within the mirror surface of the demon's true form, clapped his hands and laughed out loud:

"How truly magnificent. Could it be that by reflecting your arrogance last time, I too have become tainted by the great sin of arrogance?"

Xia De turned his head, his hand wearing the 【Seal of the Demon Hunter】 reaching into the mirror surface and gripping the demon's throat:

"Game over, I won!"

The demon was still laughing; the skin of its neck was smoking due to the corrosion, but instead, it used both hands to grab Xia De's hand, allowing itself to be corroded by the power of the 【Seal of the Demon Hunter】 while forcing him to squeeze its neck even harder:

"I am abiding by our contract and will not leave here before the sun rises, and Stone Ossenfort's soul also belongs to you. But you dare to get this close to me—have you not realized what you are doing? Perhaps you have many preparations, but at this moment, you have already failed!"

The demon's domain was collapsing; the black snake died, and the tiger, lion, two squirrels, and brown bear fled in panic. The burning forest of the real world bathed the entire manor in red, as if this place were a burning, bottomless hell.

A fierce wind mixed with a gray blizzard greeted Xia De as he returned to the real world. Hela Ossenfort watched all of this silently from a third-floor window of the manor. Miss Sylvia was rushing toward the manor wall at full speed, and Ossenfort, his soul pierced by black chains, was being dragged by Ms. Handel toward the manor entrance. This story seemed to have reached its end.

Although it called itself "Arrogance," the stone mirror demon also understood that Xia De certainly had the confidence to deal with it. This time, it did not hold back as it had at the Watson Manor. Its pitch-black eyes stared at Xia De, and the image of "Stone Ossenfort" wearing robes was melting and deforming.

Xia De's left hand broke free from the demon's hands, which had become ethereal due to the deformation. The fierce wind caused the deck of Luo De cards in his right hand to fly out of his grasp. Fifty-four Luo De cards fluttered around him, and the card that slid past Xia De's eyes rotated one hundred and eighty degrees; it was 【Origin · Darkness】.

Using relics and waiting for them to take effect both require time, but at most ten seconds, the doctor would appear:

Amidst the fluttering cards, the dazzling firelight, and the scene in the distant mountains and city that looked like an apocalyptic disaster, Xia De held the 【Night Watcher】 with both hands—a weapon originating from the demon hunters of the Third Era—and once again pierced the demon's body in this distant Sixth Era.

The longsword pierced the mirror surface, and the mirror began to shatter. As the blade stabbed into the deep darkness within the mirror, Xia De heard the sound of hands clapping once again:

"Do you know who a mortal's greatest enemy is?"

"Eight seconds left."

The power of the Night Watcher collided with the demon's true form. Xia De, already in a poor state, could only grit his teeth to keep the longsword and himself from being repelled by the counter-force.

"When mortals gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."

"Six seconds left."

The stone mirror cracked due to the power of the 【Night Watcher】, and Stone Ossenfort in the mirror disappeared completely; that patch of darkness reflected another person.

"I originate from the reflections within a mortal's heart; I originate from those darkest secrets that one does not wish to be glimpsed."

"Four seconds!"