Chapter 2524: Treasure and Time Rules

The two did not split up to check the building to save time, but planned to check together starting from the basement.

Of course, Xia De did not forget to use "Powerful Space Perception" to determine the internal structure of this three-story building above ground and one-story underground, confirming that there was no secret passage connecting to the outside.

Although the baron's mansion in the past looked almost the same as it did a hundred years ago, it was still dilapidated. The brightness seemed to be maintained only on the surface. If you observe carefully, there is dust everywhere on the floor and walls, and spider webs are everywhere in inconspicuous corners.

The area of the basement was quite large, and it was also used as a wine cellar before. Even now, there were more than a dozen bottles of red wine stored on a row of shelves in the wine cellar, but after Miss Winster's inspection, those red wines were not valuable:

"They are all red wines from recent years, produced by the Huntington winery. It is probably stored by old Bennett, intending to take it out when his four daughters get married. Central Karsenrik has this tradition."

The silver ball of light was summoned by Xia De, illuminating the surroundings of the two, and she stuffed the red wine she pulled out back:

"Speaking of which, Galina sent me a very delicious red wine at the end of last year's festival, and she refused to say which winery it was produced by. This matter wouldn't also be related to you, would it?"

The walls of the basement were stone walls, which reminded Xia De of the damp small church in the basement of the "Aurora Manor" in Coldwater Port. Fortunately, there was no small church for cultists in the old Bennett mansion. It was just that when Xia De used "Echoes of the Past," he actually heard sounds here.

He raised his finger to signal the witch beside him to be quiet, and then followed the faint breathing and footsteps he heard in his ears, turned around the shelf covered with straw in the wine cellar, and came to the southeast corner of the basement:

"There is a secret room here, but the area is not large."

He pointed to the corner of the wall, because the area was too small, so "Powerful Space Perception" did not find it.

The person in the "Echoes of the Past" seemed to have turned some kind of mechanism to open the secret room. Xia De and Miss Winster searched around and found that the support leg of a shelf nearby could be turned.

Then a keyhole appeared on the stone wall of the basement. Xia De knocked again, and a series of clicking sounds kept coming from inside the stone wall, and then the stone door opened inward.

The hidden secret room was indeed not large, or rather, this was just a secret compartment on the wall.

Neatly arranged picture frames and some scattered harmonicas, fountain pens, and other sundries lay inside. The picture frames were all wrapped in waterproof oilcloth. Miss Winster took one out and checked it, then immediately frowned:

"This is... my God, "The First Breakfast"?"

"What?"

Xia De asked curiously, and the witch explained in a low voice:

"This is a representative work of Heinz Konsa, a famous painter in the Delin-Or Kingdom period before the unification of the southern territory. It was stolen about two hundred years ago. I didn't expect it to be here."

"Is it genuine?"

Xia De asked, and Miss Winster nodded gently, not even daring to touch the oil painting directly:

"I am a professional painter, and I dare say this is likely genuine."

"Then how valuable is this painting?"

Xia De asked again, and the witch frowned and thought for a while:

"According to another painting by Master Konsa auctioned by Cassandra Auction House some time ago, this painting in my hand can be worth any floor of the house you have in St. Deran Square (Note)."

She quickly checked the remaining paintings, and as expected, they were all antique oil paintings. Although the most precious one was "The First Breakfast," the value of the remaining paintings was also an astronomical figure.

As for the sundries other than the paintings, Miss Winster also found that they were antiques after inspection. Those fountain pens and harmonicas were all master works, with unique numbers and logos on them, which were easy to identify:

"These things added together, even the powerful duke of the capital Willendale would be moved."

She sighed softly, and thought of the same question as Xia De:

"If these things all belong to the Bennett family, where did they get so many antiques?"

"Maybe someone used this place as a treasure room? But the possibility is not great."

After checking and confirming that there were no other clues, Miss Winster recorded all these antiques one by one, intending to investigate whether they had any commonality before they disappeared.

In order not to disturb the owners of these antiques, after putting everything back, Xia De let the witch take a step back, and he put on the 【Ring of Longevity】 and took a deep breath:

"Breath of Time!"

Time flowed backward, everything returned to its original state, and even the opened door closed automatically.

"Time reversal? So what are you good at? If you have time talent, why do you follow her to learn moon spells?"

The witch felt even more curious about Xia De, but because there was no sign of the "Time Chosen One" at present, she did not associate this with that:

"Your teacher and I lived together for a month, just kept praising you for being very powerful, I didn't expect you to master the spell of time reversal."

"If I didn't have time talent, how did I bring you back?"

Xia De asked, taking off the 【Ring of Longevity】. Among the "Mia Seven Rings," this is the one he uses most often:

"Back to business, the Bennett family is definitely problematic.

Even if only half of these antiques are genuine, it is enough for them to leave Creekwood Town, buy a steam factory in a big city like Willendale or Moon Bay, and leap to become a real domestic billionaire."

"Even if there is a way, it is not impossible to become a noble again. I know the value of these antiques very well, and the Anjou royal family would not mind rewarding a generous merchant who offered "The First Breakfast" with a title."

Miss Winster added. Although she was not in the capital all year round like Miss Sylvia, she knew a lot about it:

"I originally thought it was a coincidence that the cupboard appeared in the hotel and this mansion. Now it seems that the 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 it is the Bennett family."

The study where the cupboard was placed a hundred years ago was on the first floor of the mansion. After the two pushed the door in, they saw that the interior furnishings were not much different from that year. Some furniture and oil paintings disappeared, and a floor-standing gas lamp covered with white cloth was placed where the bookcase was originally.

The imposing solid wood desk was still placed in front of the window, but the desktop was empty. The windows were closed, and the windows where the owl and the cat rushed out that year were now locked from the inside. Three flower pots were placed on the windowsill, and there was only compacted mud in the flower pots.

"Everything seems 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, and then looked down to see her body becoming transparent:

"What's wrong again... I, I feel something is wrong."

The light and shadow intertwined and changed, and the phantom of the study in the cold winter a hundred years ago was overlapping with the modern study. And Miss Winster's transparent body was clearly being pulled back to the past era bit by bit.

She looked at the scene in front of her in astonishment, and then subconsciously reached out to Xia De, and Xia De also reached out to her:

"Grab me!"

Two hands were held together. While the witch's hand became solid, Xia De's hand became illusory. This scene was exactly the same as when Xia De brought them back from the broom closet. And when Xia De tried to pull her to his side, he felt again that he was dragging a mountain.

The life ring appeared behind Xia De, and the spiritual light of 【Space-Time】 shone on them. Xia De, who already had one experience, said the time point at this time like last time:

"The twenty-first day of the Harvest Moon, Sunday, ten fifty-one in the morning!"

She fell into Xia De's arms, but the phantom of the cold winter study did not disappear, and the pulling feeling from the past time still existed.

Xia De hugged her and tried to rush to the corridor, but at this time the air seemed to become viscous liquid, and the resistance from all directions made them unable to move.

Seeing Miss Winster's body becoming transparent again, Xia De closed his eyes to perceive the spatial position, and then hugged her and jumped fiercely:

"Lagley's Jump!"

The casting material was prepared before entering the manor, and this casting was also the most difficult spatial movement Xia De had mastered since this miracle.

Previous spatial jumps were just an instant, but this time he felt as if he had been squeezed into a narrow water pipe. After the dizzying shaking, he finally appeared in the bedroom directly above the study, panting.

"Ugh~"

He covered his chest and retched, and hurriedly found the umbilical cord from his pocket and wanted to hand it to the witch. Even if she touched this umbilical cord now and the curse deepened, it would be better than returning to a hundred years ago.

"It's okay."

The witch, who also retched because of the obviously wrong spatial movement, shook her head and avoided the umbilical cord, her face looking quite ugly:

"Another me told me that I cannot stay in the 'position where I stayed in the past for a long time', such as that study, otherwise I will be pulled back to the past time.

I can't explain the specific principle, but I can't get close to that study no matter what."

Xia De was perceiving the current time, and after confirming that it was still "now," he let go of her hand, but did not find that the witch quietly looked at his hand, that temperature...

"It doesn't matter, at least we should be glad that you only stayed in this one place for most of the time a hundred years ago."

The umbilical cord was turned back into a toy by Xia De. He found a bottle of diluted No. 3 holy water and handed it to Miss Winster, and he also drank a bottle:

"Rest here, I'm a little glad I didn't eat too full this morning. This investigation has gained something now. The treasure in the basement, the extra time rules, don't worry, we can take our time." ===== CHAPTER 2525 =====