Chapter 2545: The Demon in the Woods

"Persuading her is not difficult; just say this can further explore the local secrets and the rules of time travel. As for me helping you, you just need to do me a small favor."

Miss Winslet smiled at the red-haired girl, who was very alert:

"Do you want to know about Xia De's past, or do you want me to persuade Xia De to go on a date with you again? No, I won't do that anymore. I know what you are thinking, Flora, that is immoral."

The witch raised an eyebrow:

"Then you thought wrong, I have no interest in men... alright, I have some interest in your student, but not that kind of interest. I do want to know more about him; he is a rare and interesting person.

I just want you to agree to let me teach him some transformation arts. No, don't look at me with that look of disgust and vigilance; I don't want to steal your position as 'teacher', I just want him to trust me more, and he does indeed have a talent for transformation arts."

Golden eyes looked at rose-red eyes, and after a while, the red-haired girl picked up the book again:

"Teach him if you want, I can't control him anyway, he wants to control me now instead."

The witch smiled, and said in a very pleasant tone:

"The only problem is, it would be fine if everything goes smoothly with our actions. But if we encounter trouble while trying to let you use the tree hole safely, and your curse deepens, I dare not imagine what kind of look that young gentleman would use to look at both of us."

The red-haired girl did not respond to this topic.

There were no girls staying at home on Tuesday night, but Xia De still remembered that the train the 【Golden Dawn Opera Troupe】 was taking would arrive in Tobesk tomorrow afternoon, so clearly, it would be very lively at home on Wednesday night.

And early Wednesday morning, Xia De, who had made a whole set of plans, hurriedly finished breakfast and appeared at the Schneider Psychological Clinic with little Mia.

Because it was too early, the clinic hadn't even opened yet. When the servant led Xia De to see the doctor, the doctor was sitting at the dining table with a coffee cup, reading the newspaper:

"I'm curious, what kind of sleep habits do you have, you don't sleep at night, do you? Don't worry, the things you want are already done."

He invited Xia De to have breakfast together, but was politely refused by Xia De. Then the doctor went to the bedroom and took out a small box; the things in the box were not ancient at all, because it was a medical syringe.

Although not ancient, it was very mysterious; the surface of the glass syringe was engraved with the ancient demon rune "Cowardice," and the needle made of refined gold provided by Xia De was engraved with delicate filthy runes that even the naked eye of an ordinary person could not see.

Without turning on the art "Demon Vision," Xia De could clearly feel the power belonging to the demon.

"This box is divided into two layers, and there are two paper figures in the bottom layer. This is a method I thought of combining the secret arts circulating in the rainforest of southern Casenrick; the syringe extracts sin, then you write the name of the object being extracted on the paper figure, stick the other party's hair on the paper figure, and finally inject the sin in the syringe into the paper figure, which can store the sin for a short time.

The stored sin must be consumed within about a week, otherwise it will attract big trouble."

The doctor didn't say what the big trouble was, but showed him the handmade folded paper figures placed at the bottom of the box. Those paper figures were plain, probably the doctor's own handmade work, but the manufacturing materials were clearly not ordinary, because the paper color was dark red:

"Extracting sin itself is a kind of sin, so although you want 1.1 units of 【Cowardice】, I only give you two chances. After two times, no matter what the result is, you must destroy the syringe yourself. Detective, you are a cautious person, so I won't nag about other things."

Xia De nodded and touched the cat on his shoulder; the cat was staring wide-eyed at those paper figures:

"Then thank you very much, I know the risks involved."

Just when he was putting these things away, he thought of another thing:

"Doctor, I am currently in the Vista woodland area. It is rumored there that three hundred years ago, when the city was still Creekwood Town, an ancient evil spirit demon appeared locally, but was finally sealed by the thirteen-ring mage 'Forest Ranger' of the Church of Nature using an angel-level relic. Do you know about this?"

The doctor had been searching for rumors about demons all over the material world, and Xia De happened to ask him for advice. Although the demon had been sealed many years ago and was now safely housed in the Holy See of the Church of Nature, perhaps the doctor knew other things about the local area during his investigation.

And the doctor, who was originally preparing to unfold the newspaper again, really looked over:

"Of course I know. This is something I investigated in my early years; I even went to Vista City for this, and I have to admit that the air there is really good.

But I didn't investigate much at the time; I stayed in Vista City for a week and left after watching two concerts. The concert commemorative badge I bought at the time is still lying in my drawer."

He said with a smile, and Xia De asked again:

"Didn't you find any traces of demons locally?"

The doctor smiled awkwardly:

"Alright, I dug up several graves that were said to be related to the demon incident of that year, and sensed the stench of those things in the remaining bones. But apart from that, there was no harvest. Three hundred years have passed, and that city of music is very calm, so I haven't visited it since. Are you in Vista City now? You must go to the Golden Concert Hall to listen to a concert, it's really great."

Speaking of "grave digging," the doctor was very embarrassed, but Xia De didn't care, after all, he also broke into someone else's private cemetery:

"Then can you determine what the evil spirit demon was three hundred years ago?"

The doctor shook his head regretfully:

"Cannot determine. I integrated the local legends and stories, and can only speculate that the other party's power is related to the forest, and it shouldn't be that kind of very powerful guy.

'Fear Forest Demon - Black Annie', 'Rotten Giant - Regenwendel', 'Cannibal Demon - Wendigo', 'Forest Demon that lures children - Cabilona', these are all possible, but they cannot be compared with the black crow we encountered last time, the demon of misfortune - Fanalus."

He raised an eyebrow at Xia De:

"Why, do you think that the one from the Church of Nature back then actually failed to contain that thing?"

"Of course not, it's just that I found some... tree holes that travel through time and space locally."

After saying this, he carefully looked at the doctor, and Bill Schneider, who was very good at guessing people's minds, shook his head:

"Don't worry, I have no interest in traveling through time and reversing the past."

He picked up the 【Tobesk Morning Post】 from this morning again. Now that the Harvest Moon had reached the end of the month, the newspaper had been reporting on the grain harvest in various parts of Delarion this autumn for several days. The original intention of the newspaper was to appease the public's emotions and let everyone not panic and hoard grain, but the citizens of Tobesk instead confirmed the appeasement information in the newspaper as a signal that there would definitely be a serious crop failure this autumn.

Even the Outlander, who didn't have to buy groceries himself, could feel the recent rise in grain prices.

"Detective, I have never thought about the silly question of 'if that thing hadn't happened, would my life be different'. On the contrary, I am very grateful that I can have my current life. Although there are various troubles and that ultimate big trouble, at least I accept this life and am deeply grateful that my current life has not become worse.

In my opinion, only real fools would try to reverse the past. We all have the power to face the future, even if the future is not beautiful, time will eventually lead us forward... just look back, wanting to go back is meaningless."

Xia De had always felt that perhaps Bill Schneider could also achieve good results if he became a philosopher.

"Moreover, with my luck, I am very worried that once I change the past, the present will become more dangerous and unacceptable. Detective, if I hadn't met you opposite the Lark Club last summer, oh, I can't imagine what the lives of the four of us in the group would be like now."

The doctor behind the newspaper sighed; he cherished the life he already had, so he didn't think about changing the past. Although this sounds simple, people like the doctor are actually in the minority.

Xia De was very confident that he didn't have the sin of "Cowardice," or even if he did, he didn't have much, and the girls around him probably didn't have such sin either.

Therefore, candidates who meet the requirements need to be found outside. Although it is always troublesome to Galina, after getting the condition for using the "demon syringe" which is basically no condition, Xia De still decided to let her help find if there are people with "Cowardice" when he sees Galina tonight.

Vanessa and Hillis and the others will arrive today, Galina cannot not come out to welcome them.

Of course, welcoming the Golden Dawn Opera Troupe is a matter for the evening, and Xia De didn't intend to be idle during this day.

Adele Isabella arrived in Vista City, so he didn't dare to approach the Accordion Inn easily, but this didn't prevent him from taking little Mia to the tree house of the mysterious elf lady in the woods again.

Sure enough, the snacks left on the table at the door yesterday morning had disappeared, but the elf lady was still not at home on this Wednesday morning. But Xia De turned around in the vicinity and saw her again in that sea of silver-blue flowers.

During the day, the light spots emitted by the flowers were covered by sunlight, so the scene of the sea of flowers was not as shocking as at night. She was carrying a small basket, as if she was doing collection work, and stopped him when Xia De tried to approach:

"Don't come over!"

The elf wearing a silver-blue robe stood up and retreated a few steps quickly, her pointed ears trembling slightly, making Xia De, who was carrying a cat on his shoulder, not know what happened for a while.

"I'm allergic to cats!"

She said this, staring at the cat with big amber eyes:

"So please don't bring your cat to see me, if you do this again next time, I will be angry!"

"Allergic to cats? This is the first time I've heard that a pure-blooded elf who loves nature is allergic to natural animals."

Xia De asked suspiciously, and seeing that the elf lady still insisted that she had a "special constitution," he had to nod:

"I'm really sorry, I will pay attention next time."

He took another bag of sweet snacks from his pocket, this time donuts sprinkled with powdered sugar and cupcakes:

"The matter of those antique elven arrows has not been settled yet, I will find them as soon as possible... Are you living comfortably here? Do you need me to bring you some daily necessities?"

He asked with concern, bending down to place the snacks on the grass at the edge of the sea of flowers. ===== CHAPTER 2546 =====