Chapter 2560

"I must be surprised. Also, mortals converted an ancient temple of an Old God into a concert hall—isn't that blasphemy? I haven't heard any rumors of concert-goers being struck by lightning when they leave."

Xia De, who had just been stroking the cat that was lowering its head to drink milk, stopped his hand, and Miss Elf waved her hand to tell him not to be so excited:

"It has been so long since the Tree Father left that it is not blasphemy for mortals to repurpose the temple. They didn't convert it into a dirty place; building a concert hall is very elegant.

I investigated that during the renovation of the ruins half a century ago, workers discovered some antiques there, so they secretly hid them and sold them off individually. Those arrows were lost to Creekwood Town during this process, but I couldn't determine the exact total number of arrows."

Xia De had already frowned:

"This is really unexpected... Besides those arrows made of World Tree branches, what else was discovered at the same time?"

He asked again, but the elf just shook her head this time:

"I don't know. My investigation was very superficial. There were probably some stone tablets and the like; all ruins have them.

The arrow you found is the second one I've gotten my hands on. I bought the first one at a local second-hand store. The store owner treated it as a craft item and only charged me 13 pennies, but he couldn't say who he bought the arrow from either."

"Are there any follow-up investigation clues?"

"Of course. If you want to continue investigating in this regard, you can try to find the people who participated in the renovation of the ruins back then.

That was half a century ago. The workers didn't leave their names, and although the church sent people to supervise the project, it was difficult to check the records. However, I investigated that a history professor from a school in Willondale was interested in the shape of the temple back then and specifically sent people to conduct investigations and records during the construction. Although half a century has passed and it is estimated that everyone from back then has passed away, you can still start your investigation from this aspect."

Xia De nodded and wrote down this clue, intending to entrust Margaret to investigate in Willondale.

He lowered his head, thinking while eating a few more mouthfuls of breakfast, and then suddenly asked:

"Speaking of which, when did you arrive at Vista Woods? Has it been a long time? Have you always lived here alone and lonely?"

The expression in the elf girl's emerald green eyes became a little softer:

"I refuse to answer this question. Our relationship shouldn't be that close yet, right?"

Although she said such "cold" words, the two people and one cat still enjoyed a pleasant breakfast time in front of the tree house in the woods. This was Xia De's first time having such a unique breakfast, and because there was incense to repel mosquitoes, he didn't have to worry about insects. He found that he liked the environment here very much.

After breakfast, he said goodbye with Little Mia. As for the potion that the elf promised to prepare, it couldn't be done immediately, so Xia De could ask when he came to bring her breakfast every day; maybe there would be a surprise suddenly.

Entering the city area with heavy thoughts, it was already 9:30 in the morning when he arrived at the Accordion Hotel.

Miss Dannister and Miss Winslet had of course already eaten breakfast. When Xia De entered Room 317, the two were looking at the information on the "Paradox Worm":

"Sent by Amelia. Although it was a letter for you, I opened it; you shouldn't mind, right?"

The red-haired girl asked, and the chubby round-faced owl turned back into a human. She really didn't like maintaining the owl form in front of Xia De:

"Good morning. I entered the Council again this morning. The Speaker has already gone to Willondale to see another witch and has now set off to return to her original place. Look at this; this was sent by the Speaker this morning, which can help temporarily suppress the curse."

Miss Bell handed the jewelry box on the coffee table to Xia De. After opening it, there was an amber ring inside.

The ring was like some kind of mithril alloy, and the ring face was clutching that pale yellow amber like claws with a silver alloy. Inside the amber was a very familiar black worm, but looking closely, there was only a worm shell inside.

There were elven runes engraved on the ring:

【Ugly vermin deserve to be imprisoned forever!】

It is rare to see such temperamental sentences written in elegant ancient Elvish.

"Secret Keeper-level relic 【Worm Ring】. This relic has always been contained by the Council, but everyone in the past didn't quite know what it was used for."

The witch said, stretching, a movement that was not very ladylike, but she seemed not to care at all:

"We only know that wearing this ring can severely interfere with the operation of time-type powers. Whether it is rituals, strange arts, or even sublimation words, they can all be interfered with, just to different degrees. But because its own negative characteristics are also troublesome, only the Great Witches of Time of past generations would occasionally use it."

"Interfere with time-type strange arts?"

Xia De raised his eyebrows in surprise and threw the ring to Miss Dannister:

"Try it."

Of the three ladies present, only this red-haired girl knew Xia De's strange arts, so she readily agreed:

"This ring can suppress the time curse to a certain extent. Although I am still eighteen years old after wearing it, my level has reached Ten-Ring. Although I can't wear it all the time, it should be no problem to use it in an emergency during battle."

Saying that, she put it on the middle finger of her right hand. Her appearance really didn't change much, but her aura suddenly became stronger.

"Try it and you'll know."

Saying that, she took out Adele's lady's pocket watch and held it in her hand:

"Time Stop!"

A click sound came from the void, and the beautiful red-haired girl was indeed still looking at Xia De with a smile:

"How is it? You really can't do it, right?"

"Wait, why is this strange art so familiar?"

Miss Winslet, who was on the side, asked. Xia De hesitated for a moment and decided to tell the truth:

"Adele taught it to me, I mean Miss Isabella."

Both the witch and the witch apprentice looked at him in surprise. Although they knew that there must be "something" between the two, they didn't expect that the future Speaker would even be willing to teach such a strange art.

And the unyielding outsider intended to continue trying:

"Miss Dannister, don't take off the ring yet. I didn't use my full strength just now!"

"Young people are just stubborn... Oh, I'm even younger than you now. Then try again, come on."

She said with a smile, so this time Xia De summoned his life ring completely. The huge Eight-Ring life ring made the witch on the side keep clicking her tongue:

"Although I saw it yesterday, it really is Eight-Ring. This size is not normal, right?"

And Xia De had already concentrated his spirit and lit up the core spiritual rune 【Space-Time】:

"Strange Art - Adele's Time Stop!"

He pointed his index and middle fingers together at the red-haired girl. With a clearer click sound coming from the void, the red-haired girl was immediately frozen in time.

The outsider then nodded with satisfaction.

He actually suspected that the worm shell in this 【Worm Ring】 was also the corpse of a "Paradox Worm," otherwise a "Secret Keeper-level (Level 3)" relic shouldn't be able to interfere with a "time curse."

But he had no way to destroy this level of relic, and even if he could take out the worm shell, the heavy whisper elements would have caused the worm shell to lose its medicinal value.

However, Xia De told the two ladies about the fact that configuring a potion with a Paradox Worm could slow down the curse effect.

Miss Winslet said to Miss Dannister with envy:

"You not only have a good ancestor but also a good student. Find a few more Paradox Worms, and even if you can't fully recover, you can gradually approach normal. I'm different; I can only see if other people's students are willing to help."

Saying that, she also glanced at Xia De, while Miss Dannister looked worried:

"That elf wouldn't be kind enough to help me configure the potion for free, right? This potion doesn't sound ordinary."

"She asked me to bring her breakfast every morning."

So Miss Dannister didn't ask anymore, but it looked more like... she was angry.

Besides the 【Worm Ring】, in order to prevent the "cabinet" and "door" from having accidents again, Miss Dannister and Miss Isabella each prepared relics to isolate the influence of the two tree holes.

Among them, the one sent from St. Byron's is the Secret Keeper-level relic 【Distant Puanti Alley】. The relic itself is a street sign that says "Puanti Alley," and its function is to lengthen the spatial length of the place where the relic is placed.

That is to say, the distance that seems to be crossed in one or two steps has actually become the length of the entire alley under the action of the relic. This is quite effective for the characteristic that the "Twisted Tree Hole" can only act on a certain distance, so there is no need to worry about Miss Dannister being involved again.

When Xia De checked the street sign, he saw a line of small characters on the back of the street sign that looked like they were carved with fingernails:

【After the divorce, chasing you who took away all the family property made this alley incomparably long】.

It seems that there is an incomparably sad story behind this relic.

The relic supported by the Witch Council is the Secret Keeper-level relic 【Unique Lock】. The relic itself is a brass lock and a matching key. The lock can only act on scenes that meet the appearance of the lock, such as "doors" and "windows."

And once the lock is buckled and takes effect, except for using the matching key, only a few methods such as the relic 【Master Key】 can open it. And considering that every time the cabinet takes effect, its lower cabinet door will automatically open, this lock is perfect for dealing with the cabinet.

Similarly, there is a line of small characters on the lock that are not easy to detect, like leaf patterns:

【The lock is absolutely reliable, but the hateful thief will directly move the whole box away!】

It seems that this is also a sad story.

After chatting with the two ladies about the reaction of the local church, Xia De proposed what he wanted to do today:

"Since it has been confirmed that James Kaming is using that book to contact Erica Kaming of the past time, let's solve this matter today. Of course, if we encounter a Paradox Worm again, this time it shouldn't cause such a big commotion."