Chapter 2666

"Nature worship... Professor, then did you record the runes, ancient characters, and murals discovered at that time?"

Xia De asked again, and Miss Danister recorded it on the side.

The professor answered:

"Although the construction workers destroyed a part, we of course recorded a lot. But it is a pity that according to the investigation rules of temple-type buildings, most of those records were taken away and sealed by the local nature church at that time, and a small part of the materials were brought back to the school by the mentor."

"Those small parts of materials, wouldn't they be given to his friends abroad?"

Xia De asked tentatively, still thinking he would hear the name of Professor Tiris Manning, but this time he didn't.

"Those materials were left to me after the mentor retired. After I retired, I copied them. The original manuscript is still in Willendale, and my handwritten copy was brought back to Creekwood Town by me. They are in the museum's data room now. I will have someone take you to see them in a while. You can copy them, but you cannot take them out of here."

The professor answered, quite proud of this, and Xia De gave a small compliment:

"This is really amazing. Your spirit of sharing is the cornerstone of the development of history. Oh, Professor, it is said that when investigating this kind of ancient temple building, some abnormal things will occur. Did you encounter them that year?"

Professor Quintu laughed:

"You young scholars always like this kind of story. Well, I admit that I was also curious about this kind of thing when I was young. But sorry, young man, the investigation process that year was quite boring, and we only worked during the day when everyone was there, and returned to the town to rest at night, so we didn't have the opportunity to encounter abnormal events."

Miss Danister, who was sitting opposite Xia De with Xia De, rubbed Xia De with her foot, which meant that Professor Quintu was lying.

"Is that so... Then since it is an ancient ruin, many stone tablets and ancient sacrificial items should have been unearthed, right? Are these things in the museum now?"

The professor shook his head somewhat embarrassedly:

"Construction had already begun when we arrived. Due to insufficient protection in the early stage, the construction workers sold the antiques they found here, and there were not many valuable antiques left for us."

"However, it is said that this also made them infected with a curse. None of the construction workers who sold antiques that year lived past the age of 40. The few people who were over 40 when construction began also passed away soon after the project ended, and they all died of natural causes."

The red-haired girl's foot rubbed Xia De again, meaning that this sentence was also a lie.

Of course, Xia De himself also felt the suspicious points. If there was no special reason, a professor far away in Willendale could not specifically care about the death time and cause of death of a group of construction workers. After all, according to his statement, only a few people died of natural causes, not group deaths, which should not have attracted too much attention.

Xia De nodded again, and according to the previous plan, he asked the professor again:

"I have an antique here that is said to have flowed out of the local area. Please help me take a look."

Professor Quintu was a little surprised, and then saw the young female assistant with red hair take out a box. The moment the box was opened, the old professor's eyes lost focus immediately, and he fell into a hypnotic state.

Miss Danister took out the agarwood used as a spellcasting material in the box and ignited it in the incense burner that Xia De had transformed from a toy form.

After confirming that everything was fine, Xia De asked again:

"Professor, did any abnormal events occur when you were investigating this temple building?"

"Yes."

Professor Quintu answered expressionlessly. Even if the emotional fluctuation was great, it was difficult for an old man of his age to wake up in a deep hypnotic state:

"Actually, this happened before we arrived. Some workers would sleep directly at the construction site at night, and many people mentioned that they dreamed of many, many people, even elves, dwarves, etc., who only appeared in stories, coming to this temple for worship."

"Did you dream of it too?"

"Yes, my mentor and the others all rested here. My mentor's dreams were normal, but I dreamed of it. I suspect that was a scene from the past, because the temple in the dream was not just a simple building complex. In the center of the temple, there was a giant emerald tree growing, which is the same as the traces left in the ancient temple ruins."

"Anything else?"

"No abnormalities."

"What about the antiques unearthed from the ruins?"

Professor Quintu was obviously silent for a while before opening his mouth:

"Most of them were sold by workers before we arrived, but we found a part of the underground antique dealers who were in contact with the workers—they were mostly active near Willendale. In fact, they were not strangers, but things were not right."

"After hearing that we were looking for those antiques, they sold those antiques to us at a very low price. Because the price was too low, the professors bought them with their own money, so the ownership of these antiques became ours."

Xia De had already foreseen the direction of the story:

"And then there was a problem?"

"Yes, within half a year after that investigation trip ended, all the professors who took the antiques went crazy. I was just a student accompanying the team and was lucky not to participate. I don't know much about this, but when the church interrogated me about the situation at the beginning, I heard that the surface of their skin began to look like wood."

"The church strictly forbade me from talking about this to anyone, and those antiques were also taken away by the church. Experiencing such things in my youth made me very cautious in my subsequent academic career, which is also an important reason why I was able to live healthily until retirement."

Xia De sighed. If this was really the case, then it seems that the clues here at Professor Quintu had already been checked by the church half a century ago.

But there is one more thing that the church half a century ago absolutely did not know:

"After experiencing this kind of thing, why did you return to Creekwood Town after retirement? And you still have to work in this ruin?"

The red-haired girl cast an appreciative look at Xia De, and Professor Quintu answered:

"I want to find an answer. For so many years, I have often returned here in my dreams, wandering unconsciously in my dreams. I have seen a psychologist, but the doctors just said that my impression of this place is too deep, so I can't get rid of the past."

"I don't believe those 'look forward, don't look back' ghost words. I feel that there is still something here attracting me. So I came back."

"Then did you find anything?"

"No. But it doesn't matter. I have made up my mind to end my life in Creekwood Town. Even if I don't find anything in the end, dying here is a very good thing."

"Then among the antiques unearthed that year, have you seen any arrows?"

Xia De finally asked this question, but the old professor's impression of the antiques that year was already very shallow, and they only found back a part of the antiques, not all of them.

Then, under the guidance of Miss Danister, Professor Quintu explained his dream to the two. The position where he appeared in the dream was a random corner of the Golden Music Hall that had been renovated, and then the inexplicable attraction would make him wander inside the building, but he could never find where the attraction was.

Ordinary people's memory of dreams is often not very comprehensive, so Professor Quintu's description is not particularly detailed, so Miss Danister thought of a way:

"Since he is always wandering in his dreams, why don't we let him sleepwalk in reality?"

This sounds difficult, but it is just a matter of the female sorcerer casting a spell.

The action was quite smooth. Professor Quintu stood up from the sofa in a daze, and without paying attention to Xia De and the other, he walked toward the door of the reception room.

Xia De and Miss Danister followed immediately to ensure that others in the exhibition hall would not notice the professor's abnormality.

However, the professor did not just wander in the exhibition hall, but soon came to the music hall through the small doors connecting different areas of the building. Xia De and Miss Danister had to cast illusions to hide the three of them to prevent being discovered, and Xia De did not forget to record the professor's wandering trajectory.

This wandering in the dream lasted until 3:30 in the afternoon. Professor Quintu still did not reach his destination. And seeing that the time was almost up, Xia De nodded to Miss Danister, let her lift the professor's sleepwalking state, and then took the professor back to the museum's reception room.

After simply compiling the professor's memory about the afternoon conversation, the hypnotic state was also lifted. The awakened Professor Quintu felt physically tired, as if he had walked for an hour or two, but he only thought it was because he had been talking all afternoon.

"It's getting late, we still want to look around the museum, and then go to see the materials and literature you mentioned. Then Professor, see you later, thank you very much for your help."

Xia De and Miss Danister got up to say goodbye to the professor, and Professor Quintu also sent them to the door of the reception room happily. However, when the two sides said goodbye, Professor Quintu asked again:

"Since you are from Tobesk, do you know Professor Tiris Manning?"

Xia De had been waiting for this name to appear, and he nodded without surprise:

"Of course, Professor Manning is a giant in the academic world of history in the North. Why, do you also know Professor Manning? Has Professor Manning also been to Vista City?"

Professor Quintu then said happily:

"I of course know him, but it's not that he has been here, it's that I met Tiris Manning when I attended an international conference in Tobesk more than thirty years ago. He is younger than me, but our conversation was very pleasant. I am the kind of scholar who likes to stay in the office and classroom, but Manning has been to many, many places."