Chapter 2710: Professor Yuke Wood

Xia De had also attended charity auctions before, such as the one before Iluna's Chosen One ritual.

And the auction process of this charity auction was the same as those he had attended in the North. Different auctions would be held in different rooms, and guests could walk in and out of any auction session with a wine glass and bid on the items they liked.

Therefore, there was time left before the auction officially started, allowing the guests attending the auction to walk around the rooms of the manor to determine the location and auction time of the items they were interested in.

And the voices of people talking to each other standing in front of the glass in the corridor were even covered by the sound of rain, which was really the best social occasion.

Prince William Anjou did indeed appear in the manor as rumored, but Xia De just glanced at him from afar and had no intention of contacting him. It was when he was checking on the second floor with Miss Danister, who was holding his arm, before the auction started, that he met the Bennetts who also appeared here.

The Condor family and the Bennett family were distant relatives, so it was not surprising that their family appeared. It's just that this time their children did not appear beside the Bennetts, which was different from before.

"Their third daughter just experienced such a thing, acquaintances will definitely gossip in private, so it is a very right choice not to bring the children out at this time."

Miss Danister said.

Xia De also did not pay too much attention to the Bennetts; they would not be the protagonists tonight. He and the red-haired girl continued to stroll on the first and second floors opened this time, while his eyes kept observing the structure of the house.

The big fire back then almost burned this place to the ground, so there was not much black smoke on the second floor of the rebuilt house, but the first floor was different:

"Compared to the daytime, the demon's power is more obvious now. But if it's only to this extent, I still can't determine if this is the residue of the big fire three hundred years ago, or if the demon has reappeared here."

"Then do you think there will be a second fire here?"

The red-haired girl asked lightly, and Xia De could not answer.

Some of the items auctioned in this charity auction were obtained from previous donations, and some were Chief Condor's own collections. Among them were not only antiques but also some modern artworks and manuscripts of famous people's scores.

Of course, the origin of each item was legal and clear.

When Xia De and the two strolled before the auction started, they also paid attention to the situation of those auction items. Xia De originally thought there would be nothing he was interested in here, and the auctioned Luo De cards did not arouse his curiosity because they could not be taken out for the "Xia De Hamilton" identity to use, but he was finally attracted by a book:

"《Creekwood Town and the World Tree》?"

That yellowed book, along with other ancient books, was placed in the same glass cabinet in the same room. Hearing Xia De read the title of the book, the red-haired girl who was turning to look at the knight armor exhibited on the shelf beside her also looked over and read the label below the book:

"Donated by Professor Yuke Wood of the Folklore Major at Vesta City University, this book was published in 1621, written by an unknown folklorist, in good condition."

Although the surname "Wood" is one of the seven major families in Moon Bay, it is a very common ordinary surname in the Vesta Forest. For example, Baron Kamin's mother, Erica Wood, the lover of little Kamin, was surnamed "Wood" before she married. The word "Wood" also means wood, which generally represents a family of loggers in a logging town.

"A total of 100 copies of this book were printed back then."

A voice suddenly came from behind, and an old gentleman with gray hair, wearing old-fashioned formal wear and reading glasses, smiled at Xia De and nodded:

"I am Professor Yuke Wood who donated this book. Are you interested in it?"

"Of course."

Xia De shook hands with him, and then got the reminder that the other party was a First-Ring Warlock. To have only a First-Ring level at such an old age, either he, like Priest Augustus, awakened his talent in his old age, or this old professor's talent was quite poor.

"I am the travel writer John Watson, and this is my assistant. We came to this forest city because of the Moon Dance Festival. It is very interesting here."

Xia De said with a smile:

"May I ask if you can tell us the general content of this book? Or, is there any story behind this book?"

Professor Wood looked very easy to talk to and was also happy to share his knowledge:

"Creekwood Town becoming the prosperous appearance it is today is a modern matter. In the era of Creekwood Town, there were very few outsiders here, and even people passing by on the train rarely stayed here."

"An unknown traveler came here alone back then and wrote this book and published it at his own expense. It's just that although there were bookstores in the town back then, you also understand the sales of this kind of book. Later, more than sixty copies that were backlogged were donated to the local library by the bookstore fifty years ago. After the big fire in 1821, only the last three copies remained in the library."

"This copy of mine was bought from an old bookstore, which can be considered one of the few remaining copies now."

People who sell antiques usually package their goods with stories. Xia De didn't know if the old professor's story was true. However, looking at the starting price of this book, it was only 1 crown, which was one of the items with the lowest starting price in this auction:

"So what is the relationship between Creekwood Town and the World Tree legend? Or, do I have to buy this book to know?"

"There is nothing that cannot be said. The unknown folklorist who wrote the book believed that the local ancient belief in the forest did not originate from the loggers having to rely on the forest for food, but that there was originally a worship of the legendary World Tree here."

Mr. Wood touched the white beard on his chin. This kind of long white beard easily makes people look very knowledgeable:

"According to his statement, the Church of Nature belongs to outsiders. Although they integrated the local people's worship of trees and absorbed this part of the belief into the natural worship system of the Church of Nature, in fact, it was expanding the belief in the World Tree to the forest and nature itself."

"He said in the book that he conducted an investigation of the woodland and discovered many interesting pieces of evidence here. He even claimed that he discovered a complete temple related to the worship of the World Tree and described the architectural details in detail."

"It's just a pity that the book was written too early, and human activities have greatly changed the terrain around Creekwood Town, so now it is impossible to find the temple he saw according to the author's description."

"Is there a detailed description of the temple in the book?"

The key point Xia De heard was this. After Professor Wood nodded again, he looked at the book quite pleasantly. Miss Danister could see that Xia De had made up his mind to buy it.

The price of 《Creekwood Town and the World Tree》 was very low, so it belonged to the first batch of warm-up auction items in the auction. It would be auctioned off in the first round after the auction started half an hour later.

So Xia De noted the time and location, and then chatted with Professor Wood for a few more words.

The so-called "Vesta City University" was actually also called "Kassenrick Forestry College" more than twenty years ago. It was only upgraded to a university in recent years.

It's just that compared to the "Creekwood Town Music Academy" which is also in the city but very famous in the entire Old Continent, Vesta City University is not famous, or because there are many schools in the neighboring capital, Vesta City University probably doesn't have many people who know about it outside the city.

Vesta City University inherited the structure from the Forestry College period, and now it is still mainly based on forestry research. Majors like literature, history, and folklore are in a very marginal position.

Therefore, Professor Wood's research is limited to Vesta City locally, that is, the local anecdotes and legends that began to circulate in the Creekwood Town era.

And since the topic was brought up, Xia De took the initiative to ask:

"Then Professor, do you know about the fire that happened in this manor?"

This didn't seem to belong to the category of "folklore," but Professor Yuke Wood still nodded:

"Of course, the big fire in Hoy Manor three hundred years ago was an important node in the city's history. In the Creekwood Town era, the four positions of mayor, bishop, logger association president, and sheriff constituted the power core of the town."

"At that time, the Hoy family almost monopolized all the upper-level positions of the logger association. They could influence the economic lifeline of the town, so they could almost be considered to have controlled most of the small town. If it weren't for that big fire, the Hoy family might have really controlled the Creekwood Town of that era, and the history of Creekwood Town would probably have been rewritten because of this."

Xia De hadn't heard of this statement. The neighbors around Hoy Manor obviously didn't understand such things:

"So, do you think they blocked too many people's paths in the town, so they were burned to death by someone?"

The professor immediately shook his head:

"I didn't say that, but if a tree can be ignited, then this tree must be dry enough, or it must be flammable. That big fire was clearly not simple. I don't believe it was just an accidental fire. If it was just an accident, the entire Hoy family shouldn't have been burned to death back then."

"If you look at it from the perspective of who benefits, who is the murderer, other families in the town back then, such as Bennett, Bront, Wood, etc., were all suspects. Oh, the Wood family I mentioned has no male heirs and has died out, which has nothing to do with my surname."

"But there is also a saying that a gang of robbers looted this place, and because of this saying, it derived the saying that the treasure of the Hoy family back then is still buried under our feet."

Miss Danister had been acting as Xia De's "assistant" and therefore didn't speak, but at this time she opened her mouth to ask:

"Professor Wood, the old residents of the old city told me and Mr. Watson that when the big fire that year started, it rushed directly to the sky like a fire dragon. Is this statement correct?" ===== CHAPTER 2711 =====