Chapter 2711: Wraiths, Secret Rooms, and Big Fires

"We folklorists will not easily believe the claims of those supernatural phenomena."

The professor immediately emphasized, but lowered his voice a little:

"However, this statement is highly likely to be true. I have also seen similar records. Also, do you know the location where the bodies of the Hoy family were found after the fire was extinguished?"

Seeing that Xia De and his "female assistant" were both shaking their heads, Professor Wood said mysteriously again:

"The whole house was almost burned down, but it is very strange that the tables and benches in the banquet hall on the first floor were only scorched black. And those charred bodies, after the house collapsed, were all sitting around the table. It is said that the people who put out the fire back then were scared crazy on the spot."

After this manor was rebuilt, the banquet hall of that year was still a banquet hall, or the layout of the first floor of the building after the reconstruction was almost exactly the same as that year. This sounds very unlucky, but no one knows what Chief Condor was thinking.

Today, the banquet hall on the first floor was also used as the venue for the auction, and it was the most important venue in this charity auction. Out of curiosity, Xia De wanted to see if he could really encounter ghosts, so after saying goodbye to Professor Wood, he returned to the first floor with Miss Danister to check the situation.

However, he didn't see ghosts, but Xia De saw something that surprised him:

"Arrows?"

In the display cabinet against the wall, there were "Elvish antique arrows" that the elf girl had been entrusting Xia De to look for. Although he didn't touch them directly, he had already found two, so he definitely wouldn't misidentify them.

The label of this auction item was "Antique arrows unearthed from the Vesta Forest," and the starting price was 10 crowns, which is about 130 pounds. Even by the price of a charity auction, it was a bit too high.

"You definitely want this."

Miss Danister looked at other information:

"The auction time is 8:15 PM. Let's bid for that book first and then come back. However, did you bring so much cash?"

"Of course, how could I not bring money to attend an auction?"

Buying 《Creekwood Town and the World Tree》 didn't encounter any trouble. Very few people were interested in this kind of unknown ancient book. Seeing that Xia De was very determined to raise the price, no one competed with him.

But it was a bit troublesome to go back to the first floor to auction that arrow later. Xia De didn't know why, but so many people were interested in it. Within a short time after the auction started, the price of the arrow was raised from 10 crowns to 50 crowns.

However, Xia De was determined to buy this arrow, so no matter who bid, he would continue to raise the sign. People gradually gave up one after another, and finally, the only one competing with him was a very familiar young man.

George Condor, the son of Chief Condor who woke up from Love Lake. He also noticed Xia De, and after bidding with Xia De for several rounds, pushing the price to 80 crowns, he finally stopped bidding.

Therefore, Xia De bought the arrow at a price 8 times higher than the starting price. Although he didn't care much about money problems now, this didn't mean he was happy about this happening.

"The label says this is an antique donated by Chief Condor himself. Why would his son want to compete with you for this? This is too impolite."

Professor Wood, who was sitting beside Xia De, asked. He also raised his sign to bid just now, but gave up after the price exceeded 20 crowns:

"That young man, wouldn't he be maliciously trying to raise the price? Mr. Watson, did you know him before?"

Xia De shook his head:

"Of course I don't know him, but I heard that he had a serious illness some time ago. Did he recover so quickly?"

Although he spent more money, it was good that he bought the arrow. However, the arrow was not delivered directly to Xia De. He had to pay the money and get the items he bought after the auction ended.

But Xia De was not interested in other things in the auction. After confirming that he had bought the arrow, he wanted to leave the seat with Miss Danister to look at other corners of the manor.

He had just tilted his head and wanted to speak to the red-haired girl, but suddenly noticed a pitch-black translucent figure appearing beside the auctioneer. And when his gaze swept over a few seconds ago, he was very sure there was nothing there.

"Are there really wraiths?"

The figure was clearly severely burned, so it could only be seen that it was a middle-aged man. It was clearly facing Xia De, and seeing Xia De look over, it reached out and pointed toward the entrance of the banquet hall.

"What are you doing?"

Xia De was surprised, and heard the red-haired girl's complaining voice again, and then he noticed that his tilted head had already leaned on her shoulder.

The eighteen-year-old girl pushed Xia De lightly, but the force was not great. She probably thought Xia De did this on purpose:

"This is a public place, be steady, or did you do similar things to Flora?"

"Sorry, can't you see that?"

Xia De pointed to the soul beside the auctioneer, who was still pointing his right hand toward the entrance.

"What?"

Miss Danister also looked over, and then asked suspiciously:

"I didn't see anything here. What did you see?"

So things started to get interesting.

In short, Xia De first pulled her to say goodbye to Professor Wood and left the banquet hall. After arriving in the corridor and seeing no one, he whispered about what he saw:

"A charred wraith, but he just pointed to the entrance."

The red-haired girl was still puzzled:

"Are there really wraiths here? But this is not right, right? Has the church not discovered anything wrong for so many years?"

Miss Danister was saying, on the east side of the corridor, the soul appeared again, still pointing out the direction with his finger, and still only Xia De could see it. But after Xia De walked a few steps closer, the soul disappeared:

"Follow me, no matter what that wraith is, let's see where he wants us to go."

Xia De is not the kind of reckless person, of course, he considered that this wraith that only he could see was a trap. After all, its spirit body was stained with genuine demonic power.

But the soul did not guide Xia De to leave Hoy Manor, but led the two of them to leave the building first, then circled from the front courtyard of the manor to the back garden.

The charred soul could sometimes be missed in the dark night, but fortunately, Xia De's perception was very powerful. They finally arrived at the back of the manor house and stopped in front of a low building in the corner of the garden.

This looked like a place where servants lived, and there was a well next to the building. The wraith finally appeared in front of the well and pointed to the wellhead with his hand hanging down.

"Are you sure you want to go down?"

Miss Danister asked. Xia De stood at the wellhead and looked down, closed his eyes and used "Enhanced Space Perception" to determine the environment under the well:

"There is a secret room that is not very big under this well. I want to go and see, you wait for me here."

"I really can't do anything about you. I will wait for you for ten minutes. After ten minutes, I will go down to find you."

Xia De made an okay gesture to her, then jumped and turned into a swarm of butterflies and flew into the well.

There was no entrance to the secret room at the bottom of the well, but the ventilation window of the secret room was opened on the side wall of the well. So the red butterflies flew in from the ventilation window. After Xia De turned into a human and stood in the secret room, he did not encounter the attack he guessed just now:

"So that wraith really just wanted me to discover this place?"

Using enhanced space perception to determine the location again, it can be found that the real entrance to the secret room should be in the manor house. And when Xia De summoned a ball of light to illuminate the surroundings, what he saw were a few lonely boxes placed in the corner.

Apart from that, there was nothing. Such a large place was empty and looked quite strange.

The boxes were not locked. After opening them, they contained some gold and silver jewelry and antique oil paintings. Xia De was not very proficient in antique appraisal, but at least he could determine that those precious metals were real:

"Demon Vision."

Sure enough, all the gold and silver jewelry and antique oil paintings had demonic power, which shows that these things were obtained through transactions with demons. Of course, being stained with demonic power does not mean that these items are harmful to the holder, but keeping these valuables will definitely make the holder's luck worse.

There was not much dust on the ground. After checking carefully, although these boxes were styles from hundreds of years ago, they should have been transported in recently.

That is to say, it was not the Hoy family three hundred years ago who left these things here, but the current owner of the big house or someone who knew the location of this secret room who moved this batch of valuables here:

"Mr. Condor wouldn't be trading with demons, would he?"

He continued to check those antiques, recorded all their styles and appearances, and planned to let Miss Bell determine whether these antiques were from the same source as the antiques he discovered in the basement of the Bennett old house after returning.

But soon he found that there was no need to trouble Miss Bell, because among those antique oil paintings, a portrait with a "Klein Hoy" nameplate actually appeared:

"This is an antique of the Hoy family?"

Xia De didn't understand even more:

"So the legend of the Hoy family's treasure is true? Did the demon help Chief Condor find that batch of treasure? Or did the Hoy family back then trade with the demon, and Chief Condor just accidentally discovered this batch of long-buried treasures?"

Although he discovered the secret room and clues, the questions increased rather than decreased, and Xia De still didn't understand what was going on with the wraith that guided him to discover this secret room. The other party did not appear again, and there was no power of death in the secret room.

He carried this doubt and turned into red butterflies again to fly out of the wellhead, but as soon as he landed, he found that the night sky was reflected red. Amidst the screams, Hoy Manor's big house actually ignited a raging fire.

The fire should have just started, and the location of the fire was above the front of the big house, so Xia De, who was in the back garden, couldn't see clearly which room was burning. It's just that listening to the sound, people were evacuating in a panic, and the fire shouldn't have blocked the exit for people on the first and second floors. ===== CHAPTER 2712 =====