Chapter 2776: Demon's Sense of Humor

If the trapdoor had been open, Xia De might have thought someone had left the manor through here. But since it was locked... He took out the time key leading to "Ash River Valley" and inserted it into the keyhole of the scorching hot wooden trapdoor:

"May the World Tree protect me in infinite time."

【Outsider, you have opened a "Twisted Tree Hole."】

【Hint from the Father of Infinite Trees:】

【Using a normal time key to open the door will connect to the following time point: Current Era Sixth Era 1546.】

【Note: Except for you, any life using this passage will be cursed by time.】

【Note: You can enter the past time for sixty minutes through this abnormal passage, and you must return through this passage after the time ends.】

【Note: After using the key to open the door here twice, this passage will completely collapse.】

Every time Xia De solved a Paradox Bug, the time he could use the "Twisted Tree Hole" would increase, but this kind of increase had no pattern, and this time it finally reached exactly one hour:

"There are two chances left again."

【Do you want to go to three hundred years ago to take a look?】

Xia De hesitated, then held the key and pulled open the door:

"Of course, I am very curious about who touched this door just now. I guess I will meet interesting people three hundred years ago."

He disappeared into the fire in the white fog.

Xia De had once cast "Time Return" on those antiques from the past and knew they came from the night of the Hoy Manor fire, so he knew that the destination this time was that night.

Speaking of which, he didn't quite understand the ratio of time changes on both sides of the "Twisted Tree Hole," it seemed that the time conversion of each tree hole was different, but fortunately, when he appeared three hundred years ago, the fire had not yet been ignited.

Because when Director Condé rebuilt Hoy Manor, the layout and arrangement of the first floor were almost exactly the same as the Hoy Manor back then, so the position where Xia De appeared was still the storage room of the kitchen, and that trapdoor, except for looking like it had just been painted, was no different from its state in 1854.

The storage room was closed, and the room was filled with the smell of various vegetables. There was no one else here.

Xia De used "Echo of the Past" to try to listen to the sounds, and found that they were all the voices of the chefs in the kitchen behind the door, so he gave up the attempt. Clearly, the door of this storage room was not soundproof.

The exact time now was 8:43 PM. According to the local habit, dinner time had long passed, and even the time for preparing vegetables for breakfast tomorrow had ended, so there was no one in the kitchen except the servant responsible for guarding the furnace and preparing tea for the Hoy family at any time.

Although he knew that a tragedy was about to happen here, Xia De didn't think about turning back time to save anyone. He also didn't know whether the demon, which was in a much better state than three hundred years later, was here when the fire broke out tonight, so he was very cautious next, didn't walk around, and went directly under the trapdoor.

According to Sir Wayne's confession, the treasure of the Hoy family was here, so he didn't get discovered by the Hoy family every time he acted.

And Xia De's guess was indeed correct. The person who came to this time and space one step ahead of him was here. And his identity was also consistent with Xia De's guess, which was the police chief of Vista City who was now at the end of his rope.

Director Condé's state didn't look good. When Xia De found him, he was panting and leaning against the wall of the treasure room in the secret passage, looking at the boxes here while holding his chest.

Xia De had been here. The ventilation port of the manor's well was connected to this place. He didn't expect that this place was also used to store treasures three hundred years ago. It was just that the few simple boxes were quite different from the so-called "treasure."

He didn't hide his footsteps, so Director Condé also realized that someone was walking over, but he didn't even have the strength to turn his head to see who was coming.

It was very dark here, and Xia De didn't light the torches on the wall or summon moonlight to illuminate:

"Very disappointed, right? In your imagination, this place should be like the dragon's nest in stories, filled with gold and antiques everywhere."

The middle-aged man laughed miserably a few times:

"Now I almost understand, he was able to obtain those treasures from here, not because he discovered this place, but because someone allowed him to take those things from here every time."

Director Condé turned his head with effort and tried to widen his eyes, wanting to see who was coming in the dark, but in a completely lightless environment, ordinary people couldn't do this:

"Who on earth are you?"

"Someone who came from three hundred years later to catch you. If you die in this time, it will cause a lot of trouble."

Xia De said, feeling that the other party would probably misunderstand that he was from the Church:

"It sounds like you seem to know who moved the treasure from this time. According to our investigation, you should know nothing about this... You know that the object you are cooperating with is a demon, right?"

"Know... of course I know."

"So when did you find out the function of that door? According to the process, it should be Sir Wayne moving the treasure and then sharing a part of it with you."

Xia De asked, and Director Condé laughed at himself, then coughed violently a few times, and answered in a very low voice:

"Discovered it by accident. Now that I think about it, maybe this was also what that demon let me discover, so that I could believe in the so-called "Hoy family treasure," and I could believe in the promises it gave me."

Xia De originally wanted to ask how he activated the tree hole, but hearing this, he still asked first:

"What exactly did the demon promise you? Greater power? All the treasures of the Hoy family?"

"Everything, everything. Most importantly, it told me that after the Hoy family was burned three hundred years ago, although the distant relatives of the Hoy family left the area with part of the family's property, most of the treasures were not discovered by them at all.

I have done many things for it over the years, and it promised me a way out: once I am discovered by the Church, it will send me back to three hundred years ago, let me take those real treasures and leave Vista City, and even leave Carinthia, and start life over three hundred years ago."

Xia De shook his head gently. The demon let Director Condé discover this tree hole, which should be to tie Director Condé more securely.

And after that, without Xia De asking, Director Condé, who thought he was a member of the Church, very actively confessed what happened today.

The demon once gave him a box and asked him to open it when he was at the end of his rope.

When the "outsider police" came to the door today, he realized something was wrong, and after finding that he couldn't contact his "son" no matter what, he opened the box, brought the lantern and dry tree branch inside to the manor.

The dry tree branch had turned into powder, so Xia De could only guess what it was but couldn't confirm it.

And although the demon "kindly" gave its partner a way out, Director Condé's current state of almost gasping for breath was clearly not in the director's own expectation. This stemmed from the damage of the "time curse," and the curse content of Director Condé, who craved to start a normal life from the beginning, was also very straightforward—

【The body will always be in a state of weakness, but will absolutely not die because of this.】

No one could say clearly whether the demon had anticipated this in advance, but Director Condé clearly believed that this was also the demon's plan:

"It just wants me to die here. It let me believe that I really had a way out, but when I came here, I could only sit here and look at these boxes but couldn't move. It might be laughing loudly somewhere, mocking me for being as greedy as it thought."

"That demon has already been defeated by us, I'm afraid it can't laugh anymore."

Xia De corrected, and Director Condé laughed out loud, but that was clearly not a happy laugh, but a mockery of himself. The demon was executed, what would his end be? He, as the local police chief, knew best:

"Are you going to take me back immediately after following me to this era?"

"Yes, I have already said that if you die here, it will cause some trouble."

Saying this, Xia De walked toward him, but the man said again:

"Can you wait a bit longer? Wait another twenty minutes."

"You wouldn't be thinking about finding those treasures even after becoming like this, right?"

Xia De raised an eyebrow, and the man holding his chest shook his head:

"I have checked the information on the Hoy Manor fire. As a police chief, I can see more information than ordinary people. In twenty minutes, this manor will be completely ignited. The story of the Hoy family has reached its end, and my story can be considered to have just begun from that moment."

The cause of this fire three hundred years ago was no longer important, and Xia De was actually a bit curious, so he really waited another twenty minutes. After confirming that the fire had started, he used "Light of Imprisonment" to control Director Condé to prevent him from escaping, and went to the ground himself.

He returned soon, and Director Condé, who couldn't move, looked in the direction of the footsteps in the dark:

"Found the answer?"

This was his only obsession left before losing his freedom and even his life, and even his worry about his son would not exceed his thirst for the answer to this question.

Xia De had spent some time because he was worried about the demon nearby, but he did bring the answer:

"The Hoy family also received the demon's promise, and the promise they received was the same as yours, a way out."

"Did the demon say it could let them go to other places to change their names and live again?"

Xia De looked down at him with pity:

"The content of the promise is: once the Hoy family is discovered by the Church in this era and cannot survive, the demon will send them to three hundred years later to replace the family that took their treasure and also lived in Hoy Manor.

That is, the demon promised to let them replace you and live a normal life... Think about it carefully, this matter is really full of black humor."

Director Condé lowered his head, and then laughed in a low voice. He was mocking himself, mocking everyone in this matter. After all, none of the participants in this story had a good ending. ===== CHAPTER 2777 =====

"That is the demon's promise, letting them go and replace you, to live a normal life... Thinking about it carefully, this matter is truly full of black humor."

Director Kang De lowered his head, then laughed in a low voice. He was mocking himself, mocking everyone in this affair. After all, not a single participant in this story had a good ending.