Chapter 2778: The Fifth Oil Painting and Hoy's Treasure

After a day of heavy rain yesterday, the Vista woodlands were even more desolate on this Friday in late autumn and early winter. Most of the leaves on the trees in the forest had fallen, and the bare forest sea was quite different from when Xia De arrived in early autumn.

It wasn't raining anymore today, but the temperature had dropped significantly. When Xia De pushed the door into Miss Danister's room at the hotel, he found that not only the red-haired girl and Miss Bell had changed into thicker dresses, but there was even heating in the room.

"Vista City has started unified heating. If you ask me, steam pipes and urban unified heating are really the best inventions of this era."

The owl flapped its wings and turned back into the witch with gray-black hair. She had also changed into the attire of early winter, and just like before, it was still a dark style:

"Did you read the newspaper on the way here just now? Director Condé and his family have been arrested. The newspaper said he was considered to have committed treason and had been secretly cooperating with the Delin-Or Restorationists."

Xia De didn't bring Mia with him today, and didn't read the newspaper on the way, but after entering the city, he chatted with the carriage driver about this topic:

"Compared to the other mistakes he committed, treason is already considered the lightest."

The red-haired girl, who heard some news from the academy, explained:

"The Bronte family was just arrested last week for that kind of reason. If another local family were arrested for the crime of demon worship a week later, the Church is worried that this would cause panic among the citizens of Vista City.

Of course, the most important thing is that the government of Vista City might be considered untrustworthy. So they only announced the crime of treason, but when the trial comes, other charges will be indispensable."

While she was talking, she signaled Xia De to pay attention to Flora. Xia De thought he hadn't noticed that the witch had changed her hairstyle or wore new jewelry today, but when he saw Flora walk to the easel, he realized that the fifth oil painting had been finished:

"Is it the silver wolf under the moon?"

He said and walked over. The artist lady put her hands behind her back, pretended to be reserved, nodded, and signaled Xia De to look at the picture himself.

Like the previous four oil paintings, this painting was not completely realistic, but appropriately artisticized according to Flora's own feelings.

In the picture, a huge wolf head appeared in the air, as if composed of fire and smoke, giving people a majestic and powerful feeling. The wolf's eyes glowed red, staring forward, looking extremely oppressive. The background of the wolf head was a huge full moon hanging in the night sky, and the swirling clouds made the moon look dim and unclear.

The forest below was surrounded by fire, and the orange-red firelight reflected the trees in the forest fire. The color tone of the oil painting was mainly a contrast between blue, orange, and red, showing a fantastic scene under the fire and moonlight.

And Xia De also noticed that there was a figure in a cloak holding a long staff standing at the bottom edge of the picture, looking very small but firm.

Although the addition of this figure enriched the composition at the bottom of the picture, gave the scene a strong sense of power contrast, and made the entire oil painting have a more epic conflict beauty, but anyone could guess that the figure in the picture, like the "owl" before, was the witch's private goods.

"How does it feel?"

Flora asked with some expectation, and Xia De nodded lightly:

"If I didn't know this was describing my story, I would probably think this was describing the plot in mythology... It's very good, but you painted me too fierce, Flora."

The witch smiled reservedly. She just felt that Xia De's fierce look was the most handsome.

In short, the demon matter was over. Before others arrived on the weekend, Xia De seemed to have nothing important to do.

However, Flora had to arrange accommodation for others, and see how to communicate with the hotel owner, Mr. Bennett, to rent a whole floor. And Miss Danister was dealing with Emilia's affairs. After the elf girl arrived, Xia De also planned to let her live in the hotel instead of the ship.

This time she needed to face a test, and an absolutely safe environment would not be good for her to maintain vigilance.

"Then I will go out by myself today."

Xia De looked at the oil painting and said again. Miss Danister asked curiously:

"What are you going out to do?"

"Still about the Hoy family. Didn't I meet them for the last time yesterday to know about the transaction between the Hoy family and the demon? As a result, that family wanted me to save them, and even said where their family's property was placed.

The so-called Hoy family treasure is real, I want to go and see if the demon took the money or left a part of it in the original place after the fire three hundred years ago."

Seeing that both ladies showed worried expressions, Xia De added:

"Don't misunderstand, I have no interest in this money, I am not that kind of greedy person. Every person who has coveted this "treasure" for the past three hundred years has had no good ending. If I can find it, I will keep a part for myself, and then donate most of it. This coming winter will not be good for most people."

"I am not worried that you will also be cursed by the demon, but you said that the treasure is outside the city?"

Flora was a little worried:

"Will you encounter that tree again?"

"If I were worried about this, I wouldn't need to come to the Vista woodlands again. Don't worry, if that tree could take action against me at any time, Vista City would have ceased to exist long ago. Its appearance must also have conditions. In the case that we don't take the initiative to contact its power, it shouldn't take the initiative to find trouble with me."

Xia De didn't save the Hoy family in the past time yesterday, partly because he didn't want to disturb the order of time, and partly because he didn't think it was necessary to save people who worshiped demons.

As for the location of the money, they were not sealed in Hoy Manor or the Hoy family cemetery, but hidden deeper in the forest. This was also the reason why no one had found them for so many years.

The Hoy family almost controlled the local logging industry during its heyday, so they knew many secret areas in the forest.

When traveling through time yesterday, they explained the location of the treasure cave in great detail, so Xia De set off from the city center and went all the way west. After going deep into the forest, he opened the "Forest Path" and turned into a silver wolf... He hoped he didn't scare the squirrel standing on the dry tree branch at that time.

Although the Vista woodlands are generally plain terrain, there are also small hills here, and the Hoy family's treasure was hidden in a cave on a hill in the west of the forest.

Even after listening to the detailed description, it took Xia De a whole morning to find that place.

After confirming the almost invisible marks on the tree bark outside the cave, Xia De used "Echo of the Past" to confirm that no one had come here in recent days, and then entered the cave.

Although the Hoy family described the location, they didn't mention the traps they set here, but those traps didn't matter to Xia De. After all, he could now catch bullets with his bare hands, smash a building with one punch, and even if a steam bomb exploded in his hand, he would only be slightly injured.

And the most dangerous thing in the cave was actually the traps set by the demon, but fortunately, as the demon itself was eliminated, the effect of these traps that needed its own power to maintain was not great.

The black demon fire quickly extinguished, and the resentment spirits that revived because they sensed the breath of the living were also sent away. After Xia De dissolved the stone door with "Stone to Mud," he

Compared to those slightly shabby boxes in the secret room of the Hoy family three hundred years ago, the boxes here were stacked almost into a small mountain.

Xia De only opened those boxes after confirming there were no mimic chests here. The silver light orb cast moonlight onto the treasure that had been sealed for many years. Except for one box that contained account books, all the other boxes reflected a golden glow. Xia De stretched his head to look and saw neatly stacked gold bricks:

"This is really... So Director Kang De was attracted by these things. Put that way, it is not hard to understand why he was tempted."

Even the Outlander, who does not care much about wealth nowadays, could not help but click his tongue.

Among them, the gold in two of the boxes was reduced to only one or two pieces, obviously having been used by someone, though the current Xia De no longer knew what story lay behind this.

This gold was not the "demon gold" used by demons to fool mortals, but genuine gold. A rough estimate of the value of these precious metals... Xia De could not estimate it either, but in any case, this sum of money would make even the great nobles of Willandale and Tobesk feel envious.

But this gave rise to a new question—

"But where did they earn so much money? Even if they controlled the logging industry of a small town, is logging that profitable? Isn't it said that the only characteristic of the logging industry is that logging is tiring?"

If one could accumulate so much gold just by relying on the logging industry, then Creekwood Town would not have developed only after the musicians arrived.

Fortunately, those account books gave Xia De the answer. Most of the content in the account books was the Hoy family supporting the Kingdom of Delin-Or of that era.

Although the Delin-Or region was the last southern kingdom annexed by Casenrick one hundred and fifty years ago, in reality, the war between Casenrick and Delin-Or had begun long before, and in every war, Casenrick had gradually encroached upon more of Delin-Or's territory.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Margaret's ancestor fought against both Dralion in the north and Delin-Or in the east simultaneously, and then, under tremendous pressure, captured the capital of the Kingdom of Delin-Or in one fell swoop. The "Battle of Mist Mountain" that secured the victory is still talked about by people to this day.

And three hundred years ago, in the even more distant past, the United Kingdom of Casenrick had basically unified two-thirds of the southern territory, and the conflict with the Kingdom of Delin-Or was also in a state of intensification.

"So the demon had been instigating it since then... But where did that money actually come from?"