Chapter 2932

Even though the hunter kneeling on the snow was now in a forcibly controlled state, Xia De still pretended to hear about this for the first time:

"What you are talking about should be the major case of the disappearance of Earl Winslet's youngest son in 1819. The newspaper said that the Earl's youngest son was indeed found by hounds, but the other child did not appear."

"That child made a wish to the tree, so the tree wanted him to pay the price... He must stay here, and I raised him up in the forest. But I don't know if it was because the soul was forcibly recalled and thus damaged, he was simply a villain, he... cruel, vicious, bad-tempered, and extremely hated this forest.

He was not allowed to leave here, but he longed for the outside world, so he tried every means to blaspheme my faith... In 1829, when the boy was eighteen, he seduced a woman in the city and had intercourse with her in front of this temple... I killed him, I killed my foster son, and buried him here too."

Xia De took a deep breath. The development of this story was indeed something he did not expect:

"Since that tree let you raise him, then you won't be punished for killing him?"

"It just let me... send that woman back to the city... Later I heard that the woman gave birth to a child a year later... I suddenly understood for some reason at that time, the purpose of me raising that child, the purpose of everything, perhaps just to let him... at the age of eighteen... I am guilty, but God, why do you never respond to me? I know you have already left, but why don't you show me any mercy..."

The hunter was no longer struggling, but was still in tears.

Xia De's face was a bit cold, and he thought of a possibility:

"What is that woman's surname now? What is the name of the child she gave birth to?"

"Cuming, the woman's husband is a baron, the child she gave birth to, the child of my foster son is called James Cuming!"

James Cuming was born in 1830, and came into contact with the tree hole in 1854, making Erica pregnant in 1803 through time travel, which in turn caused his "father", Baron Cuming, to be born at the end of 1803. Five years later, in 1808, James's mother was born, and was stolen by Baron Cuming, who came from the 20s, in 1809, making James's mother, the future Baroness, adopted by foster parents.

And the adopted Baroness, after marrying the Baron, had an affair with the "wild boy" in the forest in 1829, and finally gave birth to James Cuming in 1830, who, although he had no father-son blood relationship with the Baron, actually did have a father-son blood relationship.

At this point, the complex relationship and family lineage of the Cuming family, which spanned half a century, completed the final closed loop, and Xia De finally knew the question that Flora had cared about for a long time—who exactly was James Cuming's biological father.

At this moment, he was not thinking about the purpose of this complex drama arranged by that tree, but was thinking about how Miss Owl would react to the ending of this story.

In the story involving the love and hatred of three generations, everyone's actions were voluntary and reasonable, and very consistent with the characters' personalities. So combined together, plus that book "Opening the Forest Gate: Our Animal Partners", they jointly wrote this family past with tangled character relationships and heavy-tasting plots, and involving the grievances of three generations—if this story were written and published, it would probably be more popular than detective novels.

Even the outsider was silent for a long time, but he still remembered that the reason he found this place was not that missing boy, let alone cracking the mystery of the Cuming family:

"Is your foster son's corpse also here?"

"Yes."

Xia De looked at the corner outside the temple, which was the place where the corpse was hidden. Because it was not close to the temple ruins, this was not blasphemy, but a primitive ritual of letting the blasphemer atone for his sins after killing him:

"In 1819, when you accidentally killed him, did anything else happen? Did anyone come here to look for him?"

"In 1819, there were always people looking for him, but I hid him very well. I am a hunter in the forest. I am not only good at tracking, but also good at avoiding danger."

"I don't mean those people looking for the child, I mean..."

Thinking carefully, Xia De could not describe any special characteristics of Flora's uncle. In Flora's description, that uncle was just an ordinary person, and neither his appearance nor temperament exceeded the scope of normal people:

"Did any strange ordinary people come to look for that child?"

Miss Olanode's miracle was still in effect, and the hunter answered this question:

"There was an ordinary person who almost found us. The way he appeared was very strange, as if he appeared in the forest out of thin air. Afterwards, I wanted to trace his traces in reverse to investigate the path he came, but I couldn't find any footprints."

Xia De knew that this was the person he was looking for:

"What happened to that person later? Was he killed by you? Or was he killed by that child?"

"I never take the initiative to hunt humans, and that child didn't have the ability to kill people back then. I used illusions to create traps to lure him away. Later, he went to the city. I kept an eye on him for a period of time. Although he entered the forest several times afterwards, he never approached our hiding place again, so I didn't continue to pay attention to him."

"Do you know where that person lived in the city?"

"I know."

But the answer was not the Accordion Hotel in the city center that Xia De guessed.

"He rented a house in the Old Town, No. 8 Vanilla Garden Alley."

After more than thirty years, he did not remember this address firmly, but the memory hidden in his soul was forcibly turned out by that bone claw.

Taking advantage of the miracle still being in effect, Xia De asked many more questions. Looking at it this way, it seems that it is not just the Bennett family who serves that tree in this forest. It has more than one pigeon, but Bennett should be the most important one.

And the tasks performed by the hunters in the forest, besides raising the child being the most important, most of the others were small jobs like "on a certain year, month, and day, dig out something at a certain place and send it to a certain place", "guide the lost at a certain place", "drive away poachers".

Compared to working for the Ancient One, this is more like he took a part-time job as a "forest ranger" with the "resurrection of the boy" as a reward.

Listening carefully, he indeed did not do any bad things over the years, and even the only person he killed was the foster son who blasphemed this temple—killed twice. And in this forest, the number of believers of the Old God 【Lady of the Hunt】 is actually only seven, among which this hunter is the highest-level Ringed Shushi.

Others did not know that he was serving the Ancient One, and the disappearance of the "foster son" back then was also brushed off with the reason "I sent him to study in another place, he has no talent for Ringed Shushi, and should not be with us".

So these believers of the Old God can actually still be won over to the camp of the Church and the Academy.

The power of time suspension that the hunter used just now of course also came from the forest. In fact, over the years, besides the night in 1819, he had never seen the giant tree in his memory that seemed to connect heaven and earth again.

All the orders he received were "told to me by the forest". This is not because he has hysteria and delirium, but because the cult of the God of Hunting itself has the inheritance of "communicating with the spirit of the forest", which was left by the elves in the cult during its peak period.

And by this method, the orders he has performed intermittently over the past thirty years are about three hundred. And the power of time and the tree will be obtained after he completes fifty tasks.

The fact that he can become the highest-level Ringed Shushi in the current declining cult also has a major relationship with this.

The hunters even have a very good relationship with the 【Hermit Group in the Forest】. They often go to the hermits to exchange supplies or help the hermits patrol the woodland. If it weren't for different faiths and different lifestyles, the hunters would likely have moved to the hermits' station to live many years ago.

Xia De's questions were asked for a full twenty minutes before the bone claw disappeared. Because of the excessive consumption of mental power, the hunter fainted at once.

Xia De checked his condition, bound him with "Light of Imprisonment", and then came to the inside of the temple ruins with a heavy heart. There is actually nothing to see here, because even the roof does not exist, so the light is very good and can be seen at a glance.

Miss Olanode was standing in front of the square stone platform in the center checking something. Hearing the sound of Xia De's boots stepping on the snow behind her, she did not turn her head, but spoke directly:

"In our era, the demise of the Old God cults had already appeared one after another. Guess, what is the main reason for the demise of the cults?"

Xia De came to her side and considered it:

"After the gods left, the believers could not get a response, so after several generations, there was a lack of firmness in faith, which led to the collapse of the cult?"

He said and looked back at the hunter outside the ruins. That hunter had called out "God, why don't you respond to me" several times just now.

Although Xia De had witnessed the departure of the gods with his own eyes and knew what "departure" meant, others could not know. They only saw a few words from books, so it is possible to have any thoughts in their hearts.

During the period when the gods really existed, the firmness of faith was of course a very normal thing, but it was hard to say afterwards.

"Yes, doubt and confusion may be overcome for those believers who once knew the existence of the gods, but as faith continues to be passed down, questioning will eventually appear. When questioning cannot get an answer, confusion will give birth to blasphemy, eventually leading to the end of unified faith. Even if there are still one or two pious people in the end, the ending of the story will not change much."

Miss Olanode's hand gently brushed over the tabletop in front of her:

"I heard all your questions and answers just now. I don't know the full picture of the story you want to investigate, but I can hear that this cult is also about to disappear. Even without this incident, the hunter cult would definitely have problems after several generations."