Chapter 357: The Painter's Death

"Of course it's not possible, Xia De. This is just a bottle of potion, not a book. Moreover, the formula for this kind of potion is mastered by the Fishman race, and the few materials known to humans are completely extinct. No one in this era could possibly formulate it again."

The priest said.

"Then is it possible to exchange this bottle of potion for credits at the Academy?"

Xia De asked again. The priest shook his head again:

"Absolutely impossible. Only Academy missions and recovering relics can earn practical credits; this is a matter of principle. No matter how precious the potion is, it cannot change this."

Xia De shook his head in disappointment, putting the cat, which was very energetic today, onto his shoulder. Xiao Miya happily rubbed against Xia De's face, completely unaware of what was written in the book he had brought home.

"Don't be disappointed. No matter who you sell this bottle of potion to, it can sell for four figures in pounds. The Elixir of Life—after drinking it at any age, it can return one's body from the inside out to its most youthful age, equivalent to returning to youth without any side effects. It is said that the witches of the Fifth Era added a drop to their afternoon tea every day to drink, tsk tsk tsk..."

The old priest couldn't help but click his tongue, then explained:

"Judging from the records in the books, this bottle of yours can probably take effect for at least a week."

"So it has a time limit. I thought that after drinking it, I could forever..."

Xia De was even more disappointed now, but thinking about it, it made sense. It was just a bottle of potion; if it could permanently return a person to a youthful state, then the Fifth Era wouldn't be the Era of Witches, but the Era of Potions. However, just this effect was enough to be called precious; one had to know that this was without any side effects.

"Priest, are you interested in this? If you are, I can sell this bottle of potion to you at a low price."

Xia De asked. The old priest shook his head for the third time:

"I am very satisfied with my own body, and what is the use of experiencing a week of youth? That would only make me fall into unnecessary nostalgia. Besides, even if you sold it to me at a low price, I couldn't come up with that much cash."

"Is this thing very valuable? Priest, can you give it an estimate?"

"This is difficult."

Priest Ao Gu Si placed the potion on Xia De's coffee table:

"Ancient potions have appeared on the market, but they were all the kind that had expired. The ancient potions that occasionally appear and can still be used for various reasons are never sold publicly... at least they are worth four figures in pounds. If I were to sell it, I would price it at 2300 pounds."

"Understood."

Xia De nodded slowly. He intended to show this to Miss Jia Lin Na. The Witch Council was very persistent in collecting items related to witches and was also quite wealthy; perhaps they would be interested in a potion offered to witches by alien races in the previous era.

The priest came to find Xia De today mainly to solve a troublesome matter with him. There was a fifty percent chance it was a haunting, and a fifty percent chance it was some rarely recorded relic exerting influence.

After finishing the matter of the potion, Xia De treated the priest to a cup of tea. After leaving Xiao Miya at home to watch the house, the two went out again.

This matter actually had a small connection to Xia De. Two weeks ago, on the Saturday after the God's Descent on Thursday, because the doctor was being investigated by the church, he asked Xia De to notify the others in the group that the study session was suspended.

When Xia De notified Priest Ao Gu Si and said goodbye, a man asked the priest if there were any specific types of Prayer Festival souvenirs (Chapter 287). Xia De didn't pay attention to that man, and Ao Gu Si didn't pay attention at the time either.

But a week later, the priest, busy with the Prayer Festival preparations, unexpectedly heard the news of the man's death.

The man's name was Melson Fries. He was not a senior believer, and his death by accidentally falling down the stairs did not attract much attention from the church. As for the others in the man's home, they moved out of the house after that and placed an ad to sell the house.

"The cause of the matter is like this. On the surface, there was nothing wrong, but at the time, out of curiosity, I found the man's family to ask for news. After all, few people would specifically go to the church to ask for small priest-style figurines."

"Then did you give it to him?"

"Of course, this isn't anything valuable."

The priest and Xia De took a carriage to Hangerton Garden Street, where the house was located. This was an ordinary residential block in the eastern part of Tobesk, where every household had an independent small garden and a two-story building of the same standard. Those living here were middle-class families who were decent in the general sense. The deceased Mr. Melson Freeman was a somewhat famous painter during his lifetime.

So-called "somewhat famous" meant that the works he painted could sell for a decent price.

Getting off the carriage at the street corner, Priest Ao Gu Si chatted with Xia De as they walked:

"What I am curious about is why the family had to move out of that house after the master of the house died. I originally thought it was because his family members didn't want to live in a place of sorrow, but after finding Mrs. Fries, who was temporarily staying in a rental apartment, she told me that Mr. Fries had some mental problems during his lifetime, sometimes claiming that there were people in the house who couldn't be seen."

The priest shrugged. A middle-aged woman walking a pet dog came toward them, looking curiously at the strangers appearing on this street. The residents here knew each other, and there was even a residents' committee, so they were very sensitive to strangers.

"Since Mr. Fries had this kind of problem during his lifetime, why didn't he seek help from the church?"

Xia De asked.

"Detective, do you think that people will immediately think this is a haunting event just because they occasionally have some auditory hallucinations or have terrible nightmares?"

The priest sighed. He had worked in the church for many years and had very rich experience:

"Less than one-tenth of the people who have truly encountered mysterious events can immediately realize the danger they are facing. Among this one-tenth, more than half will choose to solve it themselves, one-third will seek help through various strange methods, among which those who seek help from the police will mostly be transferred to the church, and those who seek help from strange books or street swindlers... only very few people will very rationally go to the church for help."

In fact, going to the church for help was the "irrational" thing; although people believed in God, most people didn't believe in the existence of ghosts.

This was reality. The church couldn't make the existence of mysterious beings public, and the superstition and ignorance of the people in this era were very heavy, so only senior believers understood that the church was the most reliable "police" in the dark world.

"Then Priest, do you know what Mr. Freeman actually encountered?"

"There is very little information, because except for Mr. Freeman himself, his wife and children didn't encounter strange things. That gentleman claimed before he died that there were other people in the house and would wake up in shock from his sleep. In the one or two weeks before his death, besides painting, he suddenly became interested in wood carving. Mrs. Freeman gave me a small wood carving he made himself, but the technique was really hard to compliment."

As the priest spoke, he took out a small wood carving the size of two fingers from his pocket. It could be seen that the carver tried to carve out a male image and even colored the facial features and clothes. The coloring was very excellent, but the carving technique could only be described with the word "terrible." ===== CHAPTER 358 =====