Chapter 361: Puppet Making

By now, Xia De and Priest Ao Gu Si also roughly understood the basic characteristics of the relic oil painting.

The model house in the oil painting would be consistent with the real house, and after people in the house came into direct contact with the oil painting, puppets corresponding to the contactors would appear in the oil painting.

The puppets had their own instinctive wisdom and would actively escape the murderer in the model house. And the movement of the puppets depended on the location of the real person. If the real person was in the house, the puppets could only move in the corresponding room in the building; if the real person was not in the house, the puppets were very likely to move randomly.

The bandaged murderer puppet would continuously pursue other puppets in the oil painting, and the injury of the puppets would be directly reflected on the real people, eventually leading to the death of the real person in reality. I'm afraid the truth of Mr. Freeman's death by falling from the building was that the puppet corresponding to him in the oil painting was finally killed by the bandaged puppet after a pursuit lasting half a month.

Ordinary people would forget about the oil painting after coming into contact with it, and occasionally see the phantom of the bandaged puppet in reality, suffering mental torture in dreams, making their spirit have problems.

Currently, the only possible containment method is to let the painting itself leave the house, which ordinary person Mrs. Freeman had once done.

After Mr. Freeman died, in the absence of any corresponding puppets in the Freeman house model, the oil painting could be brought out of the real building. And once brought out of the real building, it couldn't meet the condition of touching the oil painting inside the building, thus puppets wouldn't appear in the model house in the oil painting.

It was just that now Xia De and the Freeman family boy couldn't commit suicide, so this method couldn't be tried.

In fact, Xia De had another idea, which was to tear down this house in reality, letting the oil painting lose the corresponding building. But Xia De wasn't sure if this would cause the relic to produce other weird changes, such as the bandaged puppet directly breaking through the limitations of the model house. So, this idea was only considered as a last resort.

The five people coming to the street in a hurry just now had already attracted the attention of passing pedestrians. After Xia De, Mrs. Freeman, and little Freeman returned to the house, confirming that the bandaged puppet was still some distance from the first floor in the oil painting, Xia De said to the priest outside the door:

"Priest Ao Gu Si, you take the girl to Doctor Schneider's clinic and let the doctor take care of her first. If Doctor Schneider has time, let him come over too. Although I already have some ideas, safety first; being cautious is never enough when dealing with this kind of thing."

Mrs. Freeman also agreed to temporarily let her daughter go to a safe place, and taking advantage of the priest's departure, Xia De let the two ordinary people stand far away. He turned his back to them and tried various ways in the foyer to try to destroy the oil painting. But since this was a relic, it naturally wouldn't be destroyed so easily. Whether it was gunfire, the slash of the Silver Moon, or even the Moonlight Greatsword, they couldn't leave any traces on the oil painting.

Moreover, Xia De's attack instead made the movement speed of the bandaged puppet in the oil painting quite a bit faster. It seemed the oil painting knew someone was trying to destroy it, so it accelerated the progress of attacking Xia De.

But this thing at most only had a 【Document-level】 rating, and it was highly likely to be 【Poet-level】, belonging to the kind of urban legend that could be talked about everywhere. Its killing efficiency was really slow, and even when facing ordinary people, it tried its best to only face one person at a time.

For a Ringed Shushi, although it was quite troublesome to be involved, it wasn't that there were no other ways.

Priest Ao Gu Si returned soon, but Doctor Schneider didn't follow behind. The doctor was very lucky to be out on a house call and was temporarily not in the clinic, so he wouldn't be involved in this matter.

Priest Ao Gu Si seemed a bit worried. After learning that Xia De destroyed the oil painting but didn't succeed, the wrinkles on his forehead deepened. He lowered his old voice and asked Xia De in the foyer:

"Before I left, you said you had other ways."

"Yes, Mr. Freeman was obsessed with wood carving before he died. This shouldn't be a change of interest. Although he forgot the oil painting and didn't know what he had encountered, he definitely had an idea. At least a week before his death, he vaguely realized what he was going to do. The inspiration of this painter is really amazing; he must have thought of a way when he came into contact with the oil painting in his dream."

Xia De took the relic of Mr. Freeman from Priest Ao Gu Si, which was the poorly made wood carving, and then carefully placed the wood carving on the oil painting.

The boy was pulled by Mrs. Freeman and stood behind the stairs, and only the two Ringed Shushi looked directly at the oil painting. Under their gaze, the small wood carving with a male image actually melted on the surface of the oil painting like butter.

Subsequently, inside the model house in the oil painting, a new puppet actually appeared. It appeared at the entrance of the model, and with a gray light sinking into the puppet from the depths of the oil painting scene, the new puppet merged with the two puppets, one big and one small, representing the detective and the boy.

Puppets couldn't show expressions, but the three clearly saw Mr. Freeman's puppet approach the smaller puppet. It "came alive," and Mr. Freeman's soul was actually in the painting.

Subsequently, the boy George, who was being pulled by his mother, suddenly widened his eyes and looked around:

"Father, oh, is it you? Father!"

Although the middle-aged woman couldn't see what the detective and the priest did, she seemed to understand, sobbed in a low voice, squatted down, and hugged her son.

Xia De whispered to the priest:

"It seems this idea is correct. The maker of the puppet was killed by this painting, so it can enter the painting to help us. But what is the use of puppets made by living people? Can we get more puppets, such as a priest puppet, a soldier puppet, or even a god..."

"Only puppets made by hand by people affected by this relic are useful. Detective, remember? Mr. Freeman went to the church before he died and also obtained a Prayer Festival commemorative wood carving, but he still died. So, I think only puppets made by hand are useful; otherwise, wouldn't the cracking method of this relic be too easy? How could there be such a simple thing?"

Priest Ao Gu Si deduced, and then looked at Xia De:

"Although I don't know what the use of putting a puppet you carved yourself into it is, but Detective, can you carve puppets?"

"Of course not, but I have other ways."

Xia De said, took out the revolver issued by the Military Intelligence Agency from his waist, and then took out a handkerchief.

Covering the gun with the handkerchief, after taking the handkerchief away, a small toy pistol puppet appeared in his palm:

"A toy pistol puppet I made by hand."

Xia De said with a smile.

"You really have a way."

Priest Ao Gu Si also smiled. ===== CHAPTER 362 =====