Chapter 941: The Real Stronghold

After confirming the thickness of the stone wall, Xia De didn't continue to consume his own spirit to use 【Felianna's Witch Light】 to melt the stone wall, but took off the cloth strip wrapped around the scabbard and inserted 【Night Watcher】 into the hole melted by his arm.

Taking a deep breath, he drew the elements and spirit into the blade of 【Night Watcher】:

"Witch Light!"

In an instant, golden light radiated from the blade, and the spreading light instantly melted the stone wall into a large hole. Xia De pulled 【Night Watcher】 back very satisfied, and then bent down and drilled into the space behind the stone wall from the hole with an unusually smooth opening.

The space behind the stone wall looked like it had been forcibly excavated by some external force. The interior was not a regular shape. It seemed that the initial users here just treated this place as a temporary stronghold.

The total area was about the size of three or four wardrobe internal spaces. After entering, Xia De squatted down for the first time, checking the ground with the light of the sunset from behind him, and really found messy footprints in the thick dust on the ground.

He reached out and touched the dust on the ground:

"Dust represents that no one has been here for many years. Basically, it is confirmed that it is the stronghold of Haer De Weng Di Ba, the previous owner of the 'arrow' more than ten years ago, or a safe house. The footprints should have been left by the two people who visited Rusty Lane 15 days ago..."

Standing up straight, he narrowed his eyes and looked at the space behind the stone wall illuminated by the sunset light. The footprints on the ground were extremely messy. Although Xia De called himself a detective, he didn't have the reasoning ability to restore the other party's entire trajectory in such messy footprints.

He only knew that the footprints belonged to two people, and these two people almost stepped on all the ground here.

In this narrow space, besides dust, there was a splicing iron bed and an iron pipe welded storage rack. But whether it was the bed or the storage rack, there was nothing. But judging from the traces of dust, there should have been mattresses on the bed, and there should have been seven or eight sundries on the storage rack.

It seemed that the two people who came here earlier than Xia De took all those things away.

They did more than that. When Xia De lit the light on his fingertips, he saw that there were very fine small holes everywhere on the side walls of this narrow space, about the size of a sweater needle. After checking, he found that these were also traces left recently, and Xia De immediately understood that those two people were checking whether there were other hidden spaces.

Although he didn't witness that scene, Xia De could simply imagine one of them standing in the center of the ground, then waving his hand, letting the spikes shoot toward the surroundings, and then confirming one by one whether those spikes penetrated into other cavities.

"Do these people have to be so absolute? Can't they leave me some clues?"

Xia De complained in his heart, and then checked the only remaining iron bed and heavy storage rack with a fluke mentality.

These two were metal products. Although there were some scratches on the surface, those scratches were not codes. He spent ten minutes conducting a relatively detailed inspection, and then had to admit that these two items also had no clues. The two people who arrived before him didn't take these two things away purely because they were too heavy.

"Clues interrupted again."

Xia De currently only knew that the materials of the iron bed and the storage rack came from the same batch of steel. This left Xia De with the possibility of taking them away, and then entrusting Father Ao Gu Si to find a blacksmith or an expert in the steel smelting industry in the city to identify the source of this batch of steel, and then investigate the specific location where this batch of steel was sold more than ten years ago, hoping to find the next clue by restoring Haer De Weng Di Ba's movements more than ten years ago.

Just thinking about it, Xia De knew that this was definitely not something that could be solved in a few days, and he had so many things in his hands now that he didn't have the mind to drag the second trial of the Goddess of the Lake for such a long time:

"Although I am not a very powerful detective, it is not that I have no other investigation directions."

【What else have you thought of?】

"She" asked gently.

"I'm not very clear whether Haer De Weng Di Ba treated this place as a pure warehouse or a temporary stronghold. But the furnishings here are too few. Clearly, such a hidden and safe space was created, but he didn't think about using it more. For example, if I were the other party, I would definitely store more daily necessities here.

Even if he was a Ring Mage who walked out of the Pantanal Great Swamp, he wouldn't care about his quality of life at all. I can't imagine any reason not to store clothes, food, or even more luxurious sugar and tobacco here. The things originally placed on the storage rack were bottles and jars, and this bed didn't deform due to uneven force over more than ten years, so there definitely weren't the things I expected here. Further considering that the final battle between the Church and Haer De Weng Di Ba happened unexpectedly, the other party couldn't have transferred the supplies here in advance, so this place has a problem."

【What problem?】

"This place doesn't look like a real stronghold, but more like some kind of camouflage, some kind of camouflage that makes others think this is a safe house."

Xia De twisted his neck and looked at the dazzling sunlight at the entrance of the hole. The sunset had already fallen below the horizon, and half of the dim sun was slowly falling on the riverbank. The thick fog made the sunset show a strange color:

"The two people who arrived earlier than me didn't know about this place because they got clues from Rusty Lane. According to the white mouse, they knew about this place originally. In other words, Haer De Weng Di Ba didn't strictly keep secrets for this place. A secret stronghold that didn't strictly keep secrets had no value at all."

【Knowing these, is it useful to you?】

"I just have an inference. This place played a covering role, so there must be an object being covered, which is the real stronghold or safe house."

Xia De bent down and walked out of the hole, took a deep breath, and used 【Breath of Time】 to restore the hole melted by the Witch Light.

"I once heard of a peculiar burial. To prevent the tomb from being robbed, the tomb owner would set up a fake tomb above his own tomb and place some funerary items. When the tomb robbers dig to the fake tomb and see the funerary items, they will think they have found the real tomb, so they won't continue digging."

Xia De thought in his heart, stepped on the mud on the river beach and looked at both sides of the riverbank. Bloodworms poked their wriggling bodies out of the mud and then drilled into the mud again. The thick black boots were not afraid of the mud. Xia De changed his attire in time for winter.

"It has been confirmed just now that there is no other space behind the walls, floor, ceiling, front, back, left, and right of this fake stronghold. Therefore, let me assume, could it be that Haer De Weng Di Ba hid the real stronghold not far from the fake stronghold, using the principle of 'darkness under the lamp' to protect his secrets?"

He put his hand on the restored stone wall and walked to the left. His palm was always on the stone wall of the riverbank until he walked 200 steps and confirmed that there were no discoveries before returning to the origin.

Then he put his hand on the restored stone wall again, this time choosing to walk to the right. When he walked to the 129th step, "Her" voice finally appeared:

【Traces of elements, very thin.】

Xia De showed a smile:

"It seems I really found it."

Pulling out his sword and stabbing into the stone wall, the triggered defense means immediately released a curse sufficient to freeze the soul, but that curse didn't even pass to Xia De's hand under the power of the Angel-level relic sword.

The long sword continued to move forward, and several green vines drilled out from the hole melted by the golden light, shooting toward Xia De's throat like a rapier. Their appearance was silent and extremely fast. When Xia De's eyes captured the green traces, the vines had almost touched his skin.

【Night Watcher】 actively led his wrist to flip, stirring the vines hidden in the stone wall to pieces. Although the broken vines shot out hit Xia De, they only left faint red marks on his neck. But the poison penetrated into Xia De's skin. With the violent shaking of 【Night Watcher】 in his hand, large purple marks spread from his neck toward his whole body.

At the same time, the light of the sunset in Xia De's field of vision became dim. In his surprised expression, a huge and terrifying giant appeared in the darkness. That giant, pieced together from countless plant residues, slowly stretched out its "hand" toward him. In the dark scenery, the evil thing of Pantanal was about to...

Fire soared into the sky, the giant in the darkness was ignited, and then disappeared amidst ear-piercing wails. The light reappeared in his field of vision. Xia De, who was in a trance, realized that he was still standing in front of the stone wall under the riverbank, the sunset light warmed his back, and the stone wall in front of him had been melted into a hole large enough for him to pass through.

"Mental poison?"

He touched his neck with some worry. His neck had returned to normal, and the poison had completely dissipated. 【Primordial Fire】 didn't make Xia De completely immune to the effects of the poison, but it was a very unfortunate coincidence that 【Primordial Fire】 regarded the evil thing of Pantanal as firewood, and the poison just now was highly likely the poison related to the main body of the evil thing, so it was burned directly.

"This person is really cautious."

Xia De sighed softly in his heart, bent down and touched the broken vines with his fingers. After the fingers touched, the amber-colored viscous gelatinous liquid like resin flowing out of the vines burned spontaneously, and burned directly into ashes before Xia De's eyes.

He only left a small piece of vine containing poison, put it in a bottle, and prepared to give it to Sister Sister Daifulin. This could be considered a small harvest. ===== CHAPTER 942 =====

"This person is truly cautious."

Xia De sighed softly in his heart, bending down to touch the vines that had been shredded by the Nightwatcher with his fingers. Upon contact, the amber-colored, viscous, resin-like liquid flowing from the vines immediately ignited, burning directly into ash before Xia De's eyes.

He only kept a small section of the toxic vine, placing it in a bottle, intending to give it to Sister Sister Daifulin; this could be considered a small gain.