The atmosphere in the town was already eerie and creepy. What Hessiana said made everyone shudder. Nangong Sanba immediately raised his small crossbow and aimed at the stairs. "Are you sure? Why don't I feel anything? "
Vivian threw out a small bat to check on the second floor. The bat flew around and Vivian shook her head. "There's no one upstairs, not even a shadow."
"Tsk, tsk. I'm a little scared now." Hao Ren rubbed his arms and muttered. He had experienced many things that were a hundred times more dangerous than this place. But sometimes, danger and fear were not the same thing. The atmosphere and strangeness of the town were creepy. When Hao Ren first came in, he did not feel much. But as he stayed longer and longer, he felt more and more uneasy. Everything here was exuding an inexplicable strange atmosphere. Not only the flame floating in the fire pit, but also something invisible in the air.
Perhaps it was the ubiquitous spirit that gave people goosebumps.
"Check this house first." More bats appeared around Vivian. She began to command the sentries to check every corner of the mansion. "There's a high possibility that a wizard was hiding here."
"Then I'll change into my human form first. The corridor of this old house is too narrow. I can't turn my tail." Nangong Wuyue waved at Hao Ren. "Give me clothes."
The team split up to check the condition of the abandoned houses, and Hao Ren and Vivian went to the second floor of the house to check.
The interior of the mansion was very complicated. Although it did not look very magnificent from the outside, the interior still had the complex structure that the nobles of that era liked. The whole house consisted of a long house and two independent buildings on both sides. Most of the building materials were thick wooden planks. The first floor of the long house was a hall and a few cubicles for the servants and animals to rest. The second floor of the long house had straight corridors and many rooms. It should be the residence of the lord and his family. The entire mansion was lit up, and oil lamps were hung every few meters on the dark walls. The oil lamps were all in the same dry state, and the flames floated a few millimeters above the lamps without any fuel. What they all had in common was that they had no temperature.
Hao Ren and Vivian slowly explored the second floor. The wooden floor creaked under their feet as if it could not bear the weight and was about to collapse at any time. Hao Ren noticed that some of the rooms in the corridor had thick carpets. The carpets were stained with a layer of grayish-black, but the original gorgeous patterns could still be vaguely seen in this dark color.
Vivian bent down to examine the patterns on the carpets. She showed a nostalgic look. "It looks like high-class goods from Italy. Nobles … Even the nobles of such a remote town have to use this level of luxury. A carpet like this should be enough for a family of five in the town to spend for half a year. "
"There is dust everywhere." Hao Ren touched the dust when he pushed open the door next to him. "This is inside the house, but the dust is as bad as the outside. It looks like the dust is very unusual … I'm afraid it's an unnatural product. "
Behind the door was a small house. The decorations were not fancy, and it did not look like the residence of the lord or the nobles. Vivian looked at the furnishings in the house. Based on her understanding of that era, she made an inference. "It should be the residence of a butler, consultant, or similar high-ranking servant. These high-ranking servants were in charge of all the affairs of the nobles, and they were hereditary with the family they served. They were qualified to live so close to their master. However, they did not have a noble title, so they were not allowed to use some of the decorations that limited their status. "
Hao Ren nodded slightly. As he walked into the house, he said, "You seem to be quite used to this atmosphere. I can feel the hairs on my back."
"I don't feel anything." Vivian laughed. "I used to live in tombs. I'm a Blood Clan. It's normal to deal with these things."
The house was also covered with soot. An oak bed was placed in the southeast corner of the house. The once luxurious bedding on the bed had rotted. Beside the bed, there was a desk with drawers. On the desk, there were old and tattered writing tools and some scraps of paper. On the other side of the room, there was a small heater. An unnatural flame was quietly burning inside the stove. In front of the heater, there was an old rocking chair with a few rags hanging down from it.
Hao Ren looked at the scene, and his mind seemed to recall a scene in the past. A warm little flame burned quietly in the heater, illuminating the small room. An old butler returned to the house after completing his master's task. He sat on his favorite rocking chair and covered himself with a blanket to rest. The light from the fire cast a shadow on his wrinkled face. Suddenly, the butler remembered something. He stood up and walked to the desk. He wrote something on a piece of parchment and put the parchment in the second drawer under the desk …
Hao Ren suddenly shook his head and regained his consciousness. He felt his heart beating a few beats faster. He did not know whether it was an illusion or an illusion that had just appeared in front of him. He stared at the old rocking chair in the middle of the house. At that moment, he seemed to really see an old butler with a wrinkled face sitting on it. Even what happened after that was clearly imprinted in his mind as if he had seen it with his own eyes. For a moment, the boundary between reality and illusion seemed to be shaken. Hao Ren felt that his consciousness was pulled out of the current space and time and fell into a memory from hundreds of years ago. Vivian immediately noticed that something was wrong. "Hao Ren, what's wrong?"
"I think I saw something, but the way Lily saw it was different," Hao Ren said as he subconsciously came to the desk beside the bed. There was a rusty hook hanging on the second drawer under the desk. "I think I saw a whole memory …"
As he said, he crushed the hook on the drawer. When he opened the drawer, he saw a lot of parchment scattered on the ground.
There were some severely weathered fragments around the parchment, which should be ordinary paper that could not resist the erosion of time. But the parchment was basically intact. He carefully took out the fragile pieces of parchment and put them on the table. He then took out the MDT. "Scan it, increase the contrast, and see what's written on it."
The MDT floated over the table and scanned. A blue light shot from its lower part to the parchment, and the holographic projection above it showed the parchment that had been analyzed. Some of the handwriting had completely disappeared and could not be recovered by technical means. But other handwriting was still recognizable; it looked like a diary.
"… Heimerwin's paranoia and irritation are getting worse. He believes in the superstitions among the civilians, and even actively spreads them … I watched him grow up, but I don't understand him anymore. Since Karina got sick, he is like … Maybe the 'scholar' is suspicious, but Heimerwin trusts him very much, and the scholar touched the cross with his hand … I'd better write this down, but who should I write it for? I hope these things will not spread in the future … "
After deciphering the content on this piece of parchment, Hao Ren put the other parchments in front of the MDT and let it arrange the text in order. He found that what was recorded on these parchments was more important than he thought: it seemed to be able to unlock the secret of the town.
"… Who is the scholar? I can't trace his origin, but he has credible evidence to prove that he is not evil. He touched the cross and cleaned his teeth with clean salt. He is not afraid of the spices I added in the fireplace. Perhaps he has noticed my several attempts to test him, so he took the initiative to show these characteristics … But the doubt still lingered. The rumors in the town did not diminish, but became more and more intense. The witch who was expelled a few days ago was found dead near the river this morning. She seemed to have tried to steal a piece of clothing, but she did not last until the sun rose. Did her magic not work?
"… The witch's body was burned, and there was no doubt that it was black magic. Perhaps I should repent, I even suspected that she was an innocent girl. But when the fire rose, I only felt incomparable fear. The moment the witch's body was ignited, there was a violent tremor, and then a huge amount of smoke rose from the fire. It was a terrifying scene, and the ashes from the smoke almost covered the entire square … The ashes that were collected were heavier than the weight of three adult men, and some people said that it was the weight of the children that the witch had eaten. The ashes were purified by holy water and sprinkled into the bottom of the pit covered with lime …
"… After the witch incident, my suspicion of the scholar did not lessen, because the disease did not end as he said. Whether the witch was expelled or the witch's body was burned, the children in the town were still sick, and the adults began to become weak …
"… One night, I saw the scholar stop at the place where the witch's body was burned. There was no one there, but his mouth was moving as if he had been talking to someone. I did not dare to get too close, but I vaguely heard him mention 'the other side of the door' and a man called 'the King of Blood' … There is no doubt that he is related to the witch. "
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