Chapter 2824 The fifth oil painting and Hoy’s treasure
After yesterday’s heavy rain, Vista Woodland looked even more bleak than usual on this late autumn or early winter Friday. Most of the trees in the forest have lost all their leaves, and the bare forest is quite different from when Shade arrived in early autumn.
It won’t rain anymore today, but the temperature has dropped really hard. When Shade opened the door and walked into Miss Daniste’s room in the hotel, he found that not only the red-haired girl and Miss Bell had changed into thicker skirts, but there was even a heater in the room.
“The City of Vista has begun unified heating. If you ask me, steam pipes and urban unified heating are really the best inventions of this era.”
The owl flapped its wings and transformed back into the witch with gray-black hair. She also put on her early winter outfit, and it was still the same dark style as before:
“Did you read the newspaper on the way here just now? Director Kant’s family has been arrested. The newspaper said that he was considered guilty of treason and had been secretly cooperating with the Delinall Zionists.”
Shad didn’t bring Mia here today, and he didn’t read the newspaper on the way here, but he did talk about this topic with the coachman after entering the city:
“Compared with other mistakes he committed, treason is already the least serious crime.”
The red-haired girl who heard some news from the college explained:
“The Brontë family was arrested for that reason just last week. If another big family is arrested in the local area on charges of devil worship a week later, the church is worried that this will cause turmoil among the citizens of Vista City.
Of course, the most important thing is that the government of Vista City may be considered untrustworthy. That’s why only the crime of treason will be announced, but when the trial comes, other charges will be inevitable. ”
As she spoke, she motioned for Shade to pay attention to Flora. Shade originally thought that he didn’t notice that the witch had changed her hairstyle or wore new jewelry today, but when she saw Flora walking to the easel, she realized that the fifth oil painting had been painted:
“Is it the silver wolf under the moon?”
As he spoke, he walked over. The artist lady nodded with her hands behind her back pretending to be reserved, and then motioned to Shade to see the picture by herself.
Like the first four oil paintings, this painting is still not completely realistic, but is appropriately artistically processed based on Flora’s own feelings.
In the picture, a huge wolf head appears in the air, as if made of flames and smoke, giving people a majestic and powerful feeling. The wolf’s eyes glowed red, looking forward with a very oppressive look. The background of the wolf head is a huge full moon hanging high in the night sky, and the lingering clouds and fog make the moon appear dim.
The forest below is surrounded by flames, and the orange-red firelight reflects the trees in the forest fire. The tones of the oil painting are mainly contrasts of blue, orange and red, showing a fantasy scene under fire and moonlight.
And Shade also noticed that at the bottom of the picture, there was a figure wearing a cloak and holding a long staff standing at the bottom edge, looking up at the giant wolf in the sky, looking very small but determined.
Although the addition of this character enriches the composition at the bottom of the picture and gives the scene a sense of strong contrast in power, making the entire painting more aesthetically pleasing and of epic conflict, no matter how you think about it, you know the characters in the picture Just like the “Owl” before, it is the private property of the witch.
“How do you feel?”
Flora asked with some anticipation, Shade nodded slightly:
“If I didn’t know that this was describing my story, I would probably be describing a plot in a myth. It’s very good, but you painted me too fiercely, Flora.”
The witch smiled reservedly. She just felt that Shade’s fierce look was the most handsome.
Anyway, the demon thing is over, and it looks like Shade doesn’t have anything important to do before the others arrive over the weekend.
However, Flora has to arrange accommodation for other people and see how she can communicate with the innkeeper Mr. Bennet to rent an entire floor. Miss Danister is dealing with Emilia’s affairs. After the elf girl arrives, Shade plans to let her live in a hotel instead of on a boat.
What she needs to face this time is a test, and an absolutely safe environment is not good for her to be vigilant.
“Then I’ll go out by myself today.”
Shad said after reading the oil painting, Miss Danister asked curiously:
“What are you going to do?”
“It’s still a matter of the Hoy family. Didn’t I meet with them for the last time yesterday to learn about the Hoy family’s deal with the devil? It turned out that the family wanted me to save them, and even told them the truth about their family’s property. Where is it placed?
The so-called Hoy family treasure is real. I want to see if the devil took the money after the fire three hundred years ago, or left part of it where it was. ”
Seeing that both ladies showed worried expressions, Shade added:
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not interested in this money. I’m not that kind of greedy person. In the past three hundred years, everyone who has coveted this ‘treasure’ has had a bad end. If you can find it, I’ll keep some for myself and give away most of it. This coming winter won’t be easy for most people.”
“I’m not worried about you being cursed by the devil, but you said the treasure is outside the city?”
Flora is a little worried:
“Will you encounter that tree again?”
“If I was worried about this, I wouldn’t have to come to the Vista Woodland again. Don’t worry, if that tree could attack me at any time, the city of Vista would have ceased to exist. Its appearance must also be conditional. , if we don’t take the initiative to come into contact with its power, it shouldn’t take the initiative to come to trouble me.”
Shad didn’t save the Hoy family yesterday in the past time and space. On the one hand, he didn’t want to disturb the order of time and space, and on the other hand, he didn’t think it was necessary to rescue people who worshiped devils.
As for the location of the money, they are not sealed in the Hoy Manor or the Hoy family cemetery, but are hidden deeper in the woods. This is why no one has found them for so many years. .
In its heyday, the Hoy family almost controlled the local logging industry, so they knew many secret areas in the woods.
When they traveled through time yesterday, they explained the location of the treasure in detail in order to save themselves, so Shade set off from the city center and headed west. After going deep into the forest, he opened the “forest path” and turned into a silver wolf. He hoped he hadn’t frightened the squirrel that was standing on a dead branch.
Although the Vista Woodland is generally a plain terrain, there are also small hills here, and the Hoy family’s treasure is hidden in a cave in a hill in the west of the Woodland.
Even after hearing the detailed description, it took Shade a whole morning to find it.
After confirming the almost invisible marks on the bark of the trees outside the cave, Shade used “echoes from the past” to confirm that no one had been here in the past few days, and then entered the cave.
Although the Hoy family described the location, they did not mention the traps they set here, but those traps did not matter to Shade. After all, he can now catch bullets with his bare hands and smash a building with one punch, even if it is steam. The bomb exploded in his hand and he was only slightly injured.
The most dangerous thing in the cave is actually the trap set by the devil, but fortunately, as the devil itself is eliminated, the effect of these traps that require its own strength to maintain is less effective.
The black demonic fire was quickly extinguished, and the resentful spirits revived because they sensed the breath of living people were also sent away. After Shade used “fossils as mud” to dissolve the stone door, he saw the boxes stacked deep in the hilly cave.
Compared to the slightly shabby boxes in the Hoy family’s secret room three hundred years ago, the boxes here are almost stacked into a hill.
Shad opened those boxes only after making sure there were no Mimic Monsters here. The silver ball of light sprinkled the moonlight on the treasure that had been covered with dust for many years. Except for one of the boxes that contained a ledger, all the other boxes reflected a bright golden light. Shade stretched out his head to look and saw that the codes were neatly arranged. Qi’s gold bricks:
“This is really true. Director Kant turned out to be attracted by these things. It is not difficult to understand that he was tempted.”
Even outsiders who don’t care much about wealth these days can’t help but be speechless.
There were only one or two pieces of gold left in two of the boxes. They had obviously been used, but now Shade no longer knew what the story was.
This gold is not the “devil’s gold” used by demons to fool mortals, but real gold. Shade couldn’t give a rough estimate of the value of these precious metals. Anyway, even the great nobles of Willondale and Tobesk would be envious of this money.
But this creates a new problem——
“But where did they make so much money? Even if they control the lumberjack industry in a small town, are the lumberjacks so profitable? Doesn’t it mean that the only characteristic of the logging industry is that logging is tiring?”
If so much gold could be accumulated from the logging industry alone, then the town of Ximu wouldn’t have developed until the musicians arrived.
Fortunately, those account books gave Shade the answer. Most of the contents in the account books showed that the Hoy family was supporting the Delin’all Kingdom of that era.
Although the Delin’aur region was the last southern kingdom to be annexed by Kasenrik a hundred and fifty years ago, the war between Kasenrik and Delin’aal actually started a long time ago. And in each war it was Kasenric who gradually encroached on more of Drin’ol’s territory.
One hundred and fifty years ago, Margaret’s ancestors went to war with Delarian in the north and Drin’ol in the east at the same time, and then under tremendous pressure, they captured the capital of the Kingdom of Drin’ol. The “Battle of Misty Mountain” that sealed the victory is still talked about today.
Three hundred years ago, the United Kingdom of Kasenlik had basically unified two-thirds of the Southern Territory, and the conflict with the Kingdom of Delinall was also intensifying.
“The devil has been provoking it since then, but where did the money come from?”
PS: The picture in this chapter “The fifth oil painting – Silver Wolf in Fire”