OBS Chapter 2712: Temple Past
Chapter 2712: Temple Past
Chapter 2712: Temple Past
"Nature worship, professor. Did you record all the runes, ancient texts, and murals you found at that time?"
Shade asked again, while Miss Danister pretended to take notes.
The professor answered:
"Although the construction workers destroyed part of it, we certainly recorded a lot. Unfortunately, according to the rules for investigating temple-like buildings, most of the records were taken away and sealed by the local Church of Nature at the time. A small amount of information was taken back to school by the instructor."
"Will those few pieces of information be sent to his friends abroad?"
Shad asked tentatively, expecting to hear Professor Tiris Manning's name again, but this time he didn't.
"Those materials were left to me after my mentor retired. I made a copy of them after retirement. The original manuscript is still in Willendel. I brought my copy back to Ximu Town. They are now in the museum's archives. I'll have someone take you to see them later. You can copy them, but you can't take them out of here."
The professor replied, quite proud of it, and Shade gave a small compliment:
"This is really amazing. Your spirit of sharing is the cornerstone for the development of history. Oh, professor, it is said that when investigating ancient temple buildings, some unusual things sometimes happen. Did you encounter them back then?"
Professor Quinto laughed:
"You young scholars always like this kind of story. Well, I admit that I was also curious about this kind of thing when I was young. But I'm sorry, young man, the investigation process back then was quite boring, and we only worked during the day when everyone was there. At night, we returned to the town to rest, so there was no chance of encountering any abnormal events."
Miss Danister, who was sitting across the coffee table from Shad, nudged Shad with her foot, implying that Professor Quinto was lying.
"I see. Since it is an ancient relic, there should be a lot of stone tablets and ancient sacrificial items unearthed, right? Are these things also in the museum now?"
The professor shook his head somewhat embarrassedly:
“Construction had already begun when we arrived, and due to insufficient early protection, the builders sold the antiquities they found here, leaving us with not many valuable antiquities.
However, it is said that this also brought them a curse, and none of the construction workers who resold antiques lived past the age of 40. The few who were over 40 during the construction also died soon after the project was completed, and all of them died of natural causes.
The red-haired girl rubbed Shade's foot again, meaning that this statement was also a lie.
Of course, Shade himself also felt suspicious. If there was no special reason, a professor far away in Willendel would not be particularly concerned about the time and cause of death of a group of construction workers. After all, according to him, only a few people died of natural causes, and it was not a mass death, so it should not cause too much concern.
Xia De nodded again and said to the professor according to the previous plan:
"I have an antique here that is said to have come from this place. Could you please take a look at it?"
Professor Quinto was a little surprised, and then he saw the red-haired young female assistant take out a box. The moment the box was opened, the old professor's eyes immediately lost focus, and the whole person fell into a hypnotic state.
Miss Danister took out the piece of agarwood from the box that was used as a spell material and put it into the incense burner that Shade had transformed back from the toy form and lit it.
After confirming that everything was fine, Xia De asked again:
"Professor, when you were investigating this temple building, did anything unusual happen?"
"Yes."
Professor Quinto replied expressionlessly. Even if an old man like him was in a deep hypnotic state, it would be difficult to wake up even if his emotions fluctuated greatly:
"In fact, this happened before we arrived. Some workers would sleep directly on the construction site at night. Many people mentioned that they dreamed of many people, even elves and dwarves who only appear in stories, coming to this temple to worship."
"Did you dream about that, too?"
"Yes, my mentor and I have rested here. My mentor and the others had normal dreams, but I dreamed about it. I doubt it was a scene from the past, because the temple in the dream was not just a group of buildings. There was also a giant green tree growing in the center of the temple, which was the same trace left in the ruins of the ancient temple."
"Other than that?"
"Nothing unusual."
"What about the antiquities unearthed from the ruins?"
Professor Quinto was obviously silent for a moment before speaking:
“Most of them were sold by the workers before we arrived, but we found some underground antique dealers who were in contact with the workers—most of them were active near Willendel. In fact, they were not strangers, but something was wrong.
After hearing that we were looking for those antiques, they sold them to us at a very low price. Because the price was so low, the professors bought them with their own money, so the ownership of these antiques became us. "
Xia De has already anticipated where the story will go:
“And then something went wrong?”
"Yes, within half a year after the expedition, all the professors who took the antiques went crazy. I was just a student accompanying the team, and luckily I didn't get involved. I don't know much about it, but when the church questioned me about the situation afterwards, I heard that their skin surface began to become like wood.
The church strictly forbade me to talk about this to anyone, and the antiques were eventually taken away by the church. Experiencing this in my youth has made me very cautious in my subsequent academic career, which is also an important reason why I was able to live to retirement in good health. "
Xia De sighed. If this was true, then it seemed that the clues Professor Quinto had provided had already been examined by the church half a century ago.
But there is one thing that the church half a century ago absolutely did not know:
"After what happened, why did you retire and return to Riverwood? And work in this ruins?"
The red-haired girl gave Shade an approving look, and Professor Quinto replied:
"I want to find an answer. For so many years, I often return to this place in my dreams, wandering in my dreams unconsciously. I went to see a psychiatrist, but the doctor just said that I was too impressed by this place and couldn't get rid of the past.
I don't believe in the nonsense of 'look forward, not back', I feel like there is still something here that attracts me. So I came back."
"So what did you find?"
"No. But it doesn't matter. I have made up my mind to spend the rest of my life in Ximu Town. Even if I don't find anything in the end, dying here is still a good thing."
"Have you seen any arrows among the antiques unearthed that year?"
Xia De asked this question at last, but the old professor had only a superficial impression of the antiques from that year, and they had only recovered some of them, not all of them.
Then, under the guidance of Miss Danister, Professor Quinto explained his dream to the two. In the dream, he appeared in a random corner of the renovated Golden Music Hall, and then an inexplicable attraction made him wander around the building, but he could never find where the attraction was.
Ordinary people's memories of dreams are often not very comprehensive, so Professor Quinto's description is not particularly detailed. So Miss Danister came up with a solution:
"Since he always wanders around in his dreams, how about we let him sleepwalk in reality?"
This sounds difficult, but it is something that can be solved by the sorceress casting a spell.
The operation went quite smoothly. Professor Quinto stood up from the sofa in a dazed state, and without paying any attention to Shade and the other man, he staggered towards the door of the reception room.
Shade and Miss Danister followed immediately to ensure that no one else in the exhibition hall would notice the professor's abnormality.
However, the professor did not just wander around the exhibition hall, but soon came to the concert hall through the small door connecting different areas of the building. For this reason, Shade and Miss Danister had to cast an illusion to hide the three of them to prevent being discovered, and Shade did not forget to record the professor's wandering trajectory.
This wandering in the dream continued until 3:30 in the afternoon, and Professor Quinto still hadn't reached his destination. Seeing that the time was almost up, Shade nodded to Miss Danister, asking her to release the professor from his sleepwalking state, and then took the professor back to the reception room of the museum.
After simply compiling the professor's memory of the afternoon conversation, the hypnotic state was lifted. After waking up, Professor Quinto felt a little tired, as if he had walked for an hour or two, but he just thought it was because he had been talking all afternoon.
"It's getting late. We still want to take a look around the museum and then take a look at the materials and documents you mentioned. Professor, we'll see you later. Thank you very much for your help."
Xia De and Miss Danister stood up to say goodbye to the professor, and Professor Quinto happily escorted them to the door of the reception room. However, when both parties said goodbye, Professor Quinto asked again:
"Since you are from Tobesk, do you know Professor Tiris Manning?"
Xia De had been waiting for this name to appear. He nodded without any surprise:
"Of course, Professor Manning is an academic leader in Northern history. How come you also know Professor Manning? Has Professor Manning also been to Vista?"
Professor Quinto said happily:
"Of course I know him, but he has never been here. I met Tyree Manning when I went to Tobisk for an international conference more than 30 years ago. He is younger than me, but we had a pleasant conversation. I am the kind of scholar who likes to stay in the office and the classroom, but Manning has been to many, many places."
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(End of this chapter)