"Huh? How is it possible that there is a woman more beautiful than the Great Witch?"
He suddenly became alert, and then the feeling of being bewitched disappeared in an instant. Xia De stood up, unable to believe that with such a high mental resistance and so many anti-charm blessings, he was actually bewitched by an oil painting with no elemental reaction.
Although he knew that he must never look at that painting again, his eyes subconsciously swept over it again. Then he felt that although the face shape, hair color and eye color were very different, the temperament of the underwater woman in the painting was of ultimate beauty, and the unique charm that made people more and more fascinated the more they looked at it, and even made them want to kill the current owner and take it for themselves, all of which suddenly reminded Xia De of something familiar.
"This can't be..."
He subconsciously took two steps back, his eyes widened, and he felt that the painting had not changed at all, but it was becoming more and more attractive to him. Xia De swallowed his saliva subconsciously, and then, the woman with narrowed eyes in the picture moved as he thought, turned her head to look at him outside the picture, and then winked and smiled at him.
At that moment, Shade felt as if his heart had stopped beating. This was partly because he was shocked by the charm, and partly because he had confirmed what the painting depicted:
"desire!"
To be more precise, this is what he considers desire in the eyes of an ordinary painter.
Cold sweat broke out on Shad's back, but Mr. Upton seemed not to notice that the woman in the painting was moving at all, and he continued to talk about the inspiration he got from the painting.
It was not until this moment that Shad realized that from the beginning till now, he had put all his attention on the painting and had not heard what Mr. Upton was saying at all.
The woman in the painting also returned to her static state. However, her expression remained as she turned her head to look at Shade, but Mr. Upton still did not notice this.
He almost finished talking excitedly about the inspiration he got from this painting, and said to Xia De with emotion:
"I am really lucky to have this painting. I think the painter must have seen a mermaid. I really hope I can see one too..."
"Mr. Upton!"
Xia De interrupted him, his mouth twitched for a moment, and he made up his mind before asking:
"Will you sell this painting?"
But the unkempt man immediately shook his head:
"I will never sell it, no matter how much money you offer. This is the love of my life, and I will keep it with me until I take it to my grave."
After saying that, he looked at Xia De warily:
"I won't tell you where I'm going to be buried in the future."
Xia De pursed his lips and glanced at the painting again vigilantly. In fact, when he heard words like "Pink Book", "Charm", "Flesh and Blood" and "Joy" just now, he should have understood what he had encountered.
The portraits of the Level Zero Relics, even if they were just portraits drawn by ordinary people, had extraordinary power. He could now feel the suffocating whispering elements, but he absolutely could not say the name and information of "desire".
"Okay, okay, this visit is over, you can go now."
Mr. Upton seemed to realize that Shade, who was frowning and thinking at the moment, was "scheming something bad", so he forced Shade to the hotel corridor and closed the door in front of Shade. Shade raised his hand and wanted to knock on the door again, but finally put his hand down:
"This is really troublesome."
Although Desire had always been quite nice to him, he would not forget that it was a top-level, level-0 relic. Theoretically speaking, except for the advent of the evil god, it would be difficult for something more dangerous than her to appear in the material world.
If Desire really appeared in the Green Lake area because of the painting, Shade couldn't imagine what would happen next. This was definitely not his worry for nothing. The painting had just shown signs of being revived, and Green Lake was the place where Desire liked to descend the most.
"This is really..."
He was nominally a friend of the Forlan brothers, and for the sake of their reputation, he could not steal or rob. In the end, Shade decided that it would be better to report to the church anonymously. There were already three thirteenth-ring warlocks in the Green Lake Parish, so this was the safest method at the moment.
But he didn't do so in the end, because when he went to Ms. Hope's room to hand in the gold pounds for obtaining the magic, and went upstairs to Mr. Richard to ask for the manuscript, he received very unexpected news.
Shade did not take the initiative to reveal what he knew in front of Ms. Hope or Mr. Richard, but when Ms. Hope and Shade came to the fourth floor together and the three of them sat on the sofa, Mr. Richard asked curiously:
"Mr. Watson, you don't look well."
"Mr. Upton's room gives me a very bad feeling."
Mr. Richard frowned and exchanged a cautious look with Ms. Hope, who then asked carefully;
"He...didn't let you see the painting?"
Shade was startled, and then realized that the painting must have been in Mr. Upton's hands for quite some time. Since he could show it to Shade, a person he had just met, it was impossible that he had not shown it to other people. The two believers of the God of Love in front of him obviously knew something.
"Yes."
Xia De nodded and said tentatively:
"That picture is very strange..."
While the other two were observing his expressions, he was also observing their expressions:
"It's a very beautiful woman... like a mermaid."
Mr. Richard suddenly tightened his grip on the armrest of the sofa, and Ms. Hope's brows furrowed even more:
"Did you...see anything else?"
The two of them looked as if they were worried that Xia De would suddenly attack them.
Shade shook his head:
"No."
The believers of the God of Love breathed a sigh of relief, and then heard Shade's next words:
"I looked away in time. That thing reminded me of a relic I had seen before. I couldn't believe that my judgment was correct. After all, the danger level of that relic was very high."
Three pairs of eyes looked at each other, everyone was nervous and alert.
"May I ask what the relic is?"
Mr. Richard asked, taking a deep breath and not even daring to exhale.
"Don't tell the name!"
Seeing that Shad was about to open his mouth, Ms. Hope suddenly reminded him. Her voice became quite shrill, but she didn't care about her own loss of composure at all.
Xia De nodded, raised his hand and gestured to the number "0".
Mr. Richard raised his hands to cover his eyes, and then he let out the breath he had been holding, while Ms. Hope shuddered, closed her eyes and prayed to God.
"So, you guys know about it, too?"
Xia De asked, and then found that his palms were sweating. After a long time, the other two gave the answer:
"Yes, of course I know. That thing was our cult's greatest enemy before it disappeared."
"What?"
"Before leaving, my Lord had instructed us to take good care of its seal... Yes, my Lord, the old god - the God of Love, or the Red Heart Lock, had sealed it in the Fifth Age. But in the late Fifth Age, after the cult gradually collapsed, it still escaped. How could we not know who the painting depicted?"
Xia De leaned back against the sofa, his eyes widened and his heart beat rapidly.
But this was definitely not because of nervousness or fear, but because of excitement. Information about desire has always been difficult to find, and even the ancient spiritual sects only recorded a few words.
And now, the opportunity to learn more about the Level 0 relic that always appears around him has finally come.
It was also the first time that Mr. Richard and Ms. Hope met someone who also knew the information about the relic, so when it was noon, they invited Shad to have lunch together.
However, they did not dare to eat in the hotel, but went to a restaurant two blocks away. Because they were afraid of the painting, they took a carriage after dinner and drove away from the city center and the water for a long time, and finally came to the tavern in the village of Little Ridon, which was dependent on the city in the northern suburbs of Michaela Blast Furnace.
Spring is the busiest season for farmers, and it was the afternoon after lunch, so there were few people in the tavern in the small village. The three of them sat in a corner, and the believers of the god of love sat opposite Shade. They started talking only after the bartender brought the drinks and placed them on the table.
"Since you know about that thing, there is no reason why Mr. Upton would not know it. Why did he still keep the painting instead of destroying it immediately?"
This is the issue that Xia De is most concerned about. Old Mr. Richard shook his head:
"Upton certainly knows about that thing, but he is obsessed with it. You should understand what I mean, he has fallen into it. It's not that he is weak-willed, but that thing... We can't separate him from the painting, and we can't even tell anyone else about it. The information about that thing itself is a source of pollution. All we can do is keep trying to wake Upton up. Fortunately, the painting is the lust seen by an unknown painter..."
He almost said the word, then immediately closed his mouth and looked around nervously.
Ms. Hope helped him finish the sentence:
"The painting is a reflection of someone else's inner self, and Upton has always been very pious, so he can still be saved. You see he is basically normal now, just a little bit weird, but in fact a year ago, he was looking at the painting in the room all day, and he was on the verge of losing control. He even took the initiative to throw the painting into the lake. His condition is much better now, and we believe that in another six months, we can try to 'borrow' the painting from him."
Xia De nodded to show his understanding:
"But it's still dangerous. The longer we delay, the more likely it is that something will go wrong. The painting is likely to cause it, that's almost certain."