Chapter 16 Is that it?_2

The bookshelf slowly shifted aside, revealing a staircase leading straight into the underground.

"This..." The other family members were astonished. They had grown up here, but they had never discovered there was a secret passage in their home.

"Come on, this is where our family's secret lies," Wang De spoke and then addressed the armed personnel outside, "Guard this place, no one is allowed in or out."

After lighting a candle, he led the way into the passageway.

The rest followed, entering the secret passageway one by one.

It took them over forty steps before they finally reached the bottom.

This was an underground room with a feeling of antiquity to it, eerily spacious.

Wang De then turned on the lights of the basement, which were dim and flickering, obviously long neglected.

Relying on the faint light source, they saw a strange scene.

A brick house made of green bricks?

In the basement, there was actually a single-story traditional green brick house?

This astonished everyone greatly.

"This is the secret of the Wang Family," Wang De approached the brick house, gently touching the walls as he spoke, "The former owner of this place built a residence above it to hide the secret. A mere cover. Unfortunately, it couldn't escape the Disaster Fog. In the end, this place became my possession. Perhaps, this is what you call Taboo Items, right?"

Li Yelai and the Detective exchanged glances, and the Detective was the first to ask, "What ability does this brick house have?"

"Exchange," Wang De said solemnly, pushing open one of the wooden doors to the room.

"Creak"

The aging hinges let out a grating sound.

Allowing everyone to see the layout of the room, inside there was only an... altar.

"Exchange what?" Li Yelai asked, frowning.

"Almost anything, depending on the sacrifice offered, it tries to fulfill the wish as much as possible. Of course, bringing back the dead is not possible," Wang De explained, "You just need to place the sacrifice in the room before midnight and close the door. After midnight, the grace will be received."

"At first, I longed for wealth, so I crept in here and secretly offered a sacrifice. It was a dog I had found. So, after midnight, the dog was gone, and instead, there was a piece of gold on the altar."

"After that, I would bring sacrifices here again and again. My assets slowly accumulated. At the same time, I also figured out the rules."

"You just have to speak your wish to the altar, offer a sacrifice. Some things can be given directly, while others require guiding me to a place to obtain."

"I once had a crippled arm, and after offering a living cow, my crippled arm was restored."

"If animals can have such effects as sacrifices, what about humans?"

"To test it out, I tricked a drunkard..." Wang De said in a low voice.

This statement made everyone's scalp tingle.

"You used the drunkard as a sacrifice?" The girl in the white dress widened her eyes, incredulous. She couldn't reconcile her once kind grandfather with someone who would do such a thing.

Both the Detective and Li Yelai frowned; it seemed that Wang De was more emphatic now, brazenly admitting to an official representation that he had sacrificed a living person!

"Yes, I sacrificed the drunkard and got a map, found a box of gold from it, and firmly established myself in Giant City. But that wasn't enough, nowhere near. Fortunately, in that era, a few missing persons would go unnoticed. After sacrificing five people at the same time, I obtained a map and found the schematics for the Hot Melt Gun. After that, the laws of Giant City were perfected, and I stopped making sacrifices," Wang De said with a nonchalant smile, "You can't arrest me now."

"Later on... something else must have happened," Li Yelai said, "According to what you've said, none of your offspring would have died."

Using Taboo Items, there is a price to be paid.

And in those previous transactions, those sacrifices were the price.

As such, the death of the Wang Family members wasn't due to this price.

There was another reason.

"Exactly," Wang De said solemnly, "Someone discovered my secret and began to threaten me. But with the altar in hand, why should I fear threats? Thus, the adversary began to target my relatives. I regret it greatly, but I was unable to find him... I could never find him... Even when I made wishes to the altar, I could only discover places where he had been..."

Li Yelai and the Detective exchanged a look, then asked, "Could we inspect the altar?"

"Of course," Wang De nodded slightly, stepping aside to make way. He seemed very compliant.

Li Yelai, holding a knife, approached the green brick house, examining it back and forth before he pushed open the other half of the wooden door.

To see the altar that bore signs of many years. This was no benevolent object.

It's also unclear if Black Shadow has any relation to this thing; both require sacrifices. However, Lil Ye was using enemies he had killed as sacrifices, and the other demanded living flesh and blood.

Thinking to himself, Li Yelai stepped into the room.

However, just as he crossed the threshold, there came a sudden, startling change!

A pair of crimson eyes suddenly opened in front of him, turning into a ghostly figure in an instant.

It was a Heavy Knight clad in grey-white plate armor, draped in a silver cloak!

The crimson eyes twinkled faintly within the helmet. Holding his long spear, he immediately brought it crashing down towards Li Yelai.

"Damn it, Old Bi Ding!" Even Li Yelai, who was on high alert, hadn't anticipated an enemy suddenly appearing before him.

He could only raise his knife sharply while leaning back, desperately avoiding the enemy's sneak attack.

"Bang" The moment the spear collided with the sword, Li Yelai felt a numbness in his palm and found himself falling backward.