After Amos left Elle’s room, Annan quickly got dressed.
But he didn’t imdiately go out.
Instead, he turned around to lock the door and then took out the book from under the pillow—"The Curse and Seal of the Soul"—and started reading it calmly.
Undoubtedly, this was actually the best opportunity.
Amos was a very smart and gentle person.
He would certainly feel apologetic and embarrassed about the offense he had just committed. Although this would not make him comply with Annan’s words to do sothing, at least he would not barge into Elle’s room again.
So at this ti, even if he thought Elle was staying in the room for too long, he would not barge in again.
Because he would think that this was Elle’s punishnt for him—in his understanding, Elle must be angry. Leaving him alone outside for more than ten minutes was a kind of petty punishnt and also ti for Elle to cool down.
Therefore, Amos wouldn’t wander off. Instead, he would quietly stay in the kitchen, waiting for Annan to leave.
Otherwise, once Annan went out and didn’t see him, he might get angry... Based on Annan’s one-sided understanding of Elle, she should indeed have such a reaction.
And because Elle had exposed sothing in front of him, Amos was forcibly reminded by Annan that "the daughter has grown up" and needed so private space. With a sense of ethical guilt, Amos wouldn’t search Elle’s room anymore.
Thus, the bloody cleaver hidden in the cupboard and the book "The Curse and Seal of the Soul" would not be easily found.
Of course... the premise was that Annan couldn’t really stay too long.
Fortunately, this book was the best one to investigate.
Because there was a bookmark inside, stuck at the most crucial page. So without wasting much ti, Annan was able to directly see the core content.
"...The seal that uses the painting as a dium also requires the rituals of communicating with the Bone Consort, the Burying Hag, and the Mirror Dragon. Among them, the Bone Consort’s ritual is more recomnded because the Bone Consort asks for almost no price during the first ritual..."
Upon reading this sowhat familiar sentence, Annan’s heart stirred slightly.
Could it be...
He held the page with his right hand and flipped to the title page with his left.
"...Grianznuha Rinfrost."
Annan slowly read out this na that had beco sowhat familiar.
Should I say it’s as expected?
How is it you again?
Was Amos’s wife your fan?
Or was this author with Winter’s blood also a bestselling... bestseller of banned books?
And, do you have a grudge against the Bone Consort? Or did you eat the Bone Consort’s al? Why does every book teach your readers how to shear the Bone Consort’s wool...
Annan curled the corner of his mouth and flipped the book back.
"...If the perforr of the ritual is a painter, the Bone Consort will ask whether the person wants ’pignt,’ ’brush,’ or ’paper.’ At this ti, the best choice is ’paper.’
"Because if the ritual perforr chooses pignt, then the Bone Consort will grant a special type of pignt that can silently strip a part of the soul from the subject when painting their portrait, storing it within the portrait.
"The advantage is that the subject will not notice anything, and this part of the soul can be trained as a guardian spirit or used to curse enemies. The guardian spirit can freely move among all the paintings created with this pignt by the artist; but the downside is, these spirits cannot escape from the portrait. Also, the amount of pignt obtained in one ritual is limited and cannot form an effective ability.
"Moreover, paintings created with this pignt make the portraits extraordinarily real. Far beyond the normal level of the painter, it’s easy to expose. Therefore, this is not recomnded for use.
"Apart from pignt, which should not be chosen, the remaining two options are fairly common. The following describes the differences between the two choices and how to seal the soul and cast curses in detail..."
The rest of it was turned over.
Annan carefully read the remaining part before closing the book.
As expected... the two choices that followed were to lure soone into signing their own na with the "pen" and to write contracts or agreents with paper. Neither had anything to do with painting.
At that mont, a prompt flashed before Annan’s eyes:
[Discover the Secret of Amos Morrison], he had successfully completed this side quest.
"Just as I thought..."
Annan murmured to himself.
Everything was clear now.
"Our Mr. Amos must be a famous genius painter. He had an extraordinary obsession and talent for painting and beauty.
"But due to so obsession—perhaps feeling the limits of his own talent or so other reason, he was in great agony. He accidentally found a way to sign a contract with the Skeleton Lord by browsing through the books left by his deceased wife.
"He didn’t need the Skeleton Lord’s power to curse others. Instead, he wanted to use that ’magical pignt’ to enhance his paintings. To paint things he couldn’t achieve with ordinary pignts and his own abilities..."
That is, the human soul.
With this, everything made sense.
After Mr. Amos tried to use this pignt to paint portraits, he could no longer escape the magic power of this pignt, unable to accept his previous diocrity...
The reason he couldn’t accept his paintings of "gardens" might be that he couldn’t extract the soul of a garden with this pignt; he dared not use this pignt to paint a portrait of his daughter Elle, fearing that it might affect Elle’s health.
—Yet he dared to use this pignt for others.
Therefore, Annan had not a shred of pity in his heart for this poor painter targeted by the Skeleton Lord.
It was all self-inflicted.
In Annan’s view, his original paintings were already quite excellent. And he was only in his thirties... Many painters only beca famous in their old age.
But he couldn’t wait.
Perhaps this was the first bottleneck period in his life. Due to his extraordinary talent, his previous life had been smooth sailing, never encountering setbacks... Even before he obtained the pignt, he had been invited to paint a portrait of the Viscountess—twice even.
Considering Amos’s age, this was enough to prove his talent.
Although there were still many unsolved mysteries...
Such as why Amos did this, why he consud Elle’s eyeball, why Elle was sealed in the painting; where the more than a hundred paintings in that long gallery ca from; whether the Viscountess was the wife of the current old Viscount of Roth Fort... and why the entire Frostwater Harbor was cursed.
But those secrets must be hidden in higher-level dungeons.
He had only entered the third floor this ti, so it was normal not to have all the information.
After all, Annan could enter the dungeon anyti later... and maybe even coax players to help him decipher it.
Annan was sure that the players would like this.
At least during the gallery stage, that thrill... was just like a person with a dull palate tasting the spicy and scalding Sichuan hotpot for the first ti.
Oh right, he could set up a live-streaming channel for them. Annan had seen this feature in the backend before.
Although for safety reasons, it couldn’t be made public for the ti being, it could still be posted on the forum for other players to co and watch their dungeon strategy. It would be a good test to see if the live-streaming viewers—and Annan, who was watching—could retain the mories that players lost when they failed...
Now, it was about ti to end this dungeon.
Annan looked at the lonely [Survive] and revealed a gentle and kind smile.
—Then, he took the kitchen knife out of the dressing table.
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