"If it was not originally in this room, could it possibly be..." Kaier paused and silently mouthed a name: Wood Spirit.
Is this vine sculpture the Wood Spirit?
After a moment of silence, everyone looked towards the Wise Sovereign. Now, only he could give judgment.
However, the Wise Sovereign appeared to be lost in thought, and after a long while, he gently said, "I don’t know."
"Whether it is a Wood Spirit, I also need to enter personally to give a definite answer." The Wise Sovereign: "But if I do the confirmation, it would belong to my discovery and not yours."
Dox frowned deeply: "So, we not only have to find the Wood Spirit but also prove it is the Wood Spirit?"
Wise Sovereign: "Although your expression is inaccurate, that’s more or less the idea."
To discover something suspected to be a Wood Spirit, first, you must prove it is a Wood Spirit, and then you can say you found the Wood Spirit. But this involves another issue. Suppose this vine sculpture truly is the Wood Spirit, but no matter how much they try to induce it, the vine sculpture does not respond. How would they prove it is the Wood Spirit? Attack it? But attacking right in front of the Wise Sovereign is clearly inappropriate.
Regarding this potential situation, the Wise Sovereign’s answer remained consistent: "That’s also for you to consider, not me. Besides, making too many presumptions will only bring confusion. Instead of making baseless assumptions, think about how to prove whether this vine is a Wood Spirit."
As he finished speaking, the Wise Sovereign once again put on an attentive expression.
Everyone looked at each other for several seconds, and Vay suggested, "How about we first sense the condition of the vine?"
Angel: "It probably isn’t a Wood Spirit."
Faced with curious gazes from Vay and the others, Angel didn’t immediately explain, but raised his staff and gently tapped the vine sculpture.
The moment the staff touched the vine sculpture, the vine trembled slightly.
Then everyone saw thin dust fall from the cracks in the sculpture.
"These dust particles..." Vay gazed at the flying dust, seemingly realizing something, and turned to look at the Black Earl.
At this moment, Angel provided an answer: "Black had previously seen this vine sculpture as well, but after identification, Black believed it might not be a Wood Spirit. However, considering the unknown limits of the Wood Spirit’s talent of concealment, before leaving, Black placed ’marks’ on some possibly questionable spots."
"These dust particles are those ’marks’, and since the dust is still here, it indicates this vine sculpture is the same one Black encountered earlier. Since it’s the same, it means this vine sculpture has not moved from the start."
"If it really were a Wood Spirit, it wouldn’t remain here all along."
Based on the above judgment, it’s likely not a Wood Spirit.
Of course, it can’t be completely denied since their understanding of Wood Spirits is limited and one-sided. Maybe the Wood Spirit’s boldness has grown over the years, and it dares to hide in plain sight?
However, these small probability events can temporarily be set aside. If Angel doesn’t find the Wood Spirit this time, and Dox thinks there’s suspicion here, then they can investigate later.
Now it’s better to consider scenarios with higher probabilities, so after generally confirming it’s likely not a Wood Spirit, they bypassed it and went up to the second floor.
The second floor had only a small room, essentially visible at a glance.
There were some broken remnants on the ground, but they belonged to an external energy chamber or light source, which could be ignored. As for the furniture, it was relatively well preserved.
Most of the furniture looked similar to that on the zero level, made of extraordinary materials, but nothing very special.
The only thing worth noting was the dressing mirror in the room’s corner.
This dressing mirror and the vanity table were one piece, with an oval mirror able to reflect most of one’s face.
Due to the ’Mirror Demon God’, everyone was concerned about items related to ’mirrors’, and the Black Earl was no exception. Because of this, the dressing mirror was also marked by the Black Earl.
Moreover, this mark was more prominent, right on the mirror’s surface.
The Black Earl had covered the mirror’s surface with a layer of thin dust.
Now, that thin dust remained, and through it, one could vaguely see shadows moving within the mirror.
Upon common judgment, the shadow in the mirror was actually their projection. But having experienced the sudden change in the portrait of the blonde woman earlier, everyone became suspicious about the shadow on the mirror.
Is it really them inside? Or could there be someone else?
With these suspicions in mind, everyone naturally gathered in front of the dressing mirror, observing closely through the hazy mirror if there were any unusual traces.
While others investigated the dressing mirror, Angel did not step forward but moved to the entrance. This was because the Sage was standing nearby.
The Sage glanced at Angel: "What, you have no doubts about that well-preserved mirror?"
Angel: "Doubts, certainly, but first, I want to confirm something."
"What do you want to confirm?" The Sage turned his head, quietly watching Angel, and the third eye on his forehead, overlooking from above, exuded an air of arrogance.
"That vine sculpture."
Wise Sovereign: "I already answered before, I don’t know."
"No, I don’t want to confirm if it is a Wood Spirit. I want to know if that vine sculpture was left there by the Wood Spirit?" Angel: "Is it also an offshoot created by the Wood Spirit?"
The Wise Sovereign gave Angel a rather surprised look: "Why do you think it was left by the Wood Spirit?"
Previously, the round wood, with plausible reasoning, was suggested to be left by the Wood Spirit because it contained substantial life essence and was inherently an extraordinary material.
But the vine sculpture outside was different; it was just an ordinary piece of wood that had absorbed a bit of energy essence. The only notable aspect was that it was long-lasting and resistant to decay. Besides this, there wasn’t anything worth mentioning.
It was fundamentally different from the round wood, and its internal aura was different too. Thus, the Wise Sovereign was puzzled about how Angel connected these two distinctly different wooden materials.
"Because using wood to carve vines is inherently peculiar." Angel: "I can think of two explanations, either it’s an act of extreme leisure or a practice of skill."
"Previously, Miss Cicia also mentioned that the Wise Sovereign had shown favor to the Wood Spirit, teaching it much knowledge. And given the Sage’s expertise in alchemy, surely he would be adept at carving; perhaps he even taught carving to the Wood Spirit?"
"So, in my view, both explanations make sense when applied to the Wood Spirit."
The Wise Sovereign looked deeply at Angel before speaking: "I increasingly feel that your appearance is not coincidental. Your understanding of many things can’t be explained by mere flimsy reasons. Also, don’t claim Cicia told you since she doesn’t know much of the information either."