Chapter 1168 - 577: Ignored, Unusual, Arrival_2

"Didn’t see him in the Secret Realm either, so something must’ve gone wrong."

"That guy’s always been quick on the uptake. Seeing the state the island’s in right now, he should’ve guessed the ritual went wrong."

"According to the previous plan, everything we needed to take away should already be prepared by him and waiting for me on the ship."

Footsteps growing faster and faster, Dodd thought so to himself.

Flynn’s loyalty, after so many years, had already been thoroughly tested.

This was precisely why he could feel at ease entrusting all matters related to the Moon Tide Banquet to him.

And facts had proven that Flynn had indeed done a decent job with his duties; it was just that the unexpected incident during the ritual disrupted the original plan.

Suddenly, as if he’d discovered something, "Algae Scale" Dodd’s steps halted.

Frowning, he looked at the ground ahead.

There, mingled with an increasingly dense spread of footprints, were a series of utterly undisguised, extremely conspicuous drag marks.

And the direction these marks extended toward was exactly the uninhabited area where he had previously arranged his backup escape route.

"What’s going on?"

Dodd felt a wave of foreboding erupt from his chest.

Before he could think further, another burst of scattered footsteps came from behind.

His figure flickered and slipped into the bushes at the side.

After waiting a dozen or so seconds, he saw a temporary squad of five Fishman lackeys come over from the residential district he’d just passed through.

There were bloodstains and small wounds visible on their bodies, clearly signs of a battle that hadn’t been all that fierce.

As for their opponents... they were likely the dozen Human civilians currently reduced to corpses, being dragged behind them in a rickety wooden cart.

"Where are these Fishmen taking the bodies?"

Having traded with the Sha Hua Fishmen, he knew their assault on the island was to find sacrifices for some ritual.

And as long as he could achieve Transcendence, Dodd didn’t really care what the ritual itself was for.

But now, when the route the Fishmen were leaving behind overlapped with the direction of his planned escape route, a vague unease rose in his heart.

Relying on the physical advantages of a High level Master, Dodd quietly followed the Fishman squad ahead, moving toward the shoreline.

...

...

"Shhk!"

The sharp blade traced a perfect arc through the air, cleanly beheading the Sha Hua Fishman in front of him that had just killed a civilian fisherman.

Its limbs twitched as the headless body slowly toppled backward.

Flicking the blood from the sword’s edge, Xia Nan kept moving forward while glancing left and right to orient himself.

On the street beside him were nearly forty Elite adventurers from the docks.

After Flynn was force-fed the Truth Serum, the stalled interrogation suddenly felt like someone had hit the fast-forward button.

This "Algae Scale" loyal dog, who had remained silent even when his fingers were smashed, enduring the agony without revealing a single scrap of information while fully conscious—

—had his psychological defenses completely shattered by the expensive Truth Serum.

Without similar experience, Xia Nan had no idea what Flynn felt at that moment.

But what he did see was that once the drug took effect, Flynn’s once steel-hard gaze became like that of a drunk—first turning unfocused, then hollow and lifeless.

With the slightest provocation, those secrets buried in the deepest corners of his heart poured out of his mouth without reservation.

Time was limited; they didn’t ask too many questions.

But it was enough to confirm that "Algae Scale" Dodd’s purpose in conducting such a ritual was exactly what they’d suspected—to achieve Transcendence.

They also extracted from him Dodd’s backup plan after the failed advancement, learning the rough location of the hidden spot where his men and ships were stashed.

Everyone then gathered their forces. Aside from a portion left at the docks to handle any follow-up Fishman assaults and protect the ships—

The remaining lightly injured yet still combat-capable seniors formed temporary teams and rushed toward the escape site Dodd had prepared, as described by Flynn.

As the Elite squad with the most intact strength on the docks, "Sword of Vengeance" almost all joined in, leaving only the twin warriors Rein and Gordon—two professionals—aboard the ship to deal with emergencies.

It’s worth mentioning that Flynn, the loyal dog who had provided valuable intelligence under the Truth Serum, did not preserve his life because of it.

Just as the drug’s effects were about to wear off, Iron Grid smashed his skull in with a single hammer blow, killing him beyond any doubt, to vent the hatred and Anger this hot-tempered Dwarf half-blood felt toward "Algae Scale" Dodd.

"How much farther?"

After helping Ellison turn a Fishman Guard blocking his path into a charred husk, sparks puffing from his nostrils,

the scimitar-wielding Captain Lorin asked the adventurers beside him with a grave expression.

"Right on the East Shore. We’ll be there in ten minutes at most." Xia Nan picked up the answer, though a somewhat odd look crept onto his face.

To be honest, knowing the story of Ellison and Lorin, the way the siblings had gradually gone their separate ways, he’d been quite curious what things would be like when they met again.

He hadn’t expected that neither Lorin nor Ellison would show anything special—just coordinating in battle like ordinary teammates.

There was none of the conflict exploding, nor any scene of mutual reconciliation he’d imagined.

But thinking about their personalities and past experiences, such a reaction was actually quite reasonable.

"Damn it, what are these sea rats trying to do? Even dragging away the corpses of civilians from the streets?"

Stepping on the remains of a Fishman whose skull he’d smashed down into its chest, the Captain of the "Furious Tide Battle Gang," Iron Grid, grumbled.

Certainly not out of any sympathy for the slaughtered civilians.

To put it bluntly, in his long adventuring career, after a few particularly difficult commissions, he hadn’t exactly stopped his men from doing similarly filthy things on the way back.

Right now, he was just naturally puzzled by the abnormal behavior of the Sha Hua Fishmen.

Xia Nan glanced at him.

While hurrying along with the main group toward the East Shore, he explained what he knew about the Sha Hua Fishmen’s sacrificial rituals.

Whenever they ran into small Fishman squads along the way, they casually wiped them out.

With his limited ability, Xia Nan couldn’t clear all the Fishmen on Stod Island in a short time.

The other adventurers were even more indifferent; clearly none of them cared about these Fishmen currently butchering civilians.

Xia Nan wasn’t any Saint. He might have some conscience, but nowhere near enough to abandon a target within arm’s reach just to cleanse the island of Sha Hua Fishmen.

Still, if they crossed his path while he was moving, he didn’t mind taking them out.

Thanks to his own strength and the numerical advantage of his teammates, killing any Sha Hua Fishmen they encountered along the way barely slowed them down.

Hurrying as fast as they could, just over ten minutes later, nearly forty professional adventurers arrived in force at the place Flynn had described.

The air was thick with the stink of corpses and heavy blood, and beneath the "whoosh, whoosh" of waves crashing against the rocks, faint shouts and the clash of blades drifted over from the shoreline.

"What’s that noise, are they fighting each other?"

"Is it Dodd? Is he really here?"

"He might have failed, but he still brushed against the ’Transcendent’ threshold. Going up against a High level Master, we..."

"Anyone scared, get the hell out of here now—don’t drag me down later!"

The distant sounds of battle sent a ripple of unrest through the dozens of adventurers present.

Xia Nan couldn’t help but frown.

They were Senior Adventurers from different teams, thrown together on short notice, with basically no "discipline" to speak of. With the final battle looming, a bit of chaos was normal; he just hoped that later...

"Hurry, hurry, don’t let him get away!"

A voice thick with battle-lust and excitement rang by his ear.

Iron Grid’s eyes were flushed red, clearly struggling to contain his inner rage.

Seeing his enemy so close, he immediately led his "Furious Tide Battle Gang" toward the shoreline at a run.

Xia Nan exchanged a glance with Lorin and the others beside him, gave a slight nod, and advanced alongside the rest of the force.