Chapter 579 Ignored, Abnormal, Arrival

"Rustle—"

A long tail covered in fleshy white-gold scales swayed and brushed against the ground, making a faint sound.

A tall figure, entirely shrouded in a cloak, hurried through the blood-scented streets, hunched over with his head lowered.

It was a backup plan meant only for the unlikeliest of scenarios. Out of sheer caution, Dodd had prepared an escape route for the extreme case of his advancement failing, but reaching the hidden port where his men waited required crossing a small residential district.

He knew perfectly well the adventurers on the island were competent enough to deduce he was the culprit behind the Secret Realm's ritual.

He was likely the sworn enemy of every adventurer on Stodd Island now, and the weakness following the Secret Realm had drastically reduced his combat strength.

If he were spotted and surrounded by those elite adventurers, he would be in a dire predicament.

Therefore, he concealed his presence as much as possible, slipping through this high-risk area where discovery was all too easy.

Truth be told, given the current state of the streets, even if Dodd had swaggered through without a disguise, no one would have noticed him.

On the slightly muddy boardwalk, coagulating dark red blood trickled through the gaps between the planks, dripping into the seawater beneath. The air hung heavy with the stench of death and slaughter.

The doors and windows of the roadside shops were shattered, with loaves of bread and pastries scattered across the floor. A shopkeeper who usually stood warmly behind the counter had been reduced to a cooling corpse, lying motionless on the ground with three gaping holes pierced straight through her chest to the floorboards beneath.

Seagulls shrieked mournfully as they swept through the sky above the ruined streets, which were littered with the bodies of civilians and adventurers alike.

"Crash!"

A flimsy, tightly shut wooden door was smashed to pieces from the outside.

Three hulking sahuagin grunts wielding sharp weapons squeezed into the cabin one after another, hissing in excitement.

Human roars and screams immediately followed.

The commotion did not last long. With the sickening thuds of sharp objects piercing flesh, everything fell dead silent.

Splattered with crimson blood, the three sahuagin grunts smashed through the doorframe as they squeezed back out of the cabin.

Cruel grins still stretched across their faces. Compared to when they had entered just seconds ago, they now each held a human corpse by the ankles, dragging them along behind.

Sweeping his gaze over the tragic scene down the street, Algae Scale Dodd showed not a sliver of emotion on a face partially covered in fine scales.

Having roamed the Southern Archipelagos as a great pirate for so many years, he had seen scenes far crueler than this.

In fact, compared to the massacres committed by his own pirates, what these fishmen were doing might even be considered a bit more "civilized."

He felt zero sympathy for the civilians who had lived on Stodd Island for generations and were now suffering this unmitigated disaster.

They were not worth wasting his time or energy on.

In truth, back when the plan for the Secret Realm at the Lunar Tide Banquet was first formulated, he had never factored in the survival of the island's civilians.

From start to finish, his only concern had been the elite adventurers drawn into the Secret Realm.

He knew perfectly well that under the original cooperative agreement, while the fishmen cleared out the weakened adventurers, there was no reason they would spare the utterly defenseless commoners.

And it did not matter.

As long as he could reach the Transcendent Tier, the deaths of hundreds or even a thousand ordinary people would not affect his future standing in the Southern Archipelagos one bit.

Let alone now, when he had completely failed his advancement ritual. Even if everyone on the island died, Dodd would not blink an eye.

Hiding patiently in the shadows of a roadside alley, he waited until the sahuagin grunts walked away before stepping out and hurrying toward his destination.

Much like Algae Scale Dodd, the sahuagin had clearly prepared extensively for today.

A massive swarm of them had practically encircled Stodd Island and, under the command of their leaders, launched a full-scale invasion.

Even though the adventurers had secured the port, the other coasts lacked the heavy adventurer presence stationed at the docks.

The fragile defenses put up by ordinary residents shattered instantly under the onslaught of these brutal monsters.

Right now, human screams and excited sahuagin hisses echoed from every corner of Stodd Island.

Precisely because of this chaos, even with his strikingly obvious dragonborn hybrid features, Dodd moved swiftly and cautiously through the streets without being discovered. He arrived at his prearranged location without a hitch.

It was a hidden spot on the eastern coast.

Because the surrounding waters were choked with dense reefs and violent currents, fishermen rarely came here. Over time, it had become one of the few uninhabited areas on Stodd Island.

When surveying the island's terrain for the ritual earlier, Dodd had stumbled upon this place by accident.

His heart had stirred.

Though he thought it highly unlikely he would need it, for safety's sake, he had still gathered some trusted subordinates, carefully studied the safe routes through the nearby waters, and set up a backup plan here in case his advancement failed.

'I wonder how Flynn is doing?'

'I didn't see him in the Secret Realm. I assume something went wrong.'

'That guy has always been quick on his feet. Seeing the current situation on the island, he should be able to guess that the ritual failed.'

'According to our prior plans, he should already have everything we need to take with us and be waiting for me on the ship.'

His pace quickened as he pondered this.

Flynn's loyalty had long been proven over the years.

That was exactly why he had felt comfortable entrusting Flynn with matters related to the Lunar Tide Banquet.

And facts proved that Flynn had indeed done a good job with his duties. It was just the unexpected accidents during the ritual that had completely disrupted their plans.

Suddenly, as if noticing something, Algae Scale Dodd paused in his tracks.

He looked at the ground ahead.

Mixed among increasingly dense footprints were highly conspicuous drag marks.

And these tracks led in the exact direction of the uninhabited area where he had prepared his escape route.

'What's going on?'

Dodd felt an ominous premonition bloom in his heart.

Before he could think too deeply about it, scattered footsteps echoed from behind.

His figure flashed, diving into the nearby bushes.

After waiting for a dozen seconds, he saw a makeshift squad of five sahuagin grunts walking over from the direction of the residential district he had just left.

Blood and small wounds dotted their bodies, showing they had just gone through a skirmish—though evidently not an intense one.

As for the enemies they had fought... Dodd figured it was the dozen or so human civilians who had already been reduced to corpses, currently being dragged behind the fishmen on a dilapidated wooden cart.

'Where are these fishmen taking the bodies?'

Having traded with the sahuagin before, he knew their goal in attacking the island was to gather sacrifices for a ritual.

And as long as he could reach the Transcendent Tier, Dodd honestly did not care what their ritual was for.

But now, seeing that the path left by the fishmen overlapped perfectly with the direction of his prepared escape route, a faint unease gripped him.

Utilizing his physical advantages as a high-level Class Holder, Dodd quietly trailed the sahuagin squad ahead, making his way toward the coast.

"Slash!"

A sharp blade carved a perfect arc through the air, cleanly decapitating the sahuagin that had just killed a civilian fisherman.

Its limbs twitched as the headless body slowly fell backward.

Casually flicking the blood from his blade, Xia Nan kept moving forward while looking left and right to get his bearings.

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

After Flynn was force-fed the Truth Potion, the stalled interrogation suddenly fast-forwarded.

This loyal hound of Algae Scale—a man who hadn't uttered a sound even when his fingers were crushed, enduring agonizing pain and physical tremors without revealing a shred of intel—had his mental defenses utterly dismantled by the exorbitant Truth Potion.

Xia Nan had never experienced anything similar, so he didn't know how Flynn felt at that moment.

But what he could see was that once the potion took effect, Flynn's eyes, which had been as firm as steel, grew blurry like a drunkard's before ultimately turning hollow and vacant.

With just a little prompting, the secrets buried deepest in his heart poured out of his mouth without reservation.

Given their limited time, the group had not asked too many questions.

However, they managed to confirm that Algae Scale Dodd's goal for holding such a ritual was exactly what they had guessed: to reach the Transcendent Tier.

They also extracted Dodd's backup plan in the event of failure, learning the general location of the hidden spot where he had stashed men and ships.

The group then rallied their forces. Aside from a portion left behind at the docks to protect the ships from potential fishman attacks, the remaining veterans—those who were only lightly injured and still retained combat capability—formed a temporary unit and rushed toward the escape site Flynn had described.

As the elite team with the most intact strength on the docks, the Blade of Vengeance participated in full force, leaving only the twin Warriors, Ryan and Gordon, on the ship to handle emergencies.

It was worth noting that Flynn, the loyal hound who had provided them with invaluable intelligence under the Truth Potion, did not manage to save his life in the end.

Just as the potion's effects were wearing off, Tieg smashed his skull in with a single hammer strike, killing him instantly to vent the hot-tempered half-dwarf's hatred and anger toward Algae Scale Dodd.

"How much further?" asked the scimitar-wielding Captain Lorraine with a solemn expression, having just helped Ellison turn a fishman guard blocking his path into charred ash as sparks flared from her nostrils.

"It's right on the east coast. We'll be there in ten minutes tops," Xia Nan chimed in, though an odd expression crept onto his face.

Honestly, knowing the history of how Ellison and Lorraine—brother and sister—had gradually drifted apart, he had been somewhat looking forward to seeing what kind of scene their reunion would cause.

To his surprise, neither Lorraine nor Ellison showed any special reaction; they simply coordinated in battle like normal teammates.

There was no explosive conflict or touching reconciliation like he'd imagined.

Thinking about it carefully, however, given their personalities and past experiences, this reaction actually made perfect sense.

"Damn it, what the hell do these sea rats want? Dragging away even the civilian corpses from the streets?" complained Tieg, captain of the Raging Tide Warband, as he stepped onto the mangled remains of a fishman whose head he had caved into its chest.

Of course, this wasn't out of sympathy for the massacred civilians.

To put it bluntly, over his long adventuring career, there had been a few times on the return trip from particularly difficult commissions where he hadn't exactly stopped his own men from doing similar dirty deeds.

Right now, it was merely natural confusion brought on by the sahuagin's abnormal behavior.

Xia Nan glanced at him.

While keeping pace with the main group heading toward the east coast, he explained what he knew about sahuagin sacrificial rituals.

Along the way, they casually dispatched any small sahuagin squads they encountered.

His abilities were limited; Xia Nan couldn't possibly clear out all the fishmen on Stodd Island in a short time.

And the other adventurers' attitudes were entirely indifferent—they clearly didn't give a damn about the fishmen slaughtering civilians.

He was no saint. Xia Nan might have a conscience, but it was nowhere near strong enough to make him abandon the target right in front of him to go clear out sahuagin across the island.

Still, as long as they crossed his path during the march, he didn't mind lifting a finger to kill them.

Thanks to his own strength and the numerical advantage of his teammates, slaughtering the sahuagin they bumped into along the way hardly slowed them down.

Pushing ahead at a brisk pace, it took just a little over ten minutes for the nearly forty professional adventurers to march in force to the target location Flynn had mentioned.

The air was thick with the foul stench of corpses and heavy with blood. Amidst the crashing of waves against the reefs, shouts and the clashing of sharp weapons could faintly be heard coming from the coast.

"What's that noise? Are they infighting?"

"Is it Dodd? Is he really here?"

"But he's a high-level Class Holder who touched the '"Transcendent"' threshold, we—"

"Anyone who's scared can screw off right now! Don't drag me down when the time comes!"

The sounds of battle echoing from afar caused a ripple of commotion among the dozens of adventurers.

Xia Nan frowned.

They were all veteran adventurers from different squads thrown together into a temporary alliance. So-called '"discipline"' was practically nonexistent. With the final battle imminent, a little chaos was normal. He just hoped that later—

"Hurry, hurry! Don't let him get away!"

An excited voice brimming with battle lust rang out beside his ear.

Tieg's eyes were bloodshot; he was clearly struggling to suppress the blazing Rage within him.

Seeing his sworn enemy right before him, he immediately led the members of his Raging Tide Warband and charged toward the coast.

Xia Nan exchanged a glance with Lorraine and the others beside him. With slight nods, they followed the main force.