Chapter 433: Baron's Mansion

"Great Shark Gang?"

At the Three-Footed Sea Dog Tavern, Hela stood behind the counter, her hands pressed on the surface, her body leaning forward slightly, revealing the delicate collarbones with obvious tan lines beneath her collar.

A pair of crystalline, emerald-green eyes looked at Xia Nan in front of her.

Out of the basic professionalism of an intelligence-related practitioner, although she was vaguely curious about why the other party suddenly asked this, she still very restrainedly did not ask for the reason.

Anyway, it wasn't any valuable intelligence; one could understand the general idea just by asking around in the taverns of the Saltwater District. She was just summarizing it, thinking of building a good relationship with the young professional in front of her, so she didn't ask for an intelligence fee.

Instead, she let Xia Nan pour her a glass of "Siren's Tears" that she hadn't had time to finish earlier.

Lifting the wine glass and taking a sip, Hela narrowed her eyes slightly, tucked the dark green hair beside her cheek behind her ear, and then spoke slowly, introducing:

"The Great Shark Gang is a small gang in the Saltwater District. Their main sphere of influence is roughly from the southeast direction of Winding Alley extending to the area near Lansheng Jie..."

It was completely different from what Xia Nan had expected.

The "Great Shark Gang," suspected of kidnapping Baron Faluo's daughter, couldn't be considered a large force in Shoal Bay at all, let alone the golden area near the Broken Wave Pier; they couldn't even reach "Lansheng Jie," one of the main roads in the Saltwater District.

They could only huddle in the simple streets near Winding Alley and act like tyrants.

And according to Hela's disclosure, the core members of the Great Shark Gang were three to five low-level professionals.

Among them, even the gang leader, "Great Shark" Lailuo, had a professional level that would not exceed lv5 at most.

Regarding this point, Hela was very certain.

On one hand, given the ambition and style of conduct the Great Shark Gang had shown in the past, if Lailuo had broken through the boundary of low-level adventurers and reached above lv5, his subordinates would never be as "low-key" as they were now; they would have long since started probing all sides and expanding their sphere of influence.

On the other hand, Hela's channels had had direct contact with "Great Shark" Lailuo last month due to some interest dealings, so she could judge his strength level.

This was very strange.

Xia Nan was puzzled in his heart, even doubting whether he and Haian had made a mistake.

Perhaps "Blood-Nosed Rat" Jieli really had told the truth; he had indeed helped a few members of the Great Shark Gang keep watch this morning; and the Great Shark Gang members had indeed kidnapped someone.

But the target they kidnapped was actually not Baron Faluo's daughter, Aili, but some other unlucky person.

It was just because the timing was quite coincidental, overlapping with the recent Baron's daughter disappearance case, and they ran into it by mistake, leading to the current situation.

Otherwise, there was absolutely no reason to explain why such a palm-sized bottom-layer gang organization would dare to kidnap the biological daughter of the town's special approval officer and Baron in a place like Shoal Bay.

At the same time, Xia Nan also felt relieved.

Fortunately, they were all just low-level professionals. If a transcendental powerhouse above lv10 really came for him, even if it involved a Secret Realm, he would have to weigh it carefully and consider whether to postpone the plan and continue deeper only after his strength improved.

Regardless, even if the Great Shark Gang had nothing to do with Baron Faluo's daughter, the 【Scalpel】 that definitely came from a Secret Realm was a fact, and it was worth Xia Nan continuing to investigate.

"Regarding the address of the Great Shark Gang's core base, do you have any corresponding intelligence? I will pay the reward."

To this, Hela just waved her hand, drank the remaining half of the wine in her glass in one gulp, then placed the empty glass back on the counter and pushed it toward Xia Nan, signaling the other party to pour more for her.

"This kind of intelligence isn't worth a few copper coins. Just remember to cooperate with me more in the future."

Xia Nan glanced at Hela, who was smiling at him, and didn't speak, just nodded lightly, while picking up the wine bottle to fill the other party's glass.

He might have been confused at the beginning, but just when Hela was introducing the information about the Great Shark Gang to Xia Nan, the sensitivity cultivated from working in the intelligence industry for many years gave her some guesses in her heart.

She certainly knew the woman who came back with Xia Nan just now: Haian, a rare spellcaster.

Hela knew that Haian was a Druid of the Coral Society, and she also clearly knew the relationship between the Coral Society and Baron Faluo.

Right now, the Baron's daughter was missing, Haian went upstairs in a hurry as soon as she returned, as if looking for teammates, and Xia Nan, who didn't know how he got to know the other party and returned to the tavern together, asked her about the Great Shark Gang's intelligence for the first time.

Clues were invisibly connected in her mind; if she still couldn't guess the relationship, she wouldn't need to stay in this line of work anymore.

Learning the address of the Great Shark Gang's core base from Hela, although he knew in his heart that if the other party really kidnapped the Baron's daughter, they would likely not stay in their old lair right now, it could at least be considered a clue. Xia Nan expressed his gratitude to the tavern owner in front of him.

"By the way, if Alton returns first, help me leave a message, tell him not to worry."

When Xia Nan returned to the tavern just now, the Halfling Alton was no longer in his original spot.

He heard from Hela that he had gone to some casino again.

For Xia Nan, the reason he got involved in this incident was entirely for the "Secret Realm," which belonged to his own private affairs.

It was true that the little guy was a friend with whom he had a good relationship, but precisely because of this, Xia Nan didn't want to drag this lively partner into such an incident that had nothing to do with the other party, adding unnecessary danger.

Now that Alton was not in the tavern, he naturally wouldn't go to the casino to look for the other party; leaving a message with Hela was enough.

During the conversation, footsteps came from the direction of the stairs.

Xia Nan looked in the direction of the sound, and the Druid Haian was walking down from upstairs quickly.

And compared to before, there were two tall and thin figures behind her.

Twins?

Xia Nan raised his eyebrows slightly.

What came into view were two adventurers with almost identical appearances and builds.

Their age was estimated to be around thirty, their short light brown hair shining slightly under the sunlight outside the window, their faces angular, and their eyes were the dark brown common among humans.

Their builds were quite tall; following behind, Haian's head only reached their chests, their limbs long and covered with solid muscles, having smooth lines, honed by long-term training and combat.

The weapons they used were also exactly the same: a standard steel sword hung at their waists, and a medium-sized iron-inlaid round shield on their backs.

If it weren't for the obvious scar on the side of one of their faces, looking at them at a glance, one really might not be able to tell them apart, just like clones.

With his perception ability at work, in just a few breaths of time, Xia Nan had a rough judgment of the professional category and level of this pair of twins.

——Warrior-type close-combat type, professional level around lv3.

While pondering in his heart, the group of three had already arrived in front of Xia Nan.

Before he could speak, Haian took the initiative to introduce them to him:

"These are my two teammates, Leien and Gedeng."

"They will be acting with us next."

"This is Xia Nan, also a friend of Hela. The staff I have on me was just bought from him." ===== CHAPTER 434 =====