Chapter 409: The Damp Small Chapel

The presence of wind didn't necessarily mean anything; after all, in this world where mysticism existed, perhaps the fishmen were using strange arts to create a sea breeze to set the mood for the ritual.

Knowing that there must be plenty of fishmen and ring術士 behind the hole in the wall, Xia De didn't even dare poke his head out to look behind, but instead pressed cautiously against the wall, trying to listen to the sounds from behind.

But for a long while, only whispers kept coming through. He barely managed to make out that they were prayers to the evil god 【Lord of the Crimson Spiral】, the voices mingling together—at least ten people praying simultaneously at different speeds.

Unfortunately, the 【Bordeaux Candle】 that could turn him invisible had been used up in the last operation. Xia De, who didn't dare easily poke his head out to look, thought of using the strange art 【Echo of the Past】 to listen.

The wine cellar was unvisited year-round; anyone speaking here within the past 48 hours was almost certainly someone from the Crimson Cult.

The strange art worked as expected, but the content of the cultists' conversation that Xia De heard was only furious cursing of the Zhengshen Sect for being so despicable as to plant a ring術士 squad in the banquet ahead of time, along with mutual discussion of the wonderful life the fishmen would lead occupying the underwater Cold Water Port after the Sea Return Ritual.

The two speakers even had an in-depth discussion about the preparation method of seaweed specialty dishes.

Xia De patiently continued listening, and finally heard a different voice:

"High Priest, those two humans have arrived."

The speaker's throat made gurgling sounds from time to time—clearly a fishman.

Then footsteps came, and both parties met at the hole in the wall—that is, where Xia De was now standing.

"Good evening, friends of the Crimson Cult."

That speaking voice sounded somewhat familiar.

"Humans, no need for such courtesy—can our transaction still proceed?"

This one should be the priest presiding over the ritual here for the Crimson Cult.

"Of course. The Church's sudden pursuit left us with nowhere to hide, so we can only think of a way to leave Cold Water Port as soon as possible."

This was a companion of that somewhat familiar voice:

"Originally we planned to coerce Ms. Aurora into getting us a ship to the New Continent, but we didn't expect her to actually have Zhengshen Sect ring術士 by her side. The deal still stands—the 【Blood Spirit School】 provides you with the techniques for nurturing fishman flesh and blood, and you help us leave Cold Water Port and provide that Poet-grade relic 【Fish-Training Ring】 that can grant intelligent beings mastery of human language."

The group walked in through the hole.

Xia De understood then—that somewhat familiar voice belonged to Darkness.

"The Chosen One has actually gotten mixed up with the fishmen......"

Generally speaking, wherever the Chosen One was, trouble was likely to follow. And the first Chosen One, Yi Lu Na—when she encountered cultists, it directly led to an evil god descending upon Tobesk.

Although the worst outcome of the Cold Water Port incident would only be the city being submerged by a tsunami, Xia De still felt uneasy knowing the Chosen One was here.

"If I go back now to find Young Lady Aurora to come down, it'll delay at least another twenty minutes. And there's not much time left until sunrise—no need to notify the witch, otherwise I won't make it in time to get the fishmen's materials. So, I still have to see for myself what they're actually doing."

While still thinking about how to safely enter the hole behind the wall, unexpectedly footsteps came again. But this time it wasn't the sound of the past—it was the sound of the present; someone was walking outward from inside the hole.

Xia De quickly hid beside the shelf holding the wine barrels, then saw a man wearing a gray robe and a hood walk out.

The reason he could tell it was a man was that the fellow looked left and right, then stood against the wall and began to relieve himself.

Xia De imagined the expression Ms. Aurora would make upon learning a man had urinated in her wine cellar, then took off the ring on his hand and silently controlled the silver mist to drift toward the man.

Once the mist had completely enveloped him, Xia De sneakily glanced around twice, then walked in with sword raised in both hands, bent at the waist and walking on tiptoes.

About a dozen seconds later, Xia De, with a few bloodstains on him and wearing the man's robe, dispersed the surrounding silver mist.

The corpse at his feet had a face showing an incomplete fishman appearance, indicating its low status within the Crimson Cult.

Stifling his disgust, Xia De smeared the slippery mucus from its face onto his own face. Then, still not at ease, he smeared the mucus onto his clothes as well, before doing his best to fold the corpse up and stuff it into his pocket like a toy using canvas from the shelf.

After completing all this, he rose slightly onto his tiptoes to make himself look as tall as the man from earlier, then put on the hood, lowered his head, and walked into the space behind the hole.

Although the wine cellar was very dry, the moment his body entered the space behind the hole, the damp air changed even Xia De's breathing rate.

He had never been to such a humid place—the moisture in the air seemed as if it would condense into water droplets and fall to the ground the next second. Only an actual body of water could be more humid than this; Xia De couldn't imagine how such humidity could occur under natural conditions.

Keeping his head hidden beneath the hood, Xia De lowered his head and walked quickly forward. His destination was clear, because quite a few people dressed like him were sitting up ahead.

Before him was a space built of pale gray damp bricks, with disgusting moss clinging to the walls. It wasn't large—about two-thirds the size of an entire floor of Xia De's home.

Beneath his feet was a layer of blackish standing water; the room was lit by glowing moss on the walls, candles, and densely packed glowing beads on the high vaulted ceiling. Beneath the water was an uneven floor, and on the floor were placed rows of long stone seats. At intervals along the walls, small square holes had been carved out—no one knew what they were for.

The pale gray stone walls and the vaulted ceiling above bore some already-faded patterns. Looking carefully around, Xia De was quite certain this must be some kind of small chapel.

Combining what he'd overheard the professors discussing a few hours earlier, behind the hole in the wall should be the secret religious gathering place the fishmen had established before the Aurora family purchased the estate.

Realizing this, Xia De stopped looking around randomly and instead quickened his pace forward, joining the dozen-plus people in gray robes seated in the seats at the front of the damp small chapel. He chose to sit at the very back of everyone, not walking forward just to see more.

These gray robes were also quite interesting—nothing on the surface, but the hems looked as if they had been torn. Everyone here wore robes like this; this must be the fishmen's peculiar style of clothing decoration.

Only after Xia De sat down did he finally get a chance to see the front of the damp small chapel. There was no idol placed there—only what appeared to be a bone holy symbol, shaped like a spiral, with a fish-headed humanoid symbol at the spiral's center.

Before the holy symbol, three equally obese elders, holding books and with severely deformed faces, were praying in whispers to the evil god 【Lord of the Crimson Spiral】.

Xia De had assumed outside that dozens were whispering, but it turned out there were only three.

The books they held were the 《Secrets of the Ocean》 he had seen in Mr. Jude's safe. Except this time the three books that appeared were all made of leather material, and clearly recorded the cult's evil knowledge.

Looking to the side......

"Hmm?"

Xia De immediately lowered his head, because the person in front of him suddenly turned and looked questioningly at the companion behind him. Beneath the hood was a half-fishman face; after its gaze lingered on Xia De for a few seconds, it twitched its nose to sniff, then turned back around without saying anything.

Besides the disgusting mucus, the smell of the 【Drowned Fishman's Scales】 on Xia De also made the cultists mistake him for a companion. Looking at it this way, although this scale had exposed Xia De in front of the witch, it had helped him in the damp small chapel—so borrowing it specifically from Dorothy wasn't entirely without use.

Xia De continued observing carefully. The three obese fishmen holding books stood on higher ground, so there was no standing water beneath their feet, and concentric semicircle marks could be seen spreading outward from the middle fishman as the center. Black ink left seahorse-shaped blasphemous symbols on the ground; Xia De tried to interpret them and found they were not only praises to the evil god, but also praises to the ocean and death.

What he could see was only part of the ritual; presumably there were more ritual traces elsewhere in this small chapel.

"However, if there's any book that records fishman knowledge, that 《Secrets of the Ocean》...... Mr. Jude's may not be the complete version, but the one here definitely is."

Not taking Mr. Jude's book last time wasn't really Xia De's oversight, because Mr. Jude's book certainly didn't contain the complete Sea Return materials—otherwise the Church should have been able to immediately find the method to break the ritual after wiping out the fishmen on Old Street.

His eyes continued to survey the surroundings. In the damp small chapel, the only ones standing were the three fishmen praying in low voices, and among those seated on the long rows, besides the dozen-plus gray-robed fishmen, there were also two fellows wearing black robes whose faces couldn't be seen—these should be the Crimson Cult's own ring術士, distinguished by wearing different colored clothing.

And the only two not wearing robes sat at the far left of the chapel's first row of seats. Xia De recognized Darkness's back at a glance, and the one beside him was presumably also a member of the 【Blood Spirit School】.

"Besides me, there are 4 other ring術士 here. If it really comes to a fight, even with the witch's ring I can't take them......"

His right hand carefully withdrew into his robe and felt for the steam bomb hanging at his waist. Although Princess Lei Lei Lei Qianya hadn't said what model it was, in an explosion in this kind of underground space, the ring術士 might be fine, but those fishmen with only strong regenerative abilities would definitely be done for.

"If only I knew a curse like 【Corpse Explosion】."

Thinking again of the two corpses in his pocket, Xia De suddenly got an idea.