Chapter 411

The cultists did not care about their fallen companions; they stood there looking at Xia De, with a vague posture of closing in. With just three ring-warlock cultists, they could hold their own against a squad of ring-warlocks from a True God Sect. Xia De knew there must be something even more formidable inside the damp little chapel, so he did not let his confidence swell to the point of risking another attack.

He held the last remaining fat fish-man priest hostage, then glanced at Dac Nisi and his companion; the two were naturally standing with the fish-men. But Xia De was not panicked, as the sea breeze coming from behind indicated that there was definitely another path behind the stone wall:

"Everyone back off, or I cannot guarantee whether I will pull the trigger."

He said loudly, and because he had put on a mask before sneaking in while wearing robes, he was not afraid of being identified.

Yet the fat fish-man held hostage by Xia De actually showed no intention of struggling at all. It continued chanting prayers to itself, as if Xia De did not exist at all.

The cultists of the Ringed Shushi all looked at Xia De as if he were a madman. But observing closely, Xia De could see every person's lips moving; they were also praying.

A sense of inexplicable unease made Xia De somewhat surprised:

"Are there any traces of abnormal elements?"

【Yes, look at the ground.】

Eyes looking downward, because of the recent attack and the resulting deaths, the fish-men's blood continuously seeped downward, and after entering the sewage on the ground, it seemed to vaguely overlap with the patterns beneath the water's surface.

And following the buzzing prayer of the old fish-man priest held hostage by Xia De, without the reminder of the voice in his ear, increasingly dense blasphemous elements had turned into tangible silver light radiating from the ground.

Xia De suddenly realized:

"I killed them, which is actually equivalent to performing a sacrifice for the ritual... There is actually such a thing? Wait, these guys, they wouldn't have planned to commit suicide from the start, which is why they didn't care about the manor being surrounded, right?"

Thinking that he could not wait any longer, Xia De gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger, solving the old fish-man who was still praying with one shot. The annoying buzzing prayer stopped abruptly, but then the prayers of the remaining cultists suddenly grew louder.

Xia De turned and ran backward, aiming for the stone wall where the holy emblem was placed.

It was impossible to escape the way he came; there was still a ring-warlock of unknown rank in the wine cellar. And since there was wind blowing from the hole in the wall, there must be another path behind it.

"Don't let him run!"

A voice came from behind; although Xia De could not see behind him, "she" could.

【Now is the time!】

"Schluch Lake Jump!"

The attacks of curses and sorcery coming toward his back missed, hitting the stone wall in front, opening up the rugged narrow path hidden behind it, while the Evil God's holy emblem rolled into the collapsed debris of the stone wall.

Xia De's figure appeared at the corner of the stone wall, then he lunged fiercely toward that narrow path, and with a nimble roll, he had already darted inside.

"Quick, chase!"

Dac Nisi probably wanted to gain the favor of the cultists, so he arrived at the damaged chapel stone wall faster than anyone else.

"Don't chase!"

But the person behind called him to a halt; turning to look, it was the only six-tier warlock among this group of cultists. It was he who blocked Xia De's silver moon slash, preventing things from getting worse.

"No need to chase."

He knelt down and respectfully took the undamaged holy emblem from the pile of rubble. After kissing it, he handed it to the fish-man behind him.

Seeing Dac Nisi was puzzled, he frowned and looked into the darkness of the rugged passage, explaining:

"This path behind the stone wall does indeed possibly lead outside; this was a passage we used to transport sensitive materials many years ago when we occupied the manor. But sixty years ago, when we abandoned this manor, we sealed a Relic Shikong inside; it is a sea siren."

"Relic Shikong? A sea siren?"

The middle-aged man wearing red gloves immediately stepped back:

"Are you sure that person just now will definitely die at the hands of the sea siren?"

"Of course, although it is a Relic Shikong, it was sealed only after using... Sixty years have passed without any problems, but what has happened inside now, even our society cannot say for sure. Since he walked in himself, we don't need to care."

The man looked sympathetically at the corpse of the fish-man priest on the ground:

"I originally wanted to draw lots to decide the self-sacrifice quota... Forget it, the ritual has been completed, there are ten minutes left until sunrise, let's leave too."

"Wait."

Dac Nisi, who had withered yellow short hair, reached out his hand:

"What about the thing you promised me?"

The six-tier warlock waved his hand backward, and the living fish-man immediately searched a box from his companion's corpse. He handed the brass-colored ring in the box to Dac Nisi, and a look of ecstasy appeared on the latter's face.

"Incantation."

The cultist reminded, very curious about what Dac Nisi was going to do.

"Of course—the transformation of silence and stillness is the manifestation of hidden power!"

In front of everyone, he took off his red gloves. After chanting the incantation, he put the ring on the index finger of his right hand.

The skin on his palm squirmed and split open, and that terrifying mouth was revealed; as the mouth and sharp teeth moved, it actually spoke:

"I feel blood and fear; this is truly wonderful."

The mouth laughed out loud; the terrifying language it used seemed to have the power to directly pollute the environment, making the cultists of the Ringed Shushi feel nauseous and dizzy. This was certainly not Deraerion Common, nor even a human language; no one except Dac Nisi could understand it.

Seeing this eerie scene, not only the cultists of the Ringed Shushi, but even Dac Nisi's companion, that bearded short man, had a look of discomfort on his face.

He subconsciously took a step back, seeing a large shadow covering Dac Nisi. His lips moved, but he did not ask his doubts.

Their original purpose was merely to use flesh-nourishing technology to exchange for the fish-men's promise to help them leave Lengshuigang. And the poet-level relic 【Fish Training Ring】 was a deal Dac Nisi proposed privately.

Subsequently, the group began to clean up the traces of the ritual and used sorcery to blast the narrow stone crack behind the wall where Xia De had entered, causing it to collapse. Finally, they cleaned up the corpses on the ground so that the flesh and blood could be more evenly distributed over the ritual traces that had been carved.

About seven or eight minutes later, just as the cultists were preparing to leave, they suddenly heard clear footsteps coming from the exit of the damp little chapel:

"Who is playing with steam bombs in my house's basement?"

This was a woman's voice.

(Xia De is running...)

Xia De was running wildly; to be more precise, he was running while calculating the time to perform spatial jumps forward.

The wall was like a naturally formed earth crack, and the winding road prevented him from being directly attacked by the people behind him. But this feeling of having his back to the enemy was truly hair-raising. Xia De could only run forward as much as possible, occasionally turning around suddenly to slash a beam of light backward, and then, regardless of what happened behind him, continue to flee.

He ran for a full five minutes and saw that the front had reached the end, only then did he stop, lying on the flat stone surface under his feet to listen, but no footsteps came.

"Did they not chase? Or is it that the front is actually a dead end?"

But having reached this point, Xia De could not retreat; besides, it was better that the other party did not catch up; perhaps Miss Aurora would arrive here in a while because of the steam bomb explosion.

Finding a way out on his own while waiting for the witch's rescue was Xia De's true thought.

Now that he could not retreat, he continued forward. And in front, human creations finally appeared; it was an iron door, with a small opening large enough to deliver an envelope at three-quarters of the distance from the ground, as if a normal door had been installed upside down.

The wind was blowing from the door crack and the small opening on the door; it was a fresh sea breeze, and considering that Aurora Manor itself was by the sea, it was very likely that the door led to a place like a seaside cave.

"But if it were really that easy to find an exit, why didn't the cultists chase?"

Xia De looked at the iron door with suspicion; this door should have some years on it, and the traces of rust on the surface were very severe. He could barely see that there had once been a pattern on the door, and after careful identification, he saw clearly that it was the holy emblem of the Evil God 【Lord of the Scarlet Spiral】.

"This door was placed here by the Ringed Shushi."

He approached the door slightly, and an inexplicable sense of unease made him afraid to open the door directly, so he asked in his heart:

"Is there anything abnormal?"

【Not for now.】

"Then..."

There was no handle on the door; the panting Xia De pressed his hand on the surface of the rusty iron door and immediately felt that the sorcery 【Key of the Door】 could be used, which meant that this door was actually locked. But the difficulty of picking the lock was not high, just a bit harder than Mr. Jude's safe.

"Could it be that the cultists outside thought I couldn't open this door, so they didn't chase with peace of mind?"

He could not understand, and after a more careful inspection, he actually found a series of incised ancient runes under the rust on the edge of the door frame.

After translation, Xia De confirmed that this was a prayer used for sealing. Only the most dangerous seals would have this level of prayer written on them.

"What exactly is behind this?"

Curiously looking at this door, the door remained pitch black under the moonlight at his fingertips. Xia De thought for a moment and decided not to rashly open this strange iron door. He turned to leave, to see what the fish-men outside were doing; perhaps Miss Aurora had already arrived.

Unexpectedly, he had only walked two steps when the sound of explosions and the whistling wind caused by air pressure disorder rushed in directly along the passage.

"Oh!"

The force of that strange wind was so great that it directly blew the unprepared Xia De away, and with a 'clang', he hit the iron door behind him.

At the same time, because of this explosion and the strong wind, the entire passage actually began to vibrate. Xia De sat dumbfounded in front of the door, listening to the sound of constant collapse coming from afar.

The passage from the damp little chapel to this door collapsed, stopping dozens of steps away from Xia De, and the dust raised made him cough constantly.

Now, even if he didn't want to open the door, he had to.