Chapter 524 The Storm Returns

Xia Nan didn't know exactly what the Sahuagin were plotting.

But he did know that these inferior creatures, much like aquatic Goblins, were frantically collecting human corpses to perform a Sacrificial Ritual and summon the Shark Beast.

Evidently, the fishmen had taken the missing corpses of the Black Tide Hunter Ship's crew to use as sacrificial offerings.

When Xia Nan shared his theory about the missing bodies with Lorraine, the captain—who had roamed the Southern Archipelagos for years—grew increasingly solemn.

"Perhaps we should leave these waters as soon as possible," she said, her tone heavy as she snuffed out her cigarette between her thumb and forefinger.

Sahuagin were, to some extent, an intelligent species. They possessed their own culture and language, their numbers were far from sparse, and they appeared frequently across the Southern Archipelagos.

In her many years as an Adventurer, Lorraine had dealt with these fishmen more than once.

She understood the nature of these water rats perfectly well.

But due to the formidable strength of the Blade of Vengeance Squad, the fishmen's combat abilities were hardly enough to pose a real threat, even if they encountered Sahuagin groups during a mission.

As a result, Lorraine hadn't paid them much attention in the past.

It wasn't until the battle at Twin Canyon—where the deformed Shark Beast summoned by the Sahuagin nearly wiped out her crew—that she started taking them seriously again.

Taking advantage of their downtime, Lorraine used her own channels in Barracuda Bay to gather intelligence on the fishmen.

To her surprise, over the last few months, Adventurer sightings of Sahuagin groups had skyrocketed, and attacks on commoners and passing merchant ships had also sharply increased.

This was highly unusual.

And the intelligence Xia Nan brought back—that the fishmen had struck a deal with human gangs on the Wild Berry Cliff Islands—was unprecedented.

What exactly were they trying to do?

No one knew.

But it was safe to assume this boded ill for the people living in the Southern Archipelagos.

Now, the tragic fate of the Black Tide Hunter Crew, along with Sarissa's account of the massive fishman colony lying in ambush deep underwater, proved that these dangerous monsters had shifted their targets from ordinary islanders to powerful Class Holders possessing Transcendent Tier power.

Would this affect the Blade of Vengeance Fleet on their way to attend the Lunar Tide Banquet?

Or rather, were the fishmen's radical changes connected to the upcoming Sea Rhythm Festival?

Without enough intelligence, Lorraine couldn't draw any conclusions.

But considering the large number of Sahuagin lurking in the nearby waters, along with that colossal Wind-Seed Octopus, she ultimately decided to abandon any thoughts of further investigation. Instead, she chose to focus on the journey and minimize any entanglement with these vicious monsters.

Xia Nan naturally had no objections, as his primary goal was to attend the Lunar Tide Banquet and find Algae Scale Dodd anyway.

Instead, it was Sarissa—who had suffered heavy injuries under the fishmen's siege—who opened her mouth to speak. Her expression showed clear hesitation, but in the end, she swallowed her words and completely submitted to Lorraine's arrangement.

As a mere outsider, no matter how much she wanted to avenge the teammates she had spent her days with, she had no right to interfere with the Blade of Vengeance Squad's actions.

Sarissa recovered quickly.

Thanks to her robust physical constitution as a Class Holder and the effects of the Healing Potion, she was able to get out of bed and walk freely by the afternoon of the day she fully regained consciousness.

Because she had been extremely cooperative, her range of movement wasn't restricted to a single room; she was permitted to rest and move about on the deck.

After all, a ship on an open ocean voyage was effectively a mobile prison. Unless one could fly or dive underwater for long periods, there was nothing but endless ocean on all sides. Even if she wanted to escape, there was nowhere to go.

Of course, to be safe, Lorraine had confiscated Sarissa's weapon, the [Silver-Vein Longbow], and kept it in her own custody.

Even the light leather armor she had been wearing was stripped off under the pretense of washing it, and she was not allowed to put it back on.

She had been stripped of her weapons and armor.

For a ranger whose strength wasn't particularly high to begin with—estimated to be around Level 3 or Level 4—this naturally plummeted her threat level.

As a fellow Adventurer, Sarissa naturally understood Lorraine's concerns. She showed no signs of resistance the entire time and was incredibly cooperative.

Right now, wearing only a somewhat thin linen shirt and with bandages wrapped around her arms, abdomen, and thighs, she stood alone by the deck railing, gazing at the orange-red sun quietly dipping below the distant horizon.

An inexplicable emotion swirled within those crystalline, amber vertical pupils.

It was completely foreseeable that as a ranged archer with rich adventuring experience, many Adventurer Squads would extend an olive branch once they returned to Barracuda Bay, hoping to recruit her into their ranks.

But no matter how pragmatic the Adventurer profession could be, humans were ultimately emotional creatures. Having spent so much time with her Black Tide Hunter teammates, how could she just easily let go of their deaths?

Sorrow and regret filled her heart beneath the glow of the setting sun.

Having just finished his training, Xia Nan walked past her, carrying a fishing pole over his shoulder and a completely empty fish bucket in his hand.

He had absolutely no intention of comforting her. She was just a stranger they had bumped into mid-mission, and before she woke up again this morning, he hadn't even known Sarissa's name. Naturally, he didn't care about her current mood.

At the moment, he was just thinking about waiting until no one was around so he could take out the creamy seafood mushroom soup—specially prepared by the chef of the Three-Legged Sea Dog Tavern and stored in advance within the spatial storage of his [White Flask] Pocket Watch—to satisfy his cravings.

A greeting from Sarissa made him stop in his tracks.

"Please wait a moment, Mr. Xia Nan," Sarissa said with a hesitant expression.

Xia Nan turned his head and looked at her.

"What is it, have you thought it over?" he asked.

Many days had passed since the Blade of Vengeance Ship sailed out of Barracuda Bay's Wave-Breaking Wharf, so it was obviously impossible for them to suddenly turn back just because they picked up a member from another crew.

After Lorraine and the others had discussed it, they gave Sarissa two options.

The first was to drop her off at a human settlement along the way, after which it wouldn't matter where she wanted to go.

The second was for her to stay on the ship, wait for them to finish attending the banquet, and then return to Barracuda Bay together with the Blade of Vengeance Ship.

The Blade of Vengeance had, admittedly, been incredibly benevolent and righteous toward Sarissa.

Almost any other Adventurer team in the Southern Archipelagos wouldn't have bothered saving a critically injured and dying Sarissa, let alone feeding her an expensive Healing Potion.

Lorraine and the others had only temporarily confiscated Sarissa's weapons and gear out of safety concerns, promising to return them once she disembarked.

It was no wonder the Blade of Vengeance had such a stellar reputation in Barracuda Bay.

Sarissa had clearly felt the goodwill Lorraine and her crew expressed. She had gradually lowered her guard while cooperating fully with their questioning.

She knew perfectly well that since she had lost all strategic value to them and the Blade of Vengeance crew still hadn't made a move against her, they would most likely get along peacefully for the rest of the trip.

Returning with a fleet of this caliber would undoubtedly be vastly safer.

But—

"Do you have concerns about the Lunar Tide Banquet?" Xia Nan asked directly, immediately picking up on the reason for her hesitation.

Evidently not expecting the Adventurer nicknamed "Sea Fang" to guess so accurately, Sarissa blanked for a moment before slowly nodding.

"Why?"

The Lunar Tide Banquet was a massive feast held in the Southern Archipelagos only once every three years during the Sea Rhythm Festival.

Ordinary Adventurers weren't even qualified to receive an invitation, so it was truly strange that she was acting so resistant to it.

"Mr. Xia Nan, can I... choose not to answer that?" Sarissa asked humbly, a hint of pleading in her tone.

"Sure." It had just been a casual question. Since she didn't want to answer, Xia Nan couldn't be bothered to pry.

By comparison, he was much more curious about Sarissa's lineage.

Those distinct amber vertical pupils proved she wasn't a pureblood human, yet she didn't display any other physical traits that could identify her heritage.

"You're not a local, are you?" Xia Nan said with pointed meaning.

Seeing that Xia Nan wasn't going to press the issue of the Lunar Tide Banquet, Sarissa visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

And in the face of his subsequent question, the ranger didn't try to hide anything.

She simply raised her right hand and pulled down the collar of her shirt slightly, revealing her slender, delicate neck and a portion of her collarbone.

Along the smooth skin stretching from the side of her neck down to her shoulder, a patch of semi-transparent fleshy scales was arranged in a row.

"I have a bit of dragonborn blood in me, Mr. Xia Nan."

'Just as I thought!'

He had guessed as much earlier, and hearing her confirm it personally, Xia Nan's mind cleared.

On the Aifala Continent, where reproductive isolation seemed practically nonexistent, since Half-Elves, half-dwarves, and half-orcs existed, it was only natural that the intelligent dragonborn race would also interbreed with humans.

It was just that, looking at Sarissa's appearance—which was nearly identical to a regular human's aside from her eyes—her dragonborn blood was likely incredibly thin, perhaps not even one-sixteenth of her total lineage.

He found it intriguing.

Having transmigrated to the Aifala Continent so long ago, Xia Nan had grown increasingly curious about the crossbreeding between the continent's various races as his understanding of this world deepened.

Since anything humanoid could seemingly mix together...

Was it possible that, under some special circumstances, a single creature could simultaneously possess the bloodlines of humans, Elves, dwarves, orcs, and other races?

Assuming no genetic collapse occurred, how would such an individual look?

The history of the Aifala Continent was so vast; surely some brilliant geneticist had conducted related research, and there might even be books recording those findings.

It was just a pity that, at least in Barracuda Bay, Xia Nan had never found any.

He figured that when he visited a major city in the future, he could stop by a library or a similar building to search for related materials, which would also help deepen his understanding of this world.

After chatting casually for another moment, Xia Nan waved to Sarissa.

"It's almost dinnertime. Remember to head to the dining hall," he said.

With that, he turned around, hoisted his fishing pole, and walked toward the cabin.

But he had only taken a single step when his body suddenly froze.

"Mr. Xia Nan, what's wrong?" Sarissa asked in confusion, assuming he had another question for her.

Xia Nan didn't answer. Instead, he raised his index finger to his lips, gesturing for her to be quiet.

Then, he focused his mind and sensed his surroundings carefully.

At some point, the humidity in the air seemed to have risen a fraction.

Along with the slightly strengthening sea breeze, a faint, familiar sound drifted over, echoing from a great distance away.

It sounded similar to the blowing of the [Scale-Breath Horn].

His thoughts slammed to a halt.

Xia Nan whipped his head around, staring in the direction of the noise.

Catching his eye was a smear of familiar grayish-black, faintly visible and suspended far off where the sky met the sea.

"A storm!"

Xia Nan's warning was as timely as ever.

The crew completed their storm preparations at lightning speed.

Logically speaking, having just weathered a storm not long ago, the crew should have been brimming with confidence and high fighting spirit.

But right now, everyone—including Captain Lorraine and even the Barbarian, Aken—wore grave, serious expressions.

The fate of the Black Tide Hunter Squad was fresh in their minds, and the horn-like sound faintly echoing through the air proved that the Wind-Seed Octopus was hiding deep within that storm.

Or rather, the monster was the very cause of the storm.

Coupled with the massive Sahuagin colony highly likely to be lurking beneath the waves...

If the Blade of Vengeance Ship was chosen as their target, they would fall into extreme peril.

As for fleeing—

On the vast ocean, no matter how fast you were, how could you possibly outrun the sheer might of nature?

Ten minutes had passed since Xia Nan sounded the alarm. Everyone on board had finished their preparations, and the Blade of Vengeance Ship itself was retreating away from the storm at maximum speed.

Yet the dark clouds on the distant horizon seemed entirely unaffected by their retreat. They had gradually spread to cover nearly half the sky, and the once-faint horn call in the air grew increasingly loud and piercing—so much so that even the sailors moving cargo in the deepest parts of the hold could hear it.

The danger from the storm, the fishmen, and the Wind-Seed Octopus was rapidly closing in!

"Give me my weapon! I can help!" Sarissa yelled to Lorraine by the edge of the deck, her face filled with indescribable resolve.

Lorraine's gaze swept over her face for a few seconds. The captain fell silent, her thoughts unreadable.

But ultimately, she agreed to this rather unreasonable and somewhat risky request.

Blowing out a smoke ring, she waved over a nearby crew member and said slowly, "Go to the captain's quarters. Bring her bow and armor."