Chapter 534 The Purple Vortex Ray and Flynn

Xia Nan frowned slightly as he looked at the messy scene on the shore.

Clearly, this was not normal.

His sharp Perception allowed him to easily catch details that ordinary adventurers would struggle to notice.

These included the noticeably diminished catch spilling from an overturned fish bucket, fresh, uncoagulated blood staining the ground, drag marks in the mud gradually washing away in the tide, and—

Xia Nan crouched down and picked up a familiar dark green scale from beside a snapped fishing rod.

"They really are just fishman goblins, huh? How did they even get here?"

Barring any surprises, he guessed the missing adventurer had most likely been attacked by sahuagin.

But—

Gurgle. A bubbling sound suddenly came from the nearby water—hidden within the crashing waves and completely inaudible to an ordinary person, but incredibly abrupt under Xia Nan's Perception.

He followed the sound with his gaze and vaguely glimpsed a few hideous, dark green shadows lurking beneath the surface of the water, lying in ambush.

A strange expression appeared on Xia Nan's face.

Senseless resistance was like sea spray crashing against a reef, fleeting and easily extinguished.

The vortex pattern on the chest of the [Abyssal Current] armor blossomed with a faint glimmer. Fluorescent blue blood swirled amid the rushing currents.

One elite fishman guard and three sahuagin grunts had already lost their heads, turning into motionless, cold corpses that floated quietly in the seawater.

Holding the [Ember Fall] straight sword in his right hand, Xia Nan looked at the fishman corpses before him, lost in thought.

Why were sahuagin here?

These fierce monsters from the deep sea were full of malice toward other races, and they frequently attacked human settlements on remote islands or passing merchant ships.

But they were still intelligent creatures at the end of the day. They had even developed to the point of possessing their own civilization. They were not instinctual beasts completely devoid of cognitive ability, driven purely by their bodies' desires.

They knew exactly what scale of enemies they could handle.

Because of this, for many years in the Southern Archipelagos, the targets most frequently attacked by sahuagin were small, sparsely populated villages located in remote waters.

Large human settlements with complete defensive forces and large gatherings of high-level Class Holders, like Barracuda Bay, basically had zero chance of being attacked.

Stodd, the Isle of a Thousand Piles where Xia Nan currently was, had already become one of the most important large settlements in the Southern Archipelagos due to its local specialties. It was by no means an ordinary small fishing village.

Not to mention that as the host of this year's Lunar Tide Banquet, it had masses of highly capable adventurers coming and going recently.

Under normal circumstances, as long as they had even a shred of cognitive ability, the sahuagin would never target this place.

'So—was it a coincidence?' Xia Nan pondered.

After all, what he had just killed wasn't a large sahuagin pack. It was merely one elite paired with three grunts, which could have wandered into the nearby waters by mistake.

But remembering the increasingly aggressive behaviors of the fishmen as the banquet approached, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss.

Always cautious, Xia Nan quietly raised his guard.

At the same time, he planned to report his findings to the sheriff of Stodd Island once the fishing tournament ended.

He swept a final glance through the water, confirming there were no more sahuagin around.

Xia Nan paddled his arms and legs, preparing to swim back to shore.

Suddenly, a massive dark purple silhouette caught the corner of his eye.

He looked in that direction.

What entered his sight was a large fish with an incredibly bizarre shape.

It appeared to be a fish, around three meters long. Its body was broad and flat, and its smooth, dark purple skin was covered in darker stripes.

Its most prominent feature was the stinger-tipped tail trailing at the end of its body, resembling that of a scorpion and bearing distinct layers of chitinous armor.

'A purple vortex ray?'

Xia Nan recognized this type of fish.

He remembered there was a wine named after it back at the Three-Legged Sea Dog Tavern, and he had casually asked the tavern owner, Hera, about it.

Although he had never seen a live one, there was no doubt that this peculiarly shaped fish perfectly matched Hera's description of a purple vortex ray.

More importantly, Xia Nan vividly remembered her mentioning that this was an incredibly rare sea fish. The toxin inside its tail stinger was a supplementary material for crafting many types of resistance potions.

Normally, a purple vortex ray only 1.5 meters long could fetch nearly two gold coins on the market.

And this purple vortex ray, drawn in by the fishmen's blood, was twice the usual size.

Its value went without saying; it had clearly exceeded the one gold coin requirement of the fishing tournament.

Floating in the seawater, Xia Nan felt somewhat conflicted as he watched the purple fish swimming leisurely toward him.

The tournament time was already limited. After wasting several minutes on those fishmen just now, time was even tighter.

In contrast, his catch was pitifully small. Meeting the event's requirements was going to be extremely difficult.

Xia Nan had never been the type to stubbornly box himself into a corner. Besides, the tournament rules weren't actually all that strict.

If he wanted to prove his fishing skills, there would be plenty of opportunities in the future.

Since his fishing luck was truly abysmal today, perhaps—he didn't need to dwell on this any longer.

As these thoughts flashed through his mind, Xia Nan made his decision.

He silently channeled his gravitational pull. Amid the churning water, his legs suddenly erupted with force, propelling his previously drifting body violently forward.

Before the purple vortex ray, distracted by the blood, could even react, Xia Nan had already swum directly above it.

"Thump!"

Infused with [Heavy Tide], the hard sword pommel slammed ruthlessly into the purple vortex ray's head, emitting a muffled thud underwater.

Its broad wings twitched weakly twice before the purple vortex ray was instantly knocked unconscious.

Grabbing the fish's tail with his left hand, Xia Nan got his bearings in the sea. Instead of heading to shore, he swam straight toward the spot where he had been fishing.

A moment later, guided by his Perception, a near-invisible fishing line and the sharp hook at its end appeared in his line of sight.

It was incredibly bizarre. He could clearly see a massive school of sea fish swimming around the hook, yet they completely ignored the artificial bait dangling from it, as ascetic as monks with no desire to bite.

It made Xia Nan a little angry to watch.

At the same time, it reinforced just how wise his decision had been.

He swam over and forcefully shoved the fish hook straight into the purple vortex ray's mouth.

"Hey, we got a bite!"

Although he didn't know why Xia Nan—who had left in another direction earlier—was suddenly swimming up from the water right in front of him, Ellison, who had been watching his spot, still quickly called out when he saw the bobber plunge and the rod bend taut.

Taking the rod back from Ellison, Xia Nan looked completely composed.

He reeled the line and pulled the rod with practiced precision.

Before long, a massive dark purple figure was gradually hauled to the surface.

Seeing how effortlessly he pulled the rod, Ellison had assumed it was just a small fish. Now, staring at the huge silhouette on the water, he froze.

"A purple vortex ray?!"

He couldn't help but find it strange.

Why hadn't such a huge fish struggled at all after taking the bait? Why was it dragged up without an ounce of resistance?

Was it already dead, or—

While he was puzzling over it, Xia Nan had already hauled the purple vortex ray ashore.

"No wonder you weren't catching much earlier, you were holding out for a big one."

"A purple vortex ray like this is more than enough to cover the one gold coin requirement."

Extracting the hook from the vortex ray's mouth, Xia Nan replied without batting an eye, "Praise the Goddess."

After "catching" the purple vortex ray, Xia Nan tried his luck for another hour.

As for the result, he could only say his fishing luck today was truly abysmal.

Once Ellison also reeled in enough fish to meet the one-gold-coin requirement, the two of them headed to the entrance together to submit their catches.

As the three-hour time limit drew to a close, some of the adventurers who hadn't finished the task yet began to grow anxious.

Many people could be seen frantically hurling handfuls of bait into the water as if it cost them nothing, trying to chum the waters. Others harbored more devious intentions, huddling together in whispers to discuss ways to cheat with their companions.

In response to all this, the middle-aged man in formal wear with the goatee sat serenely in the reception pavilion at the fishery's entrance, acting as though he saw nothing.

Clearly, the organizers themselves maintained a thoroughly ambiguous stance toward cheating in this event, choosing to turn a blind eye.

—

It was, after all, an event to celebrate the festival. Even if everyone passed, they only earned a raffle ticket. There was no need to take it so seriously.

Walking through the crowd, Xia Nan was exceptionally conspicuous carrying a nearly three-meter-long purple vortex ray.

He could feel gazes of surprise and envy sweeping over the vortex ray in his hands.

At the same time, the uniquely styled [Abyssal Current] armor he wore, along with his twin swords, black hair, and black eyes, allowed some of the more observant adventurers to deduce his identity as "Sea Fang."

Among them was the sturdy man he had noticed earlier—the one who looked like an oversized dwarf with a braided beard. He had clearly recognized Xia Nan as well, his round eyes fixed intently on him.

Xia Nan didn't have any particular thoughts about this.

In this world, especially in the adventurer profession, keeping too low of a profile often brought unnecessary trouble.

Since he had already built a bit of a reputation for himself in the Southern Archipelagos, there was no need to hide it too much. Leveraging it a little wouldn't be a bad thing.

It was worth noting that Xia Nan's two teammates, Sasha and Alton, had both already caught enough to meet the event's requirements.

They were currently waiting for him near the entrance.

Seeing Xia Nan, they immediately walked over to meet him.

"Whoa! I've never seen a fish like this before!"

"Why does its tail look like a scorpion's? Is it poisonous?"

"Do fish this big really live in the shallows? How did you catch it, Xia Nan?"

The halfling was as exuberant as always, brimming with intense curiosity about all things novel. One moment he was lifting the purple vortex ray's tail to inspect it, and the next he was squatting down to poke the soft skin on its belly.

Meanwhile, the focus of the tabaxi Sasha, standing beside him, was on Ellison, who was walking next to Xia Nan.

"Mr. Ellison, you—came as well?"

Clearly, the crew members of the Blade of Vengeance were not entirely clueless about their captain's past.

Hearing this, Ellison kept a neutral expression, merely giving a silent nod in response.

Seeing the tabaxi's hesitant expression, as if he wanted to say something but held back, Xia Nan took over the conversation.

"Have you guys been waiting long?"

"I'm actually fine. I was worried I hadn't caught enough, so I fished a bit longer. I just submitted my task half an hour ago." Pulling his gaze away from Ellison with a complicated expression, Sasha looked at Xia Nan. "But Alton has been waiting for quite a while."

As a Chosen of the Goddess of Luck, the halfling hadn't even bothered calculating the detailed value of his catch.

In just the first ten minutes or so after the event started, he had pulled up nearly ten fish at an absurd rate of roughly one per minute. He handed them in casually and easily cleared the event requirements.

After that, he had just been wandering around the fishery.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with the two, Xia Nan carried the vortex ray over to the man with the immaculate goatee.

"A purple vortex ray of excellent quality," the man praised after carefully inspecting the ray Xia Nan presented. "I'd estimate this could fetch around five gold coins on the market."

"Congratulations on qualifying for the second event, Mr. Xia Nan."

"You know me?" Xia Nan raised a slight eyebrow.

"Of course!" The middle-aged man stroked his goatee and smiled. "The famous 'Sea Fang,' new member of the 'Blade of Vengeance,' and the destroyer of the Horned Shark Gang and the Ebb Tide Gang. Who wouldn't recognize you?"

Xia Nan didn't let the flattery go to his head. He had a clear understanding of his own reputation.

He certainly wasn't some big shot, much less comparable to high-level veteran adventurers. His name had only spread because he had recently wiped out two underworld gangs back-to-back.

In reality, if he kept a low profile for two months with no new exploits to circulate, he would fade right back into obscurity.

Hot newcomers who seemed to be riding a wave of immense momentum like Xia Nan appeared in the Southern Archipelagos practically every year, but only a rare few actually managed to solidify their reputations and steadily advance.

While the goateed man was busy flattering him, Xia Nan was using his Perception to observe him in turn.

Although he acted exceptionally smooth and humble on the surface, practically groveling, the dense aura he emitted told a different story. He was undoubtedly a Class Holder, and his level wasn't low either.

"Haha, I've heard much about you. I didn't expect you to attend the Lunar Tide Banquet this time."

The goateed man continued with his pleasantries, then suddenly stood up without the slightest trace of acting. Looking mortified, he apologized, "I've been incredibly rude. I haven't even introduced myself yet."

"Mr. Xia Nan, you can just call me Flynn. I work for Lord 'Algae Scale' Dodd, and I'm primarily in charge of the affairs related to this Lunar Tide Banquet."

"If you run into any trouble or have any questions, feel free to come find me. I'll help you sort it out."