Chapter 581 Waiting in Hell

"Ahhh!!!"

A roar filled with rage and agony pierced their ears.

Fierce clashes seemed to make the very ground tremble, and the air reeked of foul blood.

By the time Xia Nan and his group followed the commotion to the shore, the area was a scene of absolute devastation.

They naturally spotted the towering, majestic Coral Altar that sent an involuntary chill down their spines, as well as the nearby mountain of fleshy corpses that would make even the most seasoned adventurer's stomach churn.

But what truly drew the adventurers' attention—making them hold their breath and their pupils contract—was the tragic, bloody battle reaching its final stages in the clearing right by the coast.

Mutilated fishman corpses littered the ground, their glowing blue blood dyeing the sandy shore a deep, murky brownish-blue.

Fishman grunts, elite guards, and even a few fishman commanders lay scattered across the ground. Some had their skulls sheared off, sluggishly oozing a viscous blue-white fluid. Others weren't quite dead yet, their limbs spasming as if electrocuted while bloody froth sputtered from their mouths.

The culprit behind all this was the tall, robust figure standing in the center of the battlefield.

It was unmistakably "Algae Scale" Dodd.

Even though many adventurers present had never seen the great pirate in person—having only heard of his past exploits or seen his face on wanted posters—the moment they caught sight of that signature dragonborn tail and the pale gold fleshy scales covering his body, they identified him at a single glance.

However—

This was entirely different from the scenario they had envisioned. They had expected the final mastermind behind this incident to be waiting calmly by the shore, everything completely under his control, before the adventurers rushed forward for a decisive battle.

"Algae Scale" Dodd's current physical condition was absolutely terrible, far beyond the scope of a typical "severe injury."

Blue and red blood—from both his enemies and himself—flowed endlessly from wounds large and small all over his body. It dampened the sand that should have fallen off during his intense movements, pasting it to his skin and leaving him looking utterly bedraggled.

He appeared to have been impaled by a sharp, harpoon-like weapon. Three bloody holes completely pierced his abdomen, so clean one could see the scenery behind him through them. With his every movement, bits of minced flesh and fragmented organs fell from the wounds.

His long dragonborn tail—which should have helped him maintain balance in combat and served as a weapon—had been severed near the middle. The flat cross-section looked like a freshly felled tree stump, revealing the texture of the muscles and the pale bone at its core.

With such injuries, even a high-level adventurer with a formidable physique would be considered on the brink of death.

To push a veteran adventurer who had once nearly touched the Transcendent tier to such a state, his opponents had clearly paid a steep price.

Even with his combat capabilities heavily weakened, "Algae Scale" Dodd had still managed to inflict casualties far beyond what the Sahuagin had anticipated while fighting an entire fishman colony single-handedly.

Ignoring the fishman grunts and ordinary elite guards caught in the crossfire, he had killed a full three of their powerful fishman commanders!

On top of that, he had likely taken down several Sahuagin priests hiding in the ocean—one could faintly see fishman corpses bobbing on the waves.

As a highly experienced adventurer, how could Dodd not know the fundamental combat rule of eliminating the spellcasters first?

The only pity was that, despite his immense efforts, he ultimately failed to breach the defenses of his primary target: the Sahuagin high priest named Urk.

Even going all out and sacrificing his long tail, he had only barely managed to inflict a slight wound on his opponent's left arm in exchange.

"Dammit—you damn sea rats—"

"If... if I were at my peak—" Dodd panted heavily, his lips trembling as he muttered something unintelligible, his slitted pupils slightly glazed over from his severe injuries.

If he hadn't been weakened by the Secret Realm's ritual, he was confident that even if he couldn't kill all the fishmen present, he could have at least safely escaped their encirclement.

Unlike now, where he was trapped in this dead end.

Meanwhile, the adventurers rushing over from the other side of Stodd Island finally got a clearer look at the situation.

"What's going on? Infighting?" Tieg, the captain of the Raging Tide Warband, had charged at the very front of the group due to his blunt and fiery temper, making him the first adventurer to witness the scene.

After escaping the Secret Realm earlier, he had conversed with Xia Nan and the others. He knew that "Algae Scale" Dodd had likely struck some sort of deal with the vile, lowly Sahuagin for his advancement ritual.

He had even mentally prepared himself to fight both the fishmen and Dodd's forces simultaneously.

He just hadn't expected to arrive at the shore only to be greeted by such a sight.

"Stay alert, watch out for an ambush!" Zephyr, the pure-blood Elf and captain of the Windforged, warned with a deep frown beside him.

His sharp eyes meticulously swept over Dodd and the fishmen ahead, scanning all the way out to the distant sea.

Compared to Tieg, the Elf was clearly much more calculating and thorough.

Even though this suspected infighting was unexpected, he remained vigilant against any potential hidden dangers.

Standing among the crowd, Xia Nan—whose Perception attribute was the highest of all the adventurers present—also used this brief window to observe the battlefield as much as possible.

Based on the details he quickly gleaned, he judged that "Algae Scale" Dodd and the Sahuagin had most likely suffered a genuine falling out, rather than staging this to deceive them.

Of course, infighting was a good thing, but that wasn't Xia Nan's focus.

His dark eyes locked onto Dodd, his gaze rapidly sweeping over the man's body.

Then, as if discovering something, his eyes fixed on Dodd's neck.

There, amidst the blood, he could faintly make out a metal chain draped around the pirate's thick neck, trailing down into his shirt.

Looking closely, one could even see a ring-shaped object at the end of the necklace creating a slight bulge beneath the fabric.

Like two magnets drawing close, the silver-white ring formed by the [Dream Weaving Corridor] on his right ring finger vibrated violently, pulsing with waves of unusual heat.

Although he wasn't entirely certain yet, and didn't know the exact shape of the item on Dodd's neck, the abnormal reaction of the [Dream Weaving Corridor] ring proved that the object hanging there was exactly what he had traveled thousands of miles from the inland to the coast to find—the [Dream Weaving Corridor] encryption key!

His expression remained unchanged, but Xia Nan's heart gave a violent jolt. He almost charged straight into the fray right then and there.

Fortunately, his composure had always been exceptional. He knew that he couldn't afford to rush at a time like this, especially when surrounded by unfamiliar adventurers whose stances could shift at any moment, and while both "Algae Scale" Dodd and the Sahuagin were still alive.

Nearly forty adventurers arriving at the shore all at once naturally created a substantial commotion.

Even though these veterans had already entered a combat-ready state and kept their noise to a minimum, it was impossible for them to go entirely unnoticed.

"Pah." Dodd spat a mouthful of bloody phlegm onto the ground at his feet, panting heavily.

The blood on his arm trailed down into the blade of his sword, guided by gravity.

He turned his head and glanced at Xia Nan's group, yet his expression showed not a shred of the despair expected from someone trapped in the jaws of death.

Before him were the Sahuagin, intent on turning him into a ritual sacrifice; behind him were the adventurers, treating him as a sworn enemy and itching to chop off his head themselves.

Having suffered consecutive heavy blows since the start of the ritual, he knew his chances of survival in this situation were virtually nonexistent.

Having roamed the Southern Archipelagos for years, it wasn't as if he hadn't considered his eventual end.

Though it was arriving far too hastily and suddenly, as the scent of death thickened and he felt his life force rapidly draining away, Dodd mentally prepared himself for the end.

"Heh—hahahaha—"

His bloodstained mouth suddenly curled up into a smirk. Gripping his longsword with both hands, he drove the tip into the sand, leaning almost his entire body weight onto the hilt. Like a madman, a savage, twisted laughter tore from "Algae Scale" Dodd's throat.

He slowly raised his head. His gaze swept past the fishman commanders—who had briefly halted their attacks, mistaking the adventurers for his reinforcements—and lingered on Priest Urk's wrinkled, aged face.

He then rolled his neck, his eyes darting back and forth over the adventurers behind him.

Perhaps because their auras were too similar, or perhaps due to the inexplicable intuition of a dying man, Xia Nan felt the pirate's gaze sweeping over him a few extra times, as if recognizing who he was in the Secret Realm.

"Hey, you lot over there. How was playing around in the Secret Realm I set up? Which one of you was that red dragon and the black wolf at the end?"

"Forget it. That doesn't matter anymore," Dodd said with a wide grin, propping himself up on his longsword. His expression was more relaxed than it had ever been.

"Don't think this is over once I'm dead."

"See that old fish up ahead? Uglier than a pug, isn't it?"

"Look at the altar behind it, and all those corpses piled up."

"You know what this old bastard is planning. If you want to make it out alive, you'd better hurry—after I'm dead, that is."

When the arrival of death became inevitable, all the pressure from advancing to the Transcendent tier, from his enemies, and from power and wealth simply dissipated with it.

He calmly accepted his fate and delivered his final declaration to what would likely be the last group of people in the world to ever see him.

"Dodd. 'Algae Scale.' Remember my name."

"I'll be waiting for you in Hell, you damn bastards."

"Wom-boom!" The very instant the last word left "Algae Scale" Dodd's mouth, a brilliant platinum-gold magic light suddenly erupted from his scarred and battered body.

As if even his soul had ignited, platinum-gold flames surged up his skin, wringing out the very last drops of his life force.

He became a humanoid bomb—contracting, then releasing.

Amid a violent, ear-piercing roar, the blinding light swept outward in all directions, indiscriminately striking friend and foe alike.

The adventurers were further away, giving them ample time to react.

When the radiant light burst forth, these battle-hardened veterans had already deployed their respective defenses. Some, like Xia Nan, raised their shields to block. Others—sturdy Warriors and Barbarians—utilized defensive combat techniques to shield their teammates behind them.

In contrast, the Sahuagin, who had just been locked in melee combat with Dodd mere steps away, did not have that luxury of time.

Three full fishman commanders faced the brunt of the platinum-gold energy impact at point-blank range.

One had its head blasted clean off, dying on the spot. The second had its lower half swallowed by the beam of light; though it was still alive and howling in agony, it clearly wouldn't last much longer.

The last one was also severely injured. Its metal armor, melted by the blistering heat of the energy wave, fused directly with its scales and flesh beneath. It sizzled and smoked, with severe burn marks visible all over its body.

"Wom—crack."

A glowing blue, translucent shield vibrated violently before finally popping like a bubble.

It revealed the Sahuagin priest Urk beneath, who appeared completely unscathed, save for a slight mental sluggishness from casting spells too frequently.

Its murky, white-glowing eyes gazed into the distance at the adventurers intruding on the coast.

Its lips moved, speaking a sentence in the Sahuagin tongue that Xia Nan and the others couldn't understand at all.

Immediately after, amidst the churning waves, the Sahuagin grunts that had been hiding in the water as reserves leaped out. Led by their respective elite guards and fishman commanders, they roared furiously and moved to encircle Xia Nan's group.

Then, the priest exerted a slight force in its arm.

The tip of the Bone-White Staff flashed with blue light.

In the center of the battlefield ahead, Dodd's now-carbonized, smoking corpse was suddenly hoisted into the air by the ankle by a translucent hand from nowhere, dragging him toward the corpse pit.

The situation on the field developed far too quickly.

In just a few minutes, they had gone from arriving at the shore and discovering the enemy's infighting, to Dodd self-destructing in a suicide attack. And now, right after withstanding the energy shockwave from the blast, the fishmen were already pouncing to surround them.

The adventurers hadn't even sorted out the exact sequence of events yet. They were still wrapped up in the secret joy of discovering the enemy infighting and the chance to reap the spoils, and marveling at the great pirate's suicidal explosion. Very few noticed Urk's action of moving the corpse.

But the encryption key for the [Dream Weaving Corridor] was on that corpse. Maintaining a high level of vigilance at all times, Xia Nan naturally wouldn't ignore the elderly Sahuagin priest's actions.

It was exactly because of this that he sharply sensed the sudden concentration of magic particles above the corpse pit, and the faintly warping air around that terrifying, towering Coral Altar, all triggered by the addition of the final high-quality sacrifice—"Algae Scale" Dodd.

"That damn Sahuagin priest is trying to hold the sacrificial ritual!" an equally observant adventurer beside him shouted to their teammates, having noticed the anomaly a step later. "Stop it! Don't let it succeed!!!"