As he flew upwards, Xia De didn't forget to pull out a mask from a pile of small trinkets in his pocket and put it on his face. However, because he was moving too fast, he almost dropped the mask into the sea.
“Oh!”
The tattoo finally leaped out of the water. Raindrops hit Xia De’s face, and amidst the surging waves, Xia De also leaped up. He spit out the water in his mouth while gripping the fishing rod tightly with both hands.
Looking around, the gigantic, decaying corpse appeared directly before his eyes. Its upper body was bare, with only its waist exposed above the water. The stench of decay and blood rushed into his nostrils. The moment he saw the corpse, fear almost made Xia De release the fishing rod in his hand.
And the ancient underwater temple complex, seen from afar surrounding the Mermaid above the giant waves, finally became clearly visible.
The stone architecture was towering and bizarre, with spiral structures that defied normal rules, revealing the strangeness of deep-sea civilization. Broken ancient runes on the buildings glowed dimly under the dim yellow sky. Large areas of skeletal remains were scattered along the edges of the dilapidated structures, emitting a phosphorescent glow under the dim yellow sky, both strange and chilling.
The more he looked at the complex, the more he could hear rhythmic, regular, and even somewhat wild ethereal chanting. The sound was completely unaffected by the rain and the sound of the tide, like a maiden's soft chanting, yet also somewhat like a sacred hymn in a wild temple.
Ancient, grotesque, terrifying, primitive, and spiral—these were the words that naturally came to Xia De’s mind after seeing the temple complex.
And within the complex surrounding the gigantic corpse, at the heart position in front of the corpse, through the doors and windows of the underwater temple that seemed to have been carved directly from a rocky hill, Xia De actually saw firelight.
He saw dark golden fire, and just by looking at its flickering glow, he could feel its heat.
“This is…”
He widened his eyes in the rain. This familiar feeling seemed to be calling him. The desire, strengthened by the flesh of 【desire】, was urging Xia De to touch it, to obtain it.
“It really is…”
The temple complex floating above the waves and moving with the Mermaid megalith was not an illusion, nor a projection, but rather the terrifying spatial influence formed by the power of this gigantic corpse, creating an anomalous spatial zone around the corpse, which brought the ancient Merman temple, long coexisting with the corpse, out of the old Merman City at the bottom of the sea.
The High-Ring Sorcerers of the Orthodox Church were battling a few Merman Ring Sorcerers of the Scarlet Cult around the old temple. The latter had prepared for the ritual for many years, and besides the cult's own Ring Sorcerers, there were even human Ring Sorcerers assisting them. But even if the Mermen could receive a power boost around the temple, they were still suppressed by the Church.
As the waves advanced, Mermen continuously surfaced from the seawater, but were quickly killed by the Ring Sorcerers on the warships. Perhaps they had prepared for the Sea Offering Ritual for many years, but unluckily chose the days after the descent of the gods in Tobesk. The Orthodox Church would not make another mistake no matter what. Now, Ring Sorcerers across the entire material world were focused on the outcome at Coldwater Port.
Meanwhile, the professors from the academy were riding a golden sea vessel, literally golden, following behind the Mermaid. Various strange spiritual lights flickered, affecting this gigantic floating corpse.
It wasn't that the professors wanted to defeat this corpse, which had no self-awareness, but rather they were trying to appease the corpse, to make it return to peace and not attack Coldwater Port with its waves.
The professors’ efforts were quite effective; otherwise, Xia De wouldn't have had to confront it himself, but could have just waited on the shore.
The power of the temple and the Mermaid corpse greatly interfered with the Ring Sorcerers' perception abilities, and coupled with everyone being in battle, no one noticed him in the sky when Xia De flew over.
It was only when Xia De looked up at the face of the gigantic Mermaid corpse that its pale, tightly closed eyes showed a strange expression. Before Xia De could react, the Mermaid's eyes actually opened, and what Xia De saw in those eyes were blood-red spirals.
He spat out a mouthful of blood and quickly closed his eyes.
He was pulled into the temple in front of the corpse's heart, crashing heavily onto the sticky, damp ground, rolling several times before stopping. Looking up again, the scene before him appeared slightly double-imaged. The interior of the stone building was filled with bizarre Merman statues. Terrifying blasphemy runes and horrifying prayers transcribed from nameless scriptures were engraved on every flat stone surface.
Besides Xia De, there were seven or eight other people fighting at the entrance of the temple. Among them were Merman Ring Sorcerers of the Scarlet Cult and Ring Sorcerers of the Orthodox Church. The former gathered together, relying on the divine arts of the evil god, barely fighting against the two Ring Sorcerers with eleven-ring Destiny Rings appearing behind them. A scarlet light like a cover was inverted over them, but each time they were attacked by the Church's Ring Sorcerers, the scarlet light would dim further, and the Mermen would become weaker, though their faces still held a look of madness.
They were hoping to hold on until the giant waves engulfed Coldwater Port, at which point everything would be irreversible.
“What are you going to do?”
The eleven-ring Ring Sorcerer with the Sun God's holy emblem on his chest couldn't help but ask Xia De, who had fallen into the temple. Xia De didn't speak. He tightened the fishing line in his hand, feeling the direction the tattoo wanted to go, carefully bypassed the fighting group, and among the eight entrances in the temple's front hall, chose the second one on the right, then ran deeper into the temple along the muddy passage filled with seabed silt.
Neither side of the battle stopped him.
There seemed to be even more people inside the temple than outside. As he ran forward quickly, explosions, curses, and rustling sounds of movement came from all directions.
The ceiling and floor seemed to be vibrating, and the sound of giant waves came from all directions. The end of the passage was a small prayer hall, with bones piled in the mud and human skulls used as candleholders. Xia De ignored them, still holding the fishing rod, and advanced guided by the tattoo.
The further he went, the more terrifying the sights became. On the stone walls on both sides of the passage, ancient Mermaid sacrificial scenes were carved repeatedly, and the skeletal remains underfoot became increasingly numerous and more horrifying in shape. Besides some fish remains in the mud, fresh human remains even appeared.
Xia De could feel his heart beating violently. This was not fear, but anticipation, anticipating what awaited him ahead.
“However, this passage is very similar to the one I saw in 【A Truth of History (fifth epoch Witch War)】.”
It was only very similar, which indicated that both might have been built in the same era.
