The violently Vibrating ground indicated that this altar was also about to collapse.
Xia De once again chanted the incantation in the Merman language; the golden pearl flew out of the blood, its surface unstained by any blood.
The slightly viscous scarlet liquid gathered along a smooth arc beneath the pearl, forming a large droplet before falling into the splattering blood of the altar.
"Now I need your help."
Xia De gazed at the golden glowing pearl and said in his heart:
"Just like in the Blood Feast at Lakeview Manor."
The entire floor of the temple had collapsed, and surging blood-red waves roared.
However, the walls and the corridor outside the temple were completely unaffected.
The only level ground inside the temple was the high platform at the very end where the altar was placed.
The golden pearl above the blood and Xia De in front of the altar, two golden light sources, were so peculiar in this extremely dangerous scene.
Golden embers floated around, and after the dim yellow sky overhead, a beam of light seemed to envelop the high platform.
She chuckled:
"Outsider, you seek my help; do you know what you should say now?"
Xia De looked at the pearl in front of him, which was reflected in his eyes:
"Of course, I know."
"Then, please begin."
The murmur sounded like a chant.
"You, are me."
With his right palm facing up, he stretched his hand towards the bottom of the pearl and then lifted it.
His palm felt a distinct repulsive force, and even a faint black holy emblem pattern, representing an evil god, appeared on his palm.
"I, am you."
However, in the narrow gap between Xia De's palm and the pearl, a transparent woman's hand, connected to Xia De's wrist, slowly emerged.
Her transparent silver palm lifted the pearl, and Xia De's hand lifted her hand.
"Oh~"
He closed his eyes and groaned softly, then took a deep breath; as his chest rose and fell, the golden glow on Xia De's body grew brighter.
He slowly turned, the pearl in his right hand emitting light like the sun.
The mesmerizing color made Xia De's gaze linger for a moment, but then he looked up at the collapsing temple before him.
The seawater had already surged up from below, and the vanished ceiling allowed him to see the complete dim yellow sky.
Although the temple had collapsed, the Sea Offering Ritual was still not over.
Feeling the powerful strength like the sun in his palm, Xia De thought he might be able to do something.
"I thought you would choose to store this pearl in the gift box of the gods and use it when needed."
Although her silver transparent hand was pressed against Xia De's palm, Xia De felt no touch or temperature.
When Xia De first saw her arm at Lakeview Manor, he was semi-conscious.
Now, seeing her palm clearly, it felt so unreal.
The voice still came from beside his ear.
Compared to the golden light around him, which was like leaping flames, the silver light in his hand was so faint.
It was as if Xia De had grown long silver hair, or as if a silver figure was lingering behind him.
"Not absorbing it immediately after getting it, waiting for someone to steal it, is that it?"
Xia De asked in his mind; although the probability of it being stolen was very low, he would never take any risks at such a time:
"However, after absorbing the divinity, the power from the ten-minute divine overflow cannot be wasted.
Although the Orthodox Church has almost won, I think I can do something else."
As the Outsider breathed steadily, the golden glow on the pearl climbed up his arm like a chain, spreading throughout his body.
The golden marks on his body grew stronger, dyeing the Destiny Ring that automatically appeared behind him into a dazzling pure gold.
"So what do you want to do?"
She chuckled in his ear.
"I've been running with this fishing rod for so long; shouldn't I catch a fish?"
Xia De asked with a smile in his mind, then closed his eyes and sighed:
"I, I feel the power."
The frequency of his heartbeat gradually synchronized with the Vibration frequency of the pearl in his hand.
Her voice was gentle; she had always been by Xia De's side:
"The spiral of the fish tail symbolizes the first Merman and the deepest secret of the abyss.
In the Old God's deep-sea temple, the Scarlet God once rested here."
"You have listened to the story of the Old God, lord of the scarlet spiral; you have learned one of the blasphemy of the Old God, lord of the scarlet spiral."
"You have gained the Miracle - Water Walking."
"The God of the Drowned allows me Underwater Breathing; the God of aquatic creatures gives me the ability to walk on water.
The Old Gods of this world are truly interesting~"
The golden pearl in his hand gradually faded, and when Xia De opened his eyes, the dark golden light in his eyes slowly subsided.
Around the giant Mermaid corpse, the battle around the temple ruins continued.
Whether underwater or on the platforms around the ruins, the battle between the Orthodox Church's Ring術士 and the Scarlet Cult was nearing its end.
The Cultists Ring術士 were almost suppressed by the Orthodox Church from the start, and although humans did not have the upper hand in the underwater battle, the appearance of some strange marine creatures turned the Orthodox Church's disadvantage around.
First, the temple in front of the giant corpse's heart collapsed with a roar, and then a oppressive golden light shot up into the sky.
"Space Stabilization Aura!"
The low voice, though unable to suppress the raging waves, still reached the ears of the sensitive High-Ring Sorcerer.
Xia De stood on the precarious altar in front of the heart; with the slight divine power overflow from absorbing divinity, invisible ripples spread out from him.
This ancient ruin, which had emerged from the seabed due to spatial anomalies, began to collapse as a whole.
This meant that this ruin, an ancient Merman ruin, was being expelled back into the deep-sea abyss.
Turning the pearl, now one-third its original size, into a toy and putting it in his pocket, Xia De carried the fishing rod and left the altar.
He stepped on the seawater surging up from the collapsed floor and walked out along the constantly disappearing corridor.
As Xia De walked, the speed of the ruin's collapse and disappearance accelerated.
Scarlet seawater surged from the ground beneath the ruins, swallowing up pieces of architectural debris.
At this moment, both the Orthodox Church's Ring術士 and the remaining forces of the Scarlet Cult were evacuating from the ruins.
The walls on both sides of the corridor crumbled, and Xia De could see the Mermen, dimly visible in the tide, trying to attack the Orthodox Church Ring術士 gathered together, preparing to leave.
But as the ethereal conch sound rang out, beautiful creatures, human-bodied with fish tails, suddenly darted out from the deep sea, rescuing the fallen human Ring術士 and hunting the remaining ugly Mermen.
These were real Mermaids, their upper bodies true female physiques, covered by shells and seaweed, and their lower bodies beautiful fish tails, flapping through the scarlet seawater to help them move.
"Mermaids and Mermen are sworn enemies, so their appearance now is not strange.
Tifa said that Mermaids are a secret of the Witch Council; she couldn't talk much about local rumors.
The Aurora Family is related to Mermaids—so that's it.
Miss Aurora can summon the Alien Race Mermaids, which is why the Witch Council sent her to Coldwater Port."
This was a secret of the Witch Council; Xi Wei Aurora, the Third Seat of the Witch Council and a descendant of an ancient Ring術士 family, indeed had the most ancient contract with the Mermaid species.
Xia De thought to himself, seeing that the Orthodox Church's Ring術士 had already left the collapsing ruins, and the entire ruin had collapsed and submerged into the water.
He threw away the frog leg in the surging waves, then leaped upwards.
In the divine overflow state, the power of the Miracle allowed him to fly, soaring from the last stone slab of the ruins towards the head of the giant Mermaid corpse.
"Stop him!"
Strange gurgling sounds came from the distant shore, indicating that the high-ranking priests of the Scarlet Cult were speaking.
The sound pierced through the rain curtain and reached Xia De's ears, and the next moment, the giant Mermaid corpse, which had originally been moving towards Coldwater Port in the waves purely by instinct, surprisingly stretched out its right hand from underwater, then violently grabbed at Xia De in the air.
Even without the strange power from its heart, the raised giant palm was still like a mountain falling from the sky, with eerie white bones appearing within its decaying flesh.
Seawater rained down, and dead fish, seaweed, stones, and more seabed debris struck Xia De first.
The sun 1 rhode cards flew out of Xia De's hand and hovered in the air.
Xia De stepped his right foot on the rhode cards, pushing off forcefully.
With the Miracle enhancing his jumping ability, he changed direction in mid-air, dodging the closing giant palm.
However, while Xia De dodged the palm, the rhode cards in the air were directly caught in the Mermaid's palm.
But this also meant that the fish hook, already impaled on the sun 1, was also caught by the Mermaid.
"It's hooked."
The fishing line tightened automatically, as if the fishing rod was also exulting.
Although this Document-level relic, the 【Soul Fishing Rod】, could not gain anything from a soulless corpse, it did indeed catch something good.
Xia De's body fell, but black chains shot out from both sleeves simultaneously, intertwining around the fishing line and rapidly climbing upwards.
As Xia De lightly landed on the still rolling red tide, the chains of sin had already tightly wrapped around the Mermaid's palm, ensuring it could not release the fish hook.
Under the dim yellow sky, the faint sun behind the clouds made the black chain appear to connect the sky with the blood-red ocean.
And in this apocalyptic scene, the Mermen, Mermaids, and Ring術士 in the sea all looked here, seeing Xia De, a black speck on the tide, holding a fishing rod in one hand and tightening the fishing line in the other.
The ruins appeared here due to spatial power and could be expelled with 【Space Stabilization Aura】.
But the Mermaid corpse truly swam from the deep sea to the nearshore of Coldwater Port; to stop it, one could only inflict damage.
As for the Orthodox Church's original plan, Xia De didn't care; he just didn't want to waste the power of divine overflow.
He was exerting force, transforming the slight power of divine overflow into the purest physical strength:
"Heiya!"
With Xia De's low roar, he gritted his teeth and raised the fishing rod above his head.
The fishing rod extended at this moment, the fishing line tightened, and the chains of sin retracted.
Amidst rumbling sounds, in the red waves, with the surging tides, the Mermaid's right arm stretched towards the sky, then its entire body moved forward, then slowly upwards, the part below its shoulders gradually emerging from the water.
He was actually pulled up from the seabed by Xia De, by sheer force.
The enormous body below its shoulders completely rose into the air, almost obscuring all light from the entire ocean.
Below its shoulders, the lower half of the giant corpse was surprisingly covered with spiraling, wriggling tiny scarlet tentacles.
At this moment, the corpse finally broke free from the chains and the fish hook.
With the prayers of the Cultists on the shore, the corpse absorbed the last power of the Sea Offering Ritual.
It opened its eyes towards Xia De below and grabbed at the ocean with its two decaying hands.
But it was too late; Xia De looked up at the terrifying corpse in the air, his two hands drawing crossing light traces above his head:
"Moonlight Slash!"
A huge cross-shaped light trace flew upwards, piercing through the corpse and leaving a cross-shaped hole in the eerie yellow clouds.
The corpse seemed to freeze in the air, then, the fragmented pieces fell into the sea.
This was Xia De's first time using 【Silver Moon Slash】 like this; perhaps this Miracle had even broader potential for development.
"Tobesk's Summoner has fully recovered!"
People stared dumbfounded at this scene; bright yellow sunlight appeared in the dim yellow sky, finally shining onto this ocean through the mark left by the Moonlight.
Because the clouds were cross-shaped, the light projected downwards also appeared in the shape of a cross on the sea, with Xia De, holding the fishing rod, at the intersection of the cross.
Explosions sounded from beneath the sea; this was the base array of the large-scale Sea Return ritual, now damaged due to the destruction of its core.
And as the ritual's power faded, although the towering waves continued to crash towards Coldwater Port, they became increasingly weaker.
Until the old lighthouse standing on the sea cliff also lit up, those lights finally calmed the tide and the anger of the sea.
The scarlet color of the sea surface faded, slowly diluting.
The sacrificed corpses on the seabed also floated up.
The tide carried this red away, and at the same time, the giant corpse, which seemed to melt into the water, also disappeared.
It was 8:50 AM, still early morning.
The strangely colored clouds dispersed, and the clear sky reappeared; today was a good day.
Feeling his eyes somewhat difficult to open, Xia De, following the receding tide, dived back into the water.
He pinched the badge on his chest, and with the keen senses of the divine overflow state, he finally discovered the traces of the Witch and the enemy.
Above the surging red waves, Ivan Darkness, whose body had returned to normal, rode a dilapidated wooden boat with seaweed wrapped around its rudder, speeding towards the shore at an astonishing pace.
Behind him, Miss Hivi Aurora ran on the waves, with the strange human-bodied, fish-tailed species clustered beneath the sea around her, empowering her with control over the ocean.
Most of the Mermaids were battling Mermen in the sea.
A small portion followed the Witch, helping her catch up to Darkness, who was riding the relic boat.
Although the faded red waves were still turbulent, the two advancing towards the shore were completely unaffected.
They had both witnessed the astonishing scene behind them just now, but neither showed any intention of stopping.
