Chapter 17 Other Treasure Hunting Parties

While the Dawnbreaker Mercenary Group was stuck in the Sea Ruin, many other treasure hunting parties followed treasure maps and arrived in this sea area.

Perhaps because the fish hadn't all been caught, these treasure hunters arrived at the Sea Ruin smoothly and happily excavated treasures on various islands.

When Soren was being chased, it was in the forest south of Devil's Island.

A group of adventurers found a shipwreck in the forest and were enthusiastically excavating it.

The forest had a rainforest climate, humid and hot, but it didn't affect the enthusiasm of the treasure hunters.

They casually dug a shovel into the soil and found a large number of ancient gold coins. From time to time, various precious gold and silver utensils, ceramics, and gems were unearthed.

It could be seen that this was a treasure ship from hundreds of years ago, full of treasures.

The crew was very excited to find such rich treasures not long after landing on the island.

"Hahaha... Captain, we've made a fortune this time. Devil's Island is full of treasures! Just finding this shipwreck, our hold is almost full. I really don't know how many undiscovered treasures there are deep in the island..."

"That's right. Fortunately, the captain has good connections and got first-hand sea charts. When we return to Lingdun this time, we will definitely shock those guys in the guild! Hahaha..."

"Our 'Black Panther Mercenary Group' is really going to prosper this time. Oh, when I get back, I will definitely tell my son my treasure hunting stories. He will be proud to have an adventurer father."

"But it's strange, the weather in this sea area has changed so suddenly, and the sun can't be seen... and where is this strong death aura coming from?"

"Didn't the legends say that the sea area near Devil's Island is very dangerous? We've only encountered a few undead monsters. We haven't seen any dangerous sea monsters."

"Who knows, maybe we're lucky? You know, luck is always an indispensable part of treasure hunting."

"..."

The full name of this treasure hunting group was the "27th Treasure Hunting Group Black Panther Mercenary Group of Prince Karl Napp."

That's right, this was a treasure hunting group sponsored by Prince Karl Napp of the Lu Ying Empire. It was an official treasure hunting group and a well-known veteran adventurer group in the "Lu Ying Adventurers Guild."

The leader was a burly middle-aged man with a red nose and a big beard. He was the captain of the "Black Panther Mercenary Group," "Red Nose" Adolf Myers.

Listening to the enthusiastic chat of his team members and looking at the dead forest, he had a bad feeling. He reminded them in a standard Lingdun accent, "Hey, I said, be careful, everyone. 'Beibei' is uneasy. There seems to be a great danger lurking on this island."

"Beibei" was a black panther with shiny fur. It was a purebred rare breed of the Lu Ying northern mountain area, the "Lanyoute Psychic Panther." This magical beast was a natural psychic medium and had a keen sense of danger, making it the best partner for beast tamers and many diviners.

As Myers spoke, he stroked his closest partner.

"Got it, boss!"

"Oh, we have to hurry. Many treasure hunters are following us. We have to find the [Four Elemental Hearts] that Lord Antonio of the General Guild entrusted us to find before them..."

"Hey, we should be the first to arrive on Devil's Island. If that treasure is here, no one will find it before us."

"..."

The crew talked as they excavated.

But at this moment, a perception-type professional said, "Something in the west triggered the warning device I set up. It seems to be a human!"

Captain Myers' expression changed drastically, "Someone's coming? How many people?"

The man frowned and said again, "It seems... only one."

"One?"

Myers looked puzzled.

How could there be a lone traveler on Devil's Island?

A dignified look flashed in his eyes, and he said, "Let's go and see."

......

At this moment, on the beach west of Devil's Island.

"Crack~"

A crisp sound of bone cracking.

Soren released an oddity whose head he had crushed.

Then, panting heavily, he reached out and pulled out the bone spear that the monster had stabbed into his body.

As he pulled, a stream of blood spurted out of the wound instantly.

His face was pale as he took out a potion and poured it on the wound on his shoulder. White smoke sizzled, and the burning sensation corroded by death energy slowly decreased.

Looking at the dead undead monster on the ground, Soren also breathed a sigh of relief.

This undead oddity had a name. It was identified as [Captain Parker of the Saint Mary (Gold)]. It was very strong. In his lifetime, he was a famous seventh-order pirate, and even after death, it was a fifth-order.

This bone spear could pierce his Rune Adamantine Body, which was incredible.

And there were many such fifth-order golden oddities in the previous group of hundreds of thousands of undead monsters.

"This is quite troublesome..."

Soren looked at the dense jungle in front of him, his eyes full of solemnity.

Devil's Island was a very large island, and even the vision shared by the Black Crow couldn't see the end.

It was not easy to find the sea god's divinity.

He originally planned to take [Sea King Drake] and the group of undead creatures around the sea.

After all, the longer he contained them, the greater the chance of success on Qian Tiao's side.

But unexpectedly, not long after Qian Tiao and the others landed on Devil's Island, [Sea King Drake] discovered something.

The group of undead monsters changed their previous cat-and-mouse attitude and attacked him madly.

Fortunately, the big Boss was probably attracted by Qian Tiao's side and didn't personally chase him. Soren's own life-saving methods were not weak, and he used all kinds of means to barely escape to Devil's Island.

But killing several fifth-order oddities that chased him in succession had also consumed most of his dark spiritual power, which made him a little overwhelmed.

But now was obviously not the time to rest. He had to rejoin the main force.

Cold flames rose from Soren's hand, burning the blood and bone spears on the ground to get rid of the traces left behind.

He wanted to leave after his breathing calmed down.

But at this moment, he sensed a team of people.

In the blink of an eye, a lithe black panther and several wind wolf magical beasts darted out of the dense forest, baring their teeth at him from a distance.

"Beast tamer?"

Looking at these magical beasts, Soren raised his eyebrows. He naturally sensed that there were humans in the jungle.

After seeing too many undead monsters, he was in a good mood when he suddenly saw some creatures from the land of the living.

He didn't make a move and glanced at the magical beasts.

But with this glance, the magical beasts seemed to see something terrifying and retreated half a step in unison. Their ferocious expressions also subsided a lot, and they were faintly afraid.

In less than two seconds, more than twenty people darted out of the dense forest.

They held weapons and had strange and shocked expressions on their faces.

The leading red-nosed man with a big beard looked at Soren, who was really alone, his eyes full of disbelief, and asked, "Are you an adventurer?"

"Yes."

Soren glanced at these people and guessed some information in his heart.

They didn't have the pirate's signature smoky black teeth, their clothes were exquisite, and they looked like adventurers in good condition.

They were probably people from Lu Ying.

The big beard asked cautiously again, "Which group are you from? Why are you here alone?"

"..."

Soren knew that the other party was trying to find out his details, but he was not interested in talking nonsense with these people.

He knew that there were slaves in the other party's team when he saw that three people in the team had the "Sun Slave Merchant Guild's mark" on their necks.

And coincidentally, these three people also revealed delicate anchor tattoos on their arms when they rolled up their sleeves.

Soren was very familiar with it. It was a symbol that Barrett and the others in the Judgment Group liked to tattoo, so he directly asked the three people, "Are you three from the 'Holy Judgment Group'?"

Even if the other party pointed their weapons at each other, he had no hostility towards these people because of these three people.

Hearing this, the big beard's expression instantly changed from cautious to alert, "What do you mean?"

He didn't know how the other party saw it, but the "Judgment Group" was now a wanted criminal by the Lu Ying royal family, and harboring them was a serious crime. He had bought a few acquaintances from slave traders through relationships because he had a friendship with the Judgment Group, which was already a great risk.

Now that he was discovered, he couldn't help but be vigilant.

Soren saw that the three people didn't seem to be coerced, and he probably guessed something. He thought for a moment and said directly, "I don't mean anything else. Captain Barrett is my friend. And... he's also on the island now."

Hearing this, the expressions of the three Holy Judgment Group members changed significantly, with anticipation, excitement, and a desire to ask something.

But because they were cautious, they didn't admit it and didn't dare to speak.

Soren looked at the cautious expressions and postures of these people, all of whom were guarding against him, an outsider, from entering the forest behind them.

He also guessed that these people had probably discovered some treasure and were excavating it.

Soren was not interested in treasures and didn't want to waste any more time here. He kindly reminded them, "This treasure on Devil's Island has been a conspiracy from beginning to end. The high priest of the Agapannon Temple tricked the adventurers here to sacrifice them alive. This is a 'Sea Ruin'."

It was impossible to explain clearly in a few words, and he didn't mean to say more, "Forget it, you can only wish for the best. If you stop me, you will only harm yourselves. Go west and find the River of the Underworld. If you can successfully go against the current, that's the only chance to get out alive."

With that, Soren turned around and walked into the forest in another direction without looking back.

If the [Sea King] didn't die, no one could leave the Sea Ruin alive.

Even his Dawnbreaker Mercenary Group might not be able to get out alive, so a reminder was enough goodwill.

......

Watching the stranger leave like this, the Black Panther Mercenary Group was dumbfounded.

At this time, some people hadn't realized the seriousness of the matter and asked, "Captain, are we just letting that guy go? What if he's a spy sent by a pirate group? The treasures we discovered..."

"Red Nose" Myers shook his head, not intending to stop him at all, and said with a very complicated expression, "Didn't you notice that the man was very calm from beginning to end when facing so many of us?"

Then, he looked at the black panther beside him and added, "Moreover, 'Beibei' senses that that man is extremely dangerous!"

He emphasized the words "extremely dangerous."

Hearing this, the faces of the people around him changed, and the calm and unhurried look of the young man just now appeared in their minds at the same time.

Only then did they realize it a little belatedly.

Moreover, it seemed that the other party had no interest in treasures.

On the contrary, what he said made people shudder when they thought about it.

Someone asked again, "Captain, how credible do you think what that person said? Is this really a 'Sea Ruin'?"

Myers naturally didn't want to believe it easily, but he also felt uneasy, "Even if we can't completely believe it... I'm afraid we're in big trouble."

The amount of information in the short few words just now was very large.

Adventurers who drifted at sea had all heard the name "Sea Ruin."

Was the Agapannon Temple going to use the treasure to sacrifice them alive?

Although it felt a little unbelievable, it didn't seem like there was any motivation to deceive them.

The more the Black Panther Mercenary Group thought about it, the more they felt a chill down their spines.

At this moment, they looked at the strange shadows that slowly appeared in the mist on the distant sea.

"Captain, look quickly, what is that!"

With this warning, everyone looked over.

In the midst of everyone's attention, the black shadow in the thick fog rushed out. It was hundreds of tattered sea ships.

And on the sea ships, there were densely packed undead monsters.

Where had the Black Panther Mercenary Group seen such an exaggerated battle? Seeing this scene, everyone was frightened and their faces turned pale.

Myers was scared out of his wits and shouted, "Damn it, retreat to the jungle and prepare to fight!"

It turned out that Devil's Island wasn't without danger, it was just that those dangers hadn't found them yet.

Now, they were here!

At the same time, almost all the adventurer groups that entered the Sea Ruin were attacked by undead monsters.

......

Devil's Island was said to be an island, but it was very large. Soren estimated that it was at least dozens of kilometers in diameter.

There were indeed a lot of treasures on the island. Soren saw gold and silver utensils in the mud several times as he walked through the forest. If he dug deeper, there would definitely be treasures.

These were all "sacrifices" accumulated over countless years, and there were even precious steles and antiques from some extinct civilizations.

The value was immeasurable.

But Soren didn't have the heart to dig for treasures.

Because at this time, the main force of Qian Tiao's side had already fought with the undead monsters.

With the blessing of the eight-armed spider spear, he moved very quickly in the jungle. Before long, he could hear the sound of fierce fighting.

"Boom", "Boom", "Boom"...

The sound of gunfire became clearer and clearer.

Soren didn't directly join the battle. He first released the Annunciation Bird to look down on the entire battlefield from the sky.

With this look, he clearly saw that the monsters in the jungle were surging towards one direction like a tide.

The members of the Dawnbreaker Mercenary Group were tightly surrounded by the undead monsters that covered the mountains and plains. This was worse than the situation at sea. No matter which direction they broke through, there were endless monsters.

Fortunately, this was on land, and those undead monsters were all "dead people in the sea," and their combat power was greatly reduced.

The members of the Dawnbreaker Mercenary Group also found a favorable terrain for positional warfare. With powerful modern firearms and sufficient ammunition, they were not wiped out.

After seeing the situation clearly, Soren naturally couldn't stand by. He held the Black Scythe and teleported over while hacking and slashing.

.......

"Mr. Soren is back!"

"Wow! That's great, Mr. Soren is back..."

"..."

As soon as Soren rushed into the battle, the members of the Dawnbreaker Mercenary Group cheered.

Before, he restrained the monsters alone in the sea, which allowed the members of the Dawnbreaker Mercenary Group to escape. Now, seeing him return safely, everyone cheered.

Soren responded to everyone one by one.

After he came in, he realized that the fighting looked fierce, but the casualties of the Dawnbreaker Mercenary Group were not large.

Under the command of Barrett, the commander of the professional army, the people in the camp were fighting scientifically and efficiently. The three shifts on the front line of the battle were fighting alternately, resting, killing monsters, and the wounded could also get effective treatment...

Now that he came in, he also understood a tactic: why Qian Tiao stopped him from harvesting those "gray fog" before.

Previously, because no one was harvesting souls, it was difficult for the members of the Dawnbreaker Mercenary Group to kill the undead monsters, but as they fought, they also discovered an experience.

That was, in the case where the number of enemies and us differed too much, there were benefits to not killing them.

And most monsters were not very intelligent. They only had a few simple consciousnesses, which were: surround and kill. There were a lot of them, but in fact, only the monsters in the core of the encirclement could participate in the attack.

After the monster's body was smashed, its combat power dropped sharply, but they would still occupy the front row "output position."

After Barrett discovered this, he decisively changed his tactics.

The members of the Dawnbreaker Mercenary Group were not trying to destroy the monsters, but just smashed the low-level monsters and piled them outside.

In this way, the monsters behind couldn't come in, and in fact, the number of monsters they had to deal with was only one percent or one-thousandth.

Of course, if the problem wasn't solved, the monsters would become more and more, and they would eventually be exhausted.

......

Probably because they were blocked, the high-level monsters were not in a hurry to die.

After all, the strength of the Dawnbreaker Mercenary Group was not weak now.

Occasionally, a few high-level monsters came in, and they were immediately killed by the concentrated fire, or beheaded by Qian Tiao and Barrett.

After killing a few more, they calmed down a lot.

Qian Tiao could even take time to rest.

She saw the blood on Soren's body and asked, "Are you injured?"

Soren shook his head, "A small problem."

Now that they were trapped, the most urgent thing was to figure out how to solve the dilemma.

Soren was puzzled and asked, "Sister Qian Tiao, what did you trigger before?"

Qian Tiao said, "Before, after we landed on the island, we were looking for the sea king's 'divinity' in the forest. Then, Miss Pandora discovered an ancient stele, which seemed to record some ancient secrets. But the 'archaeologists' in the group hadn't deciphered it yet, and it attracted monsters."

Hearing this, Soren realized that it was no wonder the [Sea King] hurriedly turned around before, because he had touched this.

Saying that, Qian Tiao took out the inscription that had been copied down before.

When Soren saw the twisted ancient words, he immediately recognized them and said, "This is 'Selam script', which is the script of a civilization that was extinct before the Dawn Era. It's at least 100,000 years old."

Hearing this, several archaeologists and polymaths who were proficient in ancient scripts were overjoyed, "Mr. Soren knows it? Oh, God, that's great."

Everyone knew that touching the stele attracted the monsters, so it must be something very important.

The inscription had been partially deciphered by the experts in the group, and Soren happened to understand some of it.

Without deciphering it completely, he scanned it and roughly understood the meaning of the inscription. There was also shock in his eyes, and he said, "This Sea Ruin may really be burying an ancient sea god named 'Ximinglaiwa'! This Devil's Island should have the sea god's altar, or tomb. The inscription records the story of that god slaying a nine-headed sea monster and resisting the invasion of evil creatures from the underworld..."

Everyone listened and showed a thoughtful look.

The inscription was all about myths and legends, and it didn't seem to have any useful clues.

Qian Tiao completely skipped the thinking process and asked directly, "Soren, what do you see?"

"Yes. Now that we know the purpose of the gods, we can infer a lot of things."

Soren nodded and took the banknotes to draw a map.

He didn't do nothing while escaping along the way, but through the Annunciation Bird's vision, he had recorded the layout of some islands near Devil's Island.

Others didn't know what he was going to do, but they all watched with bated breath.

Soren's super high brain domain development allowed him to instantly match the map on the drawing with some patterns he had seen before, and then inspiration burst out.

He continued to use a pen to connect the islands.

Although there was only a part of it, Tani, who was on the side, suddenly exclaimed, "Mr. Soren, is this the star map of the 'Sea God Constellation'?"

An excellent navigator must be very familiar with the starry sky, which was the guiding light for sea ships at night.

Soren nodded, he hadn't noticed it before, but after reading the inscription, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

Then he said, "Sister Qian Tiao, where did you meet the stele before?"

"Here."

Qian Tiao pointed out the location with her finger.

Soren marked it with a pen, and then used that point as the starting point to draw several geometric patterns in the occult, and then combined it with the "Sea God Constellation," and everything seemed clear.

"The divine path must have faith, but the pirate emperor Francis Drake was just a big pirate, and he didn't have a foundation of faith. So, the faith can only be obtained through some special channels... Since it's a divine tomb, it makes sense."

This was some "common sense" that Pandora had told him before that only gods understood. When all the clues were linked together, the situation was immediately broken.

He pointed out several other points and said, "The location of its divinity, these three points are the most likely."

Once the pattern was drawn, they didn't need to find it blindly on Devil's Island, which was so big. The three points were very likely.

On the side, Pandora, who was wearing a cloak, didn't say a word, but when she saw Soren analyzing the result with his keen thinking, a strange look flashed in her eyes.

Things suddenly took a turn for the better, and Qian Tiao said again, "The current situation is that we have been discovered. It's impossible to break through on a large scale. Moreover, it will alert the [Sea King] and come to besiege us personally..."

At this time, Barrett also came over and interjected, "We can persist for a long time. Soren, you can take Miss Pandora and a small number of elites to attack. The target is small and not easy to detect."

"Yes."

Soren nodded, this was also his plan.

Now they needed to change direction, and Barrett and the others would be the bait.

The current situation didn't allow for much hesitation, and he said again, "My [Oz Ice Man's Shroud] can avoid the perception of those monsters, so it's better for Miss Pandora and me to go. With fewer people, it's more convenient to act. At that time, you will be in this position... If there is a situation, we can support each other."

Going directly to fight the [Sea King] was definitely a big risk.

Once discovered, the human sea tactics were not very useful.

The combination of Soren and Pandora was the best choice because they could fight and run.

This plan considered almost everything, and Qian Tiao and Barrett didn't say much, "Okay! Be careful."

"Yes."

As Soren spoke, he looked at Pandora beside him.

Pandora nodded slightly, didn't speak, and defaulted.

......

Qian Tiao and the others rejoined the battlefield.

No one noticed that Soren and Pandora stayed in the marching tent.

Without anyone else, Soren looked at Pandora and said, "Excuse me."

Pandora nodded, "Yes."

Soren didn't hesitate at all, stood behind her, and stuck together in a very intimate posture.

He remembered correctly that this was the first time the two had physical contact. Pandora's body was really special, weak and boneless, and had an irresistible softness all over her body. A large area of skin was in contact, and the curvy figure was felt clearly.

A slight thought flashed by, and Soren wrapped the two of them together with the [Oz Ice Man's Shroud] and completely disappeared into the air.