Chapter 144: The Source of Trouble

"What is that!" Just as he was about to reach the entrance, Hughes suddenly saw a blue rune flying toward him.

"It is a curse; you cannot dodge it!" Mavis recognized the curse at a glance.

The blue rune sank directly into Hughes’s body, his defensive barrier proving completely useless.

"A curse? How could something like this exist?" Hughes asked, feeling nothing unusual after the rune entered his body.

"Do you even have to ask? It must be the person who came in with you, and that old woman at that!" Mavis replied with certainty.

"How do you know?" Hughes had never heard of a curse being cast so casually; there should at least be a medium.

"Of course I know. This is a unique curse of our Mermaid race, the Dirge of the Sea!" Mavis had been a pure-blooded mermaid in her previous life and was intimately familiar with it.

"Dirge of the Sea? Does that mean you have a way to break it?" Hughes did not want to live in constant fear of a curse.

"Of course, though it is quite troublesome. And it can be resolved without me having to lift a finger!"

"You mean if the person who cast the curse dies, the curse will be lifted?" Hughes immediately grasped the key point.

"Exactly. Compared to other types of curses, this one is actually quite weak. Its advantage is that it requires no medium to cast; one only needs to know the name and appearance of the target! It also has a tracking capability. Its final function is that once activated, the water in your body will be drained until you become a dried-up corpse." Mavis had once used this curse herself, so she knew it well.

"BOOM!" A thunderous explosion forced Hughes to stop in his tracks.

In the distance, buildings collapsed in swathes, and several massive figures were hidden within the billowing dust.

"It’s Experimental Subject 147, 189, and 645!" Mavis recognized those figures instantly.

"How strong are they?" Hughes did not look back; it would be too late if he didn't leave now.

"They are all Rank 2!" Mavis, too, began to grow worried.

"This is the end!" Hughes felt his heart sink upon hearing this.

"Can these creatures get out of the secret realm?" Hughes realized he had caused a massive disaster.

"How did you get in?" Mavis asked curiously, as she did not remember this secret realm being so easily discovered by a group of Rank 1 mages.

"A golden conch shell!" Hughes did not hide the truth; he knew the shell was still in Gutter's possession.

"What! Is it about the size of a palm, and does it merge into the entrance outside?" Mavis was shocked by Hughes's words.

"Is there a problem?" Hughes seemed to realize that the golden conch was more than just a key.

"That conch is the central controller for the entire secret realm. If that shell is destroyed, this realm will collapse!" Mavis felt she had been manipulated. This item was originally in her care; how could it have ended up outside? Moreover, she had lost a great deal of her memory for no apparent reason.

"It seems your original master left quite a few contingencies behind!" Hughes felt that the owner of this realm had intentionally been waiting for someone to enter.

"Yes!" This time, Mavis did not refute him. She could sense that something was wrong; she couldn't even explain the matter of the conch shell.

"Finally!" Hughes looked at the entrance and dove through without hesitation. The effects of his previous potion were still active, and he began swimming toward the surface, intending to flee the area temporarily.

Inside the secret realm, Gutter and his two companions had no time to react before their defensive barriers were shattered, and they fell unconscious.

Soon, a giant tentacle emerged from the seabed, coiled around the three bodies, and dragged them into the depths.

The tentacle, covered in black ring patterns, placed the three bodies before the Disk-Octopus, while surrounding sea monsters and experimental subjects waited in silence.

"Where is this?" Minnie was the first to wake up. With mermaid bloodline in her veins, the seawater did not affect her.

Before she could grasp the situation, a giant tentacle appeared before her. The black patterns upon it seemed to possess magic, pulling her into an unconscious state. The massive tentacle draped over Minnie, as if sensing something.

"Holy Circular City, Holy Light Tower, Silver Rose..." These were the things the Disk-Octopus read from Minnie's memories.

"How interesting! Has the Domain of the Lost really become like this after several thousand years?" The Disk-Octopus read through everything in Minnie's mind with great interest.

"It seems it is time for me to go out!" As the Disk-Octopus finished speaking, the eyes of the surrounding sea monsters and experimental subjects erupted with fanatical light.

The Disk-Octopus—or more accurately, Samuel Beltz, the master of this secret realm—had not truly died as Hughes had suspected. The difference was that before he died, he had performed a ritual to possess the body of this Disk-Octopus and survived in this way.

"Do you truly have a way to break the limitations of our bloodline?" asked the Three-Eyed Merman, the same one who had ambushed Mai Fan. Many other sea monsters nearby perked up at this question.

"Of course. I spent my whole life searching for a way to break the bloodline limit, only to find that my body could no longer support it in the end!" the Disk-Octopus said helplessly. "However, I have a way now!" With a wave of its tentacle, the conch shell from Gutter's body floated out.

"What are we going to do?" The Three-Eyed Merman recognized the function of the shell.

"What are we going to do? We are going to the Holy Circular City, of course! That is a good place!" the Disk-Octopus exclaimed, knowing exactly what the city represented through the memories it had read.

"Is this enough for us?" The Three-Eyed Merman was worried; it wasn't easy to get out of the secret realm, and he didn't want to die so easily.

"What are you afraid of? We still have allies. A Rank 3 Deep Sea Demon Whale, plus me—do you think that isn't enough to take down a gathering of mages?" When the Disk-Octopus, Samuel, was in his final days, he had secretly planned all of this behind everyone's back.

Hearing this promise, the Three-Eyed Merman felt reassured.

"Then, let us enjoy this new world!" As he spoke, the golden conch shell turned into dust.

The entire secret realm began to shake. Cracks appeared on the ceiling of the realm and spread rapidly. The surrounding creatures sensed these changes and began to celebrate, rejoicing at the prospect of leaving this wretched place.

A series of roars began to erupt from the seabed, reaching Hughes, who was already mounted on his venomous dragon. Hearing the sound, Hughes knew that such a commotion could only mean one thing: the secret realm was collapsing.