After the battle ended, Xia Nan carefully studied the altar the Shahua Mermen had left on the beach.
It was equally crude, even built from reef rocks and sea stones picked up from who knew where. Yet the intricate patterns carved across its surface and its overall structure were almost identical to the one he had discovered in the hollow on Sheer Cliff Island.
This confirmed Xia Nan's suspicions.
What this group of Shahua Mermen had been conducting was precisely the Sacrifice Ritual he had seen before.
Xia Nan did not know exactly what this ritual could bring the mermen—did it summon powerful Shark Beasts of that sort? Or was it purely an act of faith?
But no matter what, the fact that they had used humans as sacrifices was now undeniable.
The fishermen's corpses, too horrible to bear looking at, lay quietly in the pit, gradually turning cold and beginning to stink.
"That's a little strange."
As her fingertips rubbed over the patterns carved into the altar's surface, a thoughtful expression appeared on Hain's face.
"These runes are indeed structured like a summoning ritual spell, but there are also very obvious alterations in many places."
"I wouldn't call it an improvement... It's more like several spell structures were blended together."
"Hard to identify."
Though she was not a formally trained academic Mage, and only barely counted as a Spellcaster due to her [Druid] profession, Hain undoubtedly possessed the greatest accumulation of occult knowledge among those present.
At that moment, she was studying the reef altar left behind by the mermen alongside Xia Nan.
"Is this kind of Sacrifice Ritual a Shahua Merman tradition?"
Having only recently arrived at Barracuda Bay and knowing nothing at all about Shahua Merman culture, Xia Nan asked the two beside him.
"Definitely not." Beside