The statue had a peculiar design, with a seashell patterned headband similar to that worn by a Shaman. Its face was not human, bearing features of marine life, most distinctively the lower half covered by tentacle-like long whiskers.

The statue’s figure somewhat resembled a human, with unusually long arms. Its hands hung low in front, with fingers disproportionate compared to a human’s, and were webbed.

The lower body was crudely carved with patterns of waves formed by curling tentacles, without a defined shape.

This thing inexplicably reminded Lance of the old ancestor’s dealings with the Deep Diver, the sacrificial event on the full moon night, could it be...

Without doubt, the whale was the offering, and this fish-faced statue was the bizarre sculpture the old ancestor acquired back then.

And now, near this worshipped statue, Lance sensed a strange presence.

Lance raised his hand towards the statue; at the moment of touching it, he felt a cold, malevolent aura trying to invade him.

But it elicited only a cold laugh from Lance, so what if it’s a god? He was here to kill gods.

"Hmph!"

Sacrifice, initiate!

The power of the Void surfaced, and the strange force that wished to affect Lance seemed scared and tried to flee, but once this strike succeeded in its judgment, it never failed, and this power was no exception.

The struggle in the Void was something of another dimension, something Lance didn’t know precisely, but he knew who won.

For the divine glow on the statue vanished, transforming into a mere sculpture.

At the same time, the gift was something unexpected even for him.

It wasn’t Spiritual Essence, nor equipment, nor ability traits.

A golden light merged into his body, and slowly a new column emerged on the panel, labeled "Divinity."

[Divinity: 1]

Lance felt somewhat uneasy, why does it seem this world is becoming more chaotic...

But just as he fell into contemplation, the statue, deprived of extraordinary power, cracked, its fish head directly breaking off and hitting the ground.

At this moment, the Giant Pincer Tidestealer devouring a corpse elsewhere, seemed to be stimulated by something, instantly shedding its sluggish demeanor, becoming frenzied, locking its target on Lance, swiftly pounding its sharp claws and rushing towards him.

Lance was still pondering over the special gift but immediately snapped back into action.

Seeing the suddenly crazed Giant Pincer Tidestealer, Lance felt no pity, the whale horn appeared in his hand, thrusting through, piercing its head mid-air, instantly killing it.

Precise and powerful!

"Indeed, creatures transformed by Deep Sea Force have no possibility of redemption."

Seeing the corpse, Lance showed no reaction; he had endured this guy long enough!

With the interruption, Lance was also too lazy to ponder what the [Divinity] represented, it’s better to handle the Bay’s affairs first.

After sacrificing the crab and whale corpses, the spiritual essence given made him feel somewhat satiated.

Before coming, Lance promoted many people, pushing Grendel from Master to Champion, strengthening soldiers, the weakest in the Honor Guard are Elite, with a few Masters.

Having foreseen the Bay’s gains, he deliberately came here after almost exhausting the spiritual essence harvested from several wars.

And after this battle, the spiritual essence was almost full again, not to mention a batch of Deep Divers was eaten by Wang Cai.

No wonder the old ancestor liked to cause chaos continuously in Hamlet, this feeling of simply relying on slaughter and plunder without accumulation is really exhilarating.

Lance continued delving into the mysteries of the Bay; he inexplicably felt a premonition that a civilization would certainly leave something behind, unwilling to just perish...

Meanwhile, those Deep Divers lurking offshore near Hamlet, blocking the sea routes, seemed to realize something. They immediately abandoned Hamlet, threw everything else aside, just wanting to return to the Bay as fast as possible.

And in the lightless sea trench, where no life can reach, deep darkness suffices to swallow any light, akin to a gate to another realm, filled with despair.

At this moment, the sea trench, peaceful for countless ages, was stirring with turbulence, and some things were cast out from the lightless abyss.

The ocean was destined to surge with waves today.

But no one would know about all this; this place is a death zone, even the strongest Prophet dares not spy upon it.

But Lance, who caused all this, wasn’t aware, as he was immersed in a treasure hunting mood.

"Ah! I found it!"

Lance let out a wild laugh, looking like a treasure seeker driven to madness.

Only in such desolate places could he express his emotions freely, rather than using steadiness and calmness to appear as an unperturbed Lord.

Wang Cai beside him was somewhat helpless seeing Lance, as if saying, "I discovered it first."

After soaking in the bay for days, Lance’s nose was now filled with that fishy stench, worse than ten years of gutting fish at a fish market.

To thoroughly investigate the suspect areas within the Bay in a short time, only Wang Cai, who could traverse freely between the Void and reality, observing from another perspective, could do so.

Lance didn’t care about any of these; his eyes only fixed on the treasures.

A mountain of gold and silver treasures, just one glance could make one’s body quiver as emotions were beyond what one’s body could suppress.

Perhaps these things were useless to the Deep Divers, mostly casually heaped together, but for Lance, they were capital to replenish the old ancestor’s deficit.

On his journey, Lance encountered many kind people, gifting money, equipment, even people, but the top rank must be the Deep Divers.

Thank you, top-notch Big Brother!

Having seen enough of the world, Lance soon calmed his emotions, holding a torch deeper into the bay, occasionally picking up a gold coin to inspect.

These weren’t the Empire’s standard gold coins, but the world’s minting rights are chaotic now, no one really cares, larger territories mint their gold coins to show authority. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Moreover, countless countries use different standards; the variety of gold coin designs is too vast, exchange rates are very troublesome, so deals typically depend on purity and weight.

An interesting fact here is Totnes’s gold coins are more widespread in the Empire than the Empire’s standard, with broader applicability.

The reason is simple; Totnes prospers in commerce.

From the treasure pile’s casual arrangement, Lance could see Deep Divers didn’t value these at all, countless in strange designs across eras showing countless shipwrecks in this Bay.

Going deeper, the treasures became more ancient; some items might have been precious once, but in this salty, wet environment, they became trash over time.

Only the gold coins retained their essence.

Suddenly Lance seemed to discover something; he knelt down, picked up a gold coin, rubbed away layers of dirt accumulated for who knows how many years.

Then, seeing the familiar seashell pattern on the coin, Lance’s expression turned somewhat subtle.

Could the latter half not be shipwreck treasures but a legacy from this civilization?

Standing up, raising the torch to delve further inside, but to no avail finding only the immortal gold as evidence of their existence.

Lance didn’t speak much of this, turning to head outside.

He couldn’t take these things away, there are simply too many; he’d better leave them here for now until he has time to retrieve them.

Anyway, the Deep Divers here have been cleared out, and no one would touch this money.

More importantly, Hamlet doesn’t have space to accommodate this wealth.

Recently Lance ran from Tiffany over a few gold coins, and now he’s troubled over lack of storage for money.

Perhaps this is a wealthy man’s dilemma...

As Lance prepared to leave, Wang Cai had a reaction, scraping against a wall signaling something.

"Found something good?"

Lance fumbled with the brick wall, quickly finding the spot, initially thinking he discovered hidden treasure, but soon realized something amiss.

For no matter how he searched, he found no mechanism, this didn’t seem like a treasure vault needing a switch.

No one could provide answers now. Simply kicking down the stacked wall suddenly caused sand to pour out...