Chapter 286: Section 74: Far from Enough
A Fishman youth slowly opened his eyes.
“wm… ma?” The Fishman’s vision was blurry, his breath weak, and his life hanging by a thread.
He saw a vast expanse of white light.
His call received no response, but he heard the occasional clashing of metal.
The crisp sounds reminded him of clashing swords, jolting him into remembrance.
He remembered—he was fighting before he passed out! His goal was to board that huge Human Race warship, but unexpectedly, as he was climbing, he looked up and saw a giant!
...
In the giant’s hand was a Wolf Fang Club, sweeping towards him.
Pain and darkness struck simultaneously; he faintly heard the sound of his bones breaking and then the sound of himself falling into the water.
After that, he knew nothing.
“gwall?” The Fishman spoke again.
His vision gradually cleared.
The blinding white light before him slowly lessened, and he realized he was in a room.
The room was peculiar, with metal walls and ceiling.
He also found himself bound to an equally metallic, cold long table.
The Fishman wondered if he had been captured by the Human Race and was now inside that large ship?
“wmgm! wmgm!” He struggled and shouted loudly.
“Stop shouting, your fate is already sealed,” a cold voice came from above the Fishman.
The Fishman was startled; he couldn’t understand the meaning of the words, but he recognized it as the language of the Human Race.
Because he was lying flat, he looked up towards the source of the voice, attempting to find its owner.
And he succeeded.
He saw an elderly member of the Human Race, wearing glasses, with white, bushy facial hair, and hands with strong, powerful fingers, holding two daggers.
To call them daggers was not quite accurate; they were more like dinner knives.
The Fishman shivered, crying out in horror, for he saw the elderly Human aiming the two metallic knives toward him!
The Fishman struggled frantically, unleashing unexpected strength.
But it was no use!
He was securely bound and could barely move.
The elderly Human slowly and forcefully drove the metallic knives into the Fishman’s flesh.
The Fishman immediately felt the chill of the metal, sending a shiver deep into his soul.
Then he saw the elderly Human slowly slicing open his arm. The blades of the metallic knives were sharper than he ever imagined, sharper than any weapon he had ever seen in his life!
The Human elder cut a straight, fine line, creating a long wound.
Then he opened the wound to reveal tendons, blood vessels, subcutaneous fat, and more.
“Oh ho,” the elderly Human expressed in admiration, his eyes revealing a faint joy that his curiosity was satisfied.
He bent down and brought his glasses close to the wound, inspecting it carefully.
After examining for a while, the elder was not satisfied, put down the metallic knives, and picked up a pair of metal hooks.
With a metal hook in each hand, he lifted the wound and delved into the tendons to flip them open for examination.
He handled it delicately and with care, as if examining a fragile, easily damaged ancient book. After inspecting one area, he moved to another position to continue his examination.
After examining the forearm, the elderly Human put down his metallic tools, walked over to another table, and began recording notes diligently.
From the Fishman’s perspective, he couldn’t see what the elder was writing, only the feather pen moving across the paper.
Seeming to have finished recording, the elderly Human returned to the Fishman’s side, picking up the metallic knives and hooks again.
“wwaga! lwamlwam!!” the Fishman roared at the elder.
The elder turned a deaf ear, his expression extremely calm.
This calmness further deepened the Fishman’s fear by several folds!
Then, the Fishman could only watch helplessly as his body was cut and scarred by the elder.
The Human elder studied his arms, chest, and thighs, not even sparing the areas near his thighs.
After studying each area, he recorded everything.
The Fishman yelled and screamed; he felt his right arm and left leg could no longer exert strength.
It was because the elder had severed key tendons.
Suddenly, the elder pulled out a metal rod and placed it into the Fishman’s mouth, which opened wide during his shouting.
The Fishman’s mouth was instantly stuck open, unable to close.
The elder then switched to a pair of thin, handle-like metallic tools and began to examine the construction inside the Fishman’s mouth.
The Fishman clenched his fists tightly and kept kicking; first, he felt something like cotton, soft and moving around his mouth. Then he felt a small knife slice off a small piece of his tongue.
The tongue was injured, and blood flowed incessantly.
The elderly Human immediately stopped the bleeding.
Then, astonishingly, he took out a small saw and began to saw the Fishman’s teeth!
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Finally, as if unsatisfied, he picked up a small hammer and small pliers and bloodily pulled out several of the Fishman’s teeth.
The Fishman’s cries became unintelligible.
Intense pain relentlessly transmitted from his arms, chest, and mouth, tormenting him to the brink of insanity.
Having recorded for a while, the Human Race elder returned, altering his precise movements to be more bold and decisive.
He completely opened up the Fishman’s belly, exposing his heart, stomach, intestines, and more to the air.
The eyes of the Human Race elder seemed to gleam as he continuously observed the arrangement of the Fishman’s internal organs, occasionally reaching in to prod the stomach or pull on the intestines.
The Fishman broke down, emitting woeful crying sounds as tears streamed down, remaining utterly motionless.
The Human Race elder, as if deaf, continued to be engrossed in his research.
Not long after, he finally looked up and picked up a metal tool resembling a shovel.
The Fishman had already been numbed; however, when he saw the elder’s metal mini shovel drawing closer to his eyeballs, he jolted like he was electrified, struggling madly once again.
But it was no use, he couldn’t move at all.
He cried out to his gods, howling unclearly, but still, the intense pain eventually arrived.
He saw the color of blood red, followed by utter darkness.
The excruciating pain of losing his eyes made him pass out again, prompting the Human Race elder to quickly fetch a potion and pour it into the Fishman’s mouth.
The Fishman was instantly revived. He now desperately wished for death, but death would not come!
He was completely broken.
Blood and tears continuously flowed from his empty eye sockets, his entire body slumping on the metal table, looking even more like a corpse than a dead body.
The Human Race elder was none other than Cang Xu.
He studied the structure of the Fishman’s eyes, clicking his tongue in admiration, “The Fishman’s pupils dilate and focus to a degree tenfold that of the Human Race. In the sparse light of the seabed, their pupils fully enlarge to capture every glint of light. Once at the surface, their pupils rapidly constrict to adapt to the sunlight.”
“If I could devise a spell, or potion, that causes the Fishman’s pupils to uncontrollably dilate to their fullest, their eyes would be rendered blind by bright light without our need for slaughter.”
Cang Xu diligently recorded his findings.
His heart filled with joy.
Dissecting the Fishman brought him one tiny step closer to completing his scholarly manuscript.
Suddenly, he had a realization, shifting his gaze onto the body of the Fishman.
At this moment, the Fishman finally died.
Cang Xu immediately checked his pocket watch, noting the time, thereby gaining precise data of the Fishman’s physical and mental endurance limits.
After recording the data, Cang Xu hurriedly utilized the Undead Magic ghost creation.
This kind of spell had a chance of failure.
This time, he failed.
Cang Xu was unconcerned.
He discarded the Fishman’s corpse and brought another sedated Fishman captive, securely binding him to the bloodstained metal table.
Cang Xu began the dissection again.
He was highly diligent.
Beneath his expressionless face was a curiosity for the unknown and a thirst for knowledge.
He possessed the inner drive of a top-tier mage.
If not for the limitations of his bloodline, his achievements wouldn’t have stalled at the Black Iron Level.
One by one, Fishman captives were placed on the metal table, then turned into corpses.
For some corpses, which held little value, Cang Xu used them to practice his Undead spells.
Sometimes, when the ghost creation was successful, Cang Xu would interrogate them to gather some intelligence.
For some corpses, where the spirit was of higher quality, Cang Xu would transform them into Soul Crystals.
Some Fishmen were used by him to forcefully extract memories, attempting to create Memory Crystals.
When the last Fishman captive perished, Cang Xu lamented with dissatisfaction, “The samples are not enough, far from enough.”
“There are some more with the Captain, perhaps I can discuss this with him?”
As he focused intensely on dissecting the Fishmen, somewhere beneath the sea, a red light suddenly appeared.
All Fishmen were transformed by the Blood Core.
The Fishman youth closed his eyes, sensing for a moment, then sighed, “The Brown Scaled Bloodline has increased considerably, yet it’s still not complete.”
He could now transform into a complete Blue Scaled Fishman, but this bloodline was only of Bronze Grade.
The Brown Scaled Bloodline was of Black Iron, but not the ideal target.
But the Justice Pirate Group had eradicated a Fishman Tribe and still couldn’t collect the complete Brown Scaled Bloodline.
“Although the Fishmen are numerous, the proportion of Transcendents is very low, far lesser than the Human Race.”
“Among all major races, the Dragon Clan has the highest ratio of Transcendents. But the total population of the Dragon Clan is still far less than the Human Race.”
“This might be one of the reasons why the Human Race has become the dominant power in today’s world.”
The youth had slain a considerable number of Fishmen, yet had not collected the complete Black Iron Bloodline.
“Not enough, still not enough,” the youth shook his head.
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