Chapter 297: Section 85: Fish God’s Test
Due to some circumstances, the Fishman youth successfully explored the central area of the Sky Pillar Sea Eye.
Beneath the sea here silently stood an undersea city.
Sea Eye City.
At a glance, the three most conspicuous buildings in Sea Eye City belonged to the Man Yu Tribe, the White-eyed Tribe, and the Poison Arrow Tribe, their strongholds.
These strongholds were built from underwater rocks, coral, and similar materials, resembling three hills.
However, the surfaces of these “hills” were full of holes and were rough, not at all aesthetically pleasing.
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This was the home of the Fishmen, a heavily fortified stronghold.
The Fishman youth could tell at a glance that these three strongholds were easy to defend but difficult to attack. The terrain inside must be extremely complicated while also being rigged with numerous traps and ambushes.
Between these three strongholds was an elliptical divine temple.
The temple was roofless, resembling an arena. Compared to the three tribal fortresses, the temple was less tall but was the most important building in Sea Eye City.
At the very center was the divine temple, surrounded by the three strongholds. Beyond the tribal strongholds were numerous low stone houses, sheds, and caves.
These stone houses, sheds, and caves were inhabited by the lower and middle-class Fishmen of the city.
They made up the majority of Sea Eye City’s population.
The Fishman youth merely glanced from a high position a few times before swimming down to the ocean floor.
As the only city and the center for politics, military, and economy, Sea Eye City had the most stringent defenses. Around the city, Fishmen patrolled on sea beasts at all times.
If the Fishman youth lingered too high or observed the city for too long, the patrol teams would come to trouble him, and he might even be arrested.
Sea Eye City had three main gates, each controlled by one of the tribes.
Blending into Man Ying’s group, the youth first passed through densely packed stone houses and sheds before reaching the gate.
Many Fishmen guards were stationed at the gate, among them a Fishman Shaman.
A Black-Iron Level Fishman Shaman greeted Man Ying, then began casting spells, checking everyone in the group.
After casting three different reconnaissance spells, the shaman finally let them pass.
The Fishman youth then truly stepped into the inner city of Sea Eye City.
The architecture here was noticeably more upscale than outside, even the stone houses were uniform in appearance. The roads sketched out between the houses were clearly planned, with even some greenery planned, intentionally planting some corals used as streetlamps, and swaying beautiful dark green seaweed.
In some areas, there stood buildings with particularly unique appearances: arenas, breeding farms, sea beast enclosures, among others.
Man Ying assigned Sword Scar, Sauerkraut, and the Fishman youth among others to some stone houses: “You guys stay here for now, I’ll send someone to take you to the celebration banquet tonight.”
The stone house assigned to the youth was sizeable, accurately speaking, it was a villa. In front of the villa was a small garden, and behind it was a specially planted patch of giant underwater bamboo.
The stone villa had many rooms, divided into two floors. The rooms were fully equipped, with lots of totems, seaweed weavings, and so on, displaying Fishman customs and culture.
Notably, a shrine was set up in the hall, housing a beautifully carved statue of a fish god. Clearly, it was the Fish God.
After checking around, the youth temporarily found no means of surveillance.
He then pretended to casually check the Pearl Bubble inside his bag. These Pearl Bubbles were mixed among many beautiful little pearls, making them hard to distinguish.
The Fishman youth found that one Pearl Bubble had noticeably shrunk quite a bit, probably consumed while passing through the gate’s spell check not long ago.
His infiltration into the Fishman settlement had naturally been well-prepared. He had brought many Pearl Bubbles, almost depleting the stock in the shell.
Pearl Bubble was useful, but the output of “Mermaid’s Fairy Tale” had been decreasing.
“If we don’t get a divine power boost this time, we are not far from our secret getting exposed and the Empire starting a manhunt,”
The youth pondered over an unexpected find from the lobsterman’s lair—a Fire Gun presumed to be Dragon’s Kiss.
The Fire Gun had an ornate yet rugged exterior, with a subtle aura, making it seem like an ordinary item. If the youth hadn’t noticed its unique shape, he might have overlooked it.
After all, based on its aura, it was entirely unattractive.
The youth tried to infuse it with Fighting energy, but he couldn’t activate it.
Its trigger seemed fixed, and no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn’t budge.
“Could it really just be a piece of art?” After trying several methods, the Fishman youth still made no progress and began to doubt his initial judgment.
During that time, someone knocked on the door of the stone house.
The youth opened the door. The visitor was not a messenger from the Man Yu Tribe but Sauerkraut.
Sauerkraut was also allocated a stone house, but he couldn’t stand being alone. Feeling bored, he directly sought out his neighbor, the Fishman youth.
“What do you think the Man Yu Tribe will reward us with this time?” Sauerkraut was hopeful, “It would be great if they could grant us a trial by the Fish God.”
“A divine trial?” Suddenly, an idea struck the Fishman youth, and he couldn’t help but speculate secretly, “Could it be related to the Half-plane?”
Cang Xu had once speculated that there was a Half-plane here. It was very likely that the divine temple of the deity Mei Lan was within the Half-plane.
Cang Xu had also obtained critical intelligence: whenever the Sea Eye’s center spouted the Sky Spring, a Divine Envoy would descend from the heavens to the Fishman settlement to preach.
The divine trials were supposed to be common knowledge, and the Fishman youth felt it inconvenient to ask directly, so he exclaimed, “Yes, I also wish I had the qualifications to participate in the Fish God’s trial.”
Sour Pickle’s eyes lit up, his face full of longing, “If we can pass the trial successfully, our strength will definitely increase greatly. What do you think, if we combine our merits, could we ask Lord Man Ying for a chance to participate in the trial?”
“I think we could give it a try.” The Fishman youth encouraged Sour Pickle and fished for information in the process.
Sour Pickle was straightforward and harbored no suspicions against the Fishman youth, who quickly extracted critical information from him.
The Fishman youth then learned: whenever the Sea Eye erupted with a column-like sea spring, the Fishmen knew roughly when the Divine Envoy would arrive. They not only welcomed the Divine Envoy, receiving his preachings but also held large festivals and organized a group of elite Fishmen to burst directly into the Sky Pillar Sea Spring and enter the Half-plane to undergo the Fish God’s trial.
The main faith of the Fishmen in the Sea Eye was the Fish God.
In mythological stories, the Fishmen believed their earliest ancestors were mere fish, flowing at the very downstream of the River of Life.
The Fish God led a small group of fish upstream.
Through trials and hardships, the fish that followed Him without quitting swam to the midstream and transformed into Fishmen.
It could be said that without the Fish God’s guidance, there would be no Fishmen today.
Each eruption of the Sky Pillar Sea Spring was a trial of the Fish God. Those Fishmen who had undergone such trials had died or been injured, but more had greatly advanced in strength.
The warriors among the Fishmen, or any Fishman with ambitious dreams, all wished to participate in the Fish God’s trial.
“The Fish God’s trial might just be conducted within the Half-plane,” speculated the youth.
He chatted idly with Sour Pickle for a while until Man Ying’s envoy came to inform them.
Then, under the guidance of the envoy, the youth, Sour Pickle, and Sword Scar along with other worthies were led into Man Yu’s fortress lair.
As the Fishman youth had surmised, the fortress’s corridors were interconnected and tortuously complex.
After several twists and turns, the Fishman youth and others were led into a dining hall.
Many stone benches and tables were arranged here, and the young people took their seats one by one.
After a little wait, Man Ying appeared before them again, taking his seat at the head and announcing the start of the banquet.
The food was delicious.
It mainly consisted of various types of sashimi.
There was also a type of octopus tentacle that had been sliced open, dipped in a kind of mud sauce which tasted quite good and left a deep impression on the Fishman youth.
There was also alcohol at the banquet.
The drink was a very common rum, but for the Fishmen, it was already a rare item.
The bottles were specially made, resembling squeezable water pouches, with nipples at the openings; the Fishmen held the nipples in their mouths, then squeezed the pouches, pushing the liquor into their mouths.
Man Ying had also invited female Fishmen to dance.
These female Fishmen were not slender; all possessed well-developed limbs and robust physiques. They danced a war dance, continually shouting and howling, displaying the fierce customs of the Fishmen.
Man Ying, Sword Scar, and others watched with relish; Sour Pickle was even swallowing his saliva.
The youth couldn’t appreciate such a form of the opposite sex at all. Especially to him, these female Fishmen from the Man Yu Tribe had huge fish heads and appeared more brutish and rough compared to the usual brown-scaled Fishmen.
Among those present, the ones that most conformed to the youth’s aesthetic were instead the cut fin Fishmen.
Sword Scar, while squeezing alcohol to drink, stared at the Fishman youth with hostility, completely unaware that in the youth’s eyes, he was the most beautiful Fishman.
Sour Pickle might have drunk too much, as he started to murmur in the youth’s ear, “If we could get a Man Yu woman to be our wife, then we would be part of the Man Yu Tribe.”
“Do you know? My bloodline has Man Yu Tribe ancestry.”
“Ah, it’s a pity I can’t do that.”
“I’m supposed to take my master’s place and stay in Brown Scales Town in the future.”
“But you can, Rush!”
Sour Pickle left his seat and directly sat next to the youth, placing his hand on the youth’s shoulder in a very amiable manner.
The youth slightly turned his head, staring at the large eyes of Sour Pickle, “Your master has taught me so much Combat Skill just to keep me in town. If I listened to you and left, wouldn’t your master be mad at you?”
Sour Pickle patted the youth’s shoulder, “Hehe, let the old man be mad then. Staying in town or staying in the city, clearly the second option is better for you. After we go back tonight, I’ll pass the Helical Blade Combat Skill to you.”
After the harrowing battle at Suction Pit Trench, the relationship between Sour Pickle and the youth had grown much closer.
The youth was silent for a moment.
In this moment, he sensed Sour Pickle’s good intentions.
He also sensed Sour Pickle’s longing.
He longed for Sea Eye City, longed to win a Man Yu woman as a wife, for life here was more thrilling, the opportunities broader.
But he couldn’t.
He could only project this longing onto Rush.