Chapter 331 - 304: The Abandoned Underwater City
Pura said, "Master, it says that if you hold this in your mouth, you can breathe underwater."
"Bro, you can breathe in the sea just by holding this in your mouth? This isn’t a trick, is it? Why don’t you let me try it?" Qin Ziwu looked skeptical.
"Your intentions are a little too obvious," Qin Ziwen said, giving him a sideways glance.
Hearing this, Qin Ziwu chuckled sheepishly.
"Here, you try it." Qin Ziwen tossed the Spiritual Coral to Qin Ziwu.
"You’re really giving it to me?" Qin Ziwu was pleasantly surprised.
Qin Ziwen said lightly, "You should probably wipe it before you use it. Who knows how many mouths have been on that coral."
Hearing his brother say that, Qin Ziwu’s expression stiffened. He suddenly felt that the coral in his hand was a bit stinky.
In the end, Qin Ziwu found a cloth and wiped the coral repeatedly before putting one end in his mouth and sinking into the sea.
After a good while, a head popped out of the water, and Qin Ziwu climbed out.
He ran over to Qin Ziwen and said hurriedly, "Bro, if you hold this coral in your mouth and breathe through your mouth, it’s really just like being on land.
Maybe even better. I feel like the air is even sweeter than on land, and my throat feels cool and refreshed."
"But there is one problem. Once it’s in your mouth, you can’t talk underwater. The moment I try to speak, my mouth fills with water. Plus, it’s pretty uncomfortable having something in your mouth, and it makes your jaw a little sore after a while..." Qin Ziwu felt it was a bit strange.
"Any other downsides?" Qin Ziwen asked.
Qin Ziwu grew thoughtful. "Downsides? Let me think."
After thinking for a moment, he clapped his hands. "I remember now! You can only breathe through your mouth underwater, not your nose. If you try to breathe through your nose, you’ll choke on water."
Qin Ziwen said to Pura, "Did you hear all that? Repeat these drawbacks to them. I need to see more sincerity. Do they expect me to go into the sea alone? I need 99 more of these corals."
Hearing his brother’s words, Qin Ziwu’s mouth twitched slightly. He leaned close to his brother’s ear and whispered, "Bro, aren’t we being a little unreasonable? I feel like they’re being pretty sincere."
Qin Ziwen nodded in deep agreement. "I also think my demands are a bit much."
Qin Ziwu was confused. ’If my brother knows that, why is he still making these demands?’
Qin Ziwen’s tone then shifted. "So, if they can meet even my outrageous demands, then they must be real saints, huh?"
Qin Ziwu suddenly realized. ’That’s right! If they can keep meeting such harsh conditions, it can only mean they have a much greater need—or it could even be a trap!’
From his contact with the Fishmen, he knew they were not simple creatures; they were pure carnivores.
Qin Ziwu became vigilant. "Is this a scam?"
"Let’s wait and see," Qin Ziwen said, unhurried. The other party had already invested too much.
They should be the ones in a hurry.
After a good while, ripples appeared on the surface of the sea, and a Fishman emerged.
It wasn’t the same one as before. This one looked at Qin Ziwen with some fear, raised both its hands, and presented a seashell.
Qin Ziwen gave Pura a look, and Pura stepped forward to receive the seashell, which was the size of a pot lid.
Opening it revealed nine pieces of Spiritual Coral inside.
Counting the previous one, that made a total of ten Level 1 Marvels.
Qin Ziwen sighed in appreciation. ’A big thanks to my top supporter. With this, I’ve already gathered one-tenth of what I need.’
This new Fishman chattered away, gesturing constantly with its hands.
Pura said, "Master, it says the previous Fishman relayed the message incorrectly, causing a misunderstanding. That one has been killed. Their tribe’s chief sincerely invites you into the sea."
"Looks like our Fishman Tribe chief is getting a little anxious. If we want to keep squeezing them for loot, we’ll have to get up close and personal." Qin Ziwen waved a hand. "Let’s go. Since they’re inviting us so earnestly, we might as well go take a look."
He didn’t take too many people in his party; otherwise, it would be difficult to escape if things went south.
The seven-person team was assembled. Each person held a piece of Spiritual Coral in their mouth, while also carrying five units of Deep Sea Oxygen in their pockets just in case.
Treading water, the group submerged themselves into the sea one by one.
Beneath the surface, countless Fishmen drifted through the water.
Compared to how they were on shore, the Fishmen in the water were clearly much more agile.
From a distance, they looked like nimble dolphins.
They were densely packed all around, at least a hundred of them, surrounding the group in the middle.
Du Yu quietly moved closer to his lord, his right hand resting on the scimitar at his waist.
Qin Ziwen took a scale from his clothes. When they saw the scale, the crowd of Fishmen bowed their heads in submission.
Suddenly, a commotion broke out among the Fishmen up ahead.
Immediately after, the ranks parted, and a female Fishman nearly two meters long swam forward from the rear.
She was a good head taller than the surrounding Artisan Race Fishmen.
Compared to her, the nearby Artisan Race Fishmen looked like dwarves surrounding a princess.
Like the males, the female Fishman also had a protruding snout, small eyes, and large lips—features that did not align with human standards of beauty.
However, their figures were extremely hot. Unlike the bare-chested male Fishmen, the females wore crude clothing, with a string of seashells hanging over their chests. From constantly swimming in the sea, their bodies had almost no excess fat.
This female Fishman came before Qin Ziwen.
She turned around and bent over in front of him.
Her arms stretched forward, and she floated prone in the water.
Starting from the nape of her neck, a deep groove ran down her spine, flanked by slightly raised back muscles that resembled folded butterfly wings.
The cinched waist and rounded curve of her hips outlined a graceful silhouette.
Qin Ziwu’s eyes went wide. The seaweed skirt tied around the female Fishman’s waist was lifted by the current... He cursed internally, ’Holy shit! These barbarians have no sense of propriety or shame!’
’Where is their morality? Their decency! This is an absolute affront to civilized conduct!’
"Master, she is asking you to ride her."
Pura gestured beside him.
Qin Ziwen narrowed his eyes.
First, he held up one finger, then waved his hand.
Then he pointed to the other six people around him.
Then, he made a gesture for the number seven.
Pura understood immediately. ’Understood!’
Pura went over to communicate with the Fishmen.
After a good while, six more female Fishmen came over and floated prone in front of each of the others.
Cao Biansheng’s eyes widened. He looked at the Guild Leader in disbelief.
’So this is the Guild Leader’s way of sharing.’
Qin Ziwen felt no embarrassment about riding the female Fishman.
Because he didn’t see them as people.
In his eyes, these Fishmen were no different from Red Hare or the Beaked Eagle.
The Fishmen were very fast, much faster than they could walk.
In less than ten minutes, their surroundings had plunged into the true darkness of the deep sea.
A Fishman at the front held up a Glowing Pearl, its faint light only able to illuminate the water for about forty to fifty meters around them.
A few moments later, countless faint green, fluorescent dots suddenly appeared on the seabed ahead, like a cluster of stars hanging upside down in an abyss.
By this eerie, faint light, a boundless, pitch-black giant shadow slowly unfolded on the seafloor.
It was an abandoned city, sunken beneath the sea.
Tilted, colossal towers resembled the ribs of a Giant Beast.
Wide streets and plazas were buried under thick sediment. Some luminous sea creatures swam through the abandoned city, and in its depths, terrifyingly large, dark silhouettes flitted past.
Qin Ziwen had thought this was their destination, but to his surprise, the Fishmen circled around it, swimming past the city’s outskirts.
They swam forward for another stretch, finally stopping in a forest of pink coral.
This gentle slope was covered in dense pink coral. Amidst it all were numerous raised mounds of earth that looked like burial mounds.
At that moment, some Fishmen were poking their heads out of the mounds, secretly sizing up the group of foreign guests.
Seeing this scene, Qin Ziwen found it somewhat familiar. He remembered—’Isn’t this one of the three images the Island map showed me at the very beginning?’
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