Chapter 26: Fishman tribe
The Merfolk dragged Lao Tan Suancai to the outside of a stone prison.
He opened the cell door and casually threw Lao Tan Suancai inside.
Lao Tan Suancai had already braced himself to be thrown onto the ground, but unexpectedly, the imagined cold touch did not come.
Instead, he felt something soft.
Lao Tan Suancai thought to himself, "The Merfolk's prison cell isn't bad. They even put a cushion on the ground?"
Suddenly, someone spoke from below: "Hey, brother, can you move a little? Your butt is on my face."
Lao Tan Suancai was startled. He didn't expect there to be other players here. How many people had these darn Merfolk captured?!
"Okay, sorry about that!" he said as he slowly rolled over to the side.
As he moved, Lao Tan Suancai saw a player lying in the position where he had been.
There were seven or eight others next to him, all tied up like zongzi (a traditional Chinese rice dumpling), still unconscious and not yet awake.
The only two people awake here were him and the player he had just spoken to.
Lao Tan Suancai wanted to exchange information, so he asked, "Brother, how did you get captured?"
"Don't even ask," the player said with a grumpy expression. "I just came out of the island and got caught by a Merfolk. It's really unlucky."
"Who isn't?! By the way, you've been here longer than me. Do you have any clues for escaping?"
"I don't know. They took me to a place that looked like an altar earlier and showed me to a Merfolk. I think they're going to eat us."
...
While Lao Tan Suancai was chatting with the player, the young Merfolk passed through a haphazard collection of buildings and arrived at an altar.
It was a blood-red altar, five meters long and two meters tall. Originally, it should have been the color of ordinary stone.
Now, it had been soaked through with bloodstains deep into the stone, and the original color of the altar was no longer visible.
In the center of the altar stood a five-meter-tall totem pole, depicting a blurry figure sitting on a throne with a trident in its hand. Thousands of Merfolk were worshipping it at its feet.
Next to the totem pole stood an old Merfolk, shorter than the average Merfolk.
Some of its scales had fallen off, revealing a pale flesh that looked like it would perish at any moment. However, the old Merfolk's eyes were exceptionally bright, showing a glow of wisdom.
At this moment, the young Merfolk approached him and respectfully said, "Αγαπητέ Σαμαρείτη, εκπλήρωσα τις εντολές σου και. έφερα .πίσω τον ξένο. (Respected Shaman, I have followed your orders and brought back the outsider.)"
"Good..."
Before the Merfolk Shaman could finish his sentence, his fish eyes suddenly turned crimson, and he said in a somewhat manic tone, "It's not enough, it's not enough. We need more outsiders' souls for the blood sacrifice to our god. If there aren't enough, we'll have to use your soul as an offering to our god."
As he spoke, he danced around wildly, clearly not in his right mind.
The young Merfolk trembled with fear on the spot, remembering the previous Merfolk who had been used as sacrifices when the Merfolk Shaman had lost his mind.
A hint of fear flashed through his dead fish eyes, and he quickly replied, "I'll go catch them right away, right away."
With that, he immediately fled the altar to go catch more players.
After a long while, the Merfolk Shaman finally regained his composure. He remembered what had just happened.
Knowing that he had lost control again, he thought to himself, "Oh, my god! What is wrong with you?"
The Merfolk Shaman had lived for 30 years, which was already the limit of a Merfolk's lifespan. Ever since he took over his father's position, he had endured the influence of this manic state for over 20 years.
As he aged, his resistance weakened.
Now, he was only lucid for four hours a day, and he knew it was because of the influence of the god he worshipped - the Sea God.
According to his grandfather, the Sea God used to be different. Although his temper could sometimes be as wild as the sea, he also had moments of calmness.
But now, if the quota for the blood sacrifice was not met, the Merfolk tribe would face disaster.
However, he couldn't die yet. There was no one in the tribe who could take his place.
If he died, the tribe would be doomed.
With these thoughts in mind, he began to dance wildly and evilly beside the totem pole. As he danced, the totem pole emitted a strange glow, and a blood-red ray of light emerged from it.
It slowly drifted into the Merfolk Shaman's body, making his fish eyes even more crimson, as if they were about to drip blood.
His short and stocky body grew taller and expanded, as if he had returned to his youth.
"Come, my fish! Catch more outsiders for me. Our god needs their souls and blood," the evil voice of the Merfolk Shaman echoed throughout the tribe. Except for the Merfolk on guard duty, all the other adult Merfolk heard it and fled to catch players.
The Merfolk who had caught Lao Tan Suancai earlier heard the evil voice of the Merfolk Shaman not far from the tribe.
He was still afraid, fearing that he would become the target of the blood sacrifice.
After all, he was already six years old and had never even mated. The average lifespan of a Merfolk was only 20 years, so he was considered an older fish.
It was all because of the blood sacrifices.
Originally, the blood sacrifices used to be once a year, but then the Sea God, through divine revelations, gradually increased the frequency to every six months, then every three months, and now every month.
Coupled with the fact that all the large sacrificial offerings in the area had already been caught by them, the small fish and shrimp were not worthy of the Sea God's attention.
Sometimes, when there were no prey to catch, they had to sacrifice Merfolk from their own tribe.
Their tribe could no longer bear it.
They had originally planned to go to war and plunder Merfolk from other tribes to fulfill the task of the blood sacrifice.
But now, they had a better choice.
Earlier today, Gugu had seen through the sea that these strange outsiders had arrived through a strange gate.
Without hesitation, he reported it to the Merfolk Shaman, leading to the scene where Lao Tan Suancai was captured.
However, these outsiders were really easy to catch!
All they had to do was drag them into the water and wait for a while.
Unfortunately, some of the outsiders who wore strange hard things died too quickly at first.
Gugu didn't even have the chance to feed them the Merfolk grass.
With a splash, they sank to the bottom of the sea, which was such a waste.
Gugu regretted it, but judging from today's situation, these outsiders were just a bunch of weak chickens. He decided to go catch another one later.
Gugu quickly arrived near the portal.
Damn, these damn outsiders were now riding on strange objects.
How was he going to catch them?
He had never seen these things before.
Gugu tentatively attacked the bottom of the ship with a harpoon underwater, but although the rusty harpoon penetrated the hull and left a few small holes, it unexpectedly broke off the tip of one harpoon.
It pained Gugu deeply because this harpoon had been passed down from his father and was the only valuable item their family owned.
He had even planned to pass it down to his son.
But catching the outsiders was the most important thing now.
He decided to call for more fish to help.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone