The Era of Gods

Lin Xiao, the Leader, remained silent, and naturally, the members of his Clan acted on instinct. While chatting amongst themselves, the two groups of Fishmen gradually started to converse together.

The first speaking Grey Mist Fishman displayed quite some intelligence. Without any direct hints, much of the small talk he had with the Native Fishman included questions he too wanted to ask.

Most of it was trivial, but a few questions were asked with a level of sophistication that made Lin Xiao mentally give a thumbs-up.

Through some cluttered small talk, they also gathered quite a bit of interesting intelligence.

Fishmen have limited intelligence and no concept of counter-espionage; they usually answer any question they can.

And by being able to answer, it doesn’t mean that there are topics that are forbidden to discuss, but rather the wild Fishmen’s intelligence is just so limited that they don’t know how to respond to many questions.

After about half an hour of interaction, the Native Fishmen stopped chatting and led their followers, numbering two to three thousand, to the coral reefs by the island to catch fish and gather seaweed for food.

Watching the few thousand Fishmen just leave like that, Lin Xiao’s hand, covered with scales, rubbed his equally scaled and ugly chin, making a ‘creak’ sound.

He felt that he might need to adjust his approach.

His previous strategy was very straightforward – just kill his way through.

But now, he thought it wasn’t necessary. Although the mission required the destruction of the Fishmen tribe, which numbered around twenty thousand, extermination was one method of destruction. He could also subjugate the tribe as another form of destruction; there were no rules stating that he must annihilate them.

If he could subjugate this Fishmen tribe…

His eyes glittered, and his thoughts raced.

If, and that was a big if, he could subjugate this wild Fishmen tribe from the Extra-dimensional Plane and bring these twenty thousand Fishmen under his command, his strength would surely greatly increase.

In that case, completing the remaining three tasks would be easy, and he would also have sufficient strength to attempt those high-difficulty tasks with scores above ninety points.

There were several high-difficulty tasks with ratings above ninety in the nearby waters, offering extremely generous rewards, but previously, his strength was insufficient even to consider them. If he could subjugate these twenty thousand Fishmen, he could give those tasks a try.

The rewards for high-difficulty tasks were much higher than the current ones, whether in terms of physical rewards, ranking points, or personal gains.

Just one completion would secure him a spot in the top five of this term’s final exam.

He squeezed his chin firmly, seemingly making up his mind.

Waving his hand, he gestured to the nearby Natives cutting seaweed and took his subordinates to leave.

As he walked, he pondered, and by the time he returned to the Temporary Tribe, he already had a simple plan in mind.

First, he sent a few Nagas with a group of Fishmen, carrying some food to visit the Aboriginal Fishman Tribe.

Their sole purpose was to showcase their presence and inform them that not far north of the Fishman Big Tribe, there was a new Small Fishman Tribe.

Then, the rest of the Fishmen were dispatched to explore the surrounding areas, mainly venturing deep into the sea towards the north and east, looking for stable food sources and catching large amounts of fish and other food. After a period, they would bring some of the food as a gesture during their visits.

The emphasis was on food—every visit would include a certain amount of food along with other gifts.

There’s an old saying: “Eat a man’s food and you owe him; take his gifts and you’re beholden to him.” But with every visit that brought food, the native fishmen naturally began to harbor good feelings towards them.

With each visit, Lin Xiao would repeatedly instruct his subordinates to scout out the situation of the large fishman tribe in addition to their normal diplomatic duties.

The clever small fishman he named ‘Gulu* was promoted to lead the fishman delegation, and it was Lin Xiao himself who personally instructed him on what to do.

Fishman intelligence truly was limited, so when he came across one that was a bit more astute than his kin, he decided to nurture this talent.

The delegation basically made a trip twice a month, and during this period, he personally led his subordinates on hunts for fish and some of the sea beasts that posed a threat to fishmen, such as sharks, sea lizards, sea sprites, or crocodiles living around the small islands.

Occasionally they would encounter some lobstermen, all of which were killed by either the fishmen or the nagas and eaten as snacks.

Unfortunately, despite searching for a long time, they did not find the lobstermen’s nest. He hadn’t forgotten the delicious taste of lobstermen and wanted to capture some to breed in the Divine Realm.

Eventually, he simply gave up and instructed Gulu to inquire about it when he visited the aboriginal fishman tribe.

He found it very frustrating that this fishman tribe, despite being large and under the rule of the Merfolk Empire, was completely undeveloped. They only knew simplistic aquatic language and didn’t even have a name for their own tribe.

Although the tribe was fairly large, because they were fishmen and located on the very edge of the ocean, they held a low status within the Merfolk Empire and weren’t given much attention. Apart from the annual visit from the Merfolk Empire’s envoys to collect taxes and tributes at the end of the year, they had no other contact with the Empire.

Merfolk and fishmen may seem to only have their names reversed, but they are actually two completely different races.

One is like a fish standing upright, while the other is a mermaid with a human upper body and fish tail.

Fishmen are the lowest class of species, while merfolk are a higher class.

It took Gulu two visits and exchanges to finally learn from the native fishmen the location of the lobstermen’s nest.

It turned out to be south of the fishman big tribe; no wonder they had never discovered it, for they had not yet ventured there.

Then Lin Xiao personally went to investigate. About seven or eight kilometers south of the aboriginal fishman big tribe, he discovered a large lobstermen’s nest with three to four thousand inhabitants. In the center between the two tribes, there was the mouth of a river flowing into the sea, where a large amount of nutrients entered the ocean along with the river water. The delta nearby was abundant with seaweed and teeming with fish, making it a natural hunting ground for both tribes.

The two tribes had been fighting over this hunting ground for many years without determining a victor.

The lobstermen’s nest was situated in a complicated rocky undersea terrain south of the small river, which gave them a terrain advantage the fishman big tribe had always struggled to overcome.

It’s worth mentioning that these large lobstermen were also a peripheral subordinate of the Merfolk Empire, and like the fishman big tribe, they were required to pay tributes every year.

Like the fishman big tribe, they too were overlooked by the Merfolk Empire, and even their total annihilation would not attract the Empire’s attention.

After a period of observation, Lin Xiao dispatched an envoy to communicate with the fishman big tribe to launch a joint attack on the lobstermen tribe.

The fishman big tribe, which had long regarded the lobstermen as mortal enemies, readily agreed. They set a date, and Lin Xiao led his troops in full force, meeting up with the fishmen by the river’s mouth leading to the sea.

He led his entire force to battle, and so did the fishmen, nearly twenty thousand of them swarming in a dark, crushing wave.

The leader of the fishman tribe was a Level 3 Fishman Tide Caller, a magician capable of summoning the tide as well as water elements to aid in combat..