Master Julian took Old Pete's "Little Jennifer" with him and returned to Europe with countless golden treasures, extremely excited, and even a little trance-like. Ling Hao and the others took the east route to Madagascar. After resting for a day in Madagascar, they turned back and returned to "Cape Agulhas".
"There's no rush to get things. Let's go to the shipwreck cemetery first and meet the mermaid family for a while." Standing next to Ling Hao was Shui Lingxing, whose eyes were filled with anticipation. Annie stood behind and curled up her lips, whispering "hum" in a sour voice. The others looked at her and wanted to laugh, but the atmosphere was quite relaxed.
This time when we dived into the "Shipwreck Cemetery", Annie was clamoring to go. Cheng Linfeng was as coy as a child and obviously wanted to follow. Ling Hao was a little embarrassed. Even if the "Stone Crab" had a relatively large space, considering that he had to load the treasures from Pingdingshan on the return trip, the extra people and load would be a real problem. Besides, Zhu Xin can still accept his identity as the "Zhenhai Longhu" and the mermaid tribe, but after his father-in-law "sees" it, it's hard to say whether he will regard him as a monster. So, after some ideological work, the list of divers was slightly changed from before. Yuan Bing was replaced by Annie, and Cheng Linfeng had no choice but to continue waiting on the boat.
The crane's arm was lowering the "Stone Crab" into the water. In the control room, everyone was having a meeting. Shi Si opened the weather forecast chart and explained: "There are still three days of good weather. We have to try our best to return home within three days. If we miss it, The 'Black King Kong' will have to return to Hong Kong to take shelter from the wind, and it will take another seven days to wait until the weather is suitable for going to sea, and there will only be good weather for one day, so our time is still very tight."
Ling Hao pondered for a moment and said: "Prepare water and food for 20 days. The situation of the mermaid family is still unclear, so be prepared. Mingyu will be in charge of the people who stay on the ship. Depending on the weather conditions, if there are storms, they will return to the harbor to take shelter. , when there is no wind and waves, come to the vicinity of our launch coordinate point and wait for the response. Don’t go back to Cape Town Port, it is too conspicuous. Go to the small town of Mossel Bay not far away. There is a small port there, which is enough to dock and take shelter from the wind. Everyone is trying to keep a low profile locally and not attract official attention. No one is allowed to get off the ship except for specific people to buy supplies. Tell the crew that if you endure this period of time, there will be a generous bonus."
The "Stone Crab" was launched again, driven by Shi Si, and headed to "Toccoa Point" for the third time. This time we were familiar with the road and soon returned to the shipwreck cemetery. They were not here to hunt for treasure this time, and naturally they would not stay in one place. They continued to search along the route they took to rescue Old Pete last time, hoping to see people from the mermaid clan.
But the actual situation was beyond everyone's expectation. They did achieve their goal very quickly, but in a very dramatic way.
In the quiet deep sea, the almost stagnant water flow was stirred, and clouds of blood mist slowly spread. Dozens of corpses were already lying on the sea bed.
"Are these mermaids fighting among themselves?" Annie stood on the porthole and looked out in surprise.
"No, it's the sharks! The mermaid tribe is in conflict with a large group of sharks." Xueting had seen the sharks before, so she recognized them at a glance.
The dark water was full of fast-swimming sharks, hundreds of them, and less than a hundred mermaids. They were surrounded in an open space, with more than a dozen mermaid corpses surrounding them. It seems that it is only a matter of time before they are all killed. "Ling Hao, help them quickly!" Shui Lingxing was immediately anxious. No matter whether the other party was willing to accept her or not, those were her compatriots after all. How could she watch them be slaughtered by aliens?
"Xue Ting, board the Pipi Shrimp. Tian Yong, come out of the cabin with me. Get ready to kill!" Ling Hao gave the order and rushed out first.
The intelligence level of mermaids is generally lower than that of mermaids. In addition to using a mouthful of fangs, male mermaids can only use some crude fish bone weapons and have no shields to protect themselves. The "Pippi Shrimp"'s chain of fish arrows was like a harvester of life to them, killing dozens of sharks in a matter of seconds.
Relying on their large numbers of people, these sharks actually wanted to besiege the "Pippi Shrimp". A thin sword light flashed past, and a piece of sharks was cut into two halves. Tian Yong holds the "Sword of Damocles" and wears an "armor" diving suit, just like a mecha swordsman. The shark is as fragile as an ant under his sword. Immediately after the dark golden light illuminated the bottom of the sea, Ling Hao was like a demon from hell, his whole body shrouded in light, and the overwhelming ferocity was terrifying. The "Dragon Arc" was unsheathed, and a flash of sword light was as red as blood. A large number of sharks died tragically. The black blood dyed the sea water brown, and the visibility plummeted.
A shrill cry echoed very far through the water, just like the last cry of a hunted whale. The mermaids seemed to have received the order to retreat at the same time, and they all fled in the blink of an eye, leaving only dozens of mermaids with confused faces, staring blankly at Ling Hao and the others as if they were in another world.
The dark golden light subsided and Ling Hao returned to his normal appearance. A mermaid who had seen him before immediately shouted: "It's you, you are back! We have been waiting for you here under the orders of the clan leader. You guys follow Let’s go to the ‘City of Paleus’.”
"Okay, lead the way." Everything went so smoothly that people couldn't believe it. Ling Hao made a "Follow" gesture towards the "Stone Crab" and "Pippi Shrimp", and he planned to swim with the mermaids. Go back to the city.
Traveling together is not only a way of expressing politeness, Ling Hao naturally also wants to get to know each other better and find out more things. "My name is Ling Hao, what do you call me?" Ling Hao tried his best to look friendly. He started by getting to know each other, and then started talking to the middle-aged mermaid who recognized him just now.
"My name is Bo Manye. I'm not a big shot in the clan. I'm just the manager of a small patrol. I'm afraid you will forget who I am soon." The middle-aged mermaid was also very polite, showing a humble expression. Smile.
Ling Hao laughed and continued to ask: "Did you give those two 'star shells' to the higher-ups of the ethnic group? What did they say?"
"Hand it over, how dare we hide that kind of sacred object secretly? The two clan leaders heard that you would come back in the next few days, so they sent two of our patrol teams to wait for you here. Unexpectedly, they encountered those sharks and wanted to If you hadn't appeared in time, I'm afraid we would all have died there and been eaten by the sharks." Boman also said while looking at the back of the team. The bodies of the companions who had just died in the battle had been brought back by others. Mermaids attach great importance to the corpses of their clan members and will never discard them unless absolutely necessary. In fact, there is a reason for the emergence of this custom. Mermaid meat is called a miracle medicine. It is even recorded in some ancient human books that it has the effect of making people immortal. Ling Hao disagreed with this statement. Maybe it was possible to prolong life, but how could immortality be possible? Wouldn't that be Tang Monk meat? But just because he doesn't believe it doesn't mean that others don't believe it. Since the days of Qi Refiners in the Pre-Qin Dynasty, most of the mermaids caught have ended up in the stomachs of those rulers. Of course, no one can live forever, even if they live to be more than a hundred years old. There are none. That's all for humans. Other species seem to be flocking to mermaid meat. Whether they are intelligent or not, they will not miss any opportunity to taste mermaid meat. This is why almost no one can find the body of a real mermaid, and it is also the main reason why the mermaid group has been an endangered species since ancient times.
Ling Hao was not entangled in the issue of mermaid meat, because what Bo Manye said just now revealed a detail that made him particularly curious. He asked: "Two clan leaders? Isn't your 'Paleus City' ruled by a mermaid family? How come there are two clan leaders?”
"Yes, you didn't tell me which family you were from last time. Now I know that you are from the 'Wen Hai Family'. But in my memory, the 'Wen Hai Family' have lived in the warmth of the Indian Ocean near the equator for generations. How come the sea area is near this cold and violent westerly wind belt? And in my memory, there has never been a mermaid city called 'Paleus'. Couldn't it be a new one by you?" Shui Lingxing came up and said, She already had a lot of questions that she wanted to know.
Before Boman could answer, Ling Hao looked at Shui Lingxing in surprise: "How do you know he is from the Wen Hai Family?"
Shui Lingxing smiled and said: "Because of the surname, just like you humans, mermaids also have their own surnames, but they don't have as many as you humans. According to different families, the mermaid group has nine major surnames, namely Shui, Chao , Hai, Bo, Xi, Lang, Lan, Fu and Han, corresponding to the nine major families of the mermaid clan. The one with the surname Bo is the 'Wenhai family', my surname is Shui, from the 'Beihai family', and the one with the surname Chao is the 'Hekou family' ', those surnamed Hai belong to the 'Deep Sea Family', those surnamed Xi are the 'Atoll Family', those surnamed Lang are the 'Storm Family', those surnamed Lan belong to the 'Island Family', those surnamed Fu belong to the 'Wandering Family', and those surnamed Han are It's the 'Icefield Family'. Each family has its own inherent living environment, which is equivalent to the family territory. Generally, mermaids will not leave their ancestral land and go to the territory of other families. I have never heard of any family. There will be two clan leaders, wouldn’t it cause chaos?”
Boman also smiled bitterly: "I don't know how long you, the mermaid girl, have been dead. The world of mermaids has long been completely different from what you know. The 'Hekou Family' and the 'Icefield Family' have been brutally exterminated, and other families have Most of them were also forced to leave their homes and migrate to other places. Only the most powerful 'Storm Family', 'Deep Sea Family' and 'Atoll Family' can still hold on to their ancestral homeland. You guessed it right, 'Paliu Sicheng City was built less than twenty years ago. It was established by people from the "Beihai Family" and "Wenhai Family" who migrated there. It also took in some refugees from the "Island Family" and the "Icefield Family". Four surnames , with a total of more than 3,000 people, the city is jointly controlled by the patriarchs of the 'Beihai Family' and the 'Wenhai Family'. This girl's surname is Shui, which means she has found her clan members. Basically everyone in the 'Beihai Family' is in 'Paleus' City'."
"Really?" Shui Lingxing almost cried with joy and asked quickly: "Who is the leader of the 'Beihai Family' now?"
"Clan leader Shuipei is in his prime."
"It's dad! I wonder if my mother is still there, and grandpa, and are my brothers and sisters okay?" Shui Lingxing really couldn't hold back this time. If the spirit body didn't have tears, I'm afraid he would have shed tears at this moment. Full face.
"This..." Boman also looked confused. "You will know the details when we meet in a while. I can't explain it clearly for a while, and there are some things I don't know, so it's not easy to talk nonsense."
Shui Lingxing was immersed in the excitement of finding his family, but Ling Hao looked solemn. He asked Bo Manye: "The mermaid tribe has suffered such a big change. It is impossible for a natural disaster to spread to the whole world. It must be a man-made disaster. Tell me, in the end, Who did it? Why target the mermaid clan?"
As he spoke, the seabed in front suddenly changed from flat to sinking, and a crater-like sea basin appeared in front of everyone. The "Papua Matrix" in the sea basin enveloped a city similar in style to "Eupitis City" , but the scale is much smaller than the latter. The unknown fluorescent ore is like an electric lamp on the seabed, making the whole city linger in an orchid halo. From a distance, you can see the crowds of people in the city, and the streets are full of people, as if it is a human town. On the periphery of the matrix, there were many patrols patrolling with shields and fishbone spears, and there were dozens of guards at the city gate. It was obvious that the security was very tight, and it was completely a wartime configuration.
"'Paleus City' has arrived. The two patriarchs should meet you soon. If you have any questions, ask them." Boman may not have answered any more questions because he was afraid of making mistakes by talking too much.
After negotiating with the guards guarding the gate, they agreed to let Ling Hao and other humans into the city. They saw the "Stone Crab" that looked like a giant beast of the deep sea and the "Pippi Shrimp" that looked like a giant mantis shrimp sitting there. At the edge of the city, the guards guarding the city were all horrified and at a loss. However, since the clan leader had given the order to let them go, they did not dare to say anything. However, Ling Hao and others selectively ignored these guards and sent Shi Si and Xueting stayed behind to guard the two submersibles, and swaggered into the city with Annie and Tian Yong, who were wearing "armor" and looked like Iron Man.
Passing through the streets and neatly styled residences, a tall stone hall stood in front of everyone. Two mermaid clan leaders holding tridents and wearing silver silk armor, leading a group of subordinates, were already waiting at the foot of the steps to greet them.
"Father!" Shui Lingxing could no longer hold back the excitement in her heart. She rushed to one of the middle-aged mermaid clan leaders and lay on the ground sobbing. This is the etiquette of the Mermaid Clan. Like the Abyss Clan, they have no knees, and there is no such thing as kneeling. They can only lie on the ground with their arms stretched forward and their palms upward to show the greatest respect.
"Get up." The middle-aged mermaid was Shui Pei, Shui Lingxing's father. Although his eyes were slightly red, he still controlled his emotions forcefully. He is a father, but he is also the head of the family, and now he has more important things to deal with.
The other mermaid clan leader next to Shui Pei was an old man. Despite his age, his eyes were particularly sharp. He glanced at the "Dragon Arc" sword on Ling Hao's body, stepped forward and said, "I am a mermaid clan." Popang, the patriarch of the Wenhai Family, and the person next to me is Shui Pei, the patriarch of the Beihai Family. Are you the owner of the two 'Star Shells' and the current 'Zhenhai Longhu'?"
"Yes, my name is Ling Hao."
Hearing Ling Hao's affirmative answer, Popang and Shuipei both pushed the Jinshan Jade Pillar and crawled at Ling Hao's feet. The followers behind them also followed suit without hesitation.
"Thanks to the stars in the sky, we finally found our savior, and the mermaid clan will not be extinct!"
Ling Hao's eyes widened and he looked confused: "What's wrong? What's going on? Is it so serious?"
