“The Arsu Archipelago is currently the largest known settlement of descendants of gods and demons. It has fertile land, endless fruit groves, more beasts than could ever be eaten, and shoals upon shoals of fish and prawns in the sea.
“Ruling that place were tribes formed from six lines of divine and demonic descendants. They were the descendants of ‘Luan’, the King of the Sky, the descendants of ‘Dragon’, the King of the Ocean, the descendants of ‘Pimu’, the King of the Earth, the descendants of ‘Gold’, the King of the Jungle, the descendants of ‘Three-headed Giant’, the King of War, and the descendants of ‘Dream Demon’, the King of Illusions.”
The mermaid queen spoke at length.
Back then, after the Daoist Venerable had driven the descendants of gods and demons out of Jiuzhou, the gods and demons had settled overseas. The weaker ones stayed closer to the Jiuzhou, like Mermaid Island and Silkworm Island. The stronger gods and demons had no choice but to voyage far across the seas, seeking places to dwell in the vast, boundless ocean.
The Daoist Venerable might have tolerated a few small fry living in the nearby seas, but he would never have allowed the stronger descendants of gods and demons to lurk so close to shore.
After countless years of reproduction, the descendants of gods and demons formed one settlement after another, much like the human tribes of ancient times.
“Because the Arsu Archipelago is rich in produce, pleasant in climate, and suitable for habitation, in ancient times it was the object of fierce contention among the descendants of gods and demons. After ages of slaughter, only these six tribes remained in the end.
“The six tribes lived in the Arsu Archipelago, yet they still didn’t coexist peacefully. They were always thinking of swallowing one another up. That was until the powerful being called Desolation appeared…”
Zhenzhu had learned the name “Desolation” from the strongest human beside her.
“It devoured the leaders of the six tribes at the time, causing tribes that had originally possessed several powerful beyond-mortal experts to fall into decline at once, leaving them unable to protect their homes. To resist the covetous gaze of nearby enemies, the six tribes abandoned their hatred and formed an alliance.
“Later, as the generations passed, their bloodlines grew ever thinner, and mixed blood became more and more common. The Arsu Archipelago gradually evolved towards a dynasty. Well, we merpeople quietly come ashore every dozen years or so to keep watch on the situation of the Jiuzhou mainland.
“The situation in the Arsu Archipelago is much the same as among your human race. A dynasty was established, and the six great tribes ruled over the various mixed-blood tribes, as well as other small outsider tribes…
“The one who rules the Arsu Archipelago now is the leader of the Dragon tribe. According to your human ranking system, he is at the peak of third rank.”
Peak third rank, eh. Bit weak… Xu Qi’an listened with great interest.
To put it simply, the Arsu Archipelago was a civilisation of the descendants of gods and demons.
When the Nine-tailed Fox had said their next stop was a very interesting place, she had meant the Arsu Archipelago, because a civilisation of god and demon descendants had been born here.
Any lifeform with high intelligence would inevitably give rise to civilisation.
The prosperity of civilisation was, to a certain extent, connected to the strength of the individual members of the intelligent race.
The weaker the individual, the more such beings tended towards living in groups. Institutions and civilisation were then born, and would grow ever more prosperous.
The representative race was humanity.
The stronger the individual, the more backward the civilisation, filled with ignorance and bloodshed.
The representative existence were the gods and demons.
Gods and demons possessed the strength to move mountains and fill seas. They had no need for a tribe, only slaves. And without a tribe, no civilisation would develop.
Humanity was exactly the opposite. Individuals were weak and needed to band together. Once a tribe appeared, time itself would bestow civilisation upon it.
“So the descendants of gods and demons are constantly weakening?” Xu Qi’an caught the key point.
“Yes.”
Zhenzhu nodded and gave an affirmative answer.
“Even when pure-blooded descendants of gods and demons produce offspring, the power of the bloodline still weakens generation after generation. By now, it is already impossible for the merpeople to produce a queen of second rank. Unless we change our cultivation method and follow the system created by your human race.”
Xu Qi’an looked towards the Nine-tailed Fox, who lay reclining on a couch, lazily dozing through the afternoon.
Sensing his gaze, the fox spirit kept her eyes shut. Her two long, fair legs rubbed lightly together as she said flatly:
“The difference between one or two generations won’t be very great, but after three or four generations, the gap begins to widen. The longer the inheritance continues, the weaker the descendants become. It’s almost impossible for them to surpass their forebears.”
Xu Qi’an frowned.
“Why’s that?”
That didn’t fit the laws of biological evolution.
The fox spirit gave a little snort.
“Don’t ask why. Go ask the rules of heaven and earth.”
Xu Qi’an really didn’t ask.
Gods and demons were born at the beginning of creation. Every single one had been nurtured by heaven and earth, so perhaps they possessed unique traits that couldn’t be replicated? But if they truly couldn’t be replicated, then there shouldn’t be bloodline inheritance at all… the gods and demons ought to have been sterile… It’s understandable that the second generation would be weaker than the first, since the bloodline is impure. But if two second-generation descendants of the same attribute gave birth to a third generation, then in theory the bloodline was not diluted by an outside race, so the third generation ought to be as strong as the second.
Yet in reality, even pure-blooded descendants of gods and demons grow weaker with each generation. That’s deeply unreasonable… If one stretched the timescale over several thousand, even ten thousand years, then the descendants of gods and demons might become just like humans, no longer born powerful… And when that’s linked with how the gods and demons had suddenly gone mad and slaughtered one another, there’s definitely something fishy in all this… Xu Qi’an had a vague feeling.
The fall of the gods and demons was probably not an accident, but an inevitability.
“What are you thinking about?”
The Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox opened her eyes and looked at him from afar.
“Some guesses about the fall of the gods and demons,” Xu Qi’an said with a smile.
At once, the silver-haired enchantress sat bolt upright with a swish, her eyes shining.
“What guesses?”
Xu Qi’an glanced at her.
“Why should I tell you?”
When dealing with a clever, mischievous fox spirit who liked playing tricks on people, this was called using her own methods against her. It was all part of the game.
The Nine-tailed Fox glared at him. Her lively eyes turned, and she said with a grin:
“I’ll trade you a secret. Equivalent exchange was your idea, Silver Gong Xu.”
She put on an expression of having a great secret and said in a low voice:
“It’s about that descendant of gods and demons from ancient times, the one who lost its bearings overseas but finally found its way back to the Jiuzhou. It made a world-shaking discovery. It discovered the true form of this world, and glimpsed the essence of heaven and earth.”
The moment she finished speaking, Xu Qi’an nodded.
“The land is round.”
…
The Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox’s stunningly beautiful face visibly froze. She stared blankly for several seconds, then angrily looked around.
“Where have you hidden Protector Yuan?”
So you’ve got Protector Yuan Stress Disorder too… Xu Qi’an smiled and said:
“Not only do I know the land is round, I also know it’s a sphere.”
However, he had already confirmed that although the world of the Jiuzhou was also a planet, it was much larger than the Earth of his previous life, many many times larger.
The silver-haired enchantress remained frozen there, not reacting for a long while.
The secret she had hidden in her heart for many years, the “essence of the world” she had never revealed to anyone, had been exposed in a single sentence by this human who had lived only twenty-two years.
And judging by his calm, composed manner, it seemed this was merely a trivial matter?
A proud, crafty fox spirit like this needs to be crushed on every front. Only by leaving her with no sense of superiority before you can she be properly tamed into obedience… Xu Qi’an was very satisfied with the Nine-tailed Fox’s reaction. He ignored her after that, and instead turned to friendly, cordial conversation with the mermaid queen.
The mermaid queen was heading to the Arsu Archipelago for two matters. First, to gather the green coral abundant in Arsu Bay, which could treat the merpeople’s white-scale disease.
Second, to purchase a medicinal herb called “red root”, whose effect was to arouse desire.
Because of the chaos caused by the river dragon, the merpeople had lost more than two hundred people and suffered grievous losses.
One had to know that the merpeople were a deeply devoted race. After a partner died, they would not choose another.
Over two hundred casualties meant over two hundred more left single. That was equivalent to losing nearly five hundred tribe members in one blow.
One could well imagine that the population of the next generation of merpeople was bound to plummet.
Devotion was a racial custom and couldn’t be forced. The only choice was to encourage the existing tribe members to have more children, ideally three or four each.
Xu Qi’an quite liked this mermaid queen. She was obedient and gentle, soft-spoken, and easily won a man’s favour.
Hopefully she wasn’t the sort who said, “I just feel sorry for my brother”, while secretly being a master manipulator.
If the Arsu Archipelago was formed from the body of the Three-headed Giant, then could its spiritual essence be hidden deep underground? Its qi and blood power? Whatever the case, I have to go and see. Since I’m passing by, I can’t leave empty-handed.
That king of the descendants of gods and demons is only peak third rank. What a pity. The blood essence of a second rank expert would be of great benefit to me, but third rank is far inferior.
In such a large settlement, there’s only one beyond-mortal. Did Desolation really kill off all the beyond-mortals?
He looked at the azure sky and thought silently.
…
After three days of riding the wind and cleaving the waves, Xu Qi’an’s Earth Book had completely lost signal, which meant he could no longer contact the Jiuzhou.
At the same time, they had entered the territory of the Arsu Archipelago.
According to the Nine-tailed Fox and the mermaid queen, not only was this the largest settlement of god and demon descendants, it was also the place with the largest “transient population”.
The tribes of the surrounding seas would come to the markets of the Arsu Archipelago at intervals to exchange goods and harvests.
That naturally included news as well.
Moreover, that beyond-mortal expert of the Arsu Archipelago was, in theory, also on Xu Qi’an’s hunting list.
“This is already Arsu territory. We may encounter patrol guards of the Dragon tribe. They will question island arrivals about their tribe and origins. If you don’t wish to make a great disturbance, leave it to me to handle,” the mermaid queen said softly.
Xu Qi’an gave an “Mm” and paid no attention to such details.
They sailed on for another hour, yet never saw the so-called patrol guards.
The mermaid queen said in surprise:
“It seems we’re rather lucky. Another thirty li ahead, and we’ll meet the aerial patrol unit of the Luan tribe…”
Just as she said that, she saw a corpse drifting over from ahead.
It was a humanoid creature about eight feet tall, its entire body covered in blue-black scales. It had legs and feet similar to a human’s, though thicker and sturdier, with sharp black toenails and fingernails. Its coccyx extended beyond the surface of the body, forming a thick tail half a metre long.
Its head, meanwhile, was purely that of a river dragon, with a single black horn on its forehead.
A more vivid description would be, a little dragon man.
Its body was badly mangled, with scales torn away in many places, exposing the tender red flesh beneath.
It had clearly gone through a fierce struggle before death.
Xu Qi’an glanced at Zhenzhu and used his thoughts to communicate:
“Sea patrol guard?”
The mermaid queen’s pretty, delicate brows knit tightly, and she nodded soundlessly.
So, is this normal, or has something unusual happened? Xu Qi’an muttered inwardly.
He didn’t know what the ordinary state of affairs in the Arsu Archipelago was, and what counted as abnormal.
But seeing only a slight frown from Zhenzhu, with no great reaction, he understood that this was normal.
Public order is a mess… Xu Qi’an passed judgement inwardly.
They continued sailing for a few more minutes, and another little dragon man corpse floated over on the sea.
Now this can’t be normal, could it? Xu Qi’an thought.
“It seems the Arsu Archipelago has suffered an attack by enemies.” The mermaid queen’s face turned grave.
That meant there was a chance they might be dragged into a pointless conflict.
And just like that, what he thought of came to pass.
There was a sudden splash by the port side of the ship. A dark shadow burst up amid spraying waves and lunged at the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox at the stern.
The silver-haired enchantress remained sprawled there lazily, not moving.
A fluffy fox tail coiled around the dark figure and hoisted it into the air.
The attacker was actually a strong little dragon man. He looked exactly like the two floating corpses, clearly of the same race. The difference was that the little dragon man attacking the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox had eyes that were completely blood-red.
They were filled with savagery and madness.
The scales covering his body were spread with twisted, incomplete patterns. Just one look at them made one want to retch and feel dizzy.
He was exactly the same as the beyond-mortal river dragon that had attacked Mermaid Island.
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