Chapter 389 – First Contact with Merpeople
It was an unexpected surprise as well as a shock for Zhao Hai that his attack actually didn’t do anything but make the seawater rise. The Merperson didn’t appear on the surface.
Zhao Hai stared, he hasn’t encountered a situation like this before. His magic attack actually didn’t have any effect. He looked at the monitor, and saw that the Shrimp-man seem to have noticed the situation. It looked at the Haven and poised to attack.
Zhao Hai snorted, he waved his hand as a white mist came in contact with the water. As soon as the mist and the water came in contact, the seawater immediately froze, enveloping the Shrimp-man and his entourage of shrimp magic beasts.
With a move from Zhao Hai, the group of sea-dwellers appeared on the s.h.i.+p, trapped by the frozen ice.
Zhao Hai instantly received the shrimps into the s.p.a.ce. The s.p.a.ce issued a prompt, saying that the shrimps were level 20 magic beasts, equivalent to 4th ranks outside. It can do simple water element attacks. Can be raised in sea water, takes 14 hours to mature. Can reproduce five times and produces 8 offsprings each time.
Zhao Hai didn’t care about this, he already knew that the shrimps weren’t enough to upgrade the s.p.a.ce. Now that the Ranch had reached level 20, it became very difficult to upgrade it.
He looked at the Shrimp-man, he waved his hand and shattered the ice that surrounded the man. The Shrimp-man fell into the deck.
But the sea-dweller didn’t make a move, Zhao Hai knew that he had been frozen stiff. He didn’t worry and just stood there. Before long, the Shrimp-man finally began to move, albeit breathing extremely faintly. He looked like he would die at any time.
Zhao Hai made a ball made of seawater and made it surround the man, making the Shrimp-man feel much better.
The man looked coldly at Zhao Hai and said, “Youngster, you best release me immediately. Otherwise, my tribesmen wouldn’t let you off easily.”
Zhao Hai stared, he didn’t think that this Shrimp-man would actually speak human tongue. Although this language was very common in the continent, the other party was a merperson, how could a merperson speak the language?
Zhao Hai looked at him and curiously asked, “You can speak our language? Are you really a Merperson?”
The Shrimp-man looked at Zhao Hai and with said with disdain, “Hmph, speaking the same language isn’t strange. Us merpeople have already been speaking like this even before humans ever did.”
Zhao Hai looked at the Shrimp-man and said, “Really? Also, why did you attack my s.h.i.+p?”
The Shrimp-man said, “The entire deep sea is the domain of us, the sea-dwellers. And this part is my Shrimp Tribe’s domain. So why couldn’t I attack your s.h.i.+p?”
Zhao Hai frowned, “This is your Shrimp Tribe’s domain? Then why didn’t you attack us before? Why now?”
The Shrimp-man looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Ignorant human. Didn’t you know that this area belongs entirely to our race? When are you allowed to just make a fuss here? In the past, your Human experts and our Merman Experts came into an agreement that you humans can only pa.s.s by these waters. But earlier, I sensed an unusual in this part of the water so I came. And when I did, I saw your s.h.i.+p, and now you captured me. Human, know that I’ve already sent word to my tribe as soon as you got me. They will certainly come and rescue me.”
Zhao Hai frowned, he believed this member of the Shrimp Tribe. There certainly was an agreement between humans and merpeople, just like the agreement between humans and the experts inside the carrion swamp. But when he said that he already sent word back to his tribe, Zhao Hai was doubtful. He knew for sure that he captured every single one of the Shrimp-man’s group. So how could he possible send word back to his people?
At this time, Cai’er came and informed Zhao Hai that there was a group of Shrimp Tribesmen heading towards here. Zhao Hai was stunned, he didn’t think that the Shrimp-man actually said the truth. Since it was certain that the man’s tribesmen were heading towards him, Zhao Hai observed the group. The Shrimp-man looked at Zhao Hai’s face without any care, he certainly knew that his tribesmen were indeed coming.
Zhao Hai didn’t care about the man as well since he was paying attention towards the monitor. They really were Shrimp-people, they looked exactly like the man on board the heaven. The group consists of seven people and were approaching quite fast.
Accompanying the seven people, there were also groups of shrimp-type magic beasts. This matter actually made Zhao Hai embarra.s.sed, he didn’t think that he would actually come in conflict with the sea-dwellers while at sea.
Zhao Hai looked at the Shrimp-man on his s.h.i.+p and said, “You’re tribesmen are coming. I’ll go and release you, but you have to promise to not cause me any more trouble.”
Upon hearing Zhao Hai, the Shrimp-man couldn’t help but be smug as he said, “Youngster, no need to waste too much breath. I’ll be taking away your s.h.i.+p and make it into my toy. Otherwise, don’t ever think of going into the sea ever again.”
Hearing the Shrim-person’s words, Zhao Hai’s complexion couldn’t help but change, he coldly snorted and said, “If you don’t want me to go to the sea, then why do I have to comply? Don’t think that I am afraid of you and your tribe. Look at this.”
Then he waved his hand as white mist appeared again and froze the waters surrounding those seven tribesmen. Upon catching them, Zhao Hai brought them to the s.h.i.+p and place each of them inside a ball of seawater. The Shrimp tribesmen were too cold to talk.
Seeing Zhao Hai easily capture his tribesmen, the Shrimp-man looked fl.u.s.tered as he gave a threat to Zhao Hai, “Youngster, know that if you dare to kill us, all of the sea-dwellers will wage war with you. You will certainly end up with a bad ending.”
Zhao Hai replied with a serious tone, “I don’t believe that I would actually suffer a bad ending, I could just stay in the continent and live safely. Even if you sent some 9th ranks after me, they wouldn’t be able to threaten me.”
Zhao Hai knew from Jinan that sea-dwellers couldn’t survive for a long time when out of the water. Only their 9th ranks were able to survive for a long time out of the water. This was also the reason why the humans and the merpeople had stayed being at peace with each other. If this wasn’t the case, the sea-dwellers might have already waged war with the humans long ago.
The Shrimp tribesman stared as his complexion changed. He knew that their experts wouldn’t just be in conflict with the humans even though they vastly outnumber them. Humans weren’t easy to deal with, moreover, they still had an agreement with each other about human activity in their domains. Finally, this small conflict wouldn’t be enough to incite their 9th rank experts to make a move.
Thinking of this, the Shrimp-man couldn’t do anything but accept defeat, “Human, I promise to not attack your boat anymore. But you have to let me and my tribemates go, otherwise a conflict would surely occur.”
Seeing that the other party has admitted defeat, Zhao Hai also nodded, he didn’t want to be in a fight with sea-dwellers either., “I don’t have any enmity with you, so as long as you promise to not attack my s.h.i.+p, then I will immediately let you go. Right, perhaps you gentlemen may even want to make business with me. What do Merpeople need? I can buy them from the human domain and sell them to you. You can also exchange them with some of your special products.”
The Shrimp-man stared, he didn’t think that Zhao Hai would suddenly s.h.i.+ft into doing business. At this time, he responded, “Human, are you sure about what you just said? Are you really willing to do business with us?”
Zhao Hai turned to look at the other Shrimp-men and saw that they had regained consciousness. Then he immediately returned his gaze to the Shrimp-man and said, “Absolutely.”
The Shrimp-man’ face elevated as he said, “That’s fantastic! What do you want?”
Zhao Hai asked back, “What do you have?”
The man said, “Some aquatic magic beasts, some ores, pearls, corals, these things.”
Zhao Hai nodded, “I want those, what do you want from me?”
The Shrimp-man said, “We want some land magic beasts, some ironworks, also some ceramics.”
Zhao Hai nodded, “Not an issue, I can supply you with these things. I also have some grains, vegetables, and fruits. You just prepare those magic beasts, ores, pearls and corals.”
The Shrimp-man nodded excitedly and said, “Good, by the way, my name is Crag. If you have your items, you can come straight back in this area. This is out tribe’s domain, as soon as you arrive here, we’ll immediately trade with you.”
Zhao Hai agreed, “Good, then I’ll head back and return in a few days. When that time comes, we’ll trade.” Then he waved his hand and returned the Shrimp tribesmen back to the sea.
When the group returned to the sea, Crag looked back at Zhao Hai and said, “Make sure to bring a lot of those items, we need a large number of them.”
Zhao Hai replied with a smile, “Okay, then that’s settled. Everyone, goodbye!” The Shrimp tribesmen waved at Zhao Hai and then immediately disappeared into the sea.
Laura and the others were stunned while all of these was happening. Only when the Shrimp people vanished into the sea did Laura recover. She looked at Zhao Hai as though she had seen a monster, “Brother Hai, you’re too good. You actually made a deal with Merpeople? This is the first time that I heard of this, you just made history!”
Hearing Laura, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but laugh, “Communication, always communicate. Sometimes, the reason why two sides go into war is because they didn’t have any proper talks with each other. Look, you can see that merpeople actually do need some human products while we could make use of theirs. With such two-sided benefits, why shouldn’t we do it?”
Laura smiled, “We should. With this, not only could be get some valuable pearls and special products, we could also get some Magic Beasts that could upgrade the s.p.a.ce. Maybe we could make the s.p.a.ce upgrade quickly with this method.”
Zhao Hai also smiled as he replied, “Moreover, there are too many good things in the deep sea. Cooperating with the sea-dwellers could only bring us benefits and no faults. Hehe. It seems like we should also go visit the Elven Forests and the Dwarven Fortresses. I’m interested in doing business with all of the different races in the continent.”
Laura and the others smiled, if they could really do business with all of the races in the continent, then they would certainly be the richest people in the future.
Meg gave a smile and said, “Elder Brother Hai, today is really our lucky day. Not only did the s.p.a.ce explosively level up, we also got in contact with Merpeople. I think we should find a place to purchase all the their requests. The Ark Continent’s day of annual celebration is close by. If we manage to bring these special products to the continent, they will certainly be popular.”
Zhao Hai nodded, he knew that the this annual celebration was Ark Continent’s largest day. It was equivalent to Earth’s new year’s celebration. It was a holiday of the entire continent. It represented the old year’s turnover into the new year.
This holiday was extremely important to humans, they would buy new clothes and prepare delicious food in celebration for sending of the old year and welcoming the new year.
This was like when China celebrates its Spring Festival. Every great family and clan knew that this day would be where all of their expenses were the greatest. If Zhao Hai and the others reveal these rare Merpeople products into the continent at this time, they would certainly earn a fortune.
Laura thought for a moment and said, “Since we cannot return to Sky Water City, we should go and find some other place. Fortunately, Sky Water City isn’t the only port city inside Rosen Empire. I believe that as long as we don’t go to the ports of the other nations, we should be clear of Radiant Church’s interference. The Rosen Empire is currently at its peak of anti-church movement, I think that the Radiant Church wouldn’t dare come at this time.”
Zhao Hai gave a nod and said, “Which city do you propose? I know absolutely nothing about the ports of Rosen Empire.”
Laura shook her head and said, “I also have no Idea. But I think Jinan should know. Jinan, do you know something about the other ports?”
Jinan who was standing nearby immediately responded, “Besides Sky Water City, there are two other famous cities present on the empire’s eastern coastline. They are Jade Water City and Rising Water City. Both of these cities are under the control of the Rosen Imperial Family. They are very prosperous, but not to the extent of rivalling Sky Water City. There are no other places like Sky Water City in the continent.”
Zhao Hai nodded and asked, “Which city is nearer?”
Jinan replied, “Rising Water City will take 13 days from our current location. If we go to Jade Water City, it would take us about 17 days.”
Zhao Hai gave a nod and said, “Very well then, let’s head to Rising Water City!”