Chapter 413 – Rock Shrimp Tribe
There are a lot of juniors inside a Great Clan, for bloodline juniors, there were also quite plenty. Some of them were far related, some were direct, some can become successors, some cannot.
Juwan was in good graces with the elders of the Calci Family, he was very dear to their hearts, even higher than Smith. Because of this, when Juwan told them to deal with Zhao Hai, they didn’t oppose.
For a Great Clan like the Calci Family, they didn’t place too much importance to their 8th ranks. Therefore, Juwan thought that throwing them overboard was fine as long as n.o.body else knew and that they would provide monetary support to their families afterwards. n.o.body would care about this small loss of their 8th rank experts.
This was why it should still be fine if Zhao Hai gets to kill a few 8th rank experts of the family. Killing 8th ranks to teach the family a lesson shouldn’t merit being mortal enemies with the Calci Family.
But if Zhao Hai were to deal with Juwan, his enmity with the family would flare up. It was said that unless one party gets extinguished, it was impossible to resolve hatred if a direct descendant of a clan gets killed. This was because Great n.o.bles place great importance in saving their face.
Because of this consideration, Zhao Hai let Juwan go while at the same time sending people to protect his safety. Zhao Hai understood that so long as he had Juwan’s recording about the 8th ranks, there was no possibility of Juwan becoming the family Patriarch.
For Zhao Hai, the recording was worthless, but for Juwan, it was something of huge importance. If Smith were to get his hands on the recording, he would have Juwan on his hands, his chances of winning the succession would increase.
Juwan being a playboy wasn’t a lie, but his position inside the hearts of the elders of the family couldn’t be underestimated. With Juwan’s support, Smith’s name within the elders of the family would be more regarded, for Smith this was huge.
However, Zhao Hai didn’t think about that for now. He made the undead on board Juwan’s s.h.i.+ps to sail towards a place where n.o.body could spot them then Zhao Hai stored them into the s.p.a.ce. Afterwards, Zhao Hai had the Haven go directly to where he initially met the Shrimp Tribesmen.
Zhao Hai didn’t want to enter other areas of the deeps seas. He could just pick a place and wait there, however, he wouldn’t be sure if that place belonged to the Shrimp Tribe. If the territory of the Shrimp Tribe was very small, then it would be very easy to stumble upon some other tribe’s place.
Before long, Zhao Hai arrived at the area where he last met the merfolk. But he didn’t stop, he just slowly went further while taking caution. He prepared himself for the possibility of being attacked by sea-dwellers. The borderline between the coastline areas and the deep seas was quite blurred. But sailors knew that the area beyond Ape Island and its surrounding islands was the Merfolk region, so they came upon themselves to make that region the border. As long as you stay well behind that region, they should be relatively safe from Merfolk attacks. If you dare sail past that point, then you must be prepared to face the possibility of being attacked by a sea-dweller with the strength equal to the continent’s 9th rank expert. And n.o.body wanted to experience that.
Zhao Hai’s s.h.i.+p slowly sailed along the deep sea, but what surprised Zhao Hai was the fact that they didn’t receive any attacks. Everything seemed ordinary, as though they were just sailing on the continent’s coastlines.
Zhao Hai looked at the monitor with his brows wrinkling, this was because he didn’t spot a single one of those Shrimp Tribesman. He didn’t’ even see a single Merfolk, this made him quite puzzled.
At this time, Zhao Hai noticed something moving on the seafloor. Zhao Hai carefully observed it and saw a fish in the mud. It was a strange fish, it had the same color as the seabed, this must be why Zhao Hai wasn’t able to spot it earlier.
But this fish wasn’t considered to be a sea dweller. And because of Zhao Hai’s worries about the Merfolk, he didn’t even take the chance to absorb the fish into the s.p.a.ce.
However, Zhao Hai didn’t think that a moment later, a group of Shrimp Tribesmen could be spotted on the monitor. The group looked very menacing, as if they were coming to sink the Haven.
Seeing the situation, Zhao Hai immediately used Ice Magic and froze the waters surrounding the Haven. This made the approaching Shrimp Tribesmen stare blankly, they weren’t expecting this move from Zhao Hai.
These Shrimp Tribesmen understood that Zhao Hai wanted to make contact with them, otherwise he wouldn’t use Ice Magic. This made them stop and stare at the ice wall with confused expressions.
Zhao Hai saw their mouths move, but he couldn’t hear anything. This made him puzzled, but he immediately recovered as he gave his greeting, “Sea dwelling friend, h.e.l.lo. I have received an invitation by your tribesman Crag to do business with you. I’ll have to ask you to please call him to the surface and meet me.”
After Zhao Hai expressed his intentions, he observed the reactions of the Shrimp people. The Shrimp Tribesmen naturally understood Zhao Hai’s words, so they gave each other a quick glance before they exposing their heads out of the sea’s surface.
One of the Shrimp Tribesmen who surfaced looked at Zhao Hai and asked, “Do you really intend to do business with us?”
Zhao Hai smiled and said, “h.e.l.lo, Shrimp Tribe friend, I told Crag before that I would do trade with you. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Crag.”
The Shrimp Tribesman replied with a happy tone, “You wait here. Although we already heard about this matter from Crag, we are not sure if you are the one. I’ll immediately go call him over.” After that, the group disappeared into the sea.
Looking at these Merfolk, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but smile. For the Humans to call them an alien race is too funny. These Merfolk looked like they didn’t have the the extremely doubting mind of humans, if they see you as a friend then you are a friend, if they think that you are an enemy, then you are an enemy. Their thoughts were very simple, they were the type of people that Zhao Hai liked. [1]
Before long, another group of Shrimp Tribesmen appeared in front of Zhao Hai, possibly including Crag with them. Why possibly? This was because to Zhao Hai’s eyes, all of these Shrimp Tribesmen looked very similar. It was like in the eyes of the Chinese, foreigners looked very similar to each other. This was also true for Foreigners, they also find it hard to differentiate one Chinese person from another.[2]
After the Shrimp people appeared on the surface, one of them looked at Zhao Hai and said, “My human friend, you finally appeared!! Hahaha. These days, I’ve almost become a joke in the tribe, they thought I was lying. My friend, come with me to see the Chief immediately.”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Alright, friend. Guide me, but stay on the surface, otherwise I wouldn’t’ be able to follow you.”
The man was naturally Crag. He looked at Zhao Hai and smiled, “That’s not a problem, my friend, you can just follow my mount.” Then he sank into the sea before a large shrimp appeared. This shrimp was as large as those that were absorbed into Zhao Hai’s s.p.a.ce.
After the large shrimp appeared on the surface, it sank back down again, but before disappearing, it left its whiskers above the water. Zhao Hai smiled, it seems like these Merfolk were smarter than the Beastmen.
Zhao Hai followed the shrimp’s whiskers, although he can see the sea’s situation, he didn’t want to reveal that fact to the Merfolk.
Zhao Hai didn’t expect that the place where Crag was taking him was actually quite far. His s.h.i.+p has been sailing for three days straight before the shrimp stopped. At this time, Zhao Hai was basking in the sun while on the s.h.i.+p’s top deck, he wasn’t paying attention to the monitor. Now that the s.h.i.+p had stopped, he immediately got up.
At this moment, Crag appeared and smiled as he bowed, “Friend, our Chief will be seeing you, please wait a bit.” Zhao Hai returned the bow hastily, he didn’t want to seem rude to these Merfolk.
Just as Crag left, Zhao Hai took two steps back into the s.h.i.+p before opening the monitor. Upon seeing the screen, Zhao Hai was stunned along with Laura and the others who were behind him. They didn’t think that they would be able to see such a scene.
Currently, there was a very large coral reef underneath the sea. One couldn’t just imagine how large this reef was. Seen on it were Shrimp Tribesmen swimming all around. He could also see marine products as well as all kinds of fish. This made Zhao Hai stared blankly.
Before long, Zhao Hai can see a curled up Shrimp man appearing on the monitor. This Shrimp man wasn’t hunched back because he was a shrimp, but because he was old. On his face were wrinkles, and his antennae were drooped on the sides of his head. Held on his hand was a wooden cane. This image gave Zhao Hai the impulse to laugh.
They could float on sea, why was this Shrimp Tribesman carrying a cane? At the same time, Zhao Hai was somewhat surprised, do canes have any use on the sea?
However, Zhao Hai just stayed on his s.h.i.+p and awaited the other party’s arrival. Soon after, a group emerged along with the old Shrimp. The elderly Shrimp man looked at Zhao Hai and coughed twice before talking, “h.e.l.lo my young Human friend, I’m Libben, Chief of the Rock Shrimp Tribe.”
Zhao Hai quickly bowed and said, “I greet the Chief, I am the Human merchant Zhao Hai, I’m very glad to meet you.”
Libben looked very satisfied with Zhao Hai, he looked at him, smiled, then nodded, “Young man, you make me very surprised, I have never seen a Human who speak to us with a manner like you did.”
Zhao Hai replied, “To think that the Chief has met other humans, I didn’t expect that. I thought I was the first to come in contact with your Rock Shrimp Tribe.”
Libben smiled and said, “I just tried to interact with Humans, but in the end it all failed. When they see us, they yell, it made me feel uncomfortable. Young Human friend, I heard that you came to trade with us, what do you want?”
After hearing Libben, Zhao Hai immediately answered, “Respectable Chief, I am a businessman, naturally I would want some marine products. For example, aquatic Magic Beasts, marine plants, some pearls, unique corals, as well as some rare sea ores. If you have any special products, I want those too. For my side, I have grain, ceramics, and metalwares.
Libben looked at Zhao Hai, “Human friend, then come take a look at this and see how much this is worth.” Then the old Chief took out a clam sh.e.l.l that wasn’t that big and handed it over to Zhao Hai.
Zhao Hai received the sh.e.l.l and opened it gently, obviously he didn’t expect to see an actual clam inside, this should be the Merfolk version of a Human’s pouch.
The actual content of the sh.e.l.l was what made Zhao Hai startled, there was actually an exceptionally huge pearl inside.
The pearl was about the size of Zhao Hai’s fist. Zhao Hai couldn’t remember a time where he saw a pearl bigger than what he was currently holding. Moreover, this pearl had a pale yellow varnish, it looked very beautiful.
Laura, who was standing behind Zhao Hai, exclaimed as she took the pearl from Zhao Hai’s hands, “Brother Hai, this is a treasure! This pearl alone is worth all of the supplies that Charlie provided us.”
Zhao Hai nodded, then he turned to Lidden and said, “Chief, your pearl is very precious. It can be traded for four s.h.i.+ps’ worth of cargo. Will you agree with this exchange?”
Lidden looked at Zhao Hai and laughed, “You’re an honest young man, I agree to the trade. You should know that since I’ve been the Chief of the Rock Shrimp Tribe for so long, I have the intuition to tell a person’s thoughts. I know that you didn’t lie, alright, you can take the pearl.”
When Zhao Hai heard Lidden, he was startled. He didn’t think that Lidden would have an ability like that. He couldn’t help but wipe some sweat off his brow, although this pearl was precious, it could at only trade for four s.h.i.+ps’ worth of cargo at most. If the Shrimp Tribe was unhappy with the that trade, it wouldn’t be good.
Zhao Hai wanted a long term partners.h.i.+p with the Rock Shrimp Tribe, so he didn’t plan on deceiving them. He knew that the Shrimp People can also look up the value of this pearl, and when they find out that they were duped, they wouldn’t work with Zhao Hai again. At that point, Zhao Hai’s gain wouldn’t be worth the losses.
Zhao Hai waved his hand as four s.h.i.+ps suddenly appeared on the sea’s surface. This action scared the Shrimp people, they didn’t think that Zhao Hai was able to release these many s.h.i.+ps. It was probable that the Merfolk didn’t have s.p.a.ce Mages and Spatial Items, thus when they saw Zhao Hai’s movement, they were terrified.
On the other hand, Lidden stayed calm, he looked at this tribesmen and snorted, ‘Why are you fl.u.s.tered? That is Human Magic, very mysterious. Well, human friend, please drop your goods off on the sea, my people will take them away.”
Zhao Hai smiled and said, “Alright.” Then he waved his hand as the undead on the s.h.i.+ps began to dump the goods overboard.
1. So basically, Beastmen of the sea? XD
2. That’s racist bruh. Cmon.