Chapter 537: The Seven Forbidden Zones

Zhu continued, "I don't understand why my fellow kin won't leave. Because of the sea god's continued presence, none of us can catch any fish around here—and the tribe has had to travel to more dangerous waters in order to find food. There's been so much pointless death as a result. We're all but living in these dangerous waters, but we have to sacrifice our people to this disgusting 'sea god' as well!"

Zhu became more and more enraged as she spoke.

For the weak, survival was a particularly difficult problem. There were many races that found it difficult just to survive, let alone eat well. At the very least, the sea cucumber would prevent any dangerous oceanic lifeforms from encroaching upon its domain.

Zhu believed this to be an idiotic decision because of her father's influence.

Indeed, it was foolish of the merpeople not to continue looking for better places to live, but their circumstances had given them no choice. This was how they lived; they would move their village to a more prosperous location if they could, but they had never found such a location.

What happened to Zhu's father was the last straw, and it was what prompted their seclusion thereafter. Despite searching the waters far and wide for many years, Zhu's father hadn't found a suitable place to start a new village, and he had even died in his quest.

The remaining merpeople believed that the rest of the world was too dangerous for them, that they surely wouldn't be able to find anything better than what they already had. Only with the sea god's blessing would they be able to live on.

This was a form of survivorship bias: Zhu's father's generation was upset with the status quo, and they wanted to imagine a life where they weren't subservient to the sea god. However, none but Zhu's father had had the courage to set out in search of a better life.

Meanwhile, the generation before that had long since grown too used to their life to be able to question it, and Zhu's father's generation ended up much the same way.

That Zhu's father had been willing to brave dangerous waters for his ideals was commendable; unfortunately, he didn't have the strength to see it through. Once Zhu's father died, the entire tribe was even more certain of their belief that the outside world was too dangerous. From then on, no one had suggested searching for a new place to live.

To the nine-headed sea cucumber, these merpeople wouldn't make a filling meal; at most, they were just like snacks.

All peak-grade lifeforms had at least rudimentary intelligence. The reason the sea cucumber hadn't killed the tribe might have been because it was interested in the novelty of their worship, or perhaps because it thought of itself as rearing the tribe for an annual snack or two.

Zhu had been influenced by her father from birth, and she had a craving for the outside world that none of the other tribespeople could match.

According to Zhu, her mother had contracted depression after her father's death, and her body slowly wasted away. Ever since then, she had lived with her uncle.

"Where's your uncle, then?"

Zhu shrugged. "He was the one you knocked aside at the entrance to the village."

Zhang Lie: ...

"My uncle's a terrible man, a layabout who does nothing but gamble all day long. He took over my parents' house and sold all our furniture. In the end, when he ran out of money, he sold me as well. If he were to offer me as a sacrifice, he would receive a large pearl from the village."

The village used pearls as its main currency.

"You know the rest, Mister."

Zhu didn't want to be a sacrifice, so she ran away from the altar and, fortunately, crashed into Zhang Lie. Otherwise, with a child's strength and stamina, she would ultimately have been caught and sacrificed.

By the time she had finished telling her tale, they had arrived at their first destination.

Zhu pointed forward. "Ahead lies the whirlpool strait."

Zhang Lie glanced in the direction of her hand. Countless whirlpools lay ahead of them. Wind blew in huge gusts, sending huge waves crashing down all around them.

"This strait is one of the seven forbidden regions of the seas."

"What are the others?"

Zhu raised three fingers. "The only other regions I know are the sea of mists, sea of storms, and sea of bones."

Zhang Lie made up his mind then and there—if he had a chance, he would visit all seven of these forbidden regions.

The monarch of stars had listed a few peak-grade lifeforms in the seas, but the sura scouts had largely focused on terrestrial lifeforms instead.

"Tell me about this whirlpool strait."

"According to the ancient legends of the merpeople, the whirlpool strait is home to a tyrannical creature who can consume the sun and the moon alike, the stars in the sky. The sun falls from the sky to be consumed by the tyrant, and its droppings morph into the moon, which rises from the strait. After the moon hangs above the sky for some time, it dissolves, and a new sun rises above the horizon.

"The day proceeds until the next time the tyrant wakes up, at which point it devours the sun anew. Thus forms the cycle between day and night. My father once told me that the reason there are so few stars in the sky is because the tyrant has swallowed them all."

"Heliocentrism? An interesting belief..."

"Heliocentrism? What does that mean?"

"Well, our world is round and spins on its axis even as it revolves around the sun—hold on, does that apply to the second realm?"

Who knew if the world of the second realm was truly spherical? No one had managed to head into outer space before. Once hunters reached a certain altitude, they were bounced back toward the ground by the will of the world.

As they spoke, Zhang Lie and Zhu had approached the nearest whirlpool. Despite the fact that they were in the air, Zhang Lie still felt a strong suction force pulling him toward the sea. This was clearly an unusual phenomenon, and it hinted at these whirlpools' artificial nature.

No lifeform, avian or oceanic, would be able to pass through these whirlpools unscathed.

Zhang Lie activated his dragon's eye soulshard and glanced toward the center of the whirlpool, where he saw several scallop-like creatures.

"It looks like there are indeed lifeforms generating these whirlpools from below."

The whirlpools were of various shapes and sizes. The weaker and smaller ones were generated by mutated-grade lifeforms, and the whirlpools grew larger and stronger as the grade of their corresponding lifeforms went up.

Zhang Lie seemed a little disappointed. "Is this the true face behind this whirlpool strait?"

It was nothing more than a horde of unusual genetic lifeforms.

Zhang Lie was a little unhappy.

"I hope the next location you're guiding me towards does have lifeforms stronger than the nine-headed sea cucumber, or I'll throw you into the sea and have these lifeforms gobble you up," Zhang Lie warned.