My Community Transmigrated Again

”I... I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

”That’s fine. I’ll help you remember.” Mogu gave a faint smile, the corners of his mouth splitting wide to reveal rows of terrifyingly sharp, dense teeth.

”So they were the ones watching us?” Qin Ziwen approached from the side, a smile on his face as he looked at Mogu.

”Judging by their appearance, they look a bit like Fishmen.” Mogu held up the small dwarf in his hand.

In his grip, the two small dwarves seemed to have given up all resistance. Their hands lay flat at their sides, their faces etched with misery.

Qin Ziwen moved the torch closer.

Under the torchlight, he saw that the small dwarf before him had faint, fine white scales behind its ears. The webbing between its fingers and toes also had a structure similar to that of a Fishman.

Mogu hadn’t been wrong. These small dwarves really were Fishmen.

A subspecies of Fishman, to be precise.

”I’ll never talk. You can forget about it,” the dwarf on the left said coldly.

The dwarf on the right, however, quickly begged for mercy. ”I’ll tell you everything! Just please, spare my life.”

The dwarf on the left turned its head in disbelief.

”Venerable lord of the Fishman Race,” the dwarf on the right said without hesitation, ”If I talk, I’ll be a traitor to my tribe. There will be no place for me left in this world. I only ask that you, my lord, take me in.”

Mogu simply said, ”That depends on whether your answers are worth it.”

”Traitor!” the dwarf on the left spat angrily.

The dwarf on the right lowered its head, its expression hidden. ”Lan Tu, your older brother is the Hunting Team Captain of our tribe, and your grandfather is an elder. You don’t understand. You’ve eaten better food than me since we were young. You can die for the tribe, but I won’t.”

”They’re humans, and we’re Fishmen! After what we’ve done, Lan Xie, do you really think they’ll believe us?” Lan Tu said resentfully. He suddenly felt like his companion was a stranger. ’I’ve known him for decades, but I never saw his true colors.’

Lan Xie said, ”But isn’t the one who captured us a Fishman? Lan Tu, you’re just like the others in our tribe, harboring too much malice toward the Human Race. The truth is, there’s no real hatred between us, the humans, and the other Exotic Races.”

Qin Ziwen spoke up, his interest piqued. ”You can control these giant leeches?”

”Venerable lord, could you please ask the other lord to put me down? His grip is too strong, I can barely breathe,” Lan Xie said with a pained smile.

Mogu placed the Fishman on the ground.

After landing on the ground, Lan Xie rubbed his chest and let out a long sigh of relief. ”My lord, we can’t actually control the giant leeches. We can only guide them. The leeches have a leader. We control the leader, and then use it to command the others.”

’That reminds me of the giant aphid rhinoceros beetle and its aphid-spiders, and those swarms of black beetles,’ Qin Ziwen thought.

’In this Underworld, it seems many creatures live and act as a collective.’

”Then make these giant leeches stop their attack.”

”I can’t.” Lan Xie shook his head. ”The giant leeches have very low intelligence; they can only understand extremely simple commands. For this attack, Lan Tu and I were just responsible for leading them forward. That’s also why we only attacked this one human settlement instead of two places at once.”

”What are their weaknesses?”

Lan Xie said, ”They’re afraid of fire and green salt. The green salt mines are underwater. Our tribe has many weapons made from it.”

”Traitor!” Lan Tu glared. He tried to say more, but Mogu flicked a finger against the back of his head, and Lan Tu instantly passed out.

”There. Now there’s no one to interrupt us,” Qin Ziwen said, looking at Lan Xie. ”Continue. I’m listening.”

’I thought this swarm was a natural disaster, but it turns out it was orchestrated by someone.’

’And guided by Fishmen from behind the scenes.’

’I have to find out where these Fishmen came from and what other tricks they have up their sleeves.’

’Otherwise, if they target my Gated Community next time, it could be a huge problem.’

”How can we stop this tide of insects?”

”Bring the Leech King over to stop the ones on the outskirts that haven’t entered yet. Then, kill all the leeches that have already gotten inside the settlement. If enough of them die, the rest will feel fear.”

Qin Ziwu couldn’t help but ask, ”Didn’t you say they weren’t very intelligent?”

Lan Xie gave a slight smile. ”Low intelligence is precisely why instinct takes over when they face death. That’s what makes them feel fear.”

Lan Xie then explained his origins.

After hearing the story, Qin Ziwen had a much deeper understanding of them.

They were a tribe of Fishmen who lived in underground caves and called themselves the Dark Tide Fishmen.

The two of them had been ordered to hunt the members of the Human Race who had appeared in this world.

The Fishman Tribe lived far to the south, by an underground lake. The journey from here took two ”earth-hours.”

An ”earth-hour” was the Dark Tide Fishmen’s unit of time. Since they lived underground, they measured time by the frequency of vibrations from the planet’s core, dividing it into a constantly repeating cycle of four earth-hours: the First-Hour, the Mid-Hour, the Late-Hour, and the Final-Hour.

By comparison, one earth-hour was roughly equivalent to three standard hours.

’A six-hour journey on foot... Not exactly close, but not that far either.’

”When did you discover us?”

Lan Xie replied, ”Our tribe sends out members to hunt everywhere, every day. This part of the Underworld is filled with branching, hidden tunnels. There’s no place we can’t find.”

”In fact, besides this place, we also found another human settlement. The tribesman who reported back said that after finding it, he located a black beetle nest nearby and sprinkled yellow powder into it. If nothing went wrong, the powder would agitate the black beetles, causing them to swarm and attack any living thing in the vicinity indiscriminately.”

Qin Ziwen’s eyes narrowed. He made a mental note of this.

’So the black beetle attack was orchestrated, too.’

’No wonder the black beetle attack was so sudden. The Gated Community was attacked not long after it arrived.’

”My lord, I know what you’re about to ask. To be honest, I don’t know why the tribe wants us to attack humans either.” Lan Xie paused before continuing. ”But I do know that at regular intervals, we have to deliver all the ore we’ve mined to a water-filled cave behind the tribe’s main camp. That place is a forbidden zone; none of us are allowed to enter.”

”Also, our tribe has destroyed quite a few human settlements over the years, but in the end, those settlements all just... vanished.”

Finally, Qin Ziwen asked, ”If you two don’t return, what will your tribe do?”

Lan Xie fell silent for a moment before answering earnestly, ”My lord, if tribesmen on a mission fail to return, it’s the tribe’s way to first investigate the situation. Then, they will mobilize in full force to destroy the enemy, leaving no survivors.”

Lan Xie took a deep breath and added, ”What’s more, the tribe has things far more terrifying than the giant leeches. The leeches are just one of our weapons, used specifically to deal with enemies near bodies of water.”

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