Anyone with even a little knowledge could tell at a glance that this was a sea tribe from the Nether Sea, a merman, an elderly male merman, even somewhat old, capable of smiling out half a face full of wrinkles, with long hair the colour of sky water jade draped over his shoulders.
The sea tribes of the Nether Sea basically referred to them. Those swimming fish in the sea were automatically ignored by the world. They were the boatmen of the Nether Sea, able to accurately grasp the unpredictable and ever-changing passage routes of this strange sea area.
Little Black, who had actively approached, did not understand. Seeing this half-human, half-fish creature, he felt very strange, seemingly doubting whether the fish tail swaying in the water was real. He immediately took off the large club from his body, squatted down, and was about to poke it into the water, his intention to tease the fish tail very obvious.
The three martial brothers broke into a slight sweat. Mu Aotie quickly grabbed him, pulled him up, pressed him behind his back, and glared at him, signalling him not to cause trouble.
The boatman pushed off with both hands at the stern, leapt out of the water, and sat down on the stern with a thump. With one hand, he grabbed the bridge to secure the boat, while his fish tail continued to float and sway gently in the water.
Little Black could not get to the front, so he could only stretch his head out from behind Mu Aotie to look, his mouth shaped in a “wow” feeling, his eyes shining, seemingly very envious that the other had a tail and could be both a person and a fish.
Yu Qing reached out and took down the lantern hanging on the pole at the end of the bridge, handing it to the other party.
The boatman also took down the unlit lantern hanging at the bow of the boat. Just as he was about to exchange it with the lantern in Yu Qing’s hand, his gaze suddenly fixed on the ring on Yu Qing’s hand. The meaning of his slight startlement was very obvious, and even the slowly swaying tail fin in the water stopped moving.
The three martial brothers were not blind. The other’s reaction immediately caused the three to look at each other.
After the boatman came back to his senses, he stopped the gesture of exchanging lanterns. From the sharp five fingers holding the lantern, his index finger popped out, and the pointed nail pointed at the ring in Yu Qing’s hand. He let out a hoarse voice, “I do not want money. I want your ring.”
The three martial brothers were startled. They had not expected that the legendary trick of the Nether Sea boatman would actually be encountered by them, and on their first visit at that.
Nether Sea boatmen ferrying people followed one principle, mutual consent!
Once a lit lantern was hung on the bow of the boat, it meant that the ferrying transaction was settled, and neither side could go back on their word.
Payment first, ferrying after. Once the boat started moving, no more should be said about whether the money was too much or too little. One simply got off at the destination.
Over time, a standard price known to all had formed here. Passengers were charged per head, basically three thousand taels per person.
Of course, if the boatman felt that taking one person was not worth it, he could raise the price, or ask for something else as the fare. If the guest felt the price was too high, or felt it was unsuitable, they could refuse and find another boatman. It was still the same saying, based on the principle of mutual consent in the transaction, no one could be forced.
Therefore, people who frequently travelled here would often give a warning to their descendants, try not to wear any conspicuous jewellery, or any valuable items. If you brought them, do not show them off, hide them on your body and keep them well, try not to let the mermen see them. Once the mermen became greedy, they would demand them.
That was what was said, but actually, this kind of situation was not very common anymore. The three really had not expected to encounter it on their first trip.
The problem was, Yu Qing looked at his own ring a few more times. This should not be any glaringly conspicuous jewellery, so he asked, “You want to use this ring to offset the boat fare for the four of us?”
The boatman squeezed out another smile on that old face, his tongue伸出 and sliding left and right across his lips before saying, “Yes.”
Yu Qing asked again, “Why do you want this ring?”
The boatman pointed at the ring, then pointed at the fish tail rising from the water, “Fish. I like it.”
Was that so? The three martial brothers looked at each other. It sounded somewhat reasonable.
If it were an ordinary ring, they might have agreed. However, this ring had another important use, so Yu Qing had no choice but to refuse, “I am sorry, I am only willing to pay money. I will not bargain with you for this child either. Count him as four adults, the going rate of twelve thousand taels. If you agree, we trade. If you do not agree, I will change boats.”
The boatman met his gaze, then suddenly let out a hoarse laugh, “Very well, money is fine too.” He handed the unlit lantern in his hand to Yu Qing.
Yu Qing took it, hung the unlit lantern on the pole at the end of the bridge, and then handed the lit lantern in his hand to the boatman.
The boatman hung the lit lantern on the fishing rod at the stern, then held onto the bridge, steadied the boat, and invited the guests aboard.
After the three adults and one child boarded the boat, Yu Qing also gave the boatman the prepared twelve thousand taels in banknotes.
The boatman stuffed the banknotes into the swim bladder he carried with him, then twisted his body and slid into the water. With both hands holding the stern, the fish tail underwater began to sway gracefully and naturally, pushing the boat away from the bridge. The boat turned a corner on the water’s surface and drifted lightly towards the faint mist in the distance.
The moving boat did not make much sound breaking the water. In this dark and quiet water area, the sound was clear and crisp.
Yu Qing stood at the front with his hands behind his back, heading into the darkness and mist all the way.
Mu Aotie faced the back calmly, the hanging lantern swaying before him.
Nan Zhu stood in the middle, holding onto Little Black and not letting go. Naturally, Little Black was not allowed to act recklessly here, otherwise the little fellow would want to use the “big club” to row and play with the water, scaring the “big club” into hiding at the bow of the boat.
Without seeing the sun, moon, or stars, with no coordinates to tell the time, not knowing how long they had travelled through the darkness and confusion, Yu Qing estimated that it had been about two hours when he suddenly felt something was wrong.
The boat had travelled to an area where reefs were exposed everywhere. The rugged reefs had strange shapes, like monsters lurking in the water.
Most importantly, although they had occasionally seen the lights of other boats in the distance along the way, they had not seen any for about half an hour now. Ahead was pitch black, not even a speck of light to be seen.
Sensing something was wrong, Yu Qing recalled the abnormal encounter when boarding the boat and instantly became vigilant. He immediately turned back to sound out the situation, wanting to see how the other would answer, “Boatman, is the direction you are taking not wrong?”
Hearing this, Mu Aotie immediately stared at the stern, just in time to see the boatman’s two hands resting on the stern retract in response.
Mu Aotie also felt something was wrong. He gripped his sword hilt, quickly stepped onto the stern, and looked down. He only saw rippling waves, the boatman had already dived into the water and disappeared.
Shing! He drew his sword.
Seeing this, Yu Qing and Nan Zhu immediately knew something was wrong. The two also drew their swords in succession.
Seeing that there was going to be a fight, despite his neck being in Nan Zhu’s hand, Little Black still got excited and shouted, “Big club!”
The big club immediately crawled back along the gunwale, bounced up, and tightened into a large club, landing in Little Black’s hand.
At this time, Mu Aotie also urgently turned back to inform them of the situation, “The boatman dived into the water and ran.”
Nan Zhu raised his sword and looked around in alarm and doubt, “What is the situation? Can you encounter a merman boatman playing dirty as soon as you come to the Nether Sea? Is the risk of travelling to the sea market so great now? Does Qianliu Mountain not care?”
“I am afraid it is not Qianliu Mountain’s fault.” Yu Qing, with cold eyes looking around, raised his hand and revealed the ring on his hand, “I am afraid it is related to this thing.”
“Ring?” Nan Zhu became even more alarmed and doubtful, “For the sake of a ring, this boatman dares to break the rules of the ‘Nether Temple’ and the order of Qianliu Mountain?”
Yu Qing, “This is not an ordinary ring. Could it be that this boatman knows this is not an ordinary ring?”
Nan and Mu looked at each other. With Old Fifteen saying this, the abnormal situation after the boatman appeared could indeed serve as an explanation.
Mu Aotie hesitated, “How could this merman boatman possibly know about the ring?”
Yu Qing, “Do not forget, the sea tribes here should have existed before the outside cultivators captured this place at the sea market.”
Nan and Mu immediately understood what he meant. The sea tribes might have had contact with the Netherworld Immortal Mansion before the outside cultivators occupied this place, so it was not impossible that they knew about the ring.
Nan Zhu stretched his head to glance at the ring face on Yu Qing’s finger again, “If that is the case, using a fish as a ring face is indeed very rare. To actually use a fish as a ring face, fish and water are related, could it be that it happens to be related to this sea?”
Yu Qing did not dare to relax his expression closely watching for underwater movements, “With these mermen alone, even underwater, they are no match for us. He does not dare to confront us head-on. Bringing us here, he either wants to trap us to death, or there is something here convenient for dealing with us. In any case, it is a place unfavourable to us. We should not stay here long. Regardless of the direction, let us first row the boat away from this water area.”
Mu Aotie immediately bent down and cast a spell, flipping over a seat board at the stern with one palm. He opened two in succession, threw one to Nan Zhu, and the two then quickly sat down, each holding a board and rowing on one side. With the cultivation of the two, doing so caused the boat to quickly sail out of this reef area.
The two unhesitatingly and quickly carried out Yu Qing’s words, also because repeated adventures had summed up a bit of experience. Once encountering danger, Old Fifteen’s reaction to danger was still quite sharp, at least much better than theirs, repeatedly leading them to escape death.
Almost at the same time, the big head’s “di di di” resounding chirping rang out from within Yu Qing’s ponytail.
Nan and Mu were slightly startled. Upon hearing it, they understood that this place indeed concealed a killing intent. The two immediately increased their rowing speed.
Slap! Little Black suddenly smashed the partition board in the middle of the boat with one club, then threw down the big club, sat in the middle of the boat, and followed their example. He also picked up a board and rowed hard.
The three adults were startled by him. Seeing that this was the case, they all breathed a sigh of relief, even somewhat fortunate that this little bastard had not smashed the gunwale. If he had smashed the gunwale and caused water to leak in and sink the boat, like he had smashed the counter at Youjiao Port, the fun would have been great.
The Nether Sea was known as a place where people without navigation could never get out. Without a boat to rest on, no matter how high one’s cultivation, one could not stand on the sea surface indefinitely.
Under the sea, in a reef cave, the merman boatman hid inside and watched the speck of light on the sea surface quickly sail away from this sea area.
After it swam out of the cave, it several times wanted to swim close to the bottom of the boat to sink it, but ultimately did not dare to approach, deeply knowing how terrifying the killing power of those cultivators was. Even though he was a sea tribe skilled in water escape, once he approached and was discovered, he might not be able to escape the killing blow in that instant.
Later, he temporarily gave up on the boat, quickly travelled underwater, and after a short while surfaced, climbed onto a small island, and quickly crawled to a pile of tall mounds. He knocked down one of the mounds, and after seeing a group of “mirage ants” crawling out of the ant nest, he felt even more strange. These things were still here, why were they useless against those people?
He turned his head to look at that speck of light in the distance, then crawled back into the sea, quickly diving through the water in pursuit.