Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat - Chapter 652

Chapter 652: The Tide That Hungers

The King’s sudden decree stunned every Merfolk in the hall.

One male Merfolk, roughly the same height as the Third Princess, stepped forward, his face marked with disbelief.

“Father… you can’t! Our ancestral law forbids us from using any force against the sea creatures…”

“Silence! Do you dare defy the Merfolk Sovereign’s Sacred Mandate?” the King snapped, his voice cutting through the chamber.

“But…” The young man’s protest died in his throat.

“Don’t play games with me,” the King said sharply. “I used that exact trick ten thousand years ago. I’m still alive, so don’t you dare try it!”

In a blur, his small figure flashed forward. The King appeared directly before the male Merfolk, his entire frame barely the size of the younger man’s head.

“Do you know why you are the only male among my children?” His voice softened, though it carried a sting. “I didn’t want you to repeat my path. Yet you’ve disappointed me.” He gave a cold snort. “It’s not just the Megalodon Clan. There are eleven other sea tribes. If the Sovereign’s chosen one commands it, wiping them all out is simply fulfilling the Divine Will.”

Without another word, the King turned and drifted out of the palace, his golden aura fading into the deep-blue light.

Ethan stood frozen, struggling to process what he had just witnessed.

‘What in the world… Did I just walk into a royal family drama?’

Still, something about the King’s behavior struck him. The sudden shift in tone, the way he invoked the Sacred Mandate—it all pointed to one thing. The King had accepted his identity. If not, he would never have spoken those words before his own court.

Everyone in the palace followed after the King, their movements synchronized and solemn. Only the stunned male Merfolk remained behind, still processing the outburst.

The Third Princess floated closer to Ethan, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Don’t read too much into it. My father’s been looking for an excuse to get rid of those meddling tribes for ages. The ancestral law just wouldn’t let him. Now he finally found a loophole.”

She didn’t finish the sentence, but Ethan understood perfectly.

The ten-thousand-year-old monarch was using him as a pretext.

Still, Ethan didn’t care. The Megalodon Clan had to be dealt with, one way or another.

If he had it his way, he would have preferred to simply storm in and end it quickly. This business of mobilizing troops, assigning ranks, and organizing sieges was far too tedious for his taste.

—

While the Merfolk prepared for war, deep in the ocean far from the City of the Whale Fall, a vast tide of sea creatures gathered in the dark. The water churned as if stirred by an ancient hunger.

“Father, I’ve done it this time! I finally gave you the perfect excuse to attack the City of the Whale Fall!”

A small Merfolk, barely a meter tall, grinned with pride.

If Ethan had been there, he would have recognized him as one of the dozen Merfolk he had slapped across the face upon entering the city.

Beside the little Merfolk loomed a monstrous figure: the lower half was fish, the upper half human, but its head belonged to a massive Megalodon shark.

“Well done, well done… but what about this human you mentioned?” the shark-headed monster rumbled, his voice like grinding stone.

“It’s the one I heard about from that fool of a prince—the one mentioned in the Merfolk Sacred Bone. But they’ve brought in several humans recently, and none turned out to be the real deal. This one’s probably the same.”

He paused, his expression shifting to a sly grin. “Oh, and Father, those two women I picked out for you a few days ago… have you, uh, tasted them yet?”

The monster’s great tail flicked lazily through the water. “Tasted? Not yet, you little wretch. I haven’t fully mastered my human transformation… but soon. Very soon.” His deep laugh rolled like thunder through the depths.

The flick of his tail made his meaning clear—his lower half was still far from human. There were… limitations he had yet to overcome.

“Congratulations, Father! Another step closer to ascension. The day our Megalodon Clan unites the sea tribes is almost here!” The smaller Merfolk straightened, suddenly solemn, and bowed deeply.

The shark-headed monster led a massive host of his kin through the dark waters toward the City of the Whale Fall. As they advanced, more tribes joined them—squid, crabs, rays, and creatures far older than any legend. Each tribe’s leader took their place at the front, laughing and boasting as the army swelled into a living tide.

“Report! Urgent news!”

A tiny shrimp darted forward from the distance, trembling so hard his shell clicked audibly.

“What’s got you flailing like that?” one of the generals barked.

“It’s terrible! Our vanguard—completely devoured!” the shrimp stammered, voice shaking.

“Devoured?” The tribal leaders exchanged confused looks. “What do you mean, devoured?”

The shrimp’s antennae quivered as he spoke. “A monstrous fish burst out from the City of the Whale Fall—it swallowed our entire vanguard in one bite! I think I was too small for it to notice, so I hid behind a rock. Once it went back into the city, I ran.”

At less than a meter tall, the shrimp was indeed tiny among giants.

“What?!” The gathered leaders roared in outrage.

The shark-headed monster’s muscles bulged, his gills flaring wide.

“Speed up!” he bellowed. “The Merfolk are keeping a monster fish? Have they forgotten their ancestral law? How dare they defy the balance of the sea!”

For ages, the Merfolk had only appeared at certain times, leaving the deep ocean to the other tribes. Each revival of the Merfolk was treated as a harvest season by the others. Their women—beautiful beyond comparison—were a coveted prize.

Even more, Merfolk women could mate with any species and bear children. Each time the Merfolk revived, they forged marriage alliances with the larger sea tribes. The children born of those unions were later brought to the City of the Whale Fall, ranked by the purity of their bloodline, and assigned to guard the city.

The women who married out were also required to return before the city sealed itself again. No one forced them to come back, but when the great Merfolk pearl above the city went dark, any who remained outside would turn to stone—never to awaken again. Only those within the city would be resurrected when it next awoke.

Even so, many chose to stay with their lovers, knowing full well their fate. Most of those lovers, of course, saw them as trophies rather than partners.

Over time, the sea tribes had come to see the Merfolk as weak and easy prey.

In truth, the Merfolk had little choice. Their numbers were few, and women vastly outnumbered men. They practiced strict monogamy, and once a Merfolk fell in love, that bond lasted a lifetime. It was their way of preserving the fragile balance within the City of the Whale Fall.

Merfolk men, however, were bound by even harsher rules—they could only take pure-blooded Merfolk wives. Anyone who broke that law was banished forever, left to perish when the great pearl’s light went out.

Now, the twelve tribes surrounding the City of the Whale Fall had gathered into one massive army, their forces swelling like a storm front across the seafloor.

Inside the city, a different kind of storm was brewing. The Merfolk were mobilizing, their soldiers taking up ancient weapons that hadn’t seen the light of day in ten thousand years.

It was the first time in an age that the Merfolk had assembled such power.

Ethan watched from the high balcony of the coral palace, the glow of the great pearl reflected in his eyes.

The sight before him was breathtaking—countless warriors moving in perfect rhythm, shimmering tails flashing in the water like waves of light.