Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat - Chapter 656

Chapter 656: A World Without Water

Ethan had not expected the Merfolk King to attack so suddenly. All it took was a question about canned fish and a little too much talk from the wrong man, and the King’s temper snapped like a line under a weight it could not bear.

The King’s power was not ordinary, and the Megalodon Clan King across from him was no weakling either. Starfall and Regis stood frozen, both having felt that momentary surge from the Merfolk King, a surge that far outstripped their own strength. They had come with Ethan ready to use their Apex State to smash any resistance and bring Lyla back, and for the first time since they arrived, they were relieved no full clash had broken out. Had a fight begun, they might not have lasted.

“My great-nephew,” the Merfolk King said, his voice cold as it cut across the gathered ranks of a hundred thousand Sea Clan warriors, “for this canned fish, do you prefer live fish or dead?”

His calm stare and that single question left Ethan bewildered. The King’s obsession with canned fish was baffling.

“Live ones taste better,” Ethan said after a moment’s thought.

“Good. My great-nephew, when you return, you must absolutely bring me the method for making canned fish.” The King’s tone softened, then grew grave. “Do you know why we are held captive by the Twelve Sea Clans? It is because of food shortages. They supply what we eat, but they bring us rotten fish and spoiled shrimp, always in pitiful amounts. We are always hungry. If we could learn canning, we could fish for ourselves, store food in bulk, and no longer be subject to them. My people would not have to marry into their clans to survive.”

Ethan listened, surprised by how serious the King sounded. “Why can’t you fish for yourselves now?” he asked.

“The risk of going out is too great. Bringing back a small catch is not worth it, and a large haul will spoil,” the King said, shaking his head.

“What risk?” Ethan asked, catching the important detail.

“We Merfolk are valuable from head to tail,” the King said, his expression odd as he hesitated for a moment. Ethan remembered the old legends, the whispered stories about merfolk oil burning in the eternal lamps of ancient tombs, pearls falling like tears when a princess wept. In the human world any of those treasures would buy fortunes.

The Megalodon Clan King barked a laugh at the King’s words, the sound arrogant and loud. “Merfolk King, are you delusional enough to think you can join with a few humans and wipe out my Twelve Sea Clans? You must be dreaming. You are strong, but you are only one Merfolk.”

Other clan leaders began to laugh with him, but the Merfolk King, unperturbed, returned their ridicule with a cold, chilling laugh of his own.

“I have been preparing for ten thousand years, The only thing that held me back was an ancestral decree. I planned to use my death as the sacrifice to wipe out your entire race before I returned to the sea’s embrace. Now my great-nephew has come, and that plan can be moved forward.”

Ethan felt, by all reason, that he should be angry. The King was using him as a tool, and he could hear that in the words. Still, something about the King’s bluntness disarmed him; there was an odd, almost human simplicity to it that made him smile despite himself.

“Oh? Such ambition,” the Megalodon King said, his posture changing as his laughter faded. “No wonder the Divine Sea warned us to be careful about this Merfolk resurgence.”

“The Divine Sea,” the Merfolk King said, his face hardening. “Hmph. So you are connected to them. I suspected as much. When my father returned to the sea ten thousand years ago, he should never have broken your seals. Now I really cannot let you live.”

Hearing the words Divine Sea, the Merfolk King’s eyes narrowed even further, sharp as a blade gliding across old wounds. “My great-nephew,” he said, his voice carrying the weight of command, “I ask that you and your companions hold the line for this King.”

Ethan had been about to ask what exactly the Divine Sea represented, another great power beneath the waves perhaps, but the King spoke first, and the urgency in his tone left no room for idle questions. War had arrived. Whatever trump card the King had prepared across ten long millennia, Ethan could feel it in his bones: this would not be clean. It would be costly, and victory might come laced with ruin.

These Twelve Sea Clans had once been subordinates of the Merfolk. Ten thousand years ago, just before the first Merfolk King perished, he had lifted the seals restraining them, and that single act had brought about the troubled underwater world Ethan was now standing in.

“Your Majesty,” Ethan said, not stepping back, his voice calm and almost light, “wouldn’t it be easier to re-seal them, and force them to collect food without complaint?”

His gaze swept over the distant hosts of Crab Soldiers and Shrimp Soldiers thundering through the currents like an army of armored nightmares. Down here, everything was stronger. In the human world, an expert like Matriarch Whitmore was revered as nearly invincible, but here in the deep sea, her strength was barely above the foot soldiers.

The Merfolk King shook his head, sorrow flickering briefly in his eyes. “My great-nephew, you do not understand. Though I have prepared for a long time, my strength now is nothing compared to the Merfolk in their prime. To re-subdue the Twelve Sea Clans is impossible. But to wipe them out…” He drew in a slow breath, voice steady, “I can do that.”

“Then if I asked you to simply control them,” Ethan replied, his smile widening as if he were discussing something casual over tea, “could you do it?”

The King froze. Slowly, his eyes brightened, realization dawning. “My great-nephew, are you—”

“Hahaha, now!” Ethan cut him off with a shout that cracked like thunder.

“Water, vacuum!”

The moment the words left his lips, a deep, resonant vibration rolled above their heads, like distant drums pounding through the ocean floor. The seawater around them rippled violently as a massive sphere of water separated from the surrounding sea, its surface trembling.

Then it expanded.

Boom.

In the blink of an eye the sphere swelled to dozens of kilometers in diameter, swallowing even a portion of Whale Fall City behind Ethan. From the outside it looked like water, but everything inside had been stripped bare—there was not a single drop. The sea had been expelled by overwhelming force.

Crackle. Splash.

The world lurched. The Merfolk King dropped to one knee, bracing with both hands. All across the battlefield, one hundred thousand Sea Clan warriors collapsed, their bodies hitting the exposed ground with dull, heavy thumps as the water vanished from beneath them.

“The Power of the Sea…? Impossible,” the Megalodon Clan King rasped, his bravado shattered. “Run! Run!”

He slapped his tail against the ground with enough force to shatter stone, desperate to retreat, but while he managed to stagger backward, the lesser warriors could not even stand. They rolled and writhed helplessly, their bodies overburdened by gravity without water to buoy them.

“Shark fin is delicious,” a voice drawled, smoke curling into view, black tinged with crimson. “I like it.”

The plume billowed into the Megalodon King’s path, and out of it stepped Starfall, Ethan’s father, calm and lethal. On the opposite side, Regis planted himself in front of the old tortoise clan leader, blocking escape with quiet menace.

“Just as I thought,” Ethan muttered, watching the chaos unfold. “Without seawater their power drops sharply.” He looked back toward the Merfolk King, who stared in disbelief. “Your Majesty, I assume this doesn’t affect you too badly?”

The King did not answer. He did not seem to hear. His eyes were locked on the three beams of swirling light twisting in the vacuum above, awe and terror mingling across his face.

“Did… did the Sea God intervene?” he whispered.