Chapter 1006: Chapter 501: Confrontation
"Fishmen?"
Xia Nan’s heart couldn’t help but stir, and a light of understanding flashed in his eyes.
It was indeed as he had guessed.
Back when Xia Nan first landed on the small island of Wildberry Cliff, he sensed a faint, familiar aura in the air.
However, due to the lack of solid evidence, he couldn’t be sure and only increased his vigilance in his heart.
Upon hearing the words of this scarred young villager, he immediately connected it with the Sha Hua Fishmen he had encountered before.
But... why were they here?
Out of caution—or perhaps the "Fishmen" mentioned by the villager were of another type—and also out of curiosity about why these foreign intelligent creatures had come to Wildberry Cliff, Xia Nan reached out to support the young villager, whose weak body was on the verge of collapse due to his excitement, allowing him to lean against the railing and sit down. He asked:
"Where did you see these Fishmen, and what do they look like?"
"Right here in this dungeon, sir!"
"Covered in scales, blue-green in color."
"As tall as a human, some with four arms."
"A few days ago, they were brought here by those pirates, very fierce!"
Xia Nan’s action of breaking open the iron bars seemed to bring hope to the villagers locked in the dungeon, who, despite their sluggish minds due to prolonged abuse and captivity, quickly reacted.
Before the young villager could respond, those still able to speak around him began answering from all sides.
Adult human-sized, with blue-green scales, some with two pairs of arms—the villagers’ descriptions of the appearance confirmed to Xia Nan that the "Fishmen" they mentioned were indeed the Sha Hua Fishmen he had encountered before.
But "came to the dungeon with the pirates..."
Does that mean the Ebbtide Gang’s pirates have teamed up with the Sha Hua Fishmen?
This was unusual.
After all, Sha Hua Fishmen naturally despised other races and viewed islanders at sea as invaders of their territory, often slaughtering and plundering the merchant ships and villages they encountered.
And the Ebbtide Gang was merely a small-to-medium-sized gang organization within Suo Yu Bay.
These two forces should never be linked together under normal circumstances.
Xia Nan pondered in his heart.
The members of the Iron Rock Shield Team beside him were equally surprised at the presence of the Sha Hua Fishmen but seemed indifferent to the villagers in the dungeon.
Sensitively noticing this, Xia Nan turned to Seli beside him and inquired, and the answer he received made his heart pause.
"You’re saying they were kidnapped to be sold as slaves?"
"Probably a new income channel developed by the Ebbtide Gang," the Female Ranger said nonchalantly, nodding. "These pirates are quite bold, daring to keep these people near Suo Yu Bay without fearing being discovered by the Governor’s sea patrol guards."
In the Sevia Kingdom, slavery had been abolished for many years.
The trade of buying and selling slaves was explicitly prohibited, and any citizen violating this law would be subjected to the harshest criminal penalties.
Of course, this was only on the surface.
In secret, the nobles had long developed various legitimate means to exploit loopholes over countless years since the law’s implementation, allowing de facto servitude to continue.
Centered around land, binding peasants within, possibly having families and meager property, yet required to perform unpaid labor for the Lords and contribute nearly all their income;
Manipulating debts, using loan shark traps and territorial judicial authority, burdening freemen with insurmountable debts, forcing them to repay with a lifetime of labor;
Besides that, long-term apprenticeships lasting two to three decades, adopting orphans to make them engage in lifelong heavy labor, framing them as pagans...
More so, transporting vagabonds and debtors from within the Sevia Kingdom to surrounding countries where slavery still existed, turning them into slaves there, and then bringing them back as foreign servants, forcibly creating legal conflicts.
Power, wealth, strength—if one possessed any of these to a sufficient degree, so-called prohibitions became mere scraps of paper.
And the abolished slaves merely got a new name, continuing to exist.
Suo Yu Bay, being the core town of the Southern Islands, also served as an important port city of the Kingdom, with a mix of fish and dragons, often seeing foreigners from other regions.
Once leaving the port, one faces the vast and unregulated sea.
Under these circumstances, it’s natural for the greedy ones, driven by interests, to abduct citizens from the Kingdom’s remote areas and sell them as slaves abroad.
Facing internal development constraints within Suo Yu Bay, the Ebbtide Gang, in urgent need of financial support, with their pirate identity as a "black glove," naturally eyed this money-making path.
Since transmigrating to the Sevia Kingdom, Xia Nan, after spending a long time, had somewhat understood the national conditions of this country and knew some of the underlying rules. Hearing Seli’s words made him realize the purpose of the Ebbtide Gang in keeping these villagers here.
However... the appearance of the Sha Hua Fishmen led Xia Nan’s rather meticulous mind to make some inevitable connections.
Previous encounters with these foreign maritime species had made Xia Nan aware that these Fishmen were plotting something, forming large groups, and engaging in slaughter of islanders and sacrificial ceremonies.
Now, inexplicably tangled with the Ebbtide Gang.
Considering the current situation, it forced him to suspect that perhaps these forcibly abducted islanders, about to be labeled as "slaves," were indeed being bought by the Sha Hua Fishmen.
