Chapter 278: Chapter 276: Technological Blockade
’Isn’t this just taking the long way around?’
"Trust me, just keep going this way. We’ll be there soon," the little person replied.
Hearing the little person’s words, Mo Ling skeptically walked on a little further.
Sure enough, the mist around him grew heavy, and his surroundings became even dimmer.
However, a faint light flickered in the distance.
"See that light? It’s right over there."
Mo Ling followed the little person’s directions and walked toward it.
The light seemed to be right in front of him, but Mo Ling still had to walk for a very long time.
"Where on earth are we?" Mo Ling finally couldn’t help but ask. He suspected they were no longer in the library.
"These are the tunnels."
"Tunnels?"
"Yes, the tunnels built by the Chali Race," the little person explained.
"Each time they awaken, most of the Chali Race immediately fall back into slumber. However, a small portion stays behind to monitor the Fishman Race. Their numbers are small enough to avoid attracting attention, so they hide in these tunnels."
As they walked, the little person told Mo Ling what the Chali Race had been doing all these years.
...
When the Chali Race first awoke, they realized it was the work of the School, who wanted to use them to attract the mist.
But the Chali Race didn’t know the School’s true purpose, nor did they know why the School needed to enter slumber.
So, the Chali Race had most of their people separate again, leaving behind a small group to investigate the matter.
Although this small contingent of Chali would stir the mist, they wouldn’t cause it to shift its target completely.
And unlike the School, they didn’t need to use all sorts of parts and tools; the mist had no effect on them.
The Chali Race had lived on this island for so long that they were intimately familiar with the terrain. They widened the existing tunnels formed by interconnected tree hollows, using them as channels for their covert operations.
The School was so focused on implementing its own plan that it never discovered the Chali Race hiding in the shadows.
After a period of time, the Chali Race figured out the School’s objective: they wanted to use skill replacement to get rid of their eternal life.
Of course, the Chali Race wouldn’t let the School succeed.
However, they were powerless against the School, so they could only turn their attention to the newly born generations of the Fishman Race.
But the bodies of this Fishman Race were immortal.
The School, in turn, exploited the principle of eternal life, allowing the souls to die while the bodies remained forever.
Only when the School awoke each time would those immortal bodies age slightly.
This sliver of time was nowhere near enough for the Chali Race to act. Besides, the School always kept a close watch on the new Fishman Race, so the Chali couldn’t tamper with anything.
So, they decided to wait until the School was slumbering to make their move.
This small group of Chali waited in the tunnels until the School fell into slumber once more.
They quickly devised a plan.
The School wanted to learn new skills, so the Chali would make sure they couldn’t.
Thus, they began to secretly interfere with the technological development of the new Fishmen.
At every key developmental milestone, all sorts of strange things would happen to interrupt the new Fishmen’s progress:
The first time they tried to make fire, it would suddenly start to rain.
The first time they tried to make tools, they found they couldn’t find any materials no matter where they looked.
The first time they tried to go to sea, the boat they had painstakingly built would suddenly be damaged.
...
While these incidents only slowed the new Fishmen’s development slightly, their cumulative effect forcefully suppressed their civilization, keeping it at a very primitive level.
The Fishman Race tried to practice agriculture, but they discovered there was no suitable land on the island. In truth, this was also the Chali Race’s doing.
The Fishman Race also tried to domesticate some of the island’s animals, but the animals would all die inexplicably.
Although the ancient Fishman texts taught them these skills, they would stop trying after a few failed attempts.
This caused the new Fishmen’s development to be extremely slow.
Unable to succeed at anything, they could only languish on the island, and a hidebound culture gradually formed within the race.
This was exactly what the Chali Race wanted.
Although talented individuals who attempted to innovate would often appear among the new Fishmen, they would all eventually die of frustration after constant setbacks.
Though their bodies were immortal, the souls of these new Fishmen were not. After a period of time, these souls would be replaced by a new batch.
And so, their civilization would revert to a primitive state.
This new batch of souls would then go through the same process.
After struggling endlessly with no hope of progress in sight, they would sink into a mire and stop struggling.
It was a compromise with their environment. The Fishman Race repeated this backward existence year after year.
Their inability to develop wasn’t due to a lack of ambition or intelligence, but simply because they were constantly living in the shadow of the Chali Race.
In such an environment, the Fishman Race became increasingly isolated and stagnant, until one batch of souls died off and another appeared, only to repeat the same mistakes.
The School, of course, also became aware of the problems with these new souls—slow development and a backward civilization. So, they could only increase the intensity with which they disseminated their legacy, hoping to force these new souls to skip a stage of civilization.
But under the Chali Race’s covert influence, the Fishman Race remained trapped on the island, complacent and conservative, gradually sinking into decline.
After waking up one time and finding that the new souls still hadn’t developed, the School came up with a new idea: to use the Fake Fishmen.
These Fake Fishmen were members of other races whose minds had been altered by the parts. Originally intended as tools for invasion, they now had a different purpose.
Upon awakening, the School used the parts to control these Fake Fishmen—who were also trapped in a state of eternal life—and made them leave the island to return to their homelands.
They had them spread out as far as possible throughout the abyss.
After a while, when the souls were replaced, the new souls would passively have their identities twisted by the parts. This would trigger a fabricated memory, making them believe they were Fishmen. They would then return to Fishman Island, bringing knowledge from other races with them.
The School wanted to use this method to break the technological blockade and inject the cultures of other races onto Fishman Island.
However, the Fishman Race reacted to the Fake Fishmen with fear rather than acceptance. They isolated and ostracized them.
The cultures never had a chance to clash; the spark was extinguished by the new Fishman Race themselves.
It wasn’t until a human exploration ship arrived on the island in the last two hundred years that the Fishman Race’s isolation was broken. Only then did this generation of new Fishmen begin to learn about the world.
At the same time, people like Jeff appeared among the Fishman Race. He held no prejudice against the Fake Fishmen and was instead eager to learn from their foreign cultures and knowledge.
Under the combined effect of these two factors, eternal life was unknowingly replaced.
Meanwhile, after humans arrived on the island, the Chali Race realized they could no longer interfere with the new Fishmen’s development.
They could only secretly disrupt the new Fishmen’s progress; they couldn’t step out into the open and expose their existence.
Faced with the impact of human culture, the Chali Race waited quietly, hoping eternal life would not be replaced.
However, the very thing they feared most still came to pass.
Bombarded by all kinds of external cultures and knowledge, the new Fishmen learned many new skills, a lot of which the School itself did not possess.
And just like that, eternal life was silently replaced.
"But looking at it now, this is the best possible outcome. It’s a good thing we have you," the little person said, patting Mo Ling on the shoulder in praise.
