Chapter 242: The Bird-Stabbing Tribe

The sun rose in the east.
On an island off the coast in the southwest of the continent, the wisps of smoke rising from a small fishing village had dwindled to mere threads, nearing their end.
Since the men in the family had to go fishing early, the women would also get up early to prepare meals for them.
Soon, seventy or eighty men of varying ages, whose skin was tanned from years of living by the sea, carrying spears, fish baskets, and fishing nets, came out of the village in groups of three or five.
These men went to a simple dock built of stones, behind which were tied dozens of crude wooden boats, each three to four meters long. This dock was built to prevent the boats from being washed away by the waves during high tides.
The men untied the ropes made of woven grass and pushed the boats onto the beach before setting out to fish in the sea.
These small wooden boats, capable of holding only two or three people, could easily capsize in larger waves, and fierce sea beasts might attack them. So, even though these indigenous fishermen knew there were abundant fish far out at sea, they dared only fish near the shore and never ventured too far from the island.
The weather was good today, and they expected a good catch. Less than half an hour into fishing, their simple nets already yielded many large fish.
The men were delighted, talking among themselves about going home early to sell the fresh fish at a good price in the market of the Blackfish Tribe on the island, so they could have a delicious meal prepared by their wives.
All the able-bodied men thought they wouldn’t need to fish in the afternoon and could spend time with their wives, perhaps even having another strong, dark-skinned child the following year.
In such poor and backward places, with little entertainment available, these fishermen had little else to think about.
Suddenly, a fierce wind brought along huge waves that knocked the dozens of boats around. The three outermost small boats were immediately overturned, and the three men who were in them disappeared into the sea.
These fishermen were all excellent swimmers, so they would simply swim back up after falling into the sea due to the accident.
But after a while, the people on the other boats still didn’t see the three of them reappear. Realizing something was wrong, the men jumped into the water to search, but found no sign of the three men.
These ignorant island fishermen, faced with an unexplainable situation, immediately thought of ghosts and spirits. In panic, they rushed back to shore, as if some terrifying monster were lurking there.

Inside the bubbles beneath the sea surface, invisible to outsiders, Donald and his four companions were curiously observing and examining three indigenous humans from this world. After a while, Donald spoke up, “The physical structure of the humans in this world is basically the same as that of humans in our home world; the only difference lies in their varying strengths in various aspects. It seems, just like the humans in those lower dimensions floating around our home world, they all evolved from the same origin.” He reached this conclusion easily after scanning with the Book of Truth. Since he was the only mage present, such matters naturally fell to him to investigate. “Then wake these guys up quickly and find out more about the human kingdoms in this world!” Vincent, who had long been in charge of the military, naturally understood that knowing both oneself and the enemy was essential for smooth operations. Donald wasted no time—he woke one of the indigenous fishermen and, before the man could even scream, restricted all his movements while allowing his brain to think. Then, tendrils of mental energy invaded the man’s consciousness. This was a level-9 golden spell that invaded the mind, allowing access to the target’s thoughts and all knowledge and memories. The caster could freely alter the target’s memories, change their emotions, beliefs, or even allegiance. Upon leaving, it could impose mind-control effects or erase the victim’s memories of the intrusion. Spells related to the soul were generally advanced spells, and it was difficult to master them without reaching the required casting level. Donald was able to master such a high-level spell quickly thanks to divine knowledge and his innate ability for telepathy. Of course, the hundredfold acceleration from the Time Artifact was also crucial; otherwise, just learning the incantation for a golden spell would take at least a few months. After understanding the general contents of these three targets’ minds, Donald erased their memories of that period and made them fall asleep again. He then woke the next target and cast the powerful mind-invasion spell once more. By the time all three targets were asleep again, the information Donald had obtained from their minds was largely consistent. The small fishing village where these three people lived was not large, with fewer than a hundred households, totaling around two hundred people. It belonged to the Spinebird Tribe, the smallest of the three tribes on Fish Island. Every household in the village worshipped the tribe’s guardian deity, the Great Spinebird God. With the god’s protection, they believed they would have favorable weather the following year, no natural disasters would strike, and fishermen would return safely from sea.

The island they were on was called Wu Yu Island, named after the deity Wu Yu Shen, the guardian god of the most powerful tribe on the island, the Wu Yu Tribe. On the largest land continent in this world, there were countless small tribes like the Thorn Bird Tribe, each with its own deities. However, due to geographical limitations and the number of followers, the strength of these small tribes’ totem deities varied greatly—ranging from at most gold-tier strength to those that could exhibit the power of legendary warriors within their own domains. Medium-sized tribes generally had demi-god-level totem deities, and with Donald and his group’s current level, they dared not provoke them. If they were targeted by those beyond the legendary tier, they would likely have nowhere to hide on this continent. Such powerful beings retained at least legendary-level strength even when away from their own territories, and Donald and his four companions combined could not withstand a single strike from them. Although they had protective measures like divine shields, passively taking hits was not what Donald wanted. Therefore, his goal was to find a remote place far from those powerful tribes first, then team up to defeat a totem deity of gold-tier strength and claim their spoils. There were no strong medium-sized tribes near the overseas islands they were on, and the Thorn Bird God, the totem deity that seemed the weakest on Wu Yu Island, was the perfect first target for them.