When the structure of these two semi-circular rings was closed, the several sharp thorns inside the rings pierced the skin of the Xuan Yuan family members.
They immediately felt that all the internal energy and even their special abilities within their bodies were sealed!
Now, they could only exert ordinary human physical strength and power. They were no match for the Merfolk, not even the lowest-level Merfolk were something they could deal with in their current state.
"Very good, humans, you have made the correct choice. From now on, you will earn your sustenance through labor!"
Following this, the more than 20 surviving members of the Xuan Yuan family were escorted to the construction site in the distance.
It was only then that they discovered that several hundred humans were already toiling there, with Merfolk acting as overseers beside them.
These people were carrying ropes, with large stones tied to the other end of the ropes. The stones were wet, clearly just pulled from the sea.
Below the stones were rows of logs, with people constantly pulling out logs from behind and placing them in front of the stones.
This method of transportation required perfect coordination. Any mistake would result in the whip from the Merfolk falling upon them.
Looking at these laborers, they all wore the strange neck rings. Their clothes were tattered, and they were all listless. People from every country were present.
Xuan Yuan Changfeng immediately understood that these people were actually the previously missing esper users!
It was clear that they had also been captured, then forced to work and build this mysterious structure of unknown purpose!
Just then, the woman returned to the carriage pulled by the turtle.
"Brother, the issue of the intruders has been resolved. However, these invading humans are becoming stronger and stronger. This time, we have lost nearly a hundred of our kin..."
The woman speaking was named Nu Lin Luo Yun, and the man on the carriage was her brother, Nu Lin Jing Tao.
These Merfolk had a very long history; they had lived on Earth since ancient times.
In ancient times, when the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was abundant, the Merfolk were distributed across the oceans, lakes, and even rivers worldwide.
Of course, for all Merfolk, they had a sacred land, a massive underwater city called Jiu Yuan. This Jiu Yuan was once located beneath the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
Originally, these Merfolk lived in peace, content with their dominion over the oceans. They had no major conflicts with humans. However, things changed later.
Some powerful human cultivators appeared. These great beings possessed the ability to stir up seas and overturn rivers. The ocean was no longer an obstacle or barrier for them.
They also turned their attention to the Merfolk.
To these great beings, the Merfolk were a treasure trove.
Within the Merfolk, water-attribute crystal cores could form, which were their source of energy. These crystal cores were excellent raw materials for assisting cultivation, qi refinement, and alchemy.
The crystal cores within the Merfolk were much purer than those of aquatic beasts.
Among the Merfolk, there were also many beautiful women. These women were often captured by cultivators to serve as maids.
Additionally, there were beings called Clam Spirits among the Merfolk. The tears of Clam Spirits would turn into pearls, making them also frequent targets of capture.
Furthermore, even ordinary low-level Merfolk were not spared. Their body fat was extracted to be used as lamp oil for perpetual lamps.
There were numerous wars between the Merfolk and these cultivators, resulting in heavy losses. On several occasions, they even breached Jiu Yuan, causing significant damage.
Finally, the high-ranking Merfolk convened and made a very difficult decision. They pooled all their energy and consumed almost all their resources to construct hundreds of large-scale magic formations around the underwater city of Jiu Yuan.
Subsequently, many Merfolk elders sacrificed their lives, draining all their magical power, and finally performed a forbidden secret art to move the underwater city of Jiu Yuan to another dimension, leaving only a passage connected to this world!
Thus, to enter Jiu Yuan, one had to pass through the teleportation array that served as the passage. The control of this teleportation array was held by the Merfolk elders on the other end of the spatial passage.
After Jiu Yuan was transported to another dimension, it indeed became much safer. After all, not many cultivators possessed the ability to tear space apart. Moreover, even if they had the ability, it would be difficult to locate Jiu Yuan within the vast expanse of space.
However, a side effect of this action was that the Merfolk outside Jiu Yuan faced annihilation. They were eventually hunted down and wiped out, almost becoming extinct from this plane.
Several hundred years later, things changed again. The small asteroid palace moved away from Earth, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth on Earth began to deplete.
Meanwhile, the formation that maintained the spatial passage between Jiu Yuan and this plane relied primarily on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. With the cessation of this spiritual energy, the formation could no longer be activated, and the connection between Jiu Yuan and this world was severed. The Merfolk, as a species, vanished into the river of history.
Thus, the seas changed into mulberry fields, and a thousand years passed in the world...
When the small asteroid palace returned to Earth again, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth slowly revived, the Merfolk elders in Jiu Yuan suddenly discovered that they had re-established a connection with the teleportation array, and the teleportation array could be activated.
This greatly excited the Merfolk elders because, although Jiu Yuan was not small in area, the Merfolk species had a very strong reproductive capacity, especially the low-level Merfolk, whose reproductive rate was astonishing.
For thousands of years, despite the Merfolk implementing measures similar to family planning to control population growth, they had gradually reached their limit.
The sharp contradiction between population explosion and limited resources arose. At this moment, the Merfolk elders discovered that the teleportation array had been restored.
Therefore, after intense discussions, they decided to send a team of Merfolk back to Earth, primarily to observe the changes on Earth over the past thousand years, assess the safety situation, and then decide whether to relocate some Merfolk from Jiu Yuan to Earth.
Thus, Nu Lin Jing Tao of the Nu Lin family, a noble among the Merfolk, served as the commander of this Merfolk team. His sister, Nu Lin Luo Yun, acted as his deputy and the strategist of the team.
They led a team of several thousand Merfolk through the teleportation array, from Jiu Yuan to Earth. The entrance on this side of the teleportation array was located near the Mariana Islands.