Chapter 230: 6. Social Study of the Cangniao Tribe
“Well, if we are talking about the Cangniao Tribe, we must first mention their once-loyal counterparts, the Phoenix Race.”
Emhart floated in mid-air as he spoke, his body slightly opening up, with thick pages inside flipping rapidly like rotating gears.
Through the opened pages, Fisher saw countless changing characters on the animated papers, some recorded in Nali’s script, some in Shivali’s script and Northern Region’s script, and further along, many characters Fisher had never seen before.
As the pages turned, a glow of inspiration burst forth from the cover of Emhart’s book, and his gaze became much wiser, his tone increasingly assured while describing the content,
“It is said that the Phoenixes reside in a gigantic frost Parasol Tree that grows inverted deep in the snow mountains, with branches longer than any mountains you have seen, and its leaves wider than any islands you have encountered. Throughout the long passage of time, they have lived in that Parasol Tree, and all beings in the Northern Region have never seen the true form of the Phoenix Race, only celebrating their shadows in the legends passed down orally.”
“But when the Northern Region was tainted by the Chaos Race from the Spirit Realm, the Phoenixes seemed to have anticipated this and flew down from the Parasol Tree to lead the beings of the Northern Region in a desperate battle. With the combined efforts of all beings in the Northern Region, the vessels of the Chaos Race were ultimately killed one by one, and their consciousness returned to the Spirit Realm.”
“The Phoenix Race contributed the most in this war for unification of the Northern Region and was naturally revered as the King of the North by everyone; the second were the six subhuman races that swore to follow the Phoenix Race to the death. The Cangniao Tribe, which you want to know about now, is the first among these six subhuman races.”
“They are considered the closest subhuman race to the Phoenixes, residing for generations under that giant frost Parasol Tree, atop the snow mountains, performing the heavy duty of protecting the Parasol Tree. After the great war ended, the Phoenix King led all the Phoenixes back to the Parasol Tree, leaving the jurisdiction of the Northern Region to her three children.”
“She requested the Holy Spawn to forge four divine weapons for her and her children, having her children swear an oath on their mother swords to protect the lives of Northern Region beings, to follow the guidance of fate, and to maintain its beauty and peace. In the records, the Phoenix divided the Northern Region, excluding the snow mountains, into three parts, entrusting these three lands and the six subhuman races to her three esteemed Phoenix children.”
“But that was a long, long time ago, and it has been a long, long time since the Cangniao Tribe collectively migrated to other places in the Northern Region with the Phoenix children.”
The pages inside Emhart stopped turning, and he continued,
“However, since there is the Ice Prince sword by the female captain’s side, I speculate that at that time, the Cangniao Tribe and another race followed the Phoenix holding the Ice Prince sword to the southernmost tip of the Northern Region, which is now the location of Sardinia, probably to prevent the Chaos Race from attacking the Northern Region again from the sea, but I cannot be certain, as this information is pieced together from vague poems.”
Fisher, still contemplating while stroking his chin, raised an eyebrow at this. He had previously thought Emhart’s source of information was some dust-covered history book of the Northern Region, but he never expected it to be these poetically crafted lyrics, which made him doubt the authenticity of the previous information.
Seeing Fisher’s expression change slightly, Emhart immediately knew what he was thinking and became momentarily furious, glaring at him and scolding,
“You human! Don’t think I can tell you this quickly now, do you know how long I took to gather all these poems? Sometimes the first half of a poem was submerged in some lake in the Northern Region, while the latter half ended up in the library of the Abyss Demons; I only saw this piece of history after a fierce fight with someone. Anyway, Baemon recorded it that way; if you have any questions, go ask her. I’m not responsible.”
In essence, all the information Emhart had came from obscure second-hand sources; after all, he hadn’t lived through that era, which was so far back that it left no trace, and perhaps Eil might know something.
However, despite being second-hand information, there were indeed some valuable parts, as he had seen different kinds of subhuman races in the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans under the “Snow Mountain Affiliated Races” label, with the Cangniao Tribe among them.
Though the other aspects of his Supplement Handbook compared to others indeed had shortcomings, in terms of subhumans, it surely claimed to be the very best.
So, if the six races in the poetry truly exist, how many other stories are real?
As he contemplated this, he suddenly had a question and asked Emhart,
“Wait a minute, you said that after pacifying the Northern Region, the Phoenix King took the majority of Phoenixes back to the Parasol Tree, leaving only her three children below. Since we haven’t seen any Phoenixes in the Northern Region, could it be possible that the descendants of those three Phoenix children went extinct, while other Phoenixes are still in the snowy depths of the Parasol Tree?”
“Ah, nobody can be sure, but I have a miscellaneous book here that records this story; just take it as entertainment, but I don’t guarantee its authenticity.”
Upon hearing Fisher’s question, Emhart thought for a second or two and began flipping through the contents of his hidden books,
“It is recorded here that Phoenixes are extremely sensitive to fate, with the Phoenix King being the most extraordinary among them. It’s said that she could predict the future’s development through the direction of the snowstorm in the mountains, and the reason she took the majority of the Phoenixes back to the Parasol Tree was that she saw some future fate.”
“But this matter is indeed too ethereal, and so far, you humans have explored the snow mountains many times, yet found nothing inside, let alone that enormous, infinitely large, inverted-growing frost Parasol Tree.”
“There is a great possibility that this legend is all false; in reality, the Phoenix King has long been dead, and her three children fought among themselves with the remaining tribe in the Northern Region until they annihilated themselves. I think that’s a bit more reliable; what do you think?”
Fisher had formed a rough outline in his mind of the past history, but he did not continue to ask Emhart about the Phoenix Race; they had strayed too far from the topic. He had come to inquire about information on the Cangniao Tribe, so he pulled the conversation back,
“So, you haven’t told me what the current situation of the Cangniao Tribe is.”
“Oh, the Cangniao Tribe, sorry; after all, I’m not a small character, and I tend to unintentionally reveal some grand epic content about the past while chatting. Just bear with me, hey, don’t get physical.”
Seeing Fisher looking like he might pounce again, he flipped through the pages while dodging backwards,
“Since the Phoenixes disappeared, the Northern Region subhumans who came to the southern shore following the Ice Prince sword have split into two factions: one wants to return to the snow mountains to reside, continuing to guard the now-missing frost Parasol Tree for the Phoenix Race; the other faction intends to uphold their promise to the Ice Prince and protect the southern shore of the Northern Region for generations.”
“The Cangniao Tribe that returned to inhabit the snow mountains now hunts in the snow daily, while those remaining on the southern shore are quite few; now they all live in the southernmost end of the Kingdom of Sardinia at the Kanting Bridge, getting by with humans. And unsurprisingly, your female captain’s acquaintance, cough cough, friend, comes from the Kanting Bridge.”
Kanting Bridge, a transliteration from the Northern Region language, originally means “Southern Fortress,” which is the closest Northern Region territory to the Western Continent of Shivali.
“And the Cangniao Tribe inherently possesses a quality, that is, loyalty; even long after the Phoenix vanished, they still follow the oaths set by their ancestors, which is evident from this. In other words, that second mate Aoxi, as the subordinate of the female captain, will absolutely be loyal to her. The best way to deal with her would be to give orders through the captain; she would definitely listen. Oh, Emhart, you are so bad; I really like it.”
“Is there anything else about the Cangniao Tribe?”
“What else could there be? They are in such a miserable state now, reduced to serving humans as guards; if anything else were to happen, it would be many years later after they’ve all gone extinct from the human realm.”
“Alright, you’re of no use for now; go play with Kalma and the others.”
After confirming that Emhart had no other useful knowledge to share, Fisher stroked his chin to organize the information he had just received and began to shoo Emhart away like a fly, which made the cover of Emhart’s book turn red with anger as he nearly cursed Fisher with the most malicious words.
But at the same time, Emhart was worried that this guy would lash out violently at him again. To prevent Fisher’s attack, he quickly flew to a spot near the door, ready to curse, but then thought that at this distance, he would catch up to him quickly.
Hmph, I’ll let this one slide this time; I’ll insult you in my heart!
In Fisher’s view, the book floating in mid-air swallowed its anger and mumbled as it left the room to look for Kalma and the others, after all, they had learned their lesson and should not put smelly and dirty rats on him again.
Fisher then took out the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans and checked the research progress on the Cangniao Tribe,
[Cangniao Tribe Biological Research Progress: 17%]
[Cangniao Tribe Social Research Progress: 36%]
The rapidly progressing numerical indicators immediately caught Fisher’s attention; he never expected that obtaining knowledge through Emhart would truly be useful!
Previously, the biological research progress of other subhumans he had studied had increased rapidly, while the social progress had lagged behind. This was because the social landscape of the subhuman race obtained from individual accounts was very vague, and the individuals he studied were not sociologists who had conducted in-depth research, which resulted in particularly slow progress.
Now, with Emhart, he was able to remedy this situation.
This way, he was responsible for biological research on subhumans, while Emhart handled social research, meaning the rewards from the Supplement Handbook would double.
Before Fisher’s eyes, a new line of ethereal text surged forth from the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, reading,
[You have unlocked the rewards for the Affiliated Races: providing you with a hint that allows you to identify the Snow Mountain Affiliated Races without binding; the next research phase reward obtained from studying the Snow Mountain Affiliated Races increases by 20%.]
[Cangniao Tribe Social Research Progress has reached 20%, unlocking the first-phase reward:]
[Physique +2, Loyalty -1, Cold Resistance +3.]
“?”
Looking at the ethereal hint text, Fisher’s previously joyful expression suddenly stiffened.
Please vote, tip, and support; it is very important to me.
Thank you very much for your support!
(End of this chapter)
