Just as the two were at a tense standoff, Li Luo darted out from behind the crowd. After she said a few words to Jeff, he dazedly retracted his water tentacles.

After curiously sizing up the armor for a moment, Jeff turned and directed the Fake Fishmen behind him to continue fleeing the Moon Altar.

Li Luo ran forward and patted Mo Ling’s arm, urging him to keep up.

The light from the rune lines didn’t last long. It soon stopped spilling out, fading to a faint glow. But Jeff remained wary. He led everyone to the steps at the edge of the Moon Altar before slowly coming to a stop.

"Let’s head down first. Something isn’t right," he said cautiously.

Once they were down the steps, Li Luo hurriedly began to speak with Mo Ling.

"How did you change into this form again? Can you just switch forms at will? And what’s the deal with this armor? Why does it look so much like the gear the Fake Fishmen use? Where did you get it?"

Li Luo blurted out a stream of concerned questions, and Mo Ling was momentarily at a loss for how to explain. Everything on this island was just too bizarre.

He considered answering with the stone bracelet but worried Li Luo would press him with more questions. Instead, he took an electronic screen out of the Block and began to write.

"The Fishman Race is in danger. There is something else on this island."

Right now, this was the most important thing.

Li Luo stared at the words on the electronic screen, her expression grave.

"What is it?"

"I don’t know."

’Mo Ling honestly didn’t know what form those ancient Fishmen took now. Without bodies, it was hard to imagine how they could even act.’

After he briefly explained the matter of the ancient Fishmen to Li Luo, she nodded. "So, a bunch of ancient spirits want to reclaim their original bodies?"

"Something like that," Mo Ling wrote as a short reply on the electronic screen.

"I’ll go tell the Fishmen."

Li Luo quickly realized the gravity of the situation, found Jeff, and explained what was happening.

Jeff looked utterly shocked.

"They’re in the village! They must be heading for the most crowded area," he realized instantly.

Without doubting Li Luo for a second, he immediately called over the group of Fake Fishmen.

"Can we enter the village? The Great Clan Leader won’t allow it," the Fake Fishmen asked worriedly, still hesitating.

"Are you Fishmen?" Jeff shot back.

"Of course we are... But..."

Before they could finish, Jeff cut them off. "What’s wrong with a Fishman entering the Fishman Village?"

"Nothing."

"Exactly. Let’s go."

With just a few words, Jeff dispelled the Fake Fishmen’s hesitation. He led them as they charged toward the village in a great throng.

Li Luo and Mo Ling exchanged a glance and immediately followed.

The road from the Moon Altar to the Fishman Village appeared to have been smoothed and leveled. It seemed the Fishman Race had gone to great lengths to construct the Moon Altar.

Along the way, the group encountered some Fishmen transporting supplies. Upon seeing the large crowd of Fake Fishmen, they intended to avoid them, but Jeff stopped them and pulled them into the ranks.

"Something might be wrong in the village. Come back with us."

"What?"

Most of the Fishmen had already noticed something was amiss on the island.

The extra "moon" in the sky and the glowing Moon Altar were already impossible to miss.

Hearing Jeff’s words, none of these Fishmen expressed any doubt. They immediately dropped the tasks at hand and rushed toward the village.

The group swelled in size, Fishmen and Fake Fishmen mingling together as one.

Soon, the village came into view ahead.

Just as they reached the entrance to the village, horrified screams echoed from within.

Inside the village, a Fishman saw the group at the entrance and came scrambling toward them. But halfway there, he abruptly stopped, frozen to the spot.

A closer look revealed that a small, rune-etched part had pierced him from behind.

The instant the part pierced through his back, the Fishman ceased all movement, as if he had suddenly become a statue, rooted firmly to the ground.

His stiff head twitched slightly. His eyes spun wildly, his mouth gaped and snapped shut, and his gills flared violently, just like a fish stranded on land.

Then, the once-statuesque Fishman suddenly began to shudder and collapsed violently to his knees.

He opened his mouth, and a torrent of water laced with black, rusty flecks spewed from his lips, spreading across the muddy ground.

When the last of the black water had been purged, the Fishman’s eyes stopped spinning. His gaze instantly turned sharp and piercing. He wiped his mouth and slowly rose to his feet.

He first scanned his surroundings, then inspected his own body before tearing off the ragged human clothes he wore.

A glowing part suddenly emerged from his scaled chest, vibrating.

The part seemed to be calling out to something. Soon, the ground around him responded. Something stirred the soil, as if about to erupt from the earth.

Finally, the loosened soil exploded outward. Countless parts erupted from the ground, spinning into the air with their edges faintly glowing.

Next, the parts aligned as if drawn by a magnet, targeting the component on the Fishman’s chest and attaching themselves to it, piece by piece.

With a series of metallic CLANGS, the seams where the parts connected flashed with light. The airborne components rapidly assembled into a form-fitting suit of armor that encased the Fishman.

He raised his hand. More parts shot out of the ground, rising into the air to circle around him, following him like sentinels.

The runic light faded. The Fishman no longer wore his previous look of terror.

The armor’s faceplate emitted a faint red glow as it stared coldly at the crowd by the village entrance.

Everyone was stunned by the transformation, rooted to the spot and afraid to make a single move.

Mo Ling stared at the armor, utterly shocked.

’We’re too late.’

’The ancient Fishmen have already begun to reclaim their bodies.’

’They abandoned their bodies... so their souls are attached to these parts?’

’That’s most likely it.’

’After a part enters a Fishman’s body, it quickly expels the original soul and implants the ancient soul from within. The replacement process is incredibly fast.’

’The technology of the ancient Fishmen is truly astonishing.’

’Even if they’ve forgotten the secret to immortality, their understanding of the soul is still this profound. Could it be they’d researched souls in the past?’

Mo Ling had no way of knowing.

But the current situation proved one thing: for the ancient Fishmen, reclaiming a body was a trivially simple matter.

Their technology allowed them to do it with ease.

To them, the modern Fishmen were nothing more than fish on a chopping block, completely defenseless.

Just as he was lost in thought, the red-glowing armor charged toward the crowd.

It took a few steps forward, then leaped into the air and began to fly. The parts orbiting it also began to swirl, preparing to surge toward the crowd.

But at that exact moment, it spotted Mo Ling in the crowd, also clad in armor.

It froze for a moment, then immediately aimed its palm at Mo Ling, apparently trying to control the parts of his armor.

However, the parts on Mo Ling’s body remained perfectly still. The ancient Fishman’s attempt at control had no effect at all.

The armored figure froze, its hand stopping in mid-air, seemingly in disbelief.

Then, the orbiting parts also came to an instant halt. Glowing faintly, they hung motionless in the air as if forced into sleep mode.

The armor on the ancient Fishman suddenly flared with light. Glowing patterns flowed through the rune engravings, and a chain-like path of runic light spread across its body, locking the armor in place in mid-air.

Within the long-silent Fishman channel, Mo Ling suddenly heard a voice he hadn’t heard in ages. The voice, however, sounded utterly terrified, even trembling slightly.

"Supreme authority?"