Farming in a Parallel World and Becoming a God-Chapter 1137 - 645: The Tuon Swamp_3

This is undoubtedly the greatest irony for the race of Serpent People; their ancestors actively chose to abandon their humanity in pursuit of immortality, greater strength, and more perfect forms, believing it to be their greatest impediment.

As a result, having rid themselves of human constraints, they did not hesitate to use the most ruthless methods and most venomous conspiracies against their own kind. This led to the collapse of their civilization at its peak, when the once enslaved and oppressed intelligent beings united to drive them into the most desolate corners, where they could only eke out a meager existence in remote places like forests, marshes, mountains, and deserts.

Their descendants even dedicated their entire lives to pursue the vestiges of human desire that remained.

In the eyes of ordinary people, all marshes look alike, but to those creatures living in them, marshes are ever-changing. They not only have their internal divisions but also constantly expand and shrink depending on the season and the amount of rainfall. Thus, few marsh-dwelling intelligent beings fix their abode in one spot; they tend toward a semi-nomadic lifestyle.

However, there is a relatively fixed method of dividing marshes into inner and outer marshes.

Outer marshes refer to those relatively unstable parts of the marsh. This instability is not only in terms of expansion and shrinkage but also in the unpredictability of internal water flows. Any marsh area with fresh water movement is considered an outer marsh, even if it’s at the very heart of the whole marsh. Tun Marsh is such a case; its largest outer marsh is not on the periphery, but at the core, because the Wild Border River cuts directly through it, splitting it into two unequal halves.

Due to the presence of fresh water, this region is rich in nutrients and is naturally the most lush area of the marsh, covered with aquatic plants and teeming with numerous fish and aquatic animals. It’s also a prime gathering spot for marsh-dwelling creatures. Therefore, this region is often referred to as the "living marsh," where the Lizard Queen’s Lizard Court was naturally built.

Inner marshes are enclosed at the deepest part by the outer marshes. Though there’s water flowing in, there is none flowing out, rendering them true stagnant waters. Here, everything accumulates and decays. Over countless years, the salinity in these parts has become much higher than in other areas, almost reaching seawater levels. This creates a significant difference in the flora and fauna of the inner marsh compared to that of the outer marsh—not just in species, but also in overall health, as the plants and animals are lean and frail. However, there are two things in abundance here: mosquitoes and snakes.

These stagnant waters offer the perfect environment for these creatures to nurture their offspring. The air is filled with the roaring sounds of swarms of mosquitoes. At the sight of a passing swarm, all creatures except the snakes submerge themselves into the water—the only effective way to avoid the insects’ collective Attack. A moment’s carelessness and one could be drained dry by them.

If the skies are ruled by mosquitoes, then the ground belongs to the snakes. Everywhere, one can see writhing masses of snakes—long, short, of medium length, red, green, multicolored, and so on. It’s like a grand convention of snakes. Even a learned herpetologist coming here would be at a loss to identify the many species present. These snakes are also another reason for the high concentration of mosquitoes, as the mosquitoes’ natural predators have no foothold here.

The Serpent Marsh, as described by the Spirit Soul Naga, is the largest inner marsh in Tun Marsh, located in the southern part of the western half, over eighty kilometers from the Lizard Queen’s Giant Dragon Palace. This place can be seen as the epitome of an inner marsh, with stench and methane hardly distinguishable from one another, hovering right above the Serpent Marsh. When swarms of mosquitoes pass by, countless new-born mosquitoes rise into the air to join them. In the blink of an eye, they form a dark cloud that sweeps towards the outer marsh in search of more succulent prey. Here the mosquitoes originate, but it is not where they thrive.

The ground is covered with rolling masses of snakes, many towering far above the black waters of the marsh. For those who have a special fondness for such slippery, scale-covered creatures, the sight would be a delight. But for those who dislike them, it would become an inescapable Nightmare of their entire life.

The most unique feature of Serpent Marsh has to be the singular temple standing within it. Unique because less than a third of this temple remains above the ground, the rest having been swallowed by the Dead Swamp’s black waters.

Even with just the remaining broken third visible, one can sense its former grandeur and magnificence. Its curving design brings to mind the serpentine, and atop the temple, stand numerous colossal serpent statues, radiating a cold and merciless evil aura. It’s obvious that this belongs to the Serpent People’s Temple, and it is a very ancient one at that—possibly even dating back to the times of the Serpent People Empire’s civilization. Legends say that places like Tun Marsh and Far Sea Marsh did not originally belong to marsh ecosystems but were home to a brilliant civilization with a rich history. This can be seen from the remnants and partly sunken ruins in the marsh.

The two city-states had fought fiercely, casting powerful and evil Spells upon each other, leading not only to their own destruction but also to a degree of land subsidence here, which was subsequently flooded by overflowing river waters and transformed into the marshes we see today. And it’s possible that these two city-states belonged to the civilization of the Serpent People.

Whether the legend is true cannot be verified, but one thing is certain: the history of Anachet and his Serpent People Tribe in Tun Marsh predates that of the Lizard Queen. Before her time, they were already entrenched here, weaving their Conspiracies and dreaming grand dreams of restoring the glory of their Empire.