The elderly Merfolk spoke the human tongue haltingly, but after a couple of sentences, he grew much more fluent.
All around them, it was utterly quiet. Every Merfolk watched obediently, not daring to make the slightest sound.
Ji Yuan stepped forward and cupped his hands to the elder again. Then he ventured, "Sir, you... can speak the human tongue?"
The moment he said it, he felt something was off and was about to correct himself, but the elder waved a hand.
"We were originally of the Human Race. Though we have since become the Merfolk Clan, we are still part of the Human Race. Why wouldn't we speak its tongue?"
"The Merfolk Clan."
Ji Yuan recalled the ancient texts he had read. They did seem to describe the Merfolk.
But most of those accounts said only that fishermen had spotted people with human bodies and fish tails by the shore, and that the Merfolk had vanished back into the sea the moment they were seen.
Others told of falling overboard and being rescued by Merfolk.
There was nothing particularly detailed or systematic.
"I am the chief of the Merfolk Clan here. My name is... in the human tongue, it would be Yu Yuan. Once, everyone in our clan could speak Elegant Speech. But as the years passed without us seeing a living human, it gradually became something only the chief had to learn."
Elegant Speech? So that's what our language is called? Ji Yuan committed it to memory and was about to speak.
But Yu Yuan turned slightly.
"Fellow Daoist, you have come from afar as our guest, and you saved our clansmen. You are an honored guest of the Merfolk Clan. Please, come with me."
With that, Yu Yuan swam back the way he had come. As he passed