In the extreme northern sea domain, within the Beiming Guixu Sea.
Dozens of the highest-ranking leaders of the most powerful sea races, either in person or through spiritual possession of a fellow tribesman, gathered for this alliance meeting.
Unlike humans, who might conduct video conferences without fear of eavesdropping, the sea races dared not do so. They knew their technology was far inferior to humans, with most of it learned from humans and therefore insecure.
Directly assembling for a meeting risked detection by humans.
There was also the risk of a devastating weapon being deployed, wiping them all out in one go.
Thus, they ultimately chose the Beiming Guixu Sea, a region with extremely unstable magnetic fields, capable of blocking all communication and surveillance. Moreover, any use of destructive weapons here could potentially cause the entire North Pole to collapse and sea levels to surge. This treacherous location was selected as their meeting point.
However, even then, some race leaders did not dare to attend in person. They sent representatives or controlled a fellow tribesman with their spiritual power to avoid danger.
As the meeting began, the gathered race leaders exchanged the information they possessed, including specific casualty numbers for their own races and affiliated ones.
Following this, free discussion commenced.
"Your Majesty, the Sea Emperor, I believe we have greatly underestimated the tenacity and terrifying technological prowess of humans. Humans have survived for thousands of years relying on technology, and there is a reason for that. Their supernatural abilities, however, have only existed for a little over a hundred years.
It is understandable that they are currently inferior to us in this regard.
The various technological means employed by humans have inflicted heavy damage upon our sea races, with some even pushed to the brink of extinction. Furthermore, the martial arts system, a distinct energy system separate from supernatural abilities, is continuously advancing human capabilities in this area. Although the human population still far outnumbers ours, their quality has surpassed us. Their top-tier supernatural powerhouses can now contend with our ancient beast ancestors.
If this stalemate continues, our sea races' disadvantage will only grow larger."
"Therefore, why don't we negotiate for peace? As long as humans agree to cease targeting us, the high-intelligence sea races, we can let bygones be bygones.
It's not as if we absolutely cannot engage in any conflict.
But as long as large-scale conflicts are avoided, we can continue to accumulate strength..."
Before the leader of the dolphin tribe could finish speaking, he was angrily interrupted by the sea lion tribe leader beside him: "What nonsense are you spouting? We initiated this war.
And now we are the ones suing for peace.
Don't you find that utterly humiliating?"
"Moreover, humans are only just beginning to research viruses and weapons specifically targeting us, and martial arts have only recently emerged. This is when they are relatively weakest.
If we were to seek peace as you suggest, we would gain an opportunity to accumulate strength, but wouldn't humans also have the chance to do the same? And given the development of the human technological system, the longer we delay, the greater their advantage will become.
Who knows what they might research in the future, weapons or viruses that could easily annihilate us!
Once this war begins, it must be a fight to the death. Our disadvantage will only increase as time goes on. Therefore, I believe we absolutely cannot seek peace. Not only should we not seek peace, but we should ideally initiate a formal, all-out war. We cannot continue at this slow pace. We must commit all our forces.
We must overwhelm humans with the sheer numbers of all the sea races.
Only then will we achieve the best outcome, Your Majesty, the Sea Emperor!"
"Your Majesty, the Sea Emperor, I concur with the sea lion tribe leader's suggestion. Our sea races must launch a full-scale offensive.
Furthermore, please forgive my disrespect, but if our sea races had not been so conservative in the beginning and had launched a full-scale assault from the outset, humans might not have had time to develop and spread more potent sea race gene viruses, nor would martial arts manuals have been created.
Let alone finding ourselves in this disadvantageous situation.
Of course, Your Majesty, I am not questioning your decisions at the time. It is simply that the current situation is as it is, and the longer we drag this out, the more dissatisfied and reluctant to fight our sea races will become in the future.
We need a great victory to silence these dissenting voices."
The leader of the sea snake tribe immediately chimed in with agreement.
Subsequently, many other sea races echoed their sentiments, all expressing the need for a comprehensive offensive.
Many who had initially favored peace became hesitant due to the larger number of those advocating for war. Only the leader of the immortal jellyfish tribe stood forward and said:
"I object. Please do not rush.
Hear my reasons for objection first.
You should be aware that our immortal jellyfish tribe has a parasitic jellyfish subspecies. They cannot be detected unless they encounter top-tier soul-type supernaturals.
Some time ago, the parasitic jellyfish...
transmitted some of humanity's most secret information.
That is, while humans are actively fighting us on the surface, they have been covertly transferring personnel to construct space stations and robotic factories.
Simultaneously, they are also building bases on the moon and Mars."
"What is the problem with that? Perhaps they believe they are no match for us and are securing a fallback plan. Those human leaders are all extremely afraid of death. If they cannot defeat us, they will have a place to flee. Even if some escape, it will only be a minority.
They will not amount to much."
The immortal jellyfish tribe leader had barely begun when he was interrupted by the sea snake tribe leader beside him. The jellyfish leader then suppressed the sea snake leader with his spiritual power.
The other leaders who were eager to question him...
immediately dared not speak further.
"Alright, no one will interrupt now. I had not reached the crucial point. The key is that humans possess many world-ending capabilities, capable of annihilating most life on this planet, which naturally includes annihilating most of our sea race.
From the means I have currently discovered,
they have nuclear winter, viral apocalypse, volcanic eruption ice age, and other methods. The reason they have not employed these means is simply because they also live on this planet. Once these means are used, it will be mutual destruction.
Inflicting a thousand damage on the enemy means inflicting a thousand damage on oneself.
But if humanity is truly pushed to the brink of annihilation by us, do you think they will willingly perish, or will they preserve a portion of their kind in space stations, or even on lunar or Martian bases?
Will they use destructive weapons for mutual destruction with us?"
After speaking these words, the immortal jellyfish tribe leader withdrew his spiritual power and remained silent, allowing the other race leaders to process the information he had revealed, lest they underestimate humanity's capabilities.