The Great Worm Lich

Zhang Lisheng’s calm words were like a gloomy and frosty wind. When it brushed across everyone’s ears, even a warrior like Tumu who had been through countless battlefields could not help but shudder.

Beetlecar extended its slender limbs and crossed the ruins. When it came to a row of neatly arranged bark houses on the other side of the Pavaro tribe, Vakuku whose face had turned deathly pale and had finally become nervous leaped down from the giant insect’s back, before waiting for the wizard gu to crouch completely, and immediately started to look around nervously with his eyes affixed on the ground.

Finally, after seeing a lying green grass stick behind a small tree house, he heaved a long breath and muttered, “Here it is!” before crouching on the ground and starting to dig directly with his hand.

Zhang Lisheng looked from the side and not long after, a rough wooden plank appeared in the hole Vakuku dug out.

The aborigine teen cleaned away the soil along the sides of the board, and lifted the board with difficulty, revealing a hole not more than two fingers long and an area of not more than an adult’s palm.

“This is the hole where you hid the giant millispider’s eggs?” When Zhang Lisheng saw a bunch of eggs that resembled dark purple ripe grapes in the shallow hole, he bent over and took them in his hand. “There are only 15 in total…”

“The Great Raider, these 15 eggs will give birth to small millispiders after ten days of incubation. As long as there’s a pair of male and female spiders that survive, they’ll become adults after 70 days of feeding and can proceed to produce thousands of eggs.” Upon seeing his eggs were safe and sound, Vakuku regained his breath and drew a pie in the sky as he said loudly, “If there’s enough food, after 200 days, every Tudenan warrior will possess a great and powerful partner.”

Now that it had come to this stage, the young man gradually understood. The so-called giant millispider that could become the aborigine warrior’s partner was most likely the big spiders covered in bristles that had eight skinny long legs divided into three sections that he had seen before several years ago when he first came to the foreign world’s island when a shipwreck hit Elizabeth Holiday.

That time, due to the reason that they had destroyed the gigantic totem pillar that the ship was stuck in, a powerful tribe on the island had even sent out tens of thousands of real professional warriors to stop Elizabeth Holiday from setting sail. That time, the warriors were riding on this kind of giant spiders.

From the huge totem pole of the tribe and the emergence of the ‘professional soldiers’, its degree of prosperity must have undoubtedly far surpassed Tudenan.

Recalling the fourth rank of the five ranks of ‘wood thorn, spear, iron knife, partner, and concealed spirit’ in the Hellfire tribes, one could imagine what kind of heavy price the tribe had to pay for their tribal warriors to possess ‘partners’.

For this reason, even though the aborigine teen’s words made the eyes of Tumu and the other aborigine warriors light up right away, Zhang Lisheng merely curled his lips and returned the ‘purple grapes’ in his hand to Vakuku. “Then, do you think that Tudenan will have enough food to let us feed so many giant millispiders?”

As expected, after hearing his words, Vakuku’s enthusiasm faded. Stuttering, he replied, “W-we will have to see whether the Tudenan hunting ground is fertile enough and whether the tribal hunters are good enough at their job, Great Raider.”

The unique natural environment of the Hellfire Archipelago that allowed the animals and plants to grow very fast allowed the Hellfire people to live a sufficient hunting life without the need for farming. As long as the hunting ground was enough, no matter how big the Hellfire tribe was, it could survive.

However, if one wanted to raise such a huge spider, just by using a simple calculation based on body volume, it was not something that could be done just by relying on an ordinary hunting ground. However, as Zhang Lisheng recalled his own experience in raising wizard gu, he, who was originally talking casually, had his eyes lit up.

“Hunting ground… Hunting ground… The sea, the fishery…” He muttered to himself while sketching the distance from the beach to Tudenan Valley. Thinking that it was not that far away, he jumped onto Beetlecar’s back excitedly. “Now that we’ve obtained the eggs, let us go back to the tribe. Such an important thing should be treated properly.”

“Yes! Yes!” Tumu and the other Tudenan warriors hastily helped Vakuku up onto the wizard gu’s back.

Along the way, he no longer wore the solemn expression just now but was continuing to inquire delightedly about the preparations needed to hatch the giant millispider’s eggs.

“If there are no adult insects, the hatching of the eggs will need a stone pot placed on bonfire lit by firewood for ten continuous days. I must personally see to the thickness of the stone pot before it could be used. After it’s lit up, I must personally add firewood myself as well. Other than the hot stone pot, I’ll need spring water and fresh beast blood. Remember, the fiercer the beast is, the better it will be….” Amidst Vakuku’s long reply, Beetlecar swayed around in the jungle and finally returned to Tudenan Valley.

“Raider, h-has everything gone well?” After the wizard gu crouched down in the middle of the valley, Tugra, who had long been waiting by the side, bowed and asked, unable to suppress his nervousness.

“Quite well I’d say. We’ve already obtained the giant millispider’s eggs.” Zhang Lisheng jumped down from Beetlecar and looked back at the Tudenan chief warrior who was carefully climbing down from the wizard gu’s back. “Tumu, bring Vakuku to come up with a way to hatch these eggs.

“Yes, Raider.” When Tumu heard this command that was in line with his heart’s content, he impatiently took Vakuku to turn around and strode away. Zhang Lisheng, on the other hand, looked at the Tudenan’s headman whose eyes were brightly lit with his fists clenched. He then asked while he walked back to the bark house enshrining the Tudenan tribal book of history. “Tugra, the so-called warrior’s ‘partner’ is actually a domesticated beast that the tribal warrior rides?”

“Yes, Raider.” Tugra, who had been immersed in his pleasant surprise, replied.

“Then, is it only the…” When Zhang Lisheng was just about to ask one more question, a fascinating milky white brilliance that the foreign world’s sun emitted above his head stopped his words.

Raising his hand to shelter his head as he looked up towards the sun that kept changing to shades of gold and silver alternately, Zhang Lisheng asked in a dumbstruck manner, “Tugra, what’s going on?”

Tugra, who looked up to the sun in the heavens, whispered with fascination, “Raider, the Dew of Wisdom is going to fall tonight.”

“Ah, is that so? In that case, I’d have to leave too.” Upon hearing his answer, Zhang Lisheng who had expanded the tribe of the tribesmen who believed in him in just three to four days by relying on the ’01 mixed reagent’ and his raid tactic, pondered for a moment before entering the bark house.

The Tudenan headman came back to his senses and quickly followed Zhang Lisheng’s footsteps as he asked, “Raider, a-are you leaving already?”

“I’ll leave after tonight.” Zhang Lisheng nodded. “Tugra, you said that the Hellfire tribes are divided into stages of ‘wood thorn, spear, iron knife, partner, and concealed spirit’ according to the degrees of prosperity, right? Does the fourth stage point to a tribe in which its warriors possess a partner?”

“It’s not only just that, Raider. I’ve never seen a ‘partner’ tribe before, and I think it’s impossible for this secluded island to have any. However, according to legend, when the tribe ascends to the ‘partner’ stage, even the women and children will have partners that have different purposes. There will be different partners for logging, building houses, collecting wild fruits, and collecting spring water.” Tugra tried his best to explain.

“There will be different partners for logging, building houses, collecting wild fruits, and collecting spring water? Isn’t this a clear and mature social division of labor in the use of bio-energy already?!” Sitting on the animal skin, Zhang Lisheng looked at the indigenous headman kneeling in front of him with wide eyes, unable to imagine that such a short midget could actually have the potential to create a brilliant civilization as well.

However, when he recalled the magical power of the Hellfire people’s tribal book of history and totem pole, he frowned. “Then, is the giant millispider a type of partner specially dedicated to war?”

“Yes, Raider! The giant millispiders are divided into four species according to the different colors of their hair. They are one of the partners of the Hellfire warriors.” Tugra answered excitedly.

“Looking at yours and Tumu’s reaction, even though the giant millispider is a very common warrior ‘partner’, it seems like it’s also very rare for an average tribe like ours. In this case, Tugra, cultivate these big spiders properly and train them for powerful warriors. Next time when I return to Tudenan again, I’ll lead you guys and open up the pathway to the seagate. By the time the tribe has established a fishing ground… Oh yeah, you know what is a fishing ground, right?”

“I know, Great Raider. However, to Tudenan, building a fishing ground is just too difficult. Only the big tribes that live by the sea know how to make a strong and tough net and big wooden boats that can be used for fishing. The sails of the boats cannot be built from tree bark but…” Tugra said with a wry smile.

“You don’t have to worry about this. I don’t know how the net and sails are made on this island, so I’ll bring the finished products to you guys directly. As for the wooden boats, I can see that there are already skilled carpenters in the tribe, so I’ll tell them how to build a boat later on.” Zhang Lisheng waved his hand and said.

In his mind, the fishing nets and sails could be bought easily from the modern market with little effort by using money and the manufacturing technology of wooden fishing boats, he could even Google it on the internet and get as many blueprints as he liked. It was far from being called precious anyway.

However, in the heart of the barbarian aborigines in the foreign world, the value of these three items was completely different.

“Great Raider, as long as we can get the net, the tribal carpenters will be able to find a way to copy them. If we have the fishing nets and shipbuilding technique, the powerfulness of Tudenan will just be around the corner!” Tugra opened his eyes wide in delight and crouched on the ground praising with a trembling voice. “Y-You’re our living legend! The Tudenan tribe’s glorious…”

“Enough, Tugra. Don’t you have any new appraisals?” Zhang Lisheng said with a smile as he waved his hand. “There is a lot more preparation needed for the hatching of giant millispider’s eggs. Why don’t you go take a look at how Tumu is doing now?”

“Alright, Raider!” Tugra retreated sensibly.

As Zhang Lisheng stayed alone in the bark house, he quietly calculated his own harvest. Conquering three Hellfire tribes that had 10,000 people had allowed his wizard power to reach the peak of the Rank-6 Wizard level. He should be able to make a breakthrough in just ten days time.

Most importantly, the powerfulness of Tudenan had gradually produced a sense of solidity that he had never felt before in him. He could see the path to becoming a Grand Wizard more clearly, like his ancestor who could manage a nation by oneself. Heck, he could even manage an entire world by himself.

As Zhang Lisheng pondered about it, he could not help but whisper, “A man whose heart is not content is like a snake which tries to swallow an elephant. Now that I have the strength, I want to master the power that matches the strength. Even if I can only become a God among the midgets, I still feel carefree and happy. Zhang Lisheng, oh, Zhang Lisheng! Since you’re the same with everybody as well, you might as well just continue this path and see where it can lead you…”

His tone sounded a little self-ridiculing, but when he was speaking, his eyes were bright and clear.