The Great Worm Lich

Tumu used to be the most powerful warrior and the highest-ranking warrior leader in Tudenan. Before this, when the tribe had not become strong yet, he was a powerful contender to Tugra’s authority and had even oppressed the Tudenan headman till he lived a bleak life.

Even today, where the Super Hellfiremen, who had successfully received the Gold Core fragment transplant and mastered the powerful spell-casting power, had become the true backbone amongst all Tudenan tribal chief warriors, this veteran still relied on his superb warfare, brave and fearless spirit, as well as his familiar battlefield knowledge to enjoy a very high status among the tribal warriors.

The tribe was expanding rapidly so Headman Tugra felt that his status had gradually stabilized. Adding on to the fact that he saw through the ‘tide’ of the situation and had surrendered his direct military rights, it prompted him to have the intention to pull his opponent down so that they could both perish together but who knew, in the end, Tumu ended up becoming the first chief warrior who had four feathers on his head in the tribe.

Now that things had developed this way, Tugra could not help but complain in his heart. However, he could only put on a respectful expression and reply, “Yes, Great Raider!”

When Zhang Lisheng saw Tugra’s reluctance, he did not point it out directly and merely added with a smile, “After forming a powerful army, the next step is to equip them with elite weapons and armor. Tell Aruba that the open-air fine iron mine newly found on the new hunting ground in the north is now handed to him and transfer 5000 women and children to work as miners. His most important job now is to lead the tribal craftsmen to start working overnight to make enough iron armor, iron spears, and uh…oh yeah, that chain armor draped over the giant millispiders too, using his hydraulic machine!”

“Yes, Great Raider!”

“Also, survey all the coastlines occupied by the tribe. Any place where the port can be built should be marked. In the future, these places will become fisheries that can provide rich food to the tribes. Oh yeah, don’t set up any totem pole on the island to challenge the Kamando’s authority. Pursuing this kind of false reputation without practical interest is completely meaningless…” Zhang Lisheng voiced out all of the problems in various aspects that he could think of while Tugra repeatedly answered ‘yes’ respectfully.

After that, the young man looked at the totem pole that had extended already to more than 200 meters high all the way straight into the clouds and asked longingly with a changed tone, “Tugra, other than the big island under our feet, do you know how the other islands in the Hellfire Archipelago look like and how to get there?”

The reason why Zhang Lisheng asked this was because the return of the seedlings that he had previously planted had now yielded abundant rewards. With the establishment of Tudenan’s hegemony in the north end of Shrimp B1 Island, the massive negative emotions brought by the fierce war had elevated the wizard power in his blood to the final stage of Rank-8 Wizard in just a short period of two months.

With this growth rate, the young man figured out that he would only need to conquer another Hellfire tribe with a population of 10,000 to allow him to easily break through to become a Rank-9 Wizard. Not only that, the only transformed wizard gu that he had in his hand now was Ghostface and if he used it during the breakthrough to Rank-9 Wizard, he would face the dilemma of no gus when he had more breakthroughs in the future.

To Zhang Lisheng, who was decisive and cold, but was usually very meticulous in life, this was a difficult problem that he must forethink and solve. However, through his past experience of refining wizard gu on this foreign world’s island, he knew that despite having more ferocious insects compared to Earth, the Shrimp B1 Island rarely had any poisonous bugs that could be transformed.

Since the chance of successfully encountering a great opportunity was slim here, he might as well try his luck on other islands in the Hellfire Archipelago. Not only that, he could even conveniently check out the route for future cross-island expansion.

However, the Tudenan headman did not understand what the Raider was thinking. His eyes went wide as he became silent for a moment. Philosophically, he smiled wryly and said, “Great Raider, to a Hellfire man, the island that he’s born is his entire world already, unless the tribe is on the verge of destruction and he’s forced to cross the sea to escape. As for the other islands in the archipelago, I only know from the legends circulating in the tribe that on the day when the daytime is the longest, or when the green young leaves grow on the Kudir trees, during the four seasons, if you sail by wooden boat and drift along the water from the east side of the island, you’ll encounter a huge stretch of reef islands after more than ten days. The slightly bigger islands have birds, beasts and forests, and can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people to dwell there.If you continue to drift past the reef islands, as long as you survive the journey, you’ll come across an island, that has a blazing fire burning in the forest, bigger than the island under our feet several hundred days later. That place is where the first settlement of the Tudenan’s ancestors is situated.”

“Drifting across the ocean along the sea current is quite a good idea. At the very least, I won’t be going around in circles like how I did last time.” When Zhang Lisheng heard Tugra’s words, he recalled how he had circled above the ocean in Shrimp World No. 2, riding on the wyrmdragon with no sense of direction for several days. Falling into contemplation, he slowly asked, “However, there are too many sporadic situations, and the period of several hundreds of days is too long as well. That’s right, Tugra, aren’t the Luami people, who were the first batch of people converting into Tudenan, drifted across the ocean to come to this island? Even though they said that they only managed to survive by luck alone, this kind of luck is just too good to be true. I think there should still be some kind of knack in this. Go find a few ex-Luami tribesmen to come to see me! Be quick!”

After he finished giving out his order, Zhang Lisheng strode to the bark house enshrining the tribal book of history with an anticipating expression, leaving only the Tudenan headman alone to hastily run towards the dispatch warrior by the side.

Right now, despite having a population of more than 600,000 people, all of the tribesmen in the Tudenan tribe lived together, allowing the Tudenan to become a spectacular primeval city. If it was not for the fact that even the dispatch warriors, who were in charge of conveying the orders of superiors, were now equipped with partners, Zhang Lisheng would not have been able to see those natives who crossed the ocean even if he waited till evening.

However, now, more than ten minutes later, Tugra brought a few unusually excited native women who had feathers tied to their arms who appeared to have some ranks in the tribe to him.

“Great Raider, it’s noon now so all of the warriors are either hunting or are on guard. The fishermen have gone out sailing, while the craftsmen are building docks, making weapons and armor. Only the women and children remained in the tribe so I’ve picked several ex-Luami women who have the highest positions to come see you.” Amidst the face of the Raider who had an easy-going attitude while sitting on the animal skin chair, the Tudenan headman crouched on the ground and purposely spoke in an accent respectfully.

The instant his words left his mouth, the ugly, short, yet strong native women behind him crouched down on the ground as well, their breasts shaking which were wrapped in animal skin as they chanted with a trembling voice and completed their long praise, “Great Raider, you’re my living faith of this world…”

Zhang Lisheng, who had long been accustomed to this worship ceremony, waited patiently for the indigenous women to finally stop before asking, “My devout believers, I’ve heard that when all of you were still in the Luami tribe, you’ve come to this rich island beneath our feet by drifting across the ocean right?”

Upon hearing the Raider’s words, the indigenous women hesitated and did not dare to answer.

After a while, one of the women, who seemed to be the youngest, finally summoned her courage and answered, “Y-Yes, Great Raider! That time, that time, Luami was defeated by its mortal enemy, the Kubuha tribe, in a great battle. As the survivors, we rowed the wooden boats and drifted in the sea, under the strong ocean wind that caused half of us to die, before reaching this island.”

“Rowing the boat and was blown by the ocean wind?” Disappointed, Zhang Lisheng said with a frown, “It’s really mainly based on luck? Think about it carefully, was there anything special to it?”

When his dissatisfied voice left his mouth, the indigenous women in the tree house trembled even more, trying their best to bury their heads on the ground one after another. They even held their breath desperately.

When the young man saw the terrified manner of these few midget women, the young man waved his hand helplessly and said, “My devout believers, I’m only asking you a few questions… Ah forget it, all of you may leave now.”

Now that the brief weird inquiries of the Raider had come to an end, the tense bodies of the native women were immediately relaxed. They stood up respectfully and slowly retreated.

When the tree house curtain was opened and a low sigh could be heard from the tribal Raider behind them, a black skinny woman, who was the shortest, hesitated for a while and suddenly turned to kneel on the ground. “T-There was also a school of fish, Great Raider! When we were drifting in the sea along with the wind, we’re taken pitied by the gods of the sea. The gods have kept commanding the school of fish to follow around our wooden boat. Those fish were grey, small and thin but in large numbers. Even if we just threw a wooden stick to the sea, we’d get to kill many of them too. Their bones can also be eaten and it’s all because of them that I-I didn’t starve to death. Oh that’s right! There was one night when I was catching the fish to eat, I saw many monsters that had a human head but a fish body driving the school of fish underneath them. They might be the messengers of the sea god…”

Upon hearing the woman’s description, Zhang Lisheng abruptly recalled that foreign world’s scholar who inadvertently passed the Eternal Comprehension Spell to Zhang Lisheng after his death. The scholar even wrote on the animal skin that he entered Shrimp B1 Island by mistake when he was chasing the Evnado Merpeople. Right away, a pleasant surprise appeared on Zhang Lisheng’s face as he blurted out, “Those are not the god’s messenger, but merpeople who are driving the fish to migrate. Just like the nomads who move from place to place in search of water and grass, the merpeople also live where there is a school of fish. No wonder the old man would think that I was an ocean spiritual monster who lacked intelligence and can send a letter to the Kattaman City State…”

Under his excitement, he almost blurted out the things that he should not have said.

Fortunately he managed to stop in time. After pondering for a while, he said loudly, “Tugra, from today onwards, other than dishing, the tribal fishing boats will have to pay attention to the school of small grey fish. Pass on the woman’s description of the school of fish to all fishermen…”

“Great Raider, I’ll always remember the grey fish type. I-I can draw them out to show the fishermen!” Hearing the joy in the Raider’s voice, the skinny black indigenous woman suddenly summoned up her courage and said in a stuttering manner.