The Great Worm Lich

They divided hundreds of Wizard Li’s expeditionary fleet into three rows. However, the entire fleet still spread out to a length of 20 to 30 kilometers long when they had left a safe space in between them. Like a steel monster so long that its head and tail couldn’t meet, it sailed at the coastal area of the moon-shaped island. It disrupted the coastal Hellfire tribes, eliciting panic from them.

Several of the tribe’s small wooden boats that relied on fishing and hunting was on the way to their tribe, and they could not dodge in time when they encountered the Wizard Li’s fleet. The iron ships crushed them directly into pieces. That blatant, aggressive hostility elicited terror and hatred from the casualties’ fellow tribesmen who were by the shore, as they gathered together in vigilance.

“A small tribe that seemingly has only 20,000 to 30,000 people actually knows how to build a boat to fish! The Hellfire tribesmen on the outer island indeed have a more advanced civilization than the indigenous people on the Wizard Li Island. Fortunately, we have Aruba in the Wizard Li, and now, we have already surpassed them…” Zhang Lisheng stood by the side of the ship and looked at the natives barring their teeth as he muttered to himself.

(TL note: Author mistake. Should be Tumulu.)

The dead bodies of the foreign tribe’s natives that the iron ships crushed colored the sea into a red hue as the giant steamship stirred them below their feet. At this moment, he heard the young captain who was piloting the Wizard Li flagship shout while pointing to the shore, “Great Conqueror, this coast is a rather harbor. It could be good for us to use it. At least 30 steam warships can park here, and the fleet can be docked in turn one after another…”

Zhang Lisheng studied the coast again without looking back. Interrupting the captain’s words, he asked loudly, “Bansaru, are you sure the iron ships will not run aground on this beach?”

“Judging from the color and topography of the sea, I swear on my life that the steamships will never run aground!” Bansaru answered with conviction.

“Very well, Bansaru. In that case, I’ll clean up the shore first while you pull in the coast!” Zhang Lisheng said. A ferocious smile appeared on his face; the skin on his body flipped open as thousands of tiny bugs crawled out of it.

Upon seeing this bizarre scene, the Wizard Li warriors could not help but feel chills running down their spines. Such a reaction still occurred onto them although they already knew that their tribal overlord had always liked using giant bugs to battle.

When those bugs left the young man’s body, those that could fly began to expand in the wind and soon transformed into giant bugs, the size of a treehouse before charging to the coast.

Those that could not fly jumped into the sea and expanded their bodies before horrifyingly swimming towards the coast. In an instant, several hundreds of natives on the beach turned into the food of the poisonous bugs.

Several hundreds of foreign tribe fishermen and warriors who were vigilant were either dead or injured within a few breaths. Afterward, a stone giant covered with moss suddenly jumped out from the Hellfire tribe several hundreds of meters away from the shoreline. With one leap, it crossed the long-distance and landed on the beach, removing its impact force with a shake of its body as though its body was as soft as rubber.

“Oh, so the guardian spiritual monster of the tribe finally showed itself. Unfortunately, it’s too late now…” On the ship, Zhang Lisheng saw the stone giant throwing its fists and feet around to fight off the wizard gus when it appeared. When he gazed at this scene, a ridiculing sneer appeared on his face as he muttered, “And it’s only such a weak, spiritual monster on top of that. How can it possibly turn the situation around even if it shows up?”

To his surprise, the instant his words left his mouth, all of the giant bugs that the stone giant hit had begun to be covered with a grayish-black moist moss. Not long after, their thick skin or carapace that started to decay could no longer bear the weight of the organs, so their body ruptured as they dropped onto the beach. Soon, it deteriorated rapidly into a viscous fungus that spread the moss onto more wizard gu.

After demonstrating this unique ability, the stone giant who went against Zhang Lisheng’s expectations and managed to turn the situation around with just one fell swoop shouted loudly on the top of its lungs, “Katayas, Donidia, Shanal! Why haven’t you three come out yet? The exiles driving those big ships on the sea are by no means an ally! Hurry and show our Qiluang Tribe’s strength. Otherwise, it’d be too late if we become their target of attack.”

“Taimus, I told you to fight, so you better fight properly! Stop bargaining with me!” An angry roar resonated from the distant tribe. “We gave four seasons of tribal offerings in exchange for your full strength and effort. You can’t just make a few moves and call it a day…”

The guardian spiritual monsters of the Hellfire tribe on the shore argued loudly with each other, not particularly fearful towards Wizard Li’s fleet.

On the flagship of the fleet, Zhang Lisheng had already turned into a ferocious giant of more than ten meters tall with the Money Toad’s transformation power. His mouth cracked open and stretched to become a black hole that had a diameter of over five meters. He faced the direction of the stone giant that the fearless wizard gus enveloped while they were infected with fungus and shot out a gust of cyclone. This could seemingly tear through space.

That cyclone brought about hurricane and charged straight towards the stone giant, stirring it together with the surrounding giant bugs.

The stone giant that was rapidly circling the eye of the hurricane screamed at the top of its lungs. The powerful airflow twisted its soft body into a variety of strange shapes. In the end, it shattered into a pile of gravel. Only then did the whistling sound of the cyclone that Zhang Lisheng’s Money Toad incarnation reverberated finally resounded a sharp and violent cry at the air above the sea.

In the roaring sound of the wind, they could hear a deep growl howling from the Hellfire tribe near the coast. “Taimus is dead! The spiritual monster protecting these red armored people are not so easily swindled! We have no choice but to fight to our deaths! All Qiluang warriors! Raise your weapons and charge! Choresmen and women, find all the grease we have in the tribe! Even if Qiluang becomes history today, we’ll never let the enemy have it easy…”

When a series of howling ended, it was immediately followed by a unison of replies from the tribe, “Yes, Great Remodeler!”

It was clear that the warriors of this Hellfire tribe called Qiluang were elite and brave. They were not discouraged, nor did they despaired despite facing such a strong enemy in such a dire situation.

Unfortunately, at this time, under the guidance of the flagship, more than ten Wizard Li warships had already docked.

Led by the chief warriors who mastered the spellcasting ability, tens of thousands of Wizard Li warriors who were riding giant millispiders commanded their partners to descend from the ship. They then fell inline into a battle formation, before charging towards the Hellfire tribe 600 to 700 meters away.

It was eventually painful for their mere tenacious will to compete with the true essence of reality.

The foreign warriors who were wielding spears with wooden handles while wearing simple, dilapidated leather armor stood in vain on the mud. They tried to stop the assault of the battle formation that the Wizard Li warriors who were wearing red iron armor formed while holding weapons made from pure black iron. They created such weaponry from the volcanic furnace, which was then forged from a hydraulic machine with an impact force of more than 10,000 tons. Even their giant spider mounts were covered with light and sturdy chainmail while their long limbs covered with a sharp razor-like blade. Under such a contradiction, the bravery of the foreign warriors turned into a sad joke.

They had help from the guardian spiritual monster, but it was all in vain. Before they could kill up to 100 warriors from Wizard Li, the entire garrison of the Qiluang made of tens of thousands of warriors had already become a plate of scattered sand.

“Such an elite, powerful battle formation! They are not a refuge tribe assuming a fierce pose, trying to intimidate people. They are true conquerors who fight across the island! T-They must be from the Nulu Archipelago…” Only one assault from the enemy was already enough to make the entire situation beyond repair. This made the Qiluang tribe’s guardian spiritual monster that had a giant shark head to shout out in terror.

This careless mistake allowed this powerful spiritual monster to be hit by the joint-assault of 11 Wizard Li chief warriors who mastered the spellcasting ability that came from the same troops. Such a preemptive strike was the final nail to its coffin.

When the war broke out, they could see a clear answer immediately throughout the war situation. Zhang Lisheng, who had never left the deck of the ship, commanded thousands of his wizard gus and his expeditionary army to march over the Qiluang dwelling.

He embraced the pleasure of the wizard power he had not felt for a long time, boiling under his skin and watched the all-powerful battlefield in the distance. As he did so, he could not help but had a proud sneer at the corner of his mouth, “Looks like my weeks of preparations have not gone in vain. As long as 100,000 Wizard Li troops have enough sorcery support, we can use it against 600,000 to 700,000 ordinary Hellfire warriors. This is already enough to make a Hellfire tribe with a population below 100,000 into dust with just one crush!”

After he finished saying so, the young man who had not dispelled his Money Toad’s power felt that it was already time. Raising his head, he howled and jumped from the massive steamship. He did so before running and leaping towards the Qiluang tribe’s totem stone pillar and crushed it onto the ground with just a hit of his shoulder.

Then, he roared and opened his cracked mouth wide to blow the largest bark house next to the totem pole into pieces. This seized Qiluang’s tribal book of history, destroying the last hope of the foreign tribesmen.

Zhang Lisheng glanced around. He saw that the tens of thousands of Qiluang warriors had already thrown away the weapons in their hands in dejection. Breathing a sigh of relief and returning to his normal state, Zhang Lisheng pointed at a chief warrior who had two feathers on his head. “Bring your men and preside over this tribe’s conversion ceremony. The rest of the warriors, follow me and make a sweep along the shore. Before the aborigine tribes on this island manage to unite against our conquest, we’ll annihilate as many foreign tribes as possible in the shortest time possible.”

“Yes, Great Conqueror!” The tribal overlord’s words suit the intention of the Wizard Li warriors whose morale was sky-high. Only the chief warrior who was chosen to preside the Qiluang’s conversion ceremony had a depressed look on his face.

Even so, he never dared to refute Zhang Lisheng’s order and could only endure it silently. The Wizard Li warriors marched away in battle formation. Meanwhile, the chief warrior and the ones under his commands, who became equally low in spirits, cruelly commanded the Qiluang’s women to dig a pit to bury their own tribe.

Since Wizard Li was conquering across the island, he needed to create a new totem pole on the island with the dead bodies of the warrior whom they sacrificed on the battlefield.

The blood pool that they filled with Qiluang tribesmen’s corpses transformed their totem pole and tribal book of history into a howling, black smoke. A mysterious force blew it away towards the pile of the Wizard Li warriors’ corpses that they had already cleaned using fresh water. These bodies had no more visible bloodstains in them and were placed together naked. The last glimmer of the sun had finally disappeared below sea level.

After a long while, the black smoke gradually corroded and turned the bodies of all Wizard Li warriors who they sacrificed in the battle into thick cutin. As the sea wind slowly caressed it, the cutin automatically solidified into a stone pillar of only two to three meters high. At this time, the bright moon had already risen into the middle of the sky.

From this moment, several dozens of Wizard Li warriors who were riding giant spiders would drive a large number of defeated, pale-looking, foreign Hellfire tribesmen. They were also carrying their own collapsed totem poles to appear at the dwelling of the Qiluang tribe that they had just annihilated in succession. Just like this, in only four days and three nights, the fruit of victory managed to turn the short Wizard Li’s stone pillar into a magnificent totem of nearly 100 meters high.