Chapter 454: The Dust Settles

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Under the order of the tribal overlord, they dispatched the Super Hellfiremen who had received the Gold Core fragment transplant in the Wizard Li’s ancestral land. They turned them into Wizard Li troops one after another once they woke up from their coma.

Due to a large number of people, most of these new Super Hellfiremen who could have at least obtained the status of a two-feathered chief warrior and led a troop of 100 elite warriors could only have one feather on their heads and temporarily served as the leader of ten warriors.

Just like this, even though the second expeditionary army only had 20,000 over warriors more than the first one, the actual combat power had increased several times.

In the evening, they stood in the harbor in front of the Wizard Li tribe’s Giant Wood Settlement. Relying on the light of the setting sun, Zhang Lisheng looked at the endless iron ship on the coastline and said to the Wizard Li headman beside him. “Tugra, accumulating such a great quantity of warriors is really a waste; it does not reflect the true strength of the Wizard Li army at all. The number of warriors that I can bless is limited, and having one blessed warrior leading a hundred elite warriors is just right. Carry out a martial selection and replenished the tribal warriors. Once you do so, immediately pass on my order to promote all one-feathered chief warriors who mastered the spellcasting ability to two feathers, understood?”

After waiting patiently on the foreign world’s island for over 40 days, all Super Hellfiremen had finally awakened. The Wizard Li army was ready to continue their expedition, and the young man’s brows finally eased again.

“Yes, Great Conqueror!” When Tugra saw that the Wizard Li overlord was exceptionally high in spirit, he joined in. He spoke while looking ahead in the future. “This time, once you have conquered all the islands around the Moon Island, Wizard Li would only need 100 days at most to establish a nation with 1.6 million troops. By that time, we can finally have the full power to go against those huge islands already…”

“Tugra, you only take in the time of marital selection into your calculation, but you didn’t take into consideration the time needed for the chief craftsmen to build the ships. Even though the Wizard Li had acquired four out of the six islands that have volcanoes, the Red Mountain Furnace also needs time to produce. I’ll be happy if Wizard Li can completely digest the fruit of victory within a year…” Zhang Lisheng smiled and interrupted Wizard Li’s headman’s words.

When he was speaking, a dull loud bang suddenly resonated in the distant sea, causing the entire harbor to tremble.

The young man was taken aback. Relying on his extraordinary eyesight, he looked at the direction of the sound. He saw high waves rising from the far side of the sea. Under the illumination of the setting sun, the waves were emitting faint light.

“Tugra, is Aruba still experimenting with the imitation of the mainlander’s gunpowder block?” The Wizard Li overlord remained stunned for a while before asking.

“Yes, Conqueror! It seems as though Chief Aruba will soon succeed,” Tugra smiled widely and replied with a nod. “I still remember the pale look on Navigator Charlot when he learned that Chief Aruba was planning to imitate those war machines we found in the mainlanders’ fleet. He even intended to deceive us with tricks, saying that those war machines are only some flashy, unusable weapons that the powerful officials on the mainland used to show off their wealth. Unfortunately, Chief Aruba immediately saw through them in just a glance.”

“Aruba is a genius. How can he not see the purpose and strength of the weapons?” Zhang Lisheng grew silent for a while, praising the Wizard Li craftsmen for the umpteenth time. Regrettably, he added, “Even though those cannons and muskets on the mainland look primitive, they are actually mighty. If we can imitate it, it would be a great weapon to defeat our enemy. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to use it on this expedition.”

“Even without those war machines, the victory is still yours, Great Conqueror!” Tugra did not understand which part of those strange mainlander’s powerful firearms was ‘primitive-looking,’ but he did not ask anything. Instead, he replied respectfully.

“It’s indeed easy for us to win. I’m just worried that we may encounter some unexpected incident at sea…” Upon hearing the Wizard Li headman’s flattering, confidence rose on Zhang Lisheng’s face. However, once he looked at the sea, he suddenly sighed and shook his head.

His words had, unfortunately, came through. The next day, once the expeditionary army had prepared and replenished stocks on Wizard Li, it began to continue its conquest of the outer islands. Amid the voyage, the fleet encountered a windstorm and a strong sea current. They managed to escape the disaster under the protection of Zhang Lisheng and the thousands of chief warriors who had obtained the sea spiritual monster’s Gold Core fragment. However, they still lost five iron steamships and over 2000 elite warriors.

The sea finally calmed down again. Gazing upon the once-raging waters, transforming to become as fat and bright as a blue mirror, the exhausted Wizard Li overlord smiled wryly and fled to the fleet’s flagship deck. Retracting his wyrmdragon’s incarnation, he panted heavily and strode into the steering cabin.

The flagship captain, Bansaru, was already standing unsteadily while held the iron platform beside the rudder but still refused to hand the rudder to other people. Upon seeing this, the young man’s expression changed as he asked, “Bansaru, I can see that the sky is clear now, but don’t tell me that the storm is not over yet?”

“It should have ended, Great Conqueror! O-Our fleet has actually defeated the storm in the deep sea…” Bansaru’s body stiffened as he answered in a hoarse voice.

“This is not a victory, but escaping a catastrophe. Our fleet has paid quite a heavy price after all,” Zhang Lisheng said, shaking his head and sighing. “This horrible weather of sudden storm plus the ocean current is really terrifying. We need to improve our nautical chart more, the ocean current is irregular after all!”

“Yes, Conqueror! I’ll immediately record the time of the ocean current on the nautical chart!”

“There’s no need to rush, Bansaru. What you need now is to take a break and rest. Naluhehe, go take over the rudder from your captain. Oh, yeah, Bansaru, the fleet has not deflected from its course when the storm hit us, right? What is the shortest time we can reach the Moon Island’s harbor?” Wizard Li’s overlord waved his hand and asked.

Bansaru passed the rudder to the first mate and staggered to the sextant. After looking at it, he replied, “Great Conqueror, we didn’t deflect from our route. Judging from the distance, we could moor at Moon Island in the evening at the latest.”

“In the evening, huh…” Zhang Lisheng could not help but breathe a long sigh after hearing so. Turning around, he returned to his own cabin.

In the evening, when he walked out of the cabin again, he looked at the setting sun in the distant west, and sure enough, he saw a moon-shaped island appearing in front of him.

Relying on the agility of the steam engine, the Wizard Li expeditionary army soon moored at the Moon Island’s port. Once they had spent a full two days to finish up their repairs, they finally continued their expedition again.

Perhaps the extreme adversities would mark the beginning of fortune; the previous terrible storm had cleaned up their terrible luck entirely. The conquest war of the outer islands after this went extremely smooth and successful.

In just forty days, Zhang Lisheng personally led the Wizard Li warriors and, once again, doubled the territory of the tribe. The number of islands that they had conquered reached a total of 18.

After successfully completing the entire ‘Battle of the Moon Island,’ the Wizard Li tribe still had over 90,000 surviving warriors. After selecting the most stalwart volunteers among them, the young man spent nearly two months transplanting the Gold Core fragment into them. By the time the dust settled, he abruptly realized that he had already stayed for roughly half a year in the Shrimp World No. 2.

“It’s time for me to return to Earth. Over the past five months, the good harvest that we had achieved from our preparations have allowed the Wizard Li tribe to increase its territory by eightfold. Now, its population has reached over nine million. Anybody will be happy with this kind of harvest. The only unfortunate thing is that once I’ve become a Rank-10 Wizard in the Witchcraft’s Gate of Death, the progressing difficulty would be much greater than I’ve expected. I first thought that I could at least approach the breakthrough to Rank-11 Wizard once I’ve conquered the Moon Island sea region. Still, my wizard powers have only grown to reach the middle stage of the Rank-11 Wizard. Come to think of it, this is reasonable too. Rank-11 Wizard is the last stage for a wizard’s second transmutation, so how could it possibly allow me to make a breakthrough so easily… Sigh, the hatching of the Manifestation Gu’s egg is also still far away. Even if I really made a breakthrough to the Rank-11 Wizard now, I won’t have any wizard gu to transform anyway, and in the end, I’d be the one who would suffer for no reason…” He pondered as he sat cross-legged on the animal leather chair in the bark house, enshrining the tribal book of history. Zhang Lisheng, who had finally stopped busying with his work, muttered to himself as he calculated his harvest.

After mumbling for a while, he suddenly remembered that there was one vital thing that he had not done before he left the Shrimp World No. 2. Immediately, he turned around to take down the tribal book of history from the altar. Jumping off the animal leather chair, he walked out of the treehouse and stood in front of the Wizard Li’s totem pole.

He looked up at the thick stone pillar that was at least over a kilometer in height and had now risen into the clouds. The young man could not help but reach out a hand to touch the human-headed snake sculpture that had a curving body spiraling upward with unrecognizable facial features. Taking a deep breath, he lowered his head and opened the thin Wizard Li’s tribal book of history.

The Wizard Li tribesmen had been crossing the sea. They left to wage wars recently to annihilate hundreds of Hellfire tribes. Nevertheless, there was still only one page in the tribal book of history.

Staring at his own figure with a pale face and naked body that was only wrapped with an animal leather at the bottom part, Zhang Lisheng quietly concentrated. Right away, his vision darkened. The bark book that he was holding suddenly erupted into star-like, dazzling brilliance that rose up into the air. It illuminated the totem pole until it caught a raging fire as well.

At the same time, on the 17 islands that were thousands of miles away from the Shrimp B1 Island that the Wizard Li tribe conquered, over ten newly formed Wizard Li’s totem poles burst into raging fires.

Under the totem pole in the Wizard Li’s ancestral land, Zhang Lisheng savored the omnipotent and mighty power contained in the power of faith. A sudden endless stream of faint voices of prayers and incantations resonated in his ears, “Gold Core, you’re the living faith of the Wizard Li tribe. You’re the only God walking in the tribe….”

“Great Conqueror, our followers will offer you the most pious prayers. We’ll always praise your glory…”

“Great Conqueror, your Theonym will spread throughout the Hellfire Archipelago one day, and your enemy will eventually fall to your feet…”

Zhang Lisheng could feel the temperature at the spot between his brows rising. His mind shifted in a trance right away.