This was a round, flat-bottomed, two-story rowing wooden boat made from forest hardwood that spanned nearly nine meters long.
The boat was three meters wide and had a draught of one meter. The hull that floated above the water was also more than three meters high. Due to the reason that it floated on the underground river, it gave off a feeling that it was much larger than what it actually was.
The power of the wooden boat came from the flat cabin sandwiched between the deck and the bottom of the ship. Twenty aborigines entered it and rowed the paddles that were extended out through the square holes dug from both sides of the hull, slowly moving the wooden boat to leave the shore under the cheers of the aborigines. It began to move through the Pavaro Golden River that was illuminated by torches.
On the deck, a chief aborigine whose head was stuck with a feather was surrounded by more than ten indigenous warriors who were temporarily filling in the sailors. Waving the spear in his hand, he stood underneath a wooden pillar, that was installed with a simple pulley block on top to help save energy when pulling up a fishing net filled with the harvest, and howled while flaunting his prowess, greeting the cheers of his tribesmen.
After the aborigine in charge of the helm drove the wooden boat to make a big circle on the river, the aborigine chief finally stopped howling and threw the net down.
Then, the temporary sailors became fishermen. In accordance to the movements they practiced near the shore for a few days, they threw the coarse nylon fishing nets that were produced from Earth and began to pull up the thick ropes at the bottom of the wooden pillars to pull the fishing net upwards.
As the net was continuously being pulled up, the wooden boat began to shake violently. The calm water surface rippled violently and even extinguished the torch on the fishing boat.
Only the horrifying lingering sound of “shush shush…” and the panicked yells of the aborigines could be heard in the black underground river before it gradually echoed in a manner that was getting farther and farther away through the black underground world. Finally, it disappeared without a trace.
“T-The devil fish can’t be captured by mortals!” Seeing their compatriots drowning in the river, a sorrowful cry resonated among the thousands of aborigines watching the shore. The former Pavaro tribesmen saw the huge wooden boat being dragged by the big fishes in the underground river towards the abyss and could not help but involuntarily recall the horror of the legend.
“Be quiet! The Great Raider has already used his power to stop the demon fish’s curse! It’s because the boat was t-too small and the demon fishes captured were too many! That’s why this operation failed!” Tugra, who was beside Zhang Lisheng, yelled angrily, trying to stop the sorrowful shouting in his surroundings.
However, such a far-fetched explanation was not enough to calm down the depression of the Tudenan people near the shore.
Thousands of hunters and hundreds of craftsmen, which was about a quarter of the power of the tribe, gathered in the underground river to build a wooden boat, consuming the food storage that was stored for the sake of famine. Now that their hard work was in vain, of course, it would be disappointing and this kind of disappointment was unconsciously weakening Zhang Lisheng’s reputation in Tudenan.
However, at this moment, a snake figure suddenly leaped out of Zhang Lisheng who was standing on the bank of the river. It fell into the river and transformed into a hundred-meter-long lofty giant green dragon. Standing up in the underground river, it poked its head out.
Under the gaze of the dragon’s deadly diamond-shaped eyes, the horrified Tudenan tribesmen heard their Raider slowly explain, “In the ancient civilizations, there was a saying stating that ‘Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.’ If it’s merely for the sake of capturing these demon fish, I can catch millions of them in one go…”
As he was speaking, he commanded the wizard gu to splash the water in the river, the river of 10 million tons splashed up to the sky with the fishes in it and fell to the shore.
After a series of loud “shush shush…” sounds, the river flowed back to the empty channel but left behind countless amounts of big fish struggling on the bank. Some of the lucky ones leaped up and fell back into the river but most of them could only struggle uselessly.
Pointing at the huge amount of fish on the shore, Zhang Lisheng continued, “People of Tudenan, my devout believers. When there are only 30,000 tribesmen, I can just cast my power once and catch an amount of fish enough to feed the entire tribe. However, what if our tribe expands ten times, or even a hundred times, in the future? Who do you think you can rely on to fill the stomachs of all the people in the entire tribe?”
In the face of the question of the Raider, while listening to the astonishingly loud noise made by the big fishes as they smacked their tails on the shore, thousands of Tudenan people stood still, gazing at each other, not knowing how to reply.
It was like that until the tribal chief craftsman Tumulu finally kneeled down on the ground and crouched down to praise, “Great Raider, you’re giving the Tudenan the ability to live forever. I praise you, the living faith of Tudenan! Your name will be rooted in this island and become the callsign of the gods…”
All of the Tudenan tribesmen on the shore finally snapped back to reality and kneeled down on the ground one by one, showing their devout prayers to the tall and sturdy figure in front of them. “Great Raider! You’re our living faith…”
Looking at the dense number of aboriginal people kneeling down on the ground amidst the firelight, Zhang Lisheng, who originally regarded this as a kind of performance, suddenly felt a strange and inexplicable feeling in his heart.
He became silent for a while before pointing towards the underground river not far away and said loudly, “From now on, I’ll catch fish in the river once every day to maintain the survival of the tribe. Tugra, gather double the number of warriors and craftsmen from the tribe! The Tudenan fishing boats must turn this river into our fishing ground fifteen days later!”
“Yes, Great Raider!” The Tudenan headman kneeled on the ground and answered with great respect.
Under the command of the Raider, the native warriors stabbed the big fish on the shore with their spears and brought them back to the tribe. After that, the tribal headman immediately gathered more Tudenan people and rushed into the dark and damp underground world.
The shipyard gradually became bigger under the work of the craftsmen. Amidst the multiple failed attempts of the native warriors, the fishing boats that were built became more and more suitable and stronger as they learned from their mistakes.
Finally, after the sun had risen and fallen for fourteen times, a huge wooden boat that was built with a unique method, wherein two sails and three keels were made, began to sail. With the aborigines pulling with all their might, the three sets of pulleys, installed in a disordered manner on the keel’s wooden pole, wheeled together and gradually pulled up the net that had caught a full net of big fish.
The fish struggled in the net and rocked the wooden boat ever so slowly. The chief aborigine warrior on the deck roared excitedly, “Pull in the ropes, I’ll go stab the dead fish!”
Then, he grabbed the spears that he had thrown aside and leaped up to stab the heads of the big fishes one by one.
Not long after, the number of dead fish in the fishing net increased and the wooden boat began to stop shaking, before smoothly returning to the shore.
Looking at the catches of the boat with the help of the fire, all the Tudenan people on the shore shouted excitedly regardless of their status. Unlike other ordinary tribesmen, some of the aborigine chiefs had their eyes shine brightly as they shouted themselves hoarse. They could faintly feel that the new era of Tudenan had come quietly at this moment!
Due to the reason that the big wooden boat had three keels, it was called the three-bone ship by Zhang Lisheng. With this model of success, it was copied by the Tudenan craftsmen at a speed of two days per boat. Not only that, with the construction of the new shipyard, the scenery of the Golden River being filled with fishing boats in the underground world was fully predictable.
As the batches of captured fish were being transported back to the tribe, Zhang Lisheng’s reputation in Tudenan had once again climbed to a new height.
“Great Raider, we have captured more than 500 demon fish today. With three fishing boats, with only mere three fishing boats, the harvest is already equivalent to one-tenth of the hunting harvest from the entire tribe. Not only that, as the warriors’ fishing skills became more and more skilled, the harvest kept increasing.” In the bark house where the Tudenan’s tribal book of history was enshrined, Tugra kneeled excitedly in front of Zhang Lisheng and said, “I think the tribe should arrange for a branch outside the cave of the Pavaro Golden River…”
“No, you are wrong, Tugra! Tudenan should not build a ‘branch’ outside the Pavaro Golden River but instead, Tudenan should migrate to Pavaro entirely!” Zhang Lisheng shook his head and interrupted the Tudenan headman’s words in an astounding manner. “I’ve long felt that this small valley under my feet will inevitably become Tudenan’s shackles but I just did not expect that this day will come so fast.”
Tugra stared at the Raider in a dumbstruck manner for a long time, not being able to form a word. Finally, when the buzzing sound in his head had finally weakened, he stuttered, “G-Great Raider, b-but Tudenan has been living in this valley for hundreds of years, and the tribe is even named after it…”
“You’re wrong again, Tugra! It’s not Tudenan that is named after the valley but it’s the valley that is named after Tudenan! By the time Tudenan has migrated to the outside of the Pavaro Golden River, that Golden River will eventually have its name changed to Tudenan Great River! Tugra, you should also be able to feel that the Golden River is now the biggest source of the tribe’s prosperity, and it must be firmly held in the hands. Alright, go announce this news! After Tudenan has finished its migration, I’ll have to leave for the time being.” Zhang Lisheng waved his hand and announced firmly, not leaving any room for argument.
“Yes, Great Raider!” Tugra did not dare to continue to argue with Zhang Lisheng. With a slightly lifeless look, he stumbled out of the bark house and announced to the people that the tribe was about to migrate.
To his surprise, upon hearing this news, the other Tudenan tribesmen calmly accepted it. It was apparent that these indigenous people who had joined the tribe for less than a year felt no attachment towards this valley yet, unlike their headman who showed an unwillingness to leave. On top of that, some of the tribesmen who were originally from Pavaro before their conversion even cheered out in a whisper.
Amidst the absence of objection, and guts to object, the tribe’s migration started smoothly.
Due to the reason that the Hellfire people were short, it was actually very simple to build a treehouse suitable for them. It was even so after the tribal craftsmen had acquired a great deal of knowledge on geoengineering tools.
More than ten days later, an indigenous tribe built around the cave leading to the Golden River was slowly born at the original site of the ruins of Pavaro.
After Zhang Lisheng had transformed into a towering giant that had a height of ten meters with muscles that looked like metal casts, he personally carried the Tudenan pole to set it up near the Golden River Cave. Just like that, Tudenan’s migration was completed.
Coincidentally, on the same day, the catches yielded by the Golden River fishery that had been expanded to four shipyards and more than 20 fishing boats were in time to meet the needs of the entire population of the entire tribe.
