Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Hellfire tribesmen’s force as a barbarian tribe in Shrimp World No. 2 was not worth mentioning at all in the eyes of Mainlanders who had gained the advantage of civilization. In the Hellfire Archipelago, the Shrimp B1 Island situated on the edge of the long island chain could also be considered as a desolate place. From the perspective of Shrimp B1 Island that had an area of more than 30,000 square kilometers, the Tudenan tribe with not more than 30,000 tribesmen, and only had a hunting ground of 40 to 50 square kilometers after seizing the tribes Menger, Pavaro, and Vals, was nothing but a puny tribe.
Everything was still revolving around the starting point. There was no benefit in thinking too much, so after thinking about the future for a while, Zhang Lisheng slowly cleared his mind and steadily cultivated his secret method.
As the wizard power in his body surged and tumbled, there seemed to be an invisible pen behind him that slowly sketched a vivid Demon’s image and a giant Money Toad. The two ancient images constantly changed mystically, sometimes when there seemed to be a new change, it stopped forming as it reached the end.
This meant he could finally ascend from being a Rank-6 wizard. As long as his wizard power was slightly consolidated a bit more, he could transform a second wizard gu and become a Rank-7 Wizard.
Unknowingly, the sky was slowly turning to dusk. The smog behind Zhang Lisheng began to dissipate and after a few seconds later, he opened his eyes and murmured regrettably, “Looks like I won’t be able to make a breakthrough today no matter what.” Then, he stood up from the animal skin and walked out of the bark house.
Outside, the sun that had already turned into a silver-white color but still radiated a strange golden afterglow was gradually setting in the far-flung horizon.
In the envelopment of the shimmering faint gold radiance, tens of thousands of Tudenan were neatly kneeling before the totem pole.
When they saw Zhang Lisheng’s emergence, the first few hundred aborigines in front first crouched down in admiration under the leadership of the headman and praised, “Great Raider, you’re the living legend of the Tudenan! You’re my walking living faith…” Eventually, all of the Tudenan tribesmen crouched down on the ground and buried their heads deep into the soil.
In the reflection of the setting sun in the west, facing the worship of thousands of believers, Zhang Lisheng strongly suppressed the excited emotions in his heart, smiling while he stood indifferently like an ancient Grand Wizard.
At this moment, the crystal clear and bright milky white moon that brought along a huge moon halo with it gradually rose to the sky. In an instant, millions of beasts roared and howled together at the same time throughout the island.
The instant the beasts howled, Tugra immediately crept up from the ground and ran towards Zhang Lisheng. “Great Raider, the Lunar God will pour the Dew of Wisdom soon. The tribesmen will carry out the praying ritual already.”
Looking up at the bright moon rising above the treetop at an incredible speed, Zhang Lisheng nodded. Soon, he heard a lot of soothing prayers resonating all around him.
As the Tudenan people kneeled and worshipped sincerely, sketchy brilliance resembling the slender rain began to emit out of the moon that was already hanging in the high sky.
That gushes of brilliance fluttered and scattered down in golden and silver color, invading the jungle and the soil on the island while illuminating a layer of soft halo upon everything.
Bathed in the rain of brilliance, Zhang Lisheng looked around in amazement. He reached out a hand to try grabbing a brilliance, but he realized that the brilliance was not a material object. Thus, it was impossible for him to hold it in his hand.
Regrettably, he rubbed his fingers together. He suddenly heard a loud resonation, that would usually appear when a mudslide happened, not far away from their tribe.
Of course, it was impossible for the dense forest to have any mudslide so Zhang Lisheng commanded the wizard gu to run to his side with curiosity, before leaping up onto the insect’s back to have a view from higher ground.
He could see that a thick branch of a big tree seven to eight meters tall near the exit of the valley was wrapped by gusts of tumbling mud.
In the middle of the trunk of the giant tree, a human face with big eyebrows and a big mouth appeared in a distorted manner. As it opened its black huge mouth, it continued to bawl in pain.
“The forming of a demon! This is clearly the conjuring of the demon from inanimate objects! Dew of Wisdom… E-Emperor Molasses!” As the saying goes, “What you hear may be false, but what you see is true!” When he saw the birth of the so-called jungle spiritual monster under the Dew of Wisdom that filled the whole sky, his heart shuddered as he recalled a passage from the ancient classic “New Strange Events-Forest Classic”—
“When an inanimate object transforms into a demon, it’ll need to be blessed by the moon essence from the Gengshen month. The moon essence of the nights in the Gengshen month contains the Emperor Molasses that would drizzle in the shape of fine rain and silver line onto the human world, again and again. This would allow the inanimate objects blessed by this essence to be turned into a demon. If animals or the forest spirits consume this essence, they’ll possess omniscient power; but if the inanimate items are covered in this essence, they’ll become spiritual but possess no life. The Molasses is spiritual and can nourish one’s life. The animals and the forest spirits already have a life, so it would be beneficial if they consumed the essence.”
(T/N: Gengshen month is a month in the Sexagenary cycle in the calendar used by ancient China)
As Zhang Lisheng murmured the ancient book’s excerpt about the Emperor Molasses, the more he felt that this Emperor Molasses was very similar to the Dew of Wisdom. Heck, they might even be the same thing.
“It would be greatly beneficial if the essence is consumed…” As he stood on the wizard gu’s back murmuring to himself, he suddenly looked up to the sky and opened his mouth wide. Unfortunately, the brilliance falling from the sky did not stay but passed through his body instead.
After opening and closing his mouth for a long period of time, the wizard power in his body did not increase at all. Zhang Lisheng, who was unwilling to give up, commanded Beetlecar to shake its head and suck and swallow in the air. Only until he was sure that the wizard gu could not obtain any benefit from the rain of brilliance did he finally sigh regrettably and began to stare into the distance.
Countless beasts were running around in the jungle. Unlike the previous nights, they were no longer in a group this time but was in a complete mess.
As they fled without directions, some of the beasts among the beast herd had their bodies expand into a human shape and stood up in the shrouding of the rain of brilliance, their bodies sunk in and protruded horrifyingly as they struggled. However, most of them exploded and turned into a pile of meat while the few lucky ones gained strength and transformed into the body of a spiritual monster before starting to destroy what they came in contact with.
In the gestation and demise, birth and destruction, the Hellfire Archipelago underwent a long mysterious night that would take place one in several decades just like that in front of Zhang Lisheng.
Early in the next morning, the dust finally settled. Zhang Lisheng, who watched a good show for an entire night, followed through his original plan and rode the wizard gu to head towards the rising sun, leaving Tudenan Valley and slowly walking to the human gathering place on Shrimp B1 Island.
Along the way, he self-righteously took advantage of the opportunity of the falling of the Dew of Wisdom and kept stopping during his journey. After using the ‘assemble’ spell to catch for wizard gus and finally after his sixth capture, he was lucky enough to come across a huge spider that was entirely red but had a pale human face mark on its back that possessed an omniscient power.
In the dimly lit dense forest, as Zhang Lisheng looked at the giant spider that became three meters tall after being refined into a wizard gu through the ‘assimilate’ spell, with two hieroglyphic words of “Encompassing Net” clearly appearing in his mind, he muttered in delight, “Looks like I’m indeed fated with spiders these few days. What good luck! What good luck indeed! Looks like the Emperor Molasses’ effect still remains…”
After a moment of self muttering and pondering, the intention to take a leap of faith gradually became stronger in his heart as he continued to cast the ‘assemble’ spell more determinedly.
Unfortunately, lady luck was no longer by his side. Despite exhausting himself to the stage where all of his blood essence had completely depleted, he no longer encountered a second poisonous insect that possessed the omniscient power. Not only that, when he was refining them into wizard gu, the poisonous insects that had been selected would explode to their death one after another as well.
When he saw that the results were getting worse and worse, he just smiled wryly and no longer persisted.
After selecting eight wizard gus that he felt should be the strongest out of 19 successfully refined wizard gus, he commanded the rest of the wizard gu to throw themselves into Kyuuko’s mouth before riding Beetlecar to continue his journey. Alas, by the time it was noon, he finally came to the jungle near the human gathering place.
Returning his body to its normal height, Zhang Lisheng changed into his camouflage canvas field clothes that had many pockets and lied on the ground to roll for about seven to eight minutes. After that, he stood up in satisfaction and shrank all of the wizard gus up to their smallest size before placing them into his pockets. Pretending to be fully exhausted, he walked out of the jungle panting in an unkempt manner.
The huge human gathering place was just before his eyes. However, all of a sudden, he was dumbfounded when he found that a huge part of the sturdy thick wall of the gathering place that was covered with artillery and missile launching vehicles had collapsed.
Right now, many US soldiers had started to repair and clear up the walls that had become construction waste by using construction machinery vehicles while intensely pouring out cement to form a new wall quickly.
“A spiritual monster has broken through the defensive system of the gathering place? How is that possible?” Zhang Lisheng’s eyes turned wide as he walked into the gathering place in shock.
He had an Asian look, so of course, the guards just ignored him.
After entering the town, Zhang Lisheng realized that the streets in the town were full of ruins too. By relying on his memory, he walked to the house that had a bald eagle flag hanging on it. When he was just about to enter the house, a sudden mix of cries and howling resonated in his ears.
It seemed to be the howl from the forest spiritual monsters.
Zhang Lisheng’s body stiffened as he came to a halt. Turning to the direction of the howling, he ran towards it and finally came to the beach. To his horror, he saw a sandman, that had its pair of legs and right arm cut off, showing three jagged wounds, but still had an intact left arm. It had its torso and head tied to the ground by thick steel wire. He was constantly struggling with anger and screaming from time to time.
Even though the number of spiritual monsters Zhang Lisheng killed was not few, he had never carefully observed this kind of amazing creature in a close distance before.
Unwittingly attracted by the sandman, he gradually approached it until a tall and strong black officer blocked his way. “Hey, young man. You’ve crossed the line. All of us know that this big fellow is not a monkey in the zoo…”
“My name is Zhang Lisheng, Sergeant. I’m a biologist from Stanford.”
“A Stanford biologist? Oh, wait a minute then…” The black officer studied the lean young man in front of him before taking out a phone-sized instrument and tapping on the screen.
After a few seconds, he suddenly looked at Zhang Lisheng’s face in amazement. Speaking incoherently, he said, “It’s indeed this face, but didn’t you disappear out of town four days ago?”
