Chapter 610: The God
Most of the captured northern border barbarians were adult men and women, all of whom were wounded, accounting for more than 70% of the total. They had an appearance that looked like it was almost carved out of a mold. The men had bulging muscles and shoulders that were more than one meter wide, their posture when standing was nearly the same as that of a fierce giant bear.
The women, on the other hand, were a little shorter, but they also had a height of more than two hundred and thirty centimeters tall, with a muscular body. The only difference was that they had huge papaya-like breasts suspended by animal skin leather in front of their chests, allowing them to look more feminine.
The children of the barbarians, who accounted for 30% of the number of captives, on the other hand, were equally burly. The height of the children was similar to that of ordinary mainlanders, but peculiarly, the few three to four old barbarian men were skinny, with their body hunched down like they were malnourished since their ribs hidden under the worn and dirty skin could faintly be seen.
As a god who was also a biologist, Zhang Lisheng naturally understood what this abnormal age structure meant for a biological population.
He watched the young barbarians who were glaring at him while he kept struggling with significant interests. In the end, he suddenly talked to one old barbarian man who appeared to be the calmest and wisest among the barbarians using the northern border barbaric language, “Elder, it seems that your tribe’s means of living is not that rich.”
“Dear respected Majesty, big tribes with more than 100,000 people can not claim to be rich in a stone plateau. We often have to starve in the winter, especially a small tribe like ours that only had several hundreds of people. It took only one fell swoop for your great army to raze our home…” When the elder reached here, a glimpse of hatred faintly flashed across his eyes. Then, like a humble mainlander, he bowed down, “I can see that there are short barbarians that look completely different from the flatlanders who are wearing leather skin and feathers on their heads under your demand. You must be an open-minded monarch. Geguda Tribe is willing to render a service to such a wise king as you, please accept our loyalty.”
To the barbarians, the Hellfire tribesmen called the humans living in the Green Leaf Mainland as ‘mainlanders’ while the Hardstone people called the human living in the mainland civilization as ‘flatlanders.’ Both forms of addresses were different but meant the same object.
To the mainland ‘civilized people’, both the Hellfire tribesmen and the Hardstone people were barbarians, but the meaning was completely different.
The Hellfire barbarians who were encircled and isolated and by the vast sea were like a volcano, they might not be harmful to the mainland for a thousand years when it was calm, and instead, it could even provide many unique luxury products for the mainlanders. However, once many powerful spiritual monsters and headmen united multiple islands and pointed their finger at the mainland, the erupting volcano would cause terrible losses to the ‘civilized world’ in a short time.
On the other hand, the Hardstone people who were living in the barren plateau were like floods. If it was hard for them to survive during the famine year, they would inevitably form tribal coalition forces to invade the hinterland of the mainland and rob them for materials. In ordinary times, there were also barbarian tribes or individuals, and a small group of joint forces would plunder the inland towns and villages of various countries near the border. The danger they posed was like a long stream of water that was hard to guard against.
Due to the different characteristics of these two barbarians, no matter how strong the civilized countries in history, no army had incorporated the Hellfire tribesmen into their troops before. However, there were legends of how the Hardstone people had rendered their service to powerful inland kings previously over many reasons, which, unfortunately, would always end with betrayal.
“No wonder the people from the mainland frontier fort would always say that the northern border barbarians that are from big tribes are violent, fierce wolves who have no fear of death while the small tribes are sly plateau yellow fox who have great forbearance,” When Zhang Lisheng thought of this, he burst out into a chuckle, “You’re willing to work for me? What? Are you trying to turn against me in the battlefield to cut my head off?”
“Everything that we do is for the inheritance of the tribes and the endless offerings for the ancestors, so of course, we’ll not betray you and risk extermination. Besides, those great kings who had left their names in the annals of history had never feared betrayal before, hadn’t they, Your Majesty?” The old barbarian man was stunned for a while before replying cunningly.
“You have a point, but unfortunately, I am not a king.” Zhang Lisheng smiled and shook his head.
“Why do you still need to deceive an old man who is dying soon, Your Majesty? If you’re not a king, then the generals and soldiers here would not have been so respectful to you,” The elder replied confidently.
“I didn’t deceive you,” Zhang Lisheng smiled at the old man before saying quietly, “The reason they are so respectful to me is not that I am a king, but because I am a god. Therefore, I don’t need your loyalty, I only need you to give me your own devout faith.”
“God?” The old barbarian man stiffened as he raised his head to study the young man carefully. His expression gradually relaxed as he spoke with a smile, “You’re really a bold, faithless person. It has been a long time since the gods gave their orders to the mortal world, who knows when they would resurrect again…”
“With me here, they’ll never resurrect anymore. Never, ever…” Zhang Lisheng interrupted the old man’s words. His sturdy body gradually became tall, with scales of three mixed colors of yellow, blue, and red growing on his body while both of his legs swelled up and merged into a colossal snake tail. He looked down at the barbarian captives in front of him, who almost fainted out of bafflement and said in a cold desolate voice.
After the annexation of about 80% of the Green Leaf Mainland, Wizard Li God’s believers had already soared up to about 2.4 billion. Now that he revealed his true form, a strange phenomenon naturally occurred within a radius of 50 kilometers. The soil on the ground tumbled, and the vegetation grew in distortion. The most ordinary grasses grew up to a height slightly taller than a human in just a few seconds. Clouds tumbled in the sky and transformed into mountains, rivers, and giant beasts that stretched out as far as eyes could see like they were going to crush and devour everything in the world.
“Y-You’re really a god…” The old barbarian man looked up at the demon god that had a human upper body and a snake lower body. There was no longer any slickness in his tone, and he was utterly trembling when he said so. He had no fear of death, but he could not wipe off the reverence that originated from his soul that a mortal had towards a supernatural being.
When Zhang Lisheng saw how the elder was immediately intimidated by just revealing his true form, his voice changed as he spoke gently, “Mortal, I’m not only a god, but I’m a god whose faith has already spread out to the entire Green Leaf Mainland. I promise you, if you believe in me and show me your piety, you’ll be able to obtain everything that you want, a rich life, lofty status, supreme power, long life, eternal youth…”
The reason why he threw such plentiful baits to the insignificant northern border barbarian tribe that had only several hundreds of surviving tribesmen was, of course, because he was eager to recruit their talents.
Under the double layer of temptations of a god’s majestic power and his gentle bearing, the old barbarian man who had always been humble did not show a sign that he was tempted. Instead, it was the few northern border barbarian teenagers who were the most unyielding and had struggled the most whose eyes widened immediately as a longing look appeared on their faces.
Upon seeing this, Zhang Lisheng immediately felt ecstatic, and he was about to continue to throw out his bait when he suddenly noticed that the old barbarian man chewed on his tongue and regained his consciousness. Then, he spat out a mouthful of blood and began to mutter vague incantation of “Adudu ose…” before summoning a phantom image of an old man wearing an antler on his head and spotted deerskins on his body while holding a colossal stone ace. With a sudden snarl of “weng oo,” it gradually dissipated.
As that loud snarl resonated, all northern border barbarians on the wall immediately snapped back to their alertness.
The old barbarian man stood firm and took a deep breath of the slightly warm air at night. There was no longer any humility on his face. Staring straight into Wizard Li God’s eyes, he said, “Your Majesty, the Hardstone Plateau people only believe in our ancestors in these tens of thousands of years, even when hundreds of gods descended during the ‘golden age,’ there is no exception. Please forgive us for not being able to offer you faith.”
Upon hearing these words from the elders, the barbarians began to stand up straight one by one despite being tightly tied. The same happened to the five to six teenagers who were initially seduced by Wizard Li God.
In their imagination, having rejected a request from a god would mean that they would be tortured cruelly later on or even had their heads directly chopped off. However, to their surprise, the human-headed snake demon in front of them was not angry but began to mutter to himself in a strange language that they did not understand at all.
After a few minutes, Zhang Lisheng finally returned to his senses and returned to his human form. After transforming the sand underneath his feet into a robe to cover his body, he waved his hand and ordered in a strange expression, “Lock these northern border barbarians in the dungeon but make sure their food is ample. Don’t be harsh on them.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” A chief warrior among the hundreds of believers, who had been kneeling on the ground ever since the young man revealed his true form, answered respectfully before gesturing for the warriors to bring the barbarians to leave the city wall.
Looking at the gradually receding intimidatingly tall figures, Zhang Lisheng looked at the Tusala Citadel’s general who was still kneeling at his feet under the bright moonlight and opened his mouth, “Jitim…”
Without warning, he saw a warrior wearing a biological shell that had morphed into a vast humanoid bird that flapped his wings to fly up the wall.
“Your Great Majesty, Chief Priest Tuan has sent a secret message,” Kneeling on the ground while holding up a half-foot-long reel in his hand in front of Zhang Lisheng, the colossal bird warrior reported.
“Tuan’s secret message? Could it be that there’s news about that ‘person’ already?” The young man muttered as he opened the unreeled scroll. When he saw that there was only an address and nothing else written on it, a delighted expression appeared on his face.
After that, he retrieved the reel and pondered for a moment before continuing his words that had been interrupted just now, “Jitim, order the scouts to reassemble and bring me to the barbarian tribe where they have captured the captives.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” The yellow-robed middle-aged man got up and retreated. Zhang Lisheng, on the other hand, jumped down from the wall at the same time and landed on the wilderness outside the city.
He gently stroked his chest with his right hand. At once, a soil platform with a length and width of more than three meters and a thick bottom of less than half a foot gradually appeared at the young man’s feet. Then, four mud giants that had a flat face, two eyes, and two ears began to appear at the four corners of the soil platform before lifting the platform up their shoulders.
Sitting cross-legged on the soil platform, Zhang Lisheng looked up at the moon and deliberated a little as he waited. The stone gate of the Tusala Citadel began to slide open. Thousands of elite scouts rode on their mounts and galloped away, surrounding the soil platform among them.
