Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Within the dark and lusterless swamp, 30 small Corpse Puppets gathered together stiffly like marionettes with an invisible wire controlling them from the air and slowly grouped into the front and back, forming a nondescript formation with difficulty in the end.
After that, these dead corpses posing as living creatures stepped into the muddy water that did not reach the knees and walked staggeringly toward the Menger tribe.
The closer these Corpse Puppets were to the tribe, the louder the ear-piercing ‘shhh shh’ sound they made when they moved unscrupulously in the swamp, gradually overpowering the howling sound of the beasts in the distance.
All of a sudden, a few wooden handles with sharp metal heads on the top slashed through the night sky in the darkness and stuck onto the swamp mud with a ‘whoosh’ fiercely, close to the toes of one of the Corpse Puppet walking at the frontmost and stopped the way of the dead corpses.
At the same time, a fierce loud voice resonated in the air. “This is the territory of the Menger tribesmen! Speak your intention or you’ll lose your head!”
The ruthless threat echoed in the swamp area and the effect it created was effective. Before the sentence could even be finished, the 30 Corpse Puppets that had their faces hidden in the darkness came to a halt and dived into the mud one by one.
The sudden change caused the swamp to return to silence again. After a gust of whistling cold wind brushed away, that loud voice resonated again. “Stop playing these absurd tricks. The cold Menger tribe doesn’t have a heart of mercy! If you don’t climb up from the ground, I’ll use the spear to puncture your heart directly. ”
Under the loud voice’s second threat, the dead bodies that were crouching on the swamp began to squirm and murmured “aahhh ooohh…” ambiguously and faintly.
Not long after, no spears were shot out of the darkness, but two warriors who looked particularly agile leaped out from their hiding place. After they lit the torches, they slowly approached the figures who were struggling in the swamp.
After seeing clearly the faces of the Corpse Puppets with the help of the torches, the investigating warrior who was much older became astonished and shouted loudly, “It’s really Rumen! I was just saying that they seem to be Rumen to all of you, but none of you would believe me! Now that they are wild beasts running around everywhere, how could there possibly be anybody wandering around? Oh! Praise the ancestor, Chief Nato is here as well! They’re all poisoned! Hurry and get the python gallstone!”
Then, he took out a piece of black animal liver and ran to the side of the squirming figures. After a moment of hesitation, he stuffed it into the mouth of the aborigine leader who had a grey feather on his head.
“Is it the hunting team that Chief Nato led? They’re finally back now! However, why did they come back so late? Not only that, they didn’t blow the horn as well!”
“Poisoned! Didn’t you hear what Geru said? They’re poisoned! Naperu, speaking of which, to think that you actually threw a javelin to our chief warrior and actually threatened to pierce through his heart…”
“How should I know whether it’s Chief Nato or not?! Then again, speaking of which, if it wasn’t for Geru’s good eyesight, perhaps we’d really have hung Chief on the tree to die in humiliation tomorrow by accident!” Upon hearing the older warrior’s calling, more than 20 tribal guards gushed out of the dark in lingering fear and began to rescue the Menger hunters who had died long ago.
Zhang Lisheng, who hid at the top of the tree, stared at the noisy rescuing scene from the distance and smiled in satisfaction. “30 compatriots are poisoned but only 27 rescuers came out. That is to say, it’s fewer than 30 people despite having all of the Menger guards gathered together. What a confident tribe!” For the sake of insurance, he commanded the three Corpse Puppets that were not being saved to self-explode.
“Chief Nato has already died! He must have relied on his tough will to lead the tribal hunting team back to the tribe!”
“Rumen is no longer breathing as well! Sigh! Since the python gallstone they brought with them could not detoxify the venom, of course, our python gallstone wouldn’t be able to save them.”
“Karufi is dead…”
“Praise God! Nusi is also dead! I-Is there any hunter we could save?” Upon hearing the death news, a tribal guard finally felt that something was not right, so he threw the corpse of his tribal compatriot away and stood from the swamp.
Panic-stricken, he glanced around at his companion and suddenly saw three large balls floating in the swamp around him.
As his heart shuddered instinctively, the sole vigilant aborigine shouted loudly, “Be careful, there’s a strange…”
Unfortunately, everything was too late. The Corpse Puppets that had blue and red mist tumbling under their skin had bulged to the limit and turned into a big ball. They then began to release a faint “pop pop…” sound before exploding.
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At that instant, a storm that came from all sorts of directions swept through the swamp with an area of a hundred meters and corroded the 27 guards to become a puddle of bloody meat.
“Even though these short foreign world’s aborigines are strong, after they have been refined into Corpse Puppets, the power of their self-destruction turned out to be not as good as an ordinary human being. However, it’s fortunate that it’s enough for the time being.” After clearing the Menger tribal guards, Zhang Lisheng climbed down from the big tree and commanded the remaining 27 Corpse Puppets to stand up fully covered in mud to continue becoming the vanguard and walk deep into the Menger tribe.
There were no more sentries or guards that appeared along the way. After advancing slowly and stiffly for more than ten minutes, the Corpse Puppets finally came to a spacious open space lit with bright lights.
Zhang Lisheng, who had shrunk his body and hid far away behind a tribal house at the edge of the tribe, looked into the distance at the thousands of aborigines surrounding the huge totem pole with a diameter of more than one meter and a height of 12 to 13 meters. They were muttering as they bowed down and worshipped it. All of a sudden, it hit Zhang Lisheng with a pang of realization why the Menger tribe would be so careless in their guarding this evening.
It only needed 1000 Hellfire tribesmen to bow and worship in front of the totem pole and the tribal book of history to let them shelter the tribe from the beast tide impact, but it did not mean only 1000 people in the tribe would kneel and pray when they held the ceremony.
With the general blind worship and superstitious attitude of the Hellfire people, of course, they would get as many people to pray and worship that they could get on such an epiphanic day.
In particular, during this period of time, when the entire Hellfire Archipelago was filled with frantic wild beasts running. Apart from an odd one out like him, nobody else would even think about launching a battle of conquest.
Now that Zhang Lisheng had thought about this, he secretly rejoiced his good luck. At the same time, he commanded the Corpse Puppets to suddenly jump stiffly, rushing into the crowds of worship and began to perform a show of self-destruction.
Upon seeing the intruders hidden under the mud rushing into the tribe’s sacred prayer rituals, the Menger warriors screamed in anger. Grabbing the weapons beside them, they climbed up from the ground and stabbed them with their spears.
At this time, even though there were some tribesmen who had already identified that the hunters had transformed into Corpse Puppets, nobody dared to plead for them. After all, it was a fatal crime to clash with their Gods, no matter what kind of reason they had.
However, to their surprise, when the spears stabbed the invaders’ bodies till they were ridden with holes, they did not howl and die. Instead, they rapidly swelled and turned into a ball the size of two people. Abruptly, they exploded and turned the attackers around them into soft and overflowing meat.
“Escape! Those people have been polluted by black magic…”
“Dear God! Please protect your children! T-These cursed monsters…”
“Make way! Make way for me! This must be an attack from the Mainlanders! If I’m killed by such black magic, my soul will definitely be captured by the evil spirits of the Mainlanders…” A person’s self-destruction could bring along with him 50 to 60 people who were standing densely around him. Counting in such a manner, if all 27 Corpse Puppets exploded, Menger would lose at least 1000 to 2000 people. The panic this would cause might give even more serious damage to this tribe.
At such a critical moment, a fine-looking young man whose forehead was covered with fine black scales, wearing a long robe made from soft tanned red leather walked out of the bark house next to the Menger’s totem pole.
Seeing the flustered scene in the open space, he frowned and barred his sharp teeth before shouting, “Don’t panic, citizens of Menger tribe! Stand at the same spot and I, your Defender, Camonesi Cuttlefish will save…”
While the young man was shouting, the soil at the feet of the remaining Corpse Puppets rose up all of a sudden, forming high square platforms that raised the dangerous balls of meat midair.
Then, at the edge of the mud square platform, four solid slabs emerged and the Corpse Puppets were held inside like a box, causing the balls of meat that continued to self-destruct one after another to be unable to cause any more injury to the Menger tribesmen.
This person who used such a clever and simple techniques to counter Zhang Lisheng’s plan that was laid out thoughtfully with much effort was a huge, tall, strong and hefty man who had a skin color that resembled stone albeit slightly softer.
He followed behind the young man in a long leather robe and came out of the bark house, before revealing a stiff smile. “Cuttlefish, I realized that you’ve become more naggy and comical ever since you made a trip to Kattaman City State. ‘Citizens of Menger tribe’… I wonder how you managed to come up with such a title.”
Upon hearing the hefty man’s ridicule, the young man yelled at him. “Oh, shut up, Rockblock! Ten years ago, if it wasn’t for you and the fish herd who came to this island uninvited, I’d have long become Remodeler of the Menger! If I can monopolize the tribe, who would go to the Kattaman City State to make a deal with those damn Mainlanders!?”
“However, if it wasn’t for the fish herd that brought you to the island in the first place, you might still be a spiritual monster that didn’t even know how to speak and would just swim around in a daze, eating raw fish in the ocean,” the hefty man responded bluntly.
As the two living faiths of Menger quarreled with each other, a bloodcurdling “wooo wooo…” sound resonated in the air of the tribe. Hundreds of huge, ugly, flying insects the size of a human’s head flapped their four thick wings. They revealed a faint shade of green color while dragging a tapered tail stinger swooping down from the sky.
In the face of the attack of these strange insects, Rockblock fisted his palms and did not show any look of horror at all. Cuttlefish, on the other hand, took off his red leather gown. “Looks like the guest visiting tonight is good at manipulating both corpses and poisonous insects. There are three attributes of physics, technique, and poison in his attack. Since you’ve taken part in the first wave of battle, let me take the second wave instead.”