Chapter 281: The Fantastic Thing’

The Hellfire people had countless tribal traditions. Some of the traditions felt very strange if one abruptly heard it but if one considered it carefully, one would understand the meaning contained in the traditions and would then realize that these traditions were good pointers for the inheritance of tribes, particularly the weak tribes.

The Tudenan aborigine’s words made Zhang Lisheng secretly praise the wisdom of the native ancestors for umpteenth times. At this time, he suddenly saw a small figure rushing to his feet and burying his head in the ground. In a crouching manner, the figure said, “Great Raider, your devout believer, Vakuku, is here to see you.”

“Vakuku, you seem to have matured a lot,” Zhang Lisheng said with a smile as he looked down at the believer by his feet. “Not only that, you’ve become selfless as well! To think that you actually offered the breeding method of the giant millispider that is passed down from generation to generation to the tribe. I’ve decided to give you three feathers to place on your head and make you the chief of the tribal animal trainers.”

“Great Raider, compared to the valuable knowledge you have given to Tudenan, my offering is not worth mentioning at all. The amazing pulleys and levers that could magnify a person’s strength by countless times and the fantastic workshop that can produce ironware by relying on the flowing of water are the true secret methods! Compared to them, the small breeding method of the warrior’s ‘partner’ is nothing at all…”

“The fantastic workshop that can produce ironware by relying on the flowing of water? Tugra, what’s that?” Zhang Lisheng was dumbstruck. He interrupted the words of Vakuku, who had become a young man, and asked the Tudenan’s headman.

“Raider, it’s the fantastic thing that Aruba, the son of Tumulu, the chief of the tribal craftsmen, built in the underground river according to the knowledge you’ve imparted. It can absorb the strength of the slow flowing water and drive the heavy hammer to forge a desired ironware from the raw iron inserted into the iron mold.”

Zhang Lisheng frowned and contemplated over it. All of a sudden, he blurted out and exclaimed, “Hydraulic machine tool? You mean, Aruba has built a hydraulic machine tool by just relying on a few pieces of engineering drawings?”

“Great Raider, so the fantastic thing is actually called hydraulic machine tool. W-What a marvelous name!” Vakuku praised in a whisper.

Even though Zhang Lisheng could not understand what was so marvelous about the name ‘hydraulic machine tool’, he knew that perhaps there was a great Einstein-like genius in this aborigine tribe that he ruled.

After pondering for a while, he said, “It seems that Aruba’s ability is above his father. Tugra, give Tumulu’s fantastic position as the chief of tribal craftsmen to his son. As for you, Vakuku, I’ve said just now that I’ll give you three feathers and make you the chief of the tribal animal trainers. However, right now, you’re obviously more interested in craftsmen so in that case, you can only wear two feathers.”

As Zhang Lisheng was speaking, an aborigine holding a wooden pot filled with bright feathers with both of his hands came to kneel beside him.

Seeing that the young native at his foot made no objection, Zhang Lisheng took the two feathers that were originally pinned on Vakuku’s head and threw them on the ground before re-inserting two new feathers on him.

This meant that Vakuku would forever be one of the chiefs in the tribe. His status would never be usurped, even if he committed a major crime, unless it was by the Raider himself, or another spiritual monster guardian of Tudenan who had a higher status than Zhang Lisheng,

“Thank you for your gift, Great Raider! You’re the living faith in my heart…” Although the feathers granted to him on his heart had been reduced from three to two, Vakuku, who had become the chief of the craftsmen as he wished, shed tears of gratitude as he crouched below Zhang Lisheng’s feet and shouted.

“What I gave is what you deserve, Vakuku. Perhaps, from a long-term perspective, the ‘fantastic thing’ built by Aruba is far more important to the Tudenan than the giant millispiders. Right now, the giant millispiders are the key to a powerful tribe. Alright, you may retreat now. Tugra, bring me to see that ‘fantastic thing’ as said by you.”

“Yes, Raider!” Vakuku and Tugra answered at the same time. One of them stood up and respectfully retreated while the other one hurriedly commanded the craftsmen to stop driving the beast to pull the purple rope. After clearing the cave passage, he walked in front of Zhang Lisheng to lead the way and headed to the Golden River.

After not seeing it for two months, there were already several hundreds of fisheries built alongside the underground rivers that was illuminated by countless torches.

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Thousands of three-bone ships illuminated with torches were sailing and catching countless fishes in the underground river that was so huge that it stretched as far as the eyes could see. However, Zhang Lisheng did not seem to be concerned about these changes. When he walked out of the underground cave, he kept staring at the few huge yet simple-looking machines on the shore with utmost concentration.

The machine had only one iron shelf on the river bank. There was a transmitting belt arm that could only move up and down that was fixed on the stand like a huge stone pestle and an iron mold that was placed on the mossy, slippery ground with a large piece of black iron on it.

The mechanical work process was very simple. When the river water in the underground Golden River slowly flowed, the stone pestle on the iron stand would be raised slowly and would fall abruptly, pounding the black iron into the mold.

As Zhang Lisheng watched these few simple machines pounding constantly by the shore, his expression became very glum.

“There should be a winch with paddles in the river. No! The winch shouldn’t be able to use the hydraulic power so well…” he muttered in his heart. “Ah, forget it! I’m not good at machinery and on top of that, it’s meaningless for me to understand how this big guy works anyway. What’s more important is that this stone hammer-like iron hammer may lead the Hellfire people to enter the era of mechanical civilization but is it a correct choice to lead them to this path?”

Just as Zhang Lisheng was lost in his thoughts, Aruba, who was kneeling beside the shipyard on the river bank closely beside his father, saw how the Raider was staring with utmost concentration on his own fantastic creation. Right away, an unwillingly strong impulse that could not be restrained rose in his heart.

A struggling look appeared on his ugly face that was full of wrinkles. After hesitating for a while, he suddenly crouched and crawled up near Zhang Lisheng. “Great Raider! Your devout believer, Aruba, has something to report to you.”

Not far away, when Tumulu saw his son crawling to the feet of the tribal Raider, he was first dumbfounded and then a horrified expression filled his face. Shocked, he exclaimed out loud, “Aruba! Are you crazy? How can you use such a crazy idea…”

“Tumulu, let your son speak.” Zhang Lisheng was astonished for a moment before looking and waving his hand at Tumulu with interest.

“Raider, I can see that you’ve been paying attention to the few fantastic things that I’ve built. The people in the tribe thought that the reason I built them is just to show how great the wisdom you gave is to Tudenan but in fact, my purpose is not only that. This fantastic item… this fantastic item is a magical tool that can replace the work of most craftsmen. although it’s very troublesome and takes inexhaustible effort to forge the mold from clay before pouring liquid iron to burn it into form, along with the fact that there are many more molds of ironware that cannot be made, but once each mold is created, it can copy the characteristics of the ironware that we want without spending much effort, which makes all of the hard work in front to become worthwhile. I-I think that the reason some molds cannot be created is because we have too few craftsmen who study about this. For this reason, I hope that you can give out an order that all of the ironware in Tudenan must be forged using this fantastic thing so that the only work of the craftsmen would be casting molds. In this case, I can guarantee that in three years, the ironware in the tribe will be inexhaustible. Not only that, even the warriors will be able to wear armors in battle. By that time, by that time, it would not be a dream for Tudenan to conquer this big island under your protection!”

“What did you say in your last sentence, Aruba?” Zhang Lisheng’s heart shuddered.

“I said… I said, if we do as what I said, the Tudenan warriors will be able to wear armor in battle and under your protection, we can conquer this entire island!” Aruba buried his head in the ground and gambled everything that he had to say.

“Conquering the entire island? That’s right! I haven’t even conquered this small island yet so it’s ridiculous for me to consume myself with worries.” Zhang Lisheng burst out chuckling and was suddenly awakened to reality. “Now, any suggestion that can make Tudenan stronger is a good suggestion! Perhaps a steady person, like your dad, will think that what you said is simply crazy but I know, you’ve even actually underestimated the role of this hydraulic hammer. However, in any case, it’s still too extreme if I suddenly don’t allow the craftsmen to forge ironware. As a true leader, sometimes we’d have to know how to be flexible. By the way, Tugra. It just so happens to be a good time now so you can announce the order that I’ve just made.”

“Yes!” Tugra stood up behind the Raider. “According to the order of Tudenan’s Great Raider, Tumulu’s status as the chief of tribal craftsmen will immediately be passed to his son, Aruba.”

The instant Tudenan’s headman’s words left his mouth, Zhang Lisheng looked at Aruba who had a dazed expression on, who looked as though he was in a dream, and said in a low voice, “Did you hear what Tugra said, Aruba? From now on, you’re the chief of the tribal craftsmen. Order the craftsmen to do what you want them to do. But remember, don’t be so rigid. Understood?”

“U-Understood! Great Raider! B-But I…” Aruba could not help but look at his father who had been loving him since he was young. To his surprise, not only did his father, who had just lost the status of the tribal chief craftsmen, did not have a sad look on, he saw that his father had a pleasantly surprised look on his face instead.

In fact, this was very understandable. Among the Hellfire people, the title of the chief warrior could not be passed down but usually, an aborigine who was born in the family of a powerful chief warrior would usually be nurtured since childhood. As long as he was healthy, not crippled and had a clear mind, he would easily be crowned as the new chief warrior due to his bravery and skillfulness in battle.

On the other hand, the chief of the craftsmen and the animal trainers in the tribe could pass the title of ‘chief’ to his future generation due to the ancestral skills but not the status.

Now that Tumulu, who could only live for a few days more, had lost his status as the chief of the tribal craftsmen, his son, who originally only had one feather, had now inherited his position. This of course was a good thing to this old father.