Chapter 396: Furnace

The food on the Shrimp B1 Island was fresh. Even though the Hellfire tribesmen’s cooking was very simple, which consisted of only barbecue, fry, and stew, it had quite a distinctive flavor while eating it after several dozens of days which lifted Zhang Lisheng’s depressed mood a little bit.

Halfway through his lunch, the young man suddenly saw the Wizard Li headman who had hurriedly filled his stomach while running into the treehouse and kneeling in front of himself. “Conqueror, I’ve passed down your order to all the hunting warriors of the tribe.”

“Very good, Tugra.” Zhang Lisheng put a slice of golden-cooked worm meat soaked in oil into his mouth and said, “That’s right, there’s another important thing that I forgot to ask you. How is the tribe’s iron ship imitation doing?”

Judging from the full picture of Shrimp World No. 2’s one-third satellite image that General Cole gave to the young man, the island at the corner of the Hellfire sea region closest to Shrimp B1 Island was also over 3000 kilometers away. It would take several dozens of days relying on a wooden ship, and it was unrealistic to transport hundreds of thousands of native warriors on it.

For this reason, the success or failure of the steam iron ship imitation would have a great impact on the future fate of the Wizard Li tribe and Zhang Lisheng himself, so he could not help but concern himself about it.

The Wizard Li headman understood the raging ambition of the Conqueror, so he pondered for a while before answering solemnly, “Conqueror, the iron ship imitation is entirely under the supervision of Tumulu, the chief craftsman of the tribe. The only thing that I can do is to satisfy all the demands he makes fully. The casting is all carried out in the Red Mountain Furnace in the giant jungle, so I’m not really that informed about the imitation progress. However, Tumulu has already dismantled all the iron ships sent by the outlanders after you left, so with his wisdom, I believe that it should not be hard for him to imitate.”

“I also believe in Tumulu’s wisdom, but the iron ship would heavily impact the destiny of the entire Wizard Li tribe. I can’t just feel relief based on assumptions.” Now that worries began to etch on his mind, Zhang Lisheng no longer savored the taste of the food and just chowed it down quickly. After that, he stood up and strode out of the bark house.

He transformed into a green-scaled giant using the wyrmdragon’s power and transformed the water vapor all around him to become clouds that gathered beneath him. He rose straight to the sky amid the natives’ worship and flew to the northern end of the island from the southern end.

Looking down condescendingly at the lush jungle, the magnificent ocean, and the spectacular native tribes below him, he commanded the clouds to descend gradually and landed on the foot of a volcanic mountain with thick smoke billowing on top of the mountain.

A thick layer of volcanic ash accumulated at the foot of the volcano. Thousands of native warriors who had their faces covered in bloody red tree dye while riding giant millispiders while holding spears and sabers in their hands patrolled along the volcanic ash back and forth between the jungle and the volcano; they were defending the Red Mountain Furnace from the beast.

Upon seeing Zhang Lisheng descending from the sky, not knowing how they obtained the news, they jumped down from the ferocious-looking giant spiders and kneeled on the dark grey ground as they praised, “Great Conqueror, you’re the source of glory for the Wizard Li tribesmen…”

The young man dispersed the clouds and looked around at the strange scenery that the beach, the volcano, and the jungle formed within one kilometer of the surrounding area while patiently waiting for the native warriors to finish their prayers before finally saying, “All of you have worked hard while guarding the furnace here. Oh, my devout believers, who is your chief?”

“Great Conqueror, our three-feathered chief warrior, Tudila, had decapitated his own head yesterday under the totem pole at the ancestral ground. I’m the eldest among all two-feathered chief warriors here, so I’m in charge of leading the patrolling team at the moment.” A young-looking warrior with two feathers on his head who was kneeling not far away from Zhang Lisheng answered bleakly.

“Oh, I see. In that case, you’ll take me to the Red Mountain Furnace. Believer, tell me, what’s your name?” Zhang Lisheng nodded casually.

“My name is Luhemu. I’m very honored to serve you, Great Conqueror!” The dim expression on the young native chief warrior’s face disappeared right away as he stood up and said excitedly.

“Take me to the nearest entrance to the volcano, Luhemu.”

“Yes, Conqueror!” Luhemu answered and turned around to lead Zhang Lisheng to climb up to the mountainside of the volcano.

The mountain was completely bare, except for stones and fine volcanic ash. After walking for seven to eight minutes, the black smoke that was rising from the crater on the top of the mountain became clearer and clearer. When they approached a remote concave area of the mountain, Luhemu suddenly jumped into a concealed deep pit and wiped off the grey stains and sweat on his face. “Great Conqueror, this is the nearest entrance to the Red Mountain Furnace.”

“Is this an artificially excavated entrance?” Zhang Lisheng, who jumped into the deep pit and followed the young native warrior, looked at the dim red light fluttering on the pit wall and the square entrance emanating hot air while he asked casually.

“Yes, Conqueror! Except for one natural entrance, all the entrances to the furnace on the mountainside are all artificially excavated.”

The young man nodded after hearing Luhemu’s answer and waved a hand towards him. “You may go back and resume your patrolling now, my devout believer. I can go to the furnace by myself.”

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Then, he proceeded to enter the square entrance alone.

Just after taking a step, the temperature increased by over ten degrees. The inside of the entrance was a hollow mountain belly that extended inwards continuously. The dim red light curled upwards and made the scene become somewhat distorted.

Zhang Lisheng breathed in the hot dry air and walked along the hot stone road for a while. Sensing that the temperature was getting higher, he could not help but mutter, “If I was an ordinary Earthling, this would have already roasted me by now already…”

While he was muttering, the road finally ended. He turned to the right and was abruptly hit with a scene of a lava ocean churning and flowing in the distance, with some native craftsmen driving the Lohlos to forge ironwares in a bustle.

Using lava casting sounded inconceivable but the Hellfire tribesmen could do it easily by just using a few inflammable stone molds, wooden frames, purple ropes, and strong craftsmen partners.

“Tumulu is indeed a genius…” Looking at the craftsmen who were driving the Lohlos while pulling the ropes to pull up the stone mold from the sea of fire with the help of pulleys, Zhang Lisheng secretly lamented and walked towards the sea of lava.

Seeing somebody walking towards them from afar, the native craftsmen drenched in sweat could not help but look up in curiosity. Only one person was obsessively observing the fire sea while he seemingly lost himself in his own thoughts.

By the time the young man had gradually walked up to them and some craftsmen had finally seen his face clearly, they immediately froze and were about to kneel on the ground.

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Zhang Lisheng immediately shouted, “Don’t salute. Everyone, there’s no need to salute. Don’t you guys know where this place is? Aren’t any of you afraid of being roasted to dried meat if you kneel on the ground?”

Upon hearing his humorous shout, the native craftsmen who had intuitively bent down straightened their knees again and bowed deeply together with their partners instead. At this time, the craftsman, who was watching the magma while being deep in his contemplation, turned and looked around, seemingly unable to focus, not knowing what had just happened.

“Tumulu, what are you so absorbed in looking at?” Zhang Lisheng chuckled and increased his pace as he walked up to the craftsman who was looking around as if he was lost in thought.

Upon hearing the young man’s voice and seeing him in a close distance, a pang of realization finally hit the chief craftsman who had the highest position in the Wizard Li tribe. Hastily, he bowed deeply, “You’re here, Great Raider!”

“You’re really oblivious to the things happening outside and have nothing in your mind except for building the huge iron ship,” Zhang Lisheng remarked with a satisfied expression on his face. “The Tudenan tribe has been renamed to Wizard Li and the island we’re standing on is also renamed to this name. Not only that, but I’ve also become the Conqueror of the tribe already.”

“The tribe has been r-renamed? Y-You’ve obtained the title ‘Conqueror’?” Tumulu looked stunned. His mouth dropped as he turned dumbstruck for a long time before he finally stuttered, “O-Oh yeah, I-I seem to have vaguely heard somebody talking about this news, b-but I thought it was just a-a mere story…”

“Tumulu, there’s no need to be nervous. I only feel happy that you’re completely absorbed in the iron ship imitation. I don’t blame you and your piety lies not in your words and deeds, but your heart. I can see your clear heart and how you’re doing everything in your power to complete my instructions.”

Upon hearing the understanding words of the tribal Conqueror, the tensed expression on Tumulu’s face eased and gratitude replaced it instead. “Great Conqueror, how can the tribe not prosper if we have an overlord like you? I’ve finally understood the forging method of the outlanders’ iron boats a few days ago, and I found out that the black iron refined from our Red Mountain Furnace is even tougher and lighter than the iron they used in their shipbuilding. In other words, we can produce a bigger iron ship using their shipbuilding method!”

As he was speaking, he stretched open his arms and straightened them.

Steel was the origin of the modern industry. The iron ships that the US army sent to thank the Wizard Li tribe for avenging them had adopted the steam technology of the last century, so it was impossible for the steel used in the forgery to be the most advanced material.

However, when Zhang Lisheng heard a native who had his lower body wrapped with a small piece of mottled purple-yellow rag suddenly criticize the industrialized steel for not being good enough, despite knowing Tumulu had a pearl of shocking wisdom, Zhang Lisheng could not help but feel weird and blurt out, “Is that so?”

“Yes, Great Conqueror! The refining temperature that the outlanders used when they forge the iron is not high enough. Speaking of it, I can say with confidence that their iron is not bad and one could say it was much better than ours if we didn’t have the furnace. However, it’s different now that we have the Red Mountain Furnace. The different depth of magma is completely different as well…” When Tumulu sensed the doubt in the Conqueror’s words, he began to jabber on while explaining the details regarding volcanic geology to the casting of tools.

Zhang Lisheng was not interested in topics such as how wooden racks that looked like one whole entity by the side of the ocean of fire was actually made from wild thorn trunks as its base frame, which was then wrapped with nine different kinds of wood, from hazel tree, pine tree, and so on, layer by layer, or how the rope that the Lohlos pulled was actually the combination of the silk thread spat out from the giant millispiders and the fiber from dried Junan grass that was then scrubbed into rope and soaked in the fat of the Stonehammer beast.

After listening to a lot of this nonsense, Zhang Lisheng could no longer stand it and asked without warning, “Stop telling me the process of the iron ship imitation, Tumulu; I only want to know when will Wizard Li’s iron ship formation start the water expedition?”