Chapter 492: The Pundit

In order to conquer a Hellfire island like Scorpion Island, of course Wizard Li had made comprehensive preparations before the war.

For example, the army ration in the war were made of salted meat and nuts that were wrapped tightly in waterproof beast gut. In this case, the food would give full satiety, was rich in nutrients and not easily damaged. It was made into strips and piled up properly. Even when a whole year of ration of the army was stored in the bottom of the fleet, it did not even fill half of the cabin.

Before disembarking, the Wizard Li warriors stuffed them densely in a tenacious basket made of trees and vines on the back of their ‘war partners’. Sixty stripes were already enough for them to maintain their physical strength for three months.

As for drinking water, the rainy weather on the island and the natural ability of the Hellfire people that could allow them to go without water for a long time like a camel allowed the well-trained men to not have to carry fresh water with them even for long-term continuous operations.

During the break between the battles, the newly conquered land and the hunting ground on Scorpion Island and the newly converted tribesmen would also give the Wizard Li army plenty of food.

Today, with four-fifths of the island having been captured by them, the Wizard Li expeditionary army could just rest as long as they wanted. However, their opponents were not as lucky as them.

The four million tribal alliance warriors were all of the armed forces that had been left in the remaining tribes of the island. Most of these warriors were hunters and some of them were fishermen, they were all the fresh forces responsible for hunting food for their own respective tribes. Without these people, just by relying on the old people and the women to hunt and fish for food was evidently not enough to fulfil the need of the alliance’s rations.

Countless short Hellfire people were gathered in groups in the long jungle, lining up horizontally in a line that stretched out as far as the eyes could see. They were either chatting with each other excitedly, or looking around with things on their mind, or lowering their heads snoring.

Looking down from the sky, this ‘city’ wall that was formed by the warriors was more than 100 kilometers long, just cutting off the narrow forest land connecting the head and the body of Scorpion Island.

At this moment, in a huge bark house with many beast heads hanging on the slanting branches outside in the middle of the line of defense, hundreds of Hellfire people wearing animal skins and ferocious spiritual monsters were sitting in a large circle on the ground. It was apparent that they were sitting on the softest and most precious animal skin but these tribal headmen and guardian spiritual monsters were very uncomfortable and uneasy, as though they were sitting on fire as they kept shifting from time to time with a grave expression.

In the bark house with the gloomy atmosphere, nobody talked for a long time and without warning, a fat middle-aged Hellfire person, whose face was round and big sitting nearest to the door in the circle, looked at the native old man with a goatee sitting in front of him and said in a wry expression, “Headman Sarudada, your profound wisdom has indeed scared our enemy off but this won’t work for a long time. The defense line is so long and each of the enemy has a war partner. If they come to realization and gather their army force to charge through, they’ll definitely be able to crash through the defense. And more importantly, the food! The tribes in the federation are now living off the surplus rations but those mothers and kids have gone for hunting and fishing! They can’t even get enough of their own rations. In this way, if we use up all of our army force without making any offense, we won’t be able to persist long before we get hungry!”

The middle-aged Hellfire man’s words sounded like questioning but his tone was more like seeking an answer. The indigenous old man smiled faintly instead, unlike the others, as though he had never heard his words. Pleased, he looked around him and asked, “Dear respected allies, my waist has begun to hurt now. Looks like a heavy rain is coming soon. Can somebody light up a few pots of fire please?”

Upon hearing the old man’s pretense of profoundness, a spiritual monster, who had a flat fish head and a huge and tall mainlander-like body sitting among the spiritual monsters, shouted loudly, “Headman Sarudada! Just tell us your brilliant plan as soon as possible. If we can defeat our enemy, we can even burn this entire house for you, let alone a few pots of fire!”

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“Bring me a few pots of fire,” the indigenous old man ordered the choresman beside him before turning to look at the spiritual monster who had a fish head and human body. Shaking his head, he said, “Oh dear strong Protector Akutez, if I have any plans that can defeat such a powerful enemy, the Marol tribe would have long ruled the entire island. My plan can only delay the enemy’s attack. As for whether we can defeat them or not, well then, it’s all up to the gods already.

“Headman Sarudada, please don’t be humble. All of us have heard of your wisdom since 40 years ago. If it wasn’t for you running here and there around, this huge tribal alliance would not have been formed in the first place. The enemy has indeed stopped their conquering pace now so please tell us your next step!” Upon hearing how the old man continued to put on a pretense, a spiritual monster, who had a furry black bear head and a strong, thick monkey’s body that was covered with long hair with a height of more than two meters tall even when he was sitting on the ground, said in dissatisfaction.

At this time, the choresmen walked into the bark house with iron pots and respectfully placed them in front of the old Hellfire man. Rubbing the flint, they ignited the grease in the plate.

“Oh, this fire pot is very warm.” The blazing fire illuminated a red shade onto Sarudada’s face, adding on a slightly majestic look on him. However, he did not take it to his advantage but continued to say calmly, “The enemy invading the island has descended from the sky and has a strength so powerful that it’s inconceivable. We know too little about them. So far, from the description made by the few poor fugitives whose tribes have been perished and the things that I’ve witnessed with my own eyes, I can infer that the enemy’s tribe should not be as big as we originally thought, or at least, it’s much smaller than this Scorpion Island. This is also why they finally have scruples when our tribal alliance risked everything on a single venture and arranged four-million troops. Judging from the speed they annihilate the tribes, and how they rely on their elite weapons, war partners, and the protection of the island’s god…”

“Lord Sarudada, you mean, the expeditionary army that we’re facing is guarded by an island’s god? H-How did you know this?” All of a sudden, several exclamations interrupted the old man in the tree house.

The worrying intelligence of the alliance elicited a faint scornful expression from Sarudada. Then, with a smile, he explained, “As long as you think about the enemy’s continuous physical strength that has a minimal decline, and their strong physique that are beyond ordinary, one can infer that this army must have a boost from divine power. Alright, let me get to the point right away. Our enemy is a very strong army that is almost impossible to block when they attack. This is also why I’d display all of the army force of our tribal alliance to stop their ‘sharp’ footsteps. As for the food problem mentioned by Akutez, I’ve calculated that the current surplus of all tribes is enough to support us for a total of seven days. If I infer from this and take the most likely number, we can still support the army for at least twenty days if all of the tribes in the alliance take out all of their hidden rations…”

After hearing Sarudada’s words, a few tribal headmen and even some guardian spiritual monsters shouted out loud, “Twenty days? Headman Sarudada, our Uzama doesn’t have any hidden ration…”

“That’s right! That’s right! Asadan tribe also has given all rations to the alliance…”

In the bustling noise, the old Hellfire man calmly lowered his head to take heat from the fire pot, as though he had become a deaf and mute, he no longer said any word.

Those headmen and guardian spiritual monsters who were shouting that their tribes no longer had any extra rations gradually shut their mouths when they saw that nobody was giving a damn to them. At this time, Sarudada finally said, slowly, “Dear respected allies, I’m not forcing nor begging you to take out your hidden rations. I just want to warn all of you about the consequences of not having enough rations. It’s easy, the legacy of all the tribes in the alliance will be cut off and we’ll all become corpses. The truth is this cruel.”

After the old man said so, he remained quiet again. After a while, when the atmosphere in the tree house became so heavy that they could barely breathe, he turned around and put a long and thick tobacco that would only grow in the mainlands before smoking it.

The white smoke that contained a bit of sultry scent spread out from the tobacco on Sarudada’s fingertips. Staring at his vague face in the smoke, the spiritual monster that had a bear head and a monkey body who had spoken just now suddenly asked, “Headman Sarudada, what can we do even if we have extra rations?”

“Wait. Conqueror Atdera, we can only wait.” The old Hellfire man’s tone became solemn. “The enemy’s powerfulness is not something that we can fight against. We can only wait for them to make a mistake. It’s fortunate that this is not difficult because the overlord of this army is just too proud. When the Rutena ruled the Scorpion Island last time, they have drawn a map of the entire island and in that map, the hunting ground of our alliance tribe accounts for only one-fifth of the size of Scorpion Island, which also means that the enemy has occupied the other four-fifths of the island. However, the army that they dispatched in the battle are those warriors that they brought from the outer islands…”

“You mean, the overlord of the army has not even used a single one of the ten of millions of Hellfire tribesmen on Scorpion Island that he has conquered…” The spiritual monster with the bear head and monkey body had his eyes lit up right away as he asked in pleasant surprise.

“Yes, Great Conqueror Atdera. This is our only chance to defeat that high and mighty yet arrogant god.” Sarudada finally put on the ferocious expression that a Hellfire tribesman would usually have. “The ships that our Daruket tribe built are almost the same as those built by the mainlanders. Even so, we can only sail around the islands near Scorpion Island. It’s impossible for millions of elite troops with ‘partners’ to cross the sea to attack Scorpion Island. The sea region of the ‘giant scorpion’ would have undercurrents that is enough to rip the most sturdy ship apart from time to time. Other than this, the sea monsters and storms are all invincible natural enemies of the ships. For this reason, I’m sure that our enemy is using those ships that can fly in the air and came to Scorpion Island with the protection of schools of hawk-headed strange dragons. In this case, everything is much easier. The flying ships and the hawk-headed strange dragons that they have are not many in terms of quantity. They must have planned to use these kind of ‘weapons’ to cross the line of defense and attack the tribal habitat behind us at a critical moment. However, this kind of flying ship has already appeared in the mainlander cities. It looks very magical and would not even be hit by lightning when it’s equipped with lightning rods. But actually, it will fall from the sky with just one poke from the spear…”