Chapter 177: Crafty Acquisition
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Upon seeing the ferocious looking sea monster, who turned out to be kind-hearted, showing a shocked expression on his face that was covered with faint blue and yellow scales, the old man riding on the strange fish smiled. Then, he gently loosened his grip on his mount’s mane before finally looking around greedily at the blue ocean and the clear sky.
Afterward, a sacred, fearless expression crept upon his face. Stretching both his arms out, he stared at the animal skin on Zhang Lisheng’s hand before proceeding to do a gesture to signify that he’s praying.
In an instant, soft white light emitted out of the old man as his body began to drift away bit by bit on the roll of animal skin.
This bizarre scene startled Zhang Lisheng.
His body froze abruptly, all of the muscles on his body bulged out like chunks of steel.
However, after a moment of vigilance, the young man noticed that nothing else happened other than the old man slowly turning into a ball of light and his body slowly dissipating away.
“Why go all the trouble to burn yourself up like a lightbulb if all you’re doing is committing suicide? What does this actually mean?” After about thirty to fifty seconds, Zhang Lisheng looked at the old man who turned into nothingness, leaving behind his grey robe on the strange fish, before muttering to himself, “Transforming into light and illuminating these tadpole-like words on the animal skin… but it’s not like I know this language… It’s not like I understand them at all…”
As he was speaking, he lowered his head unwittingly and looked at the animal skin roll. To his surprise, even though the strange tadpole-like words on it did not change, as if it was a miracle, he somehow understood its meaning!
“When I was chasing the migration of the Evnado Merpeople in the sea, I unwittingly embarked on a huge remote island in the h.e.l.lfire Archipelago, where the barbarians live. I found a group of exiles who mastered the superb alchemical machinery technology… Those exiles seem to be living on steel s.h.i.+ps on a daily basis, but they have already opened up a small settlement on the island. Judging from how the h.e.l.lfire barbarians allowed them to build houses on the island, I suspect they must have learned a harsh lesson from these people already. I’m very happy about this. I found out that after those exiles have settled down on the island, they treat the barbarians kindly. They exchanged bright mirrors and black sweets that give out a peculiar intoxicating scent with the h.e.l.lfire barbarians for plant seeds that are completely valueless and even reclaimed wasteland to domesticate these seeds. It seems like this should be a good branch of a farming civilization…”
When Zhang Lisheng reached this part, he noticed that the wording written on the roll of animal skin in his hand had reached the end. “This seems to be a diary that doesn’t have much context…” Perplexed, he muttered to himself and noticed that all of the wording on the roll of animal skin disappeared before lines of new words emerged to replace them.
“I pretended to be a h.e.l.lfire barbarian and made a trade with the exiles at the settlement. The longer I spent my time with them, the more obvious I could sense the same aura of a higher civilized race from them… Their language is extremely complicated. Even if I have the Eternal Comprehension Spell that I’m fortunate to have obtained from the Gaia Ancient Temple Ruins, it took me a full 12 days to finally communicate with them freely… it’s the 12th day today. The Eternal Comprehension Spell has already taken effect, and I learned that the sweet was called ‘Chocolate’ from its wrapping. What a strange name this is, but it was indeed delicious. I’ll tell these kind exiles later just how wrong it is for them to choose to form alliances with the ferocious barbarians. Civilized people should choose to become allies with civilized people instead, just like us Kattaman City State…”
“G.o.d! I was wrong! I-I’ve made a grave self-righteous mistake! Traveling from afar by s.h.i.+p doesn’t mean those people are exiles! They’re from a different world! From a-another realm! The fantastical descriptions written by Gaia Ancient G.o.d in the epic ‘The Century’ is actually real! The other world does exist! Could it be that millions of years ago, after the ‘Six Days Catastrophe’ took place, our world had indeed become a negligible part of a huge and unparalleled ‘Colossal World’ for a period of time before? I’ll leave this island tomorrow and tell the invasion of these people from the other world to all civilized countries. They have come… The h.e.l.lfire barbarians have found the cave where I secretly lived. Under the horror of yesterday, I’ve forgotten my usual meticulousness. These d.a.m.n barbarians did not listen to me and instead attacked me! I fled to the beach with all my might and rode on the newly domesticated Hairy Dolfish to escape…”
“Dear kind sea beast, I sacrificed my life that doesn’t have much time left to cast the Eternal Comprehension Spell so you can understand the content of the words I wrote on this magic wolf skin paper. As the same intelligent being from the Gaia World, despite our differences in race, I sincerely hope you can abandon your hatred towards the people of this land in the face of righteousness and give my diary to Lord Adia, the Chief Superintendent of Blue Whale City in the Kattaman City State. Bring my grey robe as a token and tell him you’re the messenger of the Fog Explorer Armandnik, and he’ll definitely see you. By that time, please hand over this roll of magic wolf skin paper to Lord Adia, and you’ll surely get a good reward. Not only that, you may even become a great figure in history! This matter is very important to our entire world. I pray that you, kind sea monster, will pa.s.s the news at any cost…”
Zhang Lisheng read all of the contents on the magic wolf skin paper roll in one breath and unwittingly fell into deep thought.
The descriptions of Gaia Ancient G.o.d, the epic “The Century”, the Six Days Catastrophe, the Colossal World seemed to be forming a faint context of connection with the ‘bookmarks’ and ‘pages’ he knew before, which was pointing towards the truth.
Just by thinking about it, the young man could not see what exactly was the truth hidden behind the connections.
However, one thing he could be sure of was that although he did not understand why the US government would treat the two discovered supernatural reams with two different att.i.tudes, as an Earthling, of course, it was just natural for him to choose to protect the position of his own world.
Curling his lips, Zhang Lisheng no longer made any blind conjectures. With both of his hands holding onto the animal skin roll, he muttered to himself, “Mr. Armandnik, this matter is indeed important to your world, but unfortunately, you’ve entrusted it to the wrong person.” Then, he forcefully tore it apart.
The young man originally thought that the animal skin roll would be torn into two halves, but to his surprise, no sign of tearing appeared on the skin roll at all.
Dumbstruck, he increased his strength, but his effort remained futile.
“So tough…” Zhang Lisheng became a little awkward as he frowned and muttered to himself. The muscles on his body bulged out as his body gradually expanded in the sea—three meters, four meters… when he had transformed into a nine-meter tall giant and when the animal skin roll was barely holdable with both hands, the young man used his entire might, while gritting his teeth as a ferocious look was plastered on his face, and was finally able to rip a small tear on the skin roll.
The instant the magic wolf skin paper roll was ripped, a gush of faint light floated outward from the crack, before pa.s.sing along the skin roll in an unavoidable speed and entering Zhang Lisheng’s palm.
In an instant, he felt a burst of pain in his brain, which suddenly was followed by an enlightened feeling.
Just like that, as the ripped skin animal roll was unwittingly ripped apart by the dazed young man, it gradually crumbled into pieces. As the rip gradually became bigger, a blob of faint white flames began to burn on the skin roll, finally turning it into ashes. By the time Zhang Lisheng snapped back to reality, both of his hands were already empty.
He did not know that he had actually used the most savage and simple method to rob the supernatural realm’s old man Armandnik of the incomparable marvelous Eternal Comprehension Spell that Armandnik wanted to offer to his motherland through the hand of the “kind and ignorant sea monster” at the very last moment of his life.
Perplexed, the young man shook his head and clapped his hand to return to a height of over two meters tall. No longer wasting his time, he rode on the wyrm dragon and flew back into the air to continue his journey to look for his way.
Unwittingly, several dozens of hours pa.s.sed by. When Zhang Lisheng was hungry, he would eat raw fish in the sea. When he was thirsty, he would take advantage of his strong body after the transformation and drink a few mouthfuls of cold seawater.
After going through three sunrises and sunsets, he finally saw a huge island that stretched for hundreds of miles appearing in front of his own eyes in the early morning at the far end of the sky and ocean. Not only that, but the island seemed to also have several bean-sized s.h.i.+ps parked around it.
“s.h.i.+ps! From their shapes, they look like the battles.h.i.+ps from Earth…” Overwhelmed with excitement, the young man commanded the wyrm dragon to rise up to the air continuously and flew along the clouds and fog to conceal himself as he continued to fly towards the huge island.
As he was getting nearer, he bulged his eyes out that was as huge as a toad’s eyes to see through the clouds. Gradually, he could see clearer and there were indeed several battles.h.i.+ps labeled with ‘Prawn 201’ to ‘Prawn 205’ moored at a natural harbor with deep water by the island.
On the coast near the battles.h.i.+p, a rudimentary town surrounded by st.u.r.dy concrete walls that had the same vibe of a typical American village began to enter his sight.
Many supernatural realm’s aboriginal midgets were carrying a US navy camouflage canvas bag filled with all sorts of strange mountain produce as they walked through the widely opened s.p.a.cious iron gates on the enclosure and into the town, trading with the US soldiers who were amiable and full of smiles.
The aborigines traded ores, seeds, and even some hand-carved items while the US soldiers traded thick and st.u.r.dy felt blankets, wearable and durable small canvas clothes, high-calorie chocolate, and compressed biscuits that were continuously produced from the industrial production line.
If Zhang Lisheng was good in Western modern history, he would immediately discover that the scene he saw was very similar to the scene of the trade with the Indians after the Europeans first established settlements on the American continent.
It was a pity that the young man was not equipped with such knowledge. Due to his desperateness in going back, he hastily circled around the giant island in the air after he found the island. After spending three to four hours, he finally found the beach where the Elizabeth Holiday was once stranded.
One of the huge stone pillars that had trapped the s.h.i.+p before, the one Crocodragon had bitten, disappeared without a trace. However, the remaining one still stood on the coastline.
Ecstatically, Zhang Lisheng commanded the wizard gu to land beside the stone pillar and jumped off the wizard gu’s back.
Standing on the beach, he recalled it carefully and turned his gaze to the southwest. In his memory, the Elizabeth Holiday should have been moving towards that direction before finally returning to the sea off New York.