Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The nervousness of the people also transmitted to Tina. The girl looked at Zhang Lisheng in panic and asked in a whispering voice, “Lisheng, was it you who did all these? Come on, don’t be like this! Everyone is mentally weakened now…”
“Don’t be scared. Stay here with Sheila and Trish. I’ll come back after a while.” Zhang Lisheng did not answer Tina directly but merely placed the blanket wrapped around him on her shoulder before hugging his Mountoad and strode towards the dark corner of the deck.
Accidentally noticing the young man suddenly walking away, Sheila, who was standing by the edge of the ship as she held onto the railing, trying to see what was going on at the dark ocean surface, asked Tina in astonishment, “My dear, what is your boyfriend doing?”
“He insists on going ashore to check out the current situation.”
“To check out the situation?! Now?! Does he think that he’s a Marine?”
“That guy is much more useful than the Marines in such a place like this.” When Trish answered Sheila on behalf of Tina, Zhang Lisheng was already riding on the back of Island Dragon that concealed itself and quietly jumped down from the cruise, before landing onto the broad, solid body of the Crocodragon.
The thick and short limbs of the Crocodragon paddled on the surface of the ocean and soon, he ordered the wizard gu to head to the shore.
The sky was bleak. Neither stars nor moonlight could be seen. Zhang Lisheng’s field of vision was only limited to a blurry two to three meters away. After pondering for a while, he climbed down from the Island Dragon and slowly walked along the spines of the Crocodragon towards the appalling enormous head of the wizard gu before sitting between its eyes directly.
Then, Zhang Lisheng urged the Mountoad to inflate its body before letting it sit behind himself, blocking his entire back and head firmly.
After the young man felt that the protection was already enough, he finally urged the Island Dragon to stay by his side to take precautions, before finally starting his patrol while sitting on the wizard gu carefully by the shore.
The Crocodragon stepped on the ground and made a soft sound of “Sha sha —”. Looking down carefully, Zhang Lisheng could faintly see a layer of granules. Muttering “It’s just some very ordinary beach sand”, he commanded the Crocodragon to grab a handful of sand to place in his hand. With just a light caress, his fingers lacerated open with multiple tiny wounds.
“This is either metal or, even fine glass sand. Don’t tell me that we’re not even on Earth right now?!” The young man threw away the harmful granules and ordered the wizard gu to continue onward on its advance. All of a sudden, he came across a stone pillar that was four to five meters high that blocked his way.
Sitting on the Crocodragon’s head as the Crocodragon purposely made a shrug, Zhang Lisheng’s gaze just so happened to be in line with the middle of the stone pillar. He commanded the wizard gu to lean sideways to get close to the stone pillar, trying to see whether the sculpture that was carved onto the two giant pillars on the ocean were also carved on the pillar To his surprise, he found a few thin figures who were being hung side by side by their feet on the stone pillar.
As he observed them carefully, those figures appeared to be not more than 1.2 or 1.3 meters tall. They appeared to be midgets and although he could not see their skin color that well, he was certain that they must have a tanned skin color.
Their upper bodies were naked while the lower bodies were donning a pair of pants that seemed to be made of leather. Their eyes were cruelly dug out, leaving behind two black lacquered holes, and their chests were still breathing in motion.
The young man who was mumbling a spell quietened his thought and remained expressionless as he calmly pondered, before commanding the Island Dragon to reach out its sharp claw to cut open the skin of the person being hung who was closest to himself.
As fresh blood spurted out in an instant, Zhang Lisheng’s nose caught a breeze of a thick bloody smell. At the same time, the little midget who was injured by the wizard gu let out a shrill miserable cry.
“As expected, they’re still alive,” Zhang Lisheng did not have his sympathy roused by the scream. He proceeded to command the Island Dragon to slash the other bodies open as they hung upside down on the stone pillar.
After a few seconds, the solo ‘recital’ of the shrill cry was accompanied by other voices. Other than this, nothing of the unusual took place.
However, at this moment, Zhang Lisheng’s expression turned more and more grave. “The wizard power is not enhanced. Then, this also means that these people are not highly intelligent animals at all. Or perhaps, they are in such a situation that they are so miserable that no negative emotion is roused at all.”
As he reached here, he abruptly motioned the wizard gu to end the miserable cries of three upside down people before laying the remnants of the corpses in front of him.
The young man’s rich biological knowledge came in handy at the moment. He carefully examined and found that the foreheads of the three corpses were somehow protruding, but at a closer glance, they still looked more like humans than apes.
He touched their teeth and from the wear and tear of the gums, they must be animals that were used to eating cooked food.
He stroked their palms gently and found out that their palms were full of calluses. However, he could feel that the calluses formed on the tip of the fingers and joints between the palms and fingers were much thicker — this was the characteristic of using simple tools.
Lastly were the leather pants. The leather pants worn on the bottom half of the small figures were very soft to the touch. They must have been sewn after the tanning process and from this, one could tell that their civilization should be considered very advanced already in terms of primitive society.
“They have wisdom but there was no sense of negative emotions at all having their eyes dug out, being hung upside down by the beach and having their bodies slashed open by my wizard gu despite crying out in such a shrill manner. Looks like they must be madmen! Only madmen will not sense any anger, despair nor terror in such a situation.” After he finished making his observations, he ordered the wizard gu to eat the remnants of the upside-down figures before muttering to himself, “However, as madmen, they seem to be too quiet to the point where it’s eerie. Could it be that they no longer had any energy left to struggle for having been hung for too long? It’s fine! All of these are not important anyway. What’s important is where the hell is this place exactly?”
As he was speaking, he carefully examined the stone pillar next to him. He could vaguely see a lot of carvings of strange faces and monsters on it.
After knowing that the stone pillar on the sand was similar to the giant pillars in the sea, Zhang Lisheng commanded the Crocodragon to continue to walk around the beach. Not long after, he encountered a second stone pillar that had three little midgets handing upside down as well.
After ordering the wizard gu to carry out the same approach, he noticed that the figures hung upside down on the second stone pillar had no negative emotions as well when they were injured, just like those on the first pillar.
Zhang Lisheng was stunned for a moment before driving his wizard gu to crawl forward slowly on its short limbs. After two to three minutes, a third pillar with three midgets hanging on it appeared in front of him again.
“Is today the ‘cleaning’ day of the aborigines on this island? To think that there are so many madmen being hung at the same time.” Zhang Lisheng gritted his teeth as his expression gradually turned grave. Once again, he motioned the Island Dragon to rip the bodies of the figures apart who were being hung.
Shrill cries once again resonated by his ears but the wizard power in their blood and flesh still did not show signs of wriggling. The young man looked at the midget with twisted expressions whose eye sockets were still wet with blood. This midget was the closest to him as he muttered, “Or maybe you’re actually not human but a living puppet instead…”
As he was speaking, a few bleak lights suddenly appeared in the distant forest. The fire continued to flicker, as though somebody was slowly running towards him with a torch.
Upon seeing the fire, Zhang Lisheng was dumbstruck for a moment. Then, he pondered for a while before motioning his wizard gu to make its way towards the fire.
However, before he managed to take more than a few steps, the young man suddenly realized that the original fire had changed to become a numerous amount of fires before turning into more than ten, which subsequently changed to form more than a few dozens and in the end, hundreds of flames lit up in the darkness.
The biggest weakness of Zhang Lisheng who was controlling three powerful wizard gus was that his body was as weak as an ordinary person. In the face of several hundred aborigines whose strength still remained unknown in the darkness, it was no doubt a huge pressure for him.
The Crocodragon that he was riding came to a halt as Zhang Lisheng gave it some thought. Cautiously, he drove the wizard gu to turn around and quickly crawled back to the water.
After the Crocodragon had returned to the vicinity of the cruise, he washed his hand clean in the water before switching to ride on his Island Dragon and quietly returned to the deck of the ship.
Walking from the darkness while holding on the Mountoad, Zhang Lisheng hurried back towards Tina but the girl did not sense him coming back. Instead, she was asking a mixed-race boy who had slightly dark skin nervously. “What do you think those lights on the shore are, Eudora?”
“That should be the aborigines of the island coming to surround us with their torches. Since they are actually using torches to illuminate the dark, then it means that their civilization should not be too advanced either. Don’t worry Tina, our Elizabeth Holiday’s captain is a very experienced sailor. Judging from the way he delivered blankets, food, and water to us alone, it means that the ship is not out of control. We could see this by how he managed to calm everyone down. He’ll have a method in dealing with these aborigines. Besides, our Elizabeth Holiday is about 100 meters high so even if those aborigines want to attack us, it’s impossible for them to make it up to the ship.
“Them, how about the shore? What if somebody from the ship went to the shore?”
“Well, I guess that person’s on his own then! However, it’s night time right now and the situation’s still unclear so I doubt anybody on board would go to the shore.”
“That’s right! Nobody on board would possibly go to the store,” Zhang Lisheng, who was by the side, suddenly chimed in as he took back the towel on Tina’s shoulder before wrapping it around himself.
“Oh! I knew you would be fine! I knew that nothing would happen to you!” Tina was stunned for a moment before throwing a hug at the young man with a cheer.
“The situation is very bad, Tina. The sand on the shore is so sharp that it can cut through the skin of the fingers. There were also many mad midgets being hung on stone pillars that are about three to four meters high with their eyes dug out. And now, there are aborigines who are surrounding the ship with torches in their hands. The situation is really bad! I won’t leave your side from now on and you’ll have to listen to everything I say, understood?” Zhang Lisheng whispered by the girl’s ear.
The girl nodded in shock. After she buried herself in thought for a moment, she released Zhang Lisheng’s hand without warning and pointed at the mixed-race young man by her side. “Lisheng, this is Eudora. He’s the smartest fellow in our Fordham High School. Just now, he analyzed the situation that we’re in right now and I think that it makes a lot of sense as well.”
“Is that so? Hello, Mr. Eudora, I’m Zhang Lisheng. Nice to meet you. Can you fill me in on your great opinion please?”
“Hi, Mr. Million Dollars. Just call me Eudora. My opinion is far from being great. I merely think that the Elizabeth Holiday is in a situation like the story ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Just like Alice, we’ve fallen into a ‘rabbit hole’ and fell into another world. There’s only one way to return to reality — that is, just like Alice at the end of the story, we have to climb out again from the rabbit hole…”
“You mean, making a return voyage according to the route that we took when we came?” Zhang Lisheng was stunned.