The Great Worm Lich

When the captain’s order was given out to the lowest portion of the iron ship, dried wood was compressed to become a standard one-foot square through a hydraulic machine and was glued together with grease that choresmen neatly arranged together using a special long saber. It was then sent into the steam turbine piece by piece to be ignited. At once, it instantly emitted a scorching hot fire.

The heat released from the wood on the Hellfire Archipelago was far more than that of coke from Earth. The liquid in the turbine was not ordinary, clean water, instead, it was a special liquid formed by distilling the beast’s grease and blood plasma and then mixing it together with the underground river water. The temperature needed to change it into steam was over 1000 degrees Celsius. The kinetic energy produced by such steam was much larger than that of pure water vapor.

Many of these unique conditions made the steamship that the Wizard Li tribesmen created differ slightly from those from Earth. The chimney emitting steam was not erected on the deck but was built downward towards the water instead.

There were over ten heavy iron covers that could only open towards the outside built in the chimney. When the iron ship was docked, these lids would automatically close to avoid seawater from entering. When the ship started to sail, and the turbine needed to dissipate the heat, the huge momentum that the special steam produced would then push open the iron covers one by one and send it off into the ocean.

Such a special design made Wizard Li’s steamship have very minimum noise when it was sailing on the sea. It could allow the ship to follow quietly behind the wooden ship sailed by the refugees by relying on a telescope.

After the mainlanders, who did not know that they were being closely followed, sailed for several hours smoothly in the sea and saw that nobody was chasing after them even though the sun had already risen to the top of their heads, they finally relaxed.

“Hanoo, looks like we’ve already escaped from the clutches of the Hellfire people! Now, the only thing for us to do next is to return to Venis City!” Anduki looked at Hanoo, who was eating rapidly beside him, and said to him in a low voice while sitting down on the floor in the steering room, chowing down on the fishes sent by the sailors.

“Captain, besides returning to Venis City, the most important thing now is that you must produce enough clean water first,” Hanoo said without raising his head. “My throat started to smoke now, and I believe everyone is thirsty as well.”

“Ah, I kept thinking about taking the ship out to escape, and I’ve forgotten about this!” Anduki was stunned. Only then did he realize that he was also very thirsty. Smiling wryly, he waved his hand towards a short middle-aged man who was the temporary replacement for his helm. “Federo, watch the rudder. I’ll be back soon!”

He then stood up and walked out of the cabin with a bent waist.

The sun on the deck was sunny. Other than the sailors who were sitting under the mast being in charge of setting sail and dared not to leave for somewhere else, the other people were scooping up the harvested catches, digging out the internal organs, and drying them on the deck.

“All of you have worked hard,” When Anduki saw that everyone was busy working on their own work, he shouted in satisfaction. “Alright, collect the catch and use the bucket to get some seawater. I’ll use the Water Purifying Spell to purify the water and everybody can wash up after drinking it. Then, you can just divide the labor and rest.”

Even though every captain in the Kattaman City State had mastered the magical Water Purifying Spell and could theoretically create clean water continuously while sailing at sea, the actual human energy was still limited, so it was a luxury for the sailors to use the water freely and bath during a voyage. For this reason, when they heard the captain’s words, they could not help but cheer out loud.

After that, the elated sailors collected the semi-dried sea fish and began to hurl wooden barrels tied with ropes one by one into the sea to get seawater. After a long day of work, the deck was densely filled with many containers filled with bitter and salty water.

“Good! So much seawater! Looks like to get a clean shower and a good night’s sleep, all of you plan to exhaust me out, huh?” By the time the sailors had finished doing so, Anduki cracked a joke, something that he rarely did, as he watched their longing gaze. He proceeded to then shut his eyes and muttered an incantation under his breath.

At the same time, he gently raised both of his hands and made many gestures of abstruse patterns in front of his chest. Not long after, all ten fingers of his began to light up with a faint milky white glow.

After casting the spell, Anduki shut his eyes and flicked the white glow at the tip of his fingers one by one into the containers containing seawater. The sailors by the side, on the other hand, lowered their heads in unison and began to intone a simple prayer. “God, may You bless us with sweet clear water for us to drink at sea. I thank you, Gods, for the gift from Heaven…”

Just like this, Anduki purified ten containers at once. Amidst the sailors’ constant prayer, he continued to cast the spell for over ten times. In the end, with his face turning pale, he finally had purified all the seawater on deck.

After a long sigh of relief, he finally showed a satisfied smile and said loudly in exhaustion, “Alright, enjoy, everybody! Drink to your heart’s content! Water can be sweeter than wine under a hot sun like this!”

The instant the captain’s words left his mouth, a tall sailor, who was limping, suddenly shouted out loud, “Wait a minute!”

Staggeringly, he used a tattered wooden cup to scoop up a cup of clean water and hobbled towards Anduki, before looking at him and saying, “No matter whether this is wine or water, we must first offer this to you, dear respected Captain. It’s you who told us to not give up any hope during a desperate situation, and we have finally escaped from that hell-like island. It’s also you who filled us with the hope that we can go home safely now…”

“It’s not me who filled you with hope but it’s all of us who filled each other with hope to not give up…” Anduki became silent for a while before reaching for the tattered wooden cup and raising it up high. With a loud voice, he announced, “Let us offer our first glass to ourselves and all the companions around us, cheers!”

Then, he downed the full cup of water in one shot.

“Let us offer our first glass to ourselves and all the companions around us!” At once, the sailors cheered in unison and began to drink the sweet water.

After drinking, they began to wet their hair and beard with water and then applied the fish fat onto themselves before taking turns to scrape off their hair with a few black iron knives that they managed to find. After that, they stripped off their clothes and applied the fish fat onto a wooden block which they then used to scrape off the soil from their body with water. In the end, they used the fish fat to scrub and clean their clothes.

Not far away, Zhang Lisheng, who was standing at the stern of the ship while leaning against the ship’s side, looked down at the dirty water, wet hair, and beard on the deck then looked up at the bald sailors laughing happily. At once, he could not help but mutter to himself, “It’s quite creative of them to use fish fat as shaving foam, shower gel, and detergent. Speaking of it, these mainlanders have quite a strong spirit. It has been barely a day since they escaped, and they have already forgotten the horrifying image of their companions being eaten. It’s incredible that they can be so happy while cleaning their bodies with such a little amount of water…”

“Mr. Lisheng, there’s clean water already. Don’t you want to go wash up?” As the young man was feeling astonished, a sailor, who was wearing a silver shirt that had just been squeezed to dry, was walking up to him and asked aloud.

“No, it’s alright. I didn’t live in the stone prison these days, so I’m still clean. Besides, as a wushu master, I don’t care whether my appearance is clean or not, but whether the heart is pure.” When Zhang Lisheng saw that the person who was walking to him was Young Master Annete from the Bailile Trading Company, who had the highest status among the fugitives, he smiled and pretended to be deep and unfathomable.

“Mr. Lisheng, the ‘Qi’ power that you produce is really incredible! I believe that your profession of ‘wushu master’ must be a very powerful spellcasting profession on another continent, right? Can you explain to me what is a pure heart? Is it like becoming a kind and trustworthy person and do more good deeds?” When Annete heard the strange talk about the spellcasting profession at such an age like his, it was inevitable for him to ask and get down to the bottom of this profession.

“Not exactly. A pure heart is relative and different for everyone. Well, to put it in the simplest manner, if you’re a kind person, then your inner purity is to do more good deeds and help others, but if you’re a person who always likes to do whatever you want, then your inner purity is to do whatever you like, no matter how strange that matter is; if you’re a person of an evil nature, then your inner purity is evil, and you’ll harm people everywhere…”

“Are you saying that this wushu master is an evil spellcasting profession?” Annete exclaimed in surprise.

“Young Master Annete, in our country, you’ll be said as quoting out of context,” Zhang Lisheng curled his lips and said in a more profound manner. “I’ve already said that a kind person’s inner purity is to do more good deeds and help others. Didn’t you hear that? Wushu master is a profession that can allow you to discover your true self in the depths of the human soul. It’s a kind of religion that worships yourself; it’s cultivation and philosophy at the same time… Ah forget it, you’re still too young, so you won’t understand this. By the time you’re already as knowledgeable as your teacher Mr. Hanino, you’ll naturally come to understand my words.”

“I’ll only understand your words after I’ve become as old as Teacher? But you don’t look much older than me either.”

“But I’m a wushu master and you’re not!” Zhang Lisheng clasped his palms together and pretended to be mysterious before casually asking, “Oh yeah, why isn’t your teacher by your side, Young Master Annete?”

“He has gone to rest. He was tired after the long night yesterday,” Annete replied. “Speaking about yesterday, I haven’t thanked you for saving our lives yet, Mr. Lisheng. Thank you very much. I’ll definitely ask my father to thank you properly after we return to Venis.”

“You don’t have to thank me, but if you really want to, you can just help me buy a merchant ship. I’m a freewheeling person, and now, I suddenly find myself enjoying this kind of life of drifting at sea. If I can make a living out of this, it would be just perfect for me!” Zhang Lisheng answered, according to one plan he had long thought of.

The instant the young man’s words left his mouth, a clear female voice resonated in the distance, “The smallest merchant ship also needs 3,000 gold coins. Adding on to the start-up capital and the cost of hiring sailors, it’ll be about 3,500 gold coins. Is this the ‘you don’t have to thank me’ that you mean?”

Annete looked in the voice’s direction and saw her twin sister walking up to him, still dripping with water. At once, he answered out loud, “Helena, if it wasn’t for Mr. Lisheng, the Hellfire people would have already eaten us already. Don’t tell me that the over 100 lives here onboard are not worthy of 3,500 gold coins at all? Besides, Mr. Lisheng is a spellcaster. Even if he was hired to risk his life to save us, it would need at least a few hundreds, or even a few thousands, of gold coins, wouldn’t it?”