Chapter 226: Flight

On his second attack, Wu Qingsong assembled a team comprising two giant mantis shrimp skeletons, three giant octopus corpses, and twenty-two sharkman corpses. This allowed him to devise more tactical maneuvers.

The frontal assault was led by the mantis shrimp and one giant octopus corpse. The other two giant octopus corpses flanked from the sides. Meanwhile, the sharkman corpses roamed the periphery, waiting for the right moment to dodge the tidal waves and strike at the fishman shamans.

It gave him the feeling of playing a real-time strategy game.

His opponent was like a player who only knew how to mass-produce basic units, scrambling to control all their units in a panic whenever under attack, with very poor skill usage on their hero units. In contrast, Wu Qingsong was controlling elite units, unfairly benefiting from full map visibility, watching every move of his opponent.

Moreover, the opponent’s elite and hero units couldn’t survive more than five minutes against him.

It was like having dragon riders face-tanking, how could he lose?

The battle outcome was once again a foregone conclusion, with the spoils of war far exceeding the first attack.

This was followed by a third, fourth, and fifth attack…

The amount of loot Wu Qingsong brought back increased with each mission. His undead army grew increasingly vast. Eventually, the consumption of soul fragments became too great, forcing him to halt further expansion.

A formidable force of undead sea monsters launched frontal assaults. Sharkman corpses encircled and pursued from all sides. Any fishman tribe faced insurmountable resistance against such overwhelming power.

The remaining fishmen finally realized the crisis they were facing and launched an attack just as Wu Qingsong’s team was preparing to return to Gale Island. 

However, Wu Qingsong now commanded an unprecedentedly large undead army. With the harpies’ early warnings, the fishmen’s ambush had to turn into a frontal assault. In the ensuing battle against the undying, fearless, and tireless undead sea monsters, many fishman shamans were ambushed and killed by Wu Qingsong from the air. This quickly made the survivors grasp the situation and scatter in all directions.

Without warning, the fishman tribes that had been entrenched around Gale Island and threatening the birdmen kingdom for a millennium suddenly vanished.

The birdmen’s attitude towards Wu Qingsong evolved from initial reverence to fear and eventually to worship.

When Wu Qingsong walked past, the vast majority of penguin people would stop whatever they were doing, bowing respectfully to express their reverence.

Even the proud harpies no longer flew above Wu Qingsong’s head.

With everything progressing so smoothly, returning home seemed within reach, lifting everyone’s spirits. 

One day, Ram jokingly said, “If we find the right candidates, we could start preaching on this island. With your current prestige, you could have at least a few thousand followers.”

Her words said in jest struck a chord with those who heard them.

For Wu Qingsong, soul fragments had always been a major issue. His initial intention of establishing a church was merely to facilitate the acquisition of these fragments. Even though he had grown accustomed to the backlash and pain involved in purifying soul fragments, pain was pain, and familiarity did nothing to lessen it. To maintain his undead army, he was constantly collecting, purifying, and merging soul fragments, which was almost becoming an obsession.

As soon as the fishmen fled, he released half of the undead sea monsters and shark corpses, letting them drift off into the deep sea. These undead creatures had started to rot severely, making them an eyesore and requiring more soul fragments to maintain their form—resources Wu Qingsong simply couldn’t afford to waste.

These were only the most basic skeletons and corpses. Wu Qingsong couldn’t imagine what it would take to maintain more powerful undead beings like liches, death knights, or skeletal dragons.

Whether he could efficiently collect soul fragments through a church was still uncertain, but it was prudent to plan ahead.

After all, Orgrimmar was a small place, with a population that, at most, could reach a few thousand. Gale Island, however, had nearly a hundred thousand residents.

Even if most of them were the relatively weak penguin people, this was still a region worth developing.

“We can’t abandon this place,” he said thoughtfully to Ram.

But distance posed a significant challenge.

They had been swept to this place by the storm. The bird people of Gale Island had no idea how far the island was from the mainland, but the fact that they had thrived here for thousands of years without being discovered—and that the harpies who flew out to hunt had never seen ships or the mainland—suggested that this place was indeed very far from any continent.

He couldn’t stay here permanently, nor could he afford to spend months traveling back and forth between Gale Island and Orgrimmar frequently.

Not to mention the risk of encountering another storm.

“Ling, rest up and be ready. Tomorrow morning, we’re going to run a little experiment,” Wu Qingsong said.

For long-distance travel, the most suitable tool he could think of was an airplane.

Of course, it was impossible to manufacture an airplane in this world, and Wu Qingsong didn’t believe he had the skills to create one from scratch. From the materials for the fuselage to various equipment, and most importantly, the engine, these were all beyond his capability to even imagine.

Fortunately, he had Ling. Even now, he wasn’t sure just how much potential she still had.

Once Wu Qingsong spoke up, the bird people brought the best materials they knew of: giant fish bones, which were light, flexible, and reasonably strong.

Wu Qingsong directed Beck and the others to use wood, fish bones, sails, and ropes to construct a simple aircraft.

It wasn’t a proper airplane but rather a very basic, motorized glider, resembling a large kite equipped with an engine and propeller, something he had seen on television. Since they didn’t have wheels or a suitable runway, he opted to build the glider’s base like a boat’s hull.

“Can this thing really fly?” 

Everyone was skeptical, but Wu Qingsong had already performed so many miracles that they were willing to wait and see.

“It’s actually quite similar to the ship’s propeller, just a slightly different shape and requiring higher rotation speed.” Wu Qingsong showed his design to Ling, even carving a wooden model to explain the principles of flight and another model to demonstrate what to do if the glider malfunctioned. “You can create a glider, control its flight, there won’t be any problem.”

“We’re going to create a new legend,” he told Ling.