The Great Worm Lich

The minibus was carrying three boys and a girl. They were Alice and Georgina’s best friends — Bonnie, Carmine, Charlot, and Kamil.

Bonnie was a pure native Hawaiian girl. She had single eyelids with a flat nose and was only over 160 centimeters. She looked ordinary but had a well-proportioned body with seductive curves.

Carmine and Bonnie were a couple. He was also a pure native and though he was not that tall, he appeared to be very strong and muscular.

Georgina’s boyfriend, Charlot, was a skinny and tall Caucasian. Wearing a loose T-shirt, he did not seem to have any muscles but his voice was very exalted, appearing to be very full of vigor.

Kamil, on the other hand, was a white young man wearing black wide-brimmed glasses. He appeared to be taciturn and introverted but after seeing Alice and Georgina, he high-fived with them before proceeding to stand aside without saying a word.

After the few young people gathered, Alice introduced Zhang Lisheng to everyone and told Charlot to bring everyone to the supermarket using the bus that was about to fall apart. Spending all of her money completely, she bought the meat, bread, vegetables and fruits that were needed for tonight’s barbecue.

Now that the food was prepared, the young people on the minibus drove out of Honolulu City while singing joyful songs. Judging from everyone’s excited expressions, even Alice had forgotten about her original intentions of taking revenge on Zhang Lisheng. She was simply immersing herself in the joy of a barbecue camping with her best friends right now.

After the minibus drove for almost half an hour, it was finally out of the city, roving on a wide straight road. All of a sudden, Carmine stood up and clapped his hands, shouting out loud as he walked along the aisle, “We’re out of the city now, Charlot! Hurry up and put on some upbeat music. Didn’t you say that the stereo for this broken car is now fixed?”

“Ohoho! It’s not only the stereo, but I’ve also even upgraded the volume as well!” Charlot, who was holding the steering wheel, vacated a hand to press on the music button on the car’s center console. As a sudden upbeat melody resonated, he rocked his body and shouted at the top of his lungs, “How is it now, Carmine? It’s cool right!”

“You really are my best buddy, Charlot!” Carmine rocked his body randomly to the deafening music. After moving behind Charlot with dance steps from a reggae song, he high-fived with the driver who released both hands off the steering wheel.

“Enough! You two are crazy! Charlot! Watch the road properly.” Upon seeing the dangerous movements made by the two, the girls in the bus yelled out loud in shock. However, their tone was not a scolding tone.

The late teens to the early twenties were the age where the bad boys were usually favored by the opposite sex. The characteristics of the young people who were energetic and full of vigor would usually cause most girls of this age to not know how to appreciate conformity and honesty yet.

Under the illumination of the setting sun, the minibus drove all the way to a huge parking lot at the end of the road with the company of loud ear-deafening music.

When the bus stopped, Zhang Lisheng, who became groggy thanks to the loud music, looked at the surroundings through the window before saying, “We’ve arrived already? But we’re still quite a distance away from the volcano.”

“The road ends here. We’ll have to continue the rest of the journey slowly by our own feet.” Alice smiled. “That’s right, Mr. Lisheng. Everyone would have to share the burden of the luggage if we want to have a barbecue camping near the volcano. I advise you to leave your stuff in your bed here in the car. Judging from your physique, the things that we’re going to carry next would be heavy for you.”

Even though he had left his Crocodragon in New York, Zhang Lisheng, who always had Mountoad and Island Dragon by his side was not afraid that Alice would not do anything malicious to him. However, such a prank without prior explanation made him feel annoyed instead.

After he saw the six people pull out a simple tent as thin as a plastic sheet and an unidentified metal plate from the pile of miscellaneous items piling in the car’s boot, he had no choice but to follow suit and stuff the items in his backpack.

It was fortunate that the space in his canvas hiking bag that was only filled with Mountoad was large enough after leaving behind the luggage Lili packed for him in the hotel. After he had stuffed the wasp hive forcefully into his bulging backpack, Zhang Lisheng got out of the car while gasping for air.

Even though the parking lot at the end of the road was large, not many cars were parked inside. Occasionally, several people would appear but these were also strong able-bodied young people.

When Zhang Lisheng had finally carried his backpack and was about to depart together with Alice and the rest, they suddenly saw an extended SUV with a blaring engine rushing into the parking lot before making a half turn and stopping abruptly beside the minibus.

The window of the SUV rolled down and a young man wearing a singlet while showing off his thick arms and his silver skull tattoo put out his head before shouting with a smile, “Hey, Carmine! Charlot! I didn’t expect to see you guys here today! Oh and hello beautiful ladies, nice to meet you! I haven’t seen you guys coming to the volcano for barbecue for a long time now.”

“Annette! My good buddy! You have a good father so naturally, you can live freely to your heart’s content. We’re not as free as you, you know!” Surprised, Carmine greeted him and high-fived with the skull-tattooed young man.

“A brand new Ford extended SUV! Just how much money have you extorted from your dad?!” Charlot also ran to the window of the SUV and high-fived with Annette before commenting with a laugh.

“This is a four-year-old medieval Explorer. I can’t afford a new car at all.” Annette shook his head. However, his tone sounded more like he was showing off rather than explaining his circumstances. “I’ve brought three new friends to camp at the volcanic area today and I just so happened to come across you guys. Why don’t we camp together, then?”

“Urgh…” Charlot and Carmine looked at Alice in hesitance. Those gazes forced the girl, who was scolding herself for acting recklessly by calling her friends up to bring Zhang Lisheng to the volcanic area for a barbecue just to vent her annoyance for no reason, to laugh loudly. “Of course!”

“That’s great! In that case, I’ll just park my car beside yours!” Annette said before adjusting the car to park it nicely. Then, he walked down with his three other friends that were one male and two females.

The two women who walked down from the SUV had blonde hair, red lips, and sexy bodies. Despite the fact that they were wearing outdoor casual wear and that they were not as beautiful as Alice and Georgina, the way they moved their bodies were much more alluring in the eyes of the men.

This was the charm of maturity brought by years of refinement. Even though a woman in her twenties who had polished her vanity was only a few years older than a girl in her teens or really early twenties, it was two completely different concepts after all.

“This is Ashley, Caroline, and Chelsey. Ashley and Caroline are models from Los Angeles who came to Hawaii for a holiday. Chelsey is their photographer.”

When Alice heard Annette introduce the two girls beside him as models, she was unwilling to admit herself outdone by pointing toward Zhang Lisheng who was standing by the side bored. “This is Mr. Zhang Lisheng. He’s the boyfriend of Tina Douglin, the daughter of the New York’s Douglin Financial Group’s boss! I just so happened to get to know with Tina who came to Hawaii for holiday a few days ago and we clicked very well. She has gone to Kauai for these few days and she called me yesterday to help pick him up from the airport and entertain Lisheng.”

The surname Douglin could be said as well-known in America. Upon hearing Alice’s introduction, Annette and his three friends who were basically ignoring the skinny young man not far away began to look at Zhang Lisheng differently right now.

“I always see Tina Douglin’s name on fashion magazines. Is she really your girlfriend?” Suddenly, Ashley, one of the two models, looked at Zhang Lisheng with admiration and asked.

“You could say so.” Zhang Lisheng nodded.

“Then I guess your father must be some big-shot in Wall Street too, right?” This question sounded very uninformed but the girl asked in a tone of admiration that did not sound annoying. This was also the gift and art of a language.

“No, I’m Chinese.”

“Oh! The Red Nobility! The descendant of the great revolutionaries!” Ashley’s eyes lit up even more brightly. Everyone who had been rolling about in the vanity fair would understand what the term “Red Nobility” meant.

“No.” Zhang Lisheng shook his head.

“Let us depart! The sky is getting dark soon.” Seeing the girl, who he had been pursuing with all his might these past few days and who had finally agreed to come to the volcanic area for a barbecue camp was treating Zhang Lisheng in such a manner, Annette could no longer suppress his annoyance and shouted out loud.

Alice suddenly felt as though her mood had become lightened. The skinny young man who was originally an eyesore had suddenly become much more pleasing now.

After the group started to depart, she asked as she walked, “Lisheng, I heard from Tina that you started a business in New York. What kind of business is it?”

“Slaughterhouse,” Zhang Lisheng blurted out. This made Alice at a loss for words for a moment, before prompting the others to laugh out loud.

“Slaughterhouse? Then it must be large in scale! Your business must be blooming! How much can you earn in a year?” Charlot asked with a chuckle.

To Zhang Lisheng who was already panting as they hiked on the inclined forest trail, he originally planned to just answer such a question — that would just become more complicated as the topic continued — with a smile, but all of a sudden, a strange beeping sound resonated from the forest beside the trail. Without warning, a faint yellow glow suddenly lit up.

The young man’s body went stiff as he came to a halt. Narrowing his eyes, his brain began to whirl swiftly for a moment before he answered honestly, “The slaughterhouse under my name has just completed its first phase of expansion a few days ago. It’ll probably generate 20 to 30 million dollars this year and by the time the expansion next year is completed, it should be able to generate a net profit of at least 100 million dollars.”

“Huh! A net profit of at least 100 million dollars! You’re funny…” Charlot, who had his attention on the strange sound and yellow light, chuckled.

“Funny? No! The new LS Slaughterhouse is the real overlord of the luxurious New York’s meat market. You can search online and check. I remember that it’s written so on the title of my official website.”

This sentence drew everybody’s attention from the woods back to Zhang Lisheng again.

“You’re joking, right? Lisheng?” Georgina could not help but ask.

“No.” With the help of the last glory of the setting sun, Zhang Lisheng looked at the volcano in the distance that was surrounded by forest as black smog emitted out of it. “Georgina, do we have to climb till the waist of the volcano to reach the volcanic area? Or just the foothill of the volcano?”

Georgina was stunned for a moment before flashing a relieved smile. “The foothill of the volcano.” As the girl was talking, a few figures who seemed to be cosplaying as the characters in Dungeons and Dragons suddenly walked out of the forest.