The Great Worm Lich

From Old Man Xu’s words, it was apparent he had regarded Zhang Lisheng as a person who practiced the Witchcraft’s Gate of Sacrifice just like himself. The teenager, on the other hand, did not explain himself and merely listened to his nagging with half of his full attention. He constantly recalled the impression he had when he saw the living corpse just now and imprinted the memory deeply in his heart.

The two of them walked for a moment in the dark backlit corridor, heading two floors upstairs along a narrow staircase before coming to the door of a room with a label written with the words ‘meeting room’.

“China National Mining Corporation opened this hotel and each team occupies one floor. The room is spacious, but this is also our last moment to enjoy it. We’ll have to go to Cape Town to work ourselves to death in a few days time.” As the old man was mumbling, he pushed the door open.

The room was quite large and had more than 200 square meters. There were only four people in the empty room, which was in line with the layout of a business hotel’s small rooms and large conference room concept.

“It’s the final moment for our team to forge a bond with each other. Everyone needs to get along and unite to form a rope…” Cui Xiaodong was currently trying his best to convince them with utmost patience.

Upon seeing the door opening, he turned around and saw that it was Old Man Xu and the unruly young man who came in. Irritated, he scratched his head and pointed at Zhang Lisheng. “Everyone, this is our new member, Hu Lisheng. Please come over to get to know him, everyone.”

“Nice to meet you, Little Hu. Erm, I think it’s better for me to call you by the name ‘Lisheng’. This would sound much closer. I’m Liu Qiang, I manage the logistics operation in our team. Unlike all of you, I don’t have any strange sorcery nor any combat ability. However, I’m quite proficient in using a gun.” The first person who expressed his welcome to the teenager was a stocky man in his thirties. He had a loyal and friendly smile that made people easily trust him.

Zhang Lisheng had always been a person who would not slap the person who smiled at him. If the other person was polite to him, he would also respond with a smile on his face. “Hello, Brother Liu.”

Seeing the happy smile of the teenager, a young man who had a slender figure, dashing brows, bright eyes, and a good temperament felt stunned for a moment before speaking with an enigmatic smile. “Team Leader Cui, this little buddy here speaks very politely. He doesn’t seem to be as unruly as you said. I know already. You’ve always looked at others as though they were a bunch of shit, but you don’t know that looking at a person is like looking at a mirror. The other person in your eyes is actually you yourself…”

“Jin Fusheng! You! W-What are you talking about?!” Being criticized in an indirect way, Cui Xiaodong took some time to realize it before howling in fury, “You’re insulting your leader, you know!? Y-You’re the one who is a pile of shit! I know you don’t like me being the leader, but this is decided by the organization! It has been three months…”

Watching the two men quarrel for no reason, Liu Qiang and the sole girl in the room quickly stopped the fight. Zhang Lisheng was stunned for a moment before whispering into Old Man Xu’s ears, “Uncle, these are the executive secret elites our country dispatched? I-Isn’t this a little like a circus?”

“It’s a temporary organization. Haven’t I told you before that it’s only a temporary organization? On top of that, usually, those who are capable would have a little temper too. This is called ‘those who do great things are unrestrained’. Boy, aren’t you the same as well?” Old Man Xu unyieldingly replied but his tone sounded a little uneasy too.

“Those who do great things? I think it’s more like the government is sending some small pawns to Africa to try and run a trial. If something happens, they would just pretend that they don’t know anything since it’s a ragtag army anyway…” If Zhang Lisheng had not gone to America yet, perhaps the old man’s words could have deceived him, but after he had spent one and a half knowledgeable year in New York, he was more aware that the reason most of the members in this team, that he joined, took part in this was mostly because they were tempted by secular interests and thus being used by the Chinese government as a weapon.

In the eyes of these people, the root of the witchcraft they mastered was like a famous school diploma or some special skills that could hardly see the light or be of use. It was merely a means of making a living.

Now that the young man was clear about this, his heart gave a jolt. Just then, he heard Old Man Xu mutter in a sullen expression, “So what if we’re just a ragtag army? The ragtag army is also an iron rice bowl anyway! What will go wrong if we would just be more careful? We’re all capable people anyway…”

Glancing at the old man beside him and the other few people who practiced the same witchcraft with him in the room whom he had never imagined he would see, he suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of sympathy over the death of life.

The faint feelings of superiority, extraordinariness, and unconventional uniqueness he had after he became a wizard had been swept away all at once. If such a changed mentality unworthily occupied a place among ordinary people, perhaps he would never appreciate it in his whole life at all.

With a flagging interest, the teenager sighed and said, “Uncle, I’m starting to get a headache over the quarrel between these two people. Please look for a room for me to let me sleep for a while.”

“Alright, sure! Sure!” Old Man Xu still wanted to rely on the teenager to protect him, so of course, he would not want to offend him in some petty things. For this reason, he shouted at Cui Xiaodong, who was still fighting till his face and ears were flushed, and would not stop no matter how the others dissuaded him. “Team Leader Cui, I’ll bring Lisheng to look for a room and settle him down first. Take your time in quarreling with Fusheng, okay?”

Then, he proceeded to bring Zhang Lisheng away.

To their surprise, Cui Xiaodong immediately stopped quarreling after hearing this and waved his hand pantingly. “No! No! Hu Lisheng needs to be in the same room as me! Old Man Xu, have you forgotten what the Captain said?”

At this moment, the door of the conference room was suddenly pushed open. Then, a black figure entered the room like a whirlwind. “The car and route to Cape Town have been arranged. Assemble immediately in the lobby!”

Then, it disappeared again in the lingering voice.

“Sh*t! Song Tienan seems to be getting faster now! Don’t tell me he just so happened to have made a breakthrough right now?” Upon hearing the assembly order, Jin Fusheng complained and walked out of the room ignoring everyone.

“Didn’t they say it would take a few days more before we can get the pass? Why would it be so fast? Ah, I don’t care anymore. Since we’re merely carrying out orders anyway. Boy, let’s go! Let’s go!” Old Man Xu also pushed Zhang Lisheng to head downstairs.

The teenager headed downstairs with his scattered, sand-like team. The door of the hotel lobby was closed and there were already 20 or 30 people gathering there. These people were made up of people of all ages, but they were mostly young people.

At the moment, standing in front of the crowd was a graceful, middle-aged woman wearing a suit, a man who was about thirty or forty years old whose skin looked dark and rough who looked as though he was a government official, and an amiable intellectual-looking man who was wearing loose clothes and black-rimmed glasses. Among them were five to six people whose faces were painted with colorful oil painting.

When Zhang Lisheng saw the third person at first glance, he resisted the bafflement and eagerness of his heart and did not look at him too much. Quietly, he lowered his head and mixed into the crowd. This was his second time seeing a living corpse and the first time seeing a great wizard. Instinctively, he did not want to attract too much attention.

“Alright, now that everyone’s here, pay attention! In a while, you’ll get into the car and I’ll remind everybody for one last time. Play your character well! Right now, all of you are technical workers and engineers recruited by China National Mining Corporation from China. The distance of Johannesburg to Cape Town is 1,400 kilometers. We’ll have to arrive within a day. With this current situation, there will definitely be a checkpoint on the road.” As time went by, a few more people ran into the lobby in a hurry. As though seeing that everyone had already fully assembled, the middle-aged woman pointed to the quiet and scholarly man beside him before giving out her orders, “By that time, don’t say anything unnecessary! Me and Director Liang from the China National Mining Corporation will handle everything. Consultant Zheng, is there anything more you would like to add?”

“No.” The polite man shook his head amiably, but it was the polite Director Liang who tactfully added with a smile.

“I’d like to interrupt a little instead. Consultant Zheng, the dress-ups of these few fellows behind you are a little too eye-catching. Can they wash their faces and change their clothing?”

“Director Liang, you have no idea. If they wash their faces and change their clothes, they’ll be even more eye-catching,” Consultant Zheng replied with a wry smile. “How about this? I’ll combine the six of them into one and put them all in the trunk of the bus. Is that okay?”

“How can you merge these six people into one?” Director Liang chuckled speechlessly.

“I can! The other people may not be able to do that but they definitely can…” As Consultant Zheng was speaking, the two people behind him who were the fattest suddenly hugged each other. Then, their skins began to slowly melt. Their flesh started to stick together like how a candle would be when it came across the fire. Gradually, they squirmed more and more vigorously as time went by, causing their bones to roll and fuse too.

Not long after, under the “puhhh… sszzz…” sound, their bodies transformed into a fat giant two meters high whose red muscles, milky white fat, and blue blood vessels could clearly be seen with naked eyes.

After an invisible big hand in the air had molded the giant, it suddenly stuffed its two hands into its mouth before using its entire might to tear its face open, molding its mouth like a strong rubber into a black lacquered hole.

Then, the other followers behind Consultant Zheng began to walk unsteadily one after another to the giant. Stretching out their heads, they climbed into the big mouth the giant tore and tried to curl up and squirmed into its stomach.

Such a horrific scene made Director Liang, who had been trained during his university period and who had been engaged in intelligence gathering in South Africa as an enterprise middle-level supervisor and thus, always maintained a calm attitude, feel cold in his feet and palms with his organs tumbling for the first time in his life.

“Consultant Zheng, your method of combining six into one is even more eye-catching,” Captain Hu commented expressionlessly. She came from the national military intelligence agency, so she had an amazing inconceivable ability to control her emotions. She had seen too many crazy moves made by the black-framed glassed man for this to surprise her.

“It’s alright, Captain. After I’ve packed them all together, I can compress their volume too.” Consultant Zheng chuckled like a nightingale before waiting for his six living corpses to transform into one. After that, he mumbled some incantation and reached out a finger to stick it into his entourage who had become four meters tall and weighed more than half a ton.

In an instant, a strange shade of redness appeared on his face. The huge, sturdy ferocious-looking living corpse, on the other hand, began to shrink like a deflated balloon and soon became the size of a normal person.

Consultant Zheng patted the head of his living corpse and said, “Look, it won’t attract a lot of attention now, whether I throw it into the trunk or let it sit on the bus. It’s just a little troublesome to unpack it once we’ve reached the destination.”

Then, he began to show a peaceful expression again.