The Great Worm Lich

After keying in the keywords of ‘South Africa, Cape Town, and Karlado’, Zhang Lisheng clicked on the search engine and very soon, millions of articles of information appeared on the screen in front of him. After looking at them carefully, he noticed the one that showed up the most was a video so he clicked on it.

The video began to play. The first thing he saw was a hall that looked quite spacious which was decorated with a rich, African-inspired look.

The rows of soft chairs in the hall were filled with bustling crowds. As the camera swept through them, he could tell that these people should be journalists from the temperament of their dressing and the fact that most of them were holding a notebook and a sketch pen.

“It’s a press conference…” Zhang Lisheng muttered. At this time, he saw the camera turn again, before setting down on a wall that had a flag of red, blue, and green color filling in a yellow ‘Y’ alphabet and an oil painting depicting a gust of rising and spiraling steam. The podium stand inserted with a microphone in front of the wall inadvertently verified Zhang Lisheng’s conjecture.

The video continued and soon, a slender and beautiful girl wearing a traditional African floral dress, who had wrapped her air with a floral cloth according to the traditions of some African tribes, walked up to the podium with an expressionless middle-aged black man who was wearing a form-fitting black suit.

At first glance, the girl looked very kind and amiable, with her fair skin forming a strong contrast with the dark skin of the man beside her. However, if one paid close attention, from her pure green eyes and the lack of nostrils on her nose, one could tell that she was not an Earthling at all.

“A very good afternoon to all of you, ladies and gentlemen! I’m Dondona, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Karlado Empire. Here, I’m honored to announce an inspiring piece of news together with the Foreign Minister of the Republic of South Africa, Mr. Zutura,” the girl’s tone was slow and sloppy but her pronunciation was pronounced correctly in a sweet mellow voice in English as she announced. “That Karlado people and the South African people will form a close friendship with each other…”

When she reached here, she looked at the black man next to her and signaled him to continue.

The black man frowned and with a grim expression, he moved his mouth closer to the microphone, “As a symbol of friendship, the Republic of South Africa will lease the three provinces of East, West and North Cape to the Karlado Empire…”

“The Karlado Empire, on the other hand, will provide the 45 million people in the Republic of South Africa with food, and the necessary medical security,” the Karlado girl said with great urgency.

The moment she finished her words, a Western bearded journalist suddenly stood up and waved his arm in an angry manner as he howled, “Mr. Zutura, are you saying that today, twenty years after South Africa has been liberated from the hands of the Apartheid, she’d succumb to the hands of the foreign world again and become the traitor to the entire human world? Is that so?”

The hall that seemed to have erupted became silent right away. When the black man on the podium heard the reporter’s merciless question, he clenched his teeth and his body started to tremble. Panting heavily like a yak, he slowly answered, “Mr. Reporter, it’s not up to the South African government, let alone the South African people, to decide. We’ve already sacrificed two million compatriots! A full two million people! We’ve done everything that we could! Yes, EVERYTHING! This is all that I can answer you!”

The video ended here. Zhang Lisheng who was sitting in front of the computer became speechless for a long time.

At the age of twenty, his brain was still unable to decipher what kind of inside story and game was unfolding behind the rapidly changing international situation in this Earth that was gradually becoming a part of a colossal world, but he could faintly sense that the South African incident had opened a very bad precedent.

“Those damn Karlado!” Unfortunately, no matter how terrible the situation was, it was not something that the current Zhang Lisheng could interfere with. He cursed helplessly but as his train of thought changed its course, he suddenly mocked himself with a laugh. “Speaking of which, am I not disguising myself as a God to infiltrate the Hellfire men as well? Sigh… This era… is actually nothing but an era of the law of the jungle.”

As the young man was muttering, he shut down the computer and took a can of iced Coke from the refrigerator to pour it all into his stomach. Then, he strode away from the office and drove to the John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Sitting in the lobby of the airport terminal, he stared at the big TV hanging overhead that was continuously playing the news of the large-scale demonstration formed by the people all over the US country, who were angry at the US government for turning a deaf ear to the South Africa’s method of giving their lands just for the sake of a peace offering after being defeated by the foreign world, and the comments of the experts on the international situation that were full of hot air. After not knowing how long, he finally received Tina’s call.

“Lisheng, I’m already at JFK Airport. You can come now.”

“I’m already here!” The young man stood up from his seat and stretched his muscles. With quick steps, he walked to the outer passage of the airport and very soon, he saw his long-separated girlfriend in the crowd.

At that moment when the two pairs of eyes found each other, Tina, who was holding a small suitcase in her hand, rushed towards her boyfriend. “Baby! I can finally see you!” Then, she hooked her arms on his neck with a smile before giving him a long and passionate kiss.

Despite being used to the girl’s public display of affection, Zhang Lisheng’s introverted personality still made him feel slightly uncomfortable. “Let’s go, Tina! I’ve booked a table in Greenland Restaurant.”

“You’ve booked at Greenland Restaurant? And I was craving for its mushroom soup! It looks like we can read each other’s mind better now!” Tina joked as she took Zhang Lisheng’s arms before sweetly pulling her boyfriend out of the airport.

When the two of them came to the airport parking lot, they got into the car and the girl began to ask in wonder what kind of danger Zhang Lisheng suddenly encountered in the month before and how he managed to resolve the crisis.

Zhang Lisheng was already accustomed to not hiding anything from Tina so he tried to use words that the girl could understand to tell her the story. In the end, he added, “Just like this, by relying on the dumbness of those guys, not only did I succeed in resolving the crisis, I’ve even doubled the strength of the Tudenan tribe!”

“They are not dumb, they just believe in their own strength too much! According to what you said, these people can conquer the whole Shrimp B1 Island by relying on their companions who are only a bit more than ten people. They can achieve something that the entire US fleet is unable to do so they do indeed have reasons to take pride in themselves.”

“You’re wrong, Tina. If those wizards are willing to die together, they would indeed be able to kill all the natives and spiritual monsters on the island but wouldn’t it be easier to do so by just using a few missiles with a nuclear warhead? In fact, just a nuclear submarine alone would be able to erase all the creatures on Shrimp B1 Island if they want to launch a sudden attack but in that case, that would not be ‘conquering’ but ‘destroying’ already.”

“You’re right, Lisheng!” Tina nodded with acknowledgment after pondering over it. “To think that there are actually so many ‘Gods’ who are even stronger than you in China. This is really unexpected. Who knows, they may be your distant relatives too!”

“Then this blood relationship is just too distant already! According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, the origin of all modern creatures is a large piece of protein in the ocean. We’re both distant relatives too,” Zhang Lisheng turned the steering wheel as he replied with a smile.

The girl shook her head and said solemnly, “I’m not joking, Lisheng! According to the rules of Dungeons & Dragons, the powerfulness of the god descendants are related to the degree of relativity of the blood relations they have with the gods! Isn’t there a similar genetic diminishing effect in biology? I think your blood relationship should be closer to the god compared to them! Not only that, you’re smarter and have more potential than them, so in the future…”

Zhang Lisheng, who had never considered this problem to this level, became stunned for a moment, he recalled how he could not even reach Rank-1 Wizard even after cultivating it for ten years last time. All of a sudden, he felt that perhaps other than the difference in the cultivation method, there might be another reason. There should be another reason why he was first very badly endowed in cultivating witchcraft and had suddenly made rapid progress later on.

He furrowed his brows deeply and muttered in deep thought, “If we go according to the logic that you said, Tina, perhaps the blood relationship between me and the gods are very very far apart, much farther apart than those people…”

Just like this, the two of them chatted all the way to the restaurant. After enjoying a sumptuous dinner, Zhang Lisheng, who did not want to bother calling his staff to change the location of picking him up for the airport tomorrow morning, brought his girlfriend to the office in the factory on the outskirts of New York. After having a wild and entangled dance with her till late at night, the girl fell into a deep slumber on the huge, comfortable sofa, while Zhang Lisheng spent a long night cultivating his secret method.

Early the next morning, when the rising sun had just shone through the glass wall, the young man opened his eyes right away. The mysterious smoke behind him slowly dispersed as he carefully climbed down the sofa and walked into the bathroom with light footsteps.

After taking a shower in the bathroom, Zhang Lisheng walked out and was surprised to find that Tina was already awake, wearing his clean shirt while cooking sizzling steak in the open kitchen at the office corner.

When she heard her boyfriend approaching, the girl turned back and smiled. “Good morning, dear! You really wake up very early! Just wait for a while and breakfast will be done.”

“Tina, you can actually cook?” Zhang Lisheng shrugged and asked.

“Hey, baby! I’m not as delicate as you think, okay! I can’t make any heavy meal but I’m good in simple dishes like pan-frying steaks and cooking eggs. Why don’t you taste it?” The girl cut a small piece of fried meat on the pan and directly forked it up before moving it in front of Zhang Lisheng’s mouth.

Zhang Lisheng bit the meat in one bite and chewed a few times before commenting with a smile, “Not bad, it’s not salty and not too bland either…”

As he was speaking, somebody pushed the office door open all of a sudden Then, a graceful figure walked in. “Lisheng, you’re back?”

When Zhang Lisheng saw the figure, he froze right away, secretly cursing himself to be careless in doing things. Tina, on the other hand, said with a smile, appearing to have the great virtue of patience. “Good morning, Miss Maddie! It’s very rude to burst into your boss’ office without knocking so please take note not to do that any more next time, okay?”

When Maddie saw that Zhang Lisheng was naked as he stood very closely to Tina who was wearing nothing but a shirt at the kitchen not far away, her expression became awkward right away. However, she apologized without giving in and just turned around to walk out of the office in rigid movements. “I’m sorry, Miss Tina. I’m Mr. Lisheng’s secretary. My boss has disappeared for a few months so there are many things needed to be dealt with. When I saw that his car showed signs of being driven this morning, I didn’t think too much and came right into the office that is meant to be a place for business.