The Great Worm Lich

Zhang Lisheng could hear a sense of unusual implication of shock in his tone but he merely smiled and said nothing.

In a small conference room in the human gathering place’s bunker room on Shrimp B1 Island, Cole looked at the skinny and young Asian man’s smiling face on the flickering image projected on the wall. Suddenly, he released the button on the communication device and asked his adjutant, “Harton, this guy is really mysterious. Do you think he knows that we’re watching him?”

“I’m not so sure, Sir. I only know that judging from the results, his existence brings us a lot of benefits. Otherwise, unless we dispatch those expensive Steel Warriors that are rumored to cause their operators to become brain dead easily, we’d have to sacrifice at least 3000 elite ground forces according to the computer simulation before we can eradicate the tribes from A1 to A17. The most crucial point is that from the video comparison on the day of the terrorist attack, the C1 tribe is indeed innocent, while the A1 to A17 tribes are indeed the murderers who attacked the gathering place. ”

“I know, but most of the murderers are now integrated into the C1 tribe. Their purpose is not to help us seek revenge, but to launch a cruel and primitive war to contend for territory. But of course, we’re civilized people. We can say whatever cruel things we like but no matter what those tribes did, it’s very hard for us to launch a genocide on them. After all, half of them were kids, old people and women… Ah forget it! You’re right, Harton. The existence of that Mr. Mystery is indeed very beneficial to us.” Many thoughts flashed through Cole’s mind. Finally, he sighed and re-pressed the communication button, “Mr. Zhang, why have you remained silent for so long?”

“Oh I’m waiting for you to speak, General. I want to hear more about the evaluation of a modern professional soldier on the primitive war of the foreign world’s aborigines but it looks like you have nothing to say. Alright, let us get down to business. The purpose I contacted Eagle’s Nest is to tell you that the ‘gift’ you need is already sent out by the Tudenan people. But I estimate that it would take one whole day for it to reach…”

“One whole day? That’s too long!” Cole frowned and interrupted the young man’s words. “Why don’t I send a few transport helicopters instead…”

“General Cole, I’m sorry but the aborigine’s tribe doesn’t allow strangers to visit them. My position in the tribe is not enough to allow those steel big birds to land in Tudenan.”

“In that case, it seems that we need to upgrade your position in the aborigine tribe. What items do those aborigines want to exchange with those gifts? I can give them double the quantity.”

Zhang Lisheng had already had his own plans on what he was going to exchange with the US army using the guardian spiritual monsters of the tribal alliance. When he heard Cole’s words, his eyes lit up but he continued to put on a calm facade. “They want a big ship, Sir. A large steel ship that can sail to other islands.”

“Battleship? That’s impossible! Not to mention that those aborigines wouldn’t know how to sail a battleship too even if we give them!” Cole said categorically.

“Erm, you’ve misunderstood. Most of the monsters in the foreign world’s ocean would not attack these natives. They don’t need the escort of warships to sail in the sea like us Earthlings so an ordinary steel ship will do. About two to three ships that use early steam engines to power so that they can burn wood and boil water to sail will do.”

“Ah! This is not a difficult condition so there should be no problem.” Cole became silent for a while and then agreed to it. “That’s right, Mr. Zhang, you’re not coming back to the gathering place together with those aborigines who are sending the gifts?”

“No, the Tudenan people have their blood boiling over now so they might attack Kamando at any time. It’s better for me to stay in the tribe and besides, I can collect some experimental materials and do research here too.”

“Okay, if that’s the case, keep in touch, Compass.”

“Yes, Eagle’s Nest. I’ll keep in touch!” Zhang Lisheng answered and switched off the communication device. After that, he felt bored so he jumped out of the wooden cart. Entering the huge bark house enshrining the Tudenan tribal book of history, he sat cross-legged on the animal leather chair and began to cultivate the secret method.

In the battle of conquering the tribal alliance, due to the reason that the early ‘saturated air raid’ launched by the US army had snatched away the hatred and abhorrence of most of the natives, the young man’s wizard power was still a distance away from breaking through to the Rank-9 Wizard stage.

In the next few days, in addition to flying back to New York using his wyrmdragon incarnation to sneak into New York University to use its shaker to smash the Gold Core, he also transplanted the Gold Core fragment on the Tudenan warriors and diligently cultivated to kill time.

Until one day, when Zhang Lisheng was cultivating with smog entangling behind him, he suddenly felt uneasy. Opening his eyes to carefully ponder over it, he suddenly remembered that it was the day to complete the transaction with the Lord.

120 days. The sudden change on Shrimp B1 Island’s situation made the trade between Zhang Lisheng and the Darkwalkers no longer meaningful. However, to Tudenan’s Raider who already had millions of believers, 26 faith stones were basically nothing, arousing no intention from him to break the promise with this group of powerful Darkwalkers and risk offending them.

“26… 26…” Turning around, Zhang Lisheng took the exact number of faith stones from the altar enshrining the tribal book of history and jumped down from the animal leather chair. He strode out of the bark house and saw that the sun was setting soon. For this reason, he commanded the wizard gu to jump down from his shoulder and enlarge. Not giving a damn to those groups of worshipping aborigines, he leapt onto Ghostface’s back and began to walk towards the dwelling of the Mokacho tribe that had perished several months ago.

After coursing for a long time in the jungle, the young man finally reached his destination.

In the ruins, Zhang Lisheng looked around and noticed no figure at all. He quietly waited for a while under the moon, and saw a tall man in a camouflage jacket calmly walking out of the jungle.

“Good evening, Your Excellency Dragon Fang. I thought that, given that so many unexpected things have happened, you might not show up tonight despite swearing on the Cocytus! However, to my surprise, I was the one who was late instead!” The tall man politely walked up to the Zhang Lisheng, whose slender body was covered with diamond-shaped scales, but made a remark with a voice that was unpleasant to the ears in a completely different manner.

“Good evening, Your Lordship. Your new clothes fit you well. Since I’ve promised you already, I’ll naturally keep my promise,” Zhang Lisheng said and threw the faith stones in his sharp claws to the Lord. “Catch your reward. We’re even now.”

Through the bleak moonlight, the Lord saw more than twenty round stones flying towards him. With a wave of his right hand, he took all the stones into his hands.

“One, two, three… twenty-six,” Counting out loud, he carefully counted the faith stones in his hand, before nodding finally. “They are indeed the round stones, extremely high purity on top of that. It’s a satisfying transaction, Your Excellency Dragon Fang. Oh, by the way, you have a penchant for style when you’re paying so I take it that your harvest must be bigger than mine!”

In the face of the black-clothed man’s seemingly unintentional words, Zhang Lisheng’s heart gave a jolt instead. With a smile, he said, “My harvest is more or less the same as yours, Your Lordship. The reason I’d throw the stones to you is because I’ve stayed on this goddamn island for a whole four months already, not to mention that so many things have happened in between. Now, all I want is to leave this place as fast as possible after completing the transaction with you.”

“Don’t leave so hastily, Your Excellency Dragon Fang. We’ve originally planned to be long-term ‘business partners’ so don’t tell me that it’s over now after two mere transactions?”

“Over? Of course not!” Zhang Lisheng was stunned for a while before replying with a shrug. “However, unfortunately, the Darkwalkers that you gather is best suited to defeat a native tribe of 60 to 70 thousand, with a maximum limit of 120 or 150 thousand. And now, I really can’t find any target suitable to attack anymore.”

“I know that there are only two very huge tribes remaining on the island but we still stand a chance.”

“Stand a chance?” Zhang Lisheng was surprised. Perplexed, he asked, “What chance?”

“Let’s take a long-term view, Your Excellency Dragon Fang! The civilization model of Shrimp B1 Island’s natives has never evolved from an isolated island. There must be also the same kinds of natives in other islands or even continents. As long as we step out of this island…”

“It’s not easy to step out of this island.” Upon hearing the Lord indulging in verbiage, Zhang Lisheng interrupted his words.”The ocean and sky of this world don’t welcome the people from Earth.”

“You don’t have to worry about this,” The Lord said with a mysterious smile. “I’ll be in charge of looking for other foreign world’s islands and arrange for navigation to attack those native tribes while you’ll be responsible for providing the faith stones. But of course, since I have to do so much work, the pay has to increase accordingly as well.”

“It seems that you are very confident, Your Lordship!” The Lord’s confidence roused Zhang Lisheng’s interest right away. “Alright, if you can really find the other islands that house other natives in Shrimp World No. 2, I’ll give you four faith stones for every native tribe that has 10,000 tribesmen. If the tribe has 20,000 tribesmen, it’ll be 8 stones; if the tribe has 30,000 tribesmen, it’ll be 12 stones and so on.”

“What a harsh trading condition, Your Excellency Dragon Fang. As you said, the ocean and sky of this world don’t welcome the people from Earth. If I want to search here…”

“In that case, I’ll give you four and a half stones, Your Lordship. Giving you four and a half stones for every tribe of 10,000 tribesmen that you attack is the maximum concession I can make.” Zhang Lisheng interrupted the Lord with a blank expression.

“Deal, Your Excellency Dragon Fang! Give me your contact method so that i can notify you when there’s news.”

“I’m eccentric and like wandering around. Why don’t you give me your contact method instead? We can make an agreement of contacting each other once in a while.”

“You’re really a cautious person,” the Lord said with a smile. “How about this? You can log in to a website called ‘New York’s Late Night Zone’ every other month. You’ll see the theme of that month on the homepage. If it’s about a successful sailing, you’ll use the username ‘Jungle Guest L’ to leave a comment with no content except the time and place of the meeting.”

“This is a really good idea! It’s a deal then!” Zhang Lisheng nodded. “I’ll see you again, Your Excellency!”

After finishing saying so, he commanded Ghostface to turn around and entered the dark jungle.