The Great Worm Lich

With just a single glance, Zhang Lisheng could tell that the cultivation method of the Witchcraft’s Gate of Sacrifice was completely different from the Gate of Death. First, they were all about cultivation methods of consolidating and refining souls to strengthen one’s consciousness. Perhaps this was so that when the wizard was devouring a beast’s soul, his own soul would not assimilate with the beast’s ruthless nature and become lost in it.

After reaching the Rank-6 Wizard level, the wizard would have to choose an ancestral wizard or an ancient god to worship. After communicating with it using his own powerful Spiritual Energy, he would be able to cast the unpredictable omniscient powers of the ancestral wizard or the god that he worshipped.

If the base of the Witchcraft’s Gate of Death’s pursuit was said to be a surging mighty power in one’s own body, then the base of the Gate of Sacrifice’s pursuit was the expansive energy in one’s soul.

The faith stone was also condensed by imaginary Spiritual Energy, so it should have many similarities with the energy pursued by the Gate of Sacrifice. Upon thinking about this, Zhang Lisheng breathed a long sigh of relief.

After everything that he had planned for was achieved, he no longer pondered over it but just placed the faceless statue on the wooden bed. Finally, he picked up the curved tree loop that had its canopy and root connected.

The secret cultivation method of the Witchcraft’s Gate of Life was just an addendum to perfect his lie. For this reason, without thinking much, he directly activated the wooden loop using his wizard power and transformed it to become a lush sapling on his palm, obtaining 11 chapters of a cultivation method that could rob the vitality from all living things to strengthen himself and even regurgitate it out to feed his comrades.

At this point, the secret cultivation method of Death, Life and Sacrifice had automatically appeared in his mind vividly so Zhang Lisheng proceeded to sign on the agreement given by Su Deli without reading through it. Then, together with the skull, statue and wooden loop in his hand, he handed the contract over with both hands. “Deacon Su, I’ve already signed the agreement. Our trade is completed now.”

“Disciple Zhang, you signed without even checking to see whether the transcript copies of the cultivation methods are completed or not? Aren’t you scared that you might be placed in a disadvantage?” Su Deli smiled mockingly and slowly added, “I advise you to be more magnanimous in the future. Stop being so calculative anymore. Min Lan, let’s go!”

After taking over the contract and the three legendary items, he strode away.

“No matter how perfect the transcript copies are, they wouldn’t be as profoundly impactful as the authentic transcripts are anyway. You better memorize them now and don’t be too greedy. This is your credit card. You’ll always need money here in the Mountain Gate but of course, you can use a credit card as well. Take care of yourself!” Min Lan whispered to Zhang Lisheng and proceeded to turn and leave as well.

“I can forget the secret cultivation method memorized in my mind?” The young man was stunned. Watching the girl’s disappearing back, he mumbled in confusion as he tried to recall the memory. At once, even though he still remembered the passages of the secret cultivation methods in his mind, he realized that the impression they had in his mind had started to turn a little blurry.

Panic-stricken, Zhang Lisheng immediately jumped onto the wooden bed and sat cross-legged to do what Min Lan told him. Mumbling ‘pst shh…”, he casted the spell to get rid of all the excess feelings and completely compose his mind. Shutting his eyes up, he exerted his effort to recall the cultivation method in his mind again and again.

Time passed by fast. By the time the young man felt that he had finally memorized all of the authentic secret method in his mind, he opened his eyes with a dry mouth and realized that it was already dark outside.

Zhang Lisheng did not believe that the reclusive place of the Gate of Witchcraft completely suppressed by the Chinese government could be a complete foreign world. He muttered to himself, “Such a small space gap can even mimic the sunrise and sunset …”

Then, he leapt down the wooden bed.

When he was about to leave the house, he accidentally glanced at the three transcript copies that he had never browsed through before. Casually flipping through them, he realized that, just as he expected, they were the reliable written copies of the Witchcraft Bone Scripture and the other secret cultivation methods. He proceeded to place the copies into his inner pocket by his chest, like how the ancient people always did, and strolled out of the wing room.

The sky of the Mountain Gate had three bright moons and six shining stars hanging in the sky. The brilliance emitted was not particularly radiant, but was not dim either.

When the young man walked to the wooden door of the courtyard and was just about to open the door, he suddenly saw that the courtyard door opened by itself. Wei Qing and a few other Gate of Witchcraft’s disciples dressed in either green or grey robes walked into the courtyard drunkenly.

Upon seeing Zhang Lisheng, Wei Qing said with pleasant surprise, “Junior Brother Zhang, you’re awake! It’s already the, erm… let me count first… erm… twelfth day today! After Big Boss Su left, you cultivated straight for more than ten days and really worried me to death you know!”

“Twelve days?” Zhang Lisheng, who thought that only half a day had gone by, widened his eyes and rubbed his tummy. Only then that he finally realized the pang of hunger in his tummy.

At this time, a short but stocky green-robed disciple, who had thick brows and big eyes with his one hand hung around Wei Qing’s shoulder, suddenly smiled and said, “Senior Brother Wei, you’re wrong! The reason that Junior Brother Zhang could sit quietly and meditate for so long was because he must have obtained a top level witchcraft secret cultivation method from Big Boss Su! Once he masters it, his strength would definitely be greatly increased and this is a good thing! What is there to worry about anyway?”

“That’s right! Oh Junior Brother Chu, you’re indeed much clear-headed than I am!” Wei Qing laughed out loud and pointed at the stocky green-robed disciple before saying to Zhang Lisheng, “Junior Brother Zhang, let me introduce him to you. This is your Senior Brother Chu Xiang right here. Even though I’m forced to be in charge of this courtyard here, in truth, my future is not as good as your Senior Brother Chu here!”

“Nice to meet you, Senior Brother Chu!” Even though Zhang Lisheng was anxious to go to the library in the mountain city to fill himself with the common knowledge of witchcraft cultivation, and because of it he needed to continue to stay in this Mountain Gate for quite some time more, for this reason, he could only feigned politeness and compliance by cupping his hands in front of his chest.

“Junior Brother Zhang, don’t listen to Senior Brother Wei’s nonsense. In terms of future, yours are truly great and vast. I think you’d be able to wear green robes like ours after going to the Oasis World!” Chu Xiang waved his hands and said with a smile.

Upon hearing the word ‘Oasis World’, Zhang Lisheng’s heart gave a jolt and his brain whirled. “Senior Brother Chu, I’ve not left the house for more than ten days so I wonder is there any update on this Oasis World? Has the departure time changed?”

“Oh Junior Brother Zhang, I’m not you so how can I possibly know the exact time to leave for the Oasis World? However, it looks like this time, the Gate has really outdone itself in trying to perform well in front of the government. See, they even recruited a nameless person like me into the expedition team. It seems like the future of the Gate of Witchcraft is depending on the trip this time!” Chu Xiang smiled wryly.

“Oh…” Zhang Lisheng nodded in deep contemplation. Mindlessly, he continued to listen to Wei Qing introducing the green-robed disciple Song Anxing and the other five to six black-robed disciples one by one. Without warning, he suddenly asked, “Senior Brother Wei, do you know where the library in the Mountain Gate is?”

“I know. The library is easy to find. Go out of this spacious street and look for the tallest wooden building in the city,” Wei Qing was stunned for a while before replying with a smile. “It’s open 24 hours but let me tell you the rules first. For official Gate of Witchcraft’s disciples like us, we can borrow books on the first to third floor for free but anything on the fourth floor and above would have to be paid. Each of the book on the fourth floor needs a payment of 100 Yuan, the books on the fifth floor needs 200 Yuan while the books on the sixth floor needs 500 Yuan. It’s so absurdly expensive…”

“What? We can go to the Gate’s library to read books as long as we have money?” Astonished, Zhang Lisheng took out the wooden token Su Deli gave him and interrupted Wei Qing’s words. “What use does this token has?”

“Black wooden token? Tsk tsk. This is a good thing. If you hand it over, you can read all of the books in the entire nine floors of the library within three months. This is not easily obtained even if you have money!” Wei Qing said enviously.

“Oh I see,” Zhang Lisheng nodded and said while cupping his hands. “Senior Brothers, I’m extremely famished so I’ll take my leave first. I’ll see you guys later.”

“Hurry up and go then, Junior Brother Zhang. No matter how tough you are, you’ll still starve if you skip a meal!” Wei Qing joked and made way for him. After watching Zhang Lisheng walk out of the courtyard in just a few strides, he turned to Chu Xiang and Song Anxing. “Junior Brother Chu, Junior Brother Song, how is it? I was right, wasn’t I? Junior Brother Zhang has a humble and straightforward personality and is very easy to get along with.”

Chu Xiang also flashed a smile. “Being modest and straightforward is his character but his ability of staying out all day without drinking or eating for twelve days of cultivation means that he must be at least at Rank-7 Wizard. The wizard gu that he transformed must not be weak too. Even though this Junior Brother has just entered the gate, he’s already quite extraordinary among all black-robed disciples.”

“Well, he can win the favor from Big Boss Su so of course he’s extraordinary. However, even among ordinary people, there are many flies who manage to travel a thousand miles away by attaching themselves on a horse. At the same time, there are also many extraordinary people who would end up plodding hard but accomplishing only few accomplishments. For this reason, it’s fate, fate! A person would have to ultimately rely on his fate…” A strange yet faint smile appeared on Song Anxing’s face as he said out loud with slight madness.

After hearing it, Wei Qing and Chu Xiang’s hearts were tugged by deep resonation. After a moment of silence, they said at the same time, “Junior Brother Song, you’re drunk. You’re drunk! Let’s go back and rest then.”

Then, they proceeded to help Song Anxing back to his main room.

At the same time, Zhang Lisheng, who had already seen the high-rise building on a spacious street in the mountain city, had began to stroll towards the library.

Electric cables did not seem to be able to reach here in the Witchcraft Mountain Gate so only generators were able to be used here to generate electricity. For this reason, the street lights illuminating the streets were all round buckets the size of a human adult made with transparent tempered glass that had raging fire lit by oil inside.

Beside the glass buckets were rows of shops that looked like restaurants. Occasionally, there would be some shops selling sundries but there were very few of them.

Half of the pedestrians on the road were Gate of Witchcraft’s disciples wearing a variety of solid color robes and long skirts. Half of them were people wearing parti-color trousers and jackets made of coarse fabric who came here at the last moment. The number of disciples wearing silver was scarce and there were none wearing golden robes at all.

“I’m not halfway up the mountain yet so I guess this is not a high-class community…” Zhang Lisheng kept looking around while walking and looked at the people on the street as he muttered with a curl of the lips.

When he passed by a shop that was emitting the delicious aroma of fried fish, he entered and bought a lot of fried fish food and half a dozen cans of Coke. He understood now that those foods made with ingredients produced in the Mountain Gate were cheap but those industrial products needed to be transported in from Earth so the price was high and the number was scarce.

Just like this, after walking and eating at the same time, Zhang Lisheng managed to finish up the food and drinks on his hands when he reached the library. Raising his head, he looked up at the nine-story wooden building that occupied a large area and entered the building together with a sparse crowd.

The interior design of the building was similar to that of the old libraries in the Western world in the previous two centuries. The ceiling was filled with oil lamps, smoking the beam till a layer of black oil was emitted from it. The floor was covered with flat planks while rows of wooden shelves with books could be seen in the distance, with long wooden tables and wooden chairs placed in front of the wooden shelves.

The reading environment here could be said as terrible but Zhang Lisheng felt a raging fire burning in his heart. Taking out the wooden token, he hurriedly walked to the counter.