The Great Worm Lich

The start of the Oasis World’s exploration operation of the Gate of Witchcraft was so unimaginably terrible that Su Deli had a long discussion with the two Grand Wizards that had shared both honor and disgrace with him. They felt that there really was no other way, so in the end, they came up with this last resort of urgently passing down witchcraft methods to improve the team’s strength.

This was nothing but a last resort in his heart, but he did not expect that there would still be somebody being choosy about it. Not only that, this person was the E-ranked disciple whom he had personally brought into the Gate.

The moment Su Deli thought about this, he could not help but feel an inexplicable raging anger rise in his heart. When he was about to explode, he suddenly thought of the horror the wizard cultivating the Gu Nest Spell would encounter so he actually burst out laughing sinisterly instead. Shaking his head, he said, “Disciple Zhang, you’re still being choosy at this moment? Looks like your nerves are different from ordinary people. Master Chen, the Gu Nest Spell is also considered as a simple witchcraft method that can be easily learnt. Given that Disciple Zhang wants to learn it, just teach it to him then, since we’ll have to hand it to the next generation anyway…”

As he was speaking, the curtain of the tent was suddenly being gently opened. The tall and fat elite disciple called Qiu Jiannan quietly walked in.

“Junior Brother Qiu, I told you to convene people for the meeting but why did you come so late instead?” Su Deli shifted his attention onto him and asked coldly.

“Deacon Su, due to the reason that Junior Brother Pei Youliang has suddenly fallen ill, I was being held up a little…” Qiu Jiannan quickly explained. Before he could finish explaining, the moody Su Deli did not clarify for authenticity and immediately hissed through his teeth. “Suddenly fallen ill? I remember that he’s a Rank-9 Wizard who has transformed four wizard gus! He was still thoroughly healthy just now in the afternoon but he has suddenly fallen ill? Looks like we still have some ‘smart people’ in our Gate of Death! This is the ability of recognizing the whole through observation of the part. Good! Good! In that case, we’ll let such a ‘smart person’ take a good rest for three days to recharge his energy and use him as the vanguard’s vanguard during the mop up…”

Qiu Jiannan had personally witnessed Pei Youliang’s appearance as he lied on the bed. He was truly pale, and skinny to his bones. It really did not look like he had faked his illness. However, at this moment, he dared not argue and could only bow his head in silence.

After Su Deli had vented his anger, that had no target, he gradually calmed down. “There’s no use saying more. Right now, I’m sure all of you should also have some answers in your heart already. As the saying goes, a word to the wise is sufficient so I’ll no longer say anything. Ruo Zhen, hand out these few witchcraft method introductions so everyone can have a read. Comrades, after you’ve chosen the witchcraft method that you want to learn, go take the True Book from Master Chen and Master Du.”

After saying so, he picked up a few soft pieces of yellow paper from the bed beside him and handed to Ruo Zhen who was standing near him.

“Yes!” Ruo Zhen, who had resumed her sleek, bright colors after reaching the Oasis World’s campsite for just half a day, took the papers and handed it one by one to the wizards standing in the front row.

“Thank you, Senior Sister!” The Gate of Witchcraft’s disciples who took the soft yellow paper thanked her and eagerly opened it to read. Very soon, the vague terrified expression on their faces turned into delight, showing that Su Deli and the two Grand Wizards had really gone all out this time.

Upon seeing the delightful expression on their comrades, the other wizards in the tent could not help but start to be filled with expectation. Only Zhang Lisheng alone calmly walked up to Grand Wizard Chen and bowed deeply. “Junior Uncle Chen, please give me the Gu Nest Spell True Book.”

“Since Deacon Su has already agreed to this, I’ll give you the Gu Nest Spell True Book then!” Chen Guanxing looked at the young man and answered slowly. “However, I must make it clear first, lest you make your mistakes. This Gu Nest Spell appears to be mysterious but from its name, you can tell that it is actually a method that actually allows your body to be refined into a gu’s nest so that you can shrink your wizard gu small and hide it in your body. Even though the consumption of the wizard gu will be reduced more than half after it has entered your body as though it has entered hibernation, it’ll still automatically consume the wizard’s blood essence to maintain it. Moreover, this method of witchcraft cultivation is very difficult and horrible. You would have to endure the pain of allowing the poisonous gu drilling into your body. Most importantly, some wizards are unable to learn it even after they have endured the suffering. Not only that, even if you’ve really learnt the Gu Nest Spell, there won’t be any improvement in your strength at all. Its function is so that you can carry the wizard gu much more conveniently and that you can probably scare people a little. Even so, do you insist on learning?”

“What I want is the word ‘convenient’!” Zhang Lisheng nodded.

The young man made Chen Guanxing become dumbfounded right away. “Disciple Zhang, your mind is indeed unlike other ordinary people. However, to be honest, some of the Gate of Witchcraft’s disciples don’t even want to cultivate this Gu Nest Spell even when they have the opportunity to. First, it’s because they’re afraid their efforts would be futile even after they have endured the suffering; and second, they feel psychologically uncomfortable hiding a poisonous gu in their body. They already have to integrate with the wizard gu to become one during the Rank-6 Wizard’s transformation but yet they’re afraid of hiding the gus in their bodies. Even though you’re strange, you’re still a notch above them. In that case, it’d not be a loss to pass on the Gu Nest Spell to you.”

As he was speaking, he stretched out his arm and rolled up his sleeve. All of a sudden, a human face bulged out peculiarly from his slightly wrinkled dry yellow skin.

After that human face appeared, it continued to wriggle and struggle. In the end, it tore through the skin and transformed into a bald head that had no facial features, before protruding upwards from Chen Guanxing’s arm. Growing as the wind blew, it soon became as large as a pumpkin in just a few seconds, like a balloon that was being blown.

Upon seeing this horrible bloodcurdling scene in front of him, Zhang Lisheng could not help but ask in surprise, “Junior Uncle Chen, this Gu Nest Spell can actually allow us to hide a living corpse in the body?”

“Of course the Gu Nest Spell can only allow you to hide Gus. The witchcraft method I’m using now is the Corpse Casket Method. This amazing method can only be mastered after you’ve reached Rank-12 Wizard and have already undergone Resurrection. I’ll teach you when you’ve become a Grand Wizard,” Chen Guanxing answered and lifted his pinky finger. Using his nail that was as sharp as a scalpel, he sliced the face that had no facial features on his arm and peeled it off.

The skin of the man’s head resembled a stack of paper. After Chen Guanxing peeled three layers of human skin away, he bit down on his index finger and drew on the skin paper for a while, before throwing those layers of skin to Zhang Lisheng. “There you go. I’ll teach you another trick. Go to the kitchen tomorrow and look for two pieces of bloody raw meat. You can cultivate after you’ve lured bugs to come from between the cracks in the camp power grid. Remember, you must do everything step by step or otherwise, you’d suffer from a pain so great that you’d die if you take the risk.”

“Yes,” The young man kept away the skin and was secretly ecstatic. However, he maintained an unchanged expression as he answered.

“Looks like this little fellow villager from Western Sichuan is very much suited to Junior Brother Chen’s taste, seeing that you’re actually explaining in such detail!” Du Shancha, who resembled a mountain village’s old lady, suddenly smiled. “In that case, why don’t you teach him more life-saving methods?”

Chen Guanxing became silent for a while before shaking his head with a wry smile. “Senior Sister, I also want to learn if there’s such a witchcraft method. Life-saving may sound easy but it isn’t so in real life.”

“That’s true!” Du Shancha was stunned for a moment. As though she agreed to it, she nodded and no longer said anything. At this time, the other wizards had also chosen the witchcraft methods that they wanted to practice and came to the two Grand Wizards one after another, politely asking for the True Books, while Zhang Lisheng, on the other hand, took the opportunity to retreat to the side of the tent’s curtain.

After a long time, the newly forged True Books had finally been given to the Gate of Witchcraft’s disciples one by one. Now that the matter was over, Su Deli, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, suddenly became low in spirit and exhorted. “Everyone must cultivate with all your hearts these next three days. Try to enhance your strength as much as possible and who knows, it may be able to save your own life at the very crucial moment.”

Then, he let the wizards out to go back to their tents.

After getting out of the tent, Zhang Lisheng impatiently walked towards his own tent. Suddenly, he heard somebody shouting in a whisper behind him. “Lisheng, don’t go yet!”

“Sister Min Lan, is there anything?” The young man recognized Min Lan’s voice so he stopped and turned around to ask.

“Anything?” Under the illumination of the two bright moons, Min Lan walked up to Zhang Lisheng in two steps and whispered, “If I say that you’re stupid, you’d sometimes surprise me with your cleverness. But if I say that you’re clever, you’d sometimes be so stupid that it’s really pitiful. When my Master was singing an accompaniment to you just now, didn’t you notice how Junior Uncle Chen was hesitating? That time, if you were to continue to climb upward along the pole, you might have been able to become his booked disciple and upgrade to become C-rank right away if you were lucky enough!”

Min Lan thought that the young man in front of her would surely be hit with a pang of realization and had a remorseful expression on his face when she said this, but to her surprise, Zhang Lisheng smiled and replied as if he was unbothered jokingly, “Sister, I’m not a monkey so why should I climb upward along the pole?”

“You really don’t know better! What time is it now? How dangerous it is… Ah, forget it! Everything is over anyway. Anyway, you better watch out three days later. Your life is no one else but your own!” When Min Lan saw how the young man was nonchalant, Min Lan started to get frustrated and no longer said anything else. After giving the last warning, she turned and walked away.

Zhang Lisheng frowned and thoughtfully walked back to the tent. Sitting on the wire bed, he muttered to himself: “It seems that the number of casualties is even more serious than what Su Deli said. This is not only going for wool but coming home shorn but it looks like we may not even be coming back home at all. I really have to be careful…”

Then, he opened the human skin True Book that he had been gripping in his hand.

After a careful study, Zhang Lisheng found that the Gu Nest Spell refining method was indeed not difficult. Simply speaking, it was nothing more than attracting poisonous Gus to devour the wizard’s body. When the bugs were eating the meat and drilling holes in the body, the wizard would beget a tyrannical heart through the pain and would activate the wizard power in his body to surge using a special spell, turning himself into a nest for the wizard gus when the bugs were eating him.

After understanding a few key points, the young man began to mutter incantations of ‘pst shh…’ to get rid of all the distracting thoughts in his mind so that he could memorize the long mantra and secret cultivation method.

Right at this moment, the odd-job soldier Wang Liansheng came to ask whether he would be going for dinner at the kitchen or that he would prefer for it to be sent over. Seizing this chance, he replied, “Please send it over, Brother. By the way, please bring two pieces of bloody raw meat for me as well.”

“Raw meat? Senior Officer, y-you want bloody raw meat?” Wang Liansheng asked in astonishment.

Zhang Lisheng nodded silently. Upon seeing his blank expression and his imposing manner that was different from the noon, Wang Liansheng recalled the rumor in the camp. Swallowing his saliva, he dared not ask any more questions and just stood up straight to salute. “Don’t worry, Senior Officer! Our battalion commander and political commissar have given orders to us to fully satisfy the needs of the leaders of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences! The raw meat will be sent to you right away!”