The Great Worm Lich

In just a glance, one could tell that the two black-clothed men who had solemn expression and rigid movement served for the state powerful government body. When they walked up to Zhang Lisheng, they concurrently flashed their credentials printed with US national emblem on the leather covers and shook it in front of the young man.

The slightly older man who had thin-haired and sharper gaze looked at the young man and said, “Mr. Zhang Lisheng? I’m James White, a senior investigator from the FBI, and this is my colleague, Haden Epson. We have a few questions that we would like to ask you, so I wonder if you are free or not?”

“FBI?” Zhang Lisheng was slightly taken aback. He reached out a hand. He patted his female companion, who had turned somewhat pale and was about to take a step forward, before shrugging. “Mr. White, I didn’t have an enjoyable experience when I came across the FBI last time, so can I say ‘no’ this time?”

“Mr. Zhang, if your answer is no, then I’d have no choice but to apply for the police in New Mexico to take you in by force. I understand the power you have in the political and business circles in the US. Still, I’m sure you also know the police have the right to detain you for twenty-four hours according to the Constitution.” James answered with a blank expression. “For this reason, I think we might as well just make things easier and get to the car for a cup of coffee. I’ll ask you some questions, and all you have to do is answer. After that, you’re free to continue your exciting foreign world’s trip, and I, on the other hand, will return to my endless boring work.”

“Oh, I must say that this is indeed a tempting proposal. Since you can even ‘catch’ me at such a desolate place, I can see that you’ll not leave it at rest until you have obtained your goal.” Zhang Lisheng looked at the two solemn federal agents and pondered for a while before replying, “Okay, I can leave with you two, but I need to call my lawyer first. I believe this is also my right, according to the Constitution.”

The young man did not yield to both force and reason with a sly answer. This made the federal agents’ expression turned grave right away. However, his profound background and the rumored brutal means he had used were enough to elicit uneasiness from them. Adding on to the fact that they were in public, James could not do anything but say in an awkward tone, “You’re right, Mr. Zhang, that is indeed your right. Please go ahead.”

“Thank you,” Zhang Lisheng smiled and dialed Charlie’s phone in the cold night sky of New Mexico. He explained the situation before finally adding, “For this reason, I’ve decided to have to go to the FBI agents’ car and have a cup of coffee while we talk. I believe it won’t exceed an hour.”

“Understood, boss. In that case, if I don’t see you in an hour and a half, I’ll immediately call Vice President Cantes, who is in charge of the implementation of the Noah Project. The pollution-free livestock slaughter project that the LS Group had undertaken is one of the keys to Noah World’s immigration infrastructure. If something goes wrong, I believe that Congress and the White House will not easily let the FBI go.” Charlie loudly replied from the other end of the phone, entering the ears of the two agents through the microphone, causing their originally grave face to grow even more sullen.

“Good, Charlie! We’ll see you later.” Zhang Lisheng smiled and hung up the phone. At this time, the airport bus had finally driven up to the plane. The young man whispered in Maddie’s ear, “Go find Charlie and wait for me there.”

After watching the girl reluctantly leave, he walked to the FBI’s SUV.

The car had been specially modified, and the interior looked much larger from the outside. In the backseats of the vehicle, other than James and Haden, three more federal agents who were also wearing dark suits were sitting inside. With them is a female investigator dressed in a taupe suit, and another young female officer wearing a fitted navy uniform with a lieutenant ranking on her shoulder. They all greeted him as he went inside.

“A case jointly handled by the Naval Intelligence and FBI? Wow, I’m flattered.” Zhang Lisheng entered the car and randomly sat in an empty spot, with no regard for the presence of other people.

Glancing around, he locked his gaze onto the female lieutenant who had a caramel-colored complexion, thick lips, delicate eyes, and a nose that were as beautiful as porcelain and smiled. “Miss officer, I wonder why, but I find you to be very familiar. Have we met before?”

“Of course you do, Dr. Zhang. I have served in the Shrimp B1 Island garrison before.” The female officer replied with bright eyes and smile, “To be honest, I’ve been paying attention to you since you first stepped into that foreign world’s island.”

“Is that so? Going from the foreign world’s garrison troops to the intelligence service? Looks like the distance between your service units is not small,” Upon hearing the black female lieutenant’s importing words, Zhang Lisheng’s heart jolted for a while. Still, he chuckled and remained calm on the surface.

“No matter where I serve, I serve my country,” The female officer said with a smile. At this time, the SUV began to start slowly and drove off the airport along the empty plane apron. Zhang Lisheng shrugged and said nothing. He calmly leaned against the back of the seat and turned his head to look out of the window.

When the federal agents around him saw his unreasonable demeanor, they exchanged glances in unison. A bald, thick-necked, Indian detective who looked as strong as a brown bear quietly gestured, ‘Why don’t we kill his patience a little before asking questions?’

‘We can’t. Our target is special and didn’t give us much time. We must go straight to the point!’ James pondered for a moment before gesturing to reject this suggestion. After that, he opened his mouth. “Mr. Zhang, I heard from Lieutenant Alison that you’re the actual host of Stanford University’s biological laboratory on the Shrimp B1 Island. Is that true?”

“So you’re called Alison? It’s a beautiful name,” Zhang Lisheng looked at the female officer first before smiling strangely. He complimented her before turning his attention to James. “That’s right, Officer James. Ever since my supervisor has become low-spirited over the unfortunate attack on his sister, I indeed hosted Stanford’s biological laboratory on Shrimp B1 Island. In fact, I’m also the only researcher there.”

In addition to this, according to the military intelligence, you’re also the spiritual leader of a vast indigenous tribe on the Shrimp B1 Island, is that correct?” James asked.

Upon hearing this seemingly trap-filled yet straightforward questions, Zhang Lisheng shook his head, “No, no, no. I’m not the spiritual leader of the aborigines. They just mistakenly took me as the reincarnation of one of the Gods that blessed their tribe. I don’t have any actual power in the tribe, but I’m like a member of the ‘parliament’ there. Well, they pretty much worship me. In fact, it’s precisely because of this role that I’ve helped the US government and the army to retaliate against the brutal indigenous tribes that attacked the human gathering place on the Shrimp B1 Island. This prevented thousands or even tens of thousands of sacrifices from the US army. It’s because of this that I’ve obtained the Medal of Honor personally issued Sir President Rand. What I take pride in the most is that I’m the youngest Medal of Honor recipient in the 242 years ever since the US was built…”

“Alright, Mr. Zhang, we all know what you have done for the country,” James suddenly interrupted the young man’s vainglory and took a few photos out of his briefcase. “But at the same time when the aboriginal tribe who worships you conquered the entire Shrimp B1 Island with the help of the US garrison, they have also magically built a huge fleet.”

Zhang Lisheng looked stunned. He took the photos from the federal agent and looked at the massive port and the countless iron ships that they had pictured. Bursting into a chuckle, he said, “That’s because the Wizard Li tribe has succeeded in punishing the indigenous tribes who killed US citizens. General Cole just gave them five steamships as promised. Who would have ever thought that they would successfully imitate those ships! I must admit that I find this to be amazing too. However, as a biologist, I can also understand the reason for this miracle. Just take the modern Earthlings as an example. Actually, our intelligence level does not differ much from when our ancestors had just completed the basic revolution of the Australopithecus 30,000 years ago. The progress of an intelligent biological civilization has great coupling. Usually, the emergence of one or two geniuses would allow a qualitative leap in civilization, just like Einstein…”

“Mr. Zhang, I have no doubts about your professionalism as one of the most outstanding young biologists in the country. Nevertheless, just like what Newton, who can also be on equal footing as Einstein, has said, a genius would need to stand on the shoulder of a ‘giant’ before they could get a view of what’s farther ahead.” When James saw that the young man had become progressively excited in talking, he once again interrupted his rambling and took more photos from his briefcase. “The natives can never evolve from a primitive civilization to the stage of industrial civilization in just a step. From these ‘sail ships,’ we can see the shadows of many medieval Earth shipbuilding techniques, like the Spanish two-masts sailing ships, the Turkish three-story wooden vessels, the Chinese vessels, and so on. How can you explain this?”

Zhang Lisheng took the photos from the federal agent and looked at it with a blank expression before suddenly falling into silence.

When his expression turned serious and solemn, the atmosphere of the entire car grew heavy. When they recalled the rumor of how this skinny Asian young man had killed over ten federal agents ruthlessly just because they suddenly assaulted him, some of the agents could not help but sweat profusely, even though this situation differed completely.

Right at this moment, Zhang Lisheng heaved a long sigh instead, “In order to raise the aborigine tribe’s status so that it’d be easier for me to study the biological environment on the Shrimp B1 Island and lure them into working for the US government, I have indeed passed on some of the physics knowledge from ninth to twelfth grade to the Hellfire people. However, I really didn’t expect their craftsmanship to be able to do so well. To think that they can actually make such an incredible leap in their civilization by just using the knowledge that they had passed down from generation to generation in their family.”

“Even if it’s within your expectation or not, Mr. Zhang Lisheng, I think you should understand that passing the knowledge from Earth to the foreign world is a serious crime that harms the interests of all mankind!” Upon hearing the young man’s frank words, James interrupted him mercilessly for the third time and snapped coldly.