The Great Worm Lich

The raid became an attack on a fortification. One could imagine just how difficult the Wizard Li’s battle situation was getting on Scorpion Island.

Fortunately, all of this was within Zhang Lisheng’s expectations. The young man sneered ferociously and said, “It’s exactly because the remaining foreign tribes on Scorpion Island have already formed a joint force together and our raid tactics no longer work that I’d quietly order a three-day break. It’s only by letting the warriors return to their best state will we able to conquer the island in the future battles in one fell swoop. As for now, we’ll give the foreign tribes the time to continue to form alliances in their constant state of anxiety. If we can’t swallow them bit by bit, we’ll swallow them all in one mouthful. Okay then, my devout believers, your task now is to take a good rest and go have a bath at the spring water beside. Go relax your body and spirit.”

“Yes, Great Majesty,” the most distinguished chief warriors in the Wizard Li tribe kneeled on the ground and replied respectfully in unison, before standing up to leave the cave filled with hot rising steam.

Looking at their disappearing backs, the young man took a few bites of the wild fruits and when he was about to leave the pool, he suddenly saw a two-feathered Wizard Li choresman run hastily into the cave.

“Great God of the Island, the insect egg that you ordered to be fed with beast’s blood has hatched,” the choresman, who could be said as tall and skinny among the Hellfire aborigines, kneeled on the ground and informed him.

There was only one insect egg that Zhang Lisheng had left behind in the Wizard Li tribe and ordered it to be fed with beast’s blood — it was the strange ancient gu, Manifestation Gu’s stone egg that he had snatched from the Chinese Gate of Dao’s disciple.

He had suspected that he would be able to absorb an enormous amount of negative emotions from the natives whose tribes perished during this expansion battle and would be able to make a breakthrough in his Witchcraft’s Gate of Death to Rank-11 Wizard. For this reason, despite having a slim chance for the egg to hatch, he still quietly ordered his believers to bring the stone egg and everything that it needed. Who would have ever thought that it would lead to a good outcome in the end.

“Very good, very good! I finally don’t have to worry about choosing a random bug for my transformation.” The young man stood up from the hot spring in joy. After wrapping his body with animal leather, he blurted out, “Bring me there to see it now.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” The chief choresman guided the tribal god out of the cave and continued to say respectfully. “Also, there’s another news from the Red Mountain Harbor. The mainlander’s ships have docked. Because of your order, the warriors guarding the separated dwellings didn’t attack those mainlanders and even permitted their ships to dock at the berth.

“There are indeed some tribes here in Scorpion Island that are doing trades with the mainlanders,” Zhang Lisheng was stunned before muttering to himself. “Shall I tell Someril and the others about that?”

Secretly pondering in his heart, the young man breathed in the cold air and walked along the foothills of the forest hills to a new tree house built on the hill.

The interior of the bark house was huge, but the decoration was very simple. Apart from an animal skin carpet, there was only one log stump with a concave surface.

In the middle of the groove on the surface of the tree stump was a big round ball weaved by animal tendons, spider silks, and tree branches. Several native choresmen were pouring freshly collected beast blood that had just been hunted on it using pottery jars.

When the fresh red blood flowed into the thousands of fine holes in the outer shell of the big ball, like a shower, it showered on an insect that looked like a round colorless gemstone, dyeing its originally transparent body into red.

“Is this the Manifestation Gu?” Staring at the strange insect trapped in the ‘big ball’, Zhang Lisheng could not help but laugh out loud. “The excerpt ‘With its round posture, it turns invisible when it’s looked at and solidifies when it’s consolidated. Its fortune lies in its rancid smell’ stated in the Classic of Nature’s Treasure is indeed correct. Quick, pass me that black box.”

“Yes.” Upon hearing the young man’s order, the chief choresman dexterously opened the hidden compartment of the tree stump and took out a black wooden box with a faint aroma, before offering it to the young man with both hands.

Zhang Lisheng took over the wooden box and opened it. He took out two dead winged insects and stuffed them into the ‘big ball’ forcefully through the gap of the cage.

The dead insects were not ordinary. They were obtained from a witchcraft disciple who could transform his appearance and height flawlessly and had disguised as a Westerner a long time go. The dead insects contained the bloodline of the ancient strange insect Shape-shifting Gu and shared the same ancestor with the Manifestation Gu. According to ancient rumors, they complemented each other flawlessly.

When the two dead winged insects fell to the side of the Manifestation Gu along with the blood, the insect that had been motionless all this while showed signs of reaction. Stiffly, it trembled a few times and suddenly rolled and crashed towards the dead insects.

The young man’s understanding on the Manifestation Gu was actually limited to knowing some of its features and its rare and precious characteristics. At this time, when he saw the insect rolling around non-stop, he could not help but widen his eyes as he stared curiously.

Not long after, Zhang Lisheng noticed that as the Manifestation Gu continued to bulldoze around, the dead winged insects began to turn smaller. As the dead insects gradually disappeared for no reason, the Manifestation Gu began to grow larger disproportionately.

“It doesn’t have a mouth to feed so does it rely on its outer shell to absorb? But I don’t see any traces of the Shape-shifting Gu turning into juices for it to eat…” the young man could not help but mutter as he watched it.

A few minutes later, the Shape-shifting Gu insects finally disappeared without a trace. The Manifestation Gu, on the other hand, turned from the size of a marble to an egg. After devouring the winged insects, it no longer rolled around and regained its lifeless stone appearance.

After waiting for a long time and seeing that the Manifestation Gu bathed in beast blood in the big ball no longer move, Zhang Lisheng pondered for a while and started to mutter the witchcraft incantation ‘pst shh…’ with a solemn expression on his face.

Ever since he became a wizard, when he muttered his witchcraft incantation, those insects that were weaker than him would naturally run away. Those strange insects stronger than him, on the other hand, would begin to attack each other violently. However, no matter how long he chanted his incantation this time, the Manifestation Gu in the big ball still remained unmoved like a stone.

“Don’t tell me that it’s dead…” A bad premonition rose in Zhang Lisheng’s heart. No longer giving a damn to stay silent, he spat out a mouthful of dark blood and yelled ‘assimilate’ in a blank expression.

The instant the spell left his mouth, the entire bark tree visibly shook for a while. Even so, the Manifestation Gu in the cage still remained motionless. It was only until blood fog flew into the cage and stuck onto the strange insect’s body that it finally moved a little. Without warning, with a loud crisp ‘pop’, it suddenly exploded into powder.

Even if an alive ancient strange insect was fragile in its larval stage, under normal circumstances, it would still not reach the extent of bursting out for no reason during the refining process. When Zhang Lisheng was cursing his own bad luck, the Manifestation Gu body that had transformed into small pieces, that were scattering downwards, suddenly condensed inward and transformed into a complete insect.

When Zhang Lisheng saw the Manifestation Gu regain its body size again, his eyes lit up right away. After a moment of ponderation, he casted the ‘assimilate’ spell again and this time, the Manifestation Gu exploded for the second time but continued to regain its body again.

Just like this, after trying to refine the Manifestation Gu for thousands of times, from noon to night perseveringly without fail, whether it was a coincidence or whether he had managed to trigger some sort of switch, when the moon was high above the tree, the Manifestation Gu no longer exploded after it absorbed the young man’s blood essence. Instead, it shakily expanded and went back to its unmoving state again.

“Assimilate, transform and assemble.” If Zhang Lisheng was not looking at the strange insect in the ‘big ball’ when the three Chinese hieroglyphic words appeared in his mind, he would not have known that he had already succeeded in turning the Manifestation Gu into a wizard gu.

He breathed a long sigh of relief and tore the cage open before reaching his palm. Curiously, he commanded the Manifestation Gu to jump onto his palm and realized that the wizard gu could only roll around on the log stump. It did not even have the ability to leap.

“What kind of ancient strange gu is this…” Stunned, the young man picked up the wizard gu that had been nourished till it expanded to the size of a duck egg and carefully studied it. Gritting his teeth, he continuously casted the ‘transform’ spell nine times and nourished the Manifestation Gu to the size of a football. He placed it onto the log stump and commanded again using his mind but it could still only roll around.

Not knowing whether to cry or laugh, Zhang Lisheng sighed. He, who had lost a lot of his Qi and blood, shrunk the wizard gu to the size of a tennis ball and held it in his palm. Then, he turned it to the size of a bean before inserting it into his open flesh.

After that, he turned around and asked, “What are those redheads doing?”

“Your Majesty, the red-haired man named Sweltman is reading the leather book while Alice, Kazanoerki and Kazanona have gone hunting in the jungle and have not returned yet. Someril, on the other hand, is staying together with the eight outlanders since the afternoon,” the chief choresman kneeled on the ground and replied.

The outlanders mentioned by the choresman were none other than the Earth explorers of Shrimp World No. 2. In this time of more than one month, even though only Nordick had brought three elite soldiers to the battlefield, and showed off the powerful strength of Earth’s outlanders, Allison, Pocky and Harman had always been following behind the Wizard Li expeditionary army.

Upon hearing the choresman’s answer, Zhang Lisheng asked again, “Which outlander’s house are they in? Did they ask about me?”

“They’re in the tree house of the outlander called Nordick. They never mentioned you at all, Your Great Majesty.”

“Bring my shoes. I’ll go see them,” The young man breathed a sigh of relief.

“Yes.” The chief choresman ran off and retreated. After a while, he held two exquisite animal shoes and helped Zhang Lisheng put them onto his feet. Then, he respectfully watched the young man walk out of the tree house built on the mountain to head towards the separated dwelling.

The night was already dark. After more than ten minutes, the young man walked along the muddy road that had just become sturdy and briskly arrived in front of a tree house that looked very imposing from the outside, before lifting his hand to knock on the door.

After a while, the wooden door opened, revealing Allison’s fully exhausted face. When she saw Zhang Lisheng, she smiled and said, “I finally saw you, Mr. Lisheng. Is the hot spring bath so comfortable? To think that you’ve actually spent your entire day soaking there.”

“Of course I didn’t spend my entire day soaking in the hot spring bath. It’s just that I fell asleep by the pool instead. I’ve really exhausted myself this time, “the young man walked into the wooden house and said with a smile.

“Yeah, this month is the most exhausting month of my life.” Alison nodded in agreement. “If I hadn’t learned how to ride the giant millispider, I’d have long been knocked out in the jungle.”

Then, she shut the door of the bark house.