The Great Worm Lich

Zhang Lisheng’s last transformation was so simple that it was horrifying. Other than discovering that his sense of smell and taste had disappeared, he realized that he had completed the transformation in just a flash.

“It’s over?” The young man looked at the empty animal carpet and muttered in a daze. Then, according to his past habits, he used his mind to cast his newly acquired wizard gu’s power to transform his body. Abruptly, he discovered that his body showed no sign of response at all like it was dead.

The horror of losing his power washed over Zhang Lisheng. Struck with panic, an emotion that he rarely felt, his eyes widened, and his body froze. Then, as he lost his cool, the over 2.5 million square kilometers area of Wizard Li’s hunting ground suddenly fell into chaos. Hundreds of millions of animals, be it strong or weak, that was either hunting, sleeping, drinking, or crawling, seemed to have suddenly become alert. They raised their bodies to look around in a panic, as though they had noticed a lurking danger. The thousand-kilometer archipelago coastline and the vast coastal tides had even surged irregularly.

The power of the Witchcraft’s Gate of Death in his body had indeed ‘died’ temporarily, waiting for the opportunity for Resurrection. Then, the Gate of Sacrifice’s power in his body had grown after consuming 60% of the power of faith belonging to his 80 million believers in the Wizard Li totem poles. With that, it had grown considerably, particularly so in Wizard Li territory that was begotten by the divine power.

He then spoke in Mandarin in a genteel manner. “lose at sunrise and gain at sunset…” Sensitively realizing that he still mastered an extraordinary power, which to some extent, could be said as unprecedented powerful, Zhang Lisheng quickly relaxed.

After that, he carefully learned about the newly acquired power. Without warning, a delighted surprise crept upon his face as he walked out of the bark house, before giving out his order to the dispatch warrior. “Bring the corpses of the dead guardian spiritual monsters from other tribes here.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” The sturdy dispatch warrior left with the order. Not long after, countless choresmen commanded beasts that had a carapace of a ten-meter diameter on its back that curled up like a bowl. This made it look like a giant tortoise, carrying tens of thousands of enormous mud pieces from the deep underground warehouses in the city, to gather below the totem pole.

That animal that was transporting heavy objects was a new kind of partner for the choresmen. They called it a curled-shell tortoise, and the Wizard Li obtained them when it was conquering an island of over 50,000 square kilometers in the northwest of Scorpion Island. The animals had varied sizes and were very useful in a medium or a short-haul sea and land transportation.

The mud piece behind the tortoise was the coffins of the guardian spiritual monsters of the foreign tribes that they killed in the island conquest at the Wizard Li sea region. Each of them was sealed with a dead spiritual monster body.

This was because when he first launched his conquest on Scorpion Island, the Atlanteans had followed the army to wage war as well. Thus, Zhang Lisheng did not want to risk having them take the Gold Core in the corpses of the guardian spiritual monsters of the foreign tribes. For this reason, before the war, he secretly ordered the chief warriors to first seal the bodies of the guardian spiritual monsters of the foreign tribes with fine yellow mud. This must be followed no matter who was the one hosting the converting ceremony.

He learned this trick from ancient Chinese records. It was said that it could preserve the Gold Core well. He had used this method to deceive the Darkwalkers from New York before, and it was advantageous.

The only drawback was that even though the Gold Core sealed in the mud would not be able to break out of the mud, it would still roam everywhere in the spiritual monster’s corpse. He would have to break the thick and solid mud shell and slowly search for it in the monster’s body that had turned into a dry corpse. It was cumbersome, but to Zhang Lisheng whose divine power was significantly elevated, everything had become very simple.

He silently watched the 35,000 mud pieces stacked before his eyes under the sun without making any noise. Breathing deeply from his nose, he stretched his hands and made a hugging gesture from the bottom to top.

In an instant, the mud mountain that was initially as strong as steel suddenly softened, like a candle thrown in a fire. Along with the tens of thousands of corpses of the guardian spiritual monsters of the foreign tribes, they gradually sank into the ground.

That was when they saw that the tribal overlord was showing such extraordinary power. Although the Wizard Li tribesmen did not understand what was happening, those with eyes around the totem pole immediately fell on their knees. They then sang their devout praise.

There would always be losses in a chaotic war. Out of the 35,770 spiritual monster corpses, Zhang Lisheng had managed to extract 32,520 available Gold Cores. Sensing the tens of thousands of vitality in the soil, the young man showed a satisfied smile. He ordered, “Tell all the warriors who volunteer to accept the blessing to gather.”

Long before, when the war of conquest was still happening in Scorpion Island, the selection of new warriors had already begun. Today, over 10 million elite warriors had been selected. They were only waiting for their spots to be filled in by the spellcasting chief warriors to familiarize themselves with the battle arrangement before they could form the armed forces.

The young man naturally preferred to choose the new chief warriors from the remaining 500,000 warriors of the expeditionary army. Under his unparalleled summon, it took less than a day for 300,000 warriors who had gone for a hundred battles to volunteer to gather to accept the blessing ritual.

These warriors had already gathered in the Wizard Li Lu in an orderly fashion excitedly to wait for the blessing of their tribal overlord that would have an unknown result. Each of them felt that no unexpected situation would suddenly arise, for they were extremely devoted. Still, to their surprise, they suddenly received an order to gather.

They were all elite warriors, so of course, they were well-disciplined. Although the area of Wizard Li Lu’s city was 500 square kilometers, it took less than 300 breaths for all 300,000 people to gather in front of the totem pole and kneel at Zhang Lisheng’s foot. They timed this from when the last dispatch warrior received his order.

The short Hellfire people kneeled on the ground and appeared to be humbler and smaller. If the young man had not witnessed their ferocity and bravery before, he would have never believed that these midgets were actually powerful fighters born for war.

If he lost them and had to pick up tens of thousands more warriors from the newly converted tribesmen, then they would become a pointless spear. No matter how sturdy it was, it would just be a wooden stick.

At that instant, the young man grew hesitant. However, he remembered that he had to carry out the transplantation process on his own. No matter how fast he was, it would take him over a year of nonstop work to complete the ‘blessing ritual’ of 300,000 people.

If he became overcautious and dared not to try it despite obtaining new power, then the difficulty of the path ahead of him would grow.

Taking this into consideration, Zhang Lisheng shook his head hard, and the emotions in his eyes faded away. He began to use his new ability to gather all of the remaining power of faith in the Wizard Li tribe.

Then, the totem pole that soared up into the sky with a mixture of both yellow and blue color suddenly trembled slightly. Dense light clusters shining like the stars on the ground shattered. They then became spots of brilliance in the horrified eyes of the countless natives before charging out of the ground and smashing into the spines of the 300,000 Wizard Li warriors who were kneeling on the ground.

“AHHHHHH…” At once, unbearable pain destroyed the will of the elite warriors who were not afraid of death, causing them to collapse on the ground as they struggled while crying in sharp pain.

The young man who entered a mysterious state at this moment seemed to have become mute as he ignored the shrill cries that resonated throughout the city. He focused his attention on the faint yellow and green power of faith flowing like an ocean with his widened eyes. He did this before solidifying them according to his will. Then he poured into the bodies of the Wizard Li warriors who were howling on the ground.

In the previous Gold Core transplant surgery, with the use of the ‘stabilizer,’ the success rate had reached about 40%. This time he used his divine power to cast a spell for protection as he transferred the spiritual monster’s energy into the robust and mighty Hellfire warriors. Even though the result was not released yet, Zhang Lisheng had a hunch that the success rate would be at least 50%.

The force of 32,000 Gold Core was equally distributed to 300,000 Wizard Li tribesmen. It could produce a total of 150,000 chief warriors with spellcasting ability. Such a result had already exceeded his expectations. However, since the young man felt that he could still mobilize a surplus of power of faith, he began improving the success rate of transferring the Gold Core’s power.

He chose an elite warrior nearest to himself as the target and injected more divine power into his body. To his surprise, he realized that after the success rate had reached 50%, every 1% chance of success rate elevation would need to deplete an exponential increase of power of faith.

After over half an hour of experimentation, Zhang Lisheng finally obtained a preliminary estimation. The ratio of 50% success rate was actually one in a million to his 10% divine power.

The young man let out a long sigh. He realized that this was the barrier to his power. To be more accurate, it was a wall to biological evolution. He would have to pay a more unusually expensive cost if he wanted to make a creature that had no sturdy backing without taking the slightest risk.

In the end, all of this boiled down to the reason that he was just only a small ‘god.’ If a weak person wanted to break the barrier, he would naturally need to pay more. If he managed to go further to the next level, perhaps everything would be different by that time.

However, on this road to becoming a god, the problem was that the young man did not know that if he actually became a real god. He felt that some things had reached the point where it was urgent and allowed no more delay.

When Zhang Lisheng’s mind was wandering around, some of the 300,000 warriors that were collapsing on the ground, screaming, began to struggle violently. They did so with their skin flushed with blood as countless of large black blood vessels that resembled earthworms popped up on the surface.

After a while, more warriors showed such a sign of swelling on their bodies. When they expanded to their limit, their bodies began to ulcerate. Their fleshy tissues started to detach from their skin, turning black dry powder that disappeared without a trace.

After the hell-like scene that lasted for about an hour, half of the 300,000 Wizard Li warriors that had undergone the disastrous experiment turned into powder and disappeared into the air. The other half, on the other hand, gradually relaxed and returned to their normal posture before falling into a deep sleep.