The Great Worm Lich

In the twinkling of an eye, winter passed by, and spring came. Even though the four seasons of the Hellfire Archipelago were not distinct, under the spring breeze that commended everything on Earth to grow, the lush greenness of the Scorpion Island’s dense jungle still appeared to be much thicker.

Standing on the black reef that stretched out as far as the eyes could see that formed a natural harbor at the newly built port city Black Stone, Zhang Lisheng who was wearing a gray robe made of spider silk barefooted turned around and shifted his attention from the vast expanse of pristine forest to the blue sky and sea that was equally vast.

After a long moment of silence, he suddenly spoke with a low voice, “Tugra, we still haven’t found a safe route to the Nutao Sea?”

At this time, thanks to the Manifestation Gu that had consumed the Shape-shifting Gu that Zhang Lisheng had transformed before becoming a Grand Wizard, the young man had already shifted his form back to the human form from the demon god.

Not only that, but due to the reason that the omniscient power ‘Assimilate, transform and assemble’ of the Manifestation Gu was launched passively and had assimilated, transformed, and assembled the transformation power of the five wizard gus that he had mastered before this when he made a breakthrough to the Rank-18 Wizard, Zhang Lisheng had lost all other transformation power that he once had.

(T/N: No idea whether the Rank-18 Wizard here is a mistake or not)

Such a situation had both its advantages and disadvantages. The benefit was that as long as he maintained the incarnation of the Manifestation Gu that could transform into many different forms, he could cast all of the omniscient power of the wizard gus that he had transformed before by just relying on his body alone. The disadvantage, on the other hand, was that he could no longer change his omniscient power during a critical situation and return to his original state in just the span of six breaths, which used to allow him to have five to six lives.

Fortunately, the advantages still seemed to outweigh the disadvantages when he considered both of them together. After all, other than his brute strength, when his soul and body merged swimmingly, the young man was already skilled in his ability to control water and soil, along with the ‘nurturing’ and ‘repairing’ ability that these two powers beget. For this reason, there were very few people who could bring danger to him at this moment.

Not only that but as Zhang Lisheng continued to further master the divine power possessed by the wizard’s ancestor, adding on to his own understanding of the witchcraft practice, he managed to come to enlightenment naturally. He understood that when a standard wizard practiced either the witchcraft three gates of Death, Life, and Sacrifice, it was actually an exhaustive effort and method that allowed them to use the Ancient Goddess Nuwa’s divine power in a simplified manner.

For instance, the Gate of Life used all kinds of secret techniques to seize the enemy’s vitality to make up for the wizard or his comrades’ own disadvantages, but actually, it was just a lower form of ‘repairing’ and making up for their power. It was nothing more than an ordinary wizard who could use a mysterious spell to capture the vitality of other living things and impose it onto himself so he could cast an assistive spell. However, when a person who truly mastered the ‘repairing’ power had enough divine power, he could just use soil to repair anything.

In ancient mythology, Nuwa had once refined the soil into stone to repair the sky. If they could even repair the sky, then what else could they not?

As for the Gate of Dao that selected wizard gu to defend against the enemy and strengthen the wizard by transforming the strange insect, at the end of the day, its final purpose was to improve the wizard’s body to the maximum level and differentiate his own life to become a powerful corpse so he could use his body as a living corpse.

All of this was actually just a simple imitation of the nurturing of life. It was just a matter that could be carried out by a person possessing the ‘nurturing’ power using just a pile of soil and a few cups of water, but the wizards could only do so by complicating it several times. Of course, they did not have any other choice. Not everybody could be like the Ancient Goddess Nuwa and create new lives by kneading on some doughs after all.

The last one was the Gate of Sacrifice, where the wizards trained the soul to lead them back to the god’s power so they could obtain the ability to cast various divine powers. However, this remained mostly the same despite all apparent changes. The most powerful person would receive the door to enlightenment to the power of merely manipulating the water and soil.

Other than ordinary wizards, to those lucky ones like Zhang Lisheng who managed to inherit Ancient Goddess Nuwa’s power by a fortuitous encounter, the cultivation of the Witchcraft’s Gate of Death allowed his body to become a “container” that could accommodate the soul of the god after he had transformed six strange ancient worms.

The fact that he solely relied on the power of faith to make his breakthrough in the Gate of Sacrifice continuously, on the other hand, allowed him to gradually activate the resurrection seed of the ancient god hidden in his soul. In the end, he acquired the power of two ancient gods and completed the most critical and the most laborious transformation from human to god.

Even though he couldn’t have a meteoric rise in just one fell swoop, for be it his body or soul, Zhang Lisheng was still far from reaching the ancient god stage that could exert his divine power in all worlds. Yet, by relying on the accumulation of his extraordinary past, he could fight against the wizard god who had made a breakthrough to the Rank-18 Wizard ‘Shed and Restore’ or the legendary Taoists from the Gate of Dao, and this was only just the starting point of his new journey.

However, even though Zhang Lisheng had developed to such a point, when he mentioned the Hellfire tribesmen’s saint land, the Nutao Sea, there was still a vague different kind of solemnity in his tone.

“Great God, those dark reefs are just too difficult and horrifying, not mentioning the terrible weather, currents, and sea monsters…” Upon hearing the question of the tribal god, the Wizard Li headman answered humbly and bitterly.

When Zhang Lisheng saw Tugra’s nervous state, he interrupted and said. “That’s enough, Tugra. Looks like I have no choice but to make a trip there myself,”

“Even though it’s tough to find the route, there’s no need for you to personally go there,” The Wizard Li headman was stunned and immediately kneeled on the ground. “As long as more iron ships are sent out gradually, I believe that the nautical chart will be drawn out soon.”

“You’re worried that I’ll encounter some danger, right, Tugra?” The young man smiled and turned to look at the totem pole standing in the distance, before reaching out his left hand.

In an instant, mottled alternate rays of yellow, blue, and red began to shine out of the stone pillars on the 200 over islands that belonged to Wizard Li. The brilliance on the totem pole behind Zhang Lisheng was even grander. As it continued to stretch out, it gathered in his palm, and not long after, a small, elliptical colorless gemstone of the size of a pigeon’s egg is consolidated in it.

That gemstone was crystal clear. It sone softly under the sunlight and did not look particularly precious. However, in actual fact, it was consolidated from the power of faith contributed by the millions of believers in the Wizard Li, so its value was simply priceless.

Such a faith stone with the highest purity could never appear, but Zhang Lisheng had managed to obtain it by chance.

From before, the young man had learned that the reason all successful religions that had carved a reliable name in history since ancient times arose because it had pious preachers that came in all sorts of names, like the pastors or sacrifices. The reason a religion would fall was that the servants who were supposed to serve the gods selflessly had become greedy, corrupted, and would use the name of god to satisfy their own personal desires instead.

The Hellfire tribesmen believed in a primitive religion that Zhang Lisheng originally intended to transform into a more mature religious model when the time was ripe.

However, as he started to give them assistive sorcery and bestow them with power, he recalled the religion on Earth and began to change his mind. He decided not to select sacrifices, build temples, nor rectify the prayer rituals anymore. Instead, he would continue to bestow power to his ordinary believers to continue enhancing their initially high piety.

When every 100 ordinary Wizard Li tribesmen gathered to pray, they could call upon various magical power that he opened for them to use within the scope of his divine power network. Those more pious believers, or zealots, would only need 20 to 30 people, or even just one of them, to call upon the divine power. Such a consumption would no doubt make the totem pole collect less faith.

However, such a profound, mysterious power that ordinary people could savor for themselves would only make them revere and be more pious to their own beliefs. This model also guaranteed Zhang Lisheng’s theocratic rule over the Wizard Li tribe to maintain a virtuous circle.

From a long-term perspective, this kind of harvest was no doubt more significant than his efforts. Not only that, but an unexpected situation had happened. Through this unprecedented consumption of the power of faith, the purity contained in the Wizard Li totem poles had reached its limit; thus, the angular, round stone that was initially the size of a bean had transformed to become a smooth stone with the shape of a pigeon egg.

This kind of colorless faith stone that resembled a pigeon’s egg had consolidated a higher power of faith than that of the bean-sized round stone. Correspondingly, the needed number of believers they required to produce such a gem was also shockingly astounding. It would take a full day of faith from the 100 million of Wizard Li tribesmen to consolidate it into one.

Based on this calculation, Zhang Lisheng, who had over 160 million believers, could only harvest three gems every two days. However, he was usually very cautious and had a long-term view. He would not kill the goose that laid the golden eggs unless it was a critical situation, because of this, he only consolidated a piece per day.

“Don’t worry, Tugra. Now that we have such a stone of faith, I can exert my strength even if I’m at the territory of other island’s gods,” When the colorless gemstone was solidified entirely, Zhang Lisheng smiled and put it into a colossal animal skin pouch at his waist, before saying determinedly, “Go prepare a steamship for me, I…”

While the young man was speaking, a strange bird that had a fat, caterpillar-like body with beautiful seven-colored wings rapidly landed beside him. Like a solid rubber ball, it bounced a few times before landing. A native chief choresman with a feather on his head jumped down and kneeled on the ground, “Great God, the fleet of the mainlanders have come to the Red Mountain Harbor. That young chief of the main caravan named Luqi, who brought your outland companions away, wishes to see you.”

“Luqi…” Zhang Lisheng muttered this name that had already become vague in his memory. The image of a hearty and rugged young man, who had thick brows and big eyes that liked to be full of hot air, wearing a colorful hunting costume with embroidery appeared in his mind. Chuckling, he asked, “Why does he wish to see me?”

“He said that he has a crucial thing to tell you, Your Majesty. Not only that, but he’s inquiring about the entire Scorpion Island too,” The toned-looking chief choresman replied respectfully.

“He inquired about the entire Scorpion Island?” Zhang Lisheng’s expression changed right away. It was not a piece of pleasant news to him if the mainlander knew that there was a tribe that had already conquered half of the islands in the sea before he had controlled the entire Hellfire Sea.

After a moment of contemplation, the young man walked over to the winged worm and jumped quickly on its soft back.

At once, the head of the stocky gentle, strange bird that had a temperament, unlike its appearance, connected directly to its body for not having a neck suddenly swelled up like a balloon. The saliva that was as hot as magma dripped down from its mouth and sizzled as they dripped onto the reefs, causing a series of faint rancid smoke to rise.