The Great Worm Lich

What the Wizard Li’s god saw was a fair-looking young man in a brown-red suit who looked at most 20 years old. He would even be regarded as a student if he appeared in a high school.

This young man was initially smiling and talking with Consul Hong. His polite and calm attitude gave him a mature feeling that was contrary to his appearance, one could say that he was pleasantly graceful. However, when he was chatting heartily, as though he had a sixth sense, he suddenly turned around and locked eyes with Zhang Lisheng. Without warning, his face became twisted, his entire person seemed to be instantly transformed into a monster that was ready to devour a person.

“Zhang Lisheng, Zhang Lisheng, Zhang Lisheng…” The young man stared at Zhang Lisheng for a while. With his mouth twitching uncontrollably, he began to shout his name out loud, each time louder and more violently than before.

As the young man’s roar of anger resonated in the air, an old skinny Taoist figure with three long beards on his face sitting on top of a futon, wearing gray-green burlap robes and a thin hemp rope pin on his head that began to appear more and more clearly behind his back.

After the outline of that old man became apparent, as though he suddenly was washed with vitality, his demeanor with his eyes closed to attain mental composure suddenly changed as he opened his eyes to look at Zhang Lisheng.

Sensing a gust of unprecedented pressure, Zhang Lisheng’s palm that had already stretched into his backpack gripped a faith stone tightly as he smirked coldly, “I remember that you’re called Duan Lianbao, an elite disciple from the Gate of Dao. You should know that I’ve already reconciled with the Gate of Dao, and the previous grievances have long been written off. If you make your move towards me now, it’s best for you to first think whether you can afford the severe consequences or not. On top of that, this is New York State of the United States, not the Mountain Gate of your Gate of Dao. You’re standing beside the senior official of the Chinese departmental level and not your comrades of the same Gate. I don’t know how you condensed the projection of that old Taoist behind you, but I know that your ‘little trick’ has already drawn the attention from the entire Manhattan, and the pressure that this produced is also causing the Chinese Consul General in New York to collapse mentally. If I were you, I’d calm down immediately.”

“You killed my Senior Brother without leaving any bone behind and destroyed both the bodies and souls of my Junior Uncle and Senior Uncle! When I felt that I could no longer continue the excruciating cultivation of tempering my body in the elixir furnace and hammering my soul in the demon realm, I’d only need to imagine your face and all pain would immediately sweep away. Compared to this hatred against you, the pain is nothing at all…” Duan Lianbao gritted the words through his teeth. However, when he saw Consul Hong, who had already lost control of himself and collapsed to sit on the ground, with his mouth wide open gasping for breath, looking like a fish who had left the water, the old Taoist projection behind him gradually disappeared.

The pressure flooded back like raging fire, but Zhang Lisheng did not loosen the faith gemstone. With a shrug, he said, “No matter how much you hate me, you have now chosen to focus on the overall situation. Congratulations on your victory over yourself, young man.”

It was not mockery but praise that sounded satirical, causing Duan Ling Tian to be so enraged that his entire body trembled.

As the saying went, ‘The fighting spirit was aroused by the first roll of drums, depleted by the second, and exhausted by the third.’ Zhang Lisheng’s intention was to take advantage of his power to bully the other party. By repeatedly angering Duan Lianbao, he only needed to wait for the other party to draw the first blood out of uncontrollable anger, and he could then eradicate this strong enemy.

Seeing that the situation was about to get out of control when he wanted to incite the Gate of Dao’s disciple to suppress his anger again, he suddenly saw a middle-aged man with an extraordinary temperament wearing black suit pushing open the side door of the consulate to walk out quickly. Coincidentally, the door of the other room also opened at the same time. A black-haired beauty walked out of it.

When the middle-aged man with the extraordinary temperament walked out, he walked up to Consul Hong directly and chanted a mantra. Right away, Consul Hong began to stand out swaying like a noodle, with an outer force lifting him up.

“Clear the heart!” With a slight movement of his lips, the middle-aged man muttered a mantra and snapped his fingers open, releasing the secret technique. A gush of fresh breeze flew out and spread out, everyone who had lost control of themselves after being suppressed by Duan Lianbao’s force immediately was washed with a sense of easiness as they returned to normal.

“How are you feeling, Consul Hong? If you still feel uncomfortable, why don’t you go take a break first? You’d feel better once you wake up,” The middle-aged man put on an apologetical smile after seeing Consul Hong finally had the strength to stand up. Then, he looked around and said, “Same goes to everyone as well.”

“D-Director Li, what happened? C-Chief Duan…” After Consul Hong snapped back to his consciousness, he pointed at Duan Lianbao and said with a wholly flushed face.

“Consul Hong, my Junior Nephew has indeed acted rashly just now. I hope that you can forgive him,” The middle-aged man smiled wryly. When Consul Hong saw that he was not willing to give any explanation, he who had embarrassed himself frowned.

After muttering “T-This…” for a while, he finally turned cold and said, “Of course I can forgive him. I, Hong Guangming, has not stooped down to a level so low that I’d be calculative with a young man who is only in his twenties. However, according to the foreign affairs discipline, I have to submit a written report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I hope that you can understand as well.”

He then nodded at Guo Caiying, who was by the side and forced a smile to greet her before striding to the study room.

Watching Consul Hong’s disappearing back, the middle-aged man shook his head and sighed, before informing his junior of the same Gate who had caused the trouble with a low voice, “Follow me!”

After that, he proceeded to walk up to the staircase in quick steps.

Behind him, Duan Lianbao threw a last dirty look at Zhang Lisheng regrettably and gritted his teeth loudly. Without warning, he turned around and ran up the stairs before calling out in a low voice, “Junior Uncle…”

“Lianbao, our Gate of Dao acts according to the famous dictum of omniscient power and cultivation method from ‘Heaven, Earth, and People’, which is different from the Gate of Dao among the common people. Even so, it is a law, but not the fundamental law of the universe. Our great Dao includes all the other small Daos. The ancient three sects of Chan, Dao, and Jie were all the branches of Dao…” The middle-aged man did not turn around and just mysteriously continued to advocate the greatness of the teachers in the Gate as he walked into one of the rooms on the third floor of the consulate.

When he saw that Duan Lianbao did not put on any impatient look and was merely listening sincerely and politely despite all the long nonsense that he poured out, he secretly sighed in relief, “Junior Nephew, you’re a genius born to be the best in a millennium, and you’re even trained under Senior Brother Duan. That makes you out of the ordinary. After going through hardship, you got rid of your impetuous temper, and you’re actually selected by the Primeval Lord of Heaven and the Lord of Lingbao for their inheritance. I believe that the person taking over the Gate of Dao in the future would be none other than you…”

“You flatter me, Junior Uncle,” Duan Lianbao answered respectfully, “There are many other disciples in the Gate of Dao who surpass me in terms of virtuous conduct and wisdom. I’ll already be satisfied if I can make a contribution by supporting the Gate in the future.”

“You mentioned virtuous conduct and wisdom but not strength. Although you’re modest, I can tell that you also feel that there’s no other disciple among the younger generations in the Gate of Dao who can be mentioned in the same breath as you,” the middle-aged man sat on the sofa and shook his head with a smile. “Actually, even if it’s in my generation or the generation before me, I’d never be able to find your match at all. How can one belittle the inheritance of the Primeval Lord of Heaven and the Lord of Lingbao. However, no matter how powerful the strength is, you’d only be an unbridled cow and would only cause a disaster if you don’t cultivate your mind, which is worse than having no power. For this reason, the elders decide to not let you enter closed-door cultivation and let you harden yourself in the society instead. I also know about the horrifying death of Junior Nephew Zheng Tianliang. The deaths of Senior Brother Song and my brother are also deeply carved in my heart…”

When he reached here, a deep hatred appeared on his head. Duan Lianbao, who was standing by the side, suddenly remembered that the blood brother of this Junior Uncle Li in front of him was one of the people killed by the ancient witchcraft’s successor that he hated the most.

“However, so what if their death is carved in my heart? Now, the situation is chaotic. All sorts of gods and ghosts, from outer space to the foreign realms, have all appeared on Earth. Our Gate of Dao wants to save our own skin or even be enterprising at this critical moment so the ‘jade bait’ is necessary,” The middle-aged man finished releasing his hatred and finally added, “For this reason, before that matter is carried out, all of us can never act rashly. I hope that you can remember this.”

“Relax, Junior Uncle Ju’an. I lost my cool just now when I suddenly encountered that ancient witchcraft’s successor, so I made a big mistake. I’ll never make another mistake again,” Duan Lianbao said with determination.

“Great! great!” Although the young disciple beside him appeared to still be young and immature, in actual fact, he was now the only real heir to the Gate of Dao. Li Ju’an did not dare to force him too much, and since he had already admitted his mistake, Li Ju’an nodded in satisfaction and consoled him a little, “You don’t have to worry too much about this matter tonight. It’s not quite a big mistake anyway. All in all, you just slightly provoked that ancient witchcraft’s successor, created a small commotion among the foreigners, and scared several foreign affairs officials. Now, the central government always need to rely on us to deal with those alien visitors, so they won’t be too harsh on us. Humph! No matter how strong that witchcraft’s successor is, he’s only one man. Even if he has a high social status, it’s merely a fragile reliance that would easily be gone in this chaotic world. We just have to wait patiently; he’ll eventually get his karma back.”

When the middle-aged man reached the end of his sentence, he could not help but consolidate his killing aura between his eyes. Zhang Lisheng, whom he was cursing at this moment, on the other hand, was walking in the noisy streets of Manhattan at night. It just so happened that he was talking about these Gate of Dao’s people as well, “Senior Sister, why are there so many Gate of Dao’s people everywhere? They were in the Noah business delegation at that time, and now, they actually appeared in the New York Consulate. Don’t tell me that the Chinese government really treat them as public officials now?”

“It’s a critical time now. The Atlanteans are doing everything possible to understand the detailed information about the cooperation intentions of China and the US. To deal with those high-tech means of the aliens, the government can only rely on supernatural power. We don’t really have much of a choice…” Guo Caiying sighed and left her sentence hanging.