The Great Worm Lich

When Zhang Lisheng heard the words of the federal ambassador, he smiled, “Ambassador Maegor, the Wizard Li people look simple and cruel, but they are actually sincere and kind-hearted. You can easily gain their respect with a little luck and sensible help.”

 “Is that so, doctor?” Maegor sighed and smiled wryly, “Your theory of ‘You can easily gain their respect with a little luck and sincere help’ is as despairing as the phase said by the great inventor Edison, ‘Genius is one percent luck and ninety-nine percent hard work, but the decisive factor comes from talent.’ Both luck and talent are the most illusive, y’ know? When I first came to Wizard Li, I also held sincere goodwill to them, but those arrogant natives didn’t care about this… ”

 The federal ambassador complained endlessly. The young man patiently waited for him to finish and nodded his head in recognition in the dim light, “Ambassador Maegor, you’re right. When I first helped the Wizard Li tribe, the natives were still primitive people who couldn’t even sew their hides well, so I only needed to teach them some junior high school physics knowledge to gain their gratitude. When you started to come in contact with them, Wizard Li has grown miraculously into a highly civilized powerful country through the resurrected god, so their basic conditions have changed now. It’s indeed tough for you to earn the trust and respect of those indigenous people even no matter how much you give. However, as a federal ambassador, protecting the national interests of the United States is your most important mission, isn’t it? Stop overthinking. Let us talk about how we should let those natives carry out the offensive and defense alliance treaty they signed with the States. Have they recently waged wars with other tribes in the Hellfire Archipelago? Do they have extra military strength?”

 “Highly civilized powerful country…” The federal ambassador pondered on the black-haired young man’s evaluation on the Wizard Li and smiled coldly. “Only the weapons and equipment of those barbaric natives have entered the highly civilized era while the rest are still primitive. The dissemination of information is also very slow, and they don’t understand any basic diplomatic principles. For this reason, the embassy didn’t obtain much information. However, as more and more large patrol fleets like this increased in the Shrimp B1 Island in these recent months, the sea caravan of the mainlanders also began to appear more frequently. Judging from these two aspects, the Wizard Li must be in a peaceful state for the time being. They can mobilize enough troops to attack the Karlado people,” Maegor analyzed.

 “Is that so, Mr. Ambassador. I understand now,” Zhang Lisheng, who directed all the illusions that the federal ambassador saw, nodded pretentiously. “If the situation in Wizard Li is really like what you guessed, then my task will be a lot easier, and maybe I’d succeed…”

 Just like this, the Wizard Li god fabricated lies and discussed Wizard Li’s information with Maegor for a long time on the way back. Even when they had returned to the embassy built on the mountain rock, he still continued to talk to the ambassador for nearly an hour before finally going to rest.

 The next morning, before the rising sun could even dispel the freshwater mist in the island jungle yet, he had already awakened and walked out of his room. Passing through the dark stone corridor, he came to the embassy hall.

 Looking around and seeing the secretary on-duty dozing off while lying on the wooden table, Zhang Lisheng shook his head with a chuckle before walking over to knock on the table. “Mr. Secretary, good morning, can you help me to prepare a carriage?”

 

The lazy secretary woke up and looked at the young man with a slightly blank shocked look. He opened his mouth and finally responded after a few seconds. Stuttering, he answered, “M-Morning, doctor. A car? Y-You want a carriage? W-Where are you heading to this early in the morning?”

 “I plan to go to the Wizard Li temple to pray. There’s not much time left, so please help prepare a carriage for me as soon as possible.” The young man answered with a smile as he looked at the sleepy eyes of the embassy secretary. The instant his words left his mouth, he heard a tired voice resonating from behind him, “Doctor, are you going to attend the Wizard Li prayer ceremony? This is really a good idea to get closer to them, but are you qualified to pray to their god now? Those natives can be so stubborn that it’s absolutely terrifying when it comes to religious issues.”

 “Morning, Ambassador Maegor. I didn’t expect you to get up so early as well,” Turning his head to smile at the federal ambassador who had just stepped out of the corridor, Zhang Lisheng said, “Don’t worry, even though the Wizard Li religious forces don’t acknowledge me as much as the secular leaders do, I’m still qualified to participate in prayer. ”

 “Well then, I’ll prepare a carriage for you right away,” Maegor nodded and hurriedly ran outside the embassy personally. When he reached the front of the stone gate, he suddenly stopped and turned his head around to say, “Oh yeah, breakfast! Harian, go ask the chef to prepare sandwiches and coffee for Dr. Lisheng. Wake John, Smith and Alfort up! Tell them to immediately bring the Wizard Li information collected since the embassy is established. Quick, go now!”

 “Yes, Ambassador Maegor!” The secretary on night duty stood up in a hurry and ran towards the kitchen. In a blink of an eye, only Zhang Lisheng was left in the hall.

 Looking in the direction where the federal ambassador and secretary disappeared, the young man burst into another chuckle and murmured, “Don’t tell me that the federal government actually recruited their Wizard Li diplomats from comedians or circus? Even though it’s only a nominal ally of the United States, it’s a little disregardful to send such a diplomatic team…”

 He did not know that it was because of the effect caused by the closed policy of the United States embassy that he had secretly instructed that the diplomats stated here had all become lazy.

 However, when it came to emergency matters, the idleness would be removed, and the operation of the entire federal embassy would become smooth once again. More than ten minutes later, the young man was already sitting in a speeding carriage, eating a large piece sandwich made from juicy animal meat as he swiped on the tablet screen on his knees while looking at Wizard Li in the eyes of the federal diplomats.

 “Similar to the mixed lifestyles of the medieval jungle society in Europe and the United States in the Middle Ages, purely powerful armed forces and brave warriors… Is this the Wizard Li seen by the diplomats who represent the United States’ eyes?” After a long time, Zhang Lisheng gradually had a satisfied smile on his face. “Looks like it’s all the things that I let them see…”

 With the young man’s subtle, almost imperceptible laughter, the hoofed feet of the rhinoceros beast pulling the carriage made a dull ‘thud, thud…’ sound on the flat clay road as the carriage speedily entered a magnificent temple community.

 More than ten minutes later, after passing through at least a hundred temples and corridors, the carriage finally stopped slowly in front of a large bark house, that looked extremely out of harmony with the surrounding temples, built next to a thick stone pillar soaring into the clouds.

 Looking through the carriage window, Zhang Lisheng could see several dozens of governors, who stood above billions of people, wearing red, yellow, and blue robes with crowns on their heads waiting outside for him. He immediately stopped laughing and stood up to walk out of the carriage.

 The instant he stepped on the soil of the Wizard Li’s most sacred ancestral land, all the priests and warriors kneeled down on the ground like wheat fields that were lodged by strong winds. In unison, they began to sing, “Great God, you’re the supreme authority of the world, you’re the supreme glory of the world…”

 The governors even stepped forward and kissed the young man’s footprint.

 “Alright, Tugra,” Zhang Lisheng said impatiently as he looked down at the familiar figure of the first native who came to his feet. “We’re not on a religious ceremony now. All of you are my closest pastors, so there’s no need to do such tedious worship.”

 “Yes, Your Majesty!” Upon hearing the order of the god, the former Wizard Li headman, the current chief governor, immediately followed suit and stood up respectfully. Right away, he heard the voice of the faith in his heart gradually drifting away from his ear. “Tugra, how large is the force that Wizard Li can gather if we go all out?”

 Following behind Zhang Lisheng’s footsteps, Tugra replied without a pause, “Your Majesty, from among the restored Skybeasts left by the ancient god, there are 75 left intact after the war of conquest. 11 of them are expected to have combat effectiveness that surpasses the Earthlings’ Sky Fortress. The number of newly made ones by the priests has exceeded 3,200, but only 6 are comparable to the eleven most powerful ‘ancient beasts’…”

 “Can we use adjectives like ‘expected to have combat effectiveness that surpasses the Earthlings’ Sky Fortress’ and ‘most powerful ancient beasts’ to describe the combat effectiveness of the army?” Entering the bark house and sitting on the bed laid with furry hides in the middle of the house, Zhang Lisheng interrupted the Wizard Li’s chief governor’s words. “Our future enemy is not some arrogant mainland kingdom but a complete ‘world’ instead. Do you understand Tugra? When we have an absolute upper-hand in strength, we can use raw and unclear format to make our ‘combat unit,’ but it’s no longer possible now, for every fighting potential in the Wizard Li must be squeezed out in the battle from now on for us to obtain victory.”

 “Your Majesty, the seminary led by Chief Theologian Aruba is already in the process of calculating a precise division of combat effectiveness of the Skybeasts and biological weapons for ground combat. Please rest assured that the Wizard Li army can be completely integrated in another six months at most!” Tugra explained respectfully.

 Zhang Lisheng was stunned for a while before bursting out a chuckle. Sighing, he said, ‘You can even use the word ‘integrate’ now? Tugra, looks like you’re pretty quick in accepting new things. Very good! In this crazy era, unable to accept change would only mean decline and demise. I can let go of my worries now that you’re like this. Since it still takes time to accurately calculate the combat effectiveness of the Wizard Li army, I won’t ask much about it now. However, Wizard Li’s first performance in the Colossal World cannot be delayed to half a year later. Mobilize five, no, 100,000 of our most elite warriors in ten days…”

 

Before he could finish his words, he was suddenly interrupted by an absurdly intense earthquake and a loud earth-shattering noise that followed closely behind it.