The Great Worm Lich

The somewhat unexpected answer that somehow made sense if one pondered over it made Zhang Lisheng show a bitter smile on his face again.

 “Am I so charming?” After a moment of silence, he sighed and whispered in a joking tone next to the girl’s cheek, “Had I known this earlier, I wouldn’t have needed to go deceive the Shrimp World No. 2 natives when I wanted to conquer a planet. I could have just become a politician in New York and unify Earth by force and speech when I’ve won the United States’ election.”

 Upon hearing the helplessness and guilt in the young man’s tone, Trish kissed his cheek. “No matter what decision I made because of love, it has nothing to do with you, baby, for it’s all my own choice. I’m a grown woman, and I know how to choose my own life.”

 “Really?” Zhang Lisheng heaved a long sigh and muttered a word as he gave the girl an in-depth look. No longer saying anything, he took two steps back and turned his gaze to the several young Atlantean men and women who followed Trish on deck before raising his voice. “Trish, since you’re the Elder’s secretary, the identity of your companions should be almost the same too. What an amazing efficiency! It’s been less than an hour since I contacted the federal New York military base, but it has already reached the Atlantean’s senator-ranked personage.”

 The instant Zhang Lisheng’s words left his mouth before Trish could reply, a man who looked the most composed among the Atlanteans who stepped on board with her stepped in to say first in a witty tone, “The speed of light is fast, Dr. Zhang Lisheng. It’s because of this that we Atlanteans are much more efficient than Earthlings…”

 “But having fast speed and high efficiency doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good thing,” Locking his gaze on the sculpture-like handsome face of the alien man who spoke just now, Zhang Lisheng interrupted him, “Tell me, what do you want to achieve by spending so much effort?”

 “We wish to know all of the information you know regarding World 3009. Everything that you want and don’t want to tell.”

 “You want to know everything about World 3009? This is a very greedy request.” The young man smiled indifferently to the Atlantean man whose attitude suddenly changed from a humorous expression to a cold one. He untied the belt around his waist with one hand and grabbed Trish’s waist with the other. “So you guys deliberately sent Trish to comfort me emotionally first before intimidating or even torturing me? Frankly, your ideas are excellent, but unfortunately, what happened this morning has made me decide to never blindly cooperate with others to put on a show on the Colossal World stage, particularly small characters like you. I’m sorry…”

 

An indescribable coldness and brutality appeared at the corner of his mouth.

 Just as he was about to shake off the belt, Trish, who was next to him, suddenly held down the Wizard Li overlord’s arm and said in a hurry, “Lisheng, don’t be impulsive. Things are not as bad as you think. Among the companions who came with me is the most trusted chief secretary of Elder Holwagner. You’ll get into great trouble if you act rashly.”

 “Great trouble?” The young man shook off his belt with an unchanged ferocious smile on his face, allowing the scale engraved with mountains and rivers to hang down on the floor as it continued to extend on the battleship deck. Without a trace of warmth in his voice, he said, “Don’t worry, Trish, one or two Atlantean elders is no longer a trouble for the current me.”

 At this moment, the incomprehensible weird scene and Zhang Lisheng’s malicious expression and words made the Atlantean warriors who had undergone rigorous sergeant training on the ship’s deck could not help but feel tense. Although they could not take the initiative to make their moves first due to the extraordinary value of the black-haired young man, they still activated the light stones in their bodies.

 Some of them even shouted sternly:

 “What do you want to do, Earthling? whatever you want to do, you better stop right away…”

 “No matter what kind of trick you plan to play, it’d only be a futile struggle in front of hundreds of elite Atlantean warriors…”

 “Stop! You better stop immediately if you don’t want to get hurt…”

 At this extremely precarious situation, a sudden pure white dazzling halo abruptly spread out and transformed into thousands of thumb-sized light that sliced across the air. It flew across the alien warriors’ bodies that were emitting different intensity of light and took away the brilliance that was shrouded in it.

 At the same time, a slight hoarse and magnetic sonorous voice resonated from the halo, “Dr. Lisheng, please don’t misunderstand. We come with good intentions, not to threaten you but to make a deal with you, a deal that you will never regret nor reject.”

 “A deal that I won’t regret nor reject?” Zhang Lisheng, who was holding onto the scale that had stretched across hundreds of square meters of deck floor in front of him, raised his eyebrows and looked at the beauty hidden in the halo, before shrugging and saying, “This sounds very tempting but just what kind of a good deal the proud Atlanteans can prepare in the face of a lucky and slightly strong Earthling scholar? I think your words are nothing more than an empty promise that you randomly made after keenly predicting the tragedy that will take place next…”

 

“Dr. Lisheng, even though it’s difficult to guess what ace card you have hidden under your exceptionally unimaginable luck, do you really think we can’t guess the existence of that card? My words are not by no means empty promises. No matter what you intend to do now, please stop immediately and listen carefully to the trading conditions I’m going to propose. Also, are you really sure that your hidden ace card will defeat the hundreds of thousands of Atlantean warriors on this battleship…” When the young Atlantean woman saw that the black-haired young man not far away was not moved by her word, she continued to lure using both hard and soft techniques. However, before she could finish her words, it was already stuck in her throat after seeing the monster that mysteriously rose from the scale spread on the ground.

 She stared at the enormous, monstrous creature that was swimming upwards leisurely while shaking its patches of octagonal scales that were slowly changing colors.

 On its oval-shaped body, other than a mouth that disappeared when it closed and resembled a black hole when it opened, there was a ring of eyes on top of its head with a long thin tail dangled behind it. The woman stared at it and was stunned for a few seconds before saying in a parched voice that sounded like a moan, “Monster! It’s a galaxy monster! A-A galaxy monster…”

 “That’s right, a monster that you Atlanteans will never ever forget…” Glancing one last look at the alien woman enveloped by light on the deck, Zhang Lisheng looked around at each of the frightened, desperate faces and said with a smile. With his thoughts, he drove the Taotie to swim entirely out of the Leather World and opened its black mouth.

 Instantly, a gush of soundless suction power that seemingly could pull a planet gushed out of the enormous monster’s black hole-like mouth, tearing and twisting everything it encountered and dragging it into the infinitely huge belly that could seemingly contain a universe.

 The horror legend about the planet monster circulating in the hearts of the Atlanteans made the elite soldier’s resistance and counterattack to become extremely scattered. Soon, the Atlantean flagship turned to become a layer of a solid metal shell that resembled a fruit that had been emptied by insects.

 As the Taotie swallowed more and more warship bulkheads, decks, alien bodies, armor, and even light energy, its originally skyscraper-like body also started to expand at a speed that was visible to the human eye.

 Standing in the protective barrier created by Zhang Lisheng’s mighty divine power while watching the monster that swelled two to three times its size within a short time, Trish gradually returned from her daze of horror. Tongue-tied, she murmured, “Planet monster! It’s a planet behemoth! Y-You’ve tamed a planet monster, Lisheng? Oh my god! Lisheng! I thought that I’ve adapted to the incredible happenings around you, but you can always bring a new ‘surprise’ every time! A planet monster! A planet monster that almost destroyed the ancient Atlantis civilization. Why are you domesticating it? Do you plan to conquer the entire universe?”

 Upon hearing the incoherent surprised exclamation, Zhang Lisheng shrugged with a smile and said, “Destroying the entire universe is too exaggerated, Trish. Actually, if this ‘little monster’ was not released inside the fragile defense force of the battleship along with the horror legend that has taken the Atlanteans by intimidation, causing them to not organize an effective counterattack, this undernourished young Taotie would not have been able to defeat this flagship. Maybe this ‘little monster’ can really devour a planet and traverse the universe when it grows up, but it can’t do that now. Besides, according to the rules of biological growth, it will take a lot of time and energy to feed it…”

 “But this is still a planet monster, Lisheng! You’ll have the possibility of defeating all powerful enemies with it!” Trish interrupted the young man with a dry voice, “You know too little about the planet monster! You don’t know the horrors of it! If the Atlanteans found out that you’re breeding a planet monster, they’d definitely list you as a more important goal than conquering the foreign world! Oh, you’re too rash, Lisheng! What should we do now? We must hide the truth no matter what, but you’ve killed the chief secretary of Elder Holwagner and even destroyed a stellar-ranked flagship! This will definitely prompt a careful investigation by the Atlanteans. Lisheng, you’ve been too impulsive this time! What should we do now? I must think! I must think properly…”

 “I was indeed impulsive this time, but you’re also overthinking the problem, Trish. Nobody knows that it’s the planet monster that destroyed the ship,” Looking at Trish’s anxious face, Zhang Lisheng shook his head indifferently and waved his hand in the air, summoning a strong wind to put a corner of the Leather World in his hands.

 Then, the young man gently shook the scale, and at once, a rippling wave emerged from the leather depicting mountains, rivers, and seas, before wrapping the Taotie that had stopped devouring and pulling it back into the Leather World again.