The Great Worm Lich

Time passed by quickly. In just a blink of an eye, mid-summer had already arrived. The vast Amazon jungle once again entered the rainy season. Even in the city, the fresh air that had a slight hint of rotting plant smell in this season was also filled with moist water vapor, just like how it always was for the past thousands of years.

 Unlike before, this massive rainforest with an area of ​​more than 7 million square kilometers, known as the Lung’s of the Earth, no longer belonged to the Earthlings entirely. More than ten foreign worlds that had collapsed barriers had already divided it into more than ten divisions, causing its climate to be diverse as well.

 Hidden in the dense forest, the temperature of Tuikano, the capital of the small country Tatetutu, would drop by more than ten degrees by sunset because of this change, causing the well-dressed, or those people who dressed like explorers, or even those fully armed travelers in the lobby of the Golden Brick Hotel, the hotel with the best environment in Tuikano, to shiver because of the lowering of the temperature.

 “Just how scarce is the energy of these natives? A five-star hotel can’t even provide 24-hour heating? There are trees all over the mountains, so can’t they just implement a policy measure in line with the local conditions? Don’t tell me that they still think about protecting the environment even now? They’ve gone crazy!” At a corner of the magnificent lobby on a sofa near a coffee table far from the bright chandeliers, a bald yellow-skinned man with a short and round figure in his forties wearing a grey suit rubbed his hand and complained in dissatisfaction.

 Sitting opposite this man was a man in a black suit of similar age and physique but with a much sturdier and slender body. Upon hearing his companion’s words, he frowned right away.

 Carefully glancing at a young solemn-looking woman dressed in a white plaid blouse with a pair of straight pencil pants who was wearing a pair of black-framed glasses on her tall nose sitting underneath a crystal chandelier with a soft glow of golden bright light in the middle of the hotel lobby in the distance, the tall and thin man whispered, “Wang, don’t talk nonsense. Pay attention to your image as a diplomat!”

 “Don’t you know what era is it now? What diplomacy do we still have to talk with these natives?” The chubby man looked at the contrived expression of his companion and curled his lips as he said indifferently. “This trip is just to plate gold on Director Guo and let her forge some relationships, so she can have a justification to be transferred to the newly formed Internal Affairs Commissar from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her next step is to smoothly prepare and take charge of an immigration site in the Kunlun World and then rest and recuperate for two terms. By then, she would have a resume of being a middle-level cadre at a state-owned enterprise, a director at central minister, commissar, and local party government. Tsk tsk… What a bright future she has.”

 Some of these things could only be understood but unspeakable. Upon hearing his companion speaking so thoroughly and plainly, the tall and thin man immediately had a grave expression on as he secretly regretted being dumb enough to sit together with this trash who would only grumble all day long the instant he suffered a setback.

 He composed himself and thoughtfully said, “Wang, c’mon, why are you pessimistic? What era is it now? You’re like a knave who uses his own yardstick to measure the motive of an upright man, y’ know? Besides, Tatetutu’s situation is so chaotic, so who would come here to plate gold? You seriously have to stop spouting nonsense!”

 “Chaotic? Hey, Administrative Affairs Bureau is now under the direct control of the Internal Affairs Commissar, so there are at least 80, if not 100, strong ‘monsters and demons’ who came here with this trip this time. So what if Tatetutu is chaotic then? Besides, isn’t that an ancient saying that says ‘seek wealth from danger.’ No matter how a person is born royal and raised up properly, it’s still hard for her to see the rainbow if she didn’t undergo any hardship. As long as Director Guo’s luck is not terrible, it’s basically impossible for her to be fired…” Upon seeing the grave expression of his companion, that short and fat man became even more energetic as he began to talk more wantonly.

 When the tall thin man sitting on the opposite heard him crossing the line more, he no longer cared about attracting other people’s attention as he stood up anxiously to sit at somewhere else. At this moment, a man with a medium height wearing muddy rain boots and semi-old denim attire with a beard of two to three inches on his dirty face walked into the hotel door.

 That man appeared to be wretched, but he was very high in spirit. However, when he glanced at the surrounding habitually with his bright eyes, his gaze suddenly came to a halt as an astonished look appeared in his eyes. He snapped back to reality and immediately lowered his head to conceal himself. Pulling the brim of the wide-brimmed hat on his head lower, his stance suddenly looked exhausted.

 He staggered to the hotel counter and took some Soros from his pocket, before saying weakly in English, “A single room, please, thank you.”

 “This money is only enough for one night stay now, sir. It’s best for you to pay in gold next time you come back.” The tanned, slender receptionist picked up the money and counted it without asking for any document registration. She handed the room card to the guest while saying with a trained smile.

 This sentence sounded polite, but the hidden meaning was that the situation was turbulent, and the foreign world had invaded. As the official currency of Tatetutu, the Soro would soon become waste paper, so they would no longer accept it in the future if it was not a hard currency like gold.

 “Using gold to pay the bill?” The bearded man was stunned. He took the room card and muttered, “Even the Amazon indigenous people have learned that gold is a common thing that is scarce in all ‘worlds’? The ways of the world have become really amazing now.”

 Then, he walked into the elevator.

 He came to the room on the eleventh floor, locked the door, and threw his huge travel backpack on the carpet. He then breathed a long sigh of relief and walked into the bathroom frowning while saying to himself, “What the hell man, why would I come across Senior Sister Caiying here? There are so many Gate of Dao’s people here too! The world barriers all around the world have collapsed so other than the Wizard Li that I rule, the other 999 worlds are laid out on Earth. Judging from its area, China must have been divided into at least 17 to 18 pieces now. Don’t tell me that the country has returned to normal in just a few months under such circumstances and that they still have the mood to take diplomatic actions? Then again, with the current situation, does the word ‘diplomacy’ even make sense? Do they really need to send somebody with such a heavyweight like Senior Sister to visit primitive jungle countries? This is really inconceivable…”

 After pondering for a long time and could not get any answer, Zhang Lisheng, who had been searching for a few months but found nothing in the rain forest under the wet weather, no longer pondered over it. He took off his clothes and took a hot bath comfortably. When he was amid his enjoyment, he suddenly heard a knock on the door.

 “Who? May I know who this is?” The young man stood up from the bathtub, and the water droplets on his skin slipped away instantly. He wrapped his dry body with a bath towel and asked casually.

 “Thump, thump…” The knocking sound on the door became louder, but no one answered.

 “Humph, trying to put up some pretentious air?” Zhang Lisheng frowned, a fearless icy smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He walked out of the bathroom indifferently and opened the door abruptly but froze immediately.

 

“I’m sorry for disturbing you taking a bath, Lisheng,” Outside the door, the young woman who had an aloof expression on as she gave a long and pompous speech in the lobby just now held up the glasses on the bridge of her nose and looked at the face she had been dreaming of. With a mixed expression, she asked softly, “Why? Don’t you welcome me?”

 “It’s not that I don’t welcome you, but I just didn’t expect to meet you here at Amazon, Senior Sister Caiying,” The young man snapped back to his senses and shrugged as he replied with his body turned sideways.

 “I was also very, very surprised to see you here,” Guo Caiying walked into the room and sat on the sofa by the window directly. She then stared into Zhang Lisheng’s eyes and said expressionlessly, “Ever since you abruptly left Beijing without a word, I thought I’d never ever see you again.”

 “I didn’t leave Beijing abruptly without a word, I was driven away instead. I managed to escape from a trap that almost cost me my life,” The young man fell into a moment of silence and shook his head before explaining with a bitter smile.

 “Trap?” Upon hearing this utterly unexpected answer, the girl’s eyes went wide. With a dignified look that was not in harmony with her age and looks, she asked, “In Beijing, it was no secret that you were my guest, so who dared to be so bold?”

 Zhang Lisheng sighed and replied in a low voice, “Several dozens of old Taoist monks invited me to the Fishing Mountain Village using your name and then ambushed me.”

 The answer was vague and straightforward, but it was enough to allow any ‘smart person’ to guess everything. Guo Caiying’s face gradually became pale as she sat weakly on the sofa. She covered her face with her palms, and not long after, tears dropped down from her chin.

 When Zhang Lisheng saw the girl’s painful expression, he recalled the terrible past and became enraged. With a cold voice, he said, “Senior Sister, things have passed, and China is my motherland after all. For the sake of the innocent people and the destiny of the nation, I won’t go smash the temples or something. However, once the situation is stable, I’ll destroy the Taoists’ Mountain Gate and destroy its roots.”

 Such a sentence rendered Guo Caiying speechless, but she only felt nothing but agony.

 When the young man saw that the girl cried even louder, he gradually calmed his rage down and breathed a long sigh. He walked up and gently patted Guo Caiying’s shoulder as he said softly, “Stop crying, Senior Sister. Look, aren’t I unscathed in one piece now? I’ve long guessed that you didn’t know anything about this matter, so I’ve never blamed you before. Don’t be sad. Oh yeah, what are you doing here in Tatetutu with so many Taoist priests with you. Isn’t this too strange?”

 

Although Zhang Lisheng’s method of changing the topic was blunt, it was effective on Guo Caiying, whose temperament had been trained to become firm and persistent and who had only lost her cool temporarily. The girl calmed down quickly and wiped away the tears on her face before replying, “There’s indeed intelligence saying that Tatetutu is the earliest place where the foreign world’s gate appeared. Every force who received this news and still maintains a certain strength are all attracted here. Didn’t you come here as well? Are you representing the United States, or is it for personal purposes?”

 “Of course it’s for personal purposes,” The young man pondered and replied truthfully in a lightly greedy tone, “I came to look for Tiantai Mountain, the mysterious realm where the legendary Ancient Goddess Nuwa died. Who knows, maybe the god’s legacy is there. I believe that legacy will be very, very useful to me.”