The Great Worm Lich

Ever since the totem pole of the tribe had been completely remodeled, the hundreds of thousands of natives who had been shouting at the top of their lungs finally quietened down at once.

When Zhang Lisheng swept his gaze over them, the natives silently buried their heads in the soil, trying to huddle their entire bodies to become smaller. Even though the previous praising songs had stopped, and there was only breathing sounds left, the scene of devout worship became more solemn and sacred under the empty night sky.

“Hmm, this feels good…” Looking afar towards the kneeling bodies and black back of the heads, an impassioned satisfaction once again rose in the heart of Zhang Lisheng who had already become accustomed to the Hellfire tribesmen’s worship.

It took great difficulty for him to suppress the excitement in his heart down. After pondering for a while, he suddenly told the tribal headman at his feet, “Tugra, it’s too over the top for us to call the tribe Zhang Lisheng. Can we call it by some other name in normal occasions?”

“According to the tradition of the Hellfire tribesmen, the tribe can also be called by your Theonym, Great Conqueror!” Even though Tugra did not understand why it would be too over the top to call the tribe by the name ‘Zhang Lisheng,’ he still replied graciously.

“Theonym?” Zhang Lisheng repeated this word, and without warning, a strange psychological response rose subtly within him. After a moment of silence, he replied, “I remember you’ve asked me to come up with a Theonym before, but I felt that it was unnecessary at that time. I guess it has become necessary now so wait, let me think… I’ll go with the name Wizard Li!”

The instant the young man muttered the two words ‘Wizard Li,’ dark clouds just so happen to waft across above the island. Then, streaks of silvery snakes slithered through the night sky and let out a series of loud noises.

Amidst the thunder and lightning, the tribal book of history that was hovering in the air suddenly fell.

Zhang Lisheng saw it right away. Hurriedly, he crossed the ruin of the burned tree house and picked up this bark book that had changed to become a bark book containing just one page, excluding the cover, which originated from a thick big book of hundreds of pages.

When the young man opened it, he saw a yellow-skinned young man who looked identical to himself on the page staring back at him calmly.

“A new beginning?” After staring at the tribal book of history silently for a while, Zhang Lisheng closed the book and told the tribal headman, “Tugra, tell the people to go back to rest.”

Then, he walked towards the treehouse that he once used as an operating room.

After composing his emotions for an entire night, the next morning, when the sun slowly rose from the jungle’s horizon, Zhang Lisheng walked out of the bark house, took a few deep breaths of the humid, cool air, and looked around.

From hundreds of meters away, the mountain-like bodies, under the totem pole that had a diameter of over 30 meters and a height of over 200 meters that covered a sculpture of a fuzzy protruding black and white snake shadow but carved with a clear, two-headed, five-faced, Demon’s image, had already disappeared without a trace.

Beside the stone pillar, hundreds of craftsmen were driving the Lohlos to climb up and down on wooden scaffolding while getting busy. They had rebuilt the huge tree houses that had burned halfway and the tragic, crazy traces of last night had been covered up cleanly.

However, the sacrifices were not so easily forgotten in Zhang Lisheng’s heart. Sighing, he shifted his gaze to the tribal headman, who was already waiting for him by the side. “Tugra, how many chief warriors were left in the tribe?”

“There are still 1,571 left, Great Conqueror!” Tugra replied respectfully.

“We’ve sacrificed 40% of our top forces in exchange for a chance to change a name? This is so f*cked up!” Zhang Lisheng, who had yet to understand what kind of rich harvest and brilliant prospect naming of a powerful Hellfire tribe using his own name would bring, could not stop himself from cursing under his breath. He asked again, “That’s right, Tugra! The treehouse enshrining the tribal book of history has already burned down, so what about the diamond-shaped stones on the altar?”

“I’ve personally picked up the stones last night. They’re here, Great Conqueror!” Tugra answered and offered a beast skin pouch up on both hands.

“Very good!” Zhang Lisheng took the bag and opened it. He took out a diamond-shaped stone and pinched it between his fingers to look. At once, his hand was suddenly covered with yellow and blue scales that were round on the inside but square on the outside. It turned into a sharp claw as he crushed it with his entire might.

As a dull ‘bang’ resonated, the faith stone began to crack while a tiny flame began to appear. Without warning, it exploded and transformed again into a flame containing the power of faith that bloomed in front of Zhang Lisheng’s eyes.

Seizing this opportunity, the young man, who had already become a Gate of Sacrifice’s Rank-1 Wizard, shut his eyes and pressed both his index fingers onto the space between his eyebrows, in accordance with the secret cultivation method of the Gate of Sacrifice’s wizard. An interlaced, black and white, dim brilliance appeared from the crown of his head at once.

When that interlaced black and white brilliance appeared, the gradually disappearing power of faith shimmering around Zhang Lisheng suddenly began to flow. Like moths flying into flames, they began to merge into the black and white brilliance one by one, causing it to become a little brighter.

After over ten minutes, he had finally exhausted all the brilliance that the faith stone transformed. The young man slowly opened his eyes and perceived it, before muttering in delight, “A Gate of Sacrifice’s wizard can indeed use the power of faith! Even though one can only use it to strengthen the wizard power, I’m sure I can slowly find more use of it in the future… No, no! Instead of standing on the edge of a pool and long idly for fish, I might as well go back and knit the fishing net myself. I’ll raise the levels of my Gate of Sacrifice first, so it’d be easier for me to study it.”

After making up his mind, he took another stone from the animal skin bag and crushed it, transforming it to become the wizard power in his soul through the Gate of Sacrifice’s secret cultivation method. Repeating this again and again, he used up all the 45 pieces of faith stone in front of the bark house with no regard for the presence of other people.

The time consumed in absorbing the power of faith was not short. The rising sun had already started to sink in the sky, but it was insignificant compared to Zhang Lisheng’s harvest. Relying on the power of faith that the Hellfire tribesmen contributed, he managed to raise his Gate of Sacrifice’s Rank-1 Wizard level to Rank-3 Wizard level in just within half a day.

“This cultivation speed is simply a seven-league stride! I think this must be one of the fastest shortcuts in cultivating the ancient witchcraft. No wonder they want to have so many followers…” After crushing the last diamond-shaped stone, an unsatisfied expression appeared on the young man’s face. Without warning, he turned around to walk back to the house and took out the tribal book of history.

After opening the tribal book of history, like looking into a mirror, he stared at the skinny, pale man with an undistinguished appearance, who was naked except for the animal skin wrapping his lower body. Composing himself, his head suddenly started spinning and the brutal image from last night appeared in his mind right away.

At the same time, the tribal book of history in Zhang Lisheng’s hand suddenly erupted into a dazzling brilliance. Hovering in the air, it slowly rose to the sky and shone upon the tribal totem pole hundreds of meters away, causing a flame to ignite from top to bottom.

“I wonder how much harvest I can get this time…” The young man snapped back to reality and muttered to himself while soaking in the brilliance radiated from the bark book with anticipation. The instant his words left his mouth, the brilliance on the tribal book of history and the flame encircling the totem pole gradually disappeared without a trace.

When the grand scene of the condensing of the faith stone ended early, the bark book fell into the lap of a dumbstruck Zhang Lisheng from the air with a ‘smack’, causing him to snap back to reality abruptly.

The young man opened his mouth and ordered with a bitter face, “Tugra, send the choremen to see if there is any stone below the totem pole.”

“Yes, Conqueror!” The headman, who stood from morning till afternoon accompanying the Conqueror with back pain and did not even have the opportunity to eat anything during lunch, quickly replied and personally led a large group of odd-job midgets to search below the stone pillar. After searching for a long time, they only managed to find one faith stone.

After making sure that they only had such a meager harvest, Tugra summoned his courage and hurriedly walked back to Zhang Lisheng. Placing the faith stone onto a wooden plate, he presented it respectfully, “We’ve only found one stone, Great Conqueror!”

“Ha? The tribe has changed its name and the totem pole has changed its appearance so the accumulated faith has also reverted to zero?” Zhang Lisheng sighed and complained with a frown. He picked up the stone and crushed it, turning it to become the Gate of Sacrifice’s wizard power and absorbing it into his soul.

After breaking through to the Rank-3 Wizard level, one or two pieces of faith stones would no longer have any substantial breakthrough on the young man’s Gate of Sacrifice’s wizard power. However, despite his unchanged wizardry level, he could still absorb three beasts at the same time at the moment.

Even though Zhang Lisheng did not have the intention to battle using his Gate of Sacrifice’s wizard power, since he could change the beast’s soul as he liked anyway, he who had only absorbed the soul of the Oasis World’s monkey king still decided to fill the empty spaces of the other two beasts.

However, according to ancient records, it was even harder to find a beast that could produce a soul than finding a wizard gu. For this reason, he was not in haste to look for it alone but instead, he gave out his order again, “Tugra, tell all the hunters in the tribe to report to me if they find any usually powerful carnivorous beast!”

“Yes, Conqueror. I’ll make my order now.”

“No, no, Tugra. This matter is not so urgent. I’m hungry now. You must be hungry too. Ask the choremen to send my lunch over. You should go eat as well. This is more urgent!” Zhang Lisheng rubbed his tummy with a smile and strode towards the completed treehouse beside the totem pole.

Opening the curtains made by the twining of small branches mixed with spiderwebs, the young man saw sturdy and delicate soil laid with two large pelt carpets on both sides. The altar was facing the door and there was a huge recliner covered in a whole long-haired animal leather below the altar.

Everything in front was very familiar, but there was a fresh and brand-new feeling to it. Zhang Lisheng briskly walked up to the altar and placed the tribal book of history on it.

Then, he jumped onto the recliner and sat down cross-legged. After finding a comfortable posture, he began to cultivate the secret method without stopping for a moment. It was only until the fat tribal chief choremen led over ten natives who were carrying large wooden plates of aromatic barbecued meat, sweet wild fruits, fat fried worms, and rockfish soup to him did he finally open his eyes.

“Just by the aroma itself, I can tell that they’re very delicious. There’s no need for you to serve me, I can do it on my own. You are dismissed.” After taking in a deep breath of the aromatic scent, the young man ordered.

“Yes, the only faith of the Wizard Li tribesmen, the living legend, the source of our glory, oh Great Conqueror!” The choremen led his men who were kneeling and worshipping for a while before they hastily retreated.

This stunned Zhang Lisheng for a while before realizing that ‘Wizard Li tribesmen’ was the new self-proclaimed name for the Tudenan tribesmen, which reminded him of the heavy price paid for renaming the tribe he ruled. At once, he could not help but frown as his originally good mood for the meal died right away.