The Great Worm Lich

Zhang Lisheng was only left with 97,000 dollars in his bank account after purchasing the Explorer. He had two plans on how to spend the money, one was to look for a massive amount of venomous worms in New York pet stores and pick out wizard worm embryo with the witchcraft incantation ‘assemble’ that he obtained, since breaking through to Rank-3 Wizard. If he failed to find suitable venomous worms in every pet stores in New York, the second plan would be using all sorts of excuses to travel to ancient jungles in America during winter holiday to hunt for his second wizard worm.

Mahmud gave him a third choice now which was to purchase this broken, but still fierce and alive komodo monitor directly and refine it into wizard worm. If that went smoothly, he believed the power would be at least similar to Mountoad.

After some detailed comparisons, Zhang Lisheng thought all three choices had the pros and cons of their own. The first choice had a simple procedure and high success rate, but it was expensive; The second choice would be the cheapest and it would definitely be a success, but the procedure was complicated; The third choice, on the other hand, had simple procedure but the success rate aside, it was troubling to consider that this ferocious beast would grow at least a few folds bigger after it was being refined into a wizard worm. It was an impossible mission to bring it out everywhere he went as he did to Mountoad.

However, after thinking to himself for a while with changing emotions on his face, Zhang Lisheng finally decided to refine the giant lizard. He could always make the money back, but the opportunity to refine a Komodo monitor was slim. Whether the refinement failed, went well or not workable and ended up being Mountoad’s snack, such refinement was a beneficial attempt. It was totally worth the tens of thousands of dollars.

Zhang Lisheng then took out his credit card and his Explorer’s key from his pocket and said, “I only have this credit card with me, there are 97,000 dollars inside. Give me 1,000 dollars cash after you swiped the card and move this giant lizard into my car.”

“No problem, sir,” Knowing that the price was the best Zhang Lisheng could do, Mahmud agreed to that as he took over the credit card and car key. Since the deal was done, the duo walked out of the warehouse immediately. After the amount was transferred, Mahmud counted 20 pieces of 50 dollars cash agilely, “This is the 1,000 dollars cash you asked for. I hope that I could serve you in the future, young sir.”

“I don’t think you’ll have anything that I need here,” Zhang Lisheng smiled and said casually.

Mahmud opened the store’s door in a relaxed manner while speaking, “You’re not sure about that, sir. I, Mahmud will be serving powerful people now and in the future. You could visit my store if you need, you might be surprised,” What Mahmud said, in the end, was vague, Zhang Lisheng could not help but looked at him stunned and surprised.

Mahmud seemed to ignore Zhang Lisheng’s surprised expression although it was right there. After opening the door, he handed Zhang Lisheng’s Explorer key to him, “Keep your car key, sir, the item’s in your back seat.”

“You’re pretty slick with your action, Mr. Mahmud,” Zhang Lisheng took over the car key and touched his backpack. He looked at Mahmud who had been staring at him since the beginning until the end.

“Most businesses in Queens has a secret door and helpers in their warehouse. The helpers I hired happened to know how to get into a car without a key from his ‘job’ in the past,” Mahmud said while pressing down his voice while smiling, “Goodbye now, young sir.”

“Goodbye, Mahmud,” Zhang Lisheng looked at Mahmud before leaving and said nothing. He walked out of the store right after saying goodbye.

George had been waiting for Zhang Lisheng at the entrance since they left the store. Lina and Hannah lost their interest to enjoy the trip after the scare. They stood with him while waiting for Zhang Lisheng with cold hands. The three of them were losing their patience seeing that the store was still closed since 20 minutes had passed. Especially the emotionally unstable girls, they had taken out their phones and hesitating whether to call the police.

Seeing that the store door was opened all of a sudden, while Mahmud sending Zhang Lisheng out of the store nodding and bowing, George and the rest were relieved almost at the same time.

“Hey buddy, do you know how long did you make us wait…”

“George, did you see anyone carrying a big cage near my car?”

“What?”

“Nothing. George, I’ve something urgent to handle. I need to drop by Kaiserland Town, I can’t send you guys back to Brooklyn. For my apology, I’ll treat you and the two ladies a lobster dinner at Hilton tonight,” Zhang Lisheng shoved the 1,000 dollars into George’s hand, “But you’ll have to pay the bill for me.”

“Taking the subway will get us a lobster dinner in return, this deal’s not too shabby. I forgive you, buddy,” George was stunned for a moment as he spoke. He then advised him while pressing down his voice, “Although I’ve no idea what’s happening, I hope that you could be careful of whatever you’re doing.”

Zhang Lisheng nodded and looked at Lina and Hannah who were stunned, “I’m sorry ladies,” He then walked quickly to his huge Explorer. Seeing that Zhang Lisheng walked away and disappeared, Lina snapped back to her senses and said in disdain, “Senior George, your friend’s such an introverted, selfish fella who does whatever he wants. This kind of man thinks that he’s cool just because he has money but in reality, he’s irritating.”

Talking about men, the little lady lost her shyness and fear that she had earlier. She sounded like everything she said was right.

“I know, I’ve told him many times that a cool guy should be outgoing, chivalry and funny but he didn’t listen to me. However, him buying us lobster dinner at Hilton as apology’s quite a sincere gesture…”

“Hannah wouldn’t go to the prom with such a person no matter how sincere he is. Senior George, do you have any senior friends who don’t have a prom date?”

“Err…” George, who only had a friend that was Zhang Lisheng, was speechless when he was bombarded with such a question from Lina that came out of nowhere. Meanwhile, Zhang Lisheng had driven out of the Flushing community’s slow lane on the circle road into the main road. The back seats were folded behind him while a huge metal cage with a black cloth covering it filled the entire boot. There was soft and deep ‘shh…’ noise within the black cloth, it would give chills to the people who heard it. In the accompaniment of the terrifying noise and the speed limit that Zhang Lisheng’s driving skill allowed with his Explorer, he spent a full two hours to finally arrive outside of Kaiserland Town.

Seeing that he was reaching his destination, Zhang Lisheng who was excited, accelerated a little and turned into the small road towards LS Slaughterhouse. However, he realized that the road was stuck with the farmers’ vehicles who were sending their livestock to be slaughtered. He was stunned for a moment, without having other choices, he turned into the bumpy rocky road. As he arrived before the metal gate at the slaughterhouse stepping on the accelerator, he realized there were many pick-up trucks parked around the fence.

Feeling helpless, Zhang Lisheng parked his car outside the fence and departed the Explorer. He walked on the bumpy road and arrived before the metal gate.

“Hey, Lisheng seems like you’ve obtained your driver’s license. Your new car’s not too shabby,” Some town people whom he knew greeted him while smiling in the chilly wind.

“Thanks, could you tell me what’s happening Mr. John?” Zhang Lisheng looked at the time on his phone and glanced at the ‘moo…’, ‘hmph…’ and ‘meh…’ noise from the back of the pick-up trucks that queued endlessly then asked, “It’s already four in the afternoon, why are there still so many livestock waiting to be slaughtered?”

“Oh, it’s normal that this happens before Christmas. The slaughterhouses around New York would work overtime. Hey young man, you should be happy about this. Can’t you tell that you’re going to make so much money this time?”

Zhang Lisheng who drove for two hours carefully to his slaughterhouse just to refine his komodo monitor into wizard worm did not care how much he would be making this time. He opened his mouth slightly and thought of an excuse, “But I don’t want to work overtime. Before… Before such overloaded work, I’ll need Willy… Willy to maintain the machines. I’ll need to make sure the slaughtering production line’s in good condition to guarantee the job…”

What Zhang Lisheng said made the farmers and helpers who were smoking outside the factory to laugh out loud, “Haha guys look, this is our Lisheng. The only slaughterhouse owner outside of New York City who has a conscience. Don’t worry buddy, your slaughterhouse’s overload this time is the decision made by Kaiserland Town’s National Farmers Union. The responsibility won’t be on you even if something went wrong.”

Realizing that he could not chase away these farmers who were waiting to get their livestock slaughtered with whatever reason at all, Zhang Lisheng sighed and waved at the farmers spiritlessly. He did not even walk into the slaughterhouse and returned to his car immediately. He turned his car around and drove quickly back to the road where he came from.

The metal cage containing the Komodo monitor with a black cloth covering in his backseat worried him more and more. Although the windows in his SUV had dark tint, one could see the huge metal cage outside the car if one was to look closely. He could not drive back to New York City and park his car at the parking lot like that. The only workable solution for him was to look for a barren land without someone else, to replace his slaughterhouse as its refinement location.

After making up his mind, Zhang Lisheng began looking around attentively along the road. What annoyed him was that he saw New York suburbs were filled with empty forests and lakes whenever he was driving without looking for it. Now that he was looking for one, he could not find a barren land without someone else, anywhere as he drove. Eventually, his vision was getting poor as it was close to evening. He finally picked a forest that looked dark from far and drove his SUV away from the highway into the forest.