The Great Worm Lich

The canoe traveled into a narrower river where Tatu’s machete came in handy. He chopped the branches that were sticking out on both sides and were blocking their way in half. It began raining again out of nowhere, so the canoe began to collect water again. The heavy rain went on for two days and one night. It only stopped gradually when the canoe pulled over at a hidden abandoned port.

The port was flat, built on dirt land flattened with huge planks. They were made of tough and sturdy woodl. The ground had planks arranged neatly as if they were mounted, water could not even get into the gap between two planks. It was bizarre for such a port to appear out of nowhere in such a dense jungle. Tina could not help but ask after getting off the canoe, “Mr. Tatu, I can’t believe there’s such a port in the Amazon jungle. Who built this?”

“The Duturus did. There are up to 100 of these fishing ports in Tatetutu jungles. The fishing boats parked at these ports could feed up to tens of thousands of people. However, the tribes disappeared now. Everyone left, and went to the city so these ports are abandoned,” Tatu anchored the canoe tight on a thick log at the port as he replied.

“I’ve never thought you barbarians… I mean Tatetutu people would be able to build such a port,” Tina saw a tall wooden pole erected close to where the canoe parked. It was magical that there were a few stone plate pulleys that were tied together with tree bark. She exclaimed in admiration, “This looks like a pulley system, your ancestors are so smart…”

“It’s not something that our Tatetutu ancestors used but mechanisms our fathers used thirty to forty years ago. Miss, us Tatetutu people used pulleys to dehydrate our fish products. It’s nothing to be proud of when you civilized people had invented aircraft during that time,” Tuta gestured to his underlings and walked out of the port into the dense jungle.

Tina was stuck. She opened her mouth but she was speechless. She could only follow by Zhang Lisheng’s side quietly and walked behind the guides deep into the jungle.

The light became dim as they went into the dense jungle. The young people’s eyes only adapted to the environment after a while as they saw many blurry shadows around them. Their footsteps became much slower. Apart from the noise that went ‘kacha…’ when they stepped onto the wet, muddy land in the quiet jungle, there were insects and little animals’ noise that went ‘shh…’. There were twigs being broken under their feet occasionally. From time to time, Tatu would stop walking to observe around closely. He would only proceed with their journey after making sure it was safe.

“We won’t be able to walk even five kilometers with such speed, we might never get to our destination for the rest of our lives,” Walter who thought his legs were going to break from the soreness said all of a sudden in irritation, not sure how long they had been walking. It was his first time complaining ever since they entered the Amazon. It seemed like the most outstanding young man of New York Fordham High School had worn off his tolerance.

“We’re not taking a stroll in the city.” Tatu who walked in the middle of the group said in an awful manner, “You might walk straight into a giant boa’s stomach if you walked too fast.”

Suddenly, the native herbalist Pujita who walked with Tatu went ‘ohoh…’ in excitement as Tatu was still speaking. He ran agilely towards a huge piece of deadwood and took out a steel shovel to dig out a few tiny plants with dazzling blue patterned leaves.

Seeing Pujita harvest the tiny plants with dazzling leaves while brushing dried animal feces he brought with him, Tatu looked at Walter while smirking, “Huh, I’ve never expected you to be lucky. You just complained that we were walking too slow, but thanks to you we can accelerate now. Remember to not complain that we’re going too fast and that it’s hurting your bones later.”

He had been walking in front of the group when he spoke. He ran to Pujita quickly as if he was a specter and took over the plant with faint smoke coming out of it. He walked around the group in light steps, getting the stinky smoke on everybody’s bodies. He flicked his arm and ran to the front of the group and accelerated.

“With a Tubula plant’s smoke that is brushed with tiger’s feces, normal venomous worms and beasts would avoid us. Quick, follow my steps.” Seeing that Duta was getting away, Tuta said that and ran forward following Duta’s footprints.

The young people were stunned for a moment and they could do nothing but accelerate and ran in the jungle while staggering. A Tubula plant could burn for approximately 40 minutes. They would burn one, then rest for about ten minutes and burn another one again. The cycle of one plant would last for approximately an hour. It happened to be lunchtime when Pujita was done burning all four Tubula plants that he plucked.

When they could finally stop running, they were resting and panting under a tree, some leaning and some sitting. The young people had squeezed all of their strength by then. In reality, it was impossible for them to run for such a long time if they were not in such a dangerous place like the Amazon.

“It seems like all of you have more strength than I imagined, our journey will be much easier later on.” It was the first time Tuta spoke in a gentle tone, looking at the young people who were sitting on mud and could not even move a finger. “Take a rest, Duta will prepare the water. After eating, I’ll get Pujita to get you guys some herbs…”

A strange rumbling noise came from far away when he was still speaking. Tuta’s face became stiff at the moment and shouted in shock, “Why are there floods in such a season! Duta, get on the tree and see if it’s…”

A rumbling flood came flushing into the dense jungle and drowned Tuta’s raging scream. It wrapped around his body and proceeded to rumble far away. Facing the natural disaster that came out of nowhere, the natives were like babies no matter how familiar they were with the jungle. In reality, ordinary people’s strength aside, even people with supernatural power would look small in such a situation.

Zhang Lisheng who was panting and sitting with Tina by the tree ditched everything and began chanting witchcraft incantation when he saw Tuta’s panicked expression. Unfortunately, Island Dragon who was hiding broke many trees when it was flushed in the dense jungle. The flood that came out of nowhere wrapped Zhang Lisheng within. He drank a few mouthfuls of disgusting muddy water while he was drowning and floating in the water. He tried his best to float on the water to summon his wizard worm with all his might. Unfortunately, Zhang Lisheng was helpless in the flood that came with great impact. He fell unconscious after a moment of struggle. He was being flushed away, following the water blindly with no direction.

The rumbling flood went on in the jungle for a long time. It had finally stopped and faded slowly after defacing a big part of Amazon River’s shores. It was a great mess after the flood faded. Zhang Lisheng whose body was curled up in the water leaned on a big, uprooted tree. He was unconscious for a long time.

Suddenly, a patch of mud not far away moved. Tina who was filled with mud panted in panic and sat up immediately. She was stunned for a long time, her head started to work after she replenished sufficient oxygen in her body. She got up slowly and looked around the messy jungle in panic. She was stunned for a while before she began to shriek, “Trish, Sheila, Zhang Lisheng, Mr. Tatu, where are you guys? Is anyone there? Please answer me, please…”

There was no response after she shouted for a few times. Tina became more and more panicked, “Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, how could there be a flood in a jungle out of nowhere? Oh my god…”

“Tina, Tina, is that you?” A choppy lady’s voice came from far away all of a sudden.

“It’s me. Trish, Trish my dear, is that you?” Tina heard that and ran towards the direction the voice was coming from in surprise. She saw Trish who was getting up from the ground slowly who was covered in a bunch of lush green branches. They were calmer now since the two ladies met and began looking for their friends who were missing. Very soon, they found Zhang Lisheng who was lying by the tree after walking around.

Tina was shocked and ran to him immediately noticing that the young man was not moving. She began doing CPR to him without thinking twice after testing his breath. Meanwhile, Trish kneeled on the ground and began pressing on Zhang Lisheng’s chest. As Tina blew fresh air into Zhang Lisheng’s tummy one after another while Trish pushed it out, the young man’s eyelids started to move slowly. Eventually, he coughed hard and spat a few mouthfuls of murky water. He began gasping for air intensely.

Tina sighed from relief seeing that they saved Zhang Lisheng. She then sat beside him. Just when Trish was about to speak to Zhang Lisheng seeing Tina’s condition, she saw the skinny young man’s body who was lying there spun out of nowhere and staggered far away without even opening his eyes. A huge toad hopped out of his backpack at the same time. The toad opened its mouth wide and breathed in a sea of air. Within a few seconds, its body expanded like a balloon to the size of a medium-sized bus and protected Zhang Lisheng under its belly.

At that moment, the young man opened his eyes slowly while looking around expressionlessly. Trish was speechless from shock at that time. She grabbed her backpack and put it in front of her by instinct. There was a bible that she had for a long time in his backpack, it was a gift the girl received when she was born. To a devoted Catholic, the Bible was something that could undoubtedly defend all evil.

“Calm down Lisheng, it’s me and Trish. It’s us,” Tina was stunned when she saw Mountoad’s appearance but she shouted that with her husky voice later on.

“I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t scare you guys,” Zhang Lisheng crawled out below Mountoad’s belly after checking his surrounding and said with his deep voice.

“Do you think we wouldn’t be scared seeing a toad that’s as big as a truck all of a sudden?” It was clear that Tina was relieved seeing that Zhang Lisheng regained his rationality, “Lisheng, it seems like not only do you have a giant centipede that could kill a leopard but you have a… an… an auspicious toy that could transform its body to a large extent.”

Everything seemed calm and peaceful now after they were washed away by the flood in the Amazon jungle to god-knows how far. However, the current situation was gravely terrible. Zhang Lisheng took out the GPS device from his backpack without saying anything. Realizing it was no longer showing the location, he sighed and said, “Its name is Mountoad. Wait for me here, I’m getting my other auspicious toy so that we’ll be safer.” Clearly, he did not have any plan to hide it any longer due to the terrible circumstances.