The Great Worm Lich

There were up to 100 cranes standing by the harbor while countless containers were arranged neatly under the cranes. There were a couple of cargo ships parked at the harbor as well as a couple of low houses. Those were the hostels for single harbor staff and foreign employees.

“Queens cargo harbor…” Zhang Lisheng mumbled to himself and controlled Island Dragon to hop off the road and head into the harbor following the reefs while dodging the high steel fences. Traveling through thousands or tens of thousands of huge containers while riding on the wizard gu like a specter, ‘one, two, three…’ he calculated the parking spot in his mind as he dodged the guards doing their rounds with a flashlight. Very soon, he found the two spots belonging to China Yuehai Group in the same row.

After locking his target, Zhang Lisheng took his time to walk around the harbor. Seeing the Chinese words ‘Yuehai’ written on a high container with the help of the moonlight, he looked around with a playful expression. He then controlled Island Dragon to hop on the container and jump across the fence and out of the Queens cargo harbor quickly.

Two to three minutes later, the quiet sea outside the New York harbor splashed all of a sudden. A pair of cold diamond-shaped eyes lit up under the night sky among the splashes. The eyes were growing when they appeared. At the same time, the splashes on the ocean were getting more and more intense. Soon, an over 500-meter monster that was so big that it could be compared to a large cruise ship appeared slowly in the water. The monster shrieked towards the night sky just when it showed itself. Countless splashes were formed and crashed towards Queens harbor.

The team of security guards who were doing their rounds by the harbor showed puzzlement on their faces simultaneously after hearing the giant beast’s shriek. One of the security guards who was a tall and plump black man said to his colleague in a naggy manner, “Arthur, didn’t the weather forecast say that it wouldn’t rain today? Why is there such loud thunder? Also, I didn’t see any lightning…”

A strong wave appeared on the sea after the shriek. A giant mouth that was over 200 meters high went towards a huge cargo ship that weighed tens of thousands of tons while following the majestic wave. It halted the security guard’s question.

“Oh my god, what… what’s that…” The plump, black security guard watched the ridiculously enormous mouth twist the cargo ship and crush it into pieces while it burned. He screamed in devastation, “Is it… Is it the end of the world!? Did the Mayans miscalculate? Wasn’t last year the end of the world…”

“Jackson you idiot, whether today is the end of the world or not, we’ll definitely be killed by that monster if we stay here without doing anything…” The colleague pulled the black, plump security guard’s arm and ran for their lives as they headed out of the harbor. At the moment, the giant beast that swallowed an exploded cargo ship had steam coming out of it. It was covered in clouds, which afterward began floating into the sky.

It was moving vigorously in the clouds while it was floating above the harbor, its 200 to 300-meter steel tail was whipping everywhere. What was more terrifying was that the giant beast’s whipping caused countless water vapor in the damp air to evaporate and consolidate into clouds. It turned into a giant mouth and steel tail, crushing everything within the monster’s field of vision.

The cranes standing by the ocean that were hundreds of meters tall fell; the electric cables on the ground and in the air were covered in spark like they were some strange snakes. The thick and stable cement ground had cracks all over in an instant while seawater came gushing in. In that short ten seconds or so, the Yuehai Group’s two lots at the New York Queens cargo harbor sank to the bottom of the sea, becoming a part of the Atlantic ocean.

After a few minutes of rumbling, the giant beast disappeared after diving into the sea. Very soon, police sirens echoed all over the harbor. Twenty minutes later, the police, firefighters, ambulance, insurance company staff and people who were watching came… thousands of people surrounded the Queens cargo harbor.

People who were related to this incident walked deep inside the harbor and looked at the scattered debris everywhere. They listened to the security guards, who were scared but not injured, tell them the terrifying thing that had just happened like they were listening to a bible story. The commoners looked from far away at the harbor while discussing among themselves behind the warning tape.

At the moment, Zhang Lisheng, the culprit who caused the disaster was riding on Island Dragon’s back while looking pale. He was watching the crowd outside and inside of Queens cargo harbor while hiding in a dark alley. Unfortunately, he did not see the person he wanted to see as he waited until the break of dawn.

It was the first night he returned to New York from the Amazon, Zhang Lisheng rushed to Queens cargo harbor while riding on Island Dragon during the night. With the ‘connect’ spell that he obtained since he broke through to Rank-4 Wizard and Mountoad’s omniscient power to expand itself to control Crocodragon, he destroyed all of the Yuehai Group’s lots in Queens cargo harbor. He did that to gain attention, he wanted to lure Mountain Cat to come.

What he did seemed hasty but in reality, he thought it through. Since Dr. Fracture died, Mountain Cat who he made an enemy of, was an expert in close-combat battling, which isn’t Zhang Lisheng’s strong suit. Ever since the day Dr. Fracture was killed, Zhang Lisheng had been speculating that Mountain Cat might be hiding in the Yuehai Group’s property in Queens cargo harbor since Mountain Cat was badly injured. Unfortunately, he was also badly injured back then and had no strength to come to the harbor to kill Mountain Cat.

Ever since Zhang Lisheng was healed, he had been moving around. It was impossible for him to lure Mountain Cat out at the Queens Harbor from the traces that Mountain Cat left during the day he was injured. Meanwhile, Zhang Lisheng did not have the ability to make Mountain Cat show himself so he had to give up on plotting on Mountain Cat.

Although the matter was set aside, it had been buried deep within Zhang Lisheng’s heart. When he broke through to Rank-4 Wizard in the Amazon and obtained the speed to connect his wizard gus together as well as the coincidence of refining Crocodragon into a wizard gu, he had his mind set on attacking New York Queens Harbor to see if he could lure Mountain Cat out.

Naturally, it would be best if Mountain Cat had been staying in the Yuehai Group’s lot in Queens Harbor for the past month. Zhang Lisheng could easily control Crocodragon to kill him. If he was not around, it was possible that he would take a look when the Yuehai Group’s important property was destroyed. As soon as he showed himself, with Island Dragon and Mountoad fighting together, it was difficult for him to escape no matter what.

Although the plan was great, the effort was to no avail eventually. Although he expected that, Zhang Lisheng became a little depressed. However, he thought about it carefully again. Since Mountain Cat did not appear when such a major incident happened, it was highly likely that he had left America. Zhang Lisheng could not help but let out a small sigh of relief.

He let out a soft sigh as he felt helpless and mumbled to himself, “Since I can’t catch Mountain Cat’s whereabouts, this could be considered as a lesson to the Yuehai Group.” Zhang Lisheng then controlled Island Dragon to dash towards the Bronx’s direction, seizing the last glimpse of moonlight. Zhang Lisheng stepped on Island Dragon’s back to open the window and climbed into his room at the time when the sky was already turning bright. He lied down on his bed, feeling exhausted.

He regained a little bit of strength after taking a few deep breaths. He took out Mountoad from his backpack and sat down with his legs crossed, placing it in front of him. He then began cultivating the secret method after calming his mind down. He never thought what kind of incident he would create from controlling his giant beast to attack New York Queens Harbor and destroy the cargo ship in public before hundreds of people which caused multiple casualties.

Three days later, the noon’s dazzling sunlight shone from the sky at Potomac River in Arlington, Washington. It dismissed much of the winter chill. An old man who was quite bald to the point that he only had a few dozen strands of hair combed properly stood up from a bench under the shade. He walked out of the shade and basked in the warm sunlight. He had a joyful smile on his face.

‘Cuckoo…’, an unknown white water bird flapped its wings and landed by the old man’s side while chirping happily from across the river. The old man forced a smile and took out a paper bag that had a nice smell from the old briefcase that he always had with him. He mumbled, “This is the only one I have.”

He took out a sandwich with dried turkey bacon and sliced tomatoes. He tore half of the sandwich and tossed it to the water bird while shoving another half into his mouth. After finishing half of the sandwich, the old man wiped his mouth with a piece of tissue. He took out a thick document from his briefcase after combing his hair. He began reading by the river while holding it with a tight grip. The phone in his pocket rang all of a sudden just when he was done reading the first two pages.

“Come on, I was just looking at the document,” the old man complained softly while taking out his phone that looked like a black brick. He picked it up right away. “Hi, may I know who’s calling?”

“Henry, it’s me.” An old but exuberant voice with abated came from the other side of the phone.

“Bob my old friend, anything?”

“Anything! The document had been sent to you for three days, three days! And you still have no conclusion yet, our country’s under a threat…”

“Calm down Bob, I noticed that you panic easily as you get older. It’s just a harbor in New York being attacked, back then when the planes crashed into the One World Trade Center…”

“Henry, as America’s chief defense consultant, I think you should know very well that this is different from ‘911’. This is a monster attack like what we see in sci-fi movies. Li-like the freaking Godzilla. There’s one now, we have no idea how many will come in the future…”

“You’re overthinking this Bob, it’s impossible that such animal would come in groups. Otherwise, they would’ve already destroyed the Atlantic.”

“Actually, I thought the same as well.” The voice in the phone calmed down and regained its initial seriousness. “But no matter what, this is very serious. The president and the Ministry of National Defense need some speculation from you.”

“If you merely require me to speculate speculation, I could’ve given it to you when I saw those photos earlier.” The old man looked at the document in his hands while his voice turned stiff and serious. “This is a sign of war, Your Excellency. It’s war!”

“Wh-who brought such a war to America! Is it one of our European allies with ulterior motives, the religious lunatics from the Middle East or that young, fat, crazy dictator from Asia or…” the American minister on the other side lowered his voice after a moment of silence. “Or is it that the Oriental Red Dragon is ready to conquer the world…”