The Great Worm Lich

Recognizing Sheila’s voice, Tina rushed towards the room. “Don’t be afraid, Sheila. I’m coming, I’ll save you right away.” With a twist of the doorknob, she opened the door.

The suite was quite spacious inside and was luxuriously decorated with multiple items that exuded elegance. The layout consisted of a living room, two bedrooms and a balcony with a suspended mini pool.

When Tina rushed into the room, she saw her best friend, who was wearing sexy black-laced underwear, under a heavy sofa against a carpet.

The girl rushed over in shock and pushed the sofa aside. “Sheila, w-why are you under the sofa in the living room in this attire?”

“It’s all that damn coward Dubin’s fault! I saw that he was sincere in pursuing so I invited him to the living room for a ‘chat’ but who knew that it would quake all of a sudden. I was pressed by the sofa in a flash and that damn coward did not even do so much as to turn his head when he escaped!”

“Oh, ‘chatting’ on the living room’s sofa while wearing something like that huh? Looks like you’re getting bolder and bolder after Shittu left! It’s just a pity that the guy you found is an assh*le!” Tina lifted the sofa up with all her might and yelled out loud, “Lisheng, quick! Help me drag Sheila out quickly!”

Zhang Lisheng, who had a cold expression on, was rooted to the floor the instant he rushed into the room together with Tina and saw Sheila’s exposed clothing. He then reached out a hand to drag Sheila out from beneath the sofa after hearing the girl’s cry.

“Hey Lisheng! I’m not a sack so can’t you be more gentle with me?! Can’t you just grab my shoulder instead? Nobody saves another person by grabbing onto hair okay?!”

“Stop complaining so much, Sheila. Haven’t I saved you right now?”

“Just stop bickering you guys. Sheila, let me see how serious your injury is. Are you hurt anywhere?” Seeing how her best friend was no longer in danger now, Tina let go of the sofa with a “bang” without warning and began to check Sheila’s injury.

Under the dim emergency light, she saw that Sheila did not have any obvious superficial injuries and soon breathed a sigh of relief in her heart before she began to press on the most vulnerable joints of her best friend. “Is it painful here?”

“No.”

“How about here?”

“Haha… No!”

“Here?”

“It’s not painful at all but the place that you touched is tickling.”

“This means that you’re unhurt, you’re merely scaring yourself,” Zhang Lisheng said in a low voice by the side. “Tina, looks like you’re the wise and calm one among your close friends.”

Sheila was stunned for a moment before she began to move her limbs slowly. Gradually, she stood up. “I’m really alright. In that case, let us go look for Trish immediately! I hope she’s fine too…”

As Sheila was speaking, Trish suddenly ran in from the open door.

“Hey, Trish! Thank you for rushing over. I’m sorry that I quarreled with you during noon a few hours ago. It’s all my fault…” The three best friends gathered together. Seeing Trish’s anxious gaze, Sheila’s eyes became red with tears as she apologized guiltily.

“No, Sheila, I was wrong as well! I’ve heard what you said just now. Thank you…”

“There’s no time for all this nonsense. Since everyone is fine now, we’d better gather on the deck together with the rest,” Zhang Lisheng announced as he strode out of the living room. Outside the door, he glanced right and left at the empty corridor and began to mumble his spell “pst shh pst shh…”

A while later, a gigantic sticky that was sticky and looked like a hammer penetrated through the cabin’s wall. Then, a toad that was encircled with black smog that was merely a few centimeters high flew out from the tiny hole on the wall. After it landed on the ground, it began to swell to the size of a basketball before jumping into the young man’s arms.

“W-What’s that?” Sheila, who just came out of the room, asked with a dumbstruck expression.

“Do you still remember the story that I told you which took place in the Amazon? That is Mountoad.”

“B-But, isn’t that just a fairy tale?”

“It’s for real, Sheila. It’s mine and Trish’s personal experience. Let’s go, my dear. It’s better for us to stay close to Lisheng. He will protect us no matter what happens.” Tina motioned as she took both of her sisters’ hands before striding forward, following closely behind Zhang Lisheng as they ran along the corridor of the cabin to the deck.

“Protect us? Just with that huge toad alone?” On the way, Sheila mumbled while staggering under the emergency light.

“That toad can kill everybody on this ship easily in one fell swoop and swallow everyone up. Stop asking so many questions, Sheila. Let us talk about it after we’ve escaped from the danger.”

“Trish, you really said that? Damn it, you’re a freaking Catholic! Huh —” Just as they ran out of the cabin, a bright searchlight swept across, shocking Sheila so much that she exclaimed in surprise.

At this moment, one side of the Elizabeth Holiday’s first floor’s deck was already full of people. Almost half of them were injured but it was fortunate that they were just some minor superficial injuries.

Many guests were wearing only pajamas. Some were even naked when they rushed onto the deck with bed sheets or thin blankets wrapped around them. As the searchlight that had just been lit on the ship’s bow gradually turned around, the two gigantic stone pillars that clamped on both sides of the ship’s hull finally entered their field of vision.

The stone pillars were at least more than ten meters wide in diameter and had a height that must be more than 100 meters tall. As the searchlight swept across it, a life-like four-faced and three-headed ferocious giant sculpture appeared on the pillar wall, prompting the people to yelp out in surprise.

After sweeping across the stone pillars, the bright light swept out at the mountains that were densely covered with trees. At first glance, the ship must have gotten stranded on a huge island, or a peninsula protruding from a huge continent.

Upon seeing this topographic feature, even an idiot who knew nothing about geography would know that he was no longer at the sea near New York.

“My goodness! Where the hell is this? Where have we arrived?” The captain had already rushed back to the ship’s shipping room and urged his subordinates who were currently in chaos to try and restart the engine. He didn’t even waste time to lecture them anymore, he wanted to see whether they could use the extremely slim chance of riding the waves to get the ship back to the ocean. Upon seeing the mountains and jungles flashing across the window, his body froze for a moment before he cursed loudly.

“S-Sir, t-this should be a huge island in Africa or South America. I’ve seen a phenomenon in the TV program ‘Bizarre Oddities” before. W-We must have encountered some ‘spatial door’ and crossed half of the Atlantic Ocean before crashing directly onto these stone pillars…”

“Stop shirking your responsibility, Harry! If you’ve stayed in that steering room in the first place, we would have never hit those two damn pillars even if we crossed this whatsoever door or something! To think that I actually recommended you to take over my position two years later to Mr. Hudner! Looks like there’s something wrong with my judgment!”

“S-Sir, the reason you went to see the Ocean Shipping Company’s executive director is to recommend me to take over as captain?”

“This matter is no longer important! What’s important now is that we’ve encountered a situation where the ship has mysteriously become a shipwreck. Thank goodness the damage to the ship is not severe, it has not yet reached the point of abandoning the ship yet. Everyone, listen! Now, the first thing is to calm the passengers down. Unlike before, this time, most of the guests on board are young people in their late teens and early twenties. Their emotional fluctuation would be greater in the event of an emergency so it would be much more difficult to handle them as well. It’s a good thing that we have a full crew of our service staffs for the hosting of the party this time. Manager Fernand, I need you to gather all of the waiters on board and tell them to send a blanket, a bottle of drinking water and a bag of snacks for each of the guests. Harry, gather all of the sailors to get ready to release the life rafts at any time. If any guest asks about it, don’t hide the truth from them but be sure to make it clear that it’s just for the sake of being prepared. As the navigating officer, Adelaide, you’re the person who is most familiar with the nautical instrument on board. Now, it is time for you to show your expertise. Go study the navigation coordinates recorded during the voyage, make sure you be patient and study it meter by meter! If you find any abnormal records, report to me immediately! Alessandro, just stay there at the helmsman position and listen to my order to turn the rudder at any time. Stay focus, young men! All of you must stay focus!”

The captain calmed down from his bafflement and began to give out his orders in an orderly manner with solemnity.

Looking at the old man’s calm and majestic bearing, the ship’s service manager suddenly whispered by his best friend’s ear, “Buddy, I suddenly think that you’re still too far away from Captain Fjodna. No wonder he’s not willing to let you sail the ship alone.”

“I also think so, Fernand. Looks like I’m an idiot who has overestimated my own power. I don’t have the ability to become a captain at all!” The first officer Harry whispered as he gnashed his teeth. “However, I know how to make up for it and prove that I’m a competent first officer. Let’s go Fernand, let us carry out the Captain’s command and be sure to not make any mistakes.”

Just like this, under the captain’s command, each of the leaders of the various departments of the Elizabeth Holiday began to carry out their respective responsibilities. The ship’s entire shipwreck rescue operation began to operate rapidly.

Very soon, towels, bottles of clean water and bags of snacks had been delivered to everyone. With the towel blocking the cold breeze of the late night ocean, with the cooling clean water moistening their dried mouths that were caused by panic, the fear of the crowds on the deck began to die down very soon.

Zhang Lisheng was among the crowds. After taking a sip from the clean water in his hand, he looked at the dark coast and whispered without warning, “Tina, I want to seize this chance of darkness to have a look at the shore…”

“Don’t go, Lisheng. The stone pillars that clamped onto the ship is so bizarre, I’m scared that you’d meet with danger venturing ashore at night.”

“You do have a point.” Hearing her words, Zhang Lisheng pondered about it carefully. His mouth moved faintly as he said, “Then I’ll just clear out a safe place first then.”

As a series of odd sounds “pst shh pst shh…” began to come out of the young man’s mouth faintly — so faint that nobody heard it at all — a huge sound of crashing waves resonated on the dark shore beside the cruise.

After that sound gradually died down, the sound of trees and stones cracking began to reverberate from the shore not long after, shrill cries of people being heard a few seconds after that.

Due to the angle of installation, after the ship was stranded between the huge stone pillars, the searchlight was not able to flash on the scene in front. The unknown inexplicable sound that suddenly reverberated in the vicinity immediately raised a new panic among the people on deck.