The Great Worm Lich

Seeing how Zhang Lisheng was staring back at him mockingly despite being locked up, Liu Jiaqing only felt the rage rising from his heart. The veins on his forehead throbbed but because they suspected the young man of committing a serious crime, he did not dare act in a rash manner. He could only turn and walk away in anger.

When Cheng Maoguo saw the anger fuming out of his young and energetic partner, he sighed and shook his head with a wry smile. Turning around, he caught up with Liu Jiaqing’s footsteps and said, “It has really been quite a roller coaster of emotions tonight. Now that I’ve finally breathed a sigh of relief, I finally remembered that I’ve only managed to down half of my dinner. Let’s go! Let’s continue our meal. Stop sulking; no matter what happens, everything is over.”

“I’m not sulking!” Walking through the camp which was reflected by the two bright moons in the sky as though nothing had happened, Liu Jiaqing shook his head and said with his tongue in cheek. “We can still violate the rule and be a little rough during interrogation. I’ll send Liu Liang and Dong Sheng to get a confession from Zhang Lisheng and give him a bombarding 24 hours…”

“Oh Jiaqing, this Zhang Lisheng is some small soldier who fled military service when we bring in new recruits. You’ve also seen just how serious and terrifying the incident tonight is. We have to report such an issue to the main base immediately, and we’ll let the commander and political commissar there to decide how to proceed from here. What kind of confession do you want to get by sending people to interrogate him?” Cheng Maoguo, who was much more composed in handling matters like these, had his eyes widen with disbelief while he stared at Liu Jiaqing, who rarely interrupted his words.

Born in the poverty-stricken mountainous area of Shaanxi, by just relying on an opportunity based on his pioneering spirit that had won the favor of the 7870th troop’s commander Hua Chaowu, Liu Jiaqing achieved success at a young age. He, who became the commander of the Oasis World’s frontier before the age of 30, became silent for a while before saying determinedly, “Old Cheng, the time is different now. we have to keep up with the times in solving problems. This incident took place in the A0001 camp, and we have controlled the situation—”

“Jiaqing, oh, Jiaqing, tell me, what situation have we controlled?” Cheng Maoguo could not stand his partner’s attitude of forgetting the pain when the scar had healed, so he said irritably. “Do you think Zhang Lisheng is somebody that we can control? I’ve already planned to sacrifice for the sake of our country tonight, but he suddenly surrendered and this is really bizarre…”

“Why do you say that it’s bizarre? It’s obvious that Zhang Lisheng feels that he could not fight against us after seeing the Nine Provinces Dragon C7 and C8, so that’s why he surrendered. This means that his transformations and those… those big bugs are nothing but a mere show. Perhaps he does indeed have some power, but he’s definitely not as powerful as you thought…”

Cheng Maoguo waved his hand and said, “Alright, alright! Jiaqing, I won’t argue with you anymore. In this case, since we have to report the use of the Nine Provinces Dragon under abnormal circumstances immediately, let’s report this matter first and let the military leaders decide what to do then, shall we?”

“Tsk! Old Cheng, we’ve merely launched the Nine Provinces Dragon C7 and C8 for a while, and it did not even move so much as a step. Do we really need to report it?”

“Launching it means that we’ve already used it. The latest provision in the Military Equipment Management Regulations has stated that, so let us do according to the discipline!” Liu Jiaqing’s facade of acting dumb enraged Cheng Maoguo, who had already walked to the center of the camp. After spitting out his words, he opened the tent’s curtain and strode into the largest tent near the lamppost.

Now that Cheng Maoguo had mentioned the discipline’s laws and rules, Liu Jiaqing had no choice but to agree with him. He ordered the communications forces to contact the main base, but the communications soldiers did not receive any response despite calling the main base for over ten minutes. For this reason, they could only report, “Battalion Commander, Political Commissar, there’s no response received from the main base’s frontier. There seems to be something wrong with the communication.”

It was common to have communication device issues in the foreign world, so when Liu Jiaqing saw that there was a favorable turn in this matter, he said, “Old Cheng, look, it’s not that we don’t want to contact the military base, but it’s because we can’t reach them at all. We can’t do anything now, I suppose.”

“In that case, shall we send somebody to report to them?” Cheng Maoguo insisted.

“It’s already so late at night, and even though this jungle has been ‘cleaned up’ already, it can still be very dangerous. I don’t agree with taking the risk to send our men to contact the military base just for the sake of explaining the situation here!” Liu Jiaqing said with determination as he stated his reasons.

Now that things had turned out this way, Cheng Maoguo could do nothing, even though he was still full of worries. When the next morning came, he once again proposed to send the men to contact the main camp base, but once again, Liu Jiaqing rejected it under the pretense that the migration of the A0001 campsite was already ready and that the plan should not be affected so everything should proceed with the overall situation in mind.

Just like this, Zhang Lisheng, who was sitting in the metal cage while ignoring the two young officers, sitting on the high-back folding stool while being asked all sorts of ridiculous questions with a solemn expression in a futile effort behind a simple desk outside the cage, muttered ‘pst shh…’ under his breath. His finger drew on the floor continuously with his spit while a construction vehicle was pulling him into the depths of the north of the jungle, along with the entire camp.

It might sound like a huge project to move a five square-kilometer camp to a place 50 kilometers away, but in truth, it was very simple with the help of powerful scientific and technological forces.

They activated the Nine Provinces Dragon C7 and C8 to substitute the electrical fence as the central defense system; they then detached the lamp post supporting the electrical fence and loaded it onto the car; they used special tools to pack tents and loaded them onto the cars as well before finally filling the moat using comprehensive mechanical vehicles. Finally, the people got onto the cars and the convoy reached the reserved destination under the escort of the steel giant safe and sound.

After that, they repeated the steps in reverse, and it only took a day’s time for them to relocate the A0001 campsite 50 kilometers away.

Even though it was simple, all the soldiers in the base were still busy working for an entire day. Their lunch was none other than a few packets of compressed biscuits on the road. For this reason, when they had completed the relocation and when the lamppost in the center of the campsite once again illuminated with a flamelike brilliance, all the Chinese soldiers cheered in excitement. When the commander allowed them to dismiss, they queued up and gushed into the canteen.

Inside the engineering vehicle, Zhang Lisheng, who had been writing and painting on the ground like a psycho, suddenly had a dumbfounded expression on his face. He stopped with a stunned look on his face for a while before lifting his head in shock and sighed. Inadvertently, he heard the commotion outside, so he shrugged and told the officers, who were interrogating him, “I heard some cheering outside. Looks like the relocation is completed. Brothers, your comrades-in-arms will have dinner now, so don’t you two want to go as well, seeing that this might be your last meal?”

The two officers, whom they ordered to interrogate the young man, had personally witnessed his demon-like demonstration yesterday, so no matter how he muttered for a few hours in a daze all by himself, they did not make things difficult for him. Now that they heard him saying such ominous words, shock took over them and could not help but blurt out words while snarling at the same time. “What last meal? What nonsense are you talking about?”

As they were speaking, the big iron door of the engineering vehicle pulled open all of a sudden. A tall, cold-looking woman in her thirties entered with two young girls.

“Chief Engineer Xu, you’re here,” Upon seeing the lanky woman’s face, the two soldiers hastily stood up and saluted despite wondering in confusion why she would appear.

“You’ve worked hard. Go eat first,” Xu Naijia nodded and answered calmly.

“Chief Engineer Xu, w-we still have our tasks. We’re not hungry, not hungry…” What she said stunned the two soldiers. The lieutenant, whose ranking was slightly higher, hastily replied.

“Your task is called off. Go eat!”

“Chief Engineer Xu, b-but our battalion commander personally ordered this task…”

“I’m the deputy chief engineer of the Oasis World’s entire exploration program. Is my authority here in the foreign world lower or higher than your battalion commander?”

“Y-Yes! Lieutenant Li Lianguo will dismiss and go to the canteen to eat!” When the lieutenant heard so, his heart jolted, and immediately, he saluted and answered before bringing the first lieutenant beside him to stride out of the carriage in a slightly wrecked manner.

Upon seeing this, Zhang Lisheng, who was in the cage stood up and clapped his hand, “Whoa, a scientist can actually give direct orders to the active-duty officers. This is the weird political system that countless mathematicians have dreamt of.”

“Stop being witty, Dr. Zhang. The reason I came here is that Caiying insisted so,” Xu Naijia looked at the short-haired girl behind her and said. “Be fast and just say whatever you want to say.”

Guo Caiying slowly walked up to Zhang Lisheng’s prison cage while holding a backpack with her head lowered. Slowly raising her head, she asked abruptly with tears brimming in her eyes, “Lisheng, are you not human?”

“I’m a wizard, but from a biological point of view, I’m also a human being.” The question stunned Zhang Lisheng for a while before replying.

“But you can actually transform into something like last night and release so many giant bugs from your body…”

“That is a superpower obtained from cultivation. All wizards who’re talented in witchcraft can do it depending on the strong and the weak. It’s just that you can say that I’m particularly stronger compared to the others at the same rank as me.”

“Really? Is there such a thing in reality?”

“Hey, you’re standing in ‘Jurassic Park’ now, so don’t you feel a little silly for asking such a question? Besides, do you think I need to lie to you, Senior Sister?” Zhang Lisheng shrugged and asked.

When Guo Caiying heard the young man’s words, her dim eyes gradually turned radiant again. “You’re the silly one! Otherwise, they wouldn’t have kept you in a cage now! This matter is very troublesome, but there is still room for us to turn it around. Come, eat first and don’t worry. I’ll think of a solution for you!”

Then, she unzipped her backpack and took out a few pieces of chocolate and ice-cold Coke before handing it to Zhang Lisheng from the gap of the cage.

“This cage is actually a one-way defense system, right?” When the young man took the food, he stretched out his finger to cross the gap in the cage, but a dazzling electrical arc electrocuted him until his finger burnt.

“If you can already guess that it’s a one-way defense system, then stop being stupid to test it anymore. This alloy cage is made to catch those powerful creatures of the foreign world unimaginable to normal people. It has a minimum voltage of 100,000 watts!” Upon seeing Zhang Lisheng’s rash action, Xu Naijia by the side remarked sarcastically.

“I’m just testing so I can see how much strength I’d need to use to escape from this cage,” the young man shrugged at Xu Naijia and put aside the chocolate but opened the Coke to drink it. After breathing a long sigh of relief, he looked at Guo Caiying. “Senior Sister, it’s a good thing that you came to find me, or otherwise, I’ll have to go through the trouble of looking for you. It’s better for you to keep the food to yourself, unless we’d have to find our own food when we’re wandering in the jungle later purposely once the camp crumbles and everyone dies.”