The Great Worm Lich

A few minutes later, the giant hardtop convertible that Tina drove, transformed back into a seven-seater SUV and parked in a parking space under the shade outside of Harvard’s campus.

“It’s nice having shade but Tina dear, if you park the car here, I guarantee that you’ll find a lot of ‘surprises’ waiting for you from the birds on the tree tomorrow morning!” After getting out of the car, Sheila pointed at the lush thick crown of the tree and said with a smile.

“Oh, Sheila, there’s nothing I can do with the ‘surprises’ seeing that we have a football match these next two days.” Tina shrugged at her best friend. “Do you and Trish want to go back to the dorm with us or go dating right away?”

“Of course, we’ll go dating right away!” Trish replied first. “You and Lisheng can go first and we’ll see you at night.”

“That’s good, see you at night, sisters!” Tina nodded and took her boyfriend’s arm. After waving at Sheila and Trish, she pulled Zhang Lisheng and walked into the steady stream of crowds.

Watching their disappearing backs, a dim light appeared in Trish’s eyes. She lowered her head and ran her fingers through her burgundy-colored hair, and when she raised her head again, she regained the happy look she had right away before smiling at Sheila by her side. “Let’s go, Sheila.”

“Oh, my little Trish! don’t be sad. Just use another boy to substitute him first. Tina will eventually agree with sharing her ‘little baby’ with us. I’ve analyzed it and can see that she can’t cope at all with her physical fitness, so instead of giving this advantage to other people, she might as well…”

“Sheila, shut up!” Annoyed, Trish interjected her best friend’s nonsense and pulled her towards the outdoor cafe about 200 to 300 meters away. Soon, they disappeared into the crowd.

If one had not been to India before, one would not know just how popular cricket was over there. If one had not been to Canada, one would not know just how the people there loved ice hockey. If one had not been to the United States before, one would not know why it was more important for them to watch the Super Bowl rugby finals than the president’s inaugural speech.

The football game between two famous schools turned a well-known century-old university into a playground. There were mobile stalls selling hot dogs and burgers on the roadside with some selling a variety of themed souvenirs. At this time, one could see that Harvard’s mascot, Mr. John, was really unpopular here. Despite being the home team, the sales were not even as good as Yale’s bulldog.

Zhang Lisheng could not comprehend everything in front of him but this did not hinder his good appetite. Walking while eating, the young man walked across more than half of the campus with her girlfriend and came to a classical English low-rise building entirely surrounded by a green lawn with only a stone road, that only allowed four people to walk side by side, leading up to its old classical wooden door.

This was the living area of the Harvard students, so the flow of people was relatively reduced. Tina pointed at the stone building not far away and said, “Hey, baby. My new dorm is just right there. It’s Harvard’s oldest female dormitory.”

“Oh, it’s an old castle! You must have spent a lot of effort to move in and live as a princess.” Looking at the stone building covered with mottled lichens, Zhang Lisheng casually remarked.

“I didn’t really spend too much effort, actually. Thanks to the sluggish economy, it only took a new library plus internship placements in 50 top companies to achieve that,” yhe girl smiled as she replied. Before she could finish her sentence, somebody suddenly called out to her loudly, “Tina! Tina! Oh God, thank goodness I found one sister…”

“Olivia, what’s wrong?” Looking in the sound’s direction, Tina asked strangely when she saw a sweet lanky young girl with a sexy body walking along the campus road towards herself with six to seven young men around her.

“These are a few cool brothers from Yale’s Truth Society.” Olivia walked up to Tina and panted as she introduced while secretly making a throat-cutting gesture. “You also know that our Sisters’ Association has a good relationship with Truth Society now. Because of this, President Atelis passed them to me and told me to give them a tour around the campus…”

Tina could tell that this was not an urgent matter, so without waiting for Olivia to finish her sentence, she replied, “Oh I’m sorry, dear Olivia. My boyfriend is here now, and if it’s not urgent, I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

“Is this your boyfriend? I thought he was an Asian who looked like Rain!” Olivia looked stunned for a while before noticing the ordinary-looking Zhang Lisheng who was standing beside the girl. Shocked, she blurted out.

After that, sensing that she had been vulgar, the girl hastily added again, “N-No, I meant nothing bad. I mean, his style is different. Yes, his style is just different… Erm, hello, I’m Olivia Miller.”

“Hi, I’m Zhang Lisheng.” Zhang Lisheng waved with a smile.

“Oh, I’ve heard of your name before. Nice to meet you, Mr. Zhang. Okay, I won’t bother you two anymore. See you, Tina!” Because of her unbridled attitude just now, Olivia seemed to be eager to let Tina leave and avoid the situation from turning more awkward.

At this moment, one of the short ordinary-looking black men, who was standing beside her, suddenly chimed in, “Olivia, we want to go look for brother Raul. Didn’t you say that you can’t cope with this alone and need to find a friend to help you? Why are you letting her go after finding one?”

“But, Joyes, didn’t you hear it just now? My friend’s boyfriend is here now so of course, she can’t give you a tour.”

Upon hearing the girl’s words, the short, black man looked at Zhang Lisheng and Tina with a fit of inexplicable jealousy on his face. Taking a step forward, he touched the black ring embossed with an open book on his right hand’s index finger and suddenly changed his tone to a quiet yet magnetic whisper, “It’s only a short tour, and it won’t take too much time. It’s only a short tour…”

There seemed to be some magical power lingering in his voice; it was one that lured people in to listen to him attentively and indulgently.

When his companions around him saw that the black man who was stroking the ring was speaking in this tone, their expressions changed right away. They wanted to stop him but they seemed worried about something at the same time. At once, one of the pale and skinny young men, whose face was sculpturally handsome among the Truth Society’s members, sighed and said, “Purification exists because of cleansing and holiness exists because of sin. Just let Brother Joyes spend the day as he likes today…”

“Yes, Brother Senroy!” The young handsome man’s words dissipated the anger of those furious people unwillingly. They bowed down their heads respectfully, but the black man did not have the slightest expression of gratitude at all; instead, a sign of distorted expression appeared on his face.

Upon seeing the black man gnashing his teeth, Zhang Lisheng sighed and chimed in, “I’ve just arrived in this so-called ‘Athens of America’ for less than two hours, and I immediately came across a university club that is actually a ‘cult’ operating in the name of ‘Truth’ and a cult member who possessed a sorcery power with his hesitation, anger, fear, and jealousy in his heart and has a tragic future awaiting him. This world is really getting increasingly chaotic now!”

“Y-You’re not under the True Word Spell?” Seeing that the spell he cast had failed, the short black man’s eyes turned wide in bafflement. With his attention diverted, his spell instantly devoured him, causing his body to twitch as he fell onto the ground fainted.

“Please don’t let me start on that sorcery power that is just slightly bigger than an ant! With just that ludicrous spell casting experience of his, he even dares to control other people using sorcery? Your Brother in your Truth Society is really reckless, Mr. Senroy!” When Zhang Lisheng saw the black man suddenly collapse to the ground without even the need for him to lift so much as a finger, he burst out chuckling and shifted his gaze to the young handsome man who looked as though he was the leader.

Even though there were few pedestrians around, the black man, who was twitching on the ground, still attracted a lot of attention. Noticing that people had walked up to them, Senroy suddenly said to Zhang Lisheng apologetically, “I don’t understand what you’re talking about, sir, but I’m really sorry about this. Joyes has changed his major to psychology last semester and ever since he was exposed to hypnosis, he always likes to go around experimenting with it. He has already caused a lot of trouble but always refused to repent…”

“Don’t apologize, Mr. Senroy. I forgive him,” Zhang Lisheng shrugged and replied. Then, he took a step forward and extended his head to whisper in Senroy’s ear, “But I’d like to remind you of two things. One, your companion is dying, so if you’re really an ordinary student, you better give him a CPR or chest compressions soon. Second, watch out for bugs…”

The last four words of the young man’s sentence was very soft, but it made Senroy freeze up right away. Chills ran down his spine, not noticing that the flesh of the Asian young man’s ankle had already been ripped open when he was talking while a maggot-like, transparent worm that was the size of a rice grain crawled out of it.

Under the illumination of the sunlight, the worm was as transparent as the purest crystal. When it landed on the ground, it expanded to the size of a fist and began to charge forward by contracting and relaxing its body. Like an arrow that left the bowstring, it hastily flew into the mouth of the silent howling Joyes, who was lying on the ground, and made its way into the stomach from his mouth by force.

“Hurry and help Brother Joyes!” When the worm entered Joyes’ belly, Senroy finally calmed down again and saw that three to four good Samaritans had already gathered around them. Hurriedly, he whispered to his companions, who had gone dumbstruck.

After that, turning his head as though he was trying to engrave the image in his heart, he inspected Zhang Lisheng’s back who was holding Tina and Olivia’s hands slowly while walking along the stone road through the lawn towards the low-rise building and suddenly put on an anxious expression as he shouted at the good Samaritans gathering up to them, “Please make some space. My friend is suffering from asthma, he needs enough space to breathe.”

Upon hearing his words, the crowds, who were originally gathered over, immediately dispersed. Under the gaze of over ten pairs of eyes, Senroy walked up to Joyes whom their companions had already lifted and took out a can spray from his pocket to place it in Joyes’ mouth. He began to mutter some prayers under his breath as he reached out his right hand to caress the small black man’s face.

A creamy white brilliance began to flow on the silver ring embossed with a thick book on Senroy’s index finger as his soft prayers started.

Mixing with the sun, the brilliance slowly drifted into Joyes’ nostrils and not long after, the black man stopped twitching and soon shook his heavy head and woke up.