The Great Worm Lich

During the game, the tens of thousands of people in Harvard stadium shouted in excitement. Only Zhang Lisheng could not understand the excitement of 22 strong men wearing solid protective gear while running on the lawn drawn with white bars, competing for a hardball with two pointed tips.

Looking at the group of young boys in the audience as they shouted, “Go, Harvard, Go!” throughout the entire match and how tens of thousands of people would stand up, waving their fists and cheering when the game reached a fierce point, he also cheered together in order to not stand out too much from the crowd. Nonetheless, it was clear in his expression that he was not particularly excited.

The US rugby game system was divided into four sections, each of which would take 15 minutes with a two-minute break between the first and second sections, 12-minute break between the second and third section, and another two-minute break between the third and fourth section. Because of this, the first and second section would usually be classified as the first half of the game while they would classify the third and fourth section as the second half of the game.

In the first half, Harvard and Yale both led the scores alternately, unable to put a distance between them even after it ended. During the break, while expecting a wonderful performance, the audience discussed the nerve-wracking, intense game just now excitedly in a hoarse voice.

Right at this moment, Tina, who had gradually calmed down from the excitement of watching the show, finally noticed her boyfriend’s lack of enthusiasm. Right away, she began to say apologetically, “Hey, baby. Looks like you’re not too interested in football. If I had known this earlier, I’d have brought you for a walk on the beach and eat some seafood.”

“It’s alright, Tina. I have no interest at all in competitive sports, but football is still fine. At least this game uses the hand, unlike soccer!” Zhang Lisheng smiled and casually replied.

His words made the surrounding new friends sitting around him to exchange glances with each other. A not so tall but strong, vigorous young man could not help but say coldly, “Hey, buddy! I’ll give you advice! A man could only be said as a true man if he likes sports. Also, as a soccer player, I have to tell you that soccer is a great art, and you can’t insult it by saying that it’s not a game played by hand!”

“No, no! You’ve misunderstood… I’m sorry, I’ve already forgotten whether your name is Mcgray or Chester, but Lisheng doesn’t mean it this way…” Upon seeing somebody started to attack Zhang Lisheng, Trish vied to be the first to explain without hesitation.

The instant the girl’s words left her mouth, Fred, who was sitting beside his girlfriend, said strangely, “That’s right, Mcgray, Lisheng doesn’t mean it like that. He just doesn’t like those violent competitive sports. Even if there’s a dispute, he’ll be protected by the girls too.”

These words caused many people to laugh out loud, but it enraged the girlfriend of the person who made that comment instead. Pointing directly to Zhang Lisheng, Sheila glared at her boyfriend, “Fred Wharton, you’ve never been so wrong! The man is not a person who hides behind the girls when something happens. Instead, I promise you that you’d never even have the courage to open your eyes to even take a peek when he really gets angry…”

Seeing that more and more people were joining in the ‘war situation’ and that the scene was getting more and more intense, Ellen, who was in the neutral, stood up and clapped her hand as she said loudly, “Alright, alright! Let’s stop talking, shall we? We’re all friends and are here to cheer for our own university, but instead, we’re now quarreling with each other. Isn’t this too absurd? Besides, it’s half time now, so if we don’t watch the show… Oh my God! Look! A papier mâché beluga whale!

Everyone looked at the direction of Ellen’s fingers and saw that under the accompaniment of the Harvard school song, a huge papier mâché beluga whale swam into the stadium and was chased around by a wooden ship carved with the word ‘Harvard’ sailed by a group of warriors.

Amid the cheerful music, the people, who were doing the fishing on the wooden boat, bravely attacked the beluga and finally smashed it.

The pronunciation of the word ‘whale’ was like the word ‘Yale’ while the away Yale football team was wearing a white jersey. For this reason, upon seeing the papier mâché beluga whale sank, a thundering uproar filled the stadium at once.

This kind of mocking performance often appeared in the All-American College Football League. Since the two schools were competing against each other would take a turn to carry out their performances during the break of the game, it was an old practice for them to use music, dance, and language as weapons against their ‘enemy’. However, it was rare to see a whimsical masterpiece.

Just as the audience was applauding for the wonderful performance, Zhang Lisheng’s attention was concentrated on hundreds of young men and women standing like a sculpture, who were wearing black robes, embroidered with an open thick book on the back at the side of the game field.

The instant he saw the face of the black-haired man who was standing at the very front, his eyes narrowed at once. In a moment, the young man with black-rimmed glasses, standing in front of a tattered bus on the coast of Hawaii, and the smiling young man, flashing across his eyes in Boston Logan International Airport, as well as the black-clothed leader with a blank expression, standing at the side of the field, were out together.

“The open thick book… Kamil? He’s Kamil! He’s actually alive…” Zhang Lisheng muttered to himself. A strong ominous premonition rose from his heart, causing him to clench his fists tightly as he gnashed his teeth.

Right at this moment, the Yale school song suddenly resonated in the stadium. The black-clothed people at the side of the field began to stride into the field accompanied by music.

“No, this is not right! Even if I’m faced with the entire fleet of sages, sorcerers, warriors, and archers from Shrimp World No. 1 now, I wouldn’t feel so nervous. This isn’t right…” Zhang Lisheng stared at the black-clothed people who were forming a formation of an octagonal diamond pattern in silence under the eyes of tens of thousands of people. As they began to chant in a low voice, goosebumps crept upon his body at once, prompting to stand up right away.

“What’s wrong with you, baby?” Her boyfriend’s loss of cool surprised Tina, so she hurriedly stood up as well and whispered.

“I don’t have the time to explain! This is f*cked up! I should have removed the ’cause of disaster’ yesterday!” Zhang Lisheng snapped back to reality and suddenly said loudly out of the blue, “Tina, Trish, Sheila, let’s go! Don’t worry about anything else! Quick, let’s go! Otherwise, it’ll be too late…”

It stunned Tina. Out of their trust in Zhang Lisheng, Trish and Sheila had already stood up in panic, and Trish did not forget to warn everyone as well. “Everyone, let’s go! A disaster w-will happen soon…”

She hastily pulled at Ellen.

Time was getting delayed. In a few seconds, as the incantation of the group of black-robed people, who were standing in the center of the stadium, began to become louder and louder as a faint eyeball suddenly appeared on the clear sky above their heads.

The eyeball stood at a height of over 20 meters high and had a vivid pupil that seemed to be constructed of flowing magma. When it swept across the entire stadium, it caused excitement and discussion from countless audiences. After it appeared, Zhang Lisheng, who was originally overwhelmed with emotions, sighed and sat down in a blank expression.

“I-I’m sorry, baby. I-I’m sorry…” Tina, who had already pulled Ellen from her seat by force, became stunned when she saw her boyfriend’s movements. Dumbfounded, she released her hand and sat down. After a moment of silence, she apologized with tears in her eyes.

“It’s alright, Tina. I’ve long known about your feelings towards your good friends. Trish always likes to be a devout Catholic saint while Sheila’s cumbersome chests would always cause her to be slower than others. It’s just a matter of course for us to be trapped here,” Zhang Lisheng interrupted his girlfriend’s words and frowned.

“Please, Lisheng. Can you please be more reasonable? It has only been slightly over ten seconds since the time you stood up shouting up to now that you’re sitting down and mocking us! Even if we were Olympic sprint champions, we wouldn’t be able to run out of the stadium in time as well!” Sheila could not help but argue.

“Sheila, I’m not angry at you guys. I’m angry at myself instead. F*ck! I should have transformed and brought all of you out directly. It would have only taken one to two seconds! Since there wouldn’t be any witness who would make it out alive anyway…” Zhang Lisheng took a few deep breaths to compose himself. “Okay, it’s too late for us to say anything now, anyway. We must look ahead. You and Trish come to my side right away. No matter what happens later, remember to relax your body and close your eyes if you’re scared. I promise that all of you will be fine.”

“Is it serious, Lisheng? What is that eye actually?” Sheila nodded and pulled at Trish’s hand before crowding her way towards Zhang Lisheng in front of the legs of her new friends who looked at her as though she was a madman.

Her boyfriend’s exasperated shout resonated from behind her. “Sheila, that eyeball is a 3D projection. This is not some inconceivable new technology, it just happens to be really vivid and lifelike!”

“Oh, Fred, it’s good that you think 3D projection is great, at the very least; you wouldn’t look too sad at the final moment of your life. Listen to me though, if I were you, I’d go to the back of the audience now and wait patiently for the opportunity to escape. Remember, if you’re lucky to escape later, just keep your mouth shut and say nothing, or otherwise, you’ll die a more horrible death!” Sheila turned to her girlfriend and told him before sitting beside Tina and asking Zhang Lisheng once again, “Dear, what does that eye represent?”

“I don’t know what it is either.” Zhang Lisheng looked at the front without even so much as a blink as he answered with a wry smile. “I only know that those who are singing at the center of the stadium who was summoning it must be members of the Truth Society. Their leader and I have shared some joy and sorrow together in Hawaii before and have spent our days as the prisoners of the powerhouses from the foreign world. Later, he became a traitor to humanity while I made a plan to kill two of the guards to escape and managed to kill those people from the foreign world…”

“Hey baby, we appeared at the end of this thrilling story and have heard you telling us the first half of the story on the yacht before,” Tina said with wide eyes. “That leader of the Truth Society is called Kamil, right?”

“Yes, I thought he has been either killed by Sage Altman or captured by the government. I didn’t expect to see him like this in two or three years’ time. This is really inconceivable.”