The Great Worm Lich

The airship slowly ascended into the sky. After entering the sea of clouds, the propeller of the pod’s tail began to rotate and tore through the clouds as it began to fly.

“Dear customer, this voyage is expected to last for 14 hours. If we encounter extreme weather, the journey may be delayed for two to five hours. You can always go to the restaurant for a meal, or you can request for the service staff to deliver the food to your room. I wish you a pleasant journey. “A beautiful young woman dressed in a pleasing green thin dress announced with a courtesy attitude that was almost similar to the flight attendants on Earth and brought Cyril into his room in the Blast.

Naturally, the rooms on the airship were not significant and were merely six to seven steps long and five steps wide. However, it was decorated with a big bed covered with the white goose down bed cover, a wine rack mounted on the wall, and an ice bucket on the bedside table filled with all kinds of delicious fruits, giving off an unusually comfortable feeling.

“I believe this will be the most comfortable long-distance travel in my life, thank you.” Fran King’s messenger was taken aback by this pleasant environment that was beyond his expectations. With a courteous manner, he told the girl leading his way.

“It’s my pleasure to serve you, customer. Please ring the bell whenever you need any assistance,” The flight attendant flashed her white teeth and a formal smile as she pointed to a string hanging on the full beige sofa beside the floor-to-ceiling window. After saying so, she turned and left the room.

When the woman left, the smile on Cyril’s face immediately disappeared without a trace. With a grave expression, he muttered, “Even the tone and grammar used by the fallen servant has subtly changed now. This is simply an invasion of a ‘strong civilization’! A new and powerful god rising from a barren island? Hrmph! Looks like this is bullsh*t! Wizard? Where did he come from, actually?”

Recalling the ancient legends where the gods would be able to befall when the mortals called out their names, the Fran messenger carefully muttered and walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows.

In the large open view, a group of white clouds that stretched out as far as eyes could see shimmered in the sunlight and gently swayed, being blown by the strong wind of the high altitude.

Through the clouds, he looked down at the ground at the pieces of farmland and woodlands with various shades of green color, and the high and low undulating mountains and rivers.

Although he was knowledgeable and had a wise and heavy mind, at that instant, the magnificent and indescribable scenery entered his sight still caused Cyril to feel stunned.

It was not that he had not enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the sea of clouds and land from the sky before, but it was just that he often needed to ask a great sorcerer to cast spells or to ask powerful alchemists to work hard to create magical items before he could do so. However, the fact that it so quickly appeared in universal civilian vehicles actually made him feel even more baffled.

After a long speechless moment, he retracted his gaze and snapped back to his senses. He unknowingly sat on the sofa in front of the window, and his face turned solemn as he began to reconsider how he should deal with the Wizard Li God later when they met.

Time passed slowly. As the sky approached dusk, Cyril stopped his contemplation in a tired look.

After cracking his neck a little, he began to touch his hungry stomach. When he was about to stand up to go to the restaurant to eat a big meal and rest his brain at the same time, he suddenly saw a strange square mirror placed on the table next to the sofa.

The back of the mirror was covered with a thick layer of leather and was warm to his touch. The front of it was a gray translucent crystal that could reflect its surroundings.

“They can make a magical item that is more transparent than the finest crystals, but they actually make such a cloudy mirror?” Having an intense curiosity at all times was a common habit for all wise men. Cyril raised the square mirror and rubbed the mirror with a curious expression. Suddenly, he realized that the speckle of brilliance began to shine from the tip of his fingers.

The brilliance was faint at first and gradually turned brighter. Slowly, it spread out to the entire mirror and drew an image of a human-headed snake demon god. Then, the picture became lively and began to split into many half-inch square images accompanied by the chant of ‘God bestows His creation with great profound mystery.’

“Sacred scriptures, legendary epics, love stories, war chess…” Cyril stared at the magical square mirror in his hand and subconsciously read the words under the square drawings.

When his finger inadvertently clicked on the square painting with the war chess, he suddenly saw the picture changing again, and at once, a game called ‘Battle of the Worlds’ that was most loved by the male aristocrats in Green Leaf Mainland to kill time appeared right away.

The jade pieces that used to be expensive had now turned into a vivid image diagram—the knights would grip at the roaring battle beasts, the spellcasters would shake the strange weapons in their hands…

Cyril slowly returned to his senses and tried to reach out a finger to click on the green knight chess piece to move forward. The mirror flashed, and the chess suddenly turned into something more prominent and actually charged forward to crush a red chess piece and make it disappear. Unfortunately, the green chess piece soon turned into a puff of green smoke by the fire summoned by another red sorcerer chess piece.

“Who’s playing chess with me…” Cyril turned the mirror that was one foot long and half a foot wide in his hand over as his eyes went wide.

No matter how wise they were about the Oasis World, Fran’s messenger who was born in the Shrimp World No. 2 still could not understand the operational mechanism of this ‘bio-tablet’ that combined the visual monitoring organs of ancient biochemical weapon with the technology of the Earth’s microcomputer manufacturing.

The emergence of this magical creation with two characteristics of biochemistry and mechanical civilization also indicated that the land ruled by Zhang Lisheng’s belief had begun to sprout his own unique culture…

Being surrounded by confusion and an inexplicable uneasiness, Cyril did not go to the airship restaurant to fill his stomach all night. Under the same night sky, after Zhang Lisheng had a massive meal in the Golden Flower Terrier Manor, he met with the 100 city garrison leaders selected from Wizard Li’s paladin troop.

Although the degree of social civilization in the Green Leaf Mainland was only equivalent to the level of Eurasia in the Middle Ages of the Earth, due to the presence of spellcasting, divine power, and alchemy practice, the human population was only slightly lower than the modern civilization of the Earth of about 2.2 billion. Right now, one-fifth of them were living in the fallen land occupied by Wizard Li.

If the population of more than 400 million people was calculated according to the ratio of the army and the people of the Wizard Li tribe, then the number of the soldiers that could be selected could reach nearly 50 million.

Of course, the munificent living environment of the mainlanders caused it to be impossible for the women and children to become soldiers, too, like how it was in the barbarian tribe. In the time when the various countries were divided before Wizard Li attacked, the total number of regular troops in the fallen land was only slightly over 4 million. The number of reserved soldiers could expand four times, making it only about 16 million.

However, Zhang Lisheng could never even recover such a figure before ruling the fallen mainland, like how he ruled the Wizard Li Archipelago. This paladin troop that was composed entirely of mainlanders only had 400,000 people that were scattered to over 2000 cities, making it about 500 people in big cities and less than 100 people in small towns.

It was fortunate that the paladins did not have to defend the city, nor did they have to charge into the enemy line. So far, their only role at present was to patrol the city to stabilize the people, and occasionally cull the heresy. Because of this, the number was still enough at the moment.

In the greenhouse of the manor that had been converted into a palace, Zhang Lisheng sat on a substantial golden chair, that was covered with long animal skins and inlaid with numerous jewels and looked down at the soldierly paladins kneeling at his feet, praising his holy virtue and power with a contented smile on his face.

It was more pleasing to the young man to be worshipped by the mainlanders who looked similar to Earthlings than the Hellfire tribesmen who looked like deformed gnomes. By the time the leaders of the paladins who were wearing three different colors of red, blue, and yellow finished praising him with songs, he had waved his hand and pretended to casually say, “It’s more phenomenal to see a lost lamb knows how to repent. Your sincere prayers have made me feel the piety of faith, stand up and sit down casually.”

Upon hearing the Wizard Li God’s instruction, the leaders of the paladin stood up silently and sat down on both sides, following their status.

It was followed by some boring questions. Zhang Lisheng expressed his high regard and expectations for the new paladins, and the paladins then took the oath of blood and swore to defend the majesty of the Wizard Li God.

Half an hour passed by unwittingly. When the meeting came to an end, a strange thing happened. After the young man said, “It’s already late, so all of you may retreat now,” the 100 kneeling paladins slowly stood up and retreated, leaving only one person behind who was still kneeling on the ground.

Although Zhang Lisheng did not need any protection since he had such tremendous force, there were still thousands of elite warriors guarding in Zhang Lisheng’s temporary residing to show the god’s majesty. Upon seeing this unexpected situation, the empty space between the Wizard Li god and the spot where the paladins were kneeling was immediately filled with a dense crowd of guards.

The guardians of the god suddenly bared their mouths and fangs. Their limbs were slender, their bodies were masculine and were covered with scales that were continually changing according to the external environment, with claws as hands and feet. When they were itching to have a go and was about to attack, the paladin kneeling on the ground suddenly spoke in a slightly trembling voice, “Your Great Majesty, please forgive my recklessness but I do have a crucial thing to talk to you alone, please give me a chance.”

“Talk alone? I just read the one that you and other paladin leaders gave. I remembered that you’re called Yeegan and was sold to the Wizard Li tribe by the Kattaman merchants as a slave. You’ve even stayed one year on Scorpion Island before, and even though you’re sly and conceited, your character is actually quite docile. Later, after the Wizard Li expeditionary army has stabilized its footing on the mainland, you relied on your vindictive power and the initiative to fight to win Tuan’s liking and become a leader of the paladins,” Zhang Lisheng chuckled and waved his hand to stop the attack of the guard. “What kind of secret is there for someone like you to deserve a chance to talk to me alone?”

“It’s a grave matter, Your Majesty. I-I can’t tell you on such an occasion,” The paladin said in a dry voice while kneeling.

“Alight, I agree to your request. Come to the study room with me.” Zhang Lisheng stood up and left the greenhouse. Taking in a breath of fresh air outside, he turned his head and looked at Yeegan, who was following closely behind him. “However, if you’re trying to trick me, I promise that you’ll regret it for the rest of your life!”