The Great Worm Lich

After a night of cultivation, Zhang Lisheng realized cultivating with the Rank-3 Wizard secret method boosted his wizard worm’s vitality a few folds more than cultivating the Rank-2 Wizard secret method. If he did not strengthen Mountoad with Worm Refinery Incantation after breaking through to Rank-3 Wizard to get his wizard worm’s vitality to its peak naturally, he almost could not support the cultivation last night.

Another thing was that ever since he broke through to Rank-3 Wizard, the wizard power in his body could support him to control a wizard forcefully, as long as the meat was enough to feed. As long as he obtained a second wizard worm that was perfectly compatible with Mountoad, his power would undoubtedly have a cataclysmic change.

He had two urgent matters on hand, but his current priority was to get the small slaughterhouse in Kaiserland Town up and running in order to provide endless meat supply for his wizard worm. Zhang Lisheng sighed and put Mountoad into his backpack as he thought to this point. He went off to bed and planned to head to Kaiserland Town to try his luck after washing up. Although he no longer had Tina helping him and had no idea what he should do next, it would not kill him to try. He was unwilling to waste his Saturday doing nothing.

As Zhang Lisheng walked downstairs, Lili and Sullo were having breakfast. Sullo said while seeing him coming downstairs, “Hey Mr. Factory Owner, good morning.”

“Good morning, Uncle Lavin.”

“Lisheng, I’m as proud of you as your mom does. I would be so happy if Randy’s like you, taking one step at a time and working hard slowly, instead of dreaming of being a sports celebrity in order to achieve instant fame with 10 million dollars annual income.”

“Thank you, Uncle Lavin.”

“Oh, you know what Lisheng? You’re brave, responsible, ambitious and willing to learn, you’re almost a perfect young man. The only flaw that you have is that you’re a little quiet and introverted. You should talk more to people your age. Kid, have more than one friend. Participate in the clubs at school, know more friends, enjoy your youth.”

“I’ll do that after I’m done with my stuff, Uncle Lavin. Mom, I’m going to Kaiserland Town now to complete the deal and other stuff. I might be coming home late tonight.”

“Go after you had breakfast, I’ve made bacon and toast.”

“I’ll pack that and eat it on the way, I’ve got a lot to do today.”

“Alright then,” Lili put the dry, fried bacon, tomato and lettuce between the toasts and packed it in a paper bag for Zhang Lisheng, “Do you need me to bring you there, baby?”

“Thanks, mom, I’ve already booked the cab,” Zhang Lisheng took over the paper bag and said in the tone as if he was grown up overnight while smiling, “Goodbye Uncle Lavin, goodbye mom.”

The weather was a little warm, which was rare as he walked out of the house. Zhang Lisheng walked on the pedestrian crossing while eating the simple sandwich his mother made. He hailed a cab casually and headed towards Kaiserland Town. The over an hour drive was boring. The Indian cab driver was very interested when he found out Zhang Lisheng was a young factory owner. He then began chatting about the slaughterhouse.

“You know what, young man? I once dreamed of being a factory owner myself, to have my own business. Of course, I don’t want to run a slaughterhouse business. Not that slaughterhouse’s bad, just that us Indians can’t hurt those holy cows. Do you know what I wanted to do? Ah huh, you definitely won’t be able to guess it. I’ll just tell you then, I wanted to have my own mill. A mill that makes Indian paratha flour only, isn’t that cool?!

Oh yea, have you ever tried the Indian paratha in New York City? If you haven’t, I’m telling you not to. Those processed parathas used industrial flour from the supermarket, it’s a disaster to put them into your mouth! The first time I ate Indian paratha in New York, I realized immediately that I’ll definitely make a fortune by selling paratha flour here. I planned that for half a year, I even bought an old mill, but by then my Indian sister went married all of a sudden. Oh my god, that was such a disaster.

As the eldest in the family, I had to sell my mill and send the money home for her dowry. Later on, I received help from an Indian community in New York and found this job as a cab driver. Until now I still can’t believe that the Indians in the community was unwilling to help people of their own kind to be a mill owner, but they were willing to be my guarantor to buy this cab. They said it’s our tradition! That’s some bullsh*t! So to them, driving a cab is closer to our Indian tradition than selling Indian parathas! That’s how my dream drifted further and further away from me…”

Zhang Lisheng listened to the plump Indian middle-aged man talking absentmindedly. He was complaining non-stop with his English with an accent. All of the sudden, Zhang Lisheng thought of something and asked, “Wait, sir, did you say you bought a mill?”

“Yes, in Dirac Town near New York City.”

“How did you close the deal?”

“I paid and signed the contract, it’s simple.”

“So what comes after paying and signing of contract? Is there anything else to handle after that? I had just signed the contract with the seller last night, but I fell out with my broker consultant today. I’ve got no idea on what should I do next.”

“The slaughterhouse you bought is in Kaiserland Town, the next thing you should do of course is to pull the strings with the mayor. Let me give you an advice, young man. The most important thing is to blend in with the town people, that’ll boost your business quick…” The Indian cab driver gave a pinch of useful advice and began talking nonsense without stopping. Meanwhile, Zhang Lisheng sat at the back without speaking at all. He seemed to be thinking as he looked out of the window at the sceneries that were getting vast. He did not say a word, as the cab was driving into Kaiserland Town.

A day had passed, the town remained the same. Zhang Lisheng visited Kaiserland Town three times, within two days. Moreover, he once spent the entire afternoon at the social place Blueberry Bar, many people from the town remembered this skinny Asian young man. A tall and strong middle-aged farmer greeted him while smiling upon seeing him gotten off the cab, “Hey kid, are you here to talk business with that irritating Oldman Rudolph again? He’s not at the bar in town all of the time you know…”

“No sir, I’ve bought Mr. Rudolph’s slaughterhouse. I’m here in town to speak to the mayor on how to improve the slaughterhouse to serve Kaiserland Town better,” Zhang Lisheng replied.

Never judge the slaughterhouse looking cold and Rudolph’s evil plan last night. In reality, Rudolph’s slaughterhouse which was the only one around Kaiserland Town played a big part in everyone’s livelihood and income. Hearing what Zhang Lisheng said, the middle-aged farmer who was greeting him causally had a change of expression. He said in all seriousness, “Young man, are you joking?”

“Of course not, sir. When I was on my way back to New York City after we failed coming to a reasonable price last night, Mr. Rudolph called me all of the sudden and agreed on the price I gave to purchase the slaughterhouse. I then returned to the slaughterhouse and signed the contract with Mr. Rudolph,” Zhang Lisheng explained in all seriousness.

The middle-aged farmer was stunned for a moment and scratched his head. He ran to Zhang Lisheng without being asked, extended his hand and shook his hand, “Hi young man, my name’s Tomtammy Miller, you can call me Tommy. Welcome being a part of Kaiserland Town. The mayor you’re looking for is my dad, I can bring you to him. The ladies in this town aren’t too shabby for renovating your house…”

“Oh, Mr. Tommy. My name’s Zhang Lisheng, you can call me Lisheng. In reality, I’m still in high school in New York City, I don’t plan to move to Kaiserland Town. To manage the slaughterhouse, I’m planning to set up some surveillance, join Kaiserland Town’s National Farmers Union and get the slaughterhouse running on self-service. In other words, the users will use the slaughterhouse to slaughter their livestock on their own and pay me a rental of 50 dollars per pig, 150 dollars per cow and 40 dollars per lamb. Of course, I’ll be handling all of the waste including organs and blood left behind from the livestock slaughtering.

The self-service slaughtering would take much of the farmers’ strength, but the meat coming from Kaiserland Town never have to worry about sales. The farmers were not lacking in strength. An adult cow weighed between 1,500 to 1,800 pounds. Strip away the waste, the meat weighed around 1,000 pounds. According to the supermarkets and butcher shops in New York City, they purchase freshly produced meat from the suburb close to three dollars per pound. The price Zhang Lisheng charged which was 150 dollars per cow including handling the ecological waste was very reasonable. Therefore, to Tommy, Zhang Lisheng’s suggestion was tens of thousands fold better than Rudolph’s greed of hiring people to purchase cheap livestock then processed them into meat and sold at a high price.

“Oh Lisheng, you know what? I knew you’re a smart, generous and thoughtful little fella the first time I saw you yesterday,” Tommy patted Zhang Lisheng’s back while laughing and said, “Now what are we waiting for? Let’s get my dad to pull together a last-minute National Farmers Union meeting. Christmas is coming, it’s the best that we get the new slaughterhouse business model to be up and running smoothly. Let’s go, let’s go.”

He accelerated as he spoke and sprinted to a house, while almost sandwiching Zhang Lisheng between his arm forcefully. The wooden house was in the middle of the town, it looked the same with the other houses.