The Great Worm Lich

Hiding from the rain under the giant lizard’s slender body that occasionally vanished, the two girls could no longer think from having their brain frozen in the chilly pool water earlier. It seemed to them that the strange things that were happening around them were nothing out of the ordinary. They removed the jacket that they were wearing while shaking and gotten close to the warm fire. Soon, the was rosiness on their faces went back.

Seeing the girls were not shaking as much anymore, Zhang Lisheng turned around in the limited space and said with his back facing the bonfire, “You guys better dry your undergarments again. Although we have Island Dragon’s help which makes our journey tomorrow much faster, ideally, we would need a few days to get to the city since the GPS isn’t working and we’ve lost our direction. It would be horrible if you guys are sick. Now that I thought about it, the GPS device that we rented from Paradise Hotel isn’t working which is annoying. It started to not work after the flood, it’s not professional…”

“We departed from Tuikano port. Although we were turning here and there in the river, we had been going west overall and we will turn northwest after arriving at the shore…”

“Remember that direction!” Zhang Lisheng turned his head and shouted in surprise. The girls took off their undergarment and dried it close to the fire, their naked bodies had beautiful curves that could make a man fall. Tina was stunned seeing Zhang Lisheng turning his head. She put down her arms that were covering her chest and said lifting her chest, “Are they nice?”

Trish, on the other hand, had her cheeks flushing. As a Catholic girl, she was not as open-minded as Tina was. Although she did not scream, there was a rage in her eyes as if they were going to spit fire. She could not hide it no matter how. Zhang Lisheng was stuck seeing the beautiful scene that he did not expect. There was an indescribable heat growing in him. He cleared his throat and gulped his saliva then turned his head back immediately, “I’m sorry, I… I was too excited when I heard Trish remembering the overall direction…”

“Lisheng, I know you didn’t do it on purpose. It’s alright, but I’m not sure if Trish, the most innocent Catholic girl in Manhattan would mind showing you her beautiful naked body.”

“Tina, you’re just… you’re just crazy. We’ve gone through so many accidents as if we’re in a sci-fi thriller movie and you have the mood to joke like this.”

“So should I just look gloomy sitting by the fire all night instead of joking? We’re considered very lucky Trish. You must know that the chances of us two New York girls meeting a good friend who was an opposite-sex who happened to be a god descendent who was mastering a mysterious dark power is even slimmer than winning Powerball’s first prize. Especially this friend’s exploring the Amazon rainforest with us and staying by our side.”

Trish opened her mouth wide while being speechless. She ignored her good friend who was sitting across the fire and turned her head to look at Zhang Lisheng’s skinny back, “Forget it. I know your rudeness this time is unintentional, Lisheng. I’m born with a great sense of direction so I remember where Tuikano’s direction is more or less. But there might be some mistakes since we were washed away by the flood…”

“It’s alright if there are mistakes. We can try slowly, we’ll definitely find the right way to Tuikano.”

“But… but Sheila and Walter, Shittu…”

“We don’t even have a tent now, so please just take care of your life, okay miss?” Zhang Lisheng said in a tone that was almost cruel. The brutal encounters in the jungle seemed to have matured Trish in the short few days. At least she knew the meaning of self-awareness now. She stared at the jumping flame in the fire speechlessly while tears were rolling out of her eyes slowly. They dripped onto the ground one after another but she said nothing in the end.

At the break of dawn the next day, the heavy rain stopped slowly. This was the safest half an hour where the living things in the jungle went to sleep while some had just woken up, Zhang Lisheng cultivated a secret method for a moment. He released the old ones and absorbed the new ones, he had regained much of his energy.

Knowing that they would not be able to ask about the young man’s tricks of all kinds, Trish pretended like she saw nothing. Tina, on the other hand, handed the young man an energy bar and asked caringly since he woke up, “Lisheng, you can’t sleep because you inhaled the black breath your pet exhaled? Would there be side-effects like when you take drugs?”

“There are no side-effects to that, it’s just that my cultivation time’s too short that I can’t replenish my energy entirely. But since we’re going to be gliding around the jungle on Island Dragon’s back, we won’t be using too much strength.”

“Island Dragon? is that your black dragon that could go invisible?” The girl faintly saw the glorious fight of Zhang Lisheng’s two wizard worms against the strange wasp with the help of the fire last night. However, she did not see it clearly due to the intensity of the light and its angle.

“It’s not a black dragon but a mutated lizard. Let’s depart now, we can eat while we’re ‘traveling’ later,” Zhang Lisheng chanted witchcraft incantation to make Island Dragon show itself after he was done speaking. It was a completely different feeling to be hiding under the giant lizard’s tummy from the rain which made their vision blurry and seeing it with its mouth wide opened and three scorpion-hooked tails at the back, showcasing its over ten meters long body entirely.

Tina’s face turned pale as she lifted her head to look at Island Dragon’s ferocious look under the sun. She mumbled, “Lisheng, your lizard has mutated to such a powerful being. Sh*t, are we really sitting on it? It doesn’t look friendly.”

Zhang Lisheng smiled and asked Trish, “Trish, which direction do we go?”

Trish drew a cross and pointed to their right while looking pale. Zhang Lisheng nodded and controlled Island Dragon to lay down its body. He then climbed onto the wizard worm’s back strenuously, “Get up ladies, this big worm isn’t as scary as you guys thought. Its scales look slippery but in reality, it has strong friction whereby you wouldn’t fall if you squeeze your thighs tight. I swear sitting on it is safer than sitting in a roller coaster at Disneyland.”

With a demonstration, the two girls felt much better now. Both of them got close to Island Dragon while holding onto each other. They climbed onto the giant lizard’s back in a posture that was more relaxed than Zhang Lisheng.

“Sit tight,” As Zhang Lisheng shouted, Island Dragon stood up and began running on the vast land next to the pool. When it was about to crash into the dense jungle after moving 100 meters forward, it hopped high up all of the sudden while its four claws held onto a huge tree that was 100 meters tall. It crawled up and began running on top of the trees in the jungle as if it was gliding. The girls were screaming along the way, they only slowly calmed down after Island Dragon had been running for two to three minutes.

Although the wind was strong mid-air, most of it was blocked by Island Dragon’s extended neck. It became a comfortable breeze when it blew onto Zhang Lisheng and the two girls. Admiring the beautiful jungle with lush green around while indulging in the rainforest’s damp air in the warm sun and breathtaking breeze, it was completely different compared to their tough journey in the dense jungle a few days back.

“Oh, now I get it Lisheng. This is how you went all the way to Lunuk City from Tuikano. Hmph, you sure know how to enjoy life, you mysterious Mr. Worm. With such speed, if you used this back then…”

“If those natives found out about Island Dragon back then, I’m afraid that you’ll be the only one that’s alive now. Listen, Tina, I’m not a savior. If I didn’t owe you a favor…”

“Alright Lisheng, your life philosophy is to pay back those who are kind to you and feed your worms those people who hurt them. In reality, this is nothing. There are countless idiots who intruded private properties in America and had been beaten to death so stop scaring us. Trish’s a Catholic, sometimes she has no sense of humor so she might take what you said seriously.”

Hearing what Tina said, Zhang Lisheng looked at the brutal and dense jungle far away and shook his head. He smiled lightly and said nothing more. Days had passed, they had been traveling across the Amazon jungle following Trish’s lead for a total of five days and four nights above the trees. They had already traveled 1,000 kilometers in total if one would look back at their journey but it seemed like it was still far away from getting to Tuikano.

At the moment, Trish’s tone when guiding the way was not as firm as before. She began repeating the embarrassing words that she had said before, “I remember where Tuikano’s direction is more or less. But there might be some mistakes since we were washed away by the flood.”

However, it was too late for them to turn back now. Having a direction to move forward in a vast jungle was better than moving with no direction. Thus, they could only proceed with their journey following Trish’s lead. On the fifth day of noon, it began raining heavily in the rainforest. At that moment, Tina who was not having an amazing time anymore because she could not take much longer the raindrops that were beating on her face leaned towards Zhang Lisheng’s ear and shouted, “The rain’s too heavy Lisheng. We’re not in a rush anyway, why don’t we hide from the rain down there.”

Just when the girl was speaking, a bright silver wave came into their vision from far away all of a sudden. To the six eyes which had adapted to the greenery, the silver wave seemed dazzling, tempting and glaring. It was the light reflected from the sun on the lake channel, there would always be people wherever there was water.

Zhang Lisheng controlled Island Dragon to glide towards the silver wave. As they were getting closer an endless lake appeared before their eyes. It was a huge lake created from the washing of the Amazon River for tens of millions of years. The ecology and the jungle around it had evolved and looked completely different.

Zhang Lisheng carefully controlled Island Dragon to crawl down from the top of the tree carefully. It went invisible and crawled down in a spiral and sneaked out to the jungle slowly. They happened to arrive at a corner on the west of the huge lake with countless big rats with a flat tail which body was close to one meter long. They were walking around in the water ignoring the rain.

“Sh*t, is this lake’s name Rat Boiling Pot?” Tina sounded like she was joking while sitting on Island Dragon’s back but she was shaking a little when she was speaking.

“Those aren’t rats but beavers. They’re making a dam,” Zhang Lisheng wiped away the rainwater on his face and pointed at a river gap after observing those huge rats. He then pointed at a huge gap at the jungle on the other side that was faintly visible and said, “That might be the reason why there was a flood. We might be running in a big circle the past few days.”