The Great Worm Lich

“Enough Mike, enough,” Lili shouted loudly, “Lisheng bravely saved his sister last night. As his mother, I’ll not allow my son being blamed for any reason just because he saved his family which is a fearless act. Catching the culprit’s New York police’s responsibility, it has nothing to do with my son. Please leave.”

“Lili, I understand your feeling as a mother. But I hope that you could understand there are countless mothers in New York…” Mike stood up and made his last effort. Unfortunately, all he has gotten was a cold response from Lili, “Get out.”

His partner Boston who was next to him made a grimace face, gesturing that he messed up and said, “I’m sorry, Lili. Mike’s just doing what he’s supposed to do. We’ll visit tomorrow, we’ll visit as friends,” They then walked out of the ward.

Stuck between colleagues and lover, Sullo who had been silent earlier watched his colleagues left looking awkward. He then said softly, “Darling, just like what Boston said, he was just doing what he’s supposed to do…”

“But wasn’t Lisheng being a real hero last night? He shouldn’t be treated like that.”

“Of course, what he did last night is our pride. I guess you would like some alone time with him now, I’ll leave,” Sullo gave Zhang Lisheng a thumbs up as soon as he was done speaking and walked out of the ward. The ward was only left with the unstable Lili and Zhang Lisheng who could not understand why his mother flipped out on detective Mike, who considered their family friend out of nowhere.

“Mom, what happened to you?” Zhang Lisheng asked after being silent from the panic earlier. Lili snapped back to her senses and looked at Zhang Lisheng with a complicated expression. She stood up and turned off all of the surveillance in the ward and asked absurdly all of a sudden, “Are you a wizard?”

Zhang Lisheng was stunned for a moment from the shock and said with a stiff expression, “What did you say, mom?”

“Are you a wizard?” Lili asked again while staring at her son. Under the repressive stare from his mother, Zhang Lisheng became silent for a moment and eventually replied honestly, “I guess I am, mom. But I’m actually a Wu, I’m more like a descendant of god according to Western culture. I’m an inheritance from the ancient spirit’s bloodline of the Chinese.”

Lili felt a buzz ringing in her head hearing her son admitting that he was considered a wizard. She could not hear what Zhang Lisheng said after that, she mumbled while staring into a blank, “So you would kill people and make them into flesh puppet, using fresh dead body and combine it with a monster to give it new life, calling the dead souls at the tomb and make them yours…”

“What are you talking about, mom? I could only communicate with insects and reptiles. I could also control some animals with some special ritual. That’s all. I’m something like the nature-themed Druid in Dungeons & Dragons,” Zhang Lisheng tried his best to describe his witchcraft ability calmly and loudly.

Lili was stunned and snapped back to her senses then asked, “Baby, your special ability’s just communicating with animals?”

“I could control them to do stuff for me sometimes. In the future, I should be able to activate the ability of some insects and reptiles and put the ability onto my body if I cultivate diligently.”

“Like Spiderman?”

“Maybe, spider’s a great choice. I’ll consider that when I achieved the level of a Rank-6 Wizard.”

“Oh baby, oh my baby, that means although you inherited your father’s evil bloodline and cultivated an alternative method, you didn’t go on the same path as he did! My prayer must have worked. The ability to communicate with animals, no wonder you love biology so much. Per-perhaps you could be a great biologist in the future just like Darwin,” Lili spoke like what a loving mother would say, whereby she chose to believe whatever Zhang Lisheng said. She spoke with elation while the concern she had was completely gone.

This time, Zhang Lisheng said with all honesty while nodding, “That’s right, mom. I too think that I’ll be a great biologist.”

“So what happened last night?”

“Mom, I really encountered Dr. Fracture. I even controlled an animal to fight him, but he didn’t show himself from the beginning until the end. Since we fought fair, he eventually left leaving Michelle behind.”

“Baby, you should never let anyone know about this. Otherwise, you’ll be in big trouble,” Lili said that after hearing what Zhang Lisheng said.

“That’s right. They won’t have any explanation on how I managed to get away as long as I don’t expose my extraordinary ability in controlling animals. If Dr. Fracture who is committing his crime exposed the secret, I might be dissected and studied by some secret biology lab under the American government.”

“No, don’t give such a scary instance, baby,” Lili had a changed of expression as she spoke, “You have me, I won’t let anyone find out about your secret. I’ll bring you home right now, you can go back to school after a few days of rest. You can live normally as usual. As time goes by, the police would naturally reduce their watch on you. I hope Dr. Fracture with the devil’s dead in the sewage dirt now. But if he committed a crime again, God forgive me for saying this, then you’ll be completely safe.”

“I’ll listen to you, mom.”

“Alright, baby. Go change, we’ll get the doctor and get you out of the hospital after the examination.”

“I’m fine, there’s nothing worth examining.”

“Baby, you fought with the scariest serial killer in New York last night. Of course, you need to do a detailed examination again. Go change, I’m calling the shots.”

Zhang Lisheng could only obey since Lili insisted. Eventually, the doctor proved again that this skinny young man was the same as last night, after a night at the hospital. Since he was doing fine, Lili did the discharge procedure for her son.

Outside of New York, Queens Hospital was sunny. However, due to the climate, it did not bring much warmth to the people. The chill brought many patients to the hospital, it was crowded at the entrance. Sullo drove from the hospital car park to pick up Lili and Zhang Lisheng. He traveled carefully on the street traffic while asking, “Lili, are you sure you don’t need the officers to protect Lisheng these few days?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary, Sullo. Lisheng knew nothing, the doctor… That devil won’t come for him. I just hope that everything will pass as soon as possible so that we could live normal again.”

“Alright then,” Sullo said nothing and drove home directly without speaking all the way. The other kids at home went to school, Sullo left home to work at the police station as soon as he dropped them home. Meanwhile, Lili who had her burden dropped returned to her room to rest while yawning continuously. Zhang Lisheng returned to his room rather dramatically after spending a night away.

Getting back alone time, naturally, his never-changing thing to do would be cultivation. Apart from saving Michelle, he actually had another takeaway. The first takeaway was that extremely negative emotion would have to be directed at him, otherwise, it would be meaningless to his witchcraft cultivation at all. Secondly, Mountoad gained at least 40% vitality from eating that poor Herrick. It was sufficient for Zhang Lisheng to cultivate for a few days.

“Just like the saying – good fortune follows upon disaster, disaster lurks within good fortune,” He then climbed onto his bed and placed Mountoad at the window. Zhang Lisheng sat in a comfortable position and mumbled that. He shut his eyes and began focusing on outlining a Demon’s chest and abdomen, following the witchcraft secret method in his head. He cultivated for close to ten hours once he began. He only opened his eyes slowly, after hearing someone knocking on his door at night.

“Baby, you’ve been sleeping the whole day. Come, have dinner.”

“Alright,” Zhang Lisheng put away Mountoad as he spoke. He put on shoes and walked out of his room before going downstairs with Lili. In the dining room on the first floor, everyone was there apart from Michelle.

Seeing Zhang Lisheng, Randy who had just visited Michelle at the hospital was the first to hug him. He said loudly, “I’m so proud of you, brother. You’ve done what I’m supposed to do as a brother. If I see that bastard, I’ll definitely…”

“You’ll definitely walk far away from him and call the police when you’re safe,” Lili who was sitting aside said.

“Aunt Lili, h-he hurt my sister!” Randy said madly.

“That’s why I don’t want him to do the same to you,” Lili hugged Randy and said in all seriousness, “You’re not the police, Randy. Please don’t use Lisheng’s good luck to encourage yourself doing the wrong thing. We all love you, we want you to be safe.”

Hearing that, Randy held his fist tight and let out a heavy sigh. The atmosphere at dinner was extremely gloomy, nobody wanted to talk while Riley and Gill were sobbing occasionally. Sullo only spoke when dinner was over, while Lili was going to clear the table, “Kids, I hope you guys won’t tell Stephen about Michelle. He’s going through a critical time in football elimination. We can’t distract him for the sake of realizing his dream.”

The kids nodded silently and returned to their rooms accordingly, with their heads held low and gloomy. The atmosphere at home remained suffocating for the next few days. However, there were more visitors compared to the past. Friends who heard about the bad news would drop by to comfort this poor family, including Zhang Lisheng’s friend.

It was Friday afternoon. As he was relaxing in his room and after three days of full cultivation, he was surprised to hear Lili shouting outside of his room all of a sudden, “Baby, your friend George is here.”

“Coming, mom,” Zhang Lisheng put Mountoad away into his backpack quickly. He then opened the door, “Hey George, I didn’t expect you to visit me. Please come in.”

“Go in, George. Have dinner with us tonight.”

“Thanks, Ms. Lili,” George said courteously and walked into Zhang Lisheng’s bedroom.