The Great Worm Lich

Fortunately, he had the habit of bringing a credit card along with him. Instead of using his room key card, Zhang Lisheng ordered American beef burger and iced coke after sitting down at a table by the window in the restaurant. He began eating clumsily. Suddenly, he smelled a faint perfume fragrance that he was familiar with as he was halfway eating. “Eating a burger and drinking coke in Tatetutu. Lisheng, your behavior’s really weird, to be honest.”

“Beef is healthy and there’s no odd smell in it…”

“And you won’t try anything new because of that? Lisheng, you must know that trying something new isn’t necessarily bad. Just like Trish and Sheila, I guarantee they’re just like me. Perhaps they look like they… how do I put this? They might have tiny issues here and there, but they’re actually very kind and trustworthy. It wouldn’t be a problem even if they found out about that little secret of yours.”

“You can guarantee about Trish and Sheila, but what about the rest?”

Tina fell into silence for a moment and shouted in excitement all of the sudden, “Why don’t the four of us go into Amazon…”

“Stop dreaming, Tina. Order an American beef burger, the burger’s here tastes special. You guys won’t be able to taste this when that muscular Mountain Division Hunk chases you back to America.”

“You don’t know Trish. I might give in, but she will never go back,” Tina sighed and said softly. A girl was accurate when judging her best friend. Early next morning, Trish and her boyfriend Walter mysteriously disappeared from the hotel suite. Everyone spread out to look for them. Eventually, Hatton and his friends found both of them at a small port near the Amazon River after spending a couple of hours looking through the entire Tuikano in the rain.

Both of them were with the cab driver who sent them to Paradise Hotel from the airport yesterday. It seemed like it was a norm that cab drivers in Tuikano moonlighted as a tour guide. In reality, if the cab driver’s canoe was not in repair due to a big hole caused by a falling log when he was in the water this morning, the three of them would have entered the rainforest in the canoe following the river.

Looking at the crude wooden port built on a muddy river bank under his feet, Hatton said nothing when he found both of them. He threw a hard punch at Walter’s face who stood next to Trish with an umbrella. Walter flew over a meter away after a devastating groan while having rain and fresh blood in his mouth. As he fell onto the muddy ground, his cheeks became swollen and his features squeezed together from the pain. The umbrella was blown into the river by the wind and flew away.

“Have you lost your mind, Hatton…” Trish pounded her brother’s chest and shrieked with all her might seeing that. “It’s me, it’s my idea. Why did you beat him up? Come, come at me if you dare…”

Hatton shouted while lifting his fist as he swung it. However, it did not land on his sister’s face. Instead, he punched the cab driver who was smiling while standing beside the muddy water. “If you conned my sister into looking for my brother in the rainforest again, I’ll hang you on a tree and let you die from the scorching sun.”

There were a couple of local canoe owners who were watching ignorantly in the rain at the port. Seeing their fellow being beaten up, they looked at each other after a moment of shock. Suddenly, they brought out a sharp machete that was close to 70cm long each from their own canoe. They hissed with their mouths wide open, releasing strange sounds that went ‘hehe…’

They fearlessly came closer toward Hatton who used violence earlier.

Being on the Amazon River, machetes and paddles were the necessary tools. They were used to get rid of the vines and twigs that were blocking the canoe’s way. To the natives who lived in the rainforest, swinging the machete was as easy as waving their hands and legs. The barbaric behavior imprinted in them which had yet to wear off from the civilization caused them to habitually use action to solve issues, instead of solving it verbally.

Seeing that the natives surrounded him, Hatton frowned and shouted, “Nord, get them to leave.”

“Yes, captain.” A young man who looked immature and skinny and was standing aside went to the natives. He gathered a stack of US dollars from his pocket and tossed it onto the ground as he shouted, “What are you native monkeys trying to do? Are you trying to attack the active American officer? Leave with your friend who is faking his death on the ground while my captain is speaking to his sister instead of doing anything to you guys. Otherwise, I’ll kick your as*.”

Seeing the US dollars on the ground, the natives looked at the hunks around Hatton who looked scary and changed the menacing expression they had into a contented smile. After picking up the money, ‘hahalala…’ they went away with their Tatetutu language and helped the cab driver up from the muddy ground. They then left happily.

“Look, those natives are exactly like monkeys. Using a whip alone won’t work, using only candy won’t work, either. However, it will always work when you held the whip while tossing candies at them at the same time. Captain, that’s a total of $850. It’ll be today’s activity expenses, remember to include that in the company account,” Nord said with pride after chasing the natives away with money.

Hatton nodded while frowning as he looked at his panicky sister who was scared by the natives that surrounded them. He said in exhaustion, “Trish, you saw that yourself. These natives aren’t as gentle as they presented. This is the Amazon, those natives you see on the streets selling their stuff with a smile might have dads who survived by eating people! Tatetutu has been founded into civilization for less than 100 years, many of the citizens have just left the jungle tribe…”

“Even so, I’m still staying in Tuikano. You chasing me away will only backfire. Initially, I didn’t want to call the number of the cab driver who left me today, but because of what you said last night, I called him.” Trish snapped back to her senses and looked at her brother stubbornly. She calmly spoke in the rain.

“Hmph, hmph…” Hatton glared at the stubborn Trish while breathing heavily. Eventually, he hardly wiped the rainwater on his face away, “Let’s go.” He turned around and left in big steps. His partners looked at each other and followed Hatton who was leaving the port. Nord spoke softly all of a sudden when he was passing beside Trish, “Ms. Trish, captain’s just concerned about your safety and that’s why he’s been hard on you. I hope that you would understand. I used to have a brother like that too.”

“I know, thanks.”

After everyone left, Trish staggered her way in the rain and helped Walter up. At the moment, a scream came from far away. “Trish, Walter, where are you guys…” Tina, Zhang Lisheng, and the rest made their way to the small port; it was Hatton who informed them earlier. The three ladies hugged and cried together when they met. When they returned to the hotel, Trish had a high fever that afternoon.

Seeing the ambulance ran on diesel with black smoke coming out of it, Tina and Sheila thought the clinic in Paradise Hotel was more reliable than the only public hospital in Tuikano. They became nurses themselves after getting the hotel doctor to give Trish a shot. They began taking care of Trish diligently while Walter and Shittu volunteered to be the caretakers who did everything. Zhang Lisheng didn’t have a close relationship with Trish, so he had no reason to accompany the patient on the bed.

The entire afternoon became a boring leisure time. Listening to the heavy rain outside his room, an idea popped into his head out of nowhere. He held an umbrella and left Paradise Hotel with his backpack. The heavy rain eliminated Tuikano’s endless fog. It was refreshing and damp. Naturally, there were little people during this weather in the small rainforest country. Zhang Lisheng took a stroll on the streets and walked openly in the muddy water toward the dense rainforest far away.

To most people, the ferocious beasts and venomous worms in the Amazon rainforest were terrifying. Meanwhile, to the ferocious beasts and venomous worms in the rainforest, humans were the real terrifying monsters. The reason being these weak, slow animals with blunt claws had the potential of being made into all sorts of terrifying tools.

An old cross country jeep, an old fashioned double-barreled shotgun, industrialized canned pesticides, and tasers with batteries—although the natives in Tuikano could only use these four simple tools, they managed to teach the animals in the jungle a lesson for tens of years. A lesson to keep those scary humans far away.

However, Zhang Lisheng sensed the livelihood in the rainforest when he walked in. ‘Shh…’, the sound of insects crawling combined with the raindrops that were much lighter in the dense jungle rang in his ears continuously. He tossed the umbrella away and lifted his head to look. He could see little of the sky-like spots from the gaps between the trees above his head.

Indulging himself in the extraordinarily fresh jungle air with a faint rotting stench, Zhang Lisheng took in a deep breath and began chanting witchcraft incantation softly. All of a sudden, a black-scaled giant lizard that looked like a dragon appeared not far away. It was over ten meters long, whose body stretched along the trees in the jungle as if it had no bones. Its enormous body did not make any noise when it was walking—it was extremely agile.

After bringing the wizard worm to his side, Zhang Lisheng climbed on the giant lizard’s back and controlled Island Dragon to hop up. Its four claws attached to the trunk of a tree that was tens of meters tall agilely, climbing all the way to the top of the tree while avoiding the branches that were sticking out. It was raining heavily above the tree, and Zhang Lisheng was completely drenched thanks to it. Although the chilly wind caused piercing pain in his bones, he felt a switch that went ‘pa’ in his head when he watched the endless jungle high up. There was a sense of liberation that he could not describe.

Ignoring the chill, Zhang Lisheng began chanting witchcraft incantation loudly, controlling Island Dragon to get from one treetop to another, as if it was flying. All beasts avoided them wherever they passed by. Riding on the giant lizard’s back, he had no idea how long they had been running freely. The rain gradually stopped and the sun revealed itself. Suddenly, Zhang Lisheng felt that the aura around the jungle was getting wild and terrifying.

He ordered his wizard worm to stop and looked down; he realized he could not see the end of the tree beneath his feet. He calculated that he must be at least 100 meters up in the air.

“Oh no, I have no idea how far we’ve gone after running out of excitement. I wonder if we can make it back to Tuikano, seeing that we lost our direction,” Zhang Lisheng mumbled while forcing a smile as he calmed himself. “I must be out of my mind, how can I lose control once I come to the jungle? Compared to my life in New York, the concrete jungle isn’t depressing at all…”