Chapter 186: Emergence of the Living Corpse
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Sure, Old Man Xu! Just tell him about it later.” Cui Xiaodong pondered over it and pointed at Zhang Lisheng before saying, “Boy, I’m warning you! You’re indeed a little capable, but there are more capable people in our team! I’ll tell you frankly, right now, this entire hotel is in our control. If you wanted to barge out of it forcefully just now, you wouldn’t stand a chance…”
Now that Zhang Lisheng had obtained the True Book, there was no such thing as a free lunch. For this reason, he could no longer have a fallout with Old Man Xu’s colleague so he no longer refuted Cui Xiaodong’s words.
After a while, Cui Xiaodong became thirsty over his long nag. He finally shut his mouth and breathed a sigh of relief. Waving his hand, he told Old Man Xu to take the teenager away.
“Alright, Team Leader Cui. Now that you’ve finished your nagging, I’ll buy him dinner then.” Old Man Xu smiled and patted Zhang Lisheng’s shoulder. “Let’s go, boy! We’re already been starving since the morning, so let us go fill our tummies with food.”
Then, he proceeded to stride into the hotel’s restaurant.
On the way, the old man told Zhang Lisheng that their group was convened by the Chinese government at the last moment. Under this mission, they had concealed their identities and had flown all the way from China to Congo, then from Congo to Tanzania, then from Tanzania to Johannesburg, while donning the alias of being employees of China National Mining Corporation. He told the teenager that the only mission of this team of theirs was actually to sneak into the supernatural realm from Cape Town.
The restaurant at the African Hometown was square and had large white tiles on the floor. In addition to the neat sets of four ceiling lamps, the ceiling itself was covered in oil paintings that combined the African wilderness, the mine, modern factories, and not to mention, the skyscrapers of Johannesburg.
With an area of more than three hundred square meters, it seemed like it could accommodate more than 500 people at the same time.
“If someone else hears about this, they may not believe it and would think that they’ve encountered a huge group of frauds. However, the moment the government looked for me, I immediately believed in it. It’s none other than the shell of our Earth having a small hole that goes straight to the supernatural realm. The ancestor of ours who practice witchcraft is Goddess Nuwa. She has even lost her life for the sake of repairing the hole in the sky.” As they walked into the restaurant, Old Man Xu rattled on eloquently about some other things. “I think it’s the same, too, this time, but on a smaller scale. Come to think of it, this is a good thing for us who practice witchcraft. For example, this time, this entrance to the supernatural realm appeared on other people’s land, so the army would not be able to be dispatched and weapons would not be easily used as well. On top of it, who knows what the supernatural realm would look like anyway? No matter how strong a person trains, he may be caught as well when he enters there. At the end, who would be the one taking advantage of the situation? Hehe… Us, of course! The official cadre status with an official number would naturally be granted to me…”
“Uncle, how long have you been a wizard? Why would you still care about having a cadre position?” Upon hearing the old man’s words, Zhang Lisheng who piled a huge amount of meat, ice cream, cakes, and other high-calorie and high-fat dishes onto his plate could not help but ask strangely.
“How can becoming a wizard bring any earning? Look, you yourself are a wizard, too, and on top of that, you also have such good martial arts skills. However, you still need to come all the way to Africa for work, don’t you? No matter how powerful you are, do you dare reveal to it to other people? Even those orthodox true bloods need to tuck their tails between their legs and behave themselves too, so of course, mice like us would have to shrink our heads too…”
Upon hearing the old man’s grumbling, Zhang Lisheng finally recalled the time when Sir Zhang was still alive. Other than the locals who did not dare provoke him, he was none other than an ordinary person in the eyes of other people if he went out of town. He had managed to live for so long, but in the end, he still died under a taxi.
Ever since he had become a wizard, he had also spent his entire time thinking about how to get more blood for his wizard gu when he first came to America. If it was not for Tina who came out with the genius idea of letting him open a slaughterhouse and form a virtuous circle after that, perhaps his wizard gu would have already dragged him to death too.
Now that he thought about it carefully, the teenager was astonished to realize that if he had not encountered any opportunity, source of money nor a top-secret true inheritance he had acquired in his life, it would have been hard for him to become successful too. The saying ”a man without money is no man at all’ could often be heard since ancient times because it’s true.
“Boy, you can really eat! What are you thinking of?” Zhang Lisheng who was lost in his thought was awakened by Old Man Xu’s words. He looked at the plate he loaded to the brink and smiled. “Uncle, you’re a person who practices a martial art, too, so don’t you know just how much we can eat?”
“You have a point.” Old Man Xu carried his plate filled almost on par with the teenager’s plate and chuckled before bringing him to sit down at the table by the corner before finally digging in.
Zhang Lisheng accompanied Old Man Xu for a while before suddenly asking, “Uncle, since we’re just street mice, why did the government look for those orthodox purebloods to explore the supernatural realm but look for you all instead?”
“That’s a good question, boy! You do indeed have a brain.” The old man was stunned for a moment before chewing vigorously and lowering his voice mysteriously. “But if you think about it, nobody can stipulate that only South Africa has a door leading to the supernatural realm…”
“You mean, there’s also a door leading to the supernatural realm in China and the purebloods have already been sent by the government to explore there?”
“I didn’t say that, but the head monk Shi Yongxin, the vice president of the National Buddhist Association and the National People’s Congress representative openly said that Buddhism talks about the Colossal World. They said that there are many other worlds outside of ours. The destination of Buddhists may be other planets or such apotheosis… Hehe…”
“If our country also has one, why would we still send our people to South Africa?”
“Boy, our country is our country, and other people’s place is other people’s place. They’re both two completely different things. This is called ‘keeping an eye on the pot while eating from the bowl’. We have to be prepared as preparedness averts peril.” Old Man Xu smiled sinisterly and said nothing more.
At this time, Zhang Lisheng finally understood that the old man was temporarily recruited by the Chinese government and could also roughly guess the entire situation, so he no longer asked anything. When he picked up a piece of meat using his chopsticks to put into his mouth, he could suddenly smell a faint stench concealed in the aroma.
Frowning, the teenager looked towards the direction of this strange smell and saw a bald man with a height of more than 180 centimeters. He was as thin as a bamboo pole and had an oil painting on his head. He appeared like a hip hop artist as he walked into the restaurant in a mechanical dance. Taking the plate with a distant gaze, he began to choose his food slowly.
“Stop looking, boy. Stop looking! T-That’s Consultant Zheng in our team. D-don’t look at him like that,” Old Man Xu spoke in a trembling tone as he sensed the bald man entering the restaurant and how Zhang Lisheng was staring at him with a fixed gaze.
At this moment, the young man’s body began to tremble faintly as he gradually retracted his gaze, his expression turning grave. He could only feel the wizard power in his body begin to boil as though it was about to transform. With great difficulty, he asked, “Is he a Rank-12 Wizard?”
“Maybe more than that. That is only one of his living corpses. Don’t ever stare at it. A living corpse can contain a part of its owner’s soul and transform into a duplicate of himself…” Old Man Xu buried his head in his plate and continued his warning.
However, Zhang Lisheng did not hear a word of what the old man said. To him, the benefits he would obtain in the future would be inconceivable for an ordinary person compared to the honor of being able to meet with the living corpse of a great wizard he had only read before in ancient books.
It was like how it was when a little blurry light suddenly appeared in front of a blind man who was touching an elephant. Even though the light might be insignificant, the change it brought was significant. This alone was worthy enough for him to risk his life in exploring the supernatural realm.
Consultant Zheng’s living corpse greatly astonished both of them till their behavior differed from their usual demeanor. It was only until the pole-like baldy had carried a few slices of bread, a bowl of porridge, and a plate of dessert out of the restaurant in his stiff movement did they finally snapped back to reality.
Not long after, Zhang Lisheng gradually calmed down and said, “I didn’t expect that there would be such powerhouses with such strength in our Chinese’s witchcraft. Consultant Zheng did not have to live a hide-and-seek life before as well right?”
“Yeah, he didn’t have to. I’ve long heard before that Consultant Zheng is a chief researcher of one of the institutes under the Academy of Social Sciences. He has a position of a leading role equivalent to the county magistrate.”
“And this is enough to appease a great wizard?”
“No matter how great a wizard is, he’s still not as powerful as a missile atomic bomb. Our country has already sent a man to space, so what do you expect?”
Old Man Xu’s words did indeed make sense, but Zhang Lisheng still thought that something did not add up. After a moment of pondering, he suddenly asked, “Uncle, you cultivate the Gate of Sacrifice right? Which level are you at now and what kind of spells have you obtained?”
“Y-You! Boy! How dare you ask so recklessly? We don’t have an excessively close relationship yet! How could you ask this?!”
“I was merely thinking that since I’ve joined the gang, we should now learn and understand more about each other,” Zhang Lisheng knew he had accidentally stepped on the taboo despite his careful manner in which he asked information from the old man, so he quickly covered it up.
“What understand? Why do you have to understand these things? Even your Captain Hu who leads me on behalf of the country doesn’t know what level of wizard I am now and what kind of spells I’ve obtained. She only knows my expertise at most. How dare you ask directly like that? Don’t tell me that you’re raised by the street and you don’t know all these?”
Seeing that he could no longer cover it up, Zhang Lisheng could only spill the truth. “My entire family has all stayed in the Western Sichuan, but my father really didn’t teach me much of these rules of witchcraft…”
“No wonder you’re so excited over a True Book. I thought you were as naive as I was when I was young who thought a man’s determination could conquer nature…” A strange look crept upon Old Man Xu’s face before disappearing once again. “Forget it. It’s all in the past anyway. Sigh, let me teach you, young man. Don’t be arrogant and learn how to be satisfied. Seize this opportunity and live a peaceful life using public funds…”
Upon hearing the old man nagging continuously being hooked in his own lies, Zhang Lisheng chuckled and no longer said anything until they finished their meals.
After leaving the restaurant, Old Man Xu took the teenager to the activity room of their team. On the way, he informed him, “Our team is divided into six groups. Each group has a number of people ranging from four to six people. Our team just so happen to have five members. Other than Team Leader Cui and I, there’s another demobilized special soldier named Liu Qiang, who is very enthusiastic. Such a person exists in every group, so I won’t explain any more about him. Another member is called Xu Mo. She’s a girl who is only in her twenties. She’s quiet and cultivates the Witchcraft’s Gate of Life. It’s beneficial to forge a relationship with her for who knows, she may save your little life during the critical moment. The last person is Jin Fusheng who is tall and handsome. Just like us, he cultivates the Witchcraft’s Gate of Sacrifice, but despite the fact that he practices close combat ability, he only knows some simple wrestling. He has a simple brain and an arrogant temper. You don’t have to pay any attention to him.”
