Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The midday sun hung suspended in the air, scorching the ground with its fiery sunlight.
The weather in the July of California was so hot that it was unbearable. However, relying on its unique geographical environment, a giant French village-style villa, that had its back facing a vast lake, situated at the foot of the green hills near Silicon Valley had a very cool temperature even though the air-conditioner was not switched on.
On the large trapezoidal balcony of the villa built along the mountain, a middle-aged man dressed in a black tuxedo, and even a bow tie, under such hot weather, was gesturing and commanding a group of maids to set up a dining table methodically under the grape rack.
“Fresh flowers, Ediah! Fresh flowers are the flowers that have just been picked, not these shriveled plant buds! Immediately change all the flowers now! There’s no need to make any more special orders but just go to the wild to pick a few flowers. Clean the flowers using water and that’s it! Rustic beauty, don’t you know that, missy? We need rustic beauty! Tinia, Jones, I’ve told you two before that the setting of the plates needs to take in the guests height and weight into consideration! As the main guests, both Miss Guo and Miss Ai are very slim and they are best friends so their plates need to be placed closer to each other. Only then can they talk to each other easily and the dining atmosphere would undoubtedly be more enjoyable. Wine! Alia, Edith, I saw the wine that you’ve prepared, Chateau Margaux 87-year-old wine. Good choice but how can you two forget the most important thing? Where’s the Coke? To Mr. Zhang, a chilled Coke is his only love. He can probably drink a dozen cans of it during a banquet. So, go! Immediately prepare for it!”
The villa’s butler continued to pick on the mistakes and it was apparent that he wanted to perfect his duties.
While he and his servants were getting busy, in the villa’s master bedroom close to the lakeshore, Zhang Lisheng, who was sitting on the big bed, suddenly trembled violently and opened his eyes abruptly. With a pleasant surprise, he murmured, “I’ve made a breakthrough! I’ve made a breakthrough! Rank-9 Wizard! Rank-9 Wizard! I’ve been busy attending make-up classes and viva voce these few months and kept on cultivating on and off but I really didn’t expect myself to make a breakthrough like this inadvertently!”
A few months ago, seizing the opportunity where the Kamando people and the tribal alliance led by Samru, Pelungia and Eruya mistakenly attacked the human gathering place, with the help of the air raid from the US Army stationed on the island, the Tudenan tribe had carried out an amazing performance of a snake swallowing an elephant and occupied the entire Shrimp B1 Island.
Due to the reason that the victory came too suddenly, after the capture of the whole island, it would take at least five to six months just to completely digest the spoils of the war, like building a separate dwelling, selecting new warriors and supplementing the army with the giant millispiders.
Adding on the imitation of the steamships, building sharper weapons and stronger armor to completely stabilize the situation of the entire tribe, it would most likely take up to one whole year.
Seizing this free time, Zhang Lisheng returned to Stanford, making up for a semester of basic theory of biological research, while planning a journey back to his hometown.
Not long ago, he had even applied and undergone for Ph.D viva voce and had submitted a thesis co-authored with his supervisor to the university’s academic degree committee.
Even though he did not know whether he would pass the viva voce or not, it still could be said as having taken a load off his mind. Adding on to the fact that his witchcraft cultivation had made another breakthrough to Rank-9 Wizard, how could he possibly not feel delighted over it.
After being happy for a while, a sudden palpitation made Zhang Lisheng’s entire body freeze.
Frowning, he recalled the suffering he had to endure for not transforming any wizard gu in time when he was breaking through to Rank-8 Wizard. Immediately, he commanded Ghostface that was hidden in the vast lake outside the window to nihilate its body to climb into the bedroom. Only then did it show itself again and return to its normal state.
The horrifyingly giant spider was still about two meters tall despite having its slender legs bent as it crouched on the ground, with the meat hole behind its back opening and closing from time to time, alternately showing a grimacing face and a ferociously big mouth. Looking at it, Zhang Lisheng stroked its long hair and took his clothes off. When he was about to mumble the ancient spell to calm himself down so that he could proceed with the transformation, he suddenly heard a series of phone ringing sounds resonating from the pocket of the jacket he had thrown on the bed.
With the disturbance from the ringtone, his mood was gone right away. Painfully, the young man sat down on the bed and panted heavily before climbing to the head of the bed to take out his phone. When he saw that it was a strange number, he picked up the call right away.
“Good afternoon. Is this Mr. Zhang Lisheng?” A solemn yet hoarse voice with a slight Californian accent reverberated from the phone.
“This is him speaking. Is there anything?”
“Mr. Zhang, I’m Anthony Epler, the chairman of Stanford University’s academic degree committee. I’m calling you to officially inform you that your thesis titled, ‘The Island Ecology of Shrimp B1 Island’ has been accepted by the Stanford’s academic degree committee.”
Even though Zhang Lisheng did not know who this Anthony Epler was, since he was the chairman of the Stanford University’s academic degree committee, he must be a professor with great scientific achievements. Stunned and slightly overwhelmed with emotions, Zhang Lisheng replied, “Oh, Professor Epler, you mean…”
“Yes, you’ve obtained a Ph.D. in Natural Science from Stanford University. Congratulatons, Doctor.”
In the Western society, people would usually refer scholars with doctoral degrees using their academic title instead of using ‘Mr.’ or ‘Ms.’ to show respect. Not only that, many political and business celebrities with high social status preferred other people to call them by the title ‘Doctor’, rather than the title of ‘MP’ (Member of Parliament), ‘Minister’, ‘Speaker’ or even ‘Prime Minister’.
In a sense, when a person had a Ph.D. in the West, it might not change his quality of life but he would naturally be labeled as an ‘elite’ by the mainstream society and this label could also follow him all the time. When somebody else referred to him using this title, the label would automatically stick to him.
To Zhang Lisheng who possessed earth-shattering strength, a net worth of billions and several millions of believers, this level might seem to be unimportant but in truth, it was the key that determined whether he could continue to stay on Shrimp B1 Island rightfully, in the name of hosting the biological laboratory to collect ‘materials’, and lead the Tudenan people to go on a punitive expedition in the Hellfire Archipelago.
“Doctor? Am I a Doctor already? Thank you for telling me this good news, Professor Epler. Thank you!”
“Don’t worry, you deserve it, Dr. Zhang. Even though your knowledge in biology is still slightly lacking, we’ve come to an agreement that this is a small problem compared to your courageous scientific spirit and outstanding dedication to biology. Congratulations to you once again, Dr. Goodbye!”
“Goodbye, Professor!” Zhang Lisheng hung up the phone and let the emotions sink in as he muttered, “It’s quite a good day today! What a double blessing…”
Then, he shifted his gaze onto Ghostface and breathed a long sigh of relief, before beginning to mumble ‘pst shh…’ to cast a spell to completely calm his emotions down.
After that, he slowly closed his eyes and began to exhale, without inhaling, breath by breath. After spending more than half an hour, he finally discharged all the air in his lungs, causing his entire chest to sink in deeply.
At this time, Zhang Lisheng opened his eyes and sketched the Demon’s image in his mind according to the secret cultivation method while inhaling, facing the giant spider in front of him.
As the young man began to inhale, the space around Ghostface started to distort. Then, a colorless smoke floated out of the wizard gu’s long soft hair and entered Zhang Lisheng’s mouth and nose.
Feeling that the test was coming soon, the young man began to wait for the unbearable pain to rise from his heart just like his previous transformation’s experience. To his surprise, he did not feel any discomfort this time. With a sudden blackout, he saw a flash of lightning cutting across the sky and countless meteorites burning with raging fire as they crashed down to the ground in the heavy rain.
The meteorite hit the ground and caused a scene of the Judgement’s Day, with the Earth quaking, the volcano erupting and the ocean overturning. Right at this moment, a giant black-haired snake suddenly soared up into the sky in the midst of blazing fire.
The instant these images emerged vividly in the young man’s mind, black mist suddenly appeared in the space behind him and automatically outlined a human-headed snake monster that had incomplete facial features, a black and a white pupil, a bleak expression, withering skin and a full head of black weed-like hair.
After the monster’s image appeared in the back of Zhang Lisheng, the young man inadvertently inhaled and easily transformed the giant wizard gu crouching in front sweepingly into a gust of colorless mist. Without leaving anything behind, he inhaled all of it down his belly.
Just like this, Zhang Lisheng completed his transformation inexplicably, as his eyes turned bright and restored his normal vision. The human-headed snake’s image that had become even more tattered behind him, on the other hand, disappeared without a trace.
Naked while staring absent-mindedly at the spot where the wizard gu had vanished, Zhang Lisheng stood for a while before snapping back to reality. He felt that the wizard power in his body was thick and converged but no longer had the boiling, surging feeling just now. All he could feel was that all of this was perplexing to him.
Smiling wryly, he sat down on the bed and said to himself, “Don’t tell me that I’ve already incarnated Ghostface. Last time, I would always faint and wake up suffering for a few hours but now it only takes me two to three minutes to complete it. Have I accidentally found a shortcut or have I been possessed by the devil?”
The instant Zhang Lisheng thought of himself being possessed by the devil, his heart shuddered right away. He tried to transform his body using Ghostface’s giant spider’s power and as the idea formed in his mind, two huge long mouths appeared on his chest and back, exposing his blood and flesh before transforming into two vivid grimacing sculptures.
At the same time, six eyes appeared on both sides of his head and behind it. His four limbs had also became slender like steel thorns. Long hair that swayed without wind covered his body entirely while eleven Chinese hieroglyphic words appeared in his mind, “Capture the wind and shadow, seize the spirit and the soul.”
The evolved omniscient power appeared after Ghostface was incarnated, undoubtedly proving that Zhang Lisheng was not being possessed by the devil.
“What the hell? Could it be that today is my super lucky day?” The young man relaxed and no longer pondered over it since he could not figure it out anyway. Muttering and consoling himself, he went to the bedside table to open the drawer and pick up a picture of a clown, before sticking it to his forehead.
Then, he went into the bathroom and took a shower. When he saw his own face had become even more pale and pallid from the mirror, he sighed and put on a clean set of clothes before pushing the door open to walk out of the bedroom.
