The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm

Chapter 157: Little Black’s Tricks

The fire continued unabated. Zhang Mu practically retrieved all the gasoline from the gas station this time. As he had a huge space inside his merchant ring, he brought all of them over.

Because the amount of gasoline was enough, with the soil corroded and riddled with holes, the gasoline that he threw down would trickle underground for a dozen meters.

Those spiders that wanted to escape underground would be asking for trouble instead. The fire was burning endlessly and was spreading to every corner where the gasoline was present. Hence, when those spiders that were soaked fully with gasoline were forced to dig underground, it was acting like a fuse with running ability.

The faster they ran and the deeper they dug, the farther the flame would spread. Hence, these spiders would burn even more miserably.

“Do you think that those spiders are done roasting? Want to go in and eat some of them?” The Obsidian Beetle looked eagerly towards the direction of the enormous pit. Thinking about the large barbecue meal inside, it felt that the roasted spiders would taste the same as the roasted bear meat that Zhang Mu barbecued after it had finished its advancement.

Zhang Mu rolled his eye and looked at the fire that did not appear to be receding soon. “If you want to eat them, then go in yourself. Don’t drag me along. Until now, my butt is still painful, so I’ll wait here instead.”

Zhang Mu thought that the Obsidian Beetle would listen to him this time. But he never expected that the Obsidian Beetle’s heart to feast had overcome the fear of fire completely.

He saw that it shook its wing and headed straight for the sea of flames. Zhang Mu was stunned and speechless watching the Obsidian Beetle. It was so greedy to this extent.

For some reason, the outermost layer of the massive cocoon, made up of the spider webs, did not burn. It kept the heat under control and continued to burn furiously.

And for those spiders, they were a great flammable agent as they could not resist getting scorched by the fire completely. Due to their survival instinct, they were still frantically digging the soil to go under a deeper layer.

“I can’t believe it actually risked its life for food.” Zhang Mu laughed silently to himself as he looked at the back of the Obsidian Beetle getting out of sight. Never in his mind did he expect that the Obsidian Beetle would be tempted to this extent.

The Obsidian Beetle flew low on the ground. Although it was a wind-typed mutated animal, on the surface it would not be subdued by the fire too much. However, the event that Zhang Mu created was not a regular fire.

The Obsidian Beetle hesitated for a moment outside the enormous pit. Just now, it was still daring and enthusiastic. However, it had a new plan now.

Because of the massive cocoon, there was too much heat trapped inside. The Obsidian Beetle stopped outside the cocoon and could felt its innate instinct was rejecting and opposing the fire.

As a result, it was flying around the big pit like a chicken thief. Just as it expected, it found a few spiders on the ground, that were roasted tender with a crispy crust.

The Obsidian Beetle was unable to hold back itself as it carefully picked up one of them using its claw, and put inside its mouth to bite.

However, as it chews and chews, the formerly enthusiastic mood of the Obsidian Beetle was starting to turn complex. It flew back with a blank expression on its face and even held a few mutated spiders on its claw.

Seeing the Obsidian Beetle returning so quickly, Zhang Mu had a bad feeling all of a sudden.

When he saw the mutated spiders on the Obsidian Beetle’s claw, he knew that it was going to play tricks on him. So he pretended not to notice and said in his mind, “What happen? I can’t believe you return so fast. I thought you were going to have a big feast? Is it because you are afraid and didn’t dare to take a peek inside? There were thousands of mutated spiders inside that you were longing for, so why didn’t you have a good meal and glut yourself with those delicious foods?”

The Obsidian Beetle said calmly, “That’s right. I felt that my shell couldn’t withstand such a high temperature, so it is better to wait for it to cool down. You see, I even brought back a few of them for you to try. I can’t pocket everything without sharing them with you, am I right?”

At this moment, the uneasy feeling in Zhang Mu’s heart was getting worse. It was possible for the Obsidian Beetle to be afraid of fire, but with this sort of delicacy, even if the Obsidian Beetle was full, it wouldn’t bring some over for him to try.

Zhang Mu understood the character of the Obsidian Beetle too well.

Right now, its belly must be full of bad water, and it wanted to stir things up.

But it had underestimated Zhang Mu. In his past life, there was nothing that Zhang Mu never tasted. When he was penniless, he even ate tree roots and tree bucks. These items, accompanied by a few wild vegetables, were delicious too.

It was not exaggerating to say that Zhang Mu had eaten all sorts of thing that a refugee would eat. Well, except for the Guanyin soil that would fill his belly but would cost his life at the same time.

As the fifth successor, he was only a humble era sub-merchant. If he did not have the opportunity to become one, he was no different from an ordinary person since he did not have any awakening ability. He could only be a little richer when he completed the era merchant’s task every time.

Zhang Mu slowly accepted a mass of burned mutated spiders from the Obsidian Beetle’s claw. Under the playful eye of the Obsidian Beetle, he plucked off a spider leg and stuffed it inside his mouth to taste it carefully.

After removing the layer of burnt skin from the mutated spider, there was pink colored meat inside. When Zhang Mu took a bite in his mouth, he finally understood why was the Obsidian Beetle acting so ‘nice’ to him.

The meat of the mutated spider was almost as hard as tree bark. However, Zhang Mu continued to stuff his mouth without changing his facial expression. Meanwhile, the Obsidian Beetle was stunned and speechless observing him.

“Don’t you think that it tastes terrible? I spit it out after taking a bite. I have never eaten anything so nasty like this before.” The voice of the Obsidian Beetle sounded surprised. Just now, it thought that Zhang Mu would spit it out with an angry expression on his face. However, Zhang Mu looked normal.

“My mouth is not raised like you, so picky about food. What’s wrong with this? It’s good that you can fill your belly, so why are you so picky?

I remembered before your intelligence had developed, you were chewing a head of a first-ranked walking dead. Did I give you too much good food that you even dare to deceive me now? From now onwards, should I let you struggle and learn about the spirit of hard work?”

“No please!”

Once Zhang Mu said the words, the Obsidian Beetle stopped fooling around immediately. It was devastated when it thought that Zhang Mu would not bring him along to barbeque meat again.

When he was playing tricks on Zhang Mu, the thought that Zhang Mu was his royal chef never went through its mind. Now, it could only start to please Zhang Mu.

Zhang Mu stood on a far end and looked at the smoke rising. Silently, he felt grateful in his heart.

It was good that the Obsidian Beetle brought along the mutated spider. At least he would know that the meat of the mutated spiders would not make any improvement on his body. And because they did not reach the first rank, there wasn’t any beast core in their body.

This time, the fire did not bring any benefits for him.