The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm

Translator: I'm Working Hard

Editor: Lightbubble

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Chapter 40: The Secret of the Great Buddha

Watching Little Black stuff himself in satisfaction with the meat of the King Kong, Zhang Mu chuckled, "If you're so greedy, you'll have a problem sooner or later. You just wasted too much time."

Little Black flapped its wing innocently and didn't mind whatever Zhang Mu said. Moreover, it was still looking at the mutated King Kong's stone arm with pity in its eyes because it couldn't eat it.

In fact, Zhang Mu knew that he shouldn't blame Little Black as the King Kong, who had a great bloodline potential and first-ranked power, was of great allure to Little Black. On top of that, Little Black was stuck at a bottleneck in the first rank. Eating low-quality food wouldn't help it improve, no matter what the quantity of food was.

It was also the reason why Little Black forced itself to eat the King Kong's core, even if it wasn't really suitable for it.

In the end, it was still a great tonic.

Zhang Mu sensed that Little Black would evolve to the second rank sooner or later according to its present development.

He couldn't imagine what a big catastrophe it would be if the humans, who just learned their evolving abilities, were to face an uncontrolled second-ranked monster, merely in the first week of the cataclysm.

No matter how powerful the potential of an evolver was, it was impossible for the evolver to unleash all of his abilities for now because humans still needed to adapt to control their powers, and at the same time, Little Black did everything by instinct. As for ordinary people, every rank represented an insurmountable gap.

Only the people standing at the top had the ability to survive skip-rank battles, for they had excellent talent and terrifying combat instincts.

For the monsters, to evolve, they only needed to eat cores with the same properties as theirs, mutated animal's blood and flesh to refine their own core, and use crystals to increase their energy.

However, for human beings, the path of evolution was more difficult because the flesh and blood of mutated animals didn't have much of an effect on them. The human beings who were born without the ability to control their energy and potential have to accumulate energy first. Then, they need to use crystals to reinforce their energy and finally, they have to use beast cores that correspond to their attributes to refine their energy's purity level.

Through the bond he shared with Little Black, Zhang Mu perceived that the beetle was absorbing the flesh and blood it just ate and was transforming it into its own energy. With Little Black becoming more and more powerful, Zhang Mu got more confident.

Zhang Mu picked up a torch on the ground with one hand and held Yuan Rui with his other hand. He walked towards the grotto while Little Black had become small to digest the food it just ate.

Soon afterwards, they went into the grotto where the statue of the Great Buddha was located. The cave was not deep, because Zhang Mu had waved his torch and had seen the solemn Great Buddha who seemed to be staring at him.

In this kind of situation, the quietness in the grotto was indeed quite creepy. Yuan Rui was scared and got closer to Zhang Mu. Zhang Mu patted her hands softly to comfort her and said, "Don't worry! We have passed the most dangerous parts. There's nothing that can scare you."

Although Zhang Mu said so, the environment was indeed very eerie, as wisps of cold air came from the stone Buddha. It would be creepy if it weren't an illusion.

"You stand here, I'll go up to take the treasure down."

Zhang Mu was about to let go of Yuan Rui's hand, but then found that she was grasping his arm tightly and had started to shiver. The environment was becoming colder and colder.

Zhang Mu turned his head to look to Little Black on his shoulder and then threw it to Yuan Rui, "You can go out and wait for me for a while. It's a little strange here, but nothing special."

Hearing Zhang Mu's words, Yuan Rui shivered and said, "Ok, I'll go out first."

Holding Little Black in her hand, Yuan Rui ran out of the grotto.

Zhang Mu felt quite confused. It wasn't that cold here, so why did Yuan Rui get scared like that?

Shaking his head, Zhang Mu threw this thought to the back of his mind and started to climb up the Great Buddha. At the places where he really couldn't find support, he had no choice but used Little Black's claw as a supporting point. Right now, he couldn't afford to care about the preservation of cultural relics.

Stone chips fell down, as Zhang Mu easily reached the Great Buddha's shoulder. Looking at the Buddha's ear from a distance, Zhang Mu couldn't stop his heart from pounding.

"Will I finally get to see the treasure hidden within the Buddha?"

Quickly, Zhang Mu noticed that his emotion was very abnormal.

Why did I get so excited?

Zhang Mu took a deep breath. Looking at the Buddha's big ear hole, he slowly walked toward it.

The danger he expected didn't appear. Zhang Mu was still careful, but deep in his heart, he didn't sense any danger.

What is happening? Why can it tease my emotions, but not make me feel threatened?

Although Zhang Mu walked step by step, he still quickly saw a dead end.

The closer he got to the wall, the stronger the power of attraction got and the more it affected his emotion.

Zhang Mu's hand slowly moved over the wall, feeling the source of the power of attraction.

Eh? Is it here?

Zhang Mu found the right place and dug into the wall with the claw's sharp point. The stone was not hard and, with the help of the Obsidian Beetle's claw, a hole was easily excavated.

"Boom!"

As Zhang Mu drilled once more with all his strength, the whole wall instantly collapsed. Zhang Mu felt as if the wall had been corroded for a long time.

And at this point, the scene Zhang Mu saw gradually made his eyes blur.

A pure white lotus was lying quietly at the center of the Buddha. From the moment the wall collapsed, it lit the surrounding in a flawless light.

Its beauty was breathtaking.

Zhang Mu quickly rid himself of the weak influence on him.

"Is it a power that magnifies different emotions according to different people? It's just an unconscious self-protection, this is why I haven't sensed any danger. This Blood Lotus is interesting. If the person's will wasn't firm enough, they would probably meet with danger. Tsk, tsk. It is truly not simple!"

Zhang Mu wasn't bewitched. However, he still slowly reached out his hand towards the hole where the light was exuded.