The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm

Translator: I'm Working Hard

Editor: Lightbubble

Chapter 44: Forge ahead

Zhang Mu slept deeply and only woke up when he felt the warm sunshine. He slowly opened his eyes.

"Is it the fourth day already?" seeing the sun, Zhang Mu murmured.

"Uncle, Are you awake?"

Yuan Rui's voice came from behind him. Zhang Mu turned around and took the water and bread she handed him. It seemed that she had already eaten breakfast. He had certainly slept like a log.

Zhang Mu touched his left arm softly. Everything still felt so unbelievable, but the Bloodvine Lotus within his arm and the mental bond they shared showed that everything was real.

"Do I have an ability that only evolvers own now?" Zhang Mu laughed at himself for a while and stopped thinking about it. After all, external strength was also a strength. As long as it could be used by Zhang Mu, it was useful. It didn't matter if it was a black cat or a white cat, any cat that could catch mice was a good cat.

"Eh? Where is Little Black? Yuan Rui, do you see Little Black?  I asked it to keep watch at night. Is it being lazy again?"

Having not seen Little Black around or on Yuan Rui's shoulder, Zhang Mu got angry. He thought that it was time to punish Little Black as it hadn't kept what he said in mind. What would happen to them if something dangerous were to pass by?

"No, but you should look for yourself. I'm trying to ignore it." Yuan Rui pointed in a direction with a disgusted look.

Zhang Mu followed the direction of Yuan Rui's finger and found Little Black stuffing himself behind the stones.

Zhang Mu could feel its joy even from a distance.

When he saw clearly what Little Black was doing, he was speechless. As expected, even though its intelligence had improved, its hobby was still the same. Little Black was holding onto a mutated animal's head, sucking its brain matter happily.

"Why do you hide here to eat?"

Zhang Mu hugged himself and asked Little Black who was enjoying itself.

Actually, Little Black had known Zhang Mu's coming, but it didn't respond. As for what it was doing, eating was the most important thing. However, since Zhang Mu asked, it should answer. Meanwhile, a sound echoed in Zhang Mu's mind.

"These are the mutated animals that were attracted by the smell of blood last night. I didn't wake you up and killed them by myself. I have eaten two last night. In the morning, I felt hungry and ate the last one. Yuan Rui saw and was repulsed by this. Since I can't upset her, I had to avoid her and came here. Do you think it is easy for me?"

Zhang Mu understood quickly. Little Black's table manners were disgusting and made Yuan Rui sick, so it ate here. Zhang Mu touched Little Black's back and said, "Thanks for your hard work, good job."

Little Black looked at Zhang Mu with disdain and continued eating, "Speak no more, use actions to thank me instead. How about you give me hundreds of crystals and let me have a sumptuous meal? I have eaten too much meat and got a little tired of it."

After hearing that, Zhang Mu quickly slapped Little Black's head and said, "Hundreds of crystals? A sumptuous meal? What a comfortable life! It seems that you have absorbed all the energy from the mutated King Kong as you are so confident."

Mentioning yesterday's King Kong, Zhang Mu began to take a closer look at Little Black's body and found something different indeed. Little Black's new claws were coated with granite and its carapace had lost its luster, becoming rough and durable. However, the lines on Little Black's forehead were still gold.

Zhang Mu let Little Black alone and asked Yuan Rui to help him pack up their stuff.

Zhang Mu sat down on the ground and began to plan a new route.

Since Zhang Mu had reached his goal, he must plan a new course. He carefully thought of the way from Longmen Grottoes to the Xi'an city, forming a path in his mind quickly.

As Zhang Mu had gained Bloodvine Lotus, Little Black's power had reached the top among all first rank mutated animals and all the creatures had been weakened, their safety was basically guaranteed no matter how many walking dead and mutated animals they met. In that case, Zhang Mu decided to go in a straight line because the sooner he arrived, the sooner the transaction would take place and the more profit he would gain.

As this idea took root, Zhang Mu shouted towards Little Black, "Stop eating, let's go."

Little Black was almost stuffed, so it threw away the skull in its claws without hesitation and flew towards Yuan Rui, lying beside her tamely.

Little Black had cleverly wiped its mouth on the grass so that Yuan Rui would allow it near her. But Yuan Rui still warned it in a low voice, "If you eat like that again, I'll never play with you again, even when you become small!"

Little Black nodded, but nobody knew whether it kept her words in mind or not.

On the way to Xi'an City, Zhang Mu kept trying out the Bloodvine Lotus' power. In the beginning, Yuan Rui was not willing to stay close to Little Black, but when they were surrounded by hundreds of walking dead, she quickly hid behind it and only dared to catch glimpses of the fight.

The Bloodvine Lotus suddenly covered Zhang Mu's whole left arm and extended upwards, using ten separate vines to protect him. Zhang Mu easily broke through the siege and all the walking dead were sucked dry by the Bloodvine Lotus.

Though the walking dead's mobility wouldn't go down even after losing all their blood, they were all split in half when Bloodvine Lotus swept at them. Even worse, some walking dead were broken into pieces.

The most important thing was that Bloodvine Lotus seemed to never get tired. The more blood it sucked, the higher spirit it was in. As the Bloodvine Lotus became more proactive, Zhang Mu got through the crowd as easily as if he was walking in his own backyard. Hundreds of walking dead were wiped out in an instant.

When the survivors saw Zhang Mu's strong power, some were too afraid of getting close to him while others begged him to take them along. But no matter how Yuan Rui pleaded with Zhang Mu on their behalf, Zhang Mu refused all of them. When someone continued pestering them, the Bloodvine Lotus was called out and these words were thrown out coldly, "If you want to become its food, you can stay."

After that, Zhang Mu and Yuan Rui left, leaving behind the terrified man.

Zhang Mu was no savior and he had no time to spend on these common people. To him, time was money and life and he didn't dare to waste it.

On the tenth day of their journey, Yuan Rui was so tired that she fell asleep on Little Black's back while Zhang Mu looked at the words "Xi'an City" on the gate tower. He took a deep breath with a smile on his tired face.

"Ten days. Finally, I've arrived at Xi'an."