The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm - Chapter 32

Translator: I’m Working Hard

Editor: Lightbubble

Chapter 32: It’s Better to Leave

Zhang Mu walked toward the other side of the highway with Yuan Rui. On his shoulder, there was a small beetle that was saving energy by shrinking its figure.

Unlike before, there weren’t masses of walking dead anymore. Now, only a few appeared each time. The Obsidian Beetle was planning to close its eyes and get some rest. It seemed to have reached the limit after absorbing so much energy from the second-ranked crystals, as even the prospect of eating couldn’t draw its attention either. It just watched Zhang Mu take all the crystals without making a fuss.

Zhang Mu couldn’t do anything about the Obsidian Beetle’s indolence, so he let it do what it wanted. After all, he could take all the crystals for himself as he didn’t need to feed the Obsidian Beetle.

“It seems to have the energy needed for us to evolve. After all, Little Black loves it. I think that it should be useful for people like us who developed special abilities,” Zhang Mu explained to Yuan Rui.

However, Yuan didn’t pay attention to what he said at all. She just looked at the upside-down vehicles and the deformed wreckage on the side of the road with curiosity. She was afraid that a walking dead would suddenly jump out from the car, but she also had a glimmer of expectation because Zhang Mu looked so handsome when he fought against the walking dead with a knife. To any little girl like her, it was irresistibly charming.

Zhang Mu had an ominous premonition that a large-scale invasion by the walking dead was coming soon since there were so few on the road.

All of a sudden, the Obsidian Beetle began to move restlessly as if it sensed something dangerous. Alarmed by its anxiety, Zhang Mu quickly climbed to the top of a commercial car. He looked far in front and gasped.

“Oh my god! Now, this is big!”

Yuan Rui couldn’t see what happened as her sight was blocked. She could do a thing but ask Zhang Mu anxiously, “What happened? Tell me! Hurry up!”

Zhang Mu squatted down to help Yuan Rui climb up. After having a clear look at what was happening up front, Yuan Rui was so scared, she nearly fell down.

At the corner of the highway, several trucks, presumingly from the same company, fell and formed a circle at the intersection. What had scared Zhang Mu was within the circle. He finally understood why there were so few walking dead on the highway.

There was a herd of mutated pigs with erect hair and large, disgustingly yellow fangs sticking out of their mouths and were bent upwards.

Zhang Mu instantly understood. Those mutated pigs probably considered the circle of trucks as a pigsty. They hunted and ate walking dead when they were hungry and rested in the circle when they finished eating.

Now they just laid down and hummed while flapping their long ears now and then. If not for the blood staining the corners of their mouths, Zhang Mu would have thought that they were just normal and lazy pigs.

Yet, Zhang Mu knew clearly how horrible these mutated pigs could get when they went crazy. Once, there had been a survival base that tried to domesticate the mutated pigs. In the end, out of negligence, the animals had escaped and all the breeders were eaten without a single bone left.

Later, there were no bases that dared to raise mutated pigs unless they hired a tamer-type evolver because it would be a catastrophe if the mutated pigs were to go out of control while the walking dead launched an attack.

Suddenly, an idea came to Zhang Mu’s mind.

If he couldn’t go through the circle, he could try slipping past from the side.

He could bypass the mutated pigs and avoid confronting them.

The opponent was more than 20 first-ranked pigs. By no means did Zhang Mu want to start a conflict with them.

He and the Obsidian Beetle shared a glance and quickly understood each other’s thoughts.

He had intended to let Little Black bring Yuan Rui and fly over these pigs. It was not difficult for an Obsidian Beetle to fly at a high altitude for a short time, but Zhang Mu worried that these mutated pigs would be woken up by the flapping sound of Black Beetle’s wings.

Zhang Mu awkwardly pulled Yuan Rui down from the top of the car, then touched his nose and said, “Yuan Rui, we will slip away while they are asleep, so you must keep quiet.”

“Uncle Zhang, you are scared, aren’t you?”

Yuan Rui tittered with her hand covered her mouth. She was mocking Zhang Mu as she had never seen him get embarrassed.

Zhang Mu said nothing and smiled bitterly, pulling Yuan Rui forward.

The closer they walked, the louder the breathing of the pigs got. They were worried that those monsters would wake up suddenly.

If it really happened, it would cause big problems for them.

The stink was getting stronger and thicker. Yuan Rui couldn’t stand it and got nauseous as she covered mouth and nose with her cuff, but it was useless.

Seeing this, Zhang Mu sped up. They quickly walked into a crevice between the outer edge of the trucks and the fence.

Just as they were going to bypass the motorcade, Yuan Rui couldn’t stand the smell anymore and began to vomit.

“Are you ok?!” Zhang Mu asked her.

Yuan Rui was too sick to say a word. Even the Black Beetle couldn’t stand it and had drilled into Zhang Mu’s clothes to avoid the stink, let alone Yuan Rui, a little girl.

Zhang Mu had no choice but to lift her up and tiptoed out of the motorcade.

Right at that time, one of the mutated pigs moved a little. It seemed to smell Yuan Rui’s scent and suddenly opened its bloody eyes!

“Roar!”

All the mutated pigs woke up and looked towards Zhang Mu.

Zhang Mu was frightened. He immediately fished out Little black and threw Yuan Rui on its back, shouting, “Run!”

After seeing the Obsidian Beetle fly high, Zhang Mu quickly ran off.