Strike the First Blow

by Tai Baiyang

  Furthermore, how could it be that the Shan Xi city's strongest evolver did not take action against the mutated animal with such ranking?

  Apart from this, Zhang Mu could not think of any other reason. Right now, he could only take advantage of the situation instead of guessing the reason why the river around him had calm down.

  While he was struggling to swim, he would look around his surrounding from time to time to see what was coming too, which affects his condition. If there was any third-ranked water-type mutated animal, he would give up his struggles then. Even if he was perfectly fine at this moment, he did not have the resources to fight against a third-ranked mutated animal that was at its comfort zone.

  The warning signs in Zhang Mu’s heart was growing more and more. Due to the calm water, it no longer drifted up sands anymore. Therefore, Zhang Mu's vision gradually widened up. He could see clearly that the mud on the other side of the shore was just a dozen meters away. His heart leaped with joy as he raised his speed even more.

  However, because the river had become clearer, Zhang Mu finally took notice the black mass on his right side at this moment. When he saw what was it precisely, he could not help himself but to curse out loud, causing him to gulp down a few mouthfuls of water as well.

  That portion of black mass, was a swarm of piranha!

  The swarm of piranha was actually a second-ranked water-type creature at the top of the food chain. They did not have the intelligence that a second-ranked mutated animal should have. But because of that, they were extremely ferocious. They would form into a swarm to conquer certain parts of the water while sweeping clean the territory there. Even a normal third-ranked human evolver wished that they would not encounter such a crazy group of piranha underwater, that would adopt any means for food.

  Seeing them, Zhang Mu’s heart sank a little. If they were a third-ranked water-type creature, they might give him a quick death. But with the situation now...

  No wonder they could control the river current in this area. Even though they were a second-ranked mutated animal, but with them forming as a team that had no competition within themselves, they were able to fuse their power together to make it happen. That was also the reason why even a third-ranked mutated animal was unwilling to stay on their territory too.

  This was so troublesome. But at the same time, it also explained why they were able to live close to Shan Xi city. High ranked evolver disdain to deal with such a swarm of mutated animal, therefore even a third-ranked evolver would also be reluctant to spend their effort to deal with this.

  Zhang Mu had gone to Shan Xi city various time, but he had never heard of such matter before. But at least now he finally understood why there were no people near the river. Only when the river was slightly calm, people would then cross it.

  Zhang Mu looked bitterly at his left arm where his flesh had turned outward. He finally figured out why was there a swarm of piranhas beside him.

  They must have smelled the blood flowing out from him. As they were sensitive to the scent of blood, they were able to track the smell of blood coming from several kilometers away and then trailed it all the way here.

  Right now the piranha was only a dozen meters away behind Zhang Mu. For them, the water was a place for them to come and go freely. Hence, this sort of distance away from Zhang Mu was nothing to them. With just a blink of an eye, they could devour Zhang Mu until there was nothing left.

  Remembering the previous experience with the silver minks, Zhang Mu did not dare to make a single move. Furthermore, if he showed any signs of fear, the piranhas that were a little hesitant now, would throw themselves on him straight away.

  All he could do now was to pray that the river current would move his body slowly towards the shore while he faced them.

  This time, it seems that Zhang Mu was lucky as his body began to move bit by bit towards the shore on this slow-moving river, like what he had hoped for.

  Zhang Mu chuckled inside his heart. It seems that luck was on his side as he could touch the mud near the shore.

  Seeing that Zhang Mu was drifting further away from them, the swarm of piranha could not endure the temptation of the blood anymore. Their fishtail began to sway as a silver-white straight line started to form and head toward the direction of Zhang Mu.

  Zhang Mu saw this and immediately turn his body to swim. Fortunately, he was only a meter away from the shore now. But at this moment, he could sense that the water around him was beginning to flow rapidly. That must be the piranha using their power.

  With a hand stretched out, he caught it!

  The moment he touched the rock, he concentrated on gripping the rock to help him climb out of the river. Just like that, he popped out of the water.

  However, before he was totally out of the water, the danger behind him had arrived.

  Chapter 125: Still not dead yet

  With a ripping sound, the cloth on Zhang Mu’s trousers was torn off together with a big chunk of flesh by a set of razor-sharp teeth. It was done by a few second-ranked piranhas that swam the fastest. They did not use their water-type ability, yet they had managed to rip open Zhang Mu’s body that was still on the river. The first few targeted areas were his two legs.

  Because of the stinging pain from being torn apart abruptly, Zhang Mu’s hand gained a sudden strength. Regardless of his left arm being numb with no energy, straight away he held down onto the river bank with his both hand, so that he could flip on to the shore.

  But after getting on to the shore, a sound from the wind breaking suddenly wafted behind Zhang Mu. He looked back in panic and found another terrifying fact.

  These piranhas, they did not give up simply because Zhang Mu had left the river. One after another, they leaped out of the river. Using their spurt of strength, they swished toward the Zhang Mu direction, who had no power to fight back now.

  The leg that was kneeling on the shore was injured, forbidding his escape as he watched the piranha coming to rip him apart.

  A crazy idea flashed through Zhang Mu's mind, as he did something that everyone would not expect.

  He used his right hand and clutched tightly around the injury on his disabled left arm. With a twist, followed by a painful shriek, he tore off his left arm.

  Looking at the blood spewing out, the corner of Zhang Mu’s white lips raised to form a bitter smile as he threw his left arm towards the piranhas flying in the air while he was tumbling on the ground in pain.

  As expected, the moment Zhang Mu threw his left arm, these piranhas appeared to be a little reluctant. They halted their writhing body in midair as they switched their direction, and flew toward the severed limb.

  With the little time he had, Zhang Mu had rolled over to a distance away from the piranhas. However, some of the piranhas were still able to reach Zhang Mu with that distance. But seeing their comrades turning for the food, they swayed their tail eventually after a few considerations, controlling the direction it was going and fell on the ground not far from Zhang Mu. After picking a part of the flesh that was easier for it to take, it leaped on the ground and went back to the river.

  Zhang Mu’s eye held a celebration as though he did not rip off his arm a little while ago.

  Zhang Mu had encountered these type of mutated animal with no intelligence before. Hence, he knew that when they were facing with reachable food, they would always go for the meal.

  Finally having the chance to breathe, Zhang Mu checked some of his injuries.

  His left arm had been disabled, the calves of his two leg were losing a large amount of blood while his body was full of bruises.

  Zhang Mu laughed helplessly, but the action caused him to stretch on his wound as he grimaced in pain once again. After a while, he slowly spits out a few words, “Want my Zhang Mu’s life? Is it that simple? Hahahaha.”

  He smiled weakly. In this world where the third-ranked or fourth-ranked evolvers were everywhere, him, Zhang Mu, was actually forced to be into this position by a group of second-r
anked mutated animals that everyone looked down. It was really miserable.

  But that was the reality. He was only a small figure that was struggling on the edge of life and death. If he never had the status of an era sub-merchant by accident, Zhang Mu would never become a second-ranked evolver, who had no awakening ability, by himself. Hence, he would become ashes long ago with his bones scattered on the places he would never know.

  Even though he was left in this condition, there was nothing that Zhang Mu could do now. With his current recovery speed, his life would be hard to keep. His current body had been through so much damaged while his energy was slowly stripping away his consciousness.

  He forcibly kept the last glimmer of his sense as he took out a tube of pale green potion from his merchant ring. That was a first-ranked recovery potion that he kept for a very long time as he was unwilling to drink it in the past.

  It was really ridiculous, right? A second-ranked evolver using a first-ranked recovery potion. Even so, that was the only hidden card that Zhang Mu could use to save his life now.

  Zhang Mu immediately poured the first-ranked recovery potion into his mouth without hesitation. As his throat moved up and down, the blood on the surface of Zhang Mu’s wound begins to clot.

  That was the power of era general goods from the era merchant shop. Not to mention the lack of expired date, even someone like Zhang Mu, who was a second-ranked evolver using a lower rank potion, the effect could be seen right away.

  Zhang Mu’s lips gradually gained colors. But he knew deep down that his severed arm could no longer be restored. If only he had a bottle of second-ranked recovery potion, then there would be a high possibility that his broken arm would be able to regenerate back.

  Nevertheless, even when the wound was healed completely, a second-ranked potion was powerless to return him back to his peak condition. Unless there was a high-ranked healing-type evolver, who was willing to help him.

  Thinking about the healing-type evolver, a white figure flashed across Zhang Mu’s eye.

  Who was that?

  The figure disappeared from Zhang Mu’s mind after lingering for a moment. Zhang Mu no longer remembered how did that person look like. The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt. In the end, he stopped pondering about it.

  He smiled bitterly. How could someone like him with a low status like a small shrimp, could possibly know a healing-type evolver that was rumored to roam around without casting a shadow and leaves without a trace, whom everyone worshipped?

  Was it because he had lost too much blood, and it caused his mind to be blurry and had a hallucination?

  As time progressed, the effectiveness of the first-ranked recovery potion gradually began to fade. The potion had decided to use most of its drug effect on Zhang Mu’s legs, whereas the rest of the drug effects to heal those damaged tendons and soft tissues on his body. As for his left arm, once it heals the open wound, it was entirely discarded.

  Probably because he had a higher rank than the potion, it had automatically made its choice. After all, even if the whole bottle of the potion were used to heal his left arm, it would not grow back anymore.

  Zhang Mu slowly stood up and lifted his head to look at his surrounding. He saw that he was in the middle of nowhere, with full of weeds and would occasionally hear roars from unknown mutated animals.

  It seems that he was washed up to a faraway place. But he should be able to catch up and return to Luoyang city after he completed the trading. That was what Zhang Mu thought to himself as he felt the power on his leg and ran.

  Yes, the him now would have a problem surviving. As a disabled low-ranked evolver, in the law of jungle, he did not know how far he would go. Perhaps, at Shan Xi city, he would receive a bunch of people gloating at him with their eyes.

  However, life had to go on right? Wasn’t he still alive?

  Zhang Mu’s eagerness to live had ignited his heart. It was so strong that he was able to push down the fatigue caused by his bad luck. Just like that, he slowly rushed to the direction of Shan Xi city.

  Chapter 126: Sneaking Into The City

  Despite the lack of his left arm that caused him to lose a little balance while running, Zhang Mu never slow down his speed. In his mind, all he could think of was completing the era merchant task assigned to him. If he completed the task, he would have another year of breathing time. If not, he had to face the inevitable death.

  For a half day, Zhang Mu did not have the strength to take out dry food for himself to eat. Maintaining his speed, he finally arrived at the fortification outside Shan Xi city. For him to arrive at Shan Xi city, Zhang Mu had to make a lot of turns here and there as he was dragged by the river to a place far away.

  Fortunately, the evolvers from Shan Xi city already swept clean most of the area. So basically, there were no mutated animals above the second rank. That was a good thing for Zhang Mu, who was in a poor condition now. Although time is equal to money, if he lost his life before entering the city, then the efforts he put in for weeks would be all in vain.

  Having said that, Zhang Mu did not make the choice of fighting mutated animals for convenience sake. The him now, could not afford to have any more setbacks. If he suffered another serious injury, he would not be able to save his own life since he had used up his only first-ranked recovery potion.

  Zhang Mu lifted his head to see the outside of Shan Xi city right before his eye. His heart was full of emotions as it appears that his efforts were not in vain. Using a period of ten days, he finally reached the city.

  So what if he had almost lost his life? Even without an arm, he, Zhang Mu, still arrived at the era merchant shop in Shan Xi city.

  There was no time for Zhang Mu to delay anymore. He did not know how much danger would be waiting for him when he returned, especially that the shortcut he discovered was totally unusable now. In addition, the alternative that everyone recognized, which was the big river earlier, Zhang Mu did not have the guts to swim in it anymore.

  In the end, there were only 20 days for him to return to Luoyang city!

  He could only take detour using the safest yet the longest road which he had tried before. With his speed, he could probably return within 19 days. That meant that he only had one extra day for him to deal with any unexpected encountering in this Cataclysm.

  With this, Zhang Mu quickly walked to the gates. The gates at the base were all similar. Even though the number of people that Shan Xi city could take in was limited, refugees from all parts of the world began to squeeze into the city that was basically enough to accommodate nearly ten thousand people, when they heard the news that it had the strongest evolvers within the radius of five hundred miles. Making the city crowded with people.

  The existence of refugees helped Shan Xi city to have sufficient manpower in areas that evolvers would look down on. For example, fundamental practice and food plantation, that was the most crucial task in the base.

  At the same time, due to this reason, the city capacity was at its limits. However, to throw the refugees out in the wild was considered heartless as the death rate in the wild was too high.

  But there was also a number of evolvers that would adopt some ordinary people. To put it nicely, it was a job position to give them a chance to survive, but in fact, they were treated as a slave.

  That was actually permitted by the high-leveled base member. Because once the fortification was repaired, and with the limited manpower that was required to grow crops, there would be excessed labor force. In that case, many people would be reduced to the state where they had to snatch food from the mutated animals.

  The reality was brutal. Everyone could only close one eye on the matter that the ordinary people was kept captivity. After the cataclysm started for many years, no one had been that naive and selfless anymore.

  Nonetheless, some kindness would still exist. However, it was impossible for people to give up the necessity for their own survival in order to have the so-called moral standards and jus
tice.

  Therefore, the survival for these ordinary people that were at the bottom, including those first-ranked and second-ranked evolvers with no awakening ability, were related to the vital interest of the upper-class society.

  With the suggestion from many evolvers, Shan Xi city’s base leader made use of the power from the earth-type evolvers to build a relatively simple wall outside the city within a month. Although the defensive power was not that strong, the base core power was not stationed there. The wall acts as a hope for the refugees to protect themselves from the low-ranked mutated animals who were wandering near the city.

  The previous city also changed its name and was called Inner City. It would be a place for third-ranked evolvers and above to live in. The minimum requirement for second-ranked evolvers to live in was them having a rare or beneficial ability.

  The Inner City was built extremely luxurious. Since it cannot be expanded, those who had doubts about evolving further have chosen to indulge themselves there. There were numerous entertainment facilities from the original world being reconstructed inside the Inner City, even though the existence of the original world was prohibited.

  In this cataclysm, the base leader was afraid of losing a large number of high-ranked evolvers. Hence, if they act based on the so-called mortal standard from the original world, they would have the reputation of a hypocrite. Therefore, if they did not, they would attract a lot of high-ranked evolvers to the base.

  Moreover, going out to fight against the mutated animals, cleaning up the walking dead as well as competing with other human bases, put pressure on the evolvers. Hence, they must build a place for them to relax to avoid them causing a rampage within their territory.

  Zhang Mu strolled into the outer city and paid for the entry fee as well. As it was only the outer city, he only required to pay one first-ranked crystal.

  The pedestrians on the road seemed to be in a hurry. The people there had to work continuously in exchange for a day’s worth of rations. Because Zhang Mu was wandering slowly, he stood out from the crowd of people.