Strike the First Blow

by Tai Baiyang

  At this time, Zhang Mu saw through the illusion and straight away reached out his hand and grabbed the psychological talisman tightly.

  A roar from the bottom of his heart resounded.

  “Wake up, let me wake up!”

  Something seems to sense that Zhang Mu was regaining his consciousness as the merchant ring on his hand speeds up to strip away the life and soul away from Zhang Mu, wanting to eat the remaining half in one mouthful.

  However, this can’t stop Zhang Mu from awakening.

  The roar coming from Zhang Mu’s heart seems to spread from the deepest part of his soul to the entire sky, and to the entire world.

  “Crack.”

  The small world seems to be shattered by this sound and started to crumble. The Earth slowly cracked, and the stars on the sky gradually fell one by one, dashing across the oppressed sky.

  Now Zhang Mu had regained back the control of his body. Standing on the lawn, he looked at the scene of the world coming to an end, unmoving.

  With a bang, the entire dream was shattered completely. Zhang Mu, who was lying on the house, finally opened his eyes. Shaking off the bearskin on his body, he grabbed tightly onto his Obsidian Beetle dagger.

  At this moment, he found something that caused him to have goosebumps all over his body.

  The house which only lived by two human and two creatures, was filled with silvery-white wireworm now.

  Furthermore, the closest to them was only a meter away, with eyes closed.

  After seeing what the worm in front of his eye looked like, Zhang Mu’s mood was like a violent storm at this moment.

  It was the Nightmare Worm!

  Zhang Mu subconsciously squeezed the second-ranked psychological talisman on his chest and looked at the Nightmare Worms that had gathered in the house.

  But at this moment, all the eyes of the Nightmare Worm were opened in unison, and their alluring gaze was cast on Zhang Mu, the only person who had woken up.

  That expression, was just like a human being!

  But at the same time, something unexpected happened to Zhang Mu.

  The psychological talisman on his chest, was broken!

  Chapter 132: Woke up with a start

  Zhang Mu eventually figured the truth regarding this matter. It was these infamous Nightmare Worm which he had heard in his past life, that dragged him and the others into a dream. Every dream was constructed from their personal memories.

  The mutated wolfdog’s and the Obsidian Beetle’s memories should be simple, so the number of Nightmare Worms assigned to them was inadequate as opposed to the human being, Zhang Mu and Yuan Rui, who had occupied a large portion of them.

  Especially Zhang Mu, as his vigilance was incredibly high, and he had a complex memory. At first, these Nightmare Worms were playing as a guide, but in the end, they had to gather a large number of them to alter his memory slightly. They induced a dire emotion into his dream naturally, to disintegrate his consciousness.

  In contrast, the mutated wolfdog was drooling all over the floor with a weird smile on its face. Zhang Mu did not know the current situation between Yuan Rui, who was laying behind the mutated wolfdog, and the Obsidian Beetle. Anyway, they would not be any better than him. The possibility of being manipulated was related to the rank of the evolvers being manipulated. Even if they were higher by a rank, it did not help the matter, let alone how the type of ability would bring any differences.

  It was good that Zhang Mu had heard of these Nightmare Worms before. Even though they had the shape of a worm, but their constitution was not that at all. In his past life, there were some high-ranked evolvers who were skilled at the psychic field, and managed to capture one of this notorious worm successfully. After dissecting, they discovered that it was not a worm at all.

  It was an extraordinary kind of fungus. Under the appearance of a worm, there was a type of plant fibers inside the body. When cutting apart their body, they discovered that their internal part was structured just like a magnified mushroom.

  This combination of worm and plants, when facing other creatures that were not two ranks higher than their evolve rank, including human and mutated animal, they would suffer great destruction to their vitality and soul.

  Moreover, the more it targeted those with weaker willpower, and the more it constructed a more simplistic dream, the more effortless it was for them.

  Now that Zhang Mu recalled his dream, it was really terrifying. He was pulled little by little into an abyss, and almost got himself into deep trouble.

  If he did not cultivate his willpower, that dream would not last for such a long time. Every struggle he made each time were actually the natural manifestation of his subconscious from his willpower and the corruption from the outside world. That explained why Zhang Mu could escape from the fabricated silver mink’s claw, and from the swarm of second-ranked piranhas, whereby he threw an arm to escape.

  In fact, that also proved that Zhang Mu’s resistance was getting weaker and weaker. Because with his subjective consciousness leading him, the remaining willpower had to defend for itself. Under such circumstances, whereby the majority of the Nightmare Worms gathered to attack Zhang Mu, revealed that Zhang Mu had a powerful psychological capability as he was able to hang on for such a long time.

  Even so, Zhang Mu was almost defeated. If not for the psychological talisman hanging on his chest, most likely he would be drowned and became their food in half an hour for these neither plant nor worm type.

  Zhang Mu still shuddered in fear when he recalled that dream. He gazed at the numerous Nightmare Worm, who had closed their eyes in front of him, as hairs raised all the way up to his spine. He had been listening to rumors from other people in the past, but now it was his turn to face these horrible creatures.

  Being killed or becoming food to the mutated animals, actually seems nothing as it would be over in an instant and the pain would only last for a moment. However, the feeling of your soul slowly being nibbled away really make life worse than death.

  Only when your soul was devoured completely, then you would find relief. Even so, when your soul was melted and integrated inside these creatures, thinking of it would also be disgusting.

  But Zhang Mu knew that these Nightmare Worm had a weak close-ranged combat ability. Otherwise, they would not need to construct a dream to encroach on their prey’s soul. So to deal with them, there were only two options. One was to have external influence, the other one was to wake up by yourself, and fight head on.

  The former was the main case for those who had escaped from the Nightmare Worm. Without external help, it was impossible to depend on themselves to wake up. But with only a small possibility, Zhang Mu had done it.

  But if this was another person, then it might be more critical. He was fortunate that he had a psychological talisman to protects him from any psychic ability since his own willpower was not enough to sustain until the last moment when the Nightmare worm would wake up the talisman automatic defensive mechanism.

  Hence, if one’s perseverance is up to standard, but without any psychological defense to warn them, they would also be fully engulfed because of the fatigue when they woke up.

  Therefore, Zhang Mu was very lucky.

  However, he did not know what to do anymore. He did not have any countermeasure for these creatures too. Others would not give him their own secret to deal with the Nightmare Worms, and to share with him the information about these Nightmare Worms were not easy too.

  Zhang Mu’s current body was still suffering the aftereffects, causing his body to be weak as he was unable to stand up. He slowly shifted toward the mutated wolfdog, and rocked the dog’s head violently, “Hey, stupid dog, wake up.”

  However, there was no reaction at all. As if it had a sweet dream, it licked Zhang Mu’s face just like licking a bone. Zhang Mu felt that this dog had no hope anymore, so he quickly pushed aside its head and turned to the corner behind it.

  Yuan Rui’s expression looked very scared.
Her whole being formed into a ball as she hugged her knees together and shivered.

  Zhang Mu did not dare to touch her body now and swung his head to look at the Obsidian Beetle who turned small on the ground.

  “Little Black, wake up. Stop sleeping anymore, wake up.” Zhang Mu’s anxious voice did not reach the Obsidian Beetle as it was not moving at all. Seeing this, Zhang Mu immediately use the blood connection between them to call him.

  This time, the Obsidian Beetle finally moved a little, and Zhang Mu’s eye was filled with bliss. Did it work?

  However, the Obsidian Beetle only moved its body a little and went back to its calm state. It merely turned its body only. Zhang Mu’s voice currently could not reach out to him, no matter the body or the mind. As if there was a thick black fabric had wrapped around the Obsidian Beetle, cutting off their connection.

  It seems like there was no breakthrough from them. Zhang Mu was afraid that if he dragged this any longer, it would threaten the three of their lives, causing irreparable damage. He knew that he must make a decision now.

  His eyes were focused on those Nightmare Worms. Zhang Mu not sure how would it affect Yuan Rui and the others if he woke up these Nightmare Worms, but it would be better than watching them crumble here.

  Zhang Mu touched his Obsidian Beetle dagger and pushed against the body of the mutated wolfdog to give him a lift as he leaped over to a Nightmare Worm and pierce hardly into the fathead.

  Just as the tip of the dragger touched the surface of the Nightmare Worm, it suddenly made a sharp wailing, just like a woman's scream.

  But after that, something happened that makes the back of Zhang Mu filled with goosebumps.

  Every Nightmare Worm had woke up all at the same time. Each one of the Nightmare Worm had six pairs of compound eyes staring at Zhang Mu, who was holding the Obsidian Beetle that had stabbed into their companion.

  Chapter 133: The Fight Against Psychic Creatures

  Despite that, Zhang Mu did not stop there. Instead, he slammed the Obsidian Beetle dagger through the head of the Nightmare Worm, forming a big hole, before he pulled back.

  In an instant, that Nightmare Worm began to convulse. Fortunately, their defense and health were equally fragile. Otherwise, it would disrupt the balance if both their health and psychic ability were able to reach such a high level at the same time, even though the Nightmare Worms were only a first-ranked mutated animal. Zhang Mu could only state that he was unlucky if that was the case.

  At this very moment, Yuan Rui and the mutated wolfdog were waking up weakly. The wolfdog was still reminiscing the big meal he just had and seemed to be yearning for more. However, its body was staggered on the ground, as it had lost the energy to stand. Probably because it was the easiest to devour, hence the dog had lost some of its vitality. Meanwhile, the Obsidian Beetle was still motionless on the ground.

  On the other hand, Yuan Rui’s body had stopped trembling although her expression was showing that she was still afraid, as if the dream she just had, made a tremendous impact on her.

  Only when she saw that Zhang Mu had returned to her side again, her mind was at ease. However, she still could not stand up at all.

  For no reason, these Nightmare Worms did not take action nor did they retreat from the house, and just kept the posture they woke up in, with their compound eyes staring straight at Zhang Mu’s body.

  Since they did not attack yet, Zhang Mu also leave them aside. Given that their body was fragile, even if they fought, Zhang Mu would not even take it to heart. Hence, he turned to the direction for Yuan Rui.

  “Yuan Rui, how are you?”

  Zhang Mu helped Yuan Rui up and anxiously asked her, as he could see that Yuan Rui was not in good condition.

  Yuan Rui did not make a sound at first, as she needed some time to recover before replying to Zhang Mu with some fear lingering, “Uncle, just now I dreamed of some bad things happened to me before, and it seems to be even more horrifying than I had remembered. I’m scared.”

  Zhang Mu never spoke and just gently patted Yuan Rui's back, comforting her silently.

  From Yuan Rui's words, she had reminded Zhang Mu to recall the matter happened in his dream too. These Nightmare Worm indeed had a strong psychic ability as they had chosen the part that Zhang Mu had been through the toughest.

  In three years of the Cataclysm, that was the moment that Zhang Mu felt closest to death. It was true that all the goods at Shan Xi city were totally emptied, and he only required the remaining half of the golden leaf to complete his task. All the matter happened until here was real. The characters, events, all of it was exactly alike. But of course, excluding the part with the silver minks and piranhas. Those part of the memory should be extracted from what Zhang Mu had listened from others previously.

  Therefore, everything would seem natural. Hence, Zhang Mu would felt that everything was real even when he had experienced it again.

  However, in his dream, the deadline was changed. Stealthily, it was edited and modified without a trace.

  His deadline still had 30 days left, so he rushed to another city. He even traveled during the night before returned back to Luoyang city on the final day to complete his era merchant’s task eventually.

  If he was delayed for another day on the road, then Zhang Mu might have perished then and become a dry corpse. As a result, this incident had left a deep impression on Zhang Mu, which was the reason that the Nightmare Worms had chosen to concentrate their power to mobilize that portion of his memory. Their current strength had not reached the point whereby they could completely reconstruct the dream to its best aspect. But even if this was the case, because of Zhang Mu’s bizarre reason, it also required most of the Nightmare Worms to work together. After all, they were merely a first-ranked mutated animal and had to work together to affect someone emotionally.

  He thought clearly about all of this before finding the words to comfort Yuan Rui. His steady tone calmed down Yuan Rui’s emotion, “If you think again about the bad things that happened, was it deliberately exaggerated in many places? The areas that you had formerly pulled through was it more terrifying than before? But the reality was not that case if you recalled what happened precisely. There should be a difference in the dream you just had.

  So, would you find that it was just a big scam? If you think this way, would you feel better?”

  Yuan Rui lowered her head and appeared to think carefully about the words that Zhang Mu described to her. According to Zhang Mu’s suggestion, she slowly cleared her mind. After a while, her mood recovered back to normal a little bit.

  Zhang Mu then pointed to the back, towards the Nightmare Worms behind him, “You see, these worms were the ones that were harming you. There is nothing to be afraid of as they were only just a special kind of first-ranked creature.”

  However, Zhang Mu did not expect that once he pointed to them, Yuan Rui would scream suddenly. At this time, Zhang Mu realized he might have overlooked a fact. Because he had seen much, so he had never felt any discomfort looking at the appearance of the Nightmare Worms.

  But it was different for Yuan Rui. With the compound eye of the Nightmare Worm staring at them in a compact mass, coupled with an ugly appearance, it would increase the fear from the dream she just had, and she would become more terrified.

  Zhang Mu suddenly felt that these Nightmare Worms did not need to go through so much trouble to deal with Yuan Rui. They only need to gather in front of her, no need to trouble themselves with constructing a dream to scare her.

  Just as Zhang Mu was having this wicked thought, the Nightmare Worms started moving because of Yuan Rui’s scream. Zhang Mu reckon that these fat worms were merely making an empty show of strength. Hence, he did not take them to heart.

  Others might not know, but me, Zhang Mu, still doesn't know about you? You guys now, were just a bunch of paper tiger only and want to act in front of me? As if you have the room to revolt.

  Zhang Mu thought that this was the case, but when he
was about to take a step to settle these Nightmare Worms, his smile was utterly stiffed.

  Right now, he could not move!

  It was the psychological control again!

  At least twenty Nightmare Worms were placing all of their psychological control on Zhang Mu only. Even though he was not directly controlled by them because this was the outside world, but when all of the Nightmare Worms focused all of their psychic power on Zhang Mu, he found that he had lost control of his body, just like the time when he met Zero.

  He subconsciously pushed down his eyeball and looked at his chest. Only then he remembered that his psychological talisman was broken in the previous confrontation to help him break away from their control, losing all of its shine.

  Zhang Mu was speechless in his heart. Not this again. I even bought the talismans to defend against psychological attacks, but why did it get destroyed so soon? Nonetheless, this second-ranked psychological talisman had done its best already.

  It was not easy to secure one’s life already, and it appears that Zhang Mu was asking for too much.

  Seeing the swarm of worms was wiggling towards him, and he was still unable to move, Zhang Mu started to panic in his heart.

  Although these worms had a weak close-combat ability, no matter how vulnerable they were, Zhang Mu was all flesh and blood. How could he endure them gnawing on him?

  Currently, the mutated wolfdog was useless, and Yuan Rui did not have any combat skills. So what should he do now?

  Suddenly, he discovered that he had left out someone and shouted directly in his mind.

  “Stupid Beetle, get up and work!”

  Chapter 134: Little Black Explodes

  To Zhang Mu’s surprise, this time, the Obsidian Beetle did not give him any answers.

  Could it be that it had suffered a tremendous trauma?

  It should not be that case though. Even a first-ranked mutated wolfdog was only forced to be a little weak in such a short period of time. Meanwhile, a second-ranked Obsidian Beetle should have an apparent improvement against psychic attack right? So what was this situation now? It was still sleeping deeply instead.