Strike the First Blow

by Tai Baiyang

  The Obsidian Beetle replied sourly, “Now my energy still lacks a little. Just now, I had used all of my power to wear down some of the spider webs that I couldn’t dodge. Hence, I couldn't form a perfect wind blade yet.”

  Zhang Mu turned his head and looked under his leg. Right now, he could hear the squeak of the spider getting roasted by the fire, and the crisp sound of their body.

  But now was not the time to consider this. If they did not take action, Zhang Mu was afraid that the meat fragrant would be coming out from both of their body next. Currently, the flame was burning up along the strand of the spider webs, and the speed was extremely fast. It was as if the spider webs had the same function as a fuel.

  This time Zhang Mu was indeed killing a thousand enemy and damaging himself by eight hundred.

  “Then use your remaining power and form another wind blade, even a broken one will do. Hurry up. If you are slightly slower, the flame is going to burn my butt.” Zhang Mu estimated the timing for the flame to channel up, and there were only about 5 seconds left.

  The Obsidian Beetle also sensed the seriousness of the situation. It grabbed Zhang Mu's shoulder a little tighter using its claws while it mobilized all of the wind energy in its body and formed an incomplete wind blade from its wings. The wind blade headed straight for the top of the spider web cocoon and blasted out.

  Although it lacked a little power, the flames had hardened the spider webs. Therefore, the previous advantage of its softness was destroyed. The harder it was, the weaker it would be. Hence, it was blasted open by the waning moon-like wind blade.

  When the Obsidian Beetle saw the Sunlight coming in, it flew up hurriedly. Meanwhile, the mutated spiders were having trouble taking care of themselves and did not have time to make a new spider web to block the opening of the cocoon.

  One second before the flame burned Zhang Mu’s butt, the Obsidian Beetle brought him out of the massive cocoon.

  The fire started to get taller subsequently. However, since the spider webs did not extend upwards, the flames had lost the medium for it to burn and slowly shrank back again.

  The Obsidian Beetle was burned slightly too as it flew to a faraway place before putting down the glowing red-faced Zhang Mu. Zhang Mu looked at the massive cocoon getting burned from the inside from a distance.

  What a close call!

  These mutated spiders were truly trapped by their own cocoon now. At first, the flame and heat might get dispersed, but because of the spider web cocoon, the fire could not be dispelled, and it confined them together instead.

  Occasionally, there would be a group of little spiders trickling out from the enormous pit. But since they were weak against fire, they could not extinguish the raging flame on their body. With a few steps outside the enormous pit, they could not move anymore.

  “Little Black, what do you say about the taste of roasted spiders? I remembered eating this type of roasted spiders and scorpions on those food streets when I was young, and it was delicious. Now, these were mutated, they could be tastier right?”

  Zhang Mu smiled wickedly and forgot about that fact that he was about to become a roast pork earlier. Now, he kept thinking about the mutated spiders inside the sea of flames.

  “You have eaten it before, but I did not. So how would I know if the spiders taste good? If you want to find out, just get one to try, and you will know the answer.”

  The first sentence sounded cold and mighty, but the latter sentence immediately exposed the Obsidian Beetle’s intention. It was even greedier than Zhang Mu as it stared the burning spiders with an eager eye on the fire in front of it. In its eyes, it was a massive oven filled with all of its food.

  Chapter 157: Little Black’s Tricks

  The fire continued unabated. Zhang Mu practically retrieved all the gasoline from the gas station this time. As he had a huge space inside his merchant ring, he brought all of them over.

  Because the amount of gasoline was enough, with the soil corroded and riddled with holes, the gasoline that he threw down would trickle underground for a dozen meters.

  Those spiders that wanted to escape underground would be asking for trouble instead. The fire was burning endlessly and was spreading to every corner where the gasoline was present. Hence, when those spiders that were soaked fully with gasoline were forced to dig underground, it was acting like a fuse with running ability.

  The faster they ran and the deeper they dug, the farther the flame would spread. Hence, these spiders would burn even more miserably.

  “Do you think that those spiders are done roasting? Want to go in and eat some of them?” The Obsidian Beetle looked eagerly towards the direction of the enormous pit. Thinking about the large barbecue meal inside, it felt that the roasted spiders would taste the same as the roasted bear meat that Zhang Mu barbecued after it had finished its advancement.

  Zhang Mu rolled his eye and looked at the fire that did not appear to be receding soon. “If you want to eat them, then go in yourself. Don’t drag me along. Until now, my butt is still painful, so I’ll wait here instead.”

  Zhang Mu thought that the Obsidian Beetle would listen to him this time. But he never expected that the Obsidian Beetle’s heart to feast had overcome the fear of fire completely.

  He saw that it shook its wing and headed straight for the sea of flames. Zhang Mu was stunned and speechless watching the Obsidian Beetle. It was so greedy to this extent.

  For some reason, the outermost layer of the massive cocoon, made up of the spider webs, did not burn. It kept the heat under control and continued to burn furiously.

  And for those spiders, they were a great flammable agent as they could not resist getting scorched by the fire completely. Due to their survival instinct, they were still frantically digging the soil to go under a deeper layer.

  “I can’t believe it actually risked its life for food.” Zhang Mu laughed silently to himself as he looked at the back of the Obsidian Beetle getting out of sight. Never in his mind did he expect that the Obsidian Beetle would be tempted to this extent.

  The Obsidian Beetle flew low on the ground. Although it was a wind-typed mutated animal, on the surface it would not be subdued by the fire too much. However, the event that Zhang Mu created was not a regular fire.

  The Obsidian Beetle hesitated for a moment outside the enormous pit. Just now, it was still daring and enthusiastic. However, it had a new plan now.

  Because of the massive cocoon, there was too much heat trapped inside. The Obsidian Beetle stopped outside the cocoon and could felt its innate instinct was rejecting and opposing the fire.

  As a result, it was flying around the big pit like a chicken thief. Just as it expected, it found a few spiders on the ground, that were roasted tender with a crispy crust.

  The Obsidian Beetle was unable to hold back itself as it carefully picked up one of them using its claw, and put inside its mouth to bite.

  However, as it chews and chews, the formerly enthusiastic mood of the Obsidian Beetle was starting to turn complex. It flew back with a blank expression on its face and even held a few mutated spiders on its claw.

  Seeing the Obsidian Beetle returning so quickly, Zhang Mu had a bad feeling all of a sudden.

  When he saw the mutated spiders on the Obsidian Beetle’s claw, he knew that it was going to play tricks on him. So he pretended not to notice and said in his mind, “What happen? I can’t believe you return so fast. I thought you were going to have a big feast? Is it because you are afraid and didn’t dare to take a peek inside? There were thousands of mutated spiders inside that you were longing for, so why didn’t you have a good meal and glut yourself with those delicious foods?”

  The Obsidian Beetle said calmly, “That’s right. I felt that my shell couldn’t withstand such a high temperature, so it is better to wait for it to cool down. You see, I even brought back a few of them for you to try. I can’t pocket everything without sharing them with you, am I right?”

  At this moment, the uneasy feelin
g in Zhang Mu’s heart was getting worse. It was possible for the Obsidian Beetle to be afraid of fire, but with this sort of delicacy, even if the Obsidian Beetle was full, it wouldn’t bring some over for him to try.

  Zhang Mu understood the character of the Obsidian Beetle too well.

  Right now, its belly must be full of bad water, and it wanted to stir things up.

  But it had underestimated Zhang Mu. In his past life, there was nothing that Zhang Mu never tasted. When he was penniless, he even ate tree roots and tree bucks. These items, accompanied by a few wild vegetables, were delicious too.

  It was not exaggerating to say that Zhang Mu had eaten all sorts of thing that a refugee would eat. Well, except for the Guanyin soil that would fill his belly but would cost his life at the same time.

  As the fifth successor, he was only a humble era sub-merchant. If he did not have the opportunity to become one, he was no different from an ordinary person since he did not have any awakening ability. He could only be a little richer when he completed the era merchant’s task every time.

  Zhang Mu slowly accepted a mass of burned mutated spiders from the Obsidian Beetle’s claw. Under the playful eye of the Obsidian Beetle, he plucked off a spider leg and stuffed it inside his mouth to taste it carefully.

  After removing the layer of burnt skin from the mutated spider, there was pink colored meat inside. When Zhang Mu took a bite in his mouth, he finally understood why was the Obsidian Beetle acting so 'nice' to him.

  The meat of the mutated spider was almost as hard as tree bark. However, Zhang Mu continued to stuff his mouth without changing his facial expression. Meanwhile, the Obsidian Beetle was stunned and speechless observing him.

  “Don’t you think that it tastes terrible? I spit it out after taking a bite. I have never eaten anything so nasty like this before.” The voice of the Obsidian Beetle sounded surprised. Just now, it thought that Zhang Mu would spit it out with an angry expression on his face. However, Zhang Mu looked normal.

  “My mouth is not raised like you, so picky about food. What’s wrong with this? It’s good that you can fill your belly, so why are you so picky?

  I remembered before your intelligence had developed, you were chewing a head of a first-ranked walking dead. Did I give you too much good food that you even dare to deceive me now? From now onwards, should I let you struggle and learn about the spirit of hard work?”

  “No please!”

  Once Zhang Mu said the words, the Obsidian Beetle stopped fooling around immediately. It was devastated when it thought that Zhang Mu would not bring him along to barbeque meat again.

  When he was playing tricks on Zhang Mu, the thought that Zhang Mu was his royal chef never went through its mind. Now, it could only start to please Zhang Mu.

  Zhang Mu stood on a far end and looked at the smoke rising. Silently, he felt grateful in his heart.

  It was good that the Obsidian Beetle brought along the mutated spider. At least he would know that the meat of the mutated spiders would not make any improvement on his body. And because they did not reach the first rank, there wasn't any beast core in their body.

  This time, the fire did not bring any benefits for him.

  Chapter 158: The Weak Will Be Eliminated

  Zhang Mu quietly ate finished the last spider’s leg on his hand, and threw the rest away. He patted the Obsidian Beetle’s back and said, “Since their meat is not tasty, then they have no value anymore. Let’s go.”

  The Obsidian Beetle looked at Zhang Mu puzzledly and asked, “You’re not going back to check? What if there are some escapees?”

  Hearing the Obsidian Beetle’s concern, Zhang Mu chuckled and replied, “Do you still remember where did you get these burned mutated spiders? They were outside the sea of flame. So that means, these mutated spiders that you took were the first few escapees from the fire. However, they were still dead in the end, so don’t even mention about the vast majority that were still trapped inside, or were still thinking about escaping through the ground.

  As the spiders were not repulsive to the gasoline, so previously when we poured the gasoline on their body, none of them dodged away. Instead, they were throwing themselves for the sake of the energy from the gasoline tanks.

  Therefore, almost all of them were soaked in gasoline. Even if there are some escapees, then do you know why the existence of those mutated spiders was a great threat to us?

  Because their one and only deadly feature, was their tremendous numbers in tens of thousands.

  Without such a tremendous number, these mutated spiders were nothing at all. They were not a first-ranked mutated animal, so how are they going to obtain energy? Not being used as a dessert for the other mutated animals were considered good for them already. So there is nothing to worry about.”

  The Obsidian Beetle felt that it made sense and decided to drop the matter. However, when it was about to turn and leave, it was pulled back by Zhang Mu. He leaped over the Obsidian Beetle and sat on its back sneering, “Since you played a prank on me, do yourself a favor and remember to fly a little stable.”

  As a result, the Obsidian Beetle had no choice but to carry Zhang Mu and flew on a low altitude back to the place where Yuan Rui and the others were currently staying.

  The mutated wolfdog knew that it had slept for a long time, so all the while it was concentrating on guarding Yuan Rui and Hao Hao.

  Seeing the mutated wolfdog acting this way, Zhang Mu smiled. He walked over and petted the dog head, “Wow, the way you’re acting now is good.”

  Yuan Rui walked over to chat with Zhang Mu, “Uncle, how’s the matter? Are you alright? If not, we will deal with them in the future.”

  There was a reason for her concern as Yuan Rui was frightened by a large number of spider webs when she sat on the back of the Obsidian Beetle previously. If anything goes wrong then, all their life would end there already.

  “How can there be any problem with me taking action and the guarantee I promised?”

  The confidence in Zhang Mu’s smile calmed down Yuan Rui’s heart.

  Meanwhile, Zhang Mu noticed the stares that Hao Hao kept giving him, as if he was afraid that he would hear a piece of bad news from his mouth.

  Zhang Mu smiled had become serious after that. He leaned down and looked at Hao Hao, “Hao Hao, I can feel that you’re a man, so I have to tell you the truth. Your mother is not here anymore, and she had gone to heaven. Those bad guys that caused your mother’s death had received their punishment already. And for that big spider who murdered your mother, it was eaten by its children completely.

  And just now, big brother helped you to settle all of those spiders. Look, this is one of them. The rest are more miserable than this.” At first, Hao Hao was pretending to be strong, but when Zhang Mu took out the burned corpse of the mutated spider, he burst into tears.

  After a while, Zhang Mu saw that Hao Hao wouldn’t stop crying and was getting louder and louder instead. He immediately straightened his face and scolded him, “Stop crying!”

  Hao Hao was so frightened that he stopped his wailing immediately. He looked at Zhang Mu blankly and didn’t dare to make a sound.

  Zhang Mu also knew that it was too cruel to treat a ten years old this way. But the days were not the same as before. This is the Cataclysm, whereby people do not spit out the bones when they ate a human.

  Weakness and tears couldn’t exchange for sympathy, and it would only cause them to be bullied more unscrupulously. Therefore, being strong is the minimum quality that ones must have, even if it was a child.

  Zhang Mu put the burned corpse of the spider on his palm and placed his hand in front of Hao Hao’s eye. He said calmly, “You need to be strong. Do you know that your mother also wants to see a stronger Hao Hao? Right now, the corpse of the spider in my hand was one of your mother’s murderer.”

  When he heard Zhang Mu’s words, the little boy’s eye was filled with anger and hatred.

  Zhang Mu continued saying, “Now, you must be
come a little man. Currently, you’re still young, so big brother has done the main job for you. If you eat this, that would be counted as avenging for your mother too. When you are older, you can wipe out those monsters that threaten the human race. That is another kind of revenge too.”

  Hao Hao abruptly reached out his small hand to take the corpse of the mutated spider on Zhang Mu’s hand and said, “I’ll eat it.”

  Zhang Mu did not give it to him straight away. He stared at Hao Hao’s eye and said seriously, “This thing is nasty. It might be even worse than anything you have eaten before. Have you thought about it properly? Do you still want to eat it?”

  Hao Hao’s eye flashed a little hesitation as if Zhang Mu gave him a fright. Despite that, he quickly recovered and said with a resolution, “I want to eat it.”

  This time, Zhang Mu let go and allowed Hao Hao to take a bite.

  Hao Hao almost spat it out when he took a bite. He never thought that there would be something so awful. But then he recalled the stern look on Zhang Mu’s face and the words that he said earlier, he remembered that this was the killer that murdered his mother. Therefore, he endured and tore off the meat little by little before he swallowed them hard down his throat.

  A glimmer of sympathy flashed in Yuan Rui’s eye as she thought that the way Zhang Mu handled the child was a little harsh. She wanted to voice out her opinion, but when Zhang Mu glared at her, she swallowed back her words.

  This is a hurdle that Hao Hao must experience on the road of his growth. If he lived in pains and tears, then he would be useless. This principle, regardless of his present life or former life, was the same nonetheless.

  Just that in this Cataclysm, it was magnified a lot more.

  The weak, would be eliminated in the end. In fact, the mortality rate of children and elderly was extremely high. Even if Hao Hao had Zhang Mu’s care and Wang Liang’s protection, but if he could not manage himself, then all would be useless in the end. No one could protect him for a lifetime. Hence, Zhang Mu need to use this type of cruelty method to let him grew up faster. If not, he would not be able to go out of that trauma now. Or maybe, for a lifetime.