Embark on the Road

by Tai Baiyang

  He called back all the vines of the Bloodvine Lotus.

  Zhang Mu now was able to smell the stench coming out from the mouth of the brown-tailed tiger. However, it didn’t have the chance to take another step forward. It already found it difficult to balance with three limbs. As the retreating vines swept past, they stabbed and sliced, inflicting grievous wounds and leaving it looking like a tattered pincushion.

  Looking at the regrets in its eyes, Zhang Mu mouth twitched upwards. He craftily snickered and said, “I heard a tiger’s reproductive organ is very good for a man. It must definitely be worth a lot of money.”

  If the brown-tailed tiger was still alive, it would definitely use up all its energy and risk its life to tear apart this evil merchant that didn’t even want to leave that bit alone.

  Unfortunately, Zhang Mu had no mood to mock the tiger anymore. His face was white and pale. Controlling the Bloodvine Lotus required a lot of energy. The action of recalling the vines caused Zhang Mu to fall to the ground, half kneeling.

  Seeing a difficult enemy suddenly weakened, the mutated tigers were crept forward. Then they watched as the brown-tailed tiger was killed by Zhang Mu and was held up in the air, its blood sucked out by he Bloodvine Lotus. All of them immediately went crazy and ran towards Zhang Mu.

  “Even if I don’t have much energy now, I have defeated your second-in-command. You all are just extras. Are you all planning to kill me?”

  “If yes, come! Come and bite me then!”

  Just as Zhang Mu was going to be surrounded by the ten tigers, he grinned and lifted his left arm. The vines instantaneously left the brown-tailed tiger’s body and formed a cage around Zhang Mu, ingraining their roots deep into the ground and not leaving any gaps between them.

  Zhang Mu had created a protective cage around himself.

  Peng! Peng! Peng!

  Sounds of impact kept reverberating inside the cage. It must be the ten mutated tigers ramming into the vines that suddenly appeared. Thereafter, they scratched the vines to no avail. Every time they broke open a hole in the vine, a new vine would emerge cover up the hole.

  However, the effects of the mutated tiger’s flames were more evident. A burnt smell filled the air. The intelligence of these normal mutated tigers had yet to reach a high level. Now that they have lost their leader and were immensely angered by Zhang Mu, they just blindly breathed flames onto every part of the cage, causing no damage at all.

  Listening to the vines of the Bloodvine Lotus crackling in the heat, Zhang Mu appeared calm and composed. He only had to hide in the darkness, on one hand, slowly fed crystals to his left arm, allowing vines to regenerate. On the other hand, the injuries on his back and his spine continued healing.

  He smiled helplessly and slowly muttered, “I should have thought of this earlier.”

  “Cutting off one finger is better than damaging ten fingers.”

  Chapter 80: Strategic Retreat

  After 5 minutes, Zhang Mu stood up and stretched. This was his first time using the potion and truth to be told, the first-rank recovery potion’s effect matched its price and its rare quantity.

  “Nothing more can be said. You really get what you pay for. Next time I see No. 35 I will give him a 5-star rating.”

  Zhang Mu was in a good mood. However, the minute he heard the scratching sounds coming from outside the cage, his good mood was destroyed and he started to feel irritated. The joy on his face faded away, “Are they not done yet? When are they planning to stop burning me?”

  At this moment, he suddenly thought of a solution that could easily take care of the ten mutated tigers without much effort. He immediately got hyped up again. He whispered in the direction of the mutated tiger, “Since you all want to come in so badly, I shall let you all in.”

  Zhang Mu walked around the cage and somewhat identified the different positions of the mutated tigers. In the end, he chose the Southeast direction. There was only a single mutated tiger scratching fervently in this direction. Its Fire-type energy was probably used up already as the vines in this part had not been under any fire attack for the past minute. A fire attack would at least burn a layer of the vines, but if it was just the mutated tiger’s claws, not even half a layer of vines would be affected. This was enough to show how strong and durable the vines of the Bloodvine Lotus was.

  Suddenly, the vines at this part of the cage retracted. The mutated tiger thought that it had scratched opened a hole and immediately felt energised. It pushed one of its claws inside and squeezed its head through the hole. At first, it wanted to grab hold of Zhang Mu’s body. But then, it realised that Zhang Mu was standing not far away and smiling at it, saying, “Welcome.”

  The mutated tiger instinctively felt that there was danger. It wanted to pull its head out but realised a scary thing. It couldn’t move at all!

  The vines that retracted were moving back into position and the hole was shrinking. The mutated tiger desperately wanted to get out of the cage. It pushed its limbs repeatedly against the walls on the outside of the cage but to no avail. It was stuck.

  The other nine mutated tigers realised that something odd was happening and all gathered around, trying to drag the mutated tiger out. They started attacking the vines that were near the tiger. The vines were in a dire situation. With the combined and concentrated attack of the tigers, the outer walls of the cage got thinner and thinner as the vines were unable to replace itself fast enough,

  However, Zhang Mu had a solution. He just directed all the other vines, except the ones on the outer wall, to this part of the cage. The mutated tigers were too stupid to realise that the defense in the other areas had weakened and continued to look for a breakthrough here. Because of this, the Bloodvine Lotus managed to regenerate fast enough.

  Zhang Mu didn’t bother about the battle that was happening outside. He was casually inspecting the mutated tiger. The mutated tiger forgot about its fear as it saw Zhang Mu walking nearer and tried to strike. However, it was unable to even touch Zhang Mu. When it attempted to open its mouth, vines appeared and controlled its head, paralysing its movement.

  After stroking the tiger’s beard for a while, Zhang Mu decided to not waste any more time. He immediately pulled out his Obsidian Beetle claw and pierced it through the temple of the tiger. The tiger died before it could even cry out in pain. Its body stopped moving and its eyes started to blur.

  Zhang Mu retrieved the beast-core and commanded the Bloodvine Lotus to open a gap the size of a head. He then pushed the head of the dead tiger forcefully, causing it to fall heavily onto the ground behind and kicking up a layer of dust. After that, Zhang Mu didn’t close the gap. Instead, he opened the gap wider and even created another hole.

  Engulfed by pain and hatred, the mutated tigers didn’t sense the danger and walked right into the trap set by Zhang Mu. Zhang Mu immediately carried out his plan and reaped their lives. One of the mutated tigers secretly kept a bit of his fire-type energy and wanted to breathe fire on Zhang Mu’s head. However, it was found out by the vines embedded in its body and the Bloodvine Lotus immediately gave a signal to Zhang Mu.

  Zhang Mu instantaneously directed the vines to protect him against the flames, after which he let the vines close the tiger’s mouth shut, preventing it from releasing its fire-type energy. The fire-type energy was trapped inside the mouth of the tiger. Zhang Mu could feel the heat coming from its chin. He pierced the claw into the tiger and the heat dissipated. Without wasting any time, Zhang Mu pushed the dead tigers out of the hole and repeated his actions again.

  However, when he killed yet another two mutated tigers, the other mutated tigers no longer dared to come close to the cage. This was too scary. Their comrades had died one by one. Their arrogance and ferocity had changed to fear.

  The four mutated tigers wanted to retreat and look for assistance. Zhang Mu smiled as he watched them. He waved at them and said, “Come here, come here.”

  The mutated tigers were no longer tricked. The more relaxed Zhang
Mu appeared, the more in danger they felt. One of the mutated tigers had already backpedalled and was preparing to scamper away.

  “You have all become smarter. It’s an improvement. But, I have used too many crystals to fight with all of you. You need to leave your beast-cores as compensation.” Zhang Mu tone became cold as he released all the vines towards the four mutated tigers.

  With an average of five vines to one mutated tiger, Zhang Mu didn’t even need to take any other actions before the Bloodvine Lotus brought back four beast-cores to him. Not dawdling any longer, Zhang Mu kept all of the mutated tigers corpses in his Merchant’s Ring. Those are all worth a fortune.

  “Stupid dog, come out and bring me away from this place.” Zhang Mu shouted to the sky. A few seconds later, the mutated wolfdog ran over demurely as it looked at the blood stains on the ground. Zhang Mu hurriedly climbed onto the wolfdog’s back and they ran off to the meeting point.

  As he rode on the wolfdog, Zhang Mu softly said, “This is called a strategic retreat. Right, stupid wolfdog?” The wolfdog obediently nodded its head. It also felt that they should have run away sooner.

  More than ten minutes after Zhang Mu had left the battlefield, a loud roar resounded through the village. The roar was filled with sorrow and anger.

  Chapter 81: Temptation

  When Zhang Mu and his wolfdog appeared within the sight of the survival base, the guard opened the gates to welcome him as though welcoming back a guest of honor. Zhang Mu smiled at the guard when he entered the base, surprising the guard and making him feel honored.

  However, the guard was astonished as he saw the hideous wounds on his back. This boss is already so strong. He needed to struggle so hard to win? Thinking back to the calm smile Zhang Mu was carrying on his face, the guard decided to stop worrying. He thought Zhang Mu must have received a huge gain. Since he is back now, he will definitely distribute the rewards.

  The guard’s mood immediately lit up. Although he needs to stay within the compounds of the survival base due to his job, his friends can go out. If any of his friends provide news of a mutated animals base, he will most probably gain free meals for the next few days. If more of his friends provided the news, he can save one month’s worth of food supplies.

  As the guard was daydreaming about the treats he might get, Zhang Mu had already dismounted off the back of the wolfdog and walked to his house.

  He saw Yuan Rui sleeping beside the black cocoon. There were no changes to the cocoon. Zhang Mu’s heart ached. Yuan Rui was still worried about Little Black and stayed by its side. It seems as though she had given some of her life power to it and got too tired, hence sleeping right beside the cocoon.

  Zhang Mu slowly walked towards her and pulled out a blanket from his Merchant’s Ring, laying it on Yuan Rui. However, either he didn’t gauge his strength correctly or the blanket was too heavy, Yuan Rui immediately woke up in surprise. She recovered quickly after realising that it was Zhang Mu and was really happy. Rubbing her eyes, she asked Zhang Mu, “Uncle, when did you come back?”

  Zhang Mu was really sorry that he woke Yuan Rui up. He said, “I just came back and saw you alone in the house. I was scared that you would catch a cold and wanted to put a blanket on you but instead woke you up.”

  “It’s okay, I have been asleep for quite a while.” Yuan Rui shook her hands at Zhang Mu when she heard him apologising. She pointed towards the cocoon and said, “Uncle, I have given life power to Little Black twice today. It seems much better.”

  “Thanks for your hard work.”

  Zhang Mu moved closer to the cocoon and observed its progress. Although he was not as sensitive to life power as Yuan Rui, he was connected by blood to Little Black. Hence, he was able to detect its power rising slowly within the cocoon. Realising this, Zhang Mu stopped wishing that it would break out of the cocoon soon. It seemed that the longer the Obsidian Beetle stayed in the cocoon, the greater its power would be. Zhang Mu was anticipating the mutation of the Obsidian Beetle. When that happened, his Obsidian Beetle might be the only mutated animal that has reached the second level of Mutation at this stage.

  While Zhang Mu was pondering, Yuan Rui noticed the torn clothes and the long wound on Zhang Mu’s back and gasped, covering her mouth in shock while her eyes began watering. Hearing the gasp, Zhang Mu instantly knew what she saw. He didn’t want her to be worried, but there weren’t any clothes that he could change into inside his Merchant’s Ring, and hence, he could only come back like this.

  Yuan Rui gently touched the scar on Zhang Mu’s back and asked anxiously, “is it very painful?”

  After asking Zhang Mu, she choked and started blaming herself, “If I didn’t use up all my powers on Little Black just now, I could have healed you.”

  Zhang Mu saw the sad look on Yuan Rui’s face and immediately comforted her, “Don’t worry about that. I have already drunk the recovery potion which was bought from the red-haired uncle. Although this guy sells at a high price, his items are worth the money. Please don’t worry.” Zhang Mu said finished and showed Yuan Rui that he was indeed okay. Yuan Rui observed that Zhang Mu really seemed healed completely and stopped blaming herself.

  “This scar looks so ugly only because it is a new scar. With my recovery speed now, it will disappear soon and might leave my skin smoother than yours. You should really cry if that happens.” Zhang Mu purposely lightened up the mood and finally managed to take Yuan Rui’s attention away from his injury. She cutely bared her teeth like a little kitten and said, “If your skin becomes better than mine, I will scratch it worse.”

  “Hahaha...”

  He left the house under the pouting gaze of Yuan Rui’s eyes and went to find Wang Liang.

  The guards outside Wang Liang’s house didn’t stop Zhang Mu from entering. Who dares to stop the person who feeds them? Wang Liang had already informed them that all the food supplies in the survival base were from Zhang Mu and he even sold it to them at a very low price.

  “Brother Mu, you’re back already? How was it? Were there any gains?” Wang Liang put on his gold-framed glasses and stood up.

  “I have settled some of it, but most of the places were empty.” Zhang Mu replied in a very calm tone. Wang Liang was unable to catch Zhang Mu’s emotions and thought that he was angry. He immediately said sternly, “I will definitely punish those that gave fake news. They still think that they can get away with it after I have warned them.”

  Zhang Mu grabbed his arm and stopped Wang Liang from going out. He smiled and said, “There is no need to be so nervous. It is hard to ensure that there are suitable mutated beasts and the news that they gave me were not fake. It might be that they were too scared and didn’t look properly, after all, I did notice signs of beast activity”

  “There is another thing that I want to ask you. Who was the person who said that there were big-sized mutated animals in a village? His news was very accurate and allowed me to have a huge gain. When you pass the rewards out later, tell everyone that I need accurate news, the more accurate it is, the higher the rewards.”

  Wang Liang looked at Zhang Mu and asked, “What reward is suitable?”

  Zhang Mu stretched and slowly replied, “give the one who gave me the accurate news 500kg of food supplies and 100 litres of drinking water. The other four will get four days worth of food supplies.”

  Wang Liang couldn’t contain himself anymore. Zhang Mu had multiplied the rewards for the mission by as much as five times. What's more, those that offered empty news also got rewards.

  “Brother Mu, do you think me and my men could be your followers instead?”

  Chapter 82: The Enticement Of Huge Rewards

  Zhang Mu stared at Wang Liang curiously, “You don’t wish to lead and expand your territory anymore? If you expand your territory, you will be able to get many different types of supplies although the quantity may be lower.”

  “The logic is there but expanding territory is hard work. If the rewards for supplying news is even better than exp
anding territory, the evolvers might have other thoughts.”

  Wang Liang gave a forced smile. With Zhang Mu’s help, he and his men will be able to tackle a thousand walking dead if their position is good. They can get a good amount of supplies from there and split it among themselves. However, the rewards that Zhang Mu is giving out to a normal person is too much. His men will definitely have other thoughts about this.

  Zhang Mu thought about it and realised his mistake. He apologised, “I didn’t think through this carefully enough. If the rewards for a normal person is too huge, evolvers will think otherwise and this is not good for your commandment. Furthermore, the safety of the base might be at risk too.”

  He pondered a while and said to Wang Liang, “Give the person who provided the news 200kg of food supplies and 50L of drinking water. For the rest, give them 2 days worth of basic supplies. This will be better for you.”

  Wang Liang heaved a sigh of relief. He was so worried that under the enticement of the huge rewards, everyone would go and collect news for him. The current rewards were still within the acceptable range of the evolvers since good materials are worth much more than food supplies. The wealthier evolvers can still exchange food supplies for a good piece of material.

  “However, I will need you to help me give the rewards first. I have used up all my supplies.” Wang Liang frown at Zhang Mu’s calm tone as he said this sentence. So he doesn’t have any food supplies on hand and yet, he still wants to give such a high reward. He is able to handle if there are only one or two people claiming rewards. But if there are more people, his supplies will empty out very fast.

  Zhang Mu knew what Wang Liang was thinking and continued his words, “I will return all the food supplies that I borrowed from you in 7 days. Not only that, I will give you back double of what you have lent me. How about that?”