Embark on the Road

by Tai Baiyang

  Zhang Mu frowned. The scene was too bloody and tragic.

  There were injured people scattered all over the ground. Some had bandages wrapped all over them, some had not been treated yet. Blood could be seen everywhere. Wang Liang was sitting right in the middle, his expression hideous as he accepted the treatment of someone who looked like a doctor.

  Even someone as careful as Wang Liang is hurt? What did the search party meet when they went out to find supplies? If Wang Liang had planned properly, they would be able to easily handle over a thousand walking dead with the 20 sets of armor that he gave them. Why have they come back in such a state?

  Filled with doubts, Zhang Mu got off the wolfdog’s back and slowly walked towards the injured people. Most of the injured were so weak that they were unable to greet Zhang Mu when he walked past them. Zhang Mu signaled to them to continue resting.

  When he saw Zhang Mu, Wang Liang asked the doctor to quickly finish treating him and to help the other people who were injured.

  Zhang Mu frowned and asked after the doctor had left, “What happened to your arm? And also, what happened to all of you? Why are you injured too? I remembered you saying that after getting the 20 pieces of armor, the injury rate is close to zero?”

  Hearing the doubt in Zhang Mu’s tone, Wang Liang eyes burned with anger and snarled, “It’s the North City survival base.”

  “They attacked you? You helped them clear the walking dead that they were afraid of and yet, they attacked you? But even if they did, you have more than 200 evolvers under your arm. I have been to 10 other survival base to do business and the one in the North City only have at most 90 evolvers. That is less than half of your army. Why are you all in this state?”

  Wang Liang listened to the string of questions in silence. After a long while, he said coldly, “If they attacked us alone, we would not be in this tragic state. When we first went over to their base, their leader welcomed us with a good attitude and even led us to the area with the walking dead.”

  “However, I didn’t know that a person can be so shameless. When we were fighting 1500 walking dead at the North City, their leader lured another group of close to a thousand walking dead to us using fresh blood.”

  “You mean he caused you all to be surrounded by the walking dead?” Zhang Mu was totally stunned. The Luoyang City he knew didn’t have such a vicious leader. Was the leader supposed to be dead last time but because of him, the future was changed?

  This was just the tenth day after the cataclysm and the ugly side of the human race had been exposed. Honestly, this wasn’t even an issue about personal benefits. It was just regarding a bunch of walking dead and some small amount of supplies.

  “Yes, when I saw a car dragging a child and driving towards us, I sensed that something was amiss. As expected, a thousand walking dead came charging at us.”

  Wang Liang gaze turned dangerous. He slowly continued, “Brother Mu, you know that we do not have the ability to face a herd of a thousand walking dead head on. We need to make use of the terrain and the powers of the earth-type evolvers as well as the special armors to slowly kill the walking dead. However, the new group of walking dead disrupted our plan and I had no choice but to order a retreat. We didn’t even have the chance to pick up the crystals.”

  Zhang Mu was even more curious after hearing the explanation. If what Wang Liang said was the truth, then why were the group of them injured so badly?

  After some thoughts, Zhang Mu immediately guessed the situation. His tone turned icy, “it was the North City base. When you were retreating, they attacked you.”

  Wang Liang raised his head and looked at Zhang Mu. His face was filled with sorrow and anger, “yes, I was retreating with my men towards the two small roads that we had discussed earlier. However, we were ambushed by the North City base.”

  Wang Liang’s voice was calm, as though he was talking about an event unrelated to him. However, Zhang Mu knew how much anger Wang Liang was experiencing when he said his story.

  “They had carefully prepared their attacks and it completely stopped us from retreating. The walking dead caught up on us. We could have fought with them on the small street, but the North City had a lot of fire-type evolvers. They attacked our people at the front and dragged them into a fiery hell while their earth-type evolvers build a wall behind us to cut off our routes to retreat.”

  “Brother Mu, you know that I do not have any water-type evolvers in my team. The North City people even poured oil into the fiery hell. Not even my earth-type evolvers can put out the fire. I, Wang Liang, can only watch my men burn to death one by one before me.”

  Wang Liang’s voice was trembling when he reached this part. He remembered how helpless he felt when his men cried for help, and yet he was unable to do anything.

  Pouring oil was a common tactic seen in the future. However, that was when there was a loss of humanity. Why is it appearing now?

  Wang Liang waved his intact arm and pointed to his other arm, “This was the result of a sneak attack when I was trying to destroy their earth-type attacks.”

  “In the end, the walking dead broke through our defense line. Luckily, I was able to destroy the wall build by the many earth-type evolvers and escaped with the men that were left. They must have thought that we won’t be a threat anymore because they didn’t pursue us.”

  His expression dimmed, “the doctor took a look at my injury and told me that with the circumstances, he can only wrap some bandage around it and let it heal by itself. However, this type of injury inflicted by fire-type energy will still have a detrimental effect on the agility of the arm.”

  “This arm is crippled.”

  Wang Liang’s voice got softer but the next moment, he gazed at Zhang Mu with eager eyes and said, “My team is only left with half the size. It is my fault. I owe them. I want to take revenge for them, for my brothers who died in the fiery hell and for those kids that died tragically.”

  Wang Liang’s voice continued trembling as he said the last sentence to Zhang Mu, “Brother Mu, I have never begged you before. But this time, I beg you to help me. I cannot do this alone.”

  His last word softened Zhang Mu’s heart.

  “Please.”

  Chapter 86: Ending What I Started

  Although Wang Liang seemed easy-going, Zhang Mu knew that he was an arrogant person. Yet, he was pleading to Zhang Mu to help him. This was unexpected. Zhang Mu was moved.

  The North City was too vicious for his liking. Even if Wang Liang infringed some of their interest, there was no need to be so heartless. After all, they are all human. The leader must have been a vicious person even before the cataclysm.

  Zhang Mu remembered the moment when he arrived at the North City base a few days ago. A silver-hair middle-aged man with a sincere smile appeared in his memory.

  No wonder Wang Liang lowered his guard. The middle-aged man had such a sincere smile that even Zhang Mu didn’t notice anything and thought that he was an honest man. He hid it well.

  Thinking back, if Zhang Mu wasn’t irritated from the first few transactions and decided to go straight to the point during the meeting, he might have been treated differently if he had showcased any signs of weakness.

  No wonder the leader asked him to come out when they were talking and even did the transaction outside of the base. There must be something shady going on which he was afraid to let Zhang Mu know.

  Zhang Mu made a decision in his heart and then took out a green-colour potion from his Merchant’s Ring. He passed it to Wang Liang who was still staring at him and said, “Drink this first.”

  “What is this?” Wang Liang asked curiously when he saw that Zhang Mu didn’t agree to help him.

  “This is something that can save your arm. If you drag any longer, the scab would form and I won’t be able to help you anymore.” Zhang Mu answered calmly.

  Wang Liang’s eyes regained its glamour. He had really thought that his arm would be crippled and he knew what that would mean t
o him. He asked again in disbelief, “This potion really can save my arm?”

  Zhang Mu placed the potion on Wang Liang’s hand and replied, “If I said that it can, it can. I bought this potion from the Era Merchant’s shop. It is powerful but very rare. Even the Era Merchant doesn’t have much. I have used some bottles of it already so there are only a few bottles left. I can only help you. You have to help your men yourself since they were injured when fighting for you.”

  Wang Liang immediately replied without thinking, “Of course, this is my responsibility.”

  Zhang Mu smiled and said, “That is good. If you don’t do it, there won’t be anyone willing to fight for you anymore. Hurry up and drink the potion. The faster you drink, the lesser implications you will experience.”

  Hearing Zhang Mu Wang’s reminder, Liang instantly pulled the cork out with his teeth and was just about to drink the potion when he thought of something. He looked away from Zhang Mu and asked in a heavy tone, “Brother Mu, are you passing me this potion because you do not want to help me?”

  He self-deprecated, “If I am able to recover, why do I still need to ask for your help? Don’t worry brother Mu, after some time I will settle this business myself.”

  So that was what he was thinking about, Zhang Mu smiled helplessly and explained, “What are you thinking? I just sincerely hope that your arm won’t be crippled. I will go and settle the North City later. You think that with your ability and the injured team you can get revenge for yourself? How long are you willing to wait? Are you not worried that the North City will become stronger while you are resting?”

  “Does that mean you are willing to help?” Zhang Mu suddenly raised his head and looked at Zhang Mu.

  “Yes, I am just going to end something I started.” Zhang Mu said out of the blue.

  Wang Liang couldn’t understand what Zhang Mu was saying, but he knew that Zhang Mu agreed. He hurriedly gulped down the potion and immediately, he started to feel the effects. Beads of perspiration formed on his forehead and he felt his injured arm tingling with pain as though there were ants crawling over it.

  Wang Lang looked at his arm excitedly and turned to ask Zhang Mu, “Brother, how long will it take to heal? It has just been a minute and I am already feeling my arm tingling. I want to take off the bandage and have a look.”

  Looking at his exhilarated face, Zhang Mu grinned, “you are thinking too much. It doesn’t heal that quickly. This was an injury by a fire-type evolver, even the best potion need some time to carry out its effects. It would take roughly half a day to heal. Don’t be stupid and take off the bandage now. What you should do is go home and rest first.”

  Wang Liang felt disappointed when he heard the reply. He muttered to himself, “that is really long.”

  However, he didn’t know that without the help of the first-rank recovery potion Zhang Mu gave him, he would have to wait very long before the high-level healing-type evolvers who could heal him appeared. Even then, he would have no rights to ask for the help of these evolvers. With one arm crippled, Wang Liang would have nothing for the evolvers to gain if they help him. Even his survival would be a problem.

  The world after the cataclysm has only one rule: the survival of the fittest.

  Zhang Mu slowly got up and walked off under the hopeful gaze of Wang Liang and the wails of the injured. This time, he didn’t bring the mutated wolfdog with him. He left it in his house and after saying goodbye to Yuan Rui, he left the survival base.

  He had changed into clothes he never wore before: windbreaker, tights, and boots. He wore a pair of sunglasses and mask on his face and proceeded to the North City at four times his normal speed.

  One person is enough. He didn’t want any more people to know what he was going to do. He wasn’t prepared to turn people’s respect into fear yet even though the massacre was for their revenge. There was only one way to kill over 90 evolvers at one go - the Bloodvine Lotus.

  However, once it was used, its ruthlessness was not something a normal human could accept.

  Chapter 87: Infiltrating The North City

  Zhang Mu stood outside the gates of the North City survival base alone. Standing in front of him was an unfinished building.

  The area was deserted but Zhang Mu knew that this was the survival base of that middle-aged man. Last time, he was stopped from entering the unfinished building. He had thought that it was because the leader felt that the environment was too lousy and was embarrassed to invite Zhang Mu inside.

  However, there seemed to be more to it. The run-down building gave off a eerie feeling. As expected of a place which housed the man who used a child as bait. For the villains, this was heaven. Yet to the normal human, this was hell.

  Of course, these were just Zhang Mu’s conjectures. He didn’t have any evidence. But soon, he would uncover the truth.

  As Zhang Mu took a step forward, a long spear pierced into the ground right in front of him. In spite of this, Zhang Mu had no intention to look at the person who attacked him.

  He pulled down his hat and bypassed the spear. Just as he wanted to take another step, a cold voice sounded beside him, “Young man, I don’t know if you are really stupid or acting, but you won’t be so lucky next time. If you continue moving forward, the next thing the spear will pierce would be you. Whether you are here to seek shelter or you are lost, our base doesn’t welcome you. We don’t need any outsiders, do you understand me?”

  After that, the voice stopped completely. The person saw Zhang Mu casually moving forward as though he didn’t hear the warning. Or rather, Zhang Mu didn’t put the warning to heart.

  “Young man, you are courting your own death. Do not blame me.”

  A spear came zooming in on Zhang Mu’s head, coming in faster and more powerful than the one before. Zhang Mu tilted sideways slightly to dodge the spear, not raising his head in the process. He was not trying to act mysterious or anything. It’s just that he had seen this guard before and the last time they met, he had subdued the guard before the guard could even act.

  After all, the guard was too far away. If he gave any warning to the people inside the base, Zhang Mu would have a hard time infiltrating. Zhang Mu didn’t sense any other evolvers besides the spear guard. Looks like the leader is really confident in the ability of this evolver.

  Although Zhang Mu’s ability had not been awakened, he had consumed a lot of potions and had a blood linkage with the Bloodvine Lotus as well as the Obsidian Beetle. This allowed him to be more powerful than the evolvers that just had their abilities awakened.

  However, he couldn’t deny that the guy in front of him did have something to be proud of. Being a guard was a waste of his talent.

  Zhang Mu continued walking forward while the guard continued to throw spears at him. At first, Zhang Mu could still dodge it but as he got nearer, more and more spears started to strike at him and it was harder to avoid them without displaying his true power. Hence, he could only use his Obsidian Beetle claw and disrupted the path of some of the spears, opening up a path for him.

  Because of this, Zhang Mu felt the evolver panicking and striking with full force, no longer holding back his power. However, although the force of each attack increased, it was easier to predict the direction of his throw. Yet, it was still too dangerous. Zhang Mu was already nearing one of the buildings. He sneered and purposely reviewed a weak point to the guard.He acted as though he was going to get struck by one of the spears.

  Zhang Mu was only about 10 meters away from the evolver. When the evolver saw this scene, he immediately smiled and cursed, “I finally manage to kill you, you little brat.”

  Till now, he still thought that Zhang Mu was just an evolver with strong agility, a normal human who had better reflexes and no special power. His spears couldn’t do much damage to people who don't attack him face on. He felt that Zhang Mu was just lucky in this sense.

  Also, he was confident in his special ability which was to improve his throwing weapons accuracy and penetrating
power. This was the reason why the leader gave him the task of guarding the gates.

  On the other hand, Zhang Mu was pondering over the guard’s action. Why did he strike without even asking for his name? What if he was trying to seek shelter in their survival base? Are the evolvers already so against outsiders? By right, that shouldn’t be the case. Maybe it was because of their leader.

  However, he was not going to ask the evolver for an answer. This ability might seemed very powerful now, but in the future, it will become dispensable. In the future, evolvers that are not as powerful would not be able to wield a powerful weapon and his ability offered no contribution to powerful evolvers.

  At that moment, the guard saw Zhang Mu raising his head. He suddenly remembered the who this person was. Instinctively, he wanted to press the alarm but something wrapped around his neck and he lost control of his entire body.

  What is this?

  Before he lost his consciousness, the evolver saw Zhang Mu increase his speed and in a second, he appeared in front of the evolver. Even though Zhang Mu had concealed himself with layers and layers of clothing, the evolver still recognised him. He had left a huge impression on the evolver. He remembered the last time when Zhang Mu broke through the defense and appeared in front of him. Luckily, he was able to press the alarm.

  This time, he didn’t have a chance.

  A vine had already pierced through his body and in the second before he died, the evolver felt the vine sneering at him, just like Zhang Mu.

  Chapter 88: Hell

  Zhang Mu had released a single vine when he was approaching the evolver and he purposely revealed a weak point so that the evolver would lose his vigilance. This gave the Bloodvine Lotus a chance to strike out and take care of the evolver in a single blow.

  Zhang Mu recalled to his embarrassment the first time he came to the gates. He showed off his true powers too early and allowed the evolver to have the time to press the alarm, warning their leader of his presence and resulted in them finishing the deal outside the gates.