The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm

Chapter 159: Big Crisis

Zhang Mu straightened his body and looked at Hao Hao without speaking a word. He just patted his shoulder silently. After that, he turned his body to talk to Yuan Rui, “We had a bit of delay in our schedule already. So let’s set off now. Hao Hao would be following us to Shan Xi city first, and when we return, I’ll make the necessary arrangement for him.”

“Okay, good. I’ll listen to you. Since the matter had settled, then let’s leave quickly. You still got stuff to do, right?” Yuan Rui considerately let Zhang Mu put her on the back of the Obsidian Beetle before he lifted Hao Hao to her.

“Little Black, stupid dog, let’s go!”

Even though it would be faster for Zhang Mu to carry the mutated wolfdog, however, the Obsidian Beetle was carrying two people on its back. Transporting people was not as simple as adding the weights only. For every additional load, it would make a vast impact on the Obsidian Beetle.

Furthermore, even if Zhang Mu had the psychic barrier to share the burden, his arms would be numb after he carried the mutated wolfdog for a while. If they happened to encounter an emergency, Zhang Mu’s combat ability would be hugely reduced with his arms and hands getting stiffed.

So after some considerations, and the evaluation of the pros and cons, he decided to slow down his speed so that the mutated wolfdog could follow behind him using its usual pace.

Zhang Mu took the lead and headed towards a direction first. Right now, he could not tell the correct path to Shan Xi city. As long as he could return to the main road, he could adjust his route accordingly.

Therefore, he returned to the starting point. After passing through a town and changing his direction a few times, he finally went back to the right track. Before he left, he turned back and looked at the ghostly town behind him, the abandoned factory as well as the black smoke that was still rising, as he sighed in his heart.

“Now the town looked the same as before, quiet and eerily dead. However, who knows how much impact did my arrival had caused on the path of mankind? Also, I have never heard about spiders appearing in huge number in the past.” For once, he had no idea if the butterfly effect of his rebirth had affected this place or not. He suspected that either these mutated spiders had died in the Catastrophe Matrix belly after she was destroyed by a peculiar reason, or, a devastating blow had hit the tens of thousand mutated spiders before they had the chance to grow up.

But for whatever reasons, Zhang Mu was unable to find out now. Anyway, the matter was solved. After Zhang Mu confirmed his way to Shan Xi city, he spread out his hand and found a relatively smooth pathway before he ran with the Obsidian Beetle and the mutated wolfdog following behind him. He deliberately let the mutated wolfdog kept its usual pace as it was not worthy if it was already tired when there was a need to use its ability.

After a few days and nights of running, the only threat to Zhang Mu was a group of five figures first-ranked walking dead. However, Zhang Mu was only slightly greedy for them. To him now, ten thousands of first-ranked crystals were not that great. Furthermore, the risks and benefits were not proportional. Once the number breakthrough five figures, then the destructive power of the walking dead was not as simple as increasing their number only.

Even if there was a herd of 9,999 walking dead, it was vastly different from a 10,000 walking dead.

A miss was as good as a mile.

Once the competition within the species and the quantity increased had reached a critical point, Nature would slowly filter out and picked one from the 10,000 first-ranked walking dead to become an intellectual type of walking dead, to command and control the entire herd.

As it was unfair to the human being, the process for the walking dead to develop intelligence required a long time. Therefore, this era would not break the balance so soon. However, the ten thousand walkings dead herd in front of Zhang Mu’s seems to form for a period already.

Even though Zhang Mu was certain that there would not be any intellectual type, which could fully control the entire herd of walking dead within two months of the Paradise Era, he did not dare to take the risk just for ten thousand first-ranked crystals, and test out how much control did it had over the entire herd.

The Obsidian Beetle went over to provoke the walking dead herd. It carried one of the walkings dead at the most outer-ring and sped back. It flew at a side while chewing the head and was unbothered even when Yuan Rui was disgusted by its behavior.

It claimed that it missed the taste of the head of the walking dead. Despite the provocation from the Obsidian Beetle, they did not chase over, and there was only a small commotion within the mob. Zhang Mu was even more convinced that there was an intellectual type slowly developing amongst the five-figure herd. If that was not the case, then the mob would certainly be provoked by the Obsidian Beetle, and not suppressing their instinct like this.

So when the Obsidian Beetle made its decision and ran out, Zhang Mu’s small heart couldn’t help but tremble for a moment. What if the intellectual type was interested in them and commanded the enormous herd to start moving in advance? It would be ‘fun’ then. If that was the case, it was not the problem of detours anymore since they had to change their route vastly.

Fortunately, they did not follow the Obsidian Beetle. But from another perspective, that was also terrifying. Either the intellectual type thought that Zhang Mu and the others were not worthy, or, it was already at a crucial step in its evolution. If it was the latter, then the matter was even more complicated. That means that after a few months, at least ten thousands of walking dead would enclose around the surrounding cities. Therefore, it would force the human being to shrink back into a small and cramp city. In such a case, ordinary people and evolvers who had a weaker strength would be driven out of the city to defend for themselves.

However, that was unavoidable too. Because currently, Zhang Mu did not have the power to solve this obstacle. That was different from dealing with the group of mutated spiders on that small town a few days ago.

That time was also under the coincidence of the period whereby he arrived at the right time, right place, and with the right people. The right time refers to the group of little spiders, that hadn’t grown up yet. The right place refers to the big pit and the huge cocoon caging those mutated little spiders.

And of course, the most critical people were these mutated little spiders that wouldn’t leave the place that they were hatched from and had an extreme fear to fire.

In front of Zhang Mu, they were not a strong opponent at all.

But with a commander inside the herd, it exceeded the discipline and fearlessness far more than the human team.

Zhang Mu could only pray that within these few months, he could evolve to the point where he had enough power to control the entire scene before this intellectual type of walking dead could develop fully.