Back to the Doomsday

by Tai Baiyang

  In order to make use of Little Black's keen sense of smell, Zhang Mu laid down a big promise without any hesitation.

  Actually, Little Black had no interest in crystals at all because it was stuck in a bottleneck when it came absorbing energy. However, after hearing what Zhang Mu said, it cheered up quickly. It discerned the scents in the air carefully and flapped its wings, flying out in a direction.

  Zhang Mu snickered. As the old saying said, “A good bone is bound to attract good dogs.” Little Black wasn’t really desireless.

  Unwilling to work? Then I would get you to work for me with money!

  Zhang Mu didn't want to waste time, so he piggybacked Yuan Rui and ran after Little Black at full speed.

  Little Black was driven by the prospect of a tremendous reward and quickly reached the place within ten minutes.

  Zhang Mu caught up with Little Black promptly. After putting down Yuan Rui and puffing a breath, he was shocked by the scene in the front of him, “So many! Are the zombies in this city all here?”

  Little Black answered in an innocent tone, “You ask me to find a place where there is the most zombies.”

  The zombies were spread all over the place, pushing and shoving.

  This place should be very close to the center of the city, where malls concentrated. Perhaps no evolver had the guts to come here as there was a great deal of zombies. Didn’t see any sign of battle.

  Little Black had led Zhang Mu and Yuan Rui here through a small alley. That was to say, Zhang Mu and Yuan Rui were standing in the center of a bustling shopping center.

  As Zhang Mu pondered what he should do, Little Black snickered through the mental bond between them.

  All of a sudden, Zhang Mu had a bad premonition. As expected, Little Black's roar resounded through the streets where were only very few zombies in their sight.

  Zhang Mu was about to shout abusive words when Little Black turned big and flew into the air, grasping Yuan Rui with its claws and tossing her onto its back.

  Yuan Rui sat on Little Black's back steadily without having recovered from shock yet. Little Black descended a little and suddenly flew up high, hovering and watching the zombies rushing towards Zhang Mu from all directions.

  It was a fine spectacle where thousands of zombies were speeding towards Zhang Mu, as more and more were coming from all around.

  “Ha-ha, as a thank you for hitting me on the head so often, I’ll leave the battlefield to you!” Little Black thought.

  Zhang Mu had no time to care about what Little Black was thinking. He wasn't afraid of these first-ranked zombies as they were weak, but he couldn't cope with so many of them at the same time. He could do nothing but pray that the Bloodvine Lotus could withstand the impact while he tried to squeeze through the masses.

  What he should do now was to hold on as long as possible!

  Just as Zhang Mu was going to be attacked by those zombies, dozens of vines stretched out vigorously from Zhang Mu's left arm, forming a heavily guarded shield.

  “Boom!”

  The zombies smacked hard on it!

  Seeing that the perimeter of shield formed by Bloodvine Lotus was shrinking, Zhang Mu got nervous.

  But just as the vines were going to touch Zhang Mu's skin, it stopped closing in.

  Unbelievable, the Bloodvine Lotus withstood the impact from thousands of zombies.

  Zhang Mu looked at Little Black coldly, which really scared it.

  “Bad boy, wait and see how I'll punish you.”

  After that, Zhang Mu started to strike back!

  Chapter 47: The Power of the Bloodvine Demon Lotus

  The vines protecting Zhang Mu had been compressed to the limit and sprang outwards like a spring.

  The zombies surrounding Zhang Mu all received serious damage as they got cut in half by the powerful vines.

  As the first row of zombies were knocked away, those behind them were also sent backward by the strong collision.

  Yet, the power of Bloodvine Lotus was limited and it only wiped whatever was within a 10-meter radius of it. The crowd of zombies still swarmed onto him.

  However, Zhang Mu didn’t give them the chance to attack. He looked up and focused in a direction, then chuckled, “You had lost the opportunity the first time. Now, you won't ever have the chance again.”

  Before the zombies started their second attack, Zhang Mu stepped forward and dashed forwards.

  The Bloodvine Lotus was linked to Zhang Mu and moved in coordination with him.

  Under Zhang Mu’s control, the vines started to attack fiercely towards the direction Zhang Mu went.

  Two vines suddenly lashed out and stuck themselves into two zombies’ bodies. After sucking up all their blood, the vines pushed their dried bodies to the side.

  The other vines didn’t move and continued protecting Zhang Mu from being attacked by other zombies. Right now, Zhang Mu was piercing into the crowd like an electric drill, opening up a big hole in the masses.

  The zombies could only attack Zhang Mu from the front. There were thousands of zombies, but he only needed to face three or four at a time.

  As even a dozen of zombies couldn’t pose a danger Zhang Mu, it was unlikely that only four could get within half a meter of his body.

  In the other directions, the vines guarded against the zombies’ attacks with ease. Sometimes, they even stretched out and sucked the surrounding zombies’ blood.

  As for the vines in front of himself, they were all very strong and sturdy, revealing their ferocity through the thick barbs that grew on them.

  In the front of the Bloodvine Demon Lotus, the first-ranked zombies were as weak as pieces of paper that are easily torn apart.

  Noticing the weakness of the first-ranked zombie, Zhang Mu became playful and started to dish out unbridled attacks. The vines not only pushed the zombies aside after sucking them dry but also threw them out.

  Under Zhang Mu’s control, the Bloodvine Lotus didn’t absorb the energy within the zombies' crystals. He still needed them.

  Throwing one to his left and another to his right.

  Zhang Mu played happily and broke into the mob like an excavator.

  The sound of slapping echoed from all around the shield formed by vines. Unknowingly, Zhang Mu was getting close to the periphery of the siege.

  The intelligence of first-ranked zombie was really low. They didn’t know to surround Zhang Mu properly and only followed the direction he went to, so they were less and less in front of him as they accumulated behind him. They pushed and shoved behind Zhang Mu; it was quite hilarious.

  All of a sudden, Zhang Mu noticed that the Bloodvine Lotus’s power was decreasing. He didn’t realize the seriousness of the matter until the vines had slowed down considerably.

  What happened? It shouldn’t be like this and I've never heard that mutated plants weakening during a fight.

  Zhang Mu was both shocked and anxious. After all, in his past life, he had no chance to get in touch with mutated plants that were nurtured by high-level evolvers.

  Should I have to run away? Luckily, I've almost gotten out of the zombies’ encirclement.

  The Bloodvine Lotus's intelligence was far inferior to Little Black’s. Zhang Mu couldn’t communicate with it and can only worry while not being able to do anything.

  Yet, it was a pity for Zhang Mu to leave like this.

  He saw the vines shrinking slowly. Suddenly, an idea came to mind.

  Was it because it lacked energy? Maybe the blood it had sucked wasn’t sufficient to support its movements?

  It can’t be otherwise!

  Zhang Mu smiled bitterly and shook his head.

  He had planned to save his crystals. However, if he didn’t help the Bloodvine Lotus restore its energy, it might suck Zhang Mu’s blood to replenish energy.

  Actually, it was not the Bloodvine Lotus’ fault. It was just ensuring its own survival.

  Zhang Mu had no choice but to offer it crystals. He wouldn’t be stingy at this moment.r />
  Money should be used at crucial times.

  Realizing this, Zhang Mu quickly took out a handful of crystals from his Merchant’s Ring. Zhang Mu felt the Bloodvine Lotus’ desire even before he put crystals on his left arm.

  As expected, he guessed right.

  Zhang Mu smiled, letting the Bloodvine Lotus stretch out a vine to swallow the crystals.

  Having gotten enough energy, the Bloodvine Lotus started to attack vigorously like an iron chainsaw that had just received good lubricating oil. It became much proactive than Zhang Mu.

  Chapter 48: Dead or Alive

  Zhang Mu mood rose immediately. As the Bloodvine Lotus attacks intensified, they quickly escaped the encirclement of zombies.

  However, Zhang Mu didn't stop at just breaking out.

  Zhang Mu snickered and stopped walking. There was a massive amount of zombies behind him. The Bloodvine Lotus had killed many of them, but compared to the overall number, it was barely a fraction.

  Zhang Mu slowly turned back with the bloody Bloodvine Lotus twined around his body. Looking at the zombies rushing towards him, he didn’t feel any fear but was excited instead.

  When the zombies got within attack range, his heartbeat sped up, pumping adrenaline throughout his body. He roared and withdrew the vines more vines from in front of him.

  The gap Zhang Mu had opened up just now was only big enough for him to kill a few zombies at a time. It was far from making him feel satisfied, so he directly doubled the size of the gap.

  As such, the number of zombies that could come at him at once had increased to eight, which meant he must sacrifice more crystals and use eight strong vines to deal with them.

  Yet, Zhang Mu didn’t feel any heartbreak because according to his calculations, the number of crystals the Bloodvine Lotus would eat was far inferior to the number of zombies that Bloodvine Lotus would kill.

  The eight vines could kill over ten zombies every second. The mutated plant started a new loop of the bloody massacre like a crazy reaper.

  As it absorbed more and more energy from the crystals and blood from zombies, the changes it underwent were increasingly obvious.

  The eight vines, which were carving out a way for Zhang Mu, were becoming distinctly stronger and faster.

  Most of the energy the Bloodvine Lotus had absorbed had been used to attack, but there was still a fraction of it that had been used to strengthen itself.

  The energy it had absorbed, once accumulate, was a considerable amount.

  In the air, Yuan Rui had gotten bored. At the very beginning, she was worried about Zhang Mu so much that she had asked Little Black to help him. Little Black didn’t worry about Zhang Mu at all because its instinct had told it that the Bloodvine Lotus held horrifying powers. That was why Little Black dared to attract so many zombies. After all, if Zhang Mu got hurt, it would also die since it had offered Zhang Mu its “Blood Imprint”.

  However, Yuan Rui didn’t know that fact and she had no ability to communicate with Little Black. When she saw Little Black shaking its head, she just thought that it didn’t dare to go save Zhang Mu and had almost jumped down from its back to try and help him.

  Luckily, at that time, the Bloodvine Lotus had withstood the first and strongest impact. Yuan Rui exclaimed when she saw what happened next.

  At first, Yuan Rui felt that it was unbelievable, but as time went by, she could calmly look at the Bloodvine Lotus' display of power. Right now, Yuan Rui thought that she wouldn’t be scared no matter what Zhang Mu did.

  When he turned around to face the zombies, he looked like a general who was fighting against an army alone, which really shocked her.

  Zhang Mu had gotten through the crowd back and forth several times while she was still thinking about his fearless appearance.

  The number of zombies was steadily decreasing. Zhang Mu lured the remaining ones toward the corpse heap because if he had to wait for the zombies slowly got together by themselves, his efficiency would be dramatically reduced.

  Hovering in the air, Yuan Rui could clearly see that the amount zombies had dropped sharply. In the beginning, there were four streets covered with them but now, only one was left. Corpses spread all over the ground, but because they were all dried bodies, there were no bloodstains.

  It seems that uncle will end this battle soon. He looks very relaxed and doesn’t seem to need any help.

  She felt unhappy and bored as she couldn’t join the fight and just sat here for a long time.

  Suddenly, Little Black began to move restlessly and flapped his wings quickly as if it had sensed some danger.

  Yuan Rui just assumed that it had gotten bored like her, so she said, “Just wait for a while, uncle will finish the battle soon and then we can go down to see him.”

  She touched Little Black’s back and comforted it with words.

  But Little Black didn’t listen to what she said. It became more irritable, flying up and down while looking around.

  All of a sudden, Little Black screamed. As it was unable to contact Zhang Mu through their mind link due to the distance, it had to warn Zhang Mu and flew towards him at a very high speed.

  This scream woke up Zhang Mu who was indulged in killing, and he understood Little Black’s warning at once.

  I'm in danger, but why I don’t sense it? How can it be possible?

  Zhang Mu was lost in thought when a black shadow suddenly appeared in front of him just as the eight vines were all piercing through the zombies' corpses.

  Who?!

  What sort of evolver was this person?

  When Zhang Mu saw the black shadow, the two questions arose in his mind, but he had no time to think about the answer to them because the black shadow was rushing towards him at a very high speed.

  The black shadow held a dagger and was only 30 centimeters away from Zhang Mu. If he doesn’t dodge, his head would be pierced through in the next second.

  Hanging by a thread!

  Zhang Mu was in deadly danger.

  Chapter 49: Counterattack

  In the black shadow’s mind, Zhang Mu’s head had been pierced through by his dragger. He couldn’t help but expose a complacent smile on the corners of his mouth.

  You were a plant-type evolver and could easily kill massive amounts zombies, but so what? Once I set my eye on you, your end is still death.

  The black shadow had noticed Zhang Mu and Yuan Rui earlier since they entered the bustling malls. In the beginning, he was shocked by Zhang Mu’s strong ability because even he himself couldn't do what Zhang Mu did, but he became excited once he realized the gap between them.

  His name was Liu Shuo.

  On the third day of the new era, his invincible ability was awakened. He was so lucky that he found the Era store in Xi’an and became the first sub-merchant of Xi’an City.

  Liu Shuo became arrogant from his powerful ability and the double agility he gained from the Era merchant. Whether it was a zombie or a mutated animal, as long as it was alone, he would attack it. The more challenging a creature was, the stronger his desire to kill.

  As for the task that the Era merchant gave him... he had forgotten it. To him, the most important thing was freedom. He didn’t care about other people’s thoughts.

  Before, he had wanted to finish the boring trading task before the deadline.

  Now, Liu Shuo only wanted to hunt more and more strong preys.

  After killing all the single powerful zombies and mutated animals he could find, he was easily satisfied anymore, so he changed target: evolvers.

  After killing the first person, he didn’t sense any guilt but a great sense of satisfaction. In the last ten days, he had killed all the evolvers that may be a threat to him and collected their heads as trophies.

  As for Lin Shui who had gathered many evolvers together, he didn't try to kill him. Because, on one hand, it would be troublesome to kill Lin Shui, and on the other hand, he didn't feel like killing this kind of person.

  In Xi’an City, except fo
r the zombie tide and mutated animal hordes, nothing could rival him.

  As this standstill lasted two days, anxiety rose in Liu Shuo’s mind again. He searched insanely all over the city for a new target until he found Zhang Mu.

  At first, he was indeed frightened by Zhang Mu’s killing power, because if he was caught in the crowd of thousands of zombies, he wouldn't be able to do anything but run away as fast as he can. However, Zhang Mu was actually able to kill them and gain thousands of crystals as easy as blowing off dust, which made Liu Shuo jealous.

  As the first sub-merchant in Xi’an City, Liu Shuo naturally knew the worth of thousands of crystals. This amount could allow his power to reach a new level.

  Therefore, even though Liu Shuo had seen Zhang Mu’s strength, he still tried to kill him in order to rob him of his crystals. He had confidence in finishing off his opponent in only one attack because he had never failed before.

  Moreover, the more powerful Zhang Mu was, the more excited Liu Shuo felt and the more satisfaction and achievement he could gain after killing Zhang Mu.

  Liu Shuo had waited for a very long time. He watched Zhang Mu’s way of fighting and finally found the best opportunity for a sneak attack. He was a perfectionist, and he had the confidence to kill his target in one strike.

  However, just as Liu Shuo nearly made it.

  “Ding!”

  At this crucial moment, a dissonant sound echoed between the two.

  Liu Shuo’s deadly attack was blocked!

  It was the Bloodvine Lotus! The Bloodvine Lotus blocked the attack with its body!

  Liu Shuo swallowed harshly as cold sweat formed on his forehead. He suddenly realized that the man in front of him had been smiling calmly.

  Just now, Zhang Mu also thought that he was going to die under the dagger. As he regretted his carelessness, he received a signal from the Bloodvine Lotus that it would protect him.

  At this essential moment, the lotus seed propelled itself from Zhang Mu’s left arm and blocked the attack.

  Zhang Mu had nearly died.

  The Bloodvine Lotus’s body, the lotus seed, received a heavy wound from Liu Shuo and was badly injured. Zhang Mu felt pain in his heart as he looked at it. He quickly put the seed back into his left arm and fed it with his own blood.