Embark on the Road
Page 1
Embark on the Road: The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm Book 2
Written by Tai Baiyang
Translated by Yuchaoz
Published by Zenith Novels
Edited by Myro
© 2019 by Zenith Novels
All rights reserved. Published 2019
Originally published as 末日之大亨崛起 in Chinese by kujiang
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Chapter 61: Bamboozling
Chapter 62: Luoyang City’s Change
Chapter 63: Seeing Wang Liang Again
Chapter 64: Identity Revealed
Chapter 65: Done With the Deal
Chapter 66: That Explains the Matter
Chapter 67: Ten Tons of Rice
Chapter 68: Solve One After Another
Chapter 69: Cocooning
Chapter 70: Become Frenzied
Chapter 71: Uproar Over Some Tasks
Chapter 72: Running Around Trying Everything
Chapter 73: Let the Hunt Begin
Chapter 74: Erode
Chapter 75: Great harvest?
Chapter 76: Dine ‘n’ Dash
Chapter 77: Tough Fight With The Brown-Tailed Tiger
Chapter 78: The cost of assumption
Chapter 79: Come And Bite Me
Chapter 80: Strategic Retreat
Chapter 81: Temptation
Chapter 82: The Enticement Of Huge Rewards
Chapter 83: Without Stopping
Chapter 84: The Smell Of Blood
Chapter 85: Power of North City
Chapter 86: Ending What I Started
Chapter 87: Infiltrating The North City
Chapter 88: Hell
Chapter 89: Underestimated
Chapter 90: Dragging The Time
Chapter 91: Attacked By Everyone
Chapter 92: The Truth
Chapter 93: The Source Of Avarice
Chapter 94: Self Delusion
Chapter 95: The True Intention
Chapter 96: Master Of Lies
Chapter 97: A Success
Chapter 98: Era Merchant Shop
Chapter 99: Finally Falling Into the Trap
Chapter 100: Finding The Solution
Chapter 101: Advance Trading
Chapter 102: Things Get Complicated
Chapter 103: Another Harvest
Chapter 104: The Final Tabulation
Chapter 105: Burning Morale
Chapter 106: Pick Bones In An Egg
Chapter 107: Remaking the Weapon
Chapter 108: Nothing Left
Chapter 109: Returning To Poverty
Chapter 110: Entering The East City Again
Chapter 111: Trying His Hand
Chapter 112: The Power of Obsidian Beetle
Chapter 113: How Weak Humanity Was
Chapter 114: Hopeless
Chapter 115: The Heart Is In A Mess
Chapter 116: Do It Personally
Chapter 117: Little Black Woke Up
Chapter 118: Leaving Secretly
Chapter 119: Terror In The Village
About the Publisher
Chapter 61: Bamboozling
Zhang Mu sat, chatting with the Yuan Rui that was seated on Little Black's back, amusing her with his blown up words.
It really wasn’t easy pleasing a girl. Exactly what sin have I committed in my previous life for me to not have dated even a single girl back then. In fact, when it came to love, Zhang Mu was a complete rookie.
By the way, why was Zhang Mu seated when he was talking to Yuan Rui?
Because the mount he was riding now was a mutated beast as well. It was a wolfdog that Zhang Mu found on the road. It didn’t attack Zhang Mu perhaps was owed to its habit of not assaulting live human beings.
This morning when Zhang Mu was passing by the town, his interest suddenly peaked when he saw it. Also because he felt that it was too exhausting to walk on his own, the idea to catch the wolfdog and train it as his personal mount immediately hatched.
However, the wolfdog had been mutated by the ripple of evolution, which in turn kick-started its innate ferociousness. Hence, how would it surrender to Zhang Mu so easily? Frankly, the reason the wolfdog didn’t attack was probably due to the fact that it had a previous owner.
Zhang Mu's provocative behavior immediately infuriated the wolfdog that was three times his size. When it stood and walked on its hind legs, it was half a body higher than Zhang Mu. It moved quickly, ready to tear this presumptuous human apart for its meal for the day.
However, Zhang Mu wasn't scared. Rather, he sized it up and down with interest, saying. "Its four limbs are strong! Imposing enough huh, it looks like a real wolf! Not bad, not bad, I like it!"
Zhang Mu's voice and gaze were as though he was purchasing a pet, and that had the wolfdog’s rage peaking. It widened its bloody mouth, ready to swallow Zhang Mu in a bite.
Upon witnessing something terrifying after having leapt into the air, the flames of rage in its eyes instantly doused. It was a top-class first-ranked mutated animal. Even if it was weakened, its remaining self-consciousness still cried out at that moment for him to step back.
However, it was already too late.
Bloodvine Demon Lotus whipped out, unrestrained, from Zhang Mu's left arm and instantly grew till was able to shield the sun above the mutated wolfdog's head, before it rushed down at it.
Despite being wrapped like a rice dumpling in the air by the Bloodvine Demon Lotus, the wailing mutated wolfdog still glared at Zhang Mu fiercely. Even so, it was unable to do anything being bound as such.
Even though Zhang Mu had ordered the Bloodvine Demon Lotus to control its strength and not hurt the mutated wolfdog, its barbed vine still pierced through the mutated wolfdog's thick fur, digging into its body.
Fortunately, the Bloodvine Demon Lotus brought to mind Zhang Mu's words and didn't absorb its blood, so the mutated wolfdog's state wasn't as bad as what it seemed.
Under Zhang Mu's control, the Bloodvine Demon Lotus slowly laid the mutated wolfdog down before Zhang Mu, and Zhang Mu calmly gazed into its eyes.
Albeit one calm and the other resentful, the two looked at each other in silence.
After a while, Zhang Mu smiled. His gaze sharpening, he pronounced his words clearly, "You have two choices: surrender, or die."
Despite being threatened by Zhang Mu, the mutated wolfdog struggled, and shook its head, refusing to surrender.
"Not willing to surrender?"
Zhang Mu ordered the Bloodvine Demon Lotus to tighten its vines. The barbed vines dug deeply into the mutated wolfdog's body, creating one wound after another, but not a drop of blood dripped, for the Bloodvine Demon Lotus had absorbed it all. Under Zhang Mu's control, it strenuously suppressed its desire to absorb the mutated wolfdog's body dry of blood.
Of course, Zhang Mu wouldn't let that happen. After all, where would he find another personal mount if the wolfdog died?
Even under such circumstances however, the mutated wolfdog still refused to lower its head and accept Zhang Mu as its new master. It was hard to imagine that a mutated animal could be so unyielding.
Zhang Mu wasn't surprised. If it was easy to tame a mutated animal, there would be no need for a tamer-type evolver's help. All the mutated animals were bloodthirsty beasts; none of them was easy to deal with.
Is there no other way to this? It seemed like I overthought. Perhaps it was my taming of Little Black and Bloodvine Demon Lotus going too smoothly that made me have the illusion that
taming mutated animals isn't something difficult.
Is giving up the only way? A dead mutated animal meant very little to Zhang Mu, but a living, tractable mutated wolfdog was very valuable. Even though all he wanted now a personal mount, it had so much potential in bringing him much more benefits.
At this time, Little Black popped its head out of Zhang Mu's pocket, as though Zhang Mu's had interrupted its beautiful dream. Flying up into the air, Little Black flew around the mutated wolfdog, sizing it up and down with curiosity.
At seeing the mutated wolfdog, it was also surprised. Despite having lost a lot of blood and too weak to bark, it still questioned Little Black with its eyes why it had surrendered to a human.
It had however, evidently underestimated Little Black's shamelessness. Little Black flew around it with no shamelessly, taking pleasure in its misfortune.
Zhang Mu looked glumly at Little Black’s actions, wondering if mutated animals of different races could communicate with each other. With Little Black hiss however, the fierce glint in the mutated wolfdog's eyes surprisingly dissipated a little.
Was this a favorable turn of events? Did Little Black have the ability to catalyse the mutated wolfdog into capitulating?
Zhang Mu quietly ordered the Bloodvine Demon Lotus to loosen its vines slightly, deciding to wait for Little Black's effort to come into play.
Five minutes later, Little Black flew back and communicated with Zhang Mu through the mental bond between them. "It said that it can surrender to you. However, you can’t bar it from leaving when it wants to later, either that or you kill it."
Zhang Mu asked Little Black with growing interest. "How did you persuade it?"
"I told it that you have countless crystals and animal cores, and with your help, I'm nearing my second rank evolution."
"Countless crystals and animal cores? I have only fifty crystals and a hundred animal cores now!" Zhang Mu didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Little Black said leisurely. "Ah, don't worry. You can earn more in the future if you run out anyway, right? Anyway, I have told you its requirement. Are you going to accept or not? If not, I’ll eat its flesh and leave its blood to the Bloodvine Demon Lotus."
"I accept its condition!" Zhang Mu grounded his teeth. Having a tractable mutated animal was really too great of a temptation.
What’s the situation though? A mutated animal could be tamed even without a tamer-type evolve this way?
However, Little Black blew him up a little bit too much. He didn't have that many crystals and cores now. Looks like he had to hunt along the way. He wouldn’t be able to even feed his three little ones otherwise. After all, it was a great temptation to mutated animals to be able to evolve themselves. In fact, it was instinctive, as though that’d been engraved into their blood.
I don’t remember teaching it all these though? Did it self-study itself into a genius? A commercial circle genius? A god of the bamboozling world?
Zhang Mu could still afford it if their submission was only the price of some crystals and animal cores.
Upon Little Black’s confirmation, Zhang Mu turned to ask the mutated wolfdog, "Willing to follow me now?"
After which, he released the vines that were affixed on the mutated wolfdog’s head. Seeing that it nodded as though he understood, he let go of the mutated wolfdog and retracted the Bloodvine Demon Lotus back into his left arm.
Zhang Mu had been pleased initially, however, the mutated wolfdog suddenly collapsed on the ground afterwards. Following which, Little Black told him that the mutated wolfdog needed at least a week to recover itself as the Bloodvine Demon Lotus had absorbed too much blood.
A week? That’s too long! Zhang Mu scolded the Bloodvine Demon Lotus mentally for secretly sucking so much blood. He didn't have that much time. Therefore, he took out, with heartache, a first-ranked recovery potion, and poured the entire thing into the mutated wolfdog's mouth.
The effect of the recovery potion was prominent. Ten minutes later, the mutated wolfdog had stood up and shook its body of dust, its strength completely recovered.
Honestly, Zhang Mu gained from all the coincidences that had clumped together. He met this mutated beast whose strength had reached the apex of its first-rank, and he happened to have a way to have it submit to him. The coincidence that was the most coincidental out of all was the fact that Zhang Mu had a Little Black who worked as a counter-espionage spy.
Despite having seated down comfortably on the mutated wolfdog’s back while enjoying the wind whistling past his ears, Zhang Mu’s heart couldn’t help but bleed at the fact that he’d actually spent an entire bottle of recovery potion.
This wasn’t about the money actually, he only had ten units of potions, but he’d already used two units in half a day; there were only eight units remaining. He had already used one-fifth of his stash, and what was most infuriating of it all was the fact that he couldn’t not use them.
Chapter 62: Luoyang City’s Change
The mutated wolfdog was still faster than Zhang Mu. After all, it was a mutated animal, so its endurance was far better than Zhang Mu's.
However, Zhang Mu was humane. As they travelled, he would feed the mutated wolfdog crystals and animal cores from time to time, and that led it to believe that Little Black didn't lie, and that Zhang Mu really had countless crystals and animal cores!
Unlike Little Black, the mutated wolfdog was an earth-element mutated animal, therefore, it was able to eat the mutated monkeys' cores without qualms.
Having always travelled alone, it never had the chance to hunt other mutated animals that travelled collectively in herds. After all, even if they were far weaker than it, such as mutated mice and the likes, their teaming up would still be able to overwhelm the mutated wolfdog.
Therefore, the mutated wolfdog's strength as well as speed advanced vigorously after consuming the animal cores it had never eaten before. Zhang Mu was also extremely happy to feed it. His actions had become so blatantly bias it even had Little Black complaining to him several times. In fact, Little Black was starting to regret helping Zhang Mu take down the mutated wolfdog in the first place.
Little Black's gaze at the mutated wolfdog, who ravaged its share of crystals that should have belonged to Little Black, became increasingly unfriendly. In response to that, Zhang Mu’s reply to Little Black gave Little Black no grounds to object.
Zhang Mu’s simple words had Little Black silent. "Aren’t you reaching the bottleneck of the First Rank soon? Do you want these crystals or the Second-Ranked Evolution Potion? If you choose crystals, I will consider giving them to you and give the mutated wolfdog the Second-Ranked Evolution Potion instead. The mutated wolfdog does look pretty well-behaved doesn’t it?"
Little Black was mentally dying of anger. It’d seriously brought such ruins upon itself on its own. It’s only been a few days and this stinky dog’s got Zhang Mu completely hell-bent on feeding it crystals. And cue all its ass-kissing on top of that, this mutated wolfdog’s existence was actually threatening Little Black’s chance of evolving to the second rank?
Without a Little Black bugging him, Zhang Mu laid on the mutated wolfdog's back. With his face pressed against its soft fur, he fell into a deep sleep, dreaming away delightfully. The mutated wolfdog’s careful adjustment of its steps to not awake Zhang Mu with its jolts had Little Black grinding its teeth, angrily scolding how it was being so feckless.
In response to Little Black, the mutated wolfdog bared its teeth, paying Little Black’s threats no mind.
During the next five days of their journey, the mutated wolfdog had consumed approximately forty Earth-type first-ranked animal cores. Save for the patch of fur on its back soft as before that was becoming increasingly gleaming, rocks had begun gradually covering the rest of its body; its Earth-type energy was being awakened.
When Zhang Mu and company returned to the highway they’d passed by before, he remembered the mutated swinery that had threatened his life previously, and wanted to pass by
and collect their animal cores while he was at it. Their current expenditure was too large; he had a wolfdog that needed to be fed, a Bloodvine Demon Lotus that needed its energy replenished, even Little Black would ask him for some crystals as snacks, and if he didn’t give them, Little Black had even learned to make a scene in front of Yuan Rui.
Because of all that, Zhang Mu was only left with the last twenty animal cores; his supply had completely shrunk by a-fifth, and that had his heart bleeding. It was too crazy expensive to keep tamed mutated animals. He finally understood why Tamer-Type Evolvers went to join the larger forces. How would they be able to afford their tamed mutated animals eating animal cores as their food!
However, this actually wasn’t the case. The main reason why tamer-type evolvers in his past life didn't feed their tamed mutant animals animal cores as crazily as Zhang Mu did was because it was too difficult gathering the same type of animal cores in large amounts. They would not be able to adjust even if they had powerful financial rapports supporting the expenditure, as Evolvers themselves too required such resources as well as energy for evolution.
However, Zhang Mu's situation was an exception. Little Black could absorb energy from any type of animal core. The Bloodvine Demon Lotus was, as well, not at all picky about its food. It was only the slightly less abnormal mutated wolfdog that stuck to consuming only Earth-type animal cores.
Zhang Mu was in a dire need of replenishing his animal core supply, and in the way where it wouldn’t delay his journey. The only method he could think up of was the mutated swinery here. Even though they looked a little ugly, the cores in their bodies were still through and through cores.
However, when Zhang Mu reached the familiar ring of freight vehicles, he was floored. All that was strewn where the swines had solidly colonised as their pigsty were only flesh, blood, bones and faeces. Everything was in a state of disorder.
Yuan Rui and the mutated wolfdog looked at the scene in disgust, not daring to near the place so Zhang Mu could only go on his own. Covering his mouth and nose, he carefully observed the pigsty as he neared.
How was it that not even a single swine was there? Had they all ran away? Did their intellect decrease so much after their weakening that they didn’t even know how to retaliate? Zhang Mu frowned. Soon after however, he realised that something was off.