The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm - Chapter 138
Chapter 138: Real Slap in the Face
After Zhang Mu swallowed down the soul crystals, it felt like there was a hot stream inside Zhang Mu’s body gathered in one place, accumulating before finally merging together.
He felt a little anxious. If he continued to do so, he was afraid that his brain would not be able to withstand this amount of impact, and he would become an idiot. Then he would really die unjustly.
But it was too slow as it was still gradually accumulating and accumulating until Zhang Mu, who felt all of this, was becoming frantic. However, there was nothing he could do.
Soon enough, Zhang Mu became at ease immediately. Because once it reached a specific stage, the energy was traveling upwards as if something was pulling it.
As though this was a turning point that was opened exclusively by Zhang Mu, his soul felt like it was being cleansed again and again, as if it were about to sublimate. The feeling now felt amazing as Zhang Mu could not help but to close his eye. Furthermore, everything around him had become better, whereas the cold environment and the piercing wind had become non-existent.
Zhang Mu had become more vigilant too. He knew that even though psychological-type evolver would not suffer much during the advancement compared to the other types of ability such as cleansing their meridian and their physical body, but it was easy to lose oneself when trying to break through the psychological boundary. Moreover, there was no other way to solve this problem, not even helping him externally.
The only one that could help Zhang Mu was himself. He had to harden his heart, just like a tough stone. No matter how strong the temptation outside, he should not be carried away and lose his true self.
The moment he felt the energy of those two soul crystals were about to deplete, he quickly stuffed another two pieces into his mouth and continue to maintain the strength of the psychic fluctuations.
Boom! Boom! Boom! The stone in Zhang Mu’s heart did not waver a single bit when facing the psychological energy coming in waves. Instead, he gained the power that this energy brought to him from time to time.
His eyes were shut tight. As if everything were under his control, he could clearly detect the Obsidian Beetle staying motionlessly under a shelter. Meanwhile, he could also distinguish the roots of each vine on the Bloodvine Lotus, making threatening gestures like a beast searching for its prey.
Zhang Mu’s psychic power was enough to spread about a few hundred meters away. He could even detect some small mutated animals attracted by the Bloodvine Lotus. However, they sensed the brutal side of the Bloodvine Lotus and faint vigor from a second-ranked mutated animal in the air. Therefore, they were hesitant to go over and continued to linger around about one-kilometer range or so.
But something was not right. By right, if these first-ranked mutated animals were attracted by the movement from the Bloodvine Lotus, then they would not linger in the vicinity of Zhang Mu in this case. So there was only one possibility, the soul crystals that Zhang Mu placed in front of him, was a great temptation to them. And the degree of temptation was enough for them to forget the gap in ranks and the level of danger.
There were more and more mutated animals gathered around. At first, it was just a small cat-type creature, but it slowly heaps various types of odd looking mutated animals that even Zhang Mu could not recognize some of them. However, he could clearly sense the greed in their eye and agitated heart. That was the power of psychic ability.
Of course, this was only limited to those mutated animals that could not control their feeling. However, if Zhang Mu encountered people who could control their emotion flawlessly, then he could not determine if they had any hostility as the rank of Zhang Mu’s psychic ability was not high enough. However, with the growth of Zhang Mu’s psychic energy, then he would be more refined in capturing their state of mind. When that time comes, even if that person was great at acting, Zhang Mu could identify what was hidden under that smile precisely. After all, they were not robots and would show signs or trace in the slightest.
Slowly, within the range of Zhang Mu’s ability, nearly a hundred mutated animals were gathered. All of them were attracted by the dozen of soul crystals that Zhang Mu placed in front of him. In the end, they could not suppress their desire as they began to go near.
Zhang Mu could not move a single step now as he was already straining himself to maintain stuffing the soul crystals into his mouth once it was used up. He could only place his hope on the Bloodvine Lotus and the Obsidian Beetle now.
Nevertheless, Zhang Mu also believed in their strength because soon enough, a killing feast was starting on one side.
The Obsidian Beetle had sensed the mutated animal approaching long ago, but it never expected that these mutated animals would dare to ignore the vigor that it carried in the air. It felt that its dignity was provoked all of a sudden.
It slowly recovered from a lifeless state. With a loud and resonant roar, it attracted the gaze of every mutated animal that was about to attack. At this moment, the Obsidian Beetle returned to its normal state, even though it was not the form whereby it was four meters tall, still, it was possessing an ominous look.
The moment the mutated animals saw the Obsidian Beetle, they were afraid, but they lost their mind when they smelt the soul crystals. Only greed filled in their eyes as they stared at the direction where Zhang Mu was heavily protected by the Bloodvine Lotus.
The mutated animals had long forgotten the gap between first-rank and second-rank. As long as they were able to eat the thing that was attracting them from far away, everything would be worth it. At this juncture, the suppression of ranks has been firmly overcome by the instinct for evolution. Who cares if you were second-rank or third-rank, at this time, even if you had the impose of a sixth-rank, as long as they could advance, they would pay no deed.
The Obsidian Beetle clearly understood the way they were acting. Burning with rage, the wings behind it shuddered as it sped towards the direction to the hundreds of mutated animal.
Zhang Mu was somewhat worried when he looked at the battle that was going to start. Although he knew that there would be an enormous gap in power between the first-rank and second-rank, the difference in number was very high. Furthermore, the Obsidian Beetle did not have any combat skill for such a long range. Facing an enormous figure of low ranked mutated animals would be tricky.
However, Zhang Mu received a big slap to his face within five seconds as the Obsidian Beetle proved itself vigorously.
It had not flown near the bunch of mutated animals, yet attacks from all kinds and types of attributes emerged in front of it.
Flames, water column, sudden spur raising from the ground and wind blade that emerged from certain corners in the air, looked powerful yet the Obsidian Beetle did not evade from them and slammed against the attacks head-on.
Looking at this, Zhang Mu was worried for the Obsidian Beetle as the accumulating powers were very powerful. Furthermore, there was various type of mutated animals. Zhang Mu had no idea what was the Obsidian Beetle’s weakness. In addition, what if it was found now?
However, what happened later, had stunned Zhang Mu, who was in the progress of advancement.