The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm

Chapter 38: A Difficult Battle

 

A huge fist punched toward Zhang Mu before he could even respond.
The fist covered by stone seemed like it would smash his head in an instant.

 

  

 

Oh god! How can the speed be so fast!

 

Zhang Mu had never thought that the little King Kong would be so strong even after the weakening.
If it was like this now, then during the debugging period, it had probably been unbeatable.

 

There was no time for him to block King Kong’s attack with his knife.
He just moved his head aside and used his shoulders to resist the huge fist.

 

Undoubtedly, his bones would be completely broken, but he had no other choice.
All he hoped for was that Yuan Rui would inject all her energy into him and make him recover his peak combat power.

 

Right now he couldn’t care so much.
He could do nothing but entrust his life to Yuan Rui.
At this moment, preserving his life was the most important thing because life meant hope.

 

 

However, he had overlooked an important factor.

 

That is, Little Black who was ready to fight.

 

As Zhang Mu readied himself to be punched, Little Black immediately stood in front of him to protect him.

 

Zhang Mu’s view was blocked by Little Black, but he still heard its wail.
And then he flew out as the Obsidian Beetle that was beaten back by King Kong knocked into him.

 

Little Black withstood all the power from King Kong’s punch.
Zhang Mu stood up, dusted off his clothes and looked towards Little Black anxiously.

 

King Kong was beating it and left Little Black no chance to counterattack.
The King Kong punched him fist after fist.

 

  

 

There were many depressions on Little Black’s hard shell, but it still couldn’t rid itself of King Kong’s shackles.

 

When Zhang Mu heard Little Black’s sobs getting softer, saw its struggling becoming weaker and felt its pain through the link they shared; he got so indignant that he pushed off the ground, rushed at King Kong at five times his normal speed and hacked at the rock-covered arm with his sword.

 

However, the sharp blade met a hard bone at this time.
It had no way of cutting through King Kong’s stone armour and only caused some sparks.

 

Luckily, his sudden burst in speed made King Kong get off Little Black’s back and retreat.
It cautiously stared at Zhang Mu.

 

Zhang Mu was heartbroken as he touched Little Black’s back.
He ordered, “I’ll cover the rear.
You leave with Yuan Rui.
It’s my fault, I didn’t expect that the King Kong would be so ferocious and powerful.”

Yuan Rui who had been frightened silly had just recovered slightly.
She stood up laboriously and walked to Zhuang Mu, grasping his clothes.

 

But at this time, Zhang Mu didn’t look her and pushed her off, throwing the turned-small Little Black at her, “Take Little Black and go! Don’t cause me any trouble! The King Kong is strong, but I can escape afterwards.”

 

Yuan Rui trusted him.
Since he said that he had the ability to leave, it must be true

 

Yuan Rui thought, “He can do it! I can’t become a burden.
I’ll go with Black first.
Uncle must come back.”

 

“Uncle, we are going! You must hurry up, too!”

 

Seeing their backs disappeared in the distance, Zhang Mu smiled bitterly.

 

This time, he was really in trouble.

 

As expected, after seeing Yuan Rui leave holding Little Black, King Kong got restless and chased after them.

 

King Kong didn’t want to let the Obsidian Beetle go because it was its prey and it was eager to eat its core.

 

Naturally, Zhang Mu would not let it chase them and he stopped it with his sword.

 

A thin young man of 1.83 meters holding his sword was standing in front of a huge monster of 3 meters.
It looked like a toddler was fighting against a bruiser.

 

I don’t want to fight against you not because I’m was afraid of you.
It just because I wasn’t interested in your meat.
But to think you’d have the audacity to help my prey escape.

 

I can’t take this anymore!

 

King Kong’s decision was simple and direct: it would kill everyone who triesd to stop him from hunting his prey.

Its savagery was aroused.
King Kong roared and jumped toward Zhang Mu to punch him.

 

A boulder-like impact hit the knife.

 

“Click!”

 

Zhang Mu’s hands were shaking.
To his desperation, the sword had broken.

 

Zhang Mu held his broken blade even though his hands were bleeding.

 

How can it be? How can the gap between us be so big?

 

In this moment, Zhang Mu realized what he had forgotten when he formed his plan.
He had forgotten that, in his past life, the grotto was taken from the mutated animals at the expense of a massive amount of evolvers from three different bases.

 

Powerful mutated animals were always unrivalled even when they were weakened.

 

Zhang Mu thought, “Am I too greedy?”

 

But if he wasn’t  greedy, how would he get stronger?

 

On death’s doorstep, what Zhang Mu felt wasn’t regret but a little pity.

　

However, after a while, Zhang Mu found something was wrong.

 

How come I’m not dead yet?

 

He didn’t know when the Obsidian Beetle had appeared behind King Kong.
It became big and grabbed its arms, pulling them back.

 

This time, King Kong’s fist stopped in the air only 20 centimeters away from Zhang Mu’s chest.
Zhang Mu quickly leaped to the side and cast away his broken sword.

 

He found that the wound on Little Black’s back had healed.
Yuan Rui ran towards Zhang Mu.
Seeing his bloody hands, she felt heartbroken and said sadly, “Uncle, what’s wrong with you? Why do you try to show off? If Little Black hadn’t told me, you’d be dead now.
You are a liar.
You promised me that you could escape unscathed.”

 

Seeing that there were no other wounds on Zhang Mu’s body, Yuan Rui took a deep breath and started beat him.

 

Zhang Mu looked at Yuan Rui and then turned to look at the lively Obsidian Beetle.
He questioned, “Can your energy heal mutated animals?”

 

“Yes! I thought Little Black’s injuries were very serious, so I tried to treat them.
The wounds were indeed serious as I had to use up all my energy.
What’s wrong? Can’t my energy be used to treat him?”

 

Unexpectedly, Yuan Rui’s power could also heal mutated animals.
How lucky am I to meet someone who awakened with such an ability?

 

There was a huge gap between an evolver who could treat human beings and an evolver who could also treat mutated animals.

 

If her evolutionary potential were to develop even further in the future, maybe she’ll be able to heal other beings.

 

Zhang Mu was frightened by his own ideas and gasped.
He said to Yuan Rui, “Yuan Rui, this time you have really done a great job.”

 

Then Little Black shouted Zhang Mu through their mental bond, “No more nonsense, I can’t hold up anymore.”

 

With that, Zhang Mu noticed that the King Kong had nearly broken free from Little Black’s claws.
He immediately picked up the broken sword and rushed towards the struggling monkey.
Under King Kong’s horrified gaze, he thrust it into its eyeball at a very high speed, piercing through the entire head with the sharpened blade.

 

King Kong’s last struggles broke two of Little Black’s claws.
But it had long forgotten the pain as it ate the big beast core – that was three times bigger than those of normal monkeys – within King Kong’s brain.

 

One person was staring dazedly at the dull knife in his hand, another person was standing still silently, and a beetle with broken claws was eating brain matter on its own.
It was a strange sight.