The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm - Chapter 123

Chapter 123: Nowhere To Go

Just when Zhang Mu tried to take a step back, his heart dropped instantly.

Previously when he moved forward, there was no action from the silver minks. On the other hand, when he revealed his intention to retreat, every single of the silver mink from the branches and within the forest, came rushing toward his direction. The shuffling sound could be heard all over the forest, whereas the shimmers of their eye made a huge contrast against the charred black environment.

Oh no! Just now they were only testing my nerves and bravery, which was the reason why they did not make any direct attack. Now that they saw I had chicken-out, they know that I was just a pushover and for this reason, they did not hesitate to attack me?

At this point, he had no other choice. If he stays in one place for too long, they would see through his tricks.

When the silver minks were about to leap to the front of Zhang Mu’s body, how could he stay still after witnessing this? Straightaway, he ran all the way back where he had come from, without turning his head to look back.

When he heard the shuffling noise increased behind him, an uneasy tension put a strain on Zhang Mu’s heart. Nevertheless, Zhang Mu did not dare to look back. He was afraid that he would be surrounded the moment he paused for a second. Previously, those four silver minks that he dealt with were his limit already. Regardless of the 20 silver minks insight, there must be more hidden in the forest. Summing those up, there must be countless of them. As a result, the resolution to fight them was no longer there as the thought of being torn into pieces terrified him.

Even though he had raised his body to the second-ranked limit, but the agility potions from the era merchant shop were monopolized by the top few sub-merchants. Apart from the first month of the Cataclysm where he spent all of his wealth in exchange for a first-ranked agility potion, he never saw the remaining amount for any related potions were not zero when he began the era general trade.

Therefore, the him now could not compete against the mutated animals which had faster agility than human. Furthermore, these silver minks were unquestionably the best in agility amongst the second-ranked mutated animal that Zhang Mu had ever seen.

Within a few seconds, Zhang Mu felt something lunged at him from the back.

For no particular reason, when Zhang Mu felt the attacks coming, the first reaction was to lift his left arm, as if there was a mighty hidden card under his left arm yet, nothing was there.

The one that caught up to him was one of the fastest silver mink among the group. The speed that it had was even a step faster than its fellow minks. From the side of a tree trunk, it leaped and dashed toward the direction of Zhang Mu. With a flash, one of its claw swept down and caught the back of Zhang Mu’s left arm.

With a swish, flesh and blood were splattered in seconds. Followed by a blood-curdling scream let out by Zhang Mu. The left arm that he had just extended out was torn off a large piece of flesh in an instant. The cut was so deep that bone was visible from the wound. At the same time, it had stimulated Zhang Mu’s nerve. Under pressure, he pushed himself to be faster as he sprang out ahead of them.

He was puzzled in regards to his reaction just now however, he did not have the time to think about it.

Because of the delay, although the one that had thrown itself onto Zhang Mu was slowed down, there were more and more noises chasing behind him. Despite being evenly matched with the speed that Zhang Mu burst out, they continued to take a firm hold of Zhang Mu’s pace with no signs of slowing down.

Zhang Mu’s mind was in a chaotic mess as he scrambled forward. Every cell in his body was telling him that he was extremely exhausted and could not run anymore since he overused his energy.

Despite that, he kept on his last glimmer of sanity, convincing himself that if he did not run, his life would remain there.

The desire to survive helped Zhang Mu to break through the boundary of the burned forest. Feeling the glare from the sun above his head, Zhang Mu seems to see some hope. Immediately, the exhausted body gained strength out of nowhere as he maintained his current speed.

Among the silver minks, the one that had the fastest speed launched another attack on Zhang Mu once again. This time, Zhang Mu became smarter as he brought out a weapon from his merchant ring. Using his right hand, he slashed backhandedly and manage to block the attack. However, the knife edge was somewhat damaged. When Zhang Mu saw that the blade had been slashed with three nicks by the silver mink, he immediately dropped the second-ranked weapon he bought from the era merchant shop. Once he threw it away, he continued to sprint forward regardless of the situation. He did not slack or felt fortunate when he saw the Sun.

Even though he had run out of the boundary of the forest, he could felt clearly that those silver minks behind him had no desire to let him off. That only leaves one possibility, they had engraved the scent on his body when he killed the four silver minks and were confident that he was the murderer.

The spurt of the energy was momentary as he felt the tiredness from his body swelling up again. But it was at that moment, Zhang Mu’s eye lit up as he saw his destination.

It was a large river with a yellowish tide that rushed up and down. It was so deep that one could not see what was under the water.

He was not so oblivious that he had no destination on his mind to escape. He remembered he had walked past and saw a big river along the way earlier. As it would take some time to swim across, in addition to the river current, even though he did not take the risk and swam, the river had left a deep impression on his mind.

Zhang Mu did not hesitate as he dragged his disabled arm and plunged into the river.

As a matter of fact, Zhang Mu was betting that the silver minks would not jump into the big river. With that, he disappeared into the rolling waves and his head did not come up for breath.

At that moment, he did not bother with the dangers of this river. He only knew that if he delayed for just for a moment, he would be dead immediately. However, if he jumped into the big river, there was a possibility of him being alive.

For someone like Zhang Mu, who always pursued stability, he could only fight for his life at this moment.

Sure enough, just like what Zhang Mu had expected, these silver minks hesitated the moment they saw Zhang Mu leaped into the river. They had stopped at the shoreline as fear appeared on their faces while watching the current. They seem to fear something in the river as they were unwilling to take a step further.

The commander of the pack, who disabled Zhang Mu’s left hand, had a complicated emotion on its eye. Although it still had resentment towards Zhang Mu, after a few thoughts, it gave a shrilly howl and turned away immediately.

Hearing the commander’s order, and seeing the commander turning away, these silver minks did not stay there any longer. In a hurry, they retire back to the burned forest.

Everything became quiet once again. Except for the rumbled of the river from time to time.