The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm - Chapter 84

Chapter 84: The Smell Of Blood

As dinner almost finished, Zhang Mu forced Wang Liang to open his bottle of five-grain alcohol, saying that he wanted to have a taste of it. Under the influence of alcohol, Zhang Mu fell into a deep sleep and forgot what happened after that.

When Zhang Mu woke up, he realised that he was back in his house. Someone had carried him home. His throat was dry and burning from last night. Zhang Mu laughed at himself. His alcohol tolerance was really low.

However, his body was only eighteen years old now and his master at the old Thieves Sect never let him touch alcohol. Hence, it was expected that he couldn’t drink much. This was his first time drinking alcohol after his rebirth. Wang Liang must have laughed at him yesterday.

He remembered that a few years later, he would always drink when he was bored or cold. Thus, his alcohol tolerance increased. He would probably never experience this drunk feeling anymore.

Putting his thought aside, Zhang Mu looked at the sky and realised it was still early. He predicted that Yuan Rui was still asleep and walked out of the house alone, not wanting to wake her up.

Glancing at the empty streets, Zhang Mu walked towards Wang Liang’s place. When he saw Wang Liang, he was just preparing to go out with his search party to find a new source of supplies. However, the minute he saw Zhang Mu, Wang Liang looked as though he saw a ghost and couldn’t speak a word.

After a long time, he finally managed to utter, “Brother, how are you still sober?”

“What happened?”

Zhang Mu looked at Wang Liang awkwardly, wondering if he did anything wrong or said anything bad yesterday. He was nervous and probed, “Liang, are you laughing at me because of my poor alcohol tolerance?”

Wang Liang waved his hands bitterly and exclaimed, “Brother, have you forgotten what happened yesterday?”

“I seemed to be drunk. I can’t remember anything that had happened,” Zhang Mu shrugged.

Unexpectedly, Wang Liang said something surprising, “You finished my 20 bottles of alcohol all by yourself! If you say that your alcohol tolerance is low, no one will dare to claim that theirs is high anymore.”

How is that possible? Did he drink 20 bottles of five-grain alcohol? He didn’t even drink so much in his past life.

“Liang, are you drunk too? You made a mistake right? The 20 bottles were shared among a few people.” Zhang Mu looked at Wang Liang in doubt.

Wang Liang immediately got agitated and couldn’t keep his composure anymore. He raised his voice at Zhang Mu, “Brother Mu, there was no one else present. I just wanted to show off my collection to you. Who knows that you would down all the 20 bottles yourself without even a blink of the eye? I didn’t even get a sip of my own alcohol. 10 minutes in and I am left with just 20 empty bottles.”

20 bottles of pure spirit in 10 minutes without stopping? That is really very exaggerating.

“I am now suspecting that your bladder is made of gold. To think that it didn’t explode from all your drinking.”

Wang Liang’s muttering woke Zhang Mu up. If he really drank 20 bottles of spirits and his body has no reaction, this is not just purely an issue about alcohol tolerance.

There is only one other possibility.

Zhang Mu quickly turned his head and look at his left shoulder which showed no signs of abnormality. He immediately understood what had happened. He had been controlled by the Bloodvine Lotus yesterday. No wonder he felt his throat burning when he woke up.

So, the Bloodvine Lotus loves alcohol so much? That was unexpected.

Zhang Mu had no choice but to explain to Wang Liang, “It might be that my body has changed after the cataclysm.”

Wang Liang had regained his composure and replied, “you can go and find your mutated animals now since you have recovered. I have to clear the walking dead at the North of the city. The survival base there still hasn’t dared to act even after you sold them the special equipment. Since they haven’t acted, I shall take over.”

Seeing the determined look on Wang Liang’s face, Zhang Mu decided to keep quiet. Although entering other people’s territory seemed invasive, there was some sense in what Wang Liang said. If you don’t dare to act, let me do it.

“Brother Mu, you drank too much yesterday so I helped to pick out news that seemed more accurate. If you think is okay, you can go to the places directly without filtering anymore.”

“Thanks so much for the effort.” Zhang Mu smiled.
“You can have a look first. I need to leave as there are quite a few areas with walking dead that need to be cleared out today.” After seeing Zhang Mu’s supportive gaze, Wang Liang nodded his head and passed the notebook in his hand to Zhang Mu before leaving the base.

Watching the troop leave, Zhang decided to act too and went back to drag the half-asleep wolfdog out.

…

Similar to yesterday, Zhang Mu went to the places filtered by Wang Liang and managed to gain close to a hundred beast cores. The success rate was about 60 percent, same as yesterday.

What happened on the first day of his hunting must have been really due to bad luck.

When Zhang Mu returned to the base after a day of work, he realised that the atmosphere was a bit off. He had a bad feeling. Immediately, he ordered the mutated wolfdog to increase its speed and leaped over the gates without waiting for the guards to open it. He didn’t stop when he entered the city but went straight to the residence of Wang Liang.

However, Wang Liang was not there. Zhang Mu was puzzled. He should be here.

At this moment, the wolfdog’s nose twitched and it gave a low howl to warn Zhang Mu, signaling him to follow it.

Zhang Mu noticed that the wolfdog seemed to have picked up a smell and hurriedly got onto its back.

The wolfdog brought him to a remote area at the far end of the base. It was an empty piece of land that used to be a man-made pool. The wolfdog was running at a fast speed. As they got nearer, Zhang Mu was able to distinguish the smell in the air.

This familiar smell. There is no mistake. This is the smell of blood!