The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm - Chapter 93

Chapter 93: The Source Of Avarice

Zhang Mu felt like he lost control of his entire body. This was the exact feeling he had when Paradise Era was first activated and he heard the voice. Zhang Mu only controlled his soul and his consciousness. His entire body seemed to be split into two parts, the soul and the body.

From this, you can tell how scary this middle-aged man was. This mastermind’s psychological power had already leveled up to this stage. Zhang Mu even had the delusion that this person had reached Level 2!

However, he knew that that was impossible. Human mutation needed time to slowly prepare and accumulate. It was impossible, even if you are a genius, to use ten short days and evolved to the next level.

Zhang Mu remembered clearly that the leaders of the big survival bases and the geniuses took one to two months before they reached the peak of Level 1 and was going to breakthrough to Level 2. Zhang Mu himself had never touched the bottleneck of Level 2 before so he couldn’t believe that someone had done it already.

This time, he needed to change his plans totally. Oh wait, it was more of being forced to take certain actions.

When Zhang Mu was deep in thought, the voice behind him sounded again. This time, it was much closer, “Why, you seemed to have overestimated yourself, Era Merchant. Or should I call you the first Era Merchant of Luoyang City?”

Zhang Mu couldn’t turn around to look at the person. His eyes started to quiver and his expression changed. It was normal if this person knew about his identity as an Era Merchant but he also knew that he was the first Era Merchant. This was getting strange.

Is she an Era Merchant too? The third? Or the fourth?

Zhang Mu couldn’t think of any other possibilities. However, he didn’t need to crack his brain anymore. A shadow of a person slowly walked around him and walked towards the white shirt man. He gently patted the Bloodvine Lotus and it fell to the ground. The Bloodvine Lotus had lost control too.

“You want to eat evolver’s meat too? Seems like your ambition is still there. You want to overtake me, Ji Lin.”

The leader kindly patted Ji Lin who was in low spirits, “I have too many hopes on you. I thought that you would change after that episode but you didn’t.”

Ji Lin’s face was pale and it wasn’t because of the Bloodvine Lotus. He seemed to be entirely frightened by what the man was saying to him. He knew how those people were tortured by this fake kind man in front of him. It was a living hell.

“Boss, please forgive me this time. I wanted to kill him and offer his body to you. However, the stupid fat man was too impulsive. You know that the fat man is slow thinking. He wanted to eat the evolver first and I got tempted by him.”

Ji Lin no longer looked formidable. He answered his leader submissively, afraid that his leader would kill him the minute he made him angry. His eyes were pleading.

“Haha, you think that just because I am old, my brain is clouded? If you didn’t meet such a strong opponent, he would already be in the pot. So many evolvers died. You just wait. Now, get out of my sight.”

Ji Lin heaved a sigh of relief. The leader had spoken. This meant that his life was safe. He was most fearful of this person when he kept smiling at him and not say anything.

The middle-aged man was neither tall nor well-built. However, he easily raised the 1.8m tall guy with one hand and threw him to one side. Ji Lin used every last ounce of energy and scurried away. With the help of the rest of the survivals, he managed to stand up with much effort.

The leader seemed to finally remember Zhang Mu who was still unable to move. He slowly walked towards him.

His steps were slow. Zhang Mu’s heart dropped with every single step.

“I am sorry, my subordinates don’t have manners. I will discipline them. I’m afraid I haven’t been a good host,” the silver-hair leader looked at Zhang Mu gently. Zhang Mu felt a chill running down his soul’s spine.

“Why did you do this? Aren’t we good business partners? Why did you come to my survival base again? Do you have another business for me? No one talks about business like this right? I only have a few subordinates and you just killed them like that. From a businessman point of view, I need to be compensated right? What are you going to compensate me with? Money? Or rather, your life?”

Zhang Mu realised he could control his facial muscles and with much difficulty, he said in a cold voice, “them? Was it human lives that I killed? And you, are you even a human?”

“Haha, all I did was eat humans. Do you have to be so pissed off? It is just a mass of protein. A mass of useless protein eaten by a more powerful protein. Is there a problem with that?”

Zhang Mu felt his anger rising. He controlled his emotions and said, “No matter how useless they are, aren’t they the same race as you? Can’t you eat normal food? How can you swallow it?”

The silver-hair leader smiled when he heard Zhang Mu’s questions, “do you really know what hunger is like? Oh right, merchants like you always have good food. You won’t understand our pain. Even before the Cataclysm, survivors of a plane crash would eat other people’s corpse to stay alive. Did anyone condemn them? Would you 100% for certain say that you won’t eat human meat in that kind of situation? No, you can’t commit. People who are dying of hunger are crazy people.”

Before Zhang Mu could reply, the middle-aged man continued. His started to have a faraway look as he recalled his memories and started telling his story.

“That was three days ago, I remembered I was very hungry. I didn’t even have any water for the three days and I was dying. If I still have energy, I might even bite off my tongue and start eating it.”

“At that moment, I saw a 20 years old girl holding a piece of bread in her hand and started eating in front of me. I pleaded her profusely,” the leader’s face turned sinister and his voice got sharper, “she didn’t even give me a bite of that bread. Not even a single bite!

His voice was shaking as he remembered how he pleaded her, “I just wanted to eat something then. I want to live. My whole mind was focused on the girl. I want to eat the bread in her hands.”

The man smiled, “unexpectedly, the girl stopped moving. My head was hurting tremendously. I don’t know where my energy come from but I slowly inched towards her. It took me a few minutes but I did it. I crawled to her side.”

“I slowly move towards the bread and took a huge bite. Accidentally, I bite off her finger. That feeling, that taste was marvellous. It was so delicious. I had never eaten anything so delicious in my entire life. I slowly sucked her blood and forgot about the bread.”

The man paused and gave a warm smile to Zhang Mu and continued, “the blood seemed to give me strength.”

“And then, there was no more blood.”

“I started to eat her, bit by bit.”