Chapter 293: Want to Meet?

Holding a map covered in dense markings, Zhang Mu furrowed his brow slightly.

Although the map was precise, the excessive notes on it were starting to affect his normal judgment.

Right now, he had no idea about exploring ancient relics or anything like that.

This was a map of an ancient era that Wang Liang had prepared for him, with detailed directions to Inner Mongolia City, the only copy in the whole city of Luo Yang, contributed by an archaeologist from the pre-apocalyptic era.

Sadly, trading a detailed map for a bag of rice only made the ordinary man, who was almost forgetting his identity from the ancient era, so excited that tears were about to fall. He completely forgot that this treasure had been his pride and joy for many years and carefully dragged the food back to his house, without a bit of attachment to it.

When Wang Liang told Zhang Mu about this incident jokingly, he seemed indifferent, but it left a deep impression in Zhang Mu’s heart.

It was a situation of sorrow, pity, yet helplessness.

The reason Zhang Mu was now feeling overwhelmed was because he could no longer distinguish the correct paths.

Normally, the map would have been precise enough, but the small town in front of Zhang Mu now was unrecognizable, as if it had been trampled by a herd of giants, with no intact buildings along the way.

He was unsure of which way to go, although he roughly knew that he was within Yulin City.

After examining the huge traces on the ground, Zhang Mu guessed that there probably weren’t many survivors left in this small county town, and even if they hadn’t all died, they should have evacuated.

This group of mutant beasts in this stance must have been gigantic animals before the apocalypse, triggered by a ripple of evolution, their most ancient genes were stimulated, and their bodies had expanded to a terrifying extent.

The entire group of beasts swept through this county town, leaving only ruins.

However, the situation seemed to be different from what Zhang Mu had anticipated. When Zhang Mu and his group entered the county town, a bunch of ragged humans crawled out from the ruins, ignoring the fierce Obsidian Beetle and mutated wolfhound, and crawling towards Zhang Mu and his clean companions.

Where did these survivors come from?

Zhang Mu didn’t have time to think much, as the mutated wolfhound leaped out directly from beside him, baring its hidden fangs and letting out a growl similar to that of a wolf from its throat.

Nonetheless, the humans still didn’t seem to take the threat of the mutated wolfhound seriously, instead using both their hands and feet to move towards Zhang Mu and his group even faster.

The mutated wolfhound was annoyed, the frustration from yesterday hadn’t dissipated yet, and today, someone had touched its sore spot. Without waiting for instructions from Zhang Mu, it suddenly used its earth abilities, causing the ground to split and countless earth spikes to shoot up.

But it still knew its limits, not harming these humans’ lives, just using soil spikes to firmly bind them in place.

Zhang Mu didn’t stop the mutated wolfhound’s actions, quietly observing the survivors that emerged.

Definitely humans, but why were they like beasts, all losing their ability to walk?

These people, indescribably strange.

Just then, one of the survivors seemed to regain consciousness, looking up at the man in front of them who was examining them closely.

His parched lips moved laboriously, “Sir, please, give us some food, my child is waiting at home for us to bring something back to eat.”

“It’s so dangerous outside, why are you begging out here? How did you know someone would pass by here?”

Seeing the other humans gradually regaining their senses, Zhang Mu dispersed the soil spike gathering of the mutated wolfhound, asking with some confusion.

The person who had spoken earlier staggered to his feet, looking anxiously at Zhang Mu and said, “Recently, there have been adults like you, dressed cleanly and not locals passing through our town, they see us poor and give us a bit of food.”

With those monsters around, we won’t go out to find food. We can only hide here and wait for adults to give us some.

“Adult, please give us some food.”

The survivor in front of us, with a pale face, showed fear when mentioning the monsters.

“Adult? What kind of adult?”

Zhang Mu thought it was a regular evolver and casually asked.

Unexpectedly, the survivor stared at Zhang Mu’s right hand, swallowed saliva, and said, “Those adults, like you, wear a black ring on their right hand. Food can magically appear from that ring, just like magic.”

After speaking, he couldn’t help but swallow his saliva again.

Hearing this, Zhang Mu’s expression turned serious.

A black ring with spatial properties? It should be an Era Sub-merchant from Era Store. I wonder which Era City they belong to.

“How many of them are there? How long does it take on average for them to pass through this county?”

“Honestly, these two bags of rice are now yours.”

Seeing two bags of grain being taken out from Zhang Mu’s black ring, grabbed by Zhang Mu.

When these survivors saw the black light shimmering from the Era Merchant Ring, their eyes instantly sparkled with greedy light.

Upon hearing Zhang Mu’s words, several others tried to struggle to stand up and answer Zhang Mu’s question, only to be once again immobilized in place by the insightful mutated wolfhound using earth spikes.

“It’s him this time.”

Zhang Mu’s calm voice sounded, no longer giving those people a glance, knowing that the mutated wolfhound had its own sense of restraint.

To Zhang Mu’s surprise, the mutated wolfhound’s actions did not scare the person who had just spoken. He replied smoothly, “There have been a total of nine adults passing through our Yulin City, each coming once a month on average.”

Seemingly realizing that Zhang Mu did not want to talk further, he answered Zhang Mu’s two questions and immediately fell silent.

No wonder why I rarely encountered Era Sub-merchants before, they all went in that direction, that’s why I didn’t meet any.

Taking out another bag, he casually threw three bags of rice in front of the person, slowly saying, “This is what you deserve.”

Just then, the impatient Obsidian Beetle complained.

“Can we hurry up? The smell of dirt on them has been unbearable for days, even a dead dog wouldn’t notice, I’m about to vomit.”

Dirt smell? Probably not very sophisticated, those wind element mutated beasts are too pretentious, but there’s nothing interesting to see, just a group of wanderers and ordinary survivors, it’s time to leave.

At that moment, the survivor tentatively asked a question, making Zhang Mu suddenly lose interest in leaving and become intrigued.

“Sir, there was another gentleman who arrived in our Yulin City yesterday and rested in our village, would you like to meet that gentleman?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep