The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm

Chapter 141: Evenly Matched

Translator: Yuchaoz

Editor: Myro

The claws that the Obsidian Beetle used to cut a swathe through the first-ranked mutated animal ate a huge loss unexpectedly when challenging Zhang Mu. It could not break in and the speed that it acquired earlier, was also forced to zero.

Compared to the Obsidian Beetle’s confusion and resentment, Zhang Mu’s heart was blooming with excitement.

He never thought that the psychic barrier would be so strong. However, it could not strike on its own accord and was made for defense purely. Even though that was the case, Zhang Mu was also satisfied because it was the area that he lacked the most. He never expected that his flaw had become his power by an odd coincidence.

Now, not only did his psychological defense had improved, but his psychic ability was strong enough to block the attacks easily from the Obsidian Beetle, who was a second-ranked mutated animal. Furthermore, Zhang Mu felt that this ability should not be used merely for defenses. During a close-range battle, he could also strike a deadly blow to his opponent.

Despite that, the Obsidian Beetle was unwilling to admit defeat. It felt that it had lost its face in front of Zhang Mu as it could not make a single scratch on his psychic barrier. It said to Zhang Mu telepathically, “Just now I was not ready and banged onto it aimlessly. One more time.”

Zhang Mu did not mind at all. Just now the Obsidian Beetle did not break his psychic barrier, so it did not deplete much of his psychic power. From his angle, there was only a ripple produced on the barrier.

Likewise, he wanted to know where was the limit of his psychic barrier too. Despite that, he was unsure if the Obsidian Beetle was able to do the job.

After obtaining consent from Zhang Mu, the Obsidian Beetle retreated far away from Zhang Mu for about 20 meters.

Zhang Mu squinted his eye to look at the Obsidian Beetle from a distance. He also started to prepare to meet the challenge and unleashed all of his psychic ability. Under the guidance from his power, it had scattered evenly to all parts of the barrier.

Of course, he tried to concentrate his power on one area, but now it was extremely tough for him to do so. He could not change the barrier that was already formed. As a result, he could only drop the matter.

He was acting quite greedy too. He recently advanced to the second-ranked and was already thinking of using his newly acquired ability skillfully. That was utterly a wishful thinking as the ability from each rank needs to be slowly mastered and improved by using it continuously.

While Zhang Mu was thinking about this matter, the Obsidian Beetle had made its move. The wings at both sides were fanning up and down to conserve power, causing the dust underneath its hind legs to gather around its wings involuntarily.

Zhang Mu could feel the changes in the air clearly at this moment too.

It was the wind!

The Obsidian Beetle was collecting its power from the wind. That’s right, it was a mutated animal with the wind-element. Zhang Mu never saw it utilized this element when it was first-ranked so it must be an ability acquired after progressing to the second-rank.

A series of whirlwind slowly formed beside the Obsidian Beetle’s wings, getting stronger and stronger, and it was still converging!

Zhang Mu gazed at the Obsidian Beetle, looks like he had provoked it this time. He was uncertain if the psychic barrier would be able to block the full blow from the Obsidian Beetle, as the aura exuded from the Obsidian Beetle was too scary. The roofs of the surrounding houses had lifted completely. Under the Obsidian Beetle’s command, the strong wind, which had calmed down previously, was in a rage once again. It started to wreak havoc near the Obsidian Beetle. However, it seems to be firm as a stone at the center, slowly accumulating its power.

The whirlwind wrapped around the Obsidian Beetle’s wings and not a single wind current had dispersed. Zhang Mu looked at its stance. It appears that the Obsidian Beetle had summoned all the wind current from a kilometer range to both of its wings.

For some reason, Zhang Mu felt a little guilty. This time, the Obsidian Beetle truly put in everything for this.

Boom!

The Obsidian Beetle had stopped taking energy from the wind. Both of its wings had lost its initial appearance as it was wrapped with folds of the wind current, enlarging the wings that were only a meter long, into five meters.

It seems that the Obsidian Beetle had reached its limit by controlling this power. If it did not release them soon, the Obsidian Beetle would not be able to restrain it any longer. Nevertheless, it still passed a message to alert Zhang Mu, “This might went overboard if I am unable to restrain it, so you better be careful. If you cannot handle, then withdraw quickly. I don’t know how much would I be able to muster back since this power was hard to control. Also, this is my first time using it officially.”

Zhang Mu replied with an “ok” in his mind. If the Obsidian Beetle did not give him the pressure, he would not be able to test out the capability of his psychic barrier. Looking at this aspect, that power should be enough to test it.

After getting the confirmation from Zhang Mu, the Obsidian Beetle take action. Its body seems to faster than the speed of sound. Zhang Mu had not blinked finished his eye, yet it already arrived in front of him with two pairs of eye-catching wings.

“Coming!”

Zhang Mu just heard the warning from the Obsidian Beetle, and he could felt two heavy blows hitting above his head from top to bottom. The two wings lifted and slammed at Zhang Mu’s direction.

It had stopped around a meter on top of Zhang Mu’s head and the area that the Obsidian Beetle had contacted the psychic barrier, there was a large amount of energy colliding against each other every second.

“Crack, crack”.

The moment they collided, a spider web-like crack appeared on the psychic barrier and was growing continually.

“Do you want me to stop?” The Obsidian Beetle asked a question at this moment. “I’m able to withdraw most of the power for now.”

It could see clearly that Zhang Mu was crumbling, but Zhang Mu was acting stubborn. He must know the boundary of the psychic barrier, so he gritted his teeth and replied, “Continue, don’t stop!”

That was Zhang Mu’s command, and the Obsidian Beetle could only obey. The wings pressed down abruptly and exploded with power at the same time. A large amount of the wind current was scattered outwards from the place it touched the psychic barrier.

The cracks continue to grow as the Obsidian Beetle’s wings changed its assault. They constantly banged the invisible psychic barrier above Zhang Mu’s head so that he would not have the chance to replenish his psychic power.

Finally, the cracks of the psychic barrier had overlapped to the point where it was beginning to break apart.

With a smash, the psychic barrier had cracked thoroughly. Once a part of it was crack opened, and the others followed quickly.

Zhang Mu had prepared himself to move away from his original position beforehand, but he found a strange phenomenon suddenly. Although the cold wind was pouring in continuously, the attacks from the Obsidian Beetle never hit him.

It turned out that the moment his psychic barrier had broken apart, the wind-type energy that the Obsidian Beetle had gathered was completely frayed away too.

Which also mean that this time, the psychic barrier that Zhang Mu constructed with all of his power, was evenly matched with the wind-type ability gathered excessively by the Obsidian Beetle.