Chapter 169: Mutated Creature

The alpha wolf was dead.

The remaining wolves, still fearless in the face of death, continued to pounce on Li Ye.

Li Ye simply tossed aside his broken sword.

A flurry of punches and kicks followed.

In an instant, more than ten wolves met a violent end.

These wolves were indeed tough-skinned and thick-fleshed. They were fast and strong, but they were still no match for Li Ye.

After all, his Body Attributes had been boosted to cheat-like levels.

With his current physical toughness, even if he stood still and let the wolves bite him, they probably wouldn’t even be able to break his skin.

They were a far cry from the Skeleton Monarch.

…

However, seeing these wolves gave Li Ye a pretty good idea of why there were four sources of Demon Qi in this world.

Not every Time Traveler possessed a Body Refining Skill.

Even a Time Traveler who had survived two or three worlds would, upon being suddenly transported to a world like this with their Spiritual Power and Magic Power sealed, most likely fail to even get past these wolves. And that was to say nothing of an ordinary Time Traveler.

When they died, their demonic remains were naturally left behind.

Heh.

‘Guess I was pretty lucky, then. My first world was a Martial World.’

Li Ye crouched down and began to skin a wolf with his bare hands.

He wouldn’t pass up any opportunity to learn more about this world.

The fur was tough and resilient; it would take over two thousand pounds of force to tear it.

Its blood was somewhat corrosive, pitting the rocks it dripped on.

The muscles were also incredibly hard—thick and elastic, capable of unleashing immense power in an instant.

The bones were comparable to titanium alloy. They could be pulled out and used directly as weapons and even seemed to have the effect of blocking perception…

As Li Ye dissected the creature, he couldn’t help but marvel, ‘Mutant wolves, huh?’

‘If these things existed in ancient times on Earth, they’d probably have been crowned the kings of the forest.’

With a slight exertion of force, Li Ye tore open its skull. Steaming brains spilled out.

Without the protection of the skull, Li Ye’s perception easily pierced through the brain matter. From within, he dug out a blue, marble-sized bead.

The bead emitted a faint blue glow.

Cultivators have their Golden Cores, demons have their Demon Cores, and zombies have Crystal Cores in their heads…

‘It’s not strange for a mutated creature to have something unusual in its head. Anyone who’s read enough novels wouldn’t miss a treasure like this…’

“Hu, what is this thing?” Li Ye asked.

“I don’t know,” Hu replied.

“Oh,” Li Ye grunted, and continued to cut open the skulls of the other wolves he had killed. Each one had a similar bead in its head, though they were all a size smaller than the alpha’s.

Perhaps the bloody scent from dissecting the wolves had spread, because many more unknown creatures began to converge on Li Ye’s position from both the sky and the ground. All of them were moving quickly…

The first to appear was a golden eagle with a three-meter wingspan.

It dove down from the sky, its steel-like talons aimed straight for Li Ye’s head, the tips targeting his eyes.

Between the golden eagle’s talons, faint blue arcs of electricity could be seen crackling…

Damn it!

‘My Magic is disabled, but this bird gets to play with electricity?’

Li Ye cursed inwardly. Wary that the electric arcs around the eagle’s talons might have some special effect, he grabbed a wolf’s leg bone from the ground and hurled it viciously at the diving bird.

The leg bone flew with incredible speed.

Unable to dodge in time, the eagle was pierced through the chest. It let out a mournful cry and spiraled to the ground…

Next to appear was a magnificently striped tiger. It had witnessed the eagle being shot down and stopped thirty meters away from Li Ye, opening its mouth to roar.

ROAR!

After the roar washed over him, Li Ye’s mind went blank for a moment, but he quickly recovered.

Seeing Li Ye standing frozen, the tiger pounced—only to hit empty air.

By the time it realized what had happened, Li Ye was already on its back, an immense force pressing it down.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The tiger’s four thick legs snapped one after another, and its six-meter-long body slammed heavily onto the ground.

The tiger opened its mouth to let out a pained howl, but Li Ye smashed its skull with a single punch, silencing it forever.

When Li Ye pulled his hand out, a red, ping-pong-ball-sized bead was already resting in his palm.

After pulling out all the tiger’s teeth to use as weapons, Li Ye walked over to where the eagle had fallen and dug a blue bead out of its head as well…

The stench of blood grew even thicker.

Following that came a thirty-meter-long python, a black bear that stood seven or eight meters tall, a crocodile over ten meters long…

These mutated animals each had their own abilities: some could summon whirlwinds, some could spit blades of wind, some could control water arrows, and some could spew poisonous fog…

However, they all died under the assault of Li Ye’s tiger-tooth projectiles, and he dug the beads out of all their heads.

He didn’t know how to use these beads, but he was sure it was a good idea to collect them.

In just a short time, Li Ye had collected a pocketful of colorful beads.

He had also found himself suitable weapons: a bone club made from a black bear’s thigh and the sharp teeth of various animals.

The beasts’ teeth were hard and sharp, with even the shortest ones being over ten centimeters long—perfect for using as projectiles.

Li Ye’s perception range was only a little over three hundred meters, and he couldn’t get his bearings in the fog. His only option was to fight his way forward, searching for any trace of civilization.

His strength and speed were immense, making him comparable to a humanoid T-Rex. No matter how ferocious the mutated animals were, they couldn’t do a thing to him.

Even after killing so many beasts along the way, Li Ye didn’t even have a few drops of blood spattered on him; he remained as clean as when he started.

Li Ye chose to head in the direction the giant wolves had come from.

With his perception limited, he had no other choice.

Normally, one could find human settlements by following a river, but that method was clearly not an option here. The creatures in the water were no weaker than those on land.

Li Ye tossed a wolf carcass into the water.

The water began to bubble and boil as a dark swarm of fish emerged, devouring the wolf carcass down to the bone in the blink of an eye.

Some of the fish could even fly for short periods near the riverbank. Li Ye personally witnessed a three-meter-long fish leap from the river, snatch a sika deer that was drinking at the water’s edge, and drag it under.

With his perception, Li Ye could tell that the riverbed was almost completely paved with animal bones.

Under these circumstances, what human would dare to live by the river? With these fish around, even fetching water would be a problem…

‘What a hellish world!’

‘With such harsh natural conditions, how powerful must the people who live here be?’

Perhaps it was the black bear’s leg bone in his hand, or the various beast teeth in his pocket, but after leaving that last area, very few beasts attacked him…

Herds of cattle, sheep, zebras, and the like that he encountered along the way would turn tail and flee the moment he got close.

But Li Ye didn’t spare them, still taking a few beads from their bodies.

‘The grass in the fog is all withered. There are no herbivores here; all these creatures are carnivores…’

He walked through the fog like this for four or five hours.

Li Ye stopped in his tracks.

Before him was a swarm of bats that blotted out the sky.

These bats were about a foot long, and there were thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of them. They formed a dense, black mass, like a wall built in the sky.

The bats made a loud BUZZING sound as they swarmed and attacked something in one direction.

Behind the swarm of bats was a mountain of white bones; clearly, they had devoured all the animals along their path.

The swarming bats emitted a BUZZING drone that was headache-inducing and even caused a sense of dizziness.

Li Ye’s hearing was extremely sharp, and he couldn’t help but frown.

Noticing Li Ye’s arrival, a group of bats split off from the main swarm and flew straight for him, surrounding him from all sides before diving down.

As they dove, the bats opened their mouths, unleashing the irritating sound waves.

Damn it!

Li Ye cursed under his breath, swinging his bone club so fast it created an impenetrable barrier.

The diving bats crashed against the club and were instantly pulverized, showering the ground with small black beads.

But there were too many bats. The creatures seemed to have no intelligence; even as their comrades near Li Ye were smashed to death, they continued to dive one after another, as if they wouldn’t rest until they had taken a bite out of his flesh.

The sonic attack couldn’t harm Li Ye, but it agitated him and threw his thoughts into disarray…

‘It sucks not having any area-of-effect Magic!’

‘If I could just use Magic and throw up a fire wall, this wouldn’t be such a struggle.’

‘Wait a minute. A sonic attack! I have one of those too!’

Ultimately, the bats were no match for Li Ye’s speed. He leaped back a few steps, easily breaking free from their encirclement.

Then,

Li Ye tossed aside the bone club and took the Erhu from his back.

He drew the bow across the strings, starting with the rousing tune of “Horse Race.”

Empowered by Demon Qi, the sound of the Erhu instantly drowned out the bats’ buzzing, and Li Ye’s agitation immediately subsided.

But when the bats heard the spirited melody, they seemed to go into a frenzy, as if on stimulants. Their attacks became even more ferocious, and their speed even increased…

“Who’s over there riling up the bats?” an exasperated voice yelled from within the swarm. “Humans in these Ruins are supposed to look out for each other! What are you trying to do? If you get us killed, do you think you’ll survive alone? You better hope I don’t find out who you are…”

‘Oh? Humans!’ Li Ye’s eyes lit up.

He quickly changed the tune, switching from “Horse Race” to “Moon Reflected in Erquan.”

The moment the mournful, sorrowful melody began, the bats, which had been so agitated just a moment before, visibly weakened. They flew listlessly, drained of all energy.

Many of the bats even began to shed tears.

“Asshole, what the hell are you doing?” the voice rang out again, now with a sob. “You’re making *me* want to die!”

Er…

‘Is this song wrong too?’

Li Ye pondered for a moment, then switched the song to “Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix.”

As expected.

The moment the melody of “Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix” rang out, all the bats in the sky turned and came rushing toward him in a great WHOOSH.

Seeing the dense swarm of bats surging toward him, Li Ye turned and ran, shouting over his shoulder, “Stay put! I’ll be back for you later!”

He had finally found other humans; of course he was going to save them.

At the very least, he needed to learn about this world from them.