Chapter Twenty-Three: Deyuan Town

Without bringing along the tiger he had just tamed, Long Yu once again used the Portal of Space.

The reason he left the tiger behind was because he planned to bring it over with the portal after he’d found his way home. After all, taking the tiger through the portal would consume even more of his internal energy, and since he wasn’t sure if he was headed in the right direction yet, he didn’t want to waste any strength.

It was another ten-mile leap, and this time Long Yu emerged from the mountains.

Where was this?

Long Yu gazed at the dilapidated, unfamiliar little town before him. There was not a single human in sight, only all manner of mutated creatures.

The world that once belonged to humans had now been overtaken by these mutated beasts. As for the humans—perhaps they had perished, perhaps they had fled—Long Yu didn’t know. Still, he hoped they had escaped. Deep down, he could never wish for his own kind to become food for these monsters.

Several mutated dogs with no sense of self-preservation caught sight of Long Yu and seemed to think that a free meal had wandered right into their midst.

They quickly surrounded him, barking incessantly, as if evaluating whether this prey posed any threat.

Yet Long Yu was preoccupied with surveying the state of the entire town, paying no heed to the snarling dogs at his side.

To him, these dogs were no different from flies or mosquitoes—annoying, but hardly worth his attention unless they became a true nuisance, at which point he’d simply swat them away.

In a place devoid of human life, all traces of civilization vanished swiftly. The houses in the little town were now shrouded in green—creeping vines, moss, and nameless weeds had begun to claim what was once humanity’s domain.

The shop windows were mostly shattered, doors hung wide open, and chaos reigned within. Clearly, this place had witnessed a bout of tumult.

The mutated dogs, no longer able to restrain their hunger, leapt at Long Yu in unison.

But the difference in physical prowess was too vast. Their speed was nothing compared to Long Yu’s reflexes. With a casual, almost indifferent movement, Long Yu sidestepped their attacks with uncanny precision.

He could sense from their aura that these dogs were not strong, their physical attributes hovering around thirty points, and none possessed any special abilities.

Long Yu had no interest in using his Beast Mastery to control such creatures.

Though they looked fierce, their weakness made them unworthy of his attention. They couldn’t amuse, nor could they fight—what good were they?

Naturally, Long Yu showed no mercy.

The mutated dogs, having missed their mark, barely had time to turn around before Long Yu was upon them.

He dispatched each one with a swift kick; his movements were so fast they were almost a blur. In a matter of seconds, the dogs went flying through the air, landing a hundred meters away.

Each bore a deep footprint on its body—their organs crushed beyond repair, dead beyond all doubt.

Long Yu’s good mood, present when he’d first returned, had long since vanished under the weight of worry for his family.

These dogs were not only useless to him, but they’d even dared to attack—an unpardonable offense.

After dispatching them, Long Yu extracted the crystal cores from their brains, though he didn’t use them himself. Once one’s physical attributes surpassed a hundred, only the crystal cores from beasts of similar or greater strength had any effect.

Specifically, only the cores from animals with more than ninety pe