Chapter 24 The Missing Technique
Just when Li Yi and others arrived at the designated location.

In the danger zone, there is an abandoned zoo. No one has been here for a full decade. The zoo is full of weeds and trees. The statues of various cartoon animals on both sides of the road have long been mottled and faded, and the various amusement equipment are aging and damaged.

However, what is incredible is that there are all kinds of animals kept in cages in the zoo, but the animals in the cages are slightly different from the animals people have known before.

In the garden where tigers were imprisoned, there was a strange tiger walking slowly. The tiger had a hunched back and was skinny. The bright and colorful fur on its body had long since faded and turned sparse, black and white. However, what made people feel uneasy was that in the dark night, the eyes of this evil tiger emitted an eerie green light, and its two very thick fangs actually grew out of its mouth, like an extinct saber-toothed tiger.

"Roar!"

The vicious tiger was growling, its green eyes staring at a direction in the darkness through the already yellowed tempered glass window. At the same time, its hungry and skinny body gradually retreated, as if it sensed something dangerous approaching.

A ray of light appeared faintly in the depths of darkness.

Those were two pairs of eyes.

One pair of eyes was crystal clear and very mysterious, while the other pair of eyes was green in the darkness, like a ghost.

Just by getting close, the vicious tiger that was once at the top of the food chain seemed to have become a prey and could only retreat.

Yang Yilong and Qin Qing now teamed up to step into this dangerous abandoned zoo.

Although they seem to be weak, as practitioners, after repeated evolution and transformation, they are now the most dangerous existence here.

"A mutated evil tiger?" Yang Yilong saw the beast imprisoned in the garden. He paused for a moment and frowned, "No, that's not right. Although it looks like one, it's definitely not a tiger."

"That should be the rumored Biao."

Qin Qing's cyan pupils moved slightly. "There's a saying that goes, 'for every ten tigers there is a leopard.' Wherever there are leopards, the tigers must have died out. But it's strange, why is this leopard locked up here? The zoo has been abandoned for ten years. If the animals inside couldn't escape, they should have starved to death long ago."

"And to raise a tiger, you need a sufficient number of tigers. Unless something takes over this place after it is abandoned and continues to feed animals."

"Yang Yilong, do you think that thing did it?"

Yang Yilong said: "That thing's intelligence is no less than that of humans. It is possible that it raises animals. However, it seems that it does not raise animals for eating. If it was just for food, there would be no need to spend time and effort to raise a tiger."

"Keep looking."

The two men continued to move forward in the darkness. As for the leopard imprisoned in the tiger garden, they ignored it. For them, the goal of this trip was the most important. Some exotic beasts were not worth their time.

Keep going.

When they passed by the place where monkeys were raised, they saw a human-shaped figure standing on the rockery of the zoo. The figure was covered with hair, like an unevolved savage, or an orangutan, but it had a human face. The contrast between barbarism and civilization gave people an inexplicable sense of horror.

The gorilla with a human face was staring at Yang Yilong and Qin Qing who were passing by, with a slightly weird expression.

"Is that the evil ghost of the mountain, the mandrill?" Qin Qing noticed the strange gaze in the darkness. On the side of her face, the green vertical pupils were cold and dangerous.

Eyes facing each other.

The round pupils met the vertical pupils.

At this moment, it seemed that the position of the food chain was confirmed. The mandrill standing on the rockery suddenly showed an expression of fear. Then, a slight whooshing sound was heard, and its trace disappeared in an instant. Its movements were incredibly agile.

Qin Qing scared it away with just one glance.

"There are many dangers in this place. If we don't deal with them sooner, in a few years, whether it's the tiger or the mandrill, I'm afraid they will become powerful. It's said that people can become immortals through practice, and animals can become monsters through practice. They are already passively absorbing the energy of the universe. As their wisdom increases, it's only a matter of time before these beasts become monsters."

Qin Qing withdrew her gaze and then made a suggestion.

"Now I understand what that thing wants to do." Yang Yilong smiled at this moment: "It is really ambitious. It is training its subordinates and wants to become the king. Unfortunately, it is unlucky and met me today, so its beautiful dream can only end here."

"I'll deal with these things after I kill that thing. I can't act first, lest I alert the enemy. Although I have set up many sentries, if that thing really wants to escape, the practitioners in the psychic realm will be helpless. I don't have time to chase it."

"Okay." Qin Qing nodded.

The two continued searching in the zoo.

I don't know how long it took, maybe ten minutes, maybe twenty minutes, until a strange cry like a baby sounded, completely breaking the silence of the night. Then, a huge noise came from a corner of the zoo.

The dust was stirring, figures were moving around, and sturdy trees were falling down. The smell was so strong that all the animals in the zoo were frightened and made to scream in strange ways.

In a dark corner of the zoo, a battle between extraordinary creatures and practitioners took place.

But all this has nothing to do with Li Yi.

Led by Brother Tao, he and Zhang Gao squatted on the top floor of an abandoned building and patrolled the surroundings.

"Everything is normal, at least there is nothing unusual on our side. This is good. Keep it like this and we can leave at dawn." Brother Tao retracted his gaze at this moment. He did not dare to patrol too much, because in the danger zone he did not dare to stare into the distance for too long, for fear that something would catch his attention and find him.

Li Yi asked at this moment: "Brother Tao, the knife in your hand just now was very special? Are you practicing swordsmanship?"

"There's nothing special about this knife. It's made of special steel. It's just a little expensive. I bought it just for self-defense." Brother Tao sat down again and chatted, "I don't know any knife skills. I just rely on strength and accuracy to swing."

"You don't know how to use a sword? Then what methods do practitioners usually rely on to deal with the enemies?" Li Yi asked in surprise.

Brother Tao laughed and said, "You are a newbie and you really don't know anything. Let me ask you, what are the so-called swordsmanship and boxing techniques in our world used for?"

"Fighting and killing." Li Yi thought for a moment and replied immediately.

Brother Tao nodded and said, "Yes, the foundation of martial arts evolved from people fighting each other. Do you think this set of things is suitable for practitioners? The strength, speed, reaction, and even vitality of practitioners far exceed those of normal people. In ancient times, we practitioners were cultivating immortals."

"It's ridiculous to use human martial arts on immortal cultivators. It's just like the evolution of war. Ancient wars relied on cold weapons, so a series of weapons such as swords, spears, and halberds were derived. Modern wars rely on hot weapons, so there are all kinds of guns, missiles and other weapons."

"If someone still trains swordsmen and archers to go to the battlefield in modern wars, wouldn't that make the enemy laugh to death? By the same token, practitioners can't spend a lot of time learning ordinary martial arts. If you can deduce martial arts to the level of art, then forget what I said. But now I haven't heard of anyone who can do this."

Brother Tao started laughing as he spoke.

"However, there is one exception. That is, the martial arts they practice are not from this world, but advanced martial arts that have been passed down from another world."

But then, Brother Tao's smile faded, and he continued, "Li Yi, I know what you want to say. It's nothing more than that our world doesn't have the skills that match the practitioners. In fact, this problem is not only thought of by you, but also by all the practitioners, because it has only been ten years since the Tianqing incident."

"Ten years is not enough for our world to evolve a mature technique. I said before that I bought this knife just for self-defense. After all, most practitioners' bodies have not evolved to a point where the blade is harder than this knife. And this thing is easy to buy. If I had the means, I would rather use a gun."

"What kind of practitioner are you if you have a gun but don't use it?"

"If I had a Gatling gun just now, I could have beaten that spider monster into a sieve. How could I have let it get away?"

"But whether it's a knife or a gun, they are just a transition. They can't fully adapt to our world. Because in our world, no matter how good the knife is, it can't cut the scales of supernatural creatures. No matter how powerful the gun is, it can't kill the terrifying evil spirits. Some supernatural creatures even have their own energy fields. They can destroy the city just by passing by."

"Doesn't that mean the cultivator is incompetent?" Zhang Gao asked curiously.

"No, our practitioners have infinite possibilities."

Brother Tao continued smoking and said, "I heard from Yang Yilong that practitioners in our world can adapt to any kind of 'art' and can bring the power of the art to its fullest. It's just that we lack the 'art'. To use a phrase from martial arts novels, we are all masters with profound internal strength, but none of us know martial arts."

"So we can only explore and create on our own?" Li Yi asked curiously.

"Yes, for example, witnessing is a technique created by our medium realm practitioners, and then it spread quickly. After all, the medium realm practitioners have the largest number of practitioners, and there are always some people who can come up with something new in this realm. However, as time goes by, the number of evolvers decreases, so the number of techniques created also decreases."

Brother Tao was smoking with a frown on his face, and was giving a lecture to Li Yi and Zhang Gao out of boredom.

"By the way, we just talked about Yang Yilong. I heard from other practitioners that Yang Yilong obtained some of the latest research results of practitioners, and then used myths and legends as inspiration and ancient instruments as prototypes to explore a technique of his own."

Suddenly Brother Tao remembered something and mentioned this.

"What kind of magic is that?" Li Yi asked.

Brother Tao laughed and said, "How would I know? I just heard that a psychic cultivator named He Jun accidentally saw Yang Yilong practicing in the underground practice field of the previous building. Of course, he didn't just tell me, many people knew about it, but Yang Yilong didn't make a fuss about it. After all, it couldn't be kept secret."

(End of this chapter)