I became a god by treasure hunting after arriving 500 years early

On this particular day, Lu Yuan, with nothing better to do, was looking back through this journal when he was dumbfounded to find that its contents could be summed up in five big characters—"Old Wolf's Brothel Log"!

He was furious.

He put the snake shedding clothes on Old Wolf, covering up that damned organ of his.

"Awoo, awoo, awoo!" Old Wolf looked utterly disheartened, with a fierce look of wanting to bite someone, struggling frantically.

"Look at your legs, you have no strength!" Lu Yuan scolded, "You start complaining about being tired after just 20 kilometers a day! Do you still want me to carry you or what?"

The orange Old Cat covered its eyes with a paw, "Lu Yuan, I can understand you."

"In the past few months, you've told the story of a beautiful human girl 432 times. On average, about 4-5 times a day."

"Whenever Old Wolf finds a romantic encounter, you start talking non-stop about girls, reminiscing about the good old days... from your classmate, to your teacher, to the young lady at the milk tea shop, to the proprietress of the clothing store."

"Even some girls you've only met once get mentioned."

"I suspect you're just talking nonsense, given your emotional intelligence, it's impossible for you to have had interactions with so many girls."

Lu Yuan felt a sore point being jabbed, and veins popped on his forehead.

He picked up a tree branch expressionlessly and delivered a "Lightning Five-Chain Whip" to a large tree.

The "pi li pa la" sound of the whipping scared both dogs and cats into utter silence.

"Don't you believe in your comrades? I've indeed had interactions with so many girls! Is it not considered interaction just because we only exchanged a few words?" His terrifying voice, like a volcano from hell, threatened to destroy the world at any moment.

"Comrade, I've always believed…" Old Cat said with a serious face.

"I believe that even if you were a thousand years old, you'd still be a virgin."

Lu Yuan was knocked down, lying paralyzed on the ground, twitching occasionally, and began doing push-ups.

"Aww!" Old Wolf was also on the ground, mimicking Lu Yuan, twisting around in a lecherous manner.

...

Alright, aside from the Old Wolf's survival diary, the mutated creatures Lu Yuan encountered over the past few months were actually quite numerous, with them being generally much stronger than the species on Earth by several levels.

Mutation and being extraordinary are two different concepts.

Mutated creatures have simply become stronger in certain aspects, such as venom, bite force, increased size, visual acuity, enhanced reflexes, and so on.

Old Wolf, for example, is a mid-level mutated creature, with increased lifespan and reproductive capability.

Extraordinary lives, on the other hand, each have their own "abilities."

That is to say, "the birth of a superpower" is a significant hurdle.

Not many extraordinary creatures with levels actually exist. Creatures like tigers and leopards, when encountered occasionally, would confront each other and then scatter — everyone is quite capable, there's no need to fight to the death over a bite to eat.

Of course, this doesn't mean that extraordinary creatures are much stronger than mutated creatures.

In combat, life and death are often decided by a hair's breadth.

Even Lu Yuan, a Level 3 extraordinary creature, when encountering poisonous, swarming, or extremely large creatures, had to keep a respectful distance to avoid pointless battles.

In this forest, the number and strength of plants are obviously higher than those of animals.

On a nearly 4,000 kilometers linear distance, the number of mutated plants is almost countless.

Possibly tens of thousands?

He encountered about 315 species of plants with extraordinary levels.

7 immensely powerful plants similar to the Cannibal Flowers of the Meida Civilization.

These were extraordinary level, much higher than what Lu Yuan achieved!

As for producers like the corn tree, he also encountered about 80 of those. Many animals were competing with each other around these producers.

Lu Yuan collected some branches, leaves, and seeds from these plants, as he had a Tree of Life that could graft all kinds of plants. Who knew if he might need some type of them in the future?

"Could it be that at the end of the Eighth Epoch, there was a terrifying mass extinction of creatures?"

"Otherwise, why would plants be so much stronger than animals?"

"This mass extinction only affected animals and had a lower impact on plants, allowing these things to survive from the previous epoch to now."

Today, with his "Leo's Mask," Lu Yuan scared away dozens of monkeys from a locust tree.

This locust tree was a mid-level extraordinary plant, non-aggressive.

Its ability is [Rich in Nutrition: The leaves of the locust tree contain abundant nutritional substances, which can greatly accelerate the evolution speed of the consumer.]

The locust tree was covered with green insects, each as thick as an index finger.

[High-level Mutated Bean Worm, a larva of a type of moth, non-toxic and harmless, is a high-protein delicacy. Due to the mutation of this locust tree, these insects also mutated, with a nutritional value seven times that of ordinary insects.]

[Since they lack superpowers, these insects do not qualify as extraordinary creatures.]

The transfer of the food chain in nature is indeed wondrous, with the insects eating the leaves and undergoing subtle evolution. Stay tuned with empire

The monkeys eat the insects and also evolve.

Look at the largest monkey king; through long-term insect consumption, it had become a Level 1 extraordinary mutated creature.

[Pangu Great Grey Monkey: A widely distributed type of monkey, an omnivore. Its diet includes tree leaves, young branches, wild greens, as well as small birds, bird eggs, and various insects.]

[Shape: 6.7]

[Qi: 19.3]

[Divine: 1.9]

[Ability: Flying Dragon Cloud Claw, this monkey was always able to steal whatever it wanted, quickly distinguishing itself among its people and becoming the Monkey King.]

[Extraordinary Level: Level 1.]

The gray monkey king seemed to know that Lu Yuan was not to be trifled with, looking anxious as it scratched its head and ears.

In its effort to defend its territory, it kept circling Lu Yuan, making snarling sounds with bared teeth.

"Wagaga!"

Seeing Lu Yuan take a large green insect from the tree and feed it to Old Wolf, the monkey became even more furiously enraged, constantly pounding its chest with its hands.

"Wagagagaga!"

"Lu Yuan, is this fellow a close relative of yours? You look quite similar to them...", Old Cat exclaimed in surprise, "Even the look of anger is exactly the same."

"Comrade, you should update your image recognition software."

Lu Yuan quickly hid his Superior dagger to keep it from being stolen.

The next second, the gray monkey angrily charged at him, unleashing its Ability: "Flying Dragon Cloud Claw"!

Lu Yuan steadied himself in a horse stance and pushed out a palm.

The palm strike was biting cold.

But he found that the monkey easily leapt to the side, and the two did not come into direct contact.

Yet, Lu Yuan felt lighter, something had been stolen.

"Damn, how did this guy do it? He can steal without even touching me?"

This was not a Divine Skill but a peculiar "Qi Skill", creating an invisible air arm out of a flow of Qi, allowing the monkey to steal from a distance.

Upon a closer look.

It was Old Cat!

Old Cat had been stolen from his backpack!!

"Wagaga!" the gray monkey shouted hysterically, holding Old Cat in its arms and snarling fiercely.

If you don't leave my territory... I'm going to kill this cat!

Lu Yuan couldn't help but laugh out loud, imitating the monkey's shriek and swaying his body: "Old Cat, how does it feel to be embraced by a monkey!"

"Woof woof woof!" the number one dog-leg in Society was also gloating over the misfortune.

It devoured the insects heartily, spraying green juice all over the floor, feeling warm and comfortable in its belly.

Seemingly despondent, Old Cat was held in the monkey's embrace, looking at the dirty palms stuffing themselves into his mouth, and he couldn't help but erupt with a loud "Wa", and then he bit down hard on the monkey's hand!

The monkey king screamed in pain and, terrified, dropped Old Cat and ran away.

Angry, Old Cat clamped onto its tail, biting off a large chunk of fur.

"Wagaga!"

A cat and a monkey entangled with each other, resulting in an epic battle.

Lu Yuan took this opportunity to grab a heap of "Beanworms", planning to feast that night.

"Let's go, Old Timer, stop bullying the monkey."

Unfortunately, even after several days of feasting on the insects, there was no sign of evolutionary effect... Especially for Old Wolf, who still hadn't undergone a [High-level Mutation].

Useless.

Perhaps it would require a long-term diet, along with the efforts of several generations of monkeys, to make each successive generation stronger.

These were just some of the amusing incidents that occurred on the journey.

However, over the course of his long travels, Lu Yuan had come to a remarkable conclusion.

That is, even if a civilization had established a Safe Zone early on, aside from having a fair amount of time advantage, the benefit of supernatural resources wasn't necessarily substantial.

Mutated creatures should also exist within Safe Zones.

Unless one could find the ruins of a civilization...

But such ruins are not easy to come by; at least over these four thousand miles, even for Lu Yuan with the "Explorer's Eye" and "Pioneer's Eye," no traces of a civilization were found.

"Therefore, it's generally most efficient for a civilization to cancel the Safe Zone at the right time."

"Cancelling it too early when there aren't many external biological resources might not result in a rapid development. And if a natural disaster occurs, that would be a big problem."

"Better to integrate internally first, cancel the Safe Zone at the right time, and grow and expand as quickly as possible when resources are most abundant—this may be the best solution."

Lu Yuan asked Old Cat if his conclusion was correct.

Old Cat was silent for a long while before saying, "Every civilization has its own path..."

"Do you know what an extra thousand years of time means? It's a world-changing difference. As long as there's no cataclysm, this early advantage is significant."

"Respect the fate of civilizations, let go of the desire to help others, and avoid being moved by your own emotions."

Lu Yuan, feeling helpless: "You really don't want to take any responsibility, do you? But I am human; I have to find a way to make my homeland better."

Old Cat: "I am just a homeless AI, what responsibility should I bear for the Ninth Epoch?"

"Lu Yuan, there are disasters in the world far more powerful than 'demons'. So don't think of yourself as a savior, even with all your Divine Skills... there are many things that you just can't do."

...