The Post Sky Tipping Era

Just as Li Yi and the others arrived at the designated location.

In the danger zone, there was an abandoned zoo that had been deserted for a full ten years. The zoo was overgrown with weeds and miscellaneous trees, and the statues of various cartoon animals on both sides of the road had long since become mottled and faded. The various amusement facilities were even more dilapidated and damaged.

However, what was perplexing was that various animals were still held in the cages of the zoo, only these animals in the cages differed slightly from the animals people were familiar with before.

In a garden holding a tiger, a bizarre tiger paced slowly. This tiger arched its back and was as thin as a rail, its once bright and colorful fur had long since faded, becoming sparse, dark and white. However, what was unsettling was that in the night, this evil tiger's eyes emitted a sinister green light, and its two huge fangs grew from its mouth, resembling the long-extinct saber-toothed tiger.

"Roar!"

The evil tiger roared. Its green eyes peered through the already yellowed tempered glass window, staring fixedly in one direction in the darkness while its emaciated body gradually retreated, seemingly sensing some imminent danger.

A faint light appeared in the depths of the darkness.

Those were two pairs of glowing eyes.

One pair of eyes was crystal clear, exceptionally mysterious, while the other shimmered green in the darkness, like a ghostly specter.

Merely by approaching, the evil tiger, once at the top of the food chain, seemed to have become the prey, having no choice but to keep its distance.

Yang Yilong and Qin Qing now joined forces to step into this dangerous abandoned zoo.

Though seemingly outnumbered and powerless, as cultivators, after undergoing numerous evolutions and transformations, they were now the most dangerous beings here.

"A mutant evil tiger?" Yang Yilong saw the beast confined in the garden, he paused slightly in his steps, and furrowed his brows, "No, that's not right. Though it looks similar, this thing is definitely not a tiger."

"That must be the rumored... Biao."

Qin Qing, her green vertical pupils slightly shifted, "It is said that out of ten tigers, one Biao emerges. Wherever there's a Biao, tigers must have already gone extinct. However, it's strange, why is this Biao confined here? The zoo has been abandoned for ten years, the animals inside should have starved to death if they couldn't escape."

"Moreover, to raise a Biao, a sufficient number of tigers is required... Unless, after this place was abandoned, something else took over and continued feeding the animals."

"Yang Yilong, do you think it was that thing's doing?"

Yang Yilong said, "That thing's intelligence is no less than a human's; the possibility of it breeding animals isn't out of the question. However, from the looks of it, it isn't breeding them for food. If it were just for food, there would be no need to go to the trouble of raising a Biao."

"Let's keep looking."

The two continued onward in the darkness, ignoring the Biao confined in the tiger garden, as their main objective was the most important to them. Several mutant beasts weren't worth their time.

They moved forward.

As they passed the area with monkeys, they saw a humanoid figure standing on the zoo's artificial mountain. The creature was covered in fur, resembling a yet-to-evolve savage or a gorilla, but it had a human face. This contrast between barbarism and civilization was eerily disconcerting.

The gorilla with a human face now fixed its gaze on Yang Yilong and Qin Qing, motionless, its expression somewhat eerie.

"Is that the Mountain Demon... the Mountain Evil Ghost?" Qin Qing noticed the eerie gaze in the darkness. She turned her head, her green vertical pupils cold and menacing.

Their eyes met.

Circular pupils met vertical pupils.

In that moment, it seemed the positions in the food chain were confirmed. The Mountain Demon faces showed a sudden expression of terror and then, with a soft whooshing sound, it vanished in an instant, its movements unnervingly agile.

With just one look, Qin Qing had scared it away.

"This place is indeed fraught with danger. If we don't deal with it soon, in a few years, whether it's that Biao or the Mountain Demon we just saw, they might become a significant force. It is said that humans cultivate to become immortals, and animals cultivate to become demons. They are passively absorbing cosmic energy. As their intelligence continues to increase, it's only a matter of time before these mutant beasts become demons."

Qin Qing withdrew her gaze and then made a suggestion.

"Now I understand what that thing is trying to do." Yang Yilong smiled, "It has great ambitions. It's raising minions, wanting to become a king, unfortunate for it, it's unlucky to have met me today, so its grand dreams end here."

"I'll kill that thing first, then deal with these creatures. Can't act rashly and alert it, although I've set up many outposts, but if that thing really wants to escape, Spirit Medium Realm cultivators are helpless against it. I don't have time to chase it down."

"Okay," Qin Qing nodded.

The two continued to search in the zoo.

It was unclear how much time had passed, perhaps ten minutes, perhaps twenty, until a creepy cry like that of a baby shattered the tranquility of the night.

Subsequently, a huge commotion erupted from a corner of the zoo.

There, dust swirled, figures darted about, and thick trees fell one after another. The escaping aura filled all the animals in the zoo with terror, eliciting strange cries from them.

In a dark corner of the zoo, a battle between an Extraordinary Creature and a Cultivator had erupted.

But none of this was related to Li Yi.

He and Zhang Gao, led by Brother Tao, were squatting on the top floor of an abandoned building, surveying their surroundings.

"Everything is normal here, at least there's nothing unusual on our side. That's good, let's keep it this way. Once it's daylight, we can leave," Brother Tao said, withdrawing his gaze. He didn't dare look around too much in the danger zone, for fear that something might capture his glance and come searching.

Li Yi then asked, "Brother Tao, the knife you had earlier seemed very special? Do you practice Sword Technique?"

"There's nothing special about this knife. It's made of special steel, just more expensive. I bought it just for self-defense," Brother Tao replied as he sat down again and began to chat casually. "I don't know any Sword Technique. It's just about using strength and accuracy to chop."

"You don't know Sword Technique? Then what techniques do Cultivators usually rely on to deal with enemies?" Li Yi asked, surprised.

Brother Tao laughed, "You're such a newbie, not knowing anything. Let me ask you, what are our world's Sword Techniques, martial arts used for?"

"Fighting, killing people," Li Yi thought for a moment before replying promptly.

Brother Tao nodded, "Correct, martial arts fundamentally evolved from the need for humans to fight each other. Do you think this kind of thing is suitable for Cultivators? Cultivators' strength, speed, reaction, even life force are far beyond normal humans. In ancient times, we Cultivators were considered as practicing Immortal Cultivation."

"Human martial arts being used by Cultivators is downright ridiculous. Just like the evolution of warfare, ancient wars relied on cold weapons, so a variety of weapons such as swords and spears evolved. But modern warfare depends on firearms, hence the emergence of various guns and missiles."

"If in modern warfare someone still trains Swordsmen and archers to fight in battlefields, wouldn't it make the enemy die laughing? Similarly, Cultivators wouldn't spend a lot of time learning ordinary martial arts unless you could elevate martial arts to the realm of Techniques. But no one I know of has managed to do that," Brother Tao explained and chuckled.

"However, there's an exception. That's if they were not training martial arts of this world, but practicing High Martial arts passed down from the Otherworld," Brother Tao added, but then his smile faded as he continued, "Li Yi, I know what you want to say. It's just that our world lacks Techniques suitable for Cultivators. In fact, this isn't just your concern; every Cultivator has thought of it, especially since the Sky Tipping event happened only ten years ago."

"In ten years, our world hasn't evolved sophisticated Techniques yet. Like I said earlier, I bought this knife just for self-defense. After all, most Cultivators' bodies haven't evolved to be harder than the blade of this knife, and this thing is easy to buy. If I had connections, I'd rather use firearms."

"A Cultivator not using a gun, what kind of Cultivator would that be?"

"If I had been carrying a Gatling gun earlier, I could have turned that Spider Monster into a sieve. How could I have let it escape?"

"But whether it's knives or guns, they're all just transitionary measures, unable to fully adapt to our world because, in our world, no knife can split the scales of an Extraordinary Creature, nor can fierce gunfire kill a terrifying Evil Ghost. Some Extraordinary Creatures even possess an Energy Field that can destroy a city just by passing through."

"Doesn't that make Cultivators quite powerless?" Zhang Gao asked curiously.

"No, our Cultivators hold infinite possibilities."

Brother Tao continued, smoking, "I heard from Yang Yilong that our world's Cultivators can adapt to any kind of 'Technique' and can maximize its power. It's just that we lack 'Techniques.' To use a phrase from martial hero novels, every one of us is a master with profound internal strength, but none of us knows martial arts."

"So we just have to explore and create our own?" Li Yi asked curiously.

"Exactly, like 'Eye witness,' which is a Technique created by Cultivators of the Spirit Medium Realm, and it quickly spread because the number of Cultivators in the Spirit Medium Realm is the highest. There are always some who can come up with new tricks at this level. But as we move further along, there are fewer Evolvers, so fewer Techniques are born."

Brother Tao furrowed his brows and smoked idly while educating the two men, Li Yi and Zhang Gao.

"Speaking of Yang Yilong, I heard from other Cultivators that Yang Yilong has obtained some of the latest research achievements of Cultivators. Inspired by myths and legends and using ancient artifacts as prototypes, he has explored his own Technique," Brother Tao suddenly recalled and mentioned.

"What kind of Technique is that?" Li Yi followed up.

Brother Tao laughed, "How would I know? I've only heard about it too. A Spirit Medium Realm Cultivator named He Jun stumbled upon Yang Yilong's practice session in the underground training ground of that building. He also wasn't the only one he told, many people know, but Yang Yilong hasn't taken much notice of it, after all, it's something that can't be hidden."