"Rumble!"
The world shook violently, countless broken stones collapsed, shooting outwards like falling meteorites.
Zhou Yan's gaze was serious as he looked around.
"Roar..."
At this moment, a roar filled with savage energy erupted. From the deepest part of this world, a colossal beast slowly emerged.
"What kind of monster is this?"
Zhou Yan's expression tensed. This was the third strange beast he had encountered. This beast was incredibly ugly, like a toad, its entire body covered in green scales. A poison barb several meters long grew from its head, and its tail was entwined with dense venomous snakes. It was now slowly approaching him.
"Roar!"
It then let out another roar, seemingly as a display of dominance.
"Such a powerful aura."
Zhou Yan frowned. Although this strange beast had only just awakened, the aura it emanated far surpassed that of other recently awakened beasts, and was even slightly stronger than those that had already gained sentience.
"Roar..."
Abruptly, another low growl sounded. Simultaneously, a pack of strange beasts came galloping from not far away, appearing before Zhou Yan in an instant.
"This aura..."
In that moment, Zhou Yan's pupils contracted, and his face showed shock. Because, from these strange beasts, he sensed a familiar scent. Upon closer inspection, Zhou Yan finally confirmed that these strange beasts were a pack of mutated creatures.
Mutated creatures were also a type of demon, with bizarre forms. Some mutated creatures looked similar to humans externally, but were cruel and ruthless internally, bloodthirsty, and possessed high intelligence. Some mutated creatures were ferocious beasts externally resembling humans, but were actually savage beasts with strength far exceeding that of humans.
The mutated creatures before him undoubtedly belonged to the latter category.
At this moment, this pack of mutated creatures surrounded him, their pair of scarlet eyes fixed intently on Zhou Yan.
"Roar!"
Then, another angry roar echoed. Immediately, a giant strange beast, completely covered in golden-yellow scales, slowly appeared within the encirclement of the numerous mutated creatures. Its body was about twenty feet long, its size even more imposing than some mountains. It exuded boundless power, causing all the mutated creatures around it to retreat.
Clearly, it was the king among this pack of mutated creatures.
"Roar!"
Suddenly, this golden-yellow giant dragon roared to the sky, and then, viscous saliva flowed from the corner of its mouth, carrying a foul odor.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."
Instantly, the mutated creatures standing beside Zhou Yan immediately hurled the weapons in their hands, covering the sky and attacking Zhou Yan.
"Hmph!"
Zhou Yan sneered. With a flash of his figure, he dodged these attacks.
"Bang! Bang! Bang..."
These mutated creatures crashed onto the ground, raising clouds of dust.
"Roar!"
Suddenly, Zhou Yan heard a frightened scream. He turned and saw that a stream of scorching flames was spewing from the mouth of the golden-yellow dragon. In an instant, that mutated creature was burned to ashes.
Zhou Yan's eyes narrowed: "As expected, a fire-elemental strange beast."
The next second, his body leaped violently, soaring into the air. He trod on the void, his sharp gaze sweeping all directions: "The strength of these strange beasts is very weak, yet they can use true essence and primal energy, and their bodies are incredibly resilient. Were these mutated creatures all refined from the corpses of strange beasts?"
"Crackling—crackling—"
Suddenly, a strange sound echoed. Zhou Yan looked in the direction of the sound and saw that a few hundred meters away, a black rock the size of a millstone slowly cracked open. Then, a vague outline gradually appeared, and finally, it took on a complete form.
It was a statue, but the main body of the statue was piled from a pile of white bones. In the statue's chest cavity, a rhombus-shaped crystal was embedded. This rhombus-shaped crystal was now emitting a soft green light, like a firefly.
"What... what is this?" Zhou Yan's face changed slightly.
This crystal emitted a faint green fluorescence, and he could vaguely sense that there seemed to be a faint energy fluctuation around the crystal. This energy fluctuation seemed completely different from the true essence and primal energy on his body.
"Could it be that the combat power of these mutated creatures all originates from this crystal?"
Zhou Yan muttered to himself, then his figure flickered and he rushed directly to the skeleton, punching towards the skeleton's forehead.
However, as soon as Zhou Yan approached the skeleton, he stopped, a look of apprehension appearing on his face.
A bloody hole had appeared on the forehead of this skeleton, and blood was gushing out, yet this skeleton remained in its original posture, standing there quietly.
"Is this skeleton alive?" Zhou Yan's eyes widened.
He clearly remembered punching through the forehead of the Ironback Lizard earlier. How could this skeleton be unharmed? Was the defense of this Ironback Lizard too weak? Or had this skeleton died many years ago?
The more Zhou Yan thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. He hesitated and decided to temporarily give up, planning to wait for the skeleton to decay before probing further.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."
Just then, Zhou Yan's ears twitched slightly, and his expression suddenly froze, a sharp glint bursting in his eyes.
"Roar!"
A world-shattering roar suddenly resounded throughout the entire jungle.
The next moment, Zhou Yan saw that at the top of a towering ancient tree not far away, a python tens of meters long had appeared.
This python was entirely blue, its surface covered in a cold frost, and its eyes were extremely sinister. Behind it, it dragged a long tail of seven or eight meters.
Above the python's head, a basketball-sized crimson flame floated. Its body exuded scorching heat, causing the surrounding plants to wither. Even the air was filled with a strong smell of sulfur.
"This is..." A look of shock flashed in Zhou Yan's eyes: "Yan Yang Fire?"
Zhou Yan's gaze became slightly serious. If an ordinary person saw this, they wouldn't know what it was, but Zhou Yan's eyesight was extremely sharp. He immediately recognized the origin of this thing.