CHAPTER 96: CHAPTER 96 EXPRESS DELIVERY_1

But he quickly stopped.

Lu Yuan looked at the narrow, dirty alleyway before him, then at the clean clothes he had just changed into that morning.

Ultimately, he decided to find another way.

If I get seen by accident, I’ll just say I’m practicing urban parkour...

Lu Yuan glanced at the security camera at the entrance of the alley, silently thinking to himself.

Then, with a short run-up, he leaped, his body rising as he stepped onto the right wall of the alley.

Using the momentum, he pounced towards the left wall.

Then he used that force to change direction...

After repeating this maneuver a few times, he vaulted and landed steadily on the high ledge of the left wall, deep inside the alley.

The ledge was only a palm’s width. Lu Yuan spread his arms slightly for balance and quickly stabilized himself.

Is this what novels describe as scaling walls and leaping roofs?

Lu Yuan turned to look back at the path he had taken, an immense sense of achievement welling up in his heart.

This alley wall was over five meters high.

It was quite far from the entrance, and piles of rubbish blocked the way. If he hadn’t used this method, it would have been impossible for him to get up here so cleanly.

"Martial Arts changes life."

Lu Yuan smiled faintly and then walked step by step along the ledge into the alley.

To the right of the wall was a deserted alley piled high with garbage and debris. To the left was a residential area, which also seemed to be a dumping ground for waste and garbage.

Lu Yuan strode confidently along the wall, unseen by anyone.

The clue from Crow indicated it was deeper inside.

According to Crow’s "description"—a massive beast resembling a "rat" was hiding deeper inside. It was vicious and had even hunted a human!

This somewhat matched the characteristics of an Underground Monster Ratman.

Lu Yuan relaxed his body, his footsteps as light as a cat’s, but his mind remained taut, ever vigilant of his surroundings and the area below.

Walking on a ledge five or six meters high and only a palm’s width was not an easy task.

Lu Yuan was cautious at first, but he gradually relaxed as he moved forward, eventually feeling as if he were walking on flat ground.

Lu Yuan even felt...

If my Agility were a bit higher, I reckon I could run swiftly up here without any issues!

After allocating points for so long, he had a decent understanding of what each of the four-dimensional attributes represented.

Constitution was the foundation, while Strength represented explosive force.

Intelligence was more complex, related to thought processes, perception, spirit, willpower, and so on.

As for Agility.

Beyond enhancing speed and neural responses, Lu Yuan felt there was another critical aspect—Coordination.

Agility assisted in coordinating the abilities of various attributes, reconciling conflicts and contradictions between them, and making the overall system more stable.

The higher the Agility, the more balanced and perfect a person’s state became.

The fewer the flaws, the more unassailable one became!

Lu Yuan continued along the wall deeper into the alley. The amount of garbage and waste piled up increased, and the stench intensified.

"CAW! CAW—"

At that moment, a crow flapped its wings and flew over, landing lightly in front of Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan activated his [Crow Language] skill to briefly exchange information with it, then took a raw egg from his backpack and fed it to the crow.

Is it in there?

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered. He took a deep breath, preparing for battle at any moment, then stepped past the crow and continued deeper inside.

After a few steps, Lu Yuan suddenly heard a RUSTLING sound.

The sound came from roughly the location Crow had just indicated.

Lu Yuan’s eyes narrowed, and he quietly bent down.

He reached out, applied force, and broke off a piece of concrete from the ledge, holding it in his palm.

His Strength was already impressive, and after his Constitution reached 15 points, the toughness of his skin, muscles, and bones had significantly increased.

To say he could crush concrete and stone as if they were tofu would be an exaggeration, but it was genuinely effortless for him.

Lu Yuan flicked his wrist. The piece of concrete in his palm shot out like a bullet, tearing through the air with a sharp WHOOSH.

It fiercely struck a rusty biscuit tin, punching right through it with a loud BANG!

The RUSTLING sound from the pile of waste immediately stopped.

After a moment, a sound somewhat like a cat’s meow, but much coarser, emanated from the pile.

Just as Lu Yuan was about to channel his Spiritual Power to investigate, a furry head slowly emerged from a distant pile of waste in the very next second.

Then, a giant feline creature suddenly leaped out.

The animal was a full size larger than an adult golden retriever and looked like a cross between a cat and a leopard.

Its fur was grayish-brown with stripes, and it had extremely long ears.

A pair of gleaming blue eyes stared ferociously at Lu Yuan.

His high school biology hadn’t covered many wildlife species, so Lu Yuan wasn’t familiar with the creature before him. He only had a vague feeling he’d seen it in an episode of ’Animal World’ once.

He had no idea where it had come from.

Can’t these Crows even tell the difference between a cat and a mouse?

He felt a bit helpless regarding the intelligence of his Crows.

Then what was that about hunting a human?

Lu Yuan scanned the area and suddenly noticed a pair of human feet peeking out from where the feline creature had emerged.

His heart skipped a beat; he subconsciously assumed it was a corpse.

But after careful scrutiny, he realized it was just a discarded mannequin.

「Five minutes later」

Lu Yuan, now back at the alley entrance, hung up the phone and sighed in relief.

He had just called the fire department and the city’s animal welfare association.

The feline creature in the alley should be properly taken care of now.

The first investigation had been a false alarm.

Lu Yuan wasn’t too disappointed; it was like searching for a needle in a haystack anyway.

It would have been truly strange to find it on the first attempt.

Let’s move on to the next one.

Lu Yuan took the piece of paper listing the search addresses from his pocket and crossed one off with a pen.

Then he prepared to head to the next location.

He hadn’t gone far when his phone suddenly rang.

Lu Yuan checked the call; it was an unfamiliar local number.

After a moment’s thought, he answered.

"Hello."

"May I speak to Mr. Lu Yuan?"

"This is he. Who’s calling?"

"This is Sucheng Express. We have a delivery for you that requires your signature in person."

A delivery?

Lu Yuan frowned slightly. He hadn’t bought anything online recently. Who could be sending him a package?

"Could you check who the sender is?"

"Oh, alright. The sender’s name is... Zhou Ling."

Uh...

Hearing those two words from the phone, Lu Yuan was stunned and didn’t respond for several seconds.

「Half an hour later, at a park near his home.」

Lu Yuan sat on a long stone bench beneath a camphor tree, quietly looking at the express box on his lap.

The sender’s name written on the box was indeed Zhou Ling.

Lu Yuan only knew one Zhou Ling.

The package was sent three days ago, the day after the Crow God’s Divine Servant incident. It looks like Zhou Ling really didn’t die...

Lu Yuan’s emotions at this moment were somewhat complex.

On the one hand, he was happy and relieved by Zhou Ling’s "resurrection."

On the other hand, he was shocked by the Yellow Bear Organization’s capabilities, that they could save someone who had seemed so thoroughly dead.

And the other part... was curiosity and confusion—

What would Zhou Ling send him?

What could Zhou Ling possibly send him?