Chapter 96 – Express Delivery

But he soon stopped again.

Lu Yuan looked at the narrow, dirty alley in front of him, then glanced at his freshly changed clean clothes.

He finally decided.

To take a different route.

“If someone sees me, I’ll just say I’m practicing urban parkour.”

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

Then he took a small running start, leaped forward, and stepped onto the right side of the alley wall.

Using the momentum, he pushed off toward the left wall, then used that to propel himself again.

After a few back-and-forth leaps, he vaulted and landed steadily on the high ledge of the left wall inside the alley.

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

“Is this what they describe in novels as ‘walking on walls’?”

Lu Yuan turned to look back at the path he had taken, a great sense of accomplishment welling up in his heart.

The alley walls were over five meters high.

The distance from the alley entrance was significant, with heaps of garbage and debris blocking the way. Without this method, there was no way he could come out clean.

“Martial arts change lives.”

Lu Yuan chuckled softly, then began walking into the alley.

The right side of the wall was filled with garbage and debris from an abandoned alley, while the left side was a community area, seemingly another spot for dumping waste.

Lu Yuan walked boldly on the wall, unseen by anyone.

The clues provided by his crow assistant were further inside.

According to the crow assistant’s “description”—there was a huge beast resembling a “rat” hidden inside, fiercely aggressive, and it had even hunted a human!

This matched the characteristics of a Cavern Monster Ratman.

Lu Yuan’s body was relaxed, his steps as light as a cat’s, but his mind was tense, staying alert to any movements below and around him.

Walking on a ledge five to six meters high and only a palm’s width wide was no easy task.

At first, Lu Yuan was cautious, but he gradually relaxed, walking more and more as if on solid ground.

In fact, Lu Yuan thought,

“If my agility points were higher, I could probably run swiftly along the ledge without any problem!”

After investing attribute points for such a long time, he had come to understand the characteristics represented by the Four Attributes.

Constitution points were the foundation; strength points represented explosive power.

Intelligence points were more complex, relating to thinking, perception, spirit, willpower, and so on.

And agility points.

Besides enhancing speed and neural reactions,

Lu Yuan felt there was another crucial aspect—

Coordination.

It assisted in the synergy between various attribute abilities, harmonizing conflicts and contradictions, making the overall state more stable.

The higher the agility points, the more balanced and perfect one’s state became.

Fewer flaws, more invincibility!

Lu Yuan walked a short distance along the alley wall. The piles of garbage and debris in the alley increased, and the stench grew stronger.

“Caw caw—”

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

Lu Yuan activated the [Crow Language] skill and exchanged some simple information with it. Then he took a raw egg from his backpack and fed it to the crow assistant.

“Is it in there?”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered slightly. He took a deep breath, prepared for a fight at any moment, and then stepped over the crow assistant and continued inward.

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

The sound came from the position the crow assistant had just indicated.

Lu Yuan’s eyes narrowed as he quietly crouched down.

He reached out and grabbed a chunk of cement from the ledge, holding it in his hand.

His strength was naturally great, and after his constitution points reached 15, the hardness of his skin, muscles, and bones significantly increased.

Saying he could crush cement like tofu would be an exaggeration, but it was indeed quite easy for him.

With a flick of his wrist, the cement chunk in his palm shot out like a bullet, producing a sharp whistling sound.

It struck a rusty cookie tin, piercing through it and creating a loud “bang.”

The rustling sound in the pile of junk immediately ceased.

After a moment, a sound emerged from within—somewhat like a cat’s meow but rougher and more guttural.

Lu Yuan was just about to use his Mental Power to probe further when he saw a furry head slowly emerge from the pile of junk in the distance.

The next second, a massive feline creature leaped out.

This animal was larger than a fully grown Golden Retriever, resembling both a cat and a leopard.

Its fur was a mix of gray and brown stripes, with exceptionally long ears.

A pair of blue, ghostly eyes stared menacingly at Lu Yuan.

Having only covered basic biology in high school, Lu Yuan wasn’t familiar with the animal in front of him, though he felt he had seen something similar on an episode of “Animal World.”

He had no idea where it had come from.

“Can’t even distinguish between a cat and a Rat?” he thought, a bit exasperated by his crow assistant’s intelligence.

“What about hunting humans?”

Lu Yuan scanned his surroundings and suddenly noticed a pair of human feet sticking out from where the feline had emerged.

His heart skipped a beat, thinking it was a corpse.

But upon closer inspection,

he realized it was just an abandoned mannequin.

“Yes, it’s in the Alley on the left side of Xinqiao Street, Ziming Community. You should come quickly.”

Five minutes later, Lu Yuan reappeared at the alley entrance and hung up the phone, feeling a bit relieved.

He had just called the fire brigade and the city’s Animal Protection Association.

The feline in the alley would be appropriately dealt with.

The first investigation turned out to be a false alarm.

Lu Yuan wasn’t too disappointed; finding a Needle in a haystack wasn’t easy.

Finding it on the first try would have been truly surprising.

“On to the next one.”

Lu Yuan took out a piece of paper from his pocket, which listed the inspection addresses, and crossed out one of them with a pen.

He then prepared to head to the next location.

He hadn’t walked far when his mobile phone suddenly rang.

Lu Yuan checked and saw it was a local number he didn’t recognize.

After a moment’s thought, he answered.

“Hello.”

“Is this Mr. Lu Yuan?”

“Speaking. Who is this?”

“Sucheng Express Delivery. We have a package that requires your signature.”

A package?

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

“Can you tell me who the sender is?”

“Sure. The sender’s name is Zhou Ling.”

Uh.

Hearing those two words over the phone,

Lu Yuan was stunned and didn’t react for several seconds.

Half an hour later, near the park by his house.

Lu Yuan sat on a long stone bench under a camphor tree, quietly staring at the express delivery box on his lap.

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

Lu Yuan only knew one Zhou Ling.

“The package was sent three days ago, which was the day after the Crow Deity incident. It looks like Zhou Ling really didn’t die.”

Lu Yuan’s emotions were a bit mixed at the moment.

On one hand, he felt happy and relieved about Zhou Ling’s “resurrection.”

On the other hand, he was shocked by the Yellow Bear organization’s technological capabilities—being able to save someone who seemed beyond saving.

And then there was the curiosity and confusion.

What could Zhou Ling possibly send to him?

What would Zhou Ling want to send to him?