Super Zoo

"Dogs are all the same, yet the difference is too big."

Suming scornfully glanced at the two Huskies. If Wang Cai's luck were here, he might actually have been able to help, even a Chihuahua could be considered 'ferocious' compared to these two Huskies.

The people on the shore felt like time was passing slowly, but in reality, the fight in the water had ended in less than half a minute. Su Meng walked back ashore, dragging the crocodile by its tail, as if he was dragging a dead dog.

As soon as the crocodile left the water, it tried to bite back at Su Meng. Su Meng let out a thunderous roar, as if he had struck a muffled thunder in a cave, then swung with one hand and spun the crocodile in the air, before slamming it hard on the ground.

There was a dull thud, and a crocodile-shaped pit appeared in the muddy ground. The crocodile now lay there, unable to resist any longer, its limbs splayed out, twitching its claws as if it had epilepsy.

"It didn't get smashed into an idiot, did it?" Suming couldn't help but swallow his saliva.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Zhao Yun had his eyes opened today; hearing those stories about Li Yuanba having the strength of a thousand jun, he thought they were just brags, but the man before him was a true living Overlord. If he had been in ancient times, he would have been a fierce general capable of taking on ten thousand enemies.

But he had to maintain his composure after all, and after a brief moment of shock, he quickly took out a roll of black duct tape from his backpack and had Su Meng press down on the crocodile's mouth while he wrapped the tape around it, layer by layer.

The crocodile's biting strength was formidable, but it didn't have much strength to open its mouth, so even a giant crocodile seven to eight meters long couldn't bite if an adult held its snout shut. Thus, after capturing a crocodile, the first thing to do was to tie its mouth, not the limbs, like when capturing a person.

Of course, just to be safe, Suming still secured the crocodile firmly with a piece of high-strength climbing rope.

Three dogs and a wolf curiously gathered around the crocodile, occasionally clawing at its tough back scales. The Huskies probably also realized there was no danger and simply climbed onto the crocodile's back and sat down, howling upwards at the sky with a not-so-authentic wolf howl, their eyes exuding the smug expression of a conqueror.

"You few, get down. Don't kill it. This guy is a national treasure!"

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After observing for a while, Suming and Zhao Yun recognized that this slightly over two-meter crocodile was the nationally protected Yangtze Alligator, known as a living fossil from the same era as the dinosaurs.

In terms of numbers, the Yangtze Alligators might even be rarer than the Yangtze River dolphins, with possibly only dozens left in the wild, their status in Huaxia's animal kingdom nearly on par with that of the giant panda. But as always, in this age where appearances are everything, the adorable giant panda certainly enjoys more popularity and attention than the fierce-looking crocodile.

The Qinling Mountains and the Yangtze River Basin have been the habitats of the Yangtze Alligator since ancient times. When Suming last went to rescue the dolphins and arrived at the abandoned lake's reed marshes, he was even worried whether there might be Yangtze Alligators there.

Yangtze Alligators are actually quite docile by nature and typically don't attack humans. Even if they do, it's rare for them to kill their prey.

Su Meng was lucky; he encountered a Yangtze Alligator, so he didn't suffer severe injuries. When crocodiles hunt, they bite their prey and fiercely roll their bodies to shred it, but the Yangtze Alligator isn't that violent. Its hunting method is somewhat humorous: after biting its prey, if it's a land animal, it drags it into the water to drown it; if it's an aquatic animal, it throws it onto shore to wait for it to die of asphyxiation.

That's why the Yangtze Alligator was trying to drag Su Meng into the water.

And although the Yangtze Alligator has seemingly sharp teeth, they are actually socketed teeth, incapable of cutting or chewing, only able to clamp onto prey like large pincers. Sometimes, if the prey is too large and the alligator can't swallow it, it has to wait helplessly beside the prey for it to decompose... All in all, if there were a ranking for the most dim-witted among crocodiles, the Yangtze Alligator would definitely be a contender.

Suming measured it with a tape measure; this Yangtze Alligator was about two meters three in length, making it quite massive compared to the generally smaller Yangtze Alligators. It also seemed to be quite an old fellow.

Being a Cretaceous species with nearly ten thousand years of history, the Yangtze Alligator could be considered a 'pseudo-mythical beast', having almost reached a perfect form in millions of years of evolution, hence its strong spiritual power resistance. The bloodline of the big baby fish from before was even more ancient than that of the Yangtze Alligator, but it was more opportunistic.

The stronger the individual's abilities, the fiercer their temper, and the same goes for animals. The big baby fish had submitted to Suming not only because it wasn't as fierce as the Yangtze Alligator, but also because it had misjudged the situation.

"It must have fallen from that hole up there." Zhao Yun pointed to a hole above the water surface not far away, as when they had walked out of the water, they hadn't found any other fish in the pond. This pool was just a puddle with no food to satisfy a Yangtze Alligator, so it couldn't have been living in the cave all along.

An unfortunate crocodile.

"Not necessarily." Suming turned his head to look back into the depths of the dark cave.

After getting ashore, they discovered that the space behind the cave was very large, much more spacious than the karst cave Su Meng had lived in. The Wolf Fang Flashlight couldn't reach the end at all. It was possible that some animals might be lurking in there, possibly even becoming prey for the Yangtze crocodile.

They just didn't know what kind of strange and unusual creatures might appear in this dark cave.

"Let's first dress Su Meng's wounds," Zhao Yun said. He seemed to know a bit of everything. His skill in applying medicine and bandaging surpassed that of the junior nurses at the zoo's medical station by far. He applied medicine to Su Meng's injured lower leg to prevent inflammation and then swiftly bandaged it with gauze.

Meanwhile, Suming took this opportunity to use his flashlight to observe the 'cave' on shore.

He had already seen what appeared to be numerous structures on shore, but it was only from a closer distance that he could see clearly that they were houses.

Houses, many houses!

Near the water's edge, there were rotting pieces of wood of various sizes scattered on the ground, along with some oddly shaped stones. The nearest few houses had completely collapsed, leaving only foundations, while others had one wall or half of them collapsed, as if something had smashed them down from the sky with great force.

Further away, there were three rows of houses, about dozens in total, stretching into the distance. From the exterior, most of the structures seemed intact, and judging from the architectural style, with flying eaves and intricate carvings, arranged in neat parallel rows, they were likely from the Ming and Qing dynasties, in the style of Huizhou architecture.

The three rows of houses were spaced several meters apart, forming two natural underground streets.

After dressing Su Meng's wounds, Zhao Yun also shone his flashlight inside. After getting a clearer idea of the situation, he inhaled sharply.

"Mr. Zhao, don't scare me, please," Suming rolled his eyes. The cave was already eerie, and seeing all the structures like something out of a zombie movie, Suming was actually feeling quite on edge. Zhao Yun's sharp intake of breath was sudden and sharp, like slurping porridge, and hissed 'whoosh' in the cave, startling Suming.

"No, I'm just astonished. I didn't expect to find an ancient architectural complex here!"

"So what?" Suming asked nervously, pointing to the row of Huizhou style houses in front of them, "Do you think, when we walk past, a bunch of zombies might suddenly jump out of the houses on both sides of the street?"

"If this were a movie studio, that might be possible," Zhao Yun replied with a smile, then explained, "You don't study antiques, so you don't understand the value of this complex of buildings. There might not be any particularly valuable artifacts here, but this complex itself is a microcosm of an era, a village—it's a massive cultural treasure!"

"Stop lecturing me, Mr. Zhao. Don't worry, I surely won't demolish these houses to sell them off," Suming said.

Zhao Yun oscillated the flashlight a few more times and, after pondering for a moment, said, "I think I've figured it out. This place isn't any sort of ancient tomb. It must have originally been a village or a small town built on the mid-slopes of a mountain, which got submerged by a mountain flood. It's very likely that part of the town was swept down the mountain years ago, and what we see now is the part that survived the disaster. When we go in, you have to be very careful, try not to touch any of the structures inside the town. Since it's been washed over by a mountain flood and has been underground for so many years, these buildings are quite unstable. A little external force could easily cause them to collapse."

Zhao Yun seemed drawn to this rare underground architectural site, eager to explore deeper.

Su Meng was in slightly better condition, having an injury on the leg but still able to move. Huiya could be of some help, the Labrador was not big but was naturally a hunting dog and could lead the way. As for the two Huskies, forget it, it was better to keep them close by, just to prevent them from causing any trouble.

Suming checked on the old Yangtze crocodile using his spiritual power. The beast was beaten half to death and barely hanging on, unable to resist. It seemed it wouldn't die for the time being, so they bound it up and left it there, planning to figure out how to bring it back to the zoo later. The aquarium was short on animals, so upon returning, they could make it neighbors with finless porpoises and paddlefish.

Thus, the three men, three dogs, and one wolf slowly walked into the architectural complex along the street to the left.

Hearing Zhao Yun say it wasn't an ancient tomb but a mountain village made Suming feel even more in danger! A tomb, at most, might contain one or two people, but if a village was torn down by a mountain flood, how many dead would be inside?

There was even a movie called 'The Old Corpse of the Mountain Village'!

Zhao Yun was speechless and said, "Why can't you young people be a bit more materialistic? Did you waste all those Marxism political science classes? Do you have to find some zombies or monsters before you'll be satisfied?"

"Because monsters are valuable!" Suming gave an explanation that even Zhao Yun found quite reasonable.