Abnormal and Mutation

At the entrance of the zoo, a middle-aged man with somewhat tanned skin was anxiously looking toward the zoo's direction, holding a snake-skin bag in his hand, its contents unknown.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, Chen Kexin finally brought Yang Lin to him. The man immediately grabbed Yang Lin's hands with urgency.

"Director Yang, you're finally here! Please help me check what I've electrocuted—I hope it's not some protected species."

As he spoke, he carefully opened the snake-skin bag.

A water bucket filled with water appeared before Yang Lin.

"This morning, I was fishing in the river near my house with my new energy fishing rod, and I accidentally caught these two creatures."

"Looking at their bizarre appearance, I knew they weren't ordinary."

Hearing the middle-aged man's explanation, Yang Lin gave him a strange look.

No wonder he brought the animals here immediately—turns out this fellow was illegally fishing.

Calling electrofishing such a nice name as "new energy fishing rod."

Despite his internal criticism, he decided to look at what was caught first.

When he looked into the bucket, he was startled and then gave the middle-aged man a questioning look.

"Are you sure you electrocuted these two in the river?"

Hearing Yang Lin's question, the man's face immediately showed signs of panic.

"Director Yang, I'll be honest with you, but please don't report me."

"I caught these two strange creatures in the Yong River through elect... fishing."

"I thought so. But don't worry, this one here with suction cups and teeth on its face is called a seven-gilled lamprey. It probably came from somewhere else. Though rare, it's not a protected species."

As soon as Yang Lin finished speaking, the middle-aged man let out a long sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness it's not protected, thank goodness."

However, his relief was short-lived as he immediately gasped at what came next.

"But this little fellow next to it is something else entirely. It appears to be an albino Chinese giant salamander with a slight deformity—six legs. It's a national second-class protected species."

"This is truly a jailable offense!"

The middle-aged man clearly hadn't expected that just one electric shock in the river would catch a national second-class protected species. More importantly, both creatures now looked like they were about to die.

Thinking about the consequences if this got out, he nearly fainted on the spot.

Just as he was frantically thinking about what might happen next, Yang Lin spoke up.

"How about this—leave them with me, and I'll see if I can save them."

Hearing Yang Lin's words, the middle-aged man's face showed an expression of disbelief.

"Okay!"

As soon as he spoke, he dropped the snake-skin bag and ran away.

Before Yang Lin could react, the man had disappeared.

Seeing this, Yang Lin's face showed an expression of helplessness.

However, looking at the two creatures in the bucket that were about to die, he knew he couldn't waste any more time.

He immediately carried the bucket to the artificial lake.

Due to the previous appearance of a giant bony-tongue fish, there were no fish left in the artificial lake, so his first thought was to house these two creatures there, which would at least add some life to the lake.

Of course, he needed to save them first.

Looking at the little creatures that had started swimming upside down, Yang Lin immediately cast two Insight Eyes.

The next second, two talent information panels appeared before him.

Stream Lamprey

[Intimidation (Green Talent) Requires 1 talent point to activate]

[Metamorphosis (Green Talent) Requires 1 talent point to activate]

[Electric Discharge (Gold Talent) Requires 5 talent points to activate]

Albino Mutant Giant Salamander

[Mutation (Special Talent, Already Activated) Requires 1 talent point for further enhancement]

[Environmental Adaptation (Blue Talent) Requires 2 talent points to activate]

[Devour (Gold Talent) Requires 5 talent points to activate]

Looking at their talent lists, these two creatures clearly weren't highly evolved species.

Especially the lamprey, which was the most worthless animal he had ever seen, with nothing noteworthy except its potential to evolve an electric ability.

However, the baby salamander's talents surprised him quite a bit.

This salamander had somehow awakened a talent on its own, something he had never seen before.

"It seems the six legs must be caused by this mutation, but what caused the mutation? Environmental pollution or genetic selection?"

However, the current state of the two creatures didn't allow Yang Lin much time to think.

Seeing the lamprey starting to blow bubbles, he immediately activated its Metamorphosis talent.

He wanted to see just how metamorphic this Metamorphosis talent really was.

The moment he activated the Metamorphosis talent for the arm-thick lamprey, the creature that had been floating belly-up and blowing bubbles suddenly became lively and active.

More amazingly, after regaining its vitality, its body began to grow at an extremely dramatic rate.

Seeing that it was about to burst the bucket, Yang Lin quickly threw it into the artificial lake.

After entering the lake, the transformation didn't stop.

Its body grew to four or five meters long, and its surface developed bulging protrusions like scales.

Even more dramatic was that its already dense sharp teeth grew larger and sharper, resembling the mouth of a sandworm from science fiction movies.

Its horrifying appearance made one question whether it was even a species from Earth.

"My goodness, so this is what Metamorphosis means—it's truly metamorphic. This appearance is definitely bizarre."

Looking at the lamprey's now terrifying form, Yang Lin couldn't help but marvel.

After letting it dive to the bottom of the artificial lake, Yang Lin quickly turned his attention to the mutant salamander.

Without hesitation, he added a talent point to the salamander's already activated Mutation talent.

As this talent was further enhanced, it too began to expand like the lamprey.

Originally nearly half a meter long, it was now growing toward two meters.

Yang Lin quickly threw it into the lake as well.

After entering the water, the mutant salamander's growth rate didn't slow down at all, and black stripes appeared on its back.

When these black stripes gathered on top of its head, they formed a terrifying face resembling a demon.

When all the changes were complete, it had transformed from a somewhat cute and silly salamander into a monster that seemed to have walked straight out of a movie.

When their new appearances caught Yang Lin's eye, he felt a spark of excitement.