Ye Feng was well aware that these animals' mutations, which led to their increased body size, represented just one direction of evolution.
It was like when he added points, there were three choices to choose from.
And at the moment of breakthrough, roots alone offered four directions of enhancement.
It was likely the same for these animals.
But the vast majority of animals lack intelligence, and they would simply follow their instincts, choosing to become stronger.
In the animal kingdom, a larger size often implies greater strength.
The Mutated Big Yellow Dog before him might have a different idea.
Its direction of "strengthening" might not be gigantism, but rather a tendency towards speed.
Thinking this, Ye Feng immediately pulled out the second and third roots and entwined them towards the Big Yellow Dog, wanting to find out where its limits were.
At first, the Big Yellow Dog could indeed dodge effortlessly, but with each additional root, the difficulty of its evasion increased exponentially.
When Ye Feng extracted the fifth root, the dog finally became frantic, or rather, it stopped dodging passively and began to fight back.
After once again dodging the root's strike, it pounced forward in a smooth motion, its jaws opening wide and its sharp fangs tearing towards the root.
Ye Feng had reached the Second Stage and had already strengthened the root's toughness twice; now, the hardness of his roots could even compare favorably with that of an ordinary iron rod.
In theory, a First Order mutated animal should not be able to harm him.
But as the Big Yellow Dog bit down, its sharp fangs instantly pierced the root.
And as it continued to tear at it, the root made a creaking noise until it was actually bitten through.
As for the small section of root that broke off, Ye Feng didn't care at all; rather, he was more amazed by the Big Yellow Dog's bite force.
"To be able to break through the defenses of the Second Stage while at the First Order, impressive," Ye Feng couldn't help but praise.
"I wonder how its defensive power is?" As Ye Feng spoke, five roots had already completely ensnared the Big Yellow Dog.
Of course, he didn't use his full strength right away, letting one root tighten first, then the second...
As two roots exerted force at the same time, reaching a strength of 400 catties, he suddenly heard a faint crack.
It was the sound of bones being snapped, accompanied by the pitiful whimper of the Big Yellow Dog.
"Compared with mutated animals of the same size, its defensive power is a bit weaker. But with such speed and attack power, it's already quite good and worth focusing on for cultivation," Ye Feng mused.
After the test, Ye Feng nodded in satisfaction and channeled Spiritual Energy to heal the Big Yellow Dog's injuries.
Next, he began allocating points to himself.
He silently waited as time passed by.
When the clock struck 9 pm, the King Cobra began its breakthrough to the Middle of the Second Order.
Ye Feng silently calculated that for the King Cobra to break through a Minor Boundary in the Second Stage, it required a full 200 points of Spiritual Energy.
"The consumption is indeed much greater than at the First Order, but fortunately, I can afford it," he said to himself.
Ye Feng watched as the King Cobra grew from 10 meters to 12 meters and became thicker overall, feeling that the investment was well worth it.
Time continued to flow, quickly reaching midnight.
At this time, the Big Yellow Dog also had another breakthrough, reaching the Late Stage First Order.
Its speed increased once more, now exceeding that of birds flying in the sky.
But what puzzled him was that the Mutated Buffalo, on which he had pinned high hopes, remained quiet.
"That's not right, it should have started its breakthrough by now," Ye Feng frowned and continued to wait.
And with that wait, another hour passed.
"What's going on? Is there not enough Spiritual Energy inside?" Ye Feng immediately extended a tree root and twisted it toward the other.
But when he injected Spiritual Energy into the Mutated Buffalo, he found that after inserting 1.5 points of Spiritual Energy, it reached its limit.
"This… is it stuck at the bottleneck???" At this moment, Ye Feng was truly filled with question marks.
By now, he understood that his previous guess was wrong.
He glanced at the sparrow, the mouse, the bat, the black crow.
Talking to himself, he said, "So, them getting stuck at the bottleneck during the breakthrough isn't due to their small size, but rather a normal occurrence?"
Then his gaze turned toward the King Cobra coiled at the base of the tree, "Then, creatures like the King Cobra that can break through directly are considered to have exceptional talents?"
Thought after thought circled in his mind until, in the end, he shook his head and stopped thinking about it.
It was already 1 AM, and he could wait no longer. It was time to act promptly.
Soon, Ye Feng gave the order to move out.
The previously quiet forest was suddenly filled with thunderous noise, primarily due to the Mutated Buffalo running.
Although it hadn't broken through to the Second Stage, its size had now grown larger than an average adult elephant's.
Add to that the King Cobra was not suited for long-distance travel and had coiled itself on the back of the Mutated Buffalo. The combined weight of these two gigantic creatures made their running send tremors through the ground as if it were quaking, which was quite unsettling for the other animals.
As for the other Mutated Animals, there was little commotion; the Big Yellow Dog ran swiftly and nimbly, carrying the Mutated Mouse on its back.
The remaining animals could fly and did not make any sound at all.
At this time, Ye Feng had possessed a sparrow and was directing from afar.
While managing the other creatures was one thing, the Mutated Buffalo was too large. Even at night, he dared not let it run on the roads freely. Instead, it had to traverse through the dense forests as much as possible to avoid being detected by satellites overhead.
Nevertheless, even in such circumstances, the Mutated Animals traveled extremely fast, covering a distance of over 20 kilometers in just half an hour.
As they neared the suburbs of Yang City, they split up instantly under Ye Feng's command.
The Mutated Buffalo stayed outside, waiting for support.
The King Cobra, the mouse, and one of the sparrows formed one group. They found a sewer pipe and crawled inside, making their way from underground.
Meanwhile, another sparrow, along with the bat and the crow, formed an aerial squadron, mainly taking charge of visual surveillance and guiding the direction from the sky.
He could sense the relative distances between these animals, guiding the trio in the pipes to move forward.
Otherwise, once the King Cobra entered the sewer pipe, it would have been all in darkness without guidance.
Besides, there was a Big Yellow Dog on the ground, following the aerial squadron, responsible for making coordinated moves.
At this time of night, neither the three little birds flying in the sky nor the Big Yellow Dog running on the ground would attract any attention from people.
Conversely, it was the team moving through the sewer that experienced a bustling atmosphere.
In there, every segment they advanced brought them face to face with swarms of Mutated Mice.
Not just mice, but also Mutated Flies and Mutated Mosquitoes were numerous.