My neighborhood has time-traveled.

Within Dawn City, a scene of utter devastation had descended.

At the breach in the west gate, Behemoth's headless corpse was mixed with some other remains, and red blood soaked the soil.

Amidst the ruins, broken limbs, internal organs, and congealed blood were scattered everywhere. The pungent stench of blood mixed with the smell of gunpowder was nauseating.

The battle is basically over.

The remaining indigenous warriors were finally defeated after the Black Behemoth was killed, the Silver Behemoth failed to return for a long time, and the residents of the community regained their courage due to Zhang Xiaonan's outburst and Li Hao's restraint.

Most were surrounded and killed by angry residents and evolved beings, while a few escaped into the mountains.

But the price of victory was so high it was suffocating.

In the square, the survivors gathered together, and the sounds of weeping, groaning, and calling out the names of their loved ones rose and fell.

Dozens of bodies lay on the ground covered with white sheets or other debris, and many more wounded people were groaning in pain.

Medicines were extremely scarce, allowing only for basic bandaging. Doctors and nurses were working tirelessly, their faces showing exhaustion and grief.

Su Tiantian and Chen Sihan silently wept as they watched over Zhang Xiaonan, who remained unconscious and whose seven orifices were still wet with blood.

The team members were bandaging a deep wound on Li Wen's arm that exposed bone. Li Wen was pale, but he gritted his teeth and endured the pain.

With blood-soaked bandages wrapped around his head, Wang Hao, supported by several squad leaders, hoarsely directed the aftermath: "Take a headcount! Rescue the wounded! Reinforce the breach! Quickly!"

Everyone's face was etched with the terror of surviving a disaster, the grief of losing loved ones, and a deep sense of uncertainty about the future.

Their homes were destroyed, their companions were killed, and although the powerful enemy has temporarily retreated, who knows if they will come back again?

Just then, someone shouted, "Look! It's Captain Li Hao! He's back!"

Everyone looked up at once.

Li Hao, his clothes tattered, covered in blood, his right arm twisted, and even his flight somewhat unsteady, slowly landed in the center of the square.

The moment he landed, his body swayed, and he almost lost his balance.

"Brother!" Li Wen exclaimed.

"Brother Li Hao!" Chen Sihan and the others also hurriedly looked over.

Li Hao waved his hand, indicating that he was fine.

His gaze swept over the ravaged neighborhood, over the corpses, over the faces filled with grief and fear, and finally settled on Zhang Xiaonan.

"How is she?"

"She's been unconscious and her breathing is very weak..." Su Tiantian replied, her voice trembling with tears.

Li Hao nodded and said nothing more.

Now is not the time to ask in detail.

He turned to Wang Hao and the others, his voice hoarse yet carrying a strange, reassuring, and steady strength: "I've killed all the monsters outside."

These few simple words, however, struck like a thunderbolt through the desperate crowd.

After a brief silence came a huge uproar and incredulous gasps.

"Kill them all?"

"Captain Li Hao... alone?"

"Great! Great! The biggest threat is gone!"

The light of hope has been rekindled in the eyes of many.

Li Hao's victory was like a lamp lit in endless darkness; even if its light was faint, it was enough to dispel some of the chill.

"However," Li Hao changed the subject, his voice turning cold, "the crisis is not completely over. We don't know whether there are more of these monsters among the escaped natives or in the mountains."

His gaze sharpened like a knife as he looked at the remaining bodies of the indigenous warriors being cleared away outside the residential area, and... a few female indigenous people huddled in a corner, bound up.

Those were survivors who were intentionally or unintentionally spared during the previous battle.

"Clean up the battlefield. Finish off all the male indigenous corpses, then burn them all." Li Hao's orders were ruthless. "Lock up the women first, keep a close watch on them; they might be useful."

No one objected.

The bloody battles have eroded most people's unrealistic compassion; survival is the top priority.

"Also," Li Hao looked at the enormous Behemoth corpse inside the residential area, then at the area outside, "organize people to move the monster corpses in, examine them, and focus on their heads."

He paused for a moment, then said, "These monsters are native to this world, and they may have evolution stones in their heads."

He recalled the Silver Behemoth's astonishing defense.

If the other person has an evolution stone in their head, I wonder how big it would be.

It should be at least light blue.

Wang Hao immediately made arrangements.

Although Zhao Meng, Niu Dazhuang, Zhang Jinfeng, and others were injured, they still carried tools and some of the better-performing evolved beings into the residential area.

Four black Behemoths, each over five meters tall, and a three-meter-tall silver-white behemoth—even in death, they still exuded a chilling aura of power.

People saw that the four dead monsters looked miserable.

It seems they were all beaten to death.

He couldn't help but look at Li Hao.

"Captain Li Hao is amazing! He killed four monsters all by himself."

"Luckily, Captain Li Hao is here."

They couldn't believe that a single black monster had almost wiped out their entire neighborhood. If these four monsters were to break in, who knew what would happen?

Zhao Meng tried to chop at the head of the silver behemoth with his dulled axe. "Clang!" Sparks flew, leaving only shallow marks on the silvery-white fur.

"It's too hard!" Zhao Meng exclaimed in surprise.

Although the silver monster was smaller, it was clearly more powerful than the black monster.

He glanced at Li Hao, wondering how the other party had killed him.

Niu Dazhuang's cleaver had little effect when it struck.

Others tried with axes and hammers, but all failed to break his skull.

"It seems the captain will have to come in person." Wang Hao looked at Li Hao.

Li Hao's right arm had recovered somewhat by this time. Although it was still not very flexible, he could still exert some force.

He walked up to the massive head of the Silver Behemoth and gestured for everyone to step back.

He first used his intact left hand to try to pry open Behemoth's mouth and examine the oral cavity. Apart from sharp teeth and traces of silver blood, there was nothing unusual.

Then, he placed his palm on Behemoth's hard, cold forehead and closed his eyes.

His super vision couldn't penetrate such a thick and hard skull, but he could vaguely sense that inside the skull, something seemed to be emitting a strange energy fluctuation similar to but different from that of an evolution stone, more condensed, more... violent.

"There really is something there."

Li Hao opened his eyes and took two steps back.

He took a deep breath; although the solar energy in his body had been greatly depleted, it was still slowly recovering.

He concentrated most of his remaining strength into his right leg.

Then, under everyone's gaze, he suddenly leaped up, his right leg like a battle axe, leaving a pale golden afterimage, and kicked hard on the side of the Silver Behemoth's head!

"Thump—!!!"

The muffled sound was like thunder.

The Silver Behemoth's head was kicked to one side, and its skull cracked open with a tooth-grinding "crack" sound!

This made Zhao's pupils shrink.

So that's how they killed him!

That's incredible!!

Li Hao landed, his feet were numb, but he didn't stop. He kicked the area around the crack several more times!

"Thump! Thump! Crack—Splash!"

Finally, with a loud bang, a large hole was kicked open in the side of the Silver Behemoth's incredibly hard skull, and silvery bone fragments mixed with silvery substances flowed out, emitting a pungent stench.

Li Hao suppressed his nausea and reached into the shattered skull.

After groping around for a moment, his fingers touched a hard, warm, irregular crystal about the size of an egg.

Hold it, then pull it out.

When the thing detached from Behemoth's head and was exposed to the sunlight, everyone gasped.

It was a silvery-white crystal, with what appeared to be liquid silver light slowly flowing inside, sometimes condensing, sometimes spreading.

The surface of the crystal is not smooth, but is covered with natural ridges, yet it refracts a beautiful and cold luster under the sunlight.

What's even more peculiar is that the air around it is visibly slightly distorted, like the heat wave above a high-temperature object, but the distortion also carries a unique rhythm of energy.

A powerful, pure energy fluctuation, yet carrying a distinctly bestial and violent aura, emanated from the silver crystal.

"What...is this?" Wang Hao murmured.

Li Hao held the "silver-white rhomboid crystal" in his palm and carefully sensed it.

The total amount of energy contained within it far exceeds any evolution stone obtained before, whether it is the milky white first-level evolution stone, the light blue Mantis King evolution stone, or even the evolution stone of the mutated giant snake.

The quality of the energy is also different; it is more concentrated and more aggressive.

"It's not an evolution stone," Li Hao said definitively. "Evolution stones have relatively mild energy, making them easier for the human body to absorb and convert. But this... has very violent energy, and its nature is different."

He examined it closely, and a name suddenly popped into his mind: "This should be the core of this creature's power... similar to the 'magic core' in novels."

"A magic core?" The group looked at each other, feeling both curious and burdened.

This means that these monsters all possess a powerful source of power and can evolve.

"These monsters are called Behemoths," Li Hao explained.

Behemoth?

Everyone looked at each other.

I think I've heard of that name before.

"Li Hao, Li Hao, are these monsters called Behemoths?" Wang Hao asked.

"Yes, and the native humans of this world are slaves to these Behemoth monsters. These Behemoths even want to enslave our entire neighborhood..." Li Hao told Wang Hao what had happened.

This left Wang Hao and the others completely shocked.

Niu Dazhuang sighed, "I never imagined that the human beings in this world were in such a bad situation."

Zhang Jingfeng glanced at the indigenous women who were tied up and thrown on the ground. "They're willing to be slaves to these Behemoths, but we're not."

Soon, Li Hao continued to violently break open, extracting four more crystals from the heads of the other four black Behemoths.

These four are smaller, about the size of a pigeon egg, and are a deep, jet-black color. They also contain powerful, violent energy, but their strength is far less than that of the silver magic core.

"As expected, they all exist." Li Hao placed the five magic cores together.

The silver one had the strongest energy fluctuations, while the four black ones were slightly weaker, but they were all still formidable.

He looked at the magic cores, then at the battered neighborhood and the grieving crowd, his mind racing.

The threat of Behemoth has been temporarily averted, but it has left behind a powerful "magic core".

Zhang Xiaonan unexpectedly awakened powerful telekinesis.

He also discovered the secrets of solar energy absorption and physical potential during the life-or-death battle.

They suffered heavy losses, but also gained new powers and unknown items.

Amidst the bloodshed and ruins, the future of Dawn City seems to glimmer with a unique light, full of challenges and opportunities.

Thinking of opportunities, something suddenly came to mind.

"Where did you lock up the woman who was wearing armor at the beginning?" Li Hao turned to Niu Dazhuang and asked.

That woman possesses the mysterious power of sword energy, and he intends to learn it.

He possesses close-combat abilities but lacks ranged combat skills.

If I can learn sword energy, my strength will improve even further!

"She's very strong, too dangerous. We tied her to a large cement pillar in the mud-brick house. I'll take you there," Niu Dazhuang said, walking ahead.