At this moment, 5 hours had passed since the eight animals had escaped.
This also meant that 5 hours had elapsed since Yang Lin left the zoo.
He had intended to check on the zoo's current situation through shared vision, but when he switched to Li Ziming the macaw's perspective, what he saw immediately made him sense something was amiss.
All the animals in the zoo appeared to be in a state of panic, as if they had spotted something terrifyingly dangerous.
Even the usually playful lynx cubs had now hidden themselves in the wooden shelter within the leopard enclosure.
Although everything seemed normal from the visitors' perspective, Yang Lin had an extremely bad feeling in his heart.
After all, animals and humans perceive danger in completely different ways, and sometimes animals can detect dangers that humans cannot.
"Could that African lion have made its way into the zoo?"
Once this thought entered his mind, Yang Lin could no longer remain calm.
If this was true, then all the previous suspicious points would make sense.
West Rainbow Zoo was located in a remote area with few surveillance cameras around, and none inside the park itself.
Combined with the fact that some sections of the wall were in disrepair due to age, if that African male lion had really slipped into the zoo, it wouldn't have been detected.
"But why would it enter my zoo for no reason?"
Suddenly, a flash of insight crossed his mind.
"Could it be going after the old lion inside?"
Realizing this, Yang Lin quickly took out his phone and made a call.
When the call connected, he immediately said:
"Kexin, make an immediate park-wide announcement. Don't let visitors enter the back half of the park."
"Don't ask why, just do as I say."
"Remember, absolutely do not let anyone slip in there, and don't go near it yourself. If anything feels off, evacuate the visitors out of the park immediately."
Hearing Yang Lin's words, Lin Feng, who was sitting nearby, quickly sensed something was wrong.
"Director Yang, has something happened at the zoo?"
"Sigh... I hope I'm just being overly cautious," Yang Lin exhaled deeply, putting his phone back in his pocket while speaking to Lin Feng.
"Captain Lin, please take me back to the zoo. I can't explain everything right now."
Seeing that Yang Lin didn't want to say more, Lin Feng didn't press further and simply nodded, instructing the driver to head toward West Rainbow Zoo.
Ten minutes later, the police car stopped steadily at the entrance of West Rainbow Zoo. Before Lin Feng could react, Yang Lin immediately rushed into the zoo.
By this time, all the visitors in the park had already gathered at the entrance area.
"What's going on? Why are we suddenly all gathered here?"
"Yeah, everything was fine earlier. What happened in the park?"
"I didn't notice anything wrong. Isn't the park safe?"
"Of course it's safe. Besides, the K-9 unit and Sister Hua haven't been returned yet. With their scent around, those escaped animals wouldn't be stupid enough to come in here."
"Indeed, I think this is probably one of the safest places in Ningnan City right now."
"Let's wait for Director Yang to explain. Since we're just waiting around, why don't we go see the dung beetles?"
"I heard Director Yang personally caught the African elephant and white rhinoceros."
"So does that mean only the African lion is left?"
...
Just as visitors were discussing among themselves, Yang Lin's figure came running in from outside the zoo.
As visitors were about to approach him to inquire about the situation, Yang Lin went straight to the electric tricycle parked beside the administration office and zoomed off toward the deeper part of the park.
Seeing such strange behavior, the already curious visitors had their interest further piqued.
Led by several bold visitors, they followed behind Yang Lin.
At this point, Yang Lin clearly couldn't worry about them anymore, keeping the electric tricycle's throttle at maximum the entire way.
What normally would have been a twenty-minute journey was completed in less than five minutes.
When his electric tricycle finally stopped, a vast open area appeared before him.
This open area was one of the sections of West Rainbow Zoo that wasn't currently open to the public, looking like a small savanna from a distance.
It had originally been planned for housing large herbivores like elephants and giraffes.
However, due to lack of funding, the plan had been put on hold.
The only inhabitant was an elderly male lion who had lived in the zoo for ten years.
However, at this moment, Yang Lin couldn't see the old lion anywhere.
In the past whenever he came here, the toothless old lion always appeared lazy, and even needed his meat specially ground up in a meat grinder to eat.
As his father used to say, this old lion probably didn't have much time left, being in his twilight years.
Combined with his tragic experiences in the circus, he could pass away any day.
While Yang Lin was searching for the old lion, under a large tree just 50 meters away from him, a pair of pale yellow eyes were fixed intently on him.
Unconsciously, Yang Lin felt a chill run down his spine, and goosebumps immediately rose all over his body.
This fear coming from deep within his heart immediately made him sense something was wrong.
Instinctively turning his head toward the tree, his eyes immediately met those pale yellow ones.
In that moment, the entire atmosphere seemed to freeze.
Even when he had faced the two American jaguars before, Yang Lin had never experienced such fear.
This was because the massive figure standing under the tree was simply too terrifying.
With shoulder height over a meter, body length approaching four meters, a head the size of a millstone surrounded by a golden mane, and incredibly solid muscles, just standing there motionless, the terrifying presence of the king of the savanna made it hard to breathe.
Gulp!
After involuntarily swallowing, Yang Lin tried to move his legs backward.
Faced with such a terrifying presence, he didn't even have the courage to attempt communication.
At this moment, the African male lion, emanating a kingly aura, began walking toward him with heavy steps.
When it was less than twenty meters from Yang Lin, it suddenly increased its speed.
Seeing this, Yang Lin forced himself to suppress his inner fear and started running toward the exit.
But how could two legs possibly outrun four?
Soon Yang Lin could feel the heavy breathing behind him.
Just when he thought his death was certain, a small thin figure suddenly pounced out from the shadows nearby.