Flesh Derivation? (Part 2)

"Peregrine falcon!" Zhang Chen looked in the direction where the goose had fallen from the sky, a glimmer of delight in his eyes.

Peregrine falcons were the fastest birds in the world. They often relied on their speed to hunt birds stronger than themselves. Even the B-2 bomber of Beautiful Country in later generations had been modeled after the peregrine falcon.

Peregrine falcons had elegant forms as they soared through the blue sky, with strong, agile bodies. Their feathers were often grayish-blue, while their heads and the areas around their eyes bore black markings. Their wings were curved and sharp, allowing them to cut swiftly through all kinds of air currents.

When hunting, peregrine falcons typically employed a high-altitude diving technique. Upon spotting prey, they would swiftly climb to an extreme height, then plunge straight down at astonishing speed. During a dive, a peregrine falcon could reach 386 kilometers per hour—no slower than a high-speed train. If it hit you, it would be no different from getting struck by a speeding high-speed train.

"Peregrine falcon!" Zhang Chen's eyes immediately lit up at the sight of it. He had long coveted the birds in the sky. If he could catch and tame a peregrine falcon, wouldn't the birdcages high in the air be his to enjoy as he pleased?

"I have Dragon Qi, and I even have the Beast Control Technique. There's a good chance I can tame a peregrine falcon." Zhang Chen no longer bothered gathering honey and headed straight toward the falcon.

The goose's corpse was too large for the peregrine falcon to carry away in flight, so it could only eat where it was. As long as he found where the goose had landed, the falcon would be his for the taking.

Then wouldn't all sorts of birds in the sky be his for the taking as well? He would no longer have to eat only creatures that ran on the ground; he could finally taste all those beasts and fowl that flew through the heavens.

Zhang Chen traveled quickly. Though the peregrine falcon had landed far from him, he knew it would take time for the bird to feed. After catching prey, a peregrine falcon would not eat it immediately, but toy with it for a while first. That spare time was his opportunity.

Zhang Chen hurried through the mountains. Whenever climbing exhausted him, he grabbed a pheasant from the basket on his back and drained it of blood. His strength seemed to return to its peak in an instant, and he was like a man pumped full of chicken blood, his body seemingly brimming with limitless power as he crossed mountains and ridges with ease.

After running for nearly half a shichen, Zhang Chen finally heard the goose's mournful cries beneath a large tree.

The mountain forest was thick and lush. Zhang Chen might not have been able to spot a raptor hiding amid the canopy, but the goose's cries were especially piercing in the woods.

Following the sound of the goose's cries, Zhang Chen pursued it all the way and finally discovered the raptor's tracks in a large tree.

The raptor watched Zhang Chen with a hint of wariness in its eyes, but its beak did not stop moving as it feasted heartily on the goose beneath it.

"You fine beast, I've finally found you!" Zhang Chen looked at the raptor in the tree and immediately activated the Beast Control Technique without hesitation. The raptor abandoned the goose, spread its wings, and flew down to land before him.

Zhang Chen did not dare let the raptor perch on his arm. Its pair of talons looked like knives; without special protective gear, having it land on his arm would be no different from taking a knife to it.

Zhang Chen smiled at the raptor, took out a rope and tied it up, then casually tossed it into the basket on his back before resuming his great undertaking of gathering honey.

Even if he was catching a raptor, he couldn't let it delay his honey-gathering, could he?

Zhang Chen gathered honey for a shichen. Since he had not prepared beforehand this time, he did not collect much—at least, not as much as yesterday.

As the Beast Control Technique wore off, the bee swarm in the air dispersed, and the raptor in the basket began struggling. After flapping about a few times and finding itself unable to break free of the rope, it could only quiet down and remain in the basket.

Zhang Chen returned to the karst cave, carefully placed the honey in a jar and sealed it, then turned his gaze toward the basket.

He did not dare bring the raptor home. What if the Fox Spirit mistook it for prey and ate his raptor?

Zhang Chen opened the basket and found the raptor glaring at him. He reached in to take it out, but its beak slashed through the air like a knife. In an instant, a chunk of flesh vanished from Zhang Chen's palm, and blood spurted out like a fountain.

"You vicious beast! What ferocity!"

Zhang Chen bared his teeth in pain, a fierce gleam rising in his eyes. Looking at his own palm, he saw that the raptor had pecked away a large piece of flesh—and had actually swallowed it whole.

"I was careless. I underestimated this beast. Good thing I have Blood Drain. Otherwise, without tetanus shots in this world, I'd really be in trouble." Zhang Chen stared at the raptor, a trace of lingering fear in his gaze. Truthfully, this was his first time dealing with a raptor, and he had no experience handling one. In his previous life, raptors had been protected animals. Who would dare catch one so casually?

"But never mind. This is the perfect chance to test the power of Blood Drain." Zhang Chen had always felt that his experiment in the cave today, where he had cut open a wound, had not revealed Blood Drain's true power.

Zhang Chen looked toward the rabbits in the basket. The next moment, he took one out. A mouth appeared in his palm, followed by two fangs that pierced straight into the rabbit's body. In the space of a breath, all the rabbit's qi and blood was drained into Zhang Chen.

Then Zhang Chen felt an itch at the wound. The bleeding injury instantly sealed shut, and granulation tissue writhed at the wound. In mere moments, a thin layer of skin had grown over it. Yet the flesh pecked away by the raptor did not grow back.

"Could it be that I haven't absorbed enough blood?" Zhang Chen frowned as he looked at the hollow left behind, then took out another rabbit and began draining its blood.

But as he absorbed the rabbit's blood, the hollow where the flesh had been pecked away did not fill in. Only the skin turned into old skin, exactly the same as it had been before he was injured.

"All right. It seems I overestimated Blood Drain. It's only an unranked ability, after all. Simply healing wounds is already rare enough. I was asking too much." Zhang Chen looked at the hollow in his palm, a thoughtful expression in his eyes.

He could now confirm it: Blood Drain could only heal damage he had suffered; it was not responsible for Flesh Derivation. If the flesh from a vital part of his body were cut away, he would probably be done for on the spot.

"For example, the eyes or the heart—if flesh were cut away from those, I'd be truly finished!" Zhang Chen muttered.