Something Was Off

Xiang Kun looked closely at the mouthpart he had torn off, and at the organs and tissues attached to its end. He couldn't figure out what these organs and tissues were for, because they didn't resemble the organs in the various biology and medical books he had read before.

He examined the now motionless spider's body again, carefully prying open its head, tapping its eyes, and switching to infrared imaging mode for observation.

It's basically confirmed that this mutated spider is dead.

It seems that this obviously very hard mouthpart is the mutated spider's Achilles' heel; once it's pulled out, it'll immediately die.

It's clear that the mutated spider was truly at its wit's end and had no other options.

However, if Xiang Kun its mouthparts, he estimated that losing sight in one eye would be the least of his worries; if he got too close, it was entirely possible that his brain would be pierced through.

Xiang Kun placed the mouthpiece next to the spider's corpse, then picked up his phone and started taking pictures—since entering the mountains, he had switched his phone to airplane mode and deep power-saving mode, since there was no signal here anyway. Apart from taking a few pictures, he had basically not taken it out, so it still had battery life.

I turned on the flash and took several photos, including the inside of the spider's corpse. Anyway, its abdomen was wide open now, so there was no need for an autopsy.

This spider's structure is indeed quite complex and bizarre. I'll have to find time to study it properly and see how it mutated and evolved into its current grotesque form.

Putting away his phone, Xiang Kun looked at the spider's corpse with a puzzled expression. According to the rules, after Mutated Creature dies, its body tissue should turn to ash very quickly, so he had to drink its blood as soon as possible.

But how do you even begin to eat it?

Moreover, the spider was quite badly injured before, beaten rather badly, with half of its body smashed by the stones and it had lost a lot of blood.

Xiang Kun carefully examined the spider's corpse. He had previously noticed that the mutated spider's blood was red, unlike the green, cyan, blue, or other colors he had expected.

Seeing the blood, his urge to drink it surged immediately; every cell in his body seemed to cheer and wave his chopsticks and forks, urging him to drink it quickly.

As he pried open the spider, searching for the spot where it had drunk its blood, he inexplicably felt a strange connection to the first time he ate a crab as a child...

According to the scheduled time, his blood-drinking period should be tomorrow noon, so even if he sets off back now, he will still be on the road when hunger strikes. But based on previous experience, if he drinks the blood of Mutated Creature, the dormant period will be greatly shortened, which can ensure that he will not encounter any problems on his way back.

However, while this mutated spider was enormous in size and weight compared to other spiders, it was still far smaller than the mutated owl. After being injured, it lost a lot of blood, so Xiang Kun struggled for quite a while before he could drink a little blood, and most of it was mixed with rainwater. If you just count the blood alone, it probably wouldn't even be 50ml.

If it were rabbit blood, this amount wouldn't even be enough to whet his appetite, but now he already felt happy and full, and was even starting to feel sleepy.

Xiang Kun stood up, wiped the rain and blood from his face, and held out his hand to let the rain wash away the stones he had just taken from the spider's body, pondering where he should enter a state of slumber.

Normally, if he drinks a lot of blood and then falls asleep, he sleeps for about 25 hours. However, after drinking the blood of Mutated Creature, his sleep time is greatly shortened. The first time he drank the blood of Giant Owl, he slept for more than an hour. The second time Guo Tianxiang's blood, it was only 30 to 40 minutes. The difference in sleep time may be related to the degree of mutation of the blood source.

He had initially thought that drinking only this small amount of spider blood might not be enough, and that he would need to hunt other animals for more blood. However, he was surprised to find himself immediately experiencing a great deal of joy and satisfaction. Was this because the spider was highly mutated, because it was already dead, or because this particular blood was especially potent and important?

Logically speaking, since he was already feeling sleepy, his sleep shouldn't last too long; it could be as short as half an hour, but it shouldn't exceed two hours.

But this period is still his most vulnerable time, when he has no ability to resist. He needs to choose a good place to sleep, or perhaps he could go to the former nest of the mutated spider, that hidden cave on the cliff?

However, it's a bit far, and it would probably take quite a long time to walk there. Besides, it can't be said that it's definitely safe there.

Or perhaps I should climb a tree and hide there? Hopefully, I won't get struck by lightning.

Watching the spider's corpse and its various body parts gradually dissipate in the rain, turning into gray powder that seeped into the water and soil, it was as if it had been "dissolved" by the rain.

Instead of finding a place to fall asleep immediately, Xiang Kun swallowed the pebble and used the discomfort in his stomach to temporarily "suppress" his drowsiness.

He retraced his steps, quickly examining the traces along the way.

Just now Xiang Kun had a vague feeling that something was wrong. Although he couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong, he knew that if he had this feeling, it must mean that he had received some special sensory information. However, his brain's processing ability was not enough to "calculate" the specific result. It had only given him a warning from his intuition.

As he walked back, he kept observing the traces on the road, recalling the process of tracking back then, while also fighting off drowsiness and suppressing the pain caused by the stones in his stomach. It was a very miserable experience.

However, if he wasn't certain, Xiang Kun really wouldn't dare to fall into a deep sleep so easily.

For him now, sleeping in these deep mountains and forests, his biggest worry is not wild animals or poisonous insects—his body temperature is relatively low, and his scent is different from that of ordinary creatures, so even when he is asleep, ordinary poisonous insects and wild animals are unlikely to pose a threat to him.

Only other Mutated Creature and humans are problems he needs to consider, and only they pose a real threat to him.

He hurried through the rain, returning to the spot where he had previously dodged the mutated spiders that had descended from the sky and sprayed venom. He picked up the first pebble he had thrown, along with the bow, bow case, and torn pieces of clothing lying nearby.

Then, not far from where the mutated spider had been knocked down by the stone and fallen to the ground, Xiang Kun infrared imaging vision mode, discovered a waist-high shrub with specks of blue on it.

Based on the visual pattern Guo Tianxiang, this color basically indicates Mutated Creature.

Xiang Kun walked closer and switched his vision to night vision mode. The specks of blue were tiny red beads, each the size of a pearl, with a thin membrane on the outside. They looked like blood inside—and they probably were.

When Xiang Kun tracked the mutated spider here before the rain started, he could tell from the scent that a small part of the shrub was a "branch" of the mutated spider. However, he was certain that there were no tiny beads on the shrub at that time, and he did not see any blue dots in the infrared imaging mode.

In other words, these blue dots appeared after he chased after the injured mutated spider.

Xiang Kun turned his gaze to the spot where the mutated spider had fallen. There were still many traces of its body tissue and blood left there, but naturally, they were no longer visible. Logically, they should have turned into gray powder and been washed away by the rain.

The things inside the small beads on the bush must have been extracted from the remaining tissue and blood using some method, but why didn't they disappear or turn gray? Why did they still exist even after the mutated spider died? Could it be that it wasn't completely dead and is existing in a new form?

Xiang Kun stood in front of the bush, its branches and leaves, adorned with tiny red beads, swaying incessantly as the rain pattered on them, as if trembling with fear.

He speculated that these pearl-sized, bead-like objects were a way for the mutated spider to prolong its existence when it knew it was doomed, possibly stemming from the same source as its ability to create and control "branches." He just didn't know whether these things would eventually give birth to its "clones," its "offspring," or a new type of Mutated Creature.

Xiang Kun really wanted to keep these tiny red beads and observe their changes slowly to see what they would become. This would definitely help him find the root cause of the mutation and understand the mutation pattern.

Moreover, he himself was quite curious about it.

But he was currently in a state of extreme exhaustion after drinking blood, and he didn't want to be "killed" by this thing while he was asleep. Who knew what it would turn into or how long it would take to become a threat?

So Xiang Kun took out his phone, took a picture, then picked a small bead, crushed it, smelled the thick red liquid that burst out, and licked it to confirm that it was the blood of the mutated spider.

Smacking his lips, Xiang Kun didn't sense anything wrong with the blood, so he simply ate all the small beads.

After eliminating the blood from the small red beads and destroying the "branches" on the bush, Xiang Kun's earlier feeling of unease disappeared. Although he was still unsure how he realized something was wrong or what specific information gave him the warning, the source was clearly these small beads.

After checking the surroundings again to make sure there were no other blue dots, Xiang Kun walked for more than ten minutes, found a shallow ditch on the side of the mountain where he could take shelter from the rain, lay down, vomited up the pebbles in his stomach and put them away, set the outdoor electronic watch on his wrist that he had specially bought before this trip to start timing, and then fell asleep instantly.

When Xiang Kun woke up, the rain hadn't stopped, it had just lessened a bit, but the sky had already brightened considerably.

He glanced at the time on his wristwatch: 33 minutes, within the previously expected timeframe.

He immediately got up from the ground and checked himself over the changes.

He didn't grow eight arms, nor did he grow several eyes, nor did he grow strange green strips or tendrils. On the surface, he was still a very normal man.

However, Xiang Kun clearly sensed that his body had undergone significant changes, and his sensory abilities seemed to have been greatly enhanced, to the point that he even felt a little dizzy.

After a brief period of adjustment, Xiang Kun checked his various sensory abilities again. Looking into the distance, his eyesight alone did not seem to have improved much, and his night vision and infrared thermal imaging modes remained unchanged.

I used my hearing to perceive the surrounding noises, and my ability to distinguish sound types and directions, as well as my sensitivity, improved somewhat, but not very significantly.

The same applies to the sense of smell; there has been no dramatic change.

Xiang Kun couldn't help but feel a little doubtful. The feeling of enhanced perception of the surroundings and a significant increase in information gathering was very clear and there shouldn't be any mistake. He had experienced this feeling before after his mutation, when he first specifically trained his hearing and smell, and then completed a blood-drinking exercise, after his sensory abilities evolved.

Xiang Kun didn't dwell on it; he could think about these things later. He continued to examine other changes in his body, carefully looking at his wrists. There were no hidden holes for spinning silk, and no powerful suction cups had appeared on his fingers. He felt his mouth and didn't find any new structures. He also didn't sense any spider silk or anything like that in his abdomen, so it seemed that he hadn't mutated any organs like spinnerets or silk glands.

I bounced up and down, and jumped left and right. My jumping ability improved significantly, and I felt lighter as a result. My core strength, including my thighs and waist, had increased considerably, and my joints should have also been strengthened accordingly.

He walked into the rain, went to some bushes and weeds, reached out and carefully felt the plants, then picked a blade of grass and chewed it for two or three minutes before swallowing the leaves and scraps.

Twenty seconds later, he spat out what he had just swallowed, and frowned as he looked at the green residue on the ground.

While he slept, just like the two times before when he devoured the blood of other Mutated Creature, he had another dream. This time, the dream was even more bizarre and fantastical, filled with numerous images.

He now naturally knew that those images were fragments of the mutated spider's memories. These memory fragments were far more numerous than those of the Giant Owl, but still several levels below Guo Tianxiang's.

Xiang Kun still needs to organize the chronological order of those memory fragments to help him understand, but he is basically certain that this mutated spider is not only Mutated Creature itself, but has also devoured at least two mutated plants—which also verifies Xiang Kun's previous speculation about the existence of blood-sucking mutated plants.

In the mutated spider's memory, there were numerous scenes of life-and-death battles with those two different types of mutated plants, which also allowed Xiang Kun to learn about many of the special abilities of those two plants.

The ability to establish "branching" must have been acquired from one of those two mutated plants.

From the images in his memory, Xiang Kun knew that the "branches" created by the mutated spider were of two kinds. One kind was that after it devoured a part of a plant, it would immediately "reattach" an almost identical part from its mouth. Xiang Kun called this "Conversion Branch".

Another method involves the mutated spider removing a part of a plant and then using its mouthparts, tail organs, and special organs on its feet to secrete large amounts of sap and fiber to "reconstruct" a completely new plant part, which is then "grafted" onto the original plant. Xiang Kun calls this "Reconstruction Branch."

Both types of "branches" can smell that "special odor," but only the "Reconstruction Branch" can bear fruit. Previously, the mutated spider built a fake nest on the tree, which was actually used to design Xiang Kun's trap, and it mainly used the "Reconstruction Branch." And when it is cut off, it turns into gray powder, like Mutated Creature tissue, which is also the "Reconstruction Branch."

As for the "Conversion Branch," no specific function was seen in the many memory scenes of the mutated spider, but the mutated spider still "produced" them in large quantities. According to Xiang Kun's speculation, their existence may be used to detect information and help the mutated spider control the "Reconstruction Branch," just like "base stations" responsible for transmitting signals.

Xiang Kun believes that the types of fruit that the "Reconstruction Branch" can produce, the types of venom they secrete, and their growth patterns are all determined after the reconstruction is complete, much like a pre-programmed sequence. However, the specific timing of activation and the start of "running" are determined by the mutated spider issuing specific instructions. And for these instructions to be transmitted remotely to the "Reconstruction Branch," the assistance of other "Conversion Branch" is required.

Of course, these are all just speculations by Xiang Kun based on fragments of his memory, and further verification is needed.

He had just chewed that blade of grass in an attempt to mimic the mutated spider's "Conversion Branch," but he had clearly failed. It seemed that he had not mutated into the corresponding ability, or that those abilities did not exist in the same way.

Although the main purpose of the trip had been achieved, Xiang Kun did not leave the mountain forest immediately.

He first retrieved the arrow that had missed the mutated spider, then went to the vicinity of the spider's cave to retrieve his shoes. After that, he went into the cave and wandered around, carefully examining everything. By comparing the actual scene with the mutated spider's memory images, he anchored his specific memories.

After "consuming" the mutated spider, his blood-drinking period was "refreshed," giving him another 5 x 24 hours to consume.

So he spent two days in the mountains testing and examining his mutation after drinking blood, the extent of improvement in his various qualities, whether he had gained any new abilities, and using on-site comparison to help him organize, understand, and interpret the memories of the mutated spider.

Two days later, he began his return journey, taking more than a day to get back to the place where he had hidden the bow box.

He was mostly barefoot while traversing, climbing, and pursuing through the forest, so his shoes were still relatively intact. However, the T-shirt he wore into the mountains had been torn after being sprayed with corrosive liquid, and the fragments were stuffed in his pockets. As for his work pants, although they were made of a relatively durable material, they were badly damaged because he had been clearing a path with his body the whole way into the mountains. They had also been stained with corrosive liquid, leaving several holes in the buttocks, and looked dirty and tattered.

If he were to return to town dressed like this, shirtless and wearing tattered pants, he would probably startle people and leave a deep impression.

However, he had considered this before coming, so he brought a set of clothes and the coat he had taken off earlier in the bow case. After changing, he did not throw away the torn clothes, but put them back in the bow case. On the way back, he also took all his belongings with him, except for a ball that he left near the mutated spider cave for future reference when he revisited the place.

Xiang Kun had overheard the conversation between the two men who left in the Prado outside the hotel in town, and he suspected that the "company" they mentioned might have some knowledge about the existence of Mutated Creature. Perhaps after testing the samples they brought out of the mountains and the wild boar's carcass, they could discover something and then send people back into the mountains to investigate.

He didn't want to leave any trace of himself that would allow the other party to trace him back to him.

Just like when he arrived, Xiang Kun didn't choose to hitchhike on the roadside. Instead, he took a shortcut and walked back to town. After washing his face with water from a public sink and tidying his clothes, Xiang Kun went to a beverage shop, charged his phone, and booked a flight back home.