The Hunt

Chapter 41: The Hunt

Checking the time, it was already past two in the morning.

Xiang Kun did not know if that giant owl possessed the same rapid recovery ability as he did, or if it had simply found a place to rest, lick its wounds, and wait for an opportunity to hunt him down, or perhaps it had already flown far away after resting.

But if he wanted to find that owl, the time before dawn would likely be the easiest.

After all, during this period, the owl's lingering scent had not yet dissipated, and before daybreak, Xiang Kun's own physical functions and sense of smell were at their peak.

Furthermore, the owl feared humans and dared not act during the day, and Xiang Kun similarly did not want his process of hunting the owl to be witnessed by others.

If possible, Xiang Kun even hoped to capture the giant owl alive.

If it truly possessed a strong recovery ability, he could extract some blood every so often, turning it into a long-term "meal ticket," which would certainly be more cost-effective than a one-off deal.

Moreover, he wanted to observe and study that giant owl to see why it had grown so large, whether it was a new species, or if it had mutated suddenly just like him, and what the cause of that mutation might be.

However, this was just wishful thinking; he lacked the equipment and ability to capture the owl alive, nor did he have a place to keep or study it. Once he truly found the owl, it would undoubtedly be a fight to the death where no mercy could be shown.

Having made his decision, Xiang Kun did not leave immediately.

Because there was still a very important question: even if he found the giant owl, how would he capture it?

The brief struggle with the owl by the lake had actually lasted only a dozen seconds or so. He could basically confirm that if it were dragged to the ground, his strength would not be inferior to the owl's, and even bare-handed, he could beat it half to death—he was certain he had blinded one of the owl's eyes at the time, though whether it could recover and how long that might take remained unknown.

If he carried tools, even just a pocket knife, a hammer, or a screwdriver, it would significantly increase his combat effectiveness and lethality.

But the owl could fly...

This meant that the initiative to fight or not lay with the owl.

By the lake, it was the owl that had taken the initiative to attack him, which was why he had been able to pin it to the ground and beat it.

What if the owl was determined to run?

Xiang Kun had considered hunting rifles or tranquilizer guns, but those were out of the question. A crossbow? Or a compound bow? The problem was where he could get a bow or crossbow in the middle of the night. Even if he managed to get one, without practice and familiarity, he couldn't guarantee accuracy. Ordinary arrows, unless modified, had limited lethality; even if he managed to hit it, it might not cause enough damage to make such a massive owl lose its ability to fly.

Furthermore, Xiang Kun had just searched for the characteristics of owls and discovered that they not only had extremely strong night vision but also highly developed senses of smell and hearing. If it had also been enhanced after mutation like him, that would be even more terrifying. Sneaking up for a surprise attack might not even be possible.

Thus, an idea popped into Xiang Kun's mind: perhaps...

Call the police?

Such a large owl, capable of hunting an adult husky, posed a significant threat. It could also be claimed as a rare species that needed protection.

When the time came, whether it was the police, the parks department, or some other agency that sent people, they would certainly have more professional equipment and personnel to carry out the capture.

Once the giant owl was apprehended, it would surely be sent to a professional institution for corresponding research and observation, and perhaps they could find the reason it had grown so large and identify the factors that caused the mutation.

But Xiang Kun quickly abandoned this idea as well. For one, it would be difficult to convince the police or other departments that such a large owl existed to get them to take it seriously; for another, it was unlikely that those sent would follow his instructions for the hunt, as he couldn't tell others that his scent-tracking ability was stronger than a hound's; and thirdly, even if the owl were captured and truly had research and conservation value, he, as the first discoverer, might not be qualified to access the progress and reports of the research. Besides, he would certainly have no chance to get blood from the owl to drink then.

Generally speaking, Xiang Kun liked to plan before acting, preparing well and having contingency plans, but when the situation was truly at hand and there was no time for further preparation, he was capable of the decisiveness to act first and worry later.

So he didn't dwell on it any further; if he kept thinking, dawn would be upon him. He simply grabbed his Swiss Army knife, a flashlight, and a screwdriver, and headed out.

There was naturally no time to prepare any weapons now. He did have a knife at home bought specifically for killing rabbits, but against that giant owl, this knife might not be much better than a screwdriver. Carrying a knife out would only make it easier to cause misunderstandings and bring unnecessary trouble.

At 3:21 AM, Xiang Kun arrived once again at the lakeside where he had previously encountered the giant owl.

Xiang Kun discovered that the feathers from the giant owl that had fallen to the ground during their fight were nowhere to be seen.

Generally speaking, seeing this, one would think that someone must have just been here and picked up those feathers, or that the wind had blown them elsewhere.

But when Xiang Kun had left earlier, he had put a few feathers in his pants pocket, only to find them missing after arriving home.

At the time, he had wondered if he had lost them while going into the lake, but now, seeing that all the feathers by the lake had disappeared, he recalled the experiment he had performed on himself—he had cut a grain-sized piece of flesh from his little finger, and not long after his wound healed, that piece of flesh had turned into powder.

Perhaps these feathers, just like the piece of flesh from his little finger, turned into powder and dissipated into the air once they left the body?

Xiang Kun began to track the scent left by the giant owl. Although the struggle between him and the owl had lasted only a dozen seconds, both sides had been injured quite severely and had lost a lot of blood, so there were large amounts of scent residue on both sides.

And because of the injuries, the owl had been unable to fly at a very high speed at the time.

Under the influence of the wind, the directionality of the scent in the air could be somewhat erratic, but Xiang Kun did not rely solely on scent tracking. He judged that based on the owl's style of movement, even at night, it was unlikely to fly in the direction of high human density; it would certainly flee toward the direction with more mountains, more trees, fewer buildings, and more desolation.

An hour later, Xiang Kun pinched a leaf and took a deep sniff, then looked up at the bushes on the hillside a few dozen meters away. Although from this angle he could only see a patch of tree shadows, he knew that the owl was right there.

His current position was where he had previously found the dead rat.

He did not believe that the giant owl had a temporary nest here, because he had already searched this small hill in detail earlier, and there was no residual scent of the owl. Even that dead rat must have been dropped from the air; it had never entered.

As for why it had run here now, he guessed it was simply because this isolated hill was the closest place suitable for it to hide and recover.

Xiang Kun gripped the screwdriver in his hand and slowly walked toward that side.

When Xiang Kun emerged from behind a tree and looked at the giant owl standing on a huge rock, the owl was also staring at him with bowl-sized eyes.

Clearly, when Xiang Kun confirmed the owl's location, the owl had also sensed his arrival.

Xiang Kun did not rush forward rashly, because he observed by the moonlight that the area where the owl's head had been injured—the eye he had blinded—had already recovered more than halfway.

Clearly, although its recovery speed could not compare to Xiang Kun's, it was still far beyond that of other animals.

The owl stared intently at Xiang Kun, its massive body slightly adjusting its position as he moved to keep facing him, its wings also kept half-spread, ready to take off at any moment—there were no tree branches blocking the space directly above where it stood, so it could fly away immediately.