Outing

Chapter 45: Outing

Xiang Kun reviewed his two fights to the death with the Giant Owl.

The first encounter, by the lake, had been a chance meeting. Although the owl had struck first, it couldn't exactly be called an ambush. Xiang Kun had already locked onto it by its scent, so he'd had time to react.

As far as his response went, he'd done nothing wrong. After dodging the first dive, he hadn't kept running and exposed his back to the Giant Owl. Instead, he'd chosen to close in and fight, matching its strength with his own. So even though he'd lost the initiative and had been caught off guard, he'd still managed to drive the owl away by trading injuries.

In the second encounter, in the forest, Xiang Kun had been the one to seek out the fight. He'd even used his own blood to bait the Giant Owl into attacking. Then, at the instant it swooped down from above, he'd seized the moment and the opening, leapt straight through its talons, grabbed hold of it, and plunged a screwdriver into its eye.

It might have looked like a reckless gamble, but in reality, Xiang Kun's powerful dynamic vision had let him read the owl's movements accurately. He'd also calculated that the injury to one eye hadn't yet healed, affecting its vision and causing it to misjudge distances and react more slowly. That gave him a much better chance of success.

After reviewing everything, Xiang Kun came to the following conclusions:

1. He needed to keep improving his dynamic vision. It could prove crucial in a direct fight or when he was in danger.

2. He still needed to get stronger, but he couldn't let that affect his agility, speed, or jumping ability. He had to balance the amount of training he devoted to each. Even while building strength, he needed to continue extensive training in flexibility, agility, and running speed so he wouldn't gain too much weight or bulk.

3. His earlier judgment about combat techniques had been right. Most formal fighting techniques wouldn't help him much now, because they were designed for ordinary human bodies. He didn't need to compete in a ring. In a fight like the one the night before, once the two sides made contact, life and death could be decided in an instant. Being faster, stronger, fiercer, and more accurate mattered more; no amount of technique was as useful as a screwdriver or a piece of iron. Still, that didn't mean he could do without technique altogether. He needed to learn and develop his own methods, finding ways that suited him and made the best use of his physical abilities.

4. When facing a mutated bird of prey or beast like the Giant Owl, he couldn't fight recklessly, but he also couldn't show fear. He had to target its weaknesses, and once he found them, give it everything he had. He had to be fiercer and more savage than it was.

Thinking back to his two fights with the Giant Owl, Xiang Kun realized that apart from the initial shock of seeing what it looked like, he hadn't felt afraid at any other point. Whether he'd traded injuries with it by the lake or leapt up to stab it in the forest, he'd felt tense and excited, but not the slightest bit of fear.

The wounds the owl had inflicted hurt badly, but the pain had also exhilarated him. He'd even felt able to unleash more strength than usual, and the more he hurt, the sharper his mind seemed to become. Once the pain faded and his wounds healed, he'd felt a rush much like the one he used to get after a long run or a workout.

He felt that he seemed to enjoy those life-or-death struggles.

It was probably a change brought on by his physical mutation. Before, he'd always been cautious in the way he did things. To put it bluntly, there'd been nothing wrong with calling him a coward.

That realization sounded an alarm in his mind. He needed to keep an eye on his emotions.

When danger came, he had to be fierce, savage, and ready to fight for his life. But in ordinary situations, he needed to keep himself in check, so those combative, violent emotions wouldn't take hold.

Over the next few hours, Xiang Kun roughly sorted through the images he'd obtained from the Giant Owl's memories.

The scenes in the owl's memories after its mutation spanned at least four seasons, so it must have mutated at least a year ago.

In those images, the owl had hunted and drunk the blood of 213 prey animals of various sizes after mutating.

Using Xiang Kun as a point of reference, that meant it must have undergone at least 213 mutations—and there might have been many more hunting and feeding scenes that Xiang Kun hadn't received.

Besides places in the city he knew well, the owl had also passed through another city: a relatively underdeveloped county town or township that it had flown through after leaving the mountains.

There were no distinctive buildings or shop signs in the images that could help Xiang Kun determine the location. But he'd seen Chinese characters and letters on the license plates of several cars on the road, and recognized the area as the neighboring city.

Xiang Kun remembered the post he'd found while searching online at home the night before, after the Giant Owl attacked him by the lake. It had been posted on the forum for a county in that neighboring city.

He found the post and sent its author a private message, saying he was a reporter for a news website and wanted to interview him.

Then he searched online for the author's other posts and username, along with his location and age. That led him to the man's Weibo account, which confirmed that he lived in a village in a county in the neighboring city.

That afternoon, after his new phone arrived from JD.com, Xiang Kun went straight out, took a bus to the station, and bought a ticket to the neighboring city.

After reaching the station there, Xiang Kun transferred to a bus heading for the county where the poster lived.

On the way, Xiang Kun finally received a reply to his private message. The other man clearly didn't believe he was a reporter and thought he was a scammer.

Xiang Kun didn't waste time. He simply asked him to send over a phone number, saying he'd top it up with 100 yuan as an interview bonus and that there would be more compensation for the interview afterward.

The man sent a number over, still half convinced and half doubtful. A moment later, he received a text from his carrier confirming that 100 yuan had indeed been added to his balance.

Xiang Kun immediately called him and asked about what had happened, as well as exactly where in the village he'd seen the strange figure in the tree.

The poster described the incident again in greater detail, just as he'd done in his post, while Xiang Kun occasionally interrupted to ask questions.

"Did the strange figure in the tree move at all? What kind of movement was it?"

"What did it look like? For example, was its head big? Could you see its limbs?"

"Did you go closer to the tree to take a look afterward? Were there any traces around it, like footprints, claw marks, or droppings?"

"Before it disappeared, did you see which direction it was moving in? Up or down?"

The poster answered each question. Then he asked, puzzled, "Which website are you a reporter for? Why are you interested in my post? Hardly anyone replied to it, and it didn't get many views or much attention."

Xiang Kun casually made something up. "I'm a reporter for UC News. We're working on a feature about rural ghost stories, so we've been collecting similar accounts from all over. They need to be based on real events and come from people who experienced them firsthand. That's how I found your post online. I thought there might be something worth investigating... Your story is real, right?"

"Of course it's real! Absolutely. By the way, you mentioned other compensation earlier...?" The poster had no doubts and was already thinking about the promised payment.

"Don't worry. I'll submit the story to our editor-in-chief for review. If it gets approved, I'll officially request a face-to-face interview with you. You'll get a substantial interview fee then."

After hanging up, Xiang Kun was already at the county bus station. He found a car outside and headed for the village the poster had mentioned.

After hearing the man's description over the phone, Xiang Kun had already thought it was very likely that the "figure" he'd seen in the tree a month earlier had been the Giant Owl. Once the car took the mountain road toward the village, he became even more certain. He'd seen this road in the owl's memories, though from the air.

Xiang Kun had followed the clues there as quickly as he could because he wanted to find the place where the owl had originally lived and see if he could uncover anything about how it had mutated—or whether there were others like it.