Owl Senior

Chapter 47: Owl Senior

Xiang Kun had originally thought that the owl's mutations were mostly driven by animal instinct and its natural habits, unlike his own, which he had deliberately trained and guided.

But not far from the owl's cliffside nest, he found a rock beside a stream in the forest, covered in claw marks. It made him realize that the owl had actually been training in a deliberate way.

In the owl's memories, Xiang Kun hadn't seen it sharpening its claws on the rock. Instead, he judged that the marks had been left by the Giant Owl based on the distance between the claws that had made them.

From the marks on the rock, it hadn't just been sharpening its claws. It had also been scratching, stabbing, and gouging at it extensively. At first, the marks carved by its claws were shallow, but they grew deeper over time. It was clear that the owl had been attacking the rock as if it were imaginary prey. Xiang Kun could picture how its claws must have been covered in wounds at first, and even broken often. But with its ability to recover, that wouldn't have affected its survival much. After it mutated by drinking blood, the sharpness and hardness of its claws must have increased significantly.

The Giant Owl's massive, razor-sharp talons had been forged through repeated mutations and strengthening.

After discovering how the owl trained, Xiang Kun had wondered if he could imitate it and sharpen his own fingernails. If he'd had a set of sharp claws before, he wouldn't have needed any weapons. He could have dealt a great deal of damage to the Giant Owl with a single Black Tiger Steals the Heart...

But he dismissed the idea almost instantly. Birds' claws and human hands were built differently; the main function of human hands was to use tools. If he could mutate ten "iron claws" that extended and retracted at will, that would be fine. But if his fingernails simply mutated into the sharp claws of a beast, or grew hard and long, they would draw attention and make everyday tasks inconvenient. They'd even get in the way of typing.

In the owl's cave nest on the cliff, Xiang Kun had also found a pile of pebbles. At first, he couldn't figure out what the owl had piled them up for. They didn't look like nesting material. Was the owl decorating its nest with a "landscape feature"?

But after searching through the owl's memories, he found an image of it swallowing pebbles after a successful hunt and drinking blood. That gave him an idea:

Could this be how the owl held off the drowsiness after drinking blood until it could return to its nest and sleep?

After all, the wilderness was nothing like the city. The deep mountains and dense forests were full of all kinds of dangers.

Xiang Kun had bought rabbits for meat at the market and kept them at home. Whenever he needed to, he could slaughter one and drink its blood. Once he was done, he could simply fall asleep. Unless a family member or friend had an urgent reason to contact him and couldn't get through, they might come looking for him. Otherwise, no one would disturb him, and he wouldn't be in any danger.

But the owl had to hunt for its blood. Blood lost its effects if it had been out of the body too long, or if its prey had been dead for too long. So the owl usually drank right where it caught its prey or moved somewhere nearby to drink. It wouldn't bring its prey all the way back to its nest, especially since many of the animals it hunted after mutating were quite large.

If the owl, like Xiang Kun, became intensely sleepy after drinking blood and then slept for a long time without waking easily, falling asleep anywhere in the wild would be dangerous.

So it swallowed pebbles to suppress its drowsiness until it had flown back to its nest. Only after spitting them out would it sleep safely.

Otherwise, there was no good explanation for why it swallowed pebbles and then spat them out in its nest on the cliff. After mutating, it drank blood but couldn't eat other foods, so it had no need to swallow pebbles to aid digestion.

As for why it chose pebbles rather than meat or plants, which were more suitable things to "eat," Xiang Kun guessed that stones were more uniform and denser. They might better suppress the urge to vomit, and when it did need to throw up, they would be easier to bring up all at once.

Of course, this was all just Xiang Kun's reasoning and speculation. He planned to test it himself after he got home and see if he was right.

If it worked, it could be a useful emergency measure from time to time.

For instance, after his fight with the owl that day, if he'd been able to use this method to stay awake a little longer, he might have seen the owl's body disappear. That would have helped him understand the factors behind his and the owl's mutations.

More importantly, it could keep him from sleeping for a long time somewhere unsafe.

Although he hadn't found the cause of the owl's mutation, studying the traces in its habitat and comparing them with its memories to explore how it had changed had also helped Xiang Kun understand himself.

After all, if each hunt and drink of blood was followed by a period of sleep and mutation, then the Giant Owl had undergone far more mutations than Xiang Kun.

In terms of both the number of mutations and the time it had spent changing, it was his "senior" by far.

And living in the mountains for four and a half days had also given Xiang Kun a better chance to experience the improvements and changes in his physical abilities after this mutation, and to familiarize himself with them through further training.

Aside from gaining night vision from the owl's blood, his dynamic vision, hearing, and sense of smell had all improved markedly. And these changes went beyond mere sensitivity.

In the forest, he could instantly distinguish the sounds and smells made by many different creatures with remarkable accuracy. This was something Xiang Kun, who had lived in the city all his life, hadn't been capable of before—as if he had gained access to the owl's "database" of sounds and smells.

That made surviving in the forest much easier for him. Sometimes, he even felt as if he had the whole world in the palm of his hand.

At times, he even wished he had the owl's ability to fly.

Of course, it was only a passing thought. If he actually grew a pair of huge wings now, he really would have to live in seclusion in the mountains.

Xiang Kun, who had been sprinting along the mountain road, suddenly stopped. He stood by the roadside and looked back up the mountain.

This area could hardly be called "deep in the mountains" anymore. He was already far from where he'd spent the past few days. Although the area was still undeveloped and sparsely populated, there was at least a winding mountain road, along with villages and a temple. Villagers occasionally drove up and down the mountain, and worshippers visited the temple to burn incense.

Xiang Kun had stopped because he'd heard a car. A dozen seconds later, an SUV appeared around the bend.

He raised his right hand and gave a thumbs-up, gesturing for a ride.

To be honest, he wasn't very hopeful. Four cars coming down the mountain had already passed him, and none had reacted to his "thumbs-up," let alone considered stopping.

Of course, he couldn't really complain. If their positions were reversed and he were driving, he wouldn't stop for a tall, burly, dusty, barefoot bald man flagging him down at the roadside either.

Besides, he wouldn't be much slower running all the way down, especially since he could take shortcuts from time to time. There were too many sharp bends on the winding mountain road for anyone to drive fast, even downhill.

He'd already checked the map when he had a signal on his phone. There was a fairly large village at the foot of the mountain, where he should be able to hire a car to take him to the nearest county town or small town and buy a ticket home.

But he got lucky this time. The SUV actually slowed and pulled over beside him.