茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

“Chapter 46: Entering the Mountain

By the time Xiang Kun arrived at the village, it was already past eight in the evening.

Originally, Xiang Kun planned to investigate the tree mentioned in the post that evening, to confirm if it was the Giant Owl he saw. He intended to ask the driver who brought him here to wait, and then find a hotel in the nearby town to rest for the night before heading into the mountain to search the next day.

But after it grew dark, Xiang Kun changed his mind.

He had suddenly discovered that his visual ability had drastically improved, or rather, had mutated at night.

Under dim light, he could actively switch his eyes to a new visual mode which is like adding an extra “lens” to his retina. The darkness surrounding him became crystal clear in an instant. Even clearer than the images he saw from night vision devices in movies or on TV.

But the views he saw with this mode were different from normal, since they were colorless. The world was composed of black and white, or to be exact, varying degrees of light and darkness. This mode, however, let him better judge moving objects and distances.

This enhancement was not merely an improved visual ability but a completely new mode.

He knew clearly that this was not a result of his training or mutation direction. Most likely, it was because he had consumed the blood of the Giant Owl.

He once read that owls possess strong night vision ability.

Now that he had this ability, Xiang Kun could move around in the mountains at night. Many things no longer needed to be done during daylight.

Hence, once he arrived at the place, Xiang Kun let the car that brought him there to return.

Most of the young people in the village had gone to cities for work or study, leaving mostly the elderly behind. There were no street lights in the village. Unless there was a festivity, everyone would rest early, and there wouldn’t be many people on the streets.

So Xiang Kun remained undisturbed and quietly found the biggest tree at the entrance of the village as mentioned in the post.

Though Xiang Kun had never climbed trees before, it wasn’t a problem given his physical prowess now.

As soon as he got onto the tree, Xiang Kun switched to normal vision mode, turned on the flashlight, and carefully examined the spot where the “humanoid figure” mentioned in the post was likely at.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t see clearly using the night vision mode, but some traces required color differentiation, which could be detected better under bright light.

After rustling around in the tree for about twenty minutes, Xiang Kun found the claw marks.

He knew that if the shadow on the tree that the poster saw a month ago was indeed the Giant Owl, its weight, along with its enlarged and sharp claws, would definitely leave deep claw marks, mostly on thicker branches.

After a month, the smell of the owl had disappeared, but the claw marks still remained.

Once he found the claw marks, Xiang Kun felt invigorated. His analysis and first intuition were correct. His journey was not in vain.

After descending from the tree, Xiang Kun took out his mobile phone, opened the map app, and started observing the surroundings of the village.

In fact, on the way here, Xiang Kun had already done some research. The village, though located in the mountains, couldn’t be classified as deep in the mountains. The nearest town was only a forty-minute drive away. The road conditions were not bad, and there was considerable traffic. This village was at most a resting place for the Owl on its journey away from its original habitat.

With or without the owl’s scent, Xiang Kun couldn’t start tracking just from this village.

On the map, to the east and south of the village were more and more plains and cities, becoming increasingly bustling.

To the north was a big mountain. But once across the mountain, there were densely populated towns.

Only to the west, the further west you went, the more densely packed the mountains and forests were, with lower development levels, extending into the neighboring province.

Xiang Kun inferred that the area where the Owl lived earlier would likely be in this zone.

Not lingering around, Xiang Kun didn’t seek any place to rest for the night. Instead, he shouldered his backpack and went west, diving into the depths of the big mountain under the cover of darkness.

In his backpack were two sets of change clothes, several pairs of socks and underwear, a power bank, a flashlight and spare batteries, a Swiss Army Knife, and a water bottle.

If an outdoor survivalist saw what Xiang Kun was carrying, they would probably shake their heads since many essential items were missing.

But to Xiang Kun, all these were enough.

In fact, due to his newfound night vision ability, Xiang Kun didn’t even need the flashlight when moving at night.

He didn’t follow the road all the way, neither did he just blindly head west. He often stopped to climb a relatively tall tree or ascend a high point with a good view to observe his surroundings.

Xiang Kun was matching the local scenery with the images from the Owl’s memories he saw. He was tracking the Owl’s trail and habitat, searching for any traces left by it.

At 2 p.m. on August 16, a bald backpacker was sprinting madly on a mountain road.

He wasn’t just running on the road. When he encountered some turns, he even jumped straight down from above, taking a shortcut.

The height of the jump was at least equivalent to a two-story building, but when he hit the ground, he rolled to offset the force and continued running at full speed.

If someone saw this, they would surely be amazed, not only at his running speed or his leap from such height but more so at… his bare feet.

This bald man was naturally Xiang Kun. Five days after he entered the deep mountains alone, he decided to end the journey and return home.

Counting up, Xiang Kun had only spent four and a half days in the mountains, roughly 110 hours. But unlike ordinary people, he basically didn’t rest during these 110 hours, moving continuously day and night. There was no need to find food or cook, no need to rest or sleep, and even no need to find a place for a restroom. So, the actual usage rate of his four and a half days might be stronger than that of an ordinary person in fifteen days.

His shoes were even worn out from all the walking. Although he had spare clothes in his baggage, there was no solution for his shoes. So he had to rely on his bare feet, which were bruised and beaten up not long after he started. He didn’t mind though, considering his high recovery rate, he took it as targeted recovery training.

In these four and a half days, Xiang Kun found many traces left by the Owl, mostly claw marks left in various places. Even from the memory pictures, he found a beast skeleton that had fallen prey to the Owl. The traces left on it also indicated the horrifying lethality of the Owl’s claws.

He also found the nest of the Owl after its mutation—a cave in a cliff.

Xiang Kun also confirmed the hunting and living range of the Owl before its mutation. Many sceneries matched the images from the memories he obtained.

Unfortunately, he didn’t find any clues about the cause of the Owl’s mutation.

Moreover, Xiang Kun caught a few wild animals in the mountains. Although he had only a Swiss Army Knife, making it a bit difficult to deal with thick-skinned, large animals like wild boars, catching hares or chickens was still easy.

Xiang Kun mainly wanted to try some of these wild animals’ fresh blood to see if there was any difference from the poultry bought from the market. He only took a small sip, not daring to consume much to avoid entering a sleeping state after consuming too much blood.

The result was that there was no difference from what was bought from the market.

However, this mountain trip was not without gain..