Entering The Mountain

When they reached the village, it was already past eight in the evening.

Initially, Xiang Kun had planned to visit the tree that the sender had mentioned to confirm if he had seen the gigantic owl. He would ask the car to wait for a while and find a hotel in the nearby town to rest for the night. Then he would search the mountain tomorrow.

However, when the sky darkened, Xiang Kun changed his mind.

This was because he suddenly discovered that his vision during the night had undergone a drastic change.

When the light was weak, he could take the initiative to switch to a new visual mode. It was as if there was an additional layer of "lens" on his retina. The originally dark environment would instantly become incomparably clear, even clearer than the night vision he had seen in movies and television.

But what he saw in this pattern was different from what he saw in normal circumstances. Because there was no color, the entire world seemed to be composed of black and white. Or to be more precise, it should be composed of different degrees of brightness and darkness. However, this pattern allowed him to clearly judge the moving objects and distance.

This was no longer a simple visual enhancement. This was a completely new model.

He knew very well that this was not because of his training or the influence of the mutation. It was 99% because he had drunk the blood of the gigantic owl.

He had read through the information. The owl had very strong night vision.

With this ability, Xiang Kun had the ability to move around in the mountains at night. Many things could not be done in the day.

Therefore, when they arrived, Xiang Kun asked the car to drive him back.

Most of the young people in the village had gone to the city to work or to study. Most of the people who stayed behind were old people. There were no street lamps in the village. Unless there was some liveliness, they would rest early and there would not be many people on the road.

Therefore, Xiang Kun was not disturbed at all. He secretly found the biggest tree at the entrance of the village.

Although Xiang Kun had never climbed a tree before, it was not a problem given his current physical condition.

After climbing up the tree, Xiang Kun switched to his normal visual mode. Then he turned on his flashlight and carefully checked the location of the "figure".

It wasn't that he couldn't see clearly with his night vision, but there were some traces that needed color recognition. Under the strong light, it was easier to see the details.

After searching for more than 20 minutes, Xiang Kun found the claw marks.

He knew that if the figure on the tree that the sender had seen a month ago was the giant owl, then with its weight and its enlarged and sharp claws, it would definitely leave a deeper claw mark, and it would definitely be on a thicker branch.

The scent of the owl had faded over the past month, but the claw marks remained.

After finding the claw marks, Xiang Kun was energized. His analysis and intuition were not wrong. He had not run in vain.

After Xiang Kun got down from the tree, he took out his phone and opened the map app to observe the situation around the village.

In fact, Xiang Kun had already done his research on the way here. Although the village was on the mountain, it was far from deep in the mountains. It was only a 40-minute drive from the nearest town, and the road conditions were not bad. There were quite a lot of cars, and this place was at most the resting place of the owl.

Even if there was a scent of the owl, Xiang Kun would not be able to track it.

On the map, there were more plains and cities to the east and south of the village. They were becoming more prosperous.

There was a large mountain to the north, but after crossing the mountain, it was a town with a dense crowd.

The only way was to head west. The further west they went, the more forests there would be. The denser the forest was, the lower the degree of development would be until they reached the neighboring province.

Xiang Kun guessed that the owl had lived in that area.

He didn't stay in the vicinity any longer and didn't find a place to rest for the night. Instead, he carried his backpack and walked towards the west, entering the mountains under the night sky.

He had two sets of clothes and several pairs of socks and underwear in his backpack. There was a charger, a flashlight and a row of spare batteries, a Swiss Army knife, and a kettle.

If a survival enthusiast saw what Xiang Kun had brought, he would probably shake his head. There were too few of them, and they did not have many basic necessities.

But to Xiang Kun, these were enough.

In fact, because of his night vision, Xiang Kun did not even need a flashlight when he was traveling at night.

He didn't always walk along the road, nor did he travel recklessly towards the west. He would often stop to find a taller tree to climb up, or climb to other heights where he had a better view and observe his surroundings.

Xiang Kun was comparing the surrounding scenery to the images in the owl's memories so that he could track the owl's footprints and habitat and search for any traces left behind.

…

At two o'clock in the afternoon on August 16, a bald backpacker was sprinting around the mountain road.

He didn't just run on the highway. When he passed by some turns, he would even jump down from above to take a shortcut.

The height of the bald man was at least two stories high. However, after he landed on the ground, he lost his momentum and continued running at full speed.

If anyone saw this, they would definitely be shocked. Not only was they shocked by the bald man's running speed, but they were also shocked that… he was actually barefoot.

The bald man was naturally Xiang Kun. On the fifth day after entering the mountains alone, he decided to end his journey and return home.

Although Xiang Kun had only been in the mountains for four and a half days, which was about 110 hours, he was different from ordinary people. He had not stopped to rest for the past 110 hours. No matter whether it was day or night, he had been moving non-stop. He did not need to look for food, cook, sleep, or even find a place to relieve himself. Therefore, the actual utilization rate of his four and a half days was much better than ordinary people's fifteen days.

Therefore, even his shoes were worn out. He had a change of clothes in his backpack, but his shoes could not do anything about it. He could only walk with his bare feet. In the beginning, his feet were covered in blood and flesh, and he had suffered countless abrasions. However, since his recovery ability was strong, he did not pay much attention to it. He just treated it as a targeted training for recovery.

In the past four and a half days, Xiang Kun had found many traces left behind by the owl. Most of them were claw marks left behind in various places. According to the memory, he had even found the remains of a beast that had died in the hands of the owl. The traces left behind showed how terrifying the owl's claws were.

She also found the mutated owl's cave on the cliff.

Xiang Kun also determined the range of the owl's hunting and survival before it mutated. Many of the scenes corresponded to the memories he had obtained.

Unfortunately, there were no clues as to the cause of the gigantic owl's mutation.

Apart from that, Xiang Kun also caught a few wild animals from the mountains. Although he only brought a Swiss army knife and it was difficult to deal with large animals like wild boars, it was still easy to catch wild rabbits and pheasants.

Xiang Kun mainly wanted to try the blood of these wild animals and see what was the difference between them and the animals he had bought at the market. He only took a small lick and did not dare to try too much lest he fell asleep after drinking too much blood.

The result was that it was no different from the market.

However, this trip to the mountains was not completely fruitless.