What It’s Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 46: Enter the Mountain

When Xiang Kun arrived at the village, it was already past 8 PM.

Xiang Kun’s initial plan was to take a look at the tree the person had mentioned to confirm if he had really seen the gigantic owl. He was planning to ask the driver to wait for him for a while before driving him to a nearby hotel to spend the night before heading into the mountains to search again the next day.

However, after the sky turned dark, Xiang Kun changed his mind.

That was because he realized that his night vision had improved tremendously.

When there was very little light, he could change into a new mode of vision, as though there were additional “lenses” on his irises. The blurry and dark surroundings suddenly became extremely clear. It was even clearer than the night vision he had seen in movies.

However, the things he saw with the night vision were different from ordinary. As there was no color, the entire world seemed to be made up of black and white. Or rather it was made up of different degrees of brightness and darkness. However, this mode enabled him to see the moving objects and deduce their distances accurately.

It was not merely an improvement in vision. He had developed a completely new mode of vision.

He was very certain that it was not due to his training. He was 99 percent sure that it was because he had drunk the blood of the gigantic owl.

He had read about owls and knew that their night vision was very powerful.

With that ability, Xiang Kun could travel about in the mountains and did not have to wait for daytime to do certain things.

Therefore, when he arrived, he asked the driver to leave.

Most of the young people in the village had left for the city to work or for school, so most of the people remaining in the countryside were old people. There were no street lights in the village. Except for special occasions, everyone went to bed very early and there were very few people on the streets.

Therefore, Xiang Kun was not disrupted at all and found the biggest tree the person had mentioned.

Although Xiang Kun had never climbed a tree before, climbing a tree was not a problem to him based on his current fitness level.

After climbing onto the tree easily, Xiang Kun changed back to his normal vision. Then he switched on his flashlight and observed the location of the “shadow” that the person had mentioned.

It was not because he could not see clearly with the night vision, but because some traces had to be seen with color and strong lighting.

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

He knew that if the person had indeed seen the gigantic owl, the claw marks would be left imprinted on the tree branches.

After a month, the scent of the owl had diffused, but the claw marks remained.

After finding the claw marks, Xiang Kun was excited. His instinct and analysis were accurate and he had not made a wasted trip.

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

In reality, Xiang Kun had already done his research on his way to the village. Although it was located on a mountain, it was not in a remote region of the mountain. It was only slightly more than 40 minutes away from the nearest town. The road conditions were still alright and there were quite a few cars. It was probably the rest stop of the owl.

Moreover, even if there had been some lingering scent of the owl, Xiang Kun would not start his scent tracing from that location.

On the map, there were many cities and flat areas on the east and south sides of the village. They were rather prosperous.

There was a huge mountain on the north, but there was a populated city beyond the mountain.

Only the west side was the less-developed direction. The more west one went, the more forested the area was.

Xiang Kun deduced that the owl should have lived somewhere in that region.

He did not stay for long nor found a place to rest for the night. Instead, he carried his bag and walked to the west, into the mountains.

There were two sets of clothes and a few pairs of socks and underwear in his bag. There was also a portable charger, a flashlight, some batteries, a Swiss Army knife, and a water bottle.

If an adventure enthusiast saw what Xiang Kun had brought, he would probably shake his head and say that it was too little. He had missed out on many essential items.

However, to Xiang Kun, those were sufficient.

In fact, because of his newly-discovered night vision, Xiang Kun did not even need his flashlight when he was travelling in the dark.

He did not walk along the road or towards the west immediately. He would stop frequently, climb onto a tall tree, or a tall point with a better view to observe the surroundings.

Xiang Kun compared the images in the owl’s memory with the surroundings. That was how he tracked where the owl had been and looked for the remains the owl had left behind.

…

At two o’ clock in the afternoon on the 16th of August, a bald backpacker was sprinting on the mountain road.

Not only was he running on the road, but he jumped down to take shortcuts at certain areas.

The height was at least two storeys high. Yet, after the bald man landed and rolled, he could continue to run at full speed.

If anyone saw that, they would be surprised. Not only would he be surprised by the bald man’s speed and how he jumped down from a height, he would also be surprised by… the fact that he was barefoot.

The bald man was Xiang Kun. The fifth day after he went into the mountain, he decided to stop the journey and head home.

Although he had only spent about four and a half days in the mountain, totalling up to 110 hours, he was different from ordinary people. He never stopped to rest and was continuously moving. He did not have to source for food, rest, and sleep, or even pee or poo. Therefore, the efficiency of the 4.5 days was way more than that of 15 days of an ordinary person.

Therefore, his shoes were broken, and he had not brought any extra shoes. He could only go barefoot, so his feet were injured very quickly. However, he could recover quickly and did not bother with his injuries. He treated it as training for his recovery.

Xiang Kun managed to find many traces left behind by the owl within the 4.5 days. Most of them were claw marks left behind by the owl. Based on his memory, he also found a beast that was killed by the owl. The marks left behind showed how powerful the owl’s claws were.

He also found the cave that the owl had lived in. It was a cave near a cliff.

Xiang Kun also confirmed the region where the owl had lived and hunted before it grew enormous. Most of the scenery matched the images had he obtained from the owl’s memory.

Unfortunately, he could not find out the reason behind the changes in the owl.

Apart from that, Xiang Kun caught a few wild animals. Although he had only brought a Swiss Army knife and it might be more difficult to deal with mid-sized or large-sized animals like wild boars, it was easy for him to capture wild rabbits or chickens.

Xiang Kun did that to try the wild animals’ blood and see how different it was from that of the animals he had bought from the wet market. He merely licked them and did not dare to consume too much, as he was afraid he would fall asleep.

The conclusion was that the blood tasted similar.

However, he did make some discoveries from the trip to the mountain.