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If Xiang Kun hadn’t spotted that mutated big bird from a distance on the plane yesterday, he wouldn’t have associated it with a mutated bird when Chu Xiuwen and others discussed this incident.

Just as ordinary birds seldom attack humans, the probability of mutated birds attacking humans is very, very small, especially in a crowded, daylit tourist area like this.

At least from his experience, both the giant owl and the mutated spider have a strong sense of wariness and fear towards human society and consciously avoid crowds, which is one manifestation of their increased intelligence.

However, based on the time and area where Xiang Kun saw that mutated big bird, there indeed is a possibility that the mutated big bird appeared in the Wushu Mountain Scenic Area this morning.

If it really was the mutated big bird, it must have risked appearing in front of humans for some unavoidable reason.

Of course, there is a greater chance that those were just ordinary eagles or birds.

Xiang Kun naturally segued into this topic, raising a few questions. He didn’t show any particular interest, but successfully led the other three to talk about it. They all had their own information channels and had varying degrees of knowledge about the incident.

Although Chu Xiuwen, Liu Feibao, and Liu Caifu are all well-informed people in Tongshi Town, and You Meng only knew that a tourist had fallen, they were able to find out the reason for the fall.

But as for exactly what happened in the scenic area today, because all the eyewitnesses were tourists and the scene was chaotic, there were all sorts of stories. The information they got had been passed down from several workers in the scenic area, so the details were often contradictory and obviously exaggerated.

To determine whether it was a mutant, Xiang Kun must conduct an on-the-ground “survey” to confirm.

At that time on the plane, after judging from a distance through his infrared vision mode that the large bird was likely a mutant, Xiang Kun never thought of tracing the bird’s whereabouts—it was too difficult, and there were too many possibilities.

However, if there was a definite location and it was not too far away, he would not rest until he had resolved the doubts in his heart.

Thus, after finishing his late-night snack, leaving the restaurant, and being dropped off at his hotel by Liu Caifu, he didn’t go back to his hotel room to rest. Instead, he directly hailed a motorbike taxi.

Xiang Kun wouldn’t directly hail a cab to the scenic area. Although it wasn’t far from here, it would be too strange to run over there in the middle of the night, which might leave a deep impression on the cab driver.

He simply had the motorbike driver take him through the town’s route, paid the fare, and then started running towards the scenic area.

Xiang Kun’s average running speed was about 30KM per hour, he ran very easily, far from putting his all into it. Many physically fit people can reach this instantaneous speed in middle and short distance races. But it is very hard to maintain this speed for a long time without resting.

Moreover, Xiang Kun could adapt to more terrains than the average car, he directly left the paved road to take shortcuts, saving a lot of time. He was also able to avoid some traffic cameras and moving vehicles on the road. After reaching the scenic area, he didn’t take much longer than driving there.

At this time, the Wushu Mountain Scenic Area had already been closed, especially after the incident in the morning, it had been closed early.

Naturally, Xiang Kun wouldn’t go through the normal tourist routes, he quickly climbed up from the steep mountainside next to the main peak leveraging his climbing abilities.

Earlier in the restaurant, he had heard Chu Xiuwen talk about which mountain the accident had occurred on. After climbing up, he easily located the exact place where the accident had occurred. In night vision mode, he spotted a section that was still cordoned off. Looking at the situation, they probably wouldn’t open this area tomorrow either.

There were no guards at night, the accident had occurred in the morning, and the investigation probably took place this afternoon. It wasn’t a homicide scene, so there was no need for someone to keep a watchful eye on the scene overnight.

After switching between night vision and infrared thermographic mode to observe the surroundings for a while, and collecting sound and smell information, Xiang Kun confirmed that there were no “suspicious” creatures nearby.

Although this was expected, he was still a little disappointed.

Xiang Kun approached the area where the incident happened, carefully observing the traces on the ground and sniffing the air, but found nothing.

Previously, based on the several descriptions given by Chu Xiuwen and others, he had come up with a preliminary guess.

That so-called “giant eagle” was probably the mutated big bird that he saw on the plane. It most likely appeared here in front of everyone for the purpose of finding and hunting another mutant creature.

That mutant might have been a mutated bird that originally inhabited these mountains, hence the statement, “some small birds were attacking tourists on the mountain path, and the giant eagle drove the birds away.” Perhaps some of those “small birds” were mutated ones, they were not attacking the tourists, but felt threatened and were “panicked”, accidentally bumping into the tourists.

It’s like the “horned wolf” that his old classmate Xie Jun told him about when he was test-driving in the wilderness.

Another possibility is those “small birds” were just ordinary birds that were startled and scattered. The tourists were “attacked” by the “big bird” and fell off the cliff—because the tourists themselves were “vampires,” or “mutants.”

However, he had just searched the area under the cliff where the tourists fell and found nothing unusual. Also, he had searched local news on his phone and knew that the bodies of the two tourists who fell have been found. If it really was the second situation, then the two who fell were definitely not “vampires” and were probably just the unlucky ones caught up in the incident. The real perpetrator might have already blended in with the other tourists and left.

Of course, all this was based on the assumption that the bird causing the accident was a “mutant bird.”

There is a greater probability that no mutant creature appeared here.

After finding nothing at the scene of the accident, Xiang Kun did not get disheartened and continued to explore the surroundings.

From the moment he set foot on the mountain, he had a feeling that there was something strange about it. The longer he stayed on this mountain, the stronger this feeling became.

He was very clear that this feeling was not some kind of mysticism, but a “subconscious” feedback signal based on the aggregated information collected by his senses from the surroundings at all times.

After a while, Xiang Kun leaned against a tree, closed his eyes, and focused his attention on his sense of smell and hearing to gauge the situation of the entire mountain, starting with these two types of sensory information to pinpoint the origin of that strange feeling.

The mountain, of course, was much larger than the small dirt hill near where he lived, so he couldn’t anchor it at one point and directly detect the WHOLE area. So, he changed his position from time to time to scan with his sense of smell and hearing.

Nearly an hour later, Xiang Kun found not only the cause of his strange feeling, but also a faint “special smell.”

He had smelled this “special smell” many times before. The specific details varied greatly each time, but as soon as he smelled it, he knew it was the scent left by a mutant creature.

That smell was coming from underground.

It wasn’t until he had changed his position several times and happened to stand directly above the source of the smell that he finally discovered it.

As for that strange, weird feeling, it was because there were very few ants on this mountain!

Ants rarely come out in winter, but they don’t hibernate. Instead, they hunker down in their burrows, surviving the winter on the food they stored up before winter.

Even within the confines of a cave, as long as he paid enough attention, Xiang Kun could still detect their presence through faint smells and sound.

But on this mountain, barring some areas at the foot of the mountain, most parts astonishingly had no ants!

If he had relied solely on extensive data collection and search investigation, he might not have realized the issue with the ants so quickly. Even with just the sensory information from smell and sound, when the minutiae increase to a certain extent, the amount of information to analyze and check becomes quite substantial.

However, Xiang Kun often practiced gathering and probing various sensory information on the small hill and had spent quite a few times in the depths of the mountains. Thus, he had a comprehensive understanding of the ecology under such environments.

We often think that the disappearance of certain unimpressive small animals may not make much difference and might even have certain benefits. For example, flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, and ants, etc.

In urban environments, this impact might not be significant, due to the overpowering influence and alteration humans have over their living environment. But in the wild, every species occupies an ecological niche. If one kind declines en masse, other creatures would need to fill in this ecological space, causing a chain reaction in the distribution and population of related species.

Through comparison with information from other mountain regions, Xiang Kun identified this change, drawing his attention to the ants. Later, by using auditory and olfactory information scanning, he confirmed the absence of ants on the mountain.

Moreover, it was obvious that the substantial absence of ants on this mountain had been ongoing for some time, which was why Xiang Kun quickly noticed the impact.

Xiang Kun was lying on the ground, following the direction of the “peculiar smell” he began to dig, while contemplating the reason behind the absence of ants.

Could it be due to the influence of the “mutant”?

Does it specifically feed on ants?

This is too strange. Although regular ants do have blood, the volume is minimal and their numbers, vast. If it targeted them just to satisfy a bloodthirst, it could have aimed for larger animals.

Even if it prefers the taste of insect blood, there is no need to target ants specifically. It would have stripped them bare!

Or, is it an ant itself?

Without digging too deep, Xiang Kun found the source of the smell. However, after switching to night vision and infrared thermographic vision mode, he failed to discover anything unusual. The smell started to dissipate slowly.

He knew that this was likely a place where the mutant had been for a long time.

Judging from the structure, this seemed to be an ant nest? From its appearance, it looked like the ant must have been quite big, at least as thick as his thumb.

So the ants’ absence on the mountain was due to the presence of a “mutant ant”?

But where had it gone?

Xiang Kun had roamed various places on the mountain, performing detailed auditory and olfactory probes along with a scan through infrared thermographic vision mode. He could almost confirm that the “master” of the nest, the creature possibly mutated from an ant, was not on the mountain.

Could it have been hunted down by the big bird?

Then why did the bird make a sudden appearance today, frightening the tourists into falling off the cliff?

Xiang Kun raised his head, looking towards the distant mountains shrouded in the darkness, contemplating whether to continue his investigation or plan for it.

Besides Tang Baona and Yang Zhen Er, Xia Libing was also in the room.

Since Xiang Kun had gone to meet Liu Caifu and wasn’t sure when he would return, he asked them to go back to the hotel after they had finished the late-night snack. Both the cars were left with them anyway.

Upon returning to the hotel, Yang Jie, Yang Zhuo, Zhang Qian, and the others continued their online gaming. Meanwhile, Zhen’er took Old Xia to her room to play.

They were currently on an audio call with Xiao Pingguo, discussing the fun things that had happened in the past two days.

“Uncle Xiang’s dishes were indeed delicious, especially the rabbit meat… Just hearing about it from you makes me drool…” As Yang Zhen’er related the dishes Xiang Kun had prepared at Youlong Restaurant the night before, Xiao Pingguo sounded quite envious.

“Chef Xiang has already told us that next time when you come to play, he will take you with us,” Yang Zhen’er said. Suddenly recalling something, she added, “By the way, Xiao Pingguo, do you know how to flip a coin with your fingers?”

“Flip a coin?”

“It means to balance a coin on the back of your hand and let it roll through your fingers. Ah, it’s difficult to explain. Get a coin, and we can start a video call. I’ll show you how,” Yang Zhen’er explained.

So, Xiao Pingguo turned off the audio call and switched to video. Finding a coin wasn’t a problem for her.

Of course, she was unable to see Yang Zhen’er or anyone else on the screen. But under Yang Zhen’er’s instructions, she placed her phone on a stand to adjust the camera angle so they could see her hand and the coin.

Following Yang Zhen’er’s instructions, Xiao Pingguo understood what flipping a coin with fingers meant.

“Let’s have a competition to see who learns this first among us! The person who learns it first gets a gift from everyone else. How about it?” Yang Zhen’er said, sounding excited.

After ending the video call with Xiao Pingguo, Yang Zhen’er started persuading Xia Libing, “Old Xia, you should give it a try. Your fingers are pretty long, you should be able to do it more easily.”

Xia Libing took the one yuan coin that she handed over, and attempted to flip it. “Why the sudden interest in flipping coins?” he asked nonchalantly.

“Nana said that Xiang Kun can flip coins, so she wants to learn it too!” Yang Zhen’er said.

“However , you seem to be more enthusiastic about learning it than me!” Tang Baona said.

“Well, I am trying to help you learn, right?” Yang Zhen’er said, “We can’t let ourselves lag behind a kindergarten child.”

Saying so, she showed Xia Libing the “little girl flipping a coin” video that had been circulating online. “Do you remember this little girl? She used to live next to Xiang Kun’s house. He taught her how to flip coins. Look how well she can do it! If a kindergarten kid can learn this, there’s no reason we can’t!”