Chapter 33 part 1

When rescuing wild bird hatchlings, to prevent them from becoming too attached to humans, rescuers often disguise themselves as other creatures while feeding them. This might involve wearing bird headgear, tree bark coats, or anything that makes them appear non-human at first glance.

Because of Li Xiangdong’s previous behavior, Wang Tianba was full of hostility towards people with short hair in the zoo. Although it did not actively attack, she basically turned her head away when food was handed over. It can be said that it was quite vindictive.

However, the biggest difference between humans and animals is that they know how to think. So, they quickly came up with a solution: to disguise themselves as another species, just like when rescuing wild bird hatchlings in the past.

This attempt was really successful. Although Wang Tianba did not completely recognize people by smell, just like Chinese people are face-blind to foreigners, Wang Tianba is actually face-blind to people. When people stay together every day, the smell is mixed, and it is difficult for Wang Tianba to tell who is who in a short time.

What’s more, they are all here to bring food to her, and they are obviously the boss’s people. Why bother?

With this idea in mind, although Wang Tianba noticed that the people who came with the same outfit each time seemed to be different people, it didn’t care at all. She ate and drank as she should, and lived a very comfortable life.

Li Xiangdong also put his mind at ease during these days of waiting and finally planned to contact Wang Tianba again.

However, Wang Tianba couldn’t remember the breath of others, but she remembered Li Xiangdong’s breath clearly. It happened that she had digested the perception and planned to break through, so she simply ignored the food handed by Li Xiangdong.

Because of the spiritual spring water, Wang Tianba was not troubled by hunger these days. Instead, she was full of energy. An urge to try, to break through her limits and challenge the unknown kept hitting her heart. But as a monster who had been tortured by hunger for nearly a year and had not gone crazy or died, Wang Tianba had amazing self-control. Until now, all preparations were ready, and she began to evolve step by step.

Looking at the little white mouse swaying in front of her, Wang Tianba raised her leg disdainfully and turned her body in another direction. To her, mice were like the white rice that humans eat every day. Although they were not disgusting, they were not delicious either. At this time, it was even more impossible to attract her attention.

This left Li Xiangdong quite hurt. Each expert has their own area of expertise, and Li Xiangdong has always had a special fondness for owls. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so concerned about Wang Tianba’s health.

But just like how some people make cats run away when they see them, his affinity with owls was far below the average person. Although it wasn’t to the point where he’d come back empty-handed from expeditions, the results were significantly different with or without him. Therefore, Li Xiangdong had no choice but to return to teaching at school with resentment.

After all, even though everyone believes in science, when it concerns one’s own interests, there’s no harm in believing in metaphysics a little. Ultimately, one or two times could be considered a coincidence, but when it happens repeatedly, anyone would start to feel uneasy.

Therefore, even though Quan Xiangsong didn’t call for Li Xiangdong when he gathered people, Li Xiangdong, upon hearing the news, immediately rushed over with a ‘pledge of allegiance’.

Originally, he could have achieved his wish this time, as Wang Tianba indeed didn’t react to his arrival, unlike how other owls would run away upon seeing him. However, due to his subsequent actions, his relationship with Wang Tianba quickly deteriorated.

Kong Bi felt a bit of sympathy for him, wondering if he had been cursed by the world with a ‘things don’t go as planned’ debuff. After all, all his judgments were based on the logic of the normal world, and would even have been fine if applied to a monster not in the midst of a breakthrough.

They wouldn’t normally follow a rigid, textbook approach. If Wang Tianba didn’t have such obvious abnormalities like stress lines, they wouldn’t have immediately intervened, even if its appetite was abnormally large. After all, reality isn’t a copy-paste situation; there are differences between individuals. As long as Wang Tianba seemed normal, being a big eater wouldn’t have been an issue.

But unfortunately, there was something wrong with its body, so the severity of any abnormal situation was amplified.

Li Xiangdong, unwilling to give up, kept waving the fishing rod, trying to ‘fish’ the owl. However, even with his arm aching, Wang Tianba didn’t budge.

Kong Bi looked sympathetic: “Teacher Li, Tianba should have eaten enough, please take back the fishing rod.”

“Impossible, it only ate five today, how could it be full!” Li Xiangdong immediately refuted.

Kong Bi: “Even Tianba has times when it doesn’t have an appetite.”

Li Xiangdong’s eyes were dull:”How come I happened to be in such a situation again?…”

Kong Bi, hearing this, felt helpless. Luck is unpredictable. Ordinary people have good and bad luck, but the unlucky ones always seem to encounter the bad times. There’s nothing to be done about it. Kong Bi opened the door, walked in, and squatted down to take a look: “How are you feeling?”

“Goo-ooh!”

Wang Tianba felt better than ever.

Kong Bi carefully sensed its condition. When her own bloodline awakened, she didn’t feel anything; she vaguely awoke to find herself having skipped the fledgling stage and reached the juvenile stage in one go. But Wang Tianba’s evolution had been brewing for days. Perhaps it was because green peacocks weren’t commoners among demons. In Kong Bi’s inherited memories, they usually started attempting breakthroughs the day after obtaining something like the nameless feather, not spending as much time as Wang Tianba.

She could feel Wang Tianba’s body was like a black hole, instinctively absorbing the surrounding heaven and earth Qi. Unfortunately, this behavior was entirely ineffective, as there was none around. But at least this behavior locked its own energy. The food it had consumed in recent days, apart from maintaining basic daily consumption, had been stored up by Wang Tianba for the consumption during its breakthrough.

Kong Bi reached out and stroked its head: “Sleep.”

“Goo-ooh!”

Most demons break through in their sleep, because any creature with intelligence will experience fear, and their judgments may not be wise or correct. Rather than that, it’s better to entrust everything to the body’s instincts. This way, even if the breakthrough fails, they can die in ignorance and without feeling pain.

Demons with bloodline inheritance all do this, let alone those who know nothing. Ignorance is fearless, which may actually increase the success rate. Therefore, low-level demons generally choose not to face the fear of breakthrough directly.

Because the more they see, the more awe they feel. The more awe they feel, the less they can break free from their restraints.

As for the idea that they can’t become capable without experiencing hardships? That’s completely overthinking it. What abilities could a young demon possibly have? Their primary goal is simply to grow up properly.

“Goo-ooh!”

Wang Tianba obediently listened. Any bird needs to be taught by its parents to live independently, and for Wang Tianba, who had acknowledged Kong Bi, she had already taken on the role of a parent.

It closed its eyelids and peacefully drifted into sleep.

Kong Bi didn’t touch it again. Although its current appearance was quite adorable, like it was smiling with its eyes closed, it would be a sin to wake it up again.

Turning around and closing the door again, Li Xiangdong reluctantly put away the fishing rod. Kong Bi glanced at the bark clothes on his body and advised: “Teacher Li, take off your clothes, or you will get heatstroke later.”

The bark clothes are very airtight, not much different from the doll clothes worn by people handing out flyers on the road in the summer. It is stuffy inside and will cause a certain degree of inconvenience in movement.

“No,” a slightly muffled voice came from the bark coat. “I can’t let it see me take off my clothes. Owls are very smart. If it sees me, it won’t let anyone wearing this kind of clothing get close to it next time.”

“Then we’ll walk faster.”

Kong Bi had no choice but to say that.

Li Xiangdong nodded and walked even faster. Once they were out of Wang Tianba’s sight and found some cover, he took off the bark coat. His completely soaked hair looked like pine needles, but he seemed to have recovered from the blow.

Perhaps it was because he was used to being hit.

Being allergic to cats despite loving them, and getting bitten every time he approaches a dog… For some unlucky people, this situation is enough to cause depression. Without a strong heart, it would be impossible to even apply for a related major.

Of course, there’s definitely a sense of disappointment, especially when occasionally seeing news reports of random people being inexplicably approached by birds. Comparing that to his own treatment can be quite unfair. But Li Xiangdong believes that eventually, an owl will sense his sincere heart.

“Director Kong, Wang Tianba has been eating less and less in the past few days,” Li Xiangdong asked while folding the bark coat. “And she doesn’t like to move much either. Did you notice anything wrong when you interacted with her?”

“Maybe this is her normal appetite,” Kong Bi shrugged. “Her mental state is quite good, and her responses to me are always loud and clear.”

“By the way, Teacher Li,” Kong Bi asked curiously, “Are Wang Tianba’s blood test results out yet?”

If it’s just a routine check, the blood test would be quick. But if you want more information, it won’t be ready in a day or two.

“They just came out,” Li Xiangdong said. “The lab traced Wang Tianba’s bloodline. The results show that Wang Tianba’s ancestors must have crossbred with other owls. Her lineage is a bit different from other forest eagle-owls. Also, her cells are abnormally active, surviving much longer after being extracted than normal. However, it has not yet been determined which owl it hybridized with….”

The advancement of modern science has made it possible to achieve some of the things that ancient magic could do. Kong Bi understood a little, but many of the technical terms were beyond her comprehension. However, she roughly understood that they had discovered demon genes in Wang Tianba’s genetic chain, genes that had appeared in her lineage in the past. Wang Tianba’s ability to become a demon in this era was likely due to a combination of ancestral bloodline reversion and the fact that she was born in a place where some heaven and earth Qi still existed, which she instinctively absorbed.

Nowadays, many pets are artificially crossbred, but there are also instances of cross-species breeding in nature. Given Wang Tianba’s size, people had already speculated about this, so they weren’t surprised by the result. However, what puzzled them was that, according to the blood test and other examination results, Wang Tianba was clearly very healthy, even healthier than most owls. So how did she develop stress lines?

To avoid errors in the test results, Li Xiangdong even specifically collected her fresh droppings for fecal testing when she went out, but that also showed no problems.

This really perplexed them.

Clearly, they wouldn’t find an answer in the short term.

And Kong Bi couldn’t provide any answers either.