Chapter 29

"Done!"

Lin Miao placed the last piece of meat into a specially designed preservation bag and exhaled deeply.

Although she brought a portable bag, the mutated wild boar was too heavy, so she could only take a portion of it.

Thus, she selected the most valuable and tastiest parts of the mutated wild boar’s meat: the tenderloin, shoulder meat, and ribs.

The tenderloin had fine texture and even fat distribution; the shoulder meat was firm and elastic; the ribs were flavorful with abundant fat that melted during cooking, making the meat tender and juicy.

For other parts—like the Meihuarou , belly meat, pig’s stomach, heart, ears, and snout—she took a symbolic amount; she also took quite a bit of those; the rest could only be left here.

She looked sadly at the ground at the cut meat she couldn’t carry away and sighed.

"If only I had a storage ring, I could take all of it with me."

Ye Xuan stood beside her, his tone calm:

"No matter. Leaving it here won’t be wasted—it’ll become food for other beasts in the forest; besides, we won’t hunt just this one mutated creature."

"In my view, you’ve taken too much already."

Lin Miao’s portable bag wasn’t small, but compared to the massive weight of the mutated wild boar, it was insufficient; even after filling it, a considerable portion of the processed meat still wouldn’t fit.

But in Ye Xuan’s eyes, she had no need to take so much of the mutated wild boar’s meat.

Because they wouldn’t return after hunting just this one mutated beast.

Later, they would surely encounter other mutated creatures; if her bag was already full now, what would she do then?

"I already thought of that—I brought more than one bag."

"Those other bags are reserved for other mutated beasts."

"Still, seeing all this meat left here feels like a waste."

"After all, I worked hard to process it."

Lin Miao knew this, so she had brought more than one bag; she didn’t fill the others with the remaining meat to avoid the problem of having no space left when encountering other mutated beasts later.

She couldn’t dump out what she’d already packed to make room for more meat from this boar.

Though it might not make much difference, if she packed it now and dumped it out later, it would feel like a waste.

Better to leave it here from the start.

Still, the thought that her hard-processed meat would end up feeding other beasts made her reluctant.

As a chef, she had no such sentimentality.

"."

Ye Xuan gave Lin Miao a look of mild exasperation.

Was a chef who loved cooking really this unyielding toward life beyond humans?

He felt Lin Miao treated them purely as food—not even as "livestock"; at least humans, when raising livestock, wouldn’t withhold feed.

Or perhaps, in Lin Miao’s eyes, this mutated wild boar’s meat was so precious she couldn’t bear to give it to those "future meals"?

"Let’s go."

"Oh."

Lin Miao cast one last reluctant glance at the meat on the ground, then followed Ye Xuan as they continued forward.

Yet before they had taken two steps, a golden sword light sliced through the air; in an instant, crimson blood burst forth, and a corpse split cleanly in two, falling from the sky to the ground.

"What happened?"

Lin Miao froze, staring blankly at the corpse, not yet grasping what had occurred.

Though she couldn’t identify the bird species, its size far exceeded that of normal birds, and its feathers gleamed with a metallic luster—clearly, it too was a mutated creature.

Ye Xuan glanced at the corpse on the ground, his expression calm, as if he hadn’t been surprised.

"Shriek—"

From the sky came a piercing bird cry, followed by more cries; Lin Miao looked up and saw a vast flock of birds converging toward them.

These birds, like the one on the ground, weren’t large compared to typical large birds, but their numbers were terrifying.

They crowded the treetops, their pupils fixed on Ye Xuan and Lin Miao, as if they would swarm at any second.

"Under normal circumstances, birds rarely attack humans; in fact, most are afraid of people."

"Unless threatened or provoked, they almost never initiate harm against humans."

But just now, the mutated bird he had slain with his sword qi had clearly attacked with the intent to kill him.

What puzzled Ye Xuan even more was that the nearly thousand birds perched in the treetops bore nearly no visible difference from the dead mutated bird.

That meant they had all undergone mutation.

Before the Qi Tide arrived, an entire flock of birds had mutated—equivalent to every human on Earth awakening a unique ability.

Was that possible? Practically impossible.

Whether you admit it or not, every species has ordinary individuals and geniuses; not everyone possesses the potential to evolve.

Humans can’t do it—how could a flock of birds?

Only two possibilities could explain this.

One: they had undergone natural selection—all non-evolved mutated birds had died or been expelled from the group, and through interaction and reproduction, they had reached their current scale;

Two: their group possessed some celestial treasure, or even a heavenly artifact, capable of aiding their evolution.

Ye Xuan leaned toward the first possibility, because the current Qi concentration on Blue Star was unlikely to nurture such a powerful celestial treasure; yet even the first scenario—achieving group-wide selection and reproduction in such a short time—seemed nearly impossible to him.

Reproduction, gestation, growth—each step required considerable time.

The Qi revival had lasted only three months; it was insufficient to produce such a massive flock of mutated birds.

So... a heavenly artifact?

But if it were a heavenly artifact, which one could it be?

Something that promotes biological evolution, triggers beneficial mutations, and radiates across an entire group—he couldn’t think of an answer.

And other possibilities couldn’t be ruled out.

But before confirming the answer, he had something more urgent to do.

Ye Xuan’s gaze fixed on the mutated bird flock in the treetops; he could clearly sense their unmasked malice.

Such emotion was normal for humans, but for non-human life—especially birds—it was highly unusual.

(End of Chapter)