After several days shut away inside the observation post, the water ran out... then the food.
Shen Zuo had spent those days in total isolation, hearing nothing but his own breathing... and the occasional sound of the bird.
He treated every single one of his injuries, his body recovering to nearly full health. He put every bit of his energy toward simple training, energy conversion, regulating his breathing, and repeating his energy-recovery techniques until they became almost automatic.
He also managed to raise the water level in the lake forming inside the Pit within his Aether Field, and though the increase was modest, it was enough to give him a genuine sense of stability and growing strength.
But now... no food, no water available outside, and no room left for mistakes.
Time to leave the rest point, because staying meant a slow death.
He got up, felt for his axe, and checked how many arrows he had left...
"Alright..." he said to himself, "geared up for another battle."
When Shen Zuo climbed down from the observation platform, the first thing that greeted him was the heavy smell of death... piles of corpses scattered everywhere, some already decomposing, others reduced to exposed bone and rotting flesh.
Not all these corpses had been here before; their number must have doubled, and the bird had apparently wiped out a small army of beasts in just a few short days.
But what caught Shen Zuo's attention most was that massive corpse... a giant snake, coiled up in the laziness of death, covered in a layer of charred scales... its right eye missing, part of its head completely crushed.
One quick look was enough for Shen Zuo to realize: this wasn't Level One... not even Level Two. This was a Level Three beast.
"Strong."
He couldn't help but mutter it, stunned.
That bird... had killed a snake at its own level?
And stranger still... it didn't look tired at all, no visible injuries on it whatsoever.
And even more unsettling: Shen Zuo hadn't sensed even a trace of the battle, hadn't heard any noise, the tree hadn't shaken, not even the wind around him had changed.
All of this had happened just dozens of meters away from him, and he hadn't felt a single thing.
Shen Zuo's eyes finally landed on the bird. It stood atop a tall rock, watching over the quiet battlefield like a silent warrior.
But strangely enough... it didn't even glance at Shen Zuo, didn't return his gaze, showed no interest whatsoever.
It calmly raised its wings, no threat in the gesture, no welcome either, just a light motion that seemed to say:
"Go about your business, I've got no interest in you."
Shen Zuo stared at the corpses scattered around him, enough to feed him for days straight.
He sighed, then said in a half-joking tone:
"You want these corpses for something?"
The bird raised its wings again, but this time with a vague gesture that seemed to say:
"What's it to me? Do whatever you want."
Shen Zuo turned his gaze back toward the ground, muttering:
"Weird..."
Shen Zuo pulled out his knife and began approaching the pile of scattered corpses. He wasn't after the meat, or the bones, but something else... something far more valuable.
In this world, beasts were divided into two kinds.
The first kind: creatures born as beasts, carrying unique cores within their bodies from the start, like Craigars, who carried a poison core inside them, or Frelta deer, whose internal leather sacs stored energy and formed the very source of their strength. Each of them carried its own biological traits from the moment of birth.
The second kind: creatures that had once been ordinary animals, then evolved over time into beasts as a result of absorbing energy from rock crystals scattered across certain regions. These creatures held nothing special inside them by nature, but over time, by feeding on crystalline stones, their bodies began forming an internal energy crystal, something like a small core. That crystal stored whatever strength they'd gathered throughout their lives.
The prey in front of him belonged to the second kind.
No poisoned fangs, no special hides, but there was a real chance he'd find crystals inside their bodies, built up from feeding on energy-rich stones.
He drove his knife into the first corpse and began cutting it open calmly... searching for whatever remnants these beasts might have left behind.
Clearly, this forest wasn't rich in crystalline stones, or maybe they were buried too deep for creatures to reach easily.
That's why most of the forest's beasts had been born exactly as they were, savage creatures from the very start, carrying nothing special inside them.
But the beasts the first wave had brought with it... were something else entirely.
They could be told apart from a single glance; more ferocious, their energy different, their behavior nothing like the forest's native creatures. These beasts hadn't been born this way; they'd once been weaker creatures, then risen and transformed into beasts by consuming rare crystalline stones, forming what was known as "Life Cores" inside their bodies, internal crystals that stored energy and built up slowly over years.
Shen Zuo got to work without hesitation.
A methodical assessment, corpse after corpse.
Every time he finished with one and pulled out what he wanted, he'd toss it as far away as possible without putting himself at risk. He never paused to consider whether a corpse belonged to a bird, a monkey, or even a snake... he wasn't thinking about what these creatures had once been, only about what they'd left behind after death.
As Shen Zuo took his final steps back toward the observation tree, satisfied with what he'd gathered, exhaustion showed clearly on his face.
Preserved meat, a handful of Life Cores, some water from scattered puddles, and a fairly solid stock of supplies... everything was going exactly as it should.
But just as he got close enough to start climbing the trunk, a familiar shadow blocked his path.
The hawk.
It stood on one of the lower branches, staring at the leather bag Shen Zuo was carrying, then tilted its head slightly... that gesture Shen Zuo had already started to hate.
Then it began moving its wings slowly... not with full aggression, but with a clear warning: "Pay the toll."
Shen Zuo understood the meaning instantly.
He glanced back at the bag. This time it wasn't asking for a Phantom, but it clearly wanted half his stock.
"Seriously?" Shen Zuo said, bewildered, his face tightening, glaring at it half-lidded.
Exhaustion had worn him down, and he wasn't in any mood for more extortion... but the bird's gaze left no room for argument.
Its wings suddenly snapped up this time, aggressive and threatening... feathers bristling, its blue eyes flashing with a spark of electric blue.
Not a threat, but a final warning.
"You pass through here... by my rules."
Shen Zuo didn't move, his heart pounding with inner rage, but he knew starting a fight now, in his current state, would be pure madness.
He sighed, then began opening the leather bag.
Shen Zuo smiled coldly, then pulled out half the contents of the leather bag and tossed them down in front of the bird with a mocking look.
"There you go, here you are, Mr. Gangster Hawk."
The bird lowered its gaze toward the bag, then raised its wings as if to say: "Fine, deal accepted... just this once."
Shen Zuo slowly backed away toward the tree, continuing his climb while the bird watched him, its eyes full of warning.
"Screw you, I know you have a hand in whatever this bird's doing!"
Shen Zuo shouted into the empty air, his face twisted, his voice dripping with anger and accusation.
Then Zhou Ji's voice answered, mocking as always, drifting through the air around him:
"Shen Zuo, some things, even if you figure them out, aren't meant to be said out loud."
"If you actually wanted to help me, do it properly instead of making things harder for me just to hide something this obvious in such a laughably bad way," Shen Zuo said with deliberate sarcasm, looking up at the sky as though his voice were aimed at empty space, an angry smile painte
d across his face.
Zhou Ji's voice answered immediately, in a half-amused tone:
"Fine, you want me to cut off your help entirely?"