Chapter 68 - 64: Brand New Card Type

After Guo Xiaochun left, Qin Ziwen returned to his fifth-floor apartment, took out his phone, and opened his video album.

He opened a video, paused it, and pointed to the cave on the mountainside in the frame.

"Go here, on the mountain."

"Right here, understand? In a bit, I want you to fly in there. If the altar we saw last time is there, circle it once and get it on video. If it’s not, just come right back out."

The Beaked Eagle stared at the screen with its large eyes, finally letting out two squawks.

After setting his phone to record, he secured it in the small pack on the Beaked Eagle’s chest.

He patted the Beaked Eagle’s wings, and it shot into the sky like an arrow.

He watched it go, praying silently.

The clear sky turned overcast. Unnoticed, a layer of heavy, lead-colored clouds had gathered overhead.

"Bro, you’ve been standing here almost all afternoon." Qin Ziwu brought over a bowl of vegetable congee. "Here, eat something."

"It’s fine. I’ll wait a little longer." Qin Ziwen took the congee, glanced at the dark clouds overhead, and remarked, "It’s going to rain."

Qin Ziwu remarked, "Yeah. We haven’t had any rain since we got here. This is the first time, isn’t it?"

Qin Ziwen asked casually, "How’s Iron Mountain doing?"

"Speaking of him," Qin Ziwu said, rubbing his shoulder, "he’s still smithing. I helped him work the bellows for a bit. I’m exhausted."

In the distant sky, a black dot was rapidly approaching.

Qin Ziwen’s eyes lit up.

The black dot grew larger, its shape becoming clearer.

It was the Beaked Eagle!

The Beaked Eagle stumbled through the air, flying in through the window. A spray of feathers and fresh blood scattered across the floor.

Qin Ziwen’s pupils constricted. He rushed to scoop up the Beaked Eagle.

Feathers were missing from the Beaked Eagle’s wings and legs, and blood seeped from the shafts.

The feathers on its neck and head were completely ruffled and matted with blood.

Its left eye was bloodshot, its talons worn and scuffed.

Seeing the Beaked Eagle so grievously injured, a surge of anger rose in Qin Ziwen’s heart, only to be immediately replaced by intense worry.

’It’s so badly hurt. It needs treatment right away. Zhao Pu is a surgeon, but he treats humans. Can he even help a Beaked Eagle?’

As thoughts raced through his mind, Qin Ziwen said to his brother, "Take the Beaked Eagle upstairs."

Then, he put some cured meat into a bag and hurried out the door.

「At Wang Yun’s home.」

Wang Yun was surprised to see Qin Ziwen at his door carrying a bag of meat.

When Qin Ziwen explained why he was there, Wang Yun was even more astonished. "What? A Beaked Eagle? You mean *the* Beaked Eagle, the raptor with talons over ten centimeters long? How did it get hurt?"

Qin Ziwen took out his phone. "Here are photos of the wounds."

Taking the phone, Wang Yun zoomed in on the photos to examine the wounds carefully.

"To be honest," Wang Yun said as he looked, "the most I’ve ever treated is a parrot. This is my first time with a raptor. They’re illegal to keep in our country, you know."

After a moment, Wang Yun nodded. "It can still fly, right?"

"It can."

"If it can still fly, the injuries aren’t fatal. But you’ll still need to disinfect them and reduce the inflammation. Don’t let it do anything strenuous for a while; it’s best to wait until it’s healed." Wang Yun went into a bedroom and came out holding two tubes of ointment and a blister pack of pills.

"This is an anti-inflammatory, for oral use. This is an antiseptic cream for the wounds. Watch the bird for a couple of days. Try your best not to let the wounds reopen, or the repeated bleeding will be a real hassle."

"Thanks, Brother Wang."

Wang Yun teased, "No problem. So that’s why you haven’t been around, you rascal. You’ve been secretly raising a Beaked Eagle. Tsk, tsk, I’m jealous. Alright, you should get back and treat your pet."

After Qin Ziwen left, Lin Yi came out of the kitchen. "How is he raising a Beaked Eagle? I remember reading somewhere that they’re the most powerful living raptor on the planet."

"It depends on the individual," Wang Yun said, "but Beaked Eagles have long talons and a powerful grip. They’re easily in the top three among all living raptors. They’re also ferocious by nature. If it wasn’t raised from a chick, a wild adult would be incredibly difficult to tame."

Lin Yi looked surprised. "You mean... he found an altar, too?"

Wang Yun considered this for a moment, then nodded. "It’s possible. More and more people are searching for altars now. We can’t guarantee that ours won’t be discovered eventually."

When Qin Ziwen got to apartment 602, a gray shadow flew right at him.

The Beaked Eagle crashed into his arms.

"Bro, he wouldn’t let me hold him," Qin Ziwu said helplessly. "He’s just been darting all over the room."

Feigning anger, Qin Ziwen gave the Beaked Eagle a light flick on its head.

"Not listening and running all over the place, are we?"

The Beaked Eagle let out two plaintive squawks and nuzzled insistently against his chest.

Qin Ziwen started by disinfecting the wounds with an alcohol-soaked cotton swab.

The sting of the alcohol made the Beaked Eagle flap its wings and jump two meters away, where it watched the cotton swab in his hand with suspicion.

Qin Ziwen soothed it, "This is to treat your wounds. It’s okay, come here."

Perhaps sensing the reassurance in his tone, the Beaked Eagle slowly lowered its head and walked over, tilting its head ninety degrees to stare quizzically at the cotton swab.

This time, as the alcohol-soaked cotton swab passed over its wound, the Beaked Eagle’s muscles twitched, but it obediently stood its ground.

After disinfecting the wounds, he unscrewed the cap of the ointment and used a new cotton swab to apply the white cream to the Beaked Eagle’s injuries.

Once he had coated all the wounds, he took a fish from a bucket, hid the pills inside it, and fed it to the bird.

After treating the Beaked Eagle’s injuries, Qin Ziwen finally took out his phone.

"It’s dead."

He went upstairs to Deng Guang’s apartment to get a new power bank, returning the dead one to Xiao Xuemei while he was there.

"Sorry to trouble you," Qin Ziwen said to her.

"No problem. When this one’s dead, I’ll just go charge it downstairs," Xiao Xuemei said with a smile, taking the power bank. After Qin Ziwen left, she looked out at the gloomy sky, a flicker of worry in her eyes. "Old Deng, if it rains, do you think the garage will flood?"

Deng Guang sat up. "You’ve got a point. Should we move the car?"

"Move it where?"

"Out, of course. The garage is so low-lying. We can move it to the entrance of the Gated Community."

"Okay. You can come down with me to move it, then."

With that, Xiao Xuemei and Deng Guang headed out.

Back in his apartment, Qin Ziwen plugged in his phone and opened the video recorded by the Beaked Eagle.

He scrubbed through the timeline. The Beaked Eagle was getting closer and closer to the cave.

As the Beaked Eagle flew into the mountainside cave, the picture grew dim.

But the Beaked Eagle seemed to have spotted something, as it continued flying deeper inside.

Finally, a speck of red light appeared on the screen.

Qin Ziwen hit pause.

’This is... a Card. A kind of Card I’ve never seen before.’

The video quality was somewhat blurry.

But in the pitch-black surroundings, its rectangular silhouette was unmistakable.

As someone who had seen his fair share of Cards, Qin Ziwen recognized it at a glance. It was definitely a Card, and one that was emitting a red glow—a completely new type he had never encountered before!

But soon, the sound of countless flapping wings filled the audio, accompanied by a cacophony of high-pitched squeaks.

’Bats,’ Qin Ziwen recognized the sound.

The Beaked Eagle was apparently under attack. It let out a shriek and flew back toward the mouth of the cave.

A moment later, the image brightened as the Beaked Eagle exited the cave and soared into the sky. But from the forest canopy to its flank, a black shadow suddenly shot out.

The phone’s camera began to shake violently.

Qin Ziwen rewound the video and paused it. The creature lunging at the Beaked Eagle was a black bird, but it was moving so fast that the image was too blurry to make out any details.

The Beaked Eagle and the black bird became locked in a dogfight. The attacker had backup; several more of its kind emerged from the forest below.

The Beaked Eagle was forced to change course and make a wide detour, but the black birds gave chase relentlessly, only stopping once it had flown clear of the forest.

The camera’s view now showed a vast, rolling mountain range. Suddenly, a familiar shriek echoed through the air.

"SKREEEE—"

That distinctive sound jolted Qin Ziwen’s memory.

It was the giant bird that had attacked the Gated Community twice!

Even though he knew the Beaked Eagle had made it back safely, watching the footage of the diving pursuit still made his palms sweat.

He scrubbed forward again. The Beaked Eagle dove into the dense forest, weaving through the trees.

The giant bird’s wingspan was too wide for it to follow into the woods.

In the video, the Beaked Eagle could be seen resting on a branch to recover its strength. Every time it tried to fly out, the giant bird would reappear, forcing it to retreat back into the cover of the forest.

This stalemate lasted for a long time, repeating several times before the giant bird finally gave up on its prey.

Finally, the Beaked Eagle began its flight back to the Gated Community. Partway through the return journey, the phone’s battery died, and the recording stopped.

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