During his battle with the giant eagle, Ken had gained the upper hand, and the subsequent close combat was nothing more than the eagle's dying struggles. Although Ken had been scratched by its sharp claws and many of his bones had been broken, he only considered it as superficial injuries.
After killing the eagle, Ken could no longer restrain himself and began drinking the blood from the giant eagle's wound.
Ken didn't have a measuring cup, nor did he know how much blood he had consumed, but he was certain it was a large quantity.
In the end, he didn't even remember how he fell asleep.
As for the vanishing body of the giant eagle, there wasn't even a trace of blood left behind. After previously seeing the feathers mysteriously disappear, Ken had already been mentally prepared.
This mutated giant eagle was likely a creature similar to himself, a mutated being. Just as his flesh turned into fine powder shortly after being severed from his body, the eagle's body had probably undergone a similar transformation upon its death.
Such powder could be dispersed by a light breeze, indistinguishable from dust.
Ken examined his body. Aside from his tattered clothes, there were no injuries. The wounds sustained from the battle with the eagle had completely healed during his sleep.
He could clearly feel that his physical capabilities had been greatly enhanced. He didn't need to test it specifically—just clenching his fist was enough to feel the powerful force within his muscles. He could also control a larger group of muscles individually, which further showed the extent of his muscle development.
What was even more noticeable were his enhanced hearing and sense of smell. Smells and sounds, which previously required intense concentration to distinguish, could now be detected with a mere thought. His control over his senses had become more intuitive and effortless.
Clearly, drinking the blood of the mutated giant eagle had a huge benefit, far beyond what rabbit blood or other types of blood could offer.
It reminded him of something Zhao Lei had once said while training together: "Three parts training, seven parts diet."
Targeted training must be paired with sufficient and specific nutrition to maximize the results of the workout.
However, Ken didn't continue examining the changes in his body. He didn't focus on how much his physical abilities had improved, as there was no time to dwell on that. He needed to leave the area first.
But he couldn't leave directly either.
While searching for any remaining parts of the giant eagle, Ken collected his belongings.
His shoes, broken phone, flashlight, Swiss Army knife, keys, and even some torn fabric from his clothes. He spent a good amount of time using his heightened sense of smell to find the screwdriver that had fallen into the grass.
He checked his appearance. Although he was dirty, there wasn't any blood on him. Both his and the eagle's blood turned into powder after drying, making it easy to clean.
The damage to his pants wasn't severe, and he had recovered his shoes. Ken quickly cleaned off the dirt, leaves, and weeds on his body before running back, pretending he was out for a morning jog.
This wasn't the first time Ken had run bare-chested through the neighborhood. The last time had been in the early morning, when he only encountered the security guard. But today, as it was morning, he met many residents heading out, all of whom stared at him, especially the women. Despite their frowns and seemingly disapproving expressions, they lingered on him longer than usual.
Ken's muscles were very developed, but they didn't look as "aesthetic" as those of people with low body fat who focused on sculpting. His body resembled someone who played basketball or boxed. His abdominal muscles weren't sharply defined, and the eight-pack wasn't exaggerated. At first glance, his abs looked more like a curved metal plate. From the back, his inverted triangle shape wasn't overly pronounced either. His lats were broad, but his waist was thick.
Nonetheless, the power contained within his body was obvious to anyone, regardless of their aesthetic preferences. It was a judgment based on biological instincts.
He jogged into the community entrance and nodded at the old security guard, who was staring at him. He was about to continue running when the old guard spoke up.
"Sir, are you heading to the lake again?"
Ken was stunned and stopped in his tracks. "Oh, I'm just out for a morning jog, not to the lake," he replied, confused. He hadn't been to the lake in the morning and hadn't intentionally jumped into the lake like last time to get wet. Why would the guard ask that?
The old guard smiled. "Ah, I see. When the shift changed this morning, Xiao Li mentioned that you accidentally fell into the lake last night. I thought you went there again early this morning… That lake's dangerous. Some parts look shallow, but the mud is deep, and you can get stuck like quicksand. Even if you can swim, it's still risky. Be careful."
Although Ken had only moved in recently, his bald head made him easily recognizable, and the security guards had become familiar with him.
But the old guard's words caught Ken off guard.
Last night?
Although Ken was puzzled, he didn't ask further. He simply replied, "Okay, thank you. I'll be careful next time."
Back at home, Ken rushed to his laptop, woke up the screen, and checked the time in the lower-right corner:
8:15 AM
He then looked at the date:
2019/8/11
Ken furrowed his brow. After encountering the mutated giant eagle at the lake and briefly fighting it, he had returned home in the early hours of August 11th.
When he went out again, it had been around 2 a.m.
By the time he found the mutated giant eagle, it was around 4 a.m.
After a confrontation and battle, he killed the eagle and drank its blood, but the exact time of that was unclear—his phone was broken.
But it must have been around 5 a.m., perhaps slightly earlier.
Given the angle of sunlight when he woke up, it seemed to be around 6:30 a.m.
This meant that after drinking the blood, he only slept for a little over an hour?!
Initially, when Ken woke up and saw it was morning, he thought it was already the morning of August 12th. According to his usual routine, a 25-hour sleep would have been normal.
Even if he had drunk a large amount of mutated giant eagle's blood and slept for more than 48 hours, he wouldn't have been surprised.
But to his shock, he had only slept for just over an hour!
Recalling how, after drinking rabbit blood, he felt a strong hunger before falling asleep and then slept for 32 hours, far exceeding his usual 25 hours, Ken began to analyze. Perhaps the blood he consumed had to meet his needs. The higher the quality and quantity of the blood, the less sleep he needed?
So, it seemed sleep might be compensating for an energy deficit?
What if he were extremely hungry, to the point of starvation? Could he avoid eating and rely on long periods of sleep to recover?
During his previous experiment on hunger tolerance, he managed 22 hours before the urge became overwhelming, but there was no sleepiness. Was the duration of his tolerance insufficient?
Perhaps next time, he could conduct this experiment in an environment completely devoid of food.
After thinking for a moment, Ken decided to put the experiment on hold. There were more important matters at hand, and he was concerned that if he truly fell asleep, the sleep might last too long—maybe even ten or twenty days, or months. That could lead to uncontrollable accidents or damage to his body, possibly affecting his mutation process.