After Guo Xiaochun left, Qin Ziwen returned to his fifth-floor residence, took out his phone, and opened the video album.
He opened the phone's recording function and selected pause, pointing at the mountain cave located on the mountainside in the picture.
"You go to this place on the mountain."
"Right here, understand? Later you fly inside, if there's an altar like the one we saw last time, fly around it once and record a video. If there isn't, just come out."
The Crowned Eagle stared at the screen with its big eyes, finally calling out twice.
After setting the phone to recording mode, he fixed it to the small backpack on the Crowned Eagle's chest.
Patting the Crowned Eagle's wings, it transformed into a sharp arrow shooting toward the sky.
Watching its retreating figure, he silently prayed.
The sky turned from clear to overcast, with a thick layer of leaden gray clouds gathering overhead at some point.
"Brother, you've been standing here almost all afternoon." Qin Ziwu brought over a bowl of vegetable porridge. "Have something to eat."
"It's fine, I'll wait a bit longer." Qin Ziwen took the porridge, looked at the dark clouds overhead, and said, "It's going to rain."
Qin Ziwu sighed with emotion: "Yeah, since we came here, we haven't encountered rainy weather yet. This is the first time it's going to rain, right?"
Qin Ziwen casually asked: "How's things over at Iron Mountain?"
Speaking of this, Qin Ziwu rubbed his shoulder: "Still forging iron. I went to help him operate the bellows for a while, it exhausted me."
In the distant sky, a black dot rapidly approached.
Qin Ziwen's eyes lit up.
The black dot grew closer and clearer.
It was the Crowned Eagle!
The Crowned Eagle flew erratically all the way, entering through the window, with feathers mixed with blood scattering across the floor.
Qin Ziwen's pupils contracted, and he quickly picked up the Crowned Eagle.
Feathers had fallen from the Crowned Eagle's wings and legs, with blood seeping from the feather shafts.
The feathers on its neck and head were especially ruffled into a mess, stained with blood.
Its left eye was bloodshot, and its claws were worn.
Seeing the Crowned Eagle so severely injured, a surge of anger rose in Qin Ziwen's heart, quickly transforming into intense worry.
Injured this badly, it needed treatment immediately. Zhao Pu was a surgeon, but he treated humans—could he treat a Crowned Eagle?
Thoughts racing through his mind, Qin Ziwen said to his brother: "Carry the Crowned Eagle upstairs."
Then he quickly packed smoked meat into a bag and hurried out the door.
Wang Yun's home.
Seeing Qin Ziwen arriving with meat, Wang Yun was somewhat surprised.
Hearing Qin Ziwen explain his purpose, Wang Yun was even more astonished. "What, you're talking about a Crowned Eagle? That raptor with claws over ten centimeters long? How did it get injured?"
Qin Ziwen took out his phone. "These are photos of the wounds."
Taking the phone, Wang Yun zoomed in on the photos, carefully examining the injuries.
While looking, Wang Yun said: "Actually, the most I've ever treated before was parrots. This is my first time with a raptor like this—we're not allowed to keep them domestically in our country."
After examining them, Wang Yun nodded. "It can still fly, right?"
"It can fly."
"If it can still fly, then it's not a fatal injury. But we still need to disinfect and reduce inflammation. It shouldn't engage in strenuous activity for a while, better to wait until the wounds heal." Wang Yun went to a bedroom and came out holding two tubes of ointment and a blister pack of pills.
"These are anti-inflammatory medicine for internal use. This is antibacterial, apply it to the wound sites. Observe it for two days first, try not to let the wounds reopen, otherwise repeated bleeding will be troublesome."
"Thank you, Brother Wang."
Wang Yun teased: "No problem, no wonder you haven't been coming to see me, kid. So you secretly raised a Crowned Eagle. Tsk tsk, I envy you. Alright, go back and treat your pet's wounds first."
After Qin Ziwen left, Lin Yi came out from the kitchen. "How did he raise a Crowned Eagle? I remember reading in popular science that Crowned Eagles are among the most powerful existing raptors on Earth?"
Wang Yun said: "It still depends on the individual, but Crowned Eagles have long claws and strong grip strength—they're definitely in the top three among existing raptors. Crowned Eagles have fierce temperaments. If not raised from childhood, wild adult individuals are difficult to tame."
Lin Yi was somewhat surprised: "You mean he also discovered an altar?"
Wang Yun pondered, then nodded: "Possibly. More and more people are searching for altars now. We can't guarantee when our altar might be found by others."
Qin Ziwen arrived at unit 602, where a gray shadow flew toward him.
The Crowned Eagle crashed into his embrace.
Qin Ziwu said helplessly: "Brother, this guy won't let me hold it. It's been running around the room wildly."
Qin Ziwen pretended to be angry, flicking the Crowned Eagle on the head.
"Being disobedient and running around, huh?"
The Crowned Eagle called out twice, rubbing vigorously against his chest.
Qin Ziwen first used a cotton swab dipped in alcohol for disinfection.
The pain caused the Crowned Eagle to spread its wings and fly two meters away, warily watching the cotton swab in his hand.
Qin Ziwen soothed it, "This is to treat your wounds. Be good, come here."
Perhaps sensing the reassurance in his tone, the Crowned Eagle slowly lowered its head and approached, tilting its head ninety degrees, curiously staring at the cotton swab.
This time when the alcohol-dipped cotton swab passed over its wound, although the Crowned Eagle's muscles trembled, it obediently remained in place.
After disinfection, he unscrewed the ointment tube cap and used a cotton swab to apply the white ointment to the Crowned Eagle's wound areas.
After applying ointment to all the wounds, he took a fish from the bucket and fed it to the eagle along with the medicine pills.
After treating the Crowned Eagle's injuries, Qin Ziwen finally took out his phone.
"Dead battery, it shut down."
He went upstairs to Deng Guang's home to get a new power bank, and returned the used-up power bank to Sister-in-law.
Qin Ziwen expressed his gratitude: "Sorry to trouble you, Sister-in-law."
"No problem, when it's used up I'll just go downstairs to recharge it." Xiao Meixue smiled as she took the power bank. After Qin Ziwen left, she looked out the window at the gray sky, a trace of worry flashing in her eyes. "Old Deng, do you think if it rains, the garage might flood?"
Deng Guang sat up. "That's true. Should we move the car?"
"Move it where?"
"Move it outside. The garage is so low-lying. Let's drive it to the residential complex entrance."
"Alright, then come with me to move the car."
After speaking, Xiao Meixue went out with Deng Guang.
Qin Ziwen returned home, plugged in his phone to charge, then opened the video recorded by the Crowned Eagle.
Dragging the progress bar, the Crowned Eagle continuously approached the mountain cave.
When the Crowned Eagle flew into the mountainside cave, the screen became dim.
But the Crowned Eagle seemed to discover something, flying continuously toward the depths.
Finally, in the screen, a red light appeared.
Qin Ziwen pressed pause.
"This is... a card, a type of card I've never seen before."
Although the image quality was somewhat blurry.
In the pitch-black environment, the square outline was very prominent.
Qin Ziwen, who had "seen countless cards," recognized at a glance that this was definitely a card, and this card was emitting red light—a new category he had never encountered before!
But soon, dense wing flapping sounds came from the screen, accompanied by dense squeaking sounds.
"Bats." Qin Ziwen recognized this sound.
The Crowned Eagle seemed to be under attack. It let out a cry and flew out of the cave.
Moments later, the screen brightened as the Crowned Eagle flew out of the cave toward the sky. But from the slanted forest sea, a black shadow suddenly charged out.
The phone camera shook violently.
Qin Ziwen pulled back the progress bar, pressed pause. What charged at the Crowned Eagle was a black bird. Because it was too fast, the screen was very blurry, making it difficult to see the specific appearance.
Then the Crowned Eagle and this black bird became entangled in combat. The opponent had companions—several more of its kind flew out from the forest sea.
The Crowned Eagle had to change direction, taking a large detour, with these black birds relentlessly pursuing it until it flew out of the forest sea before they stopped.
In the screen, the phone camera captured vast stretches of continuous mountains when suddenly a familiar cry sounded.
"Screech—"
This unique sound awakened Qin Ziwen's memory.
It was that giant bird that had attacked the residential complex twice!
Although he knew the Crowned Eagle had successfully returned to the residential complex, watching the diving pursuit in the video, he still broke into a cold sweat for the eagle.
Dragging the progress bar, the Crowned Eagle dove into the forest sea, weaving through the woods.
The giant bird's wings were too large to penetrate the forest.
In the video, the Crowned Eagle rested on tree branches to recover strength. Each time it flew out not long after, that giant bird would appear, and it would retreat back into the forest sea.
The two sides were locked in a stalemate for a long time, repeating this several times before the giant bird finally gave up on its prey.
Eventually the Crowned Eagle flew back to the residential complex. During the return journey, the phone battery ran out and automatically shut down.
......