Chapter 8
Qin Jiulin tidied himself up after being overwhelmed by the emotions triggered by memories of his previous life. He transformed into a giant tiger with black and red stripes in the living room.
Fortunately, the living room had a high ceiling that allowed the black and red tiger, standing on all fours and reaching a height of about five meters, to comfortably fit inside.
Qin Jiulin glanced at the door he had just opened and contemplated for a moment. Eventually, he transformed back into his human form and stepped outside, feeling somewhat self-conscious as he was currently not wearing anything.
It was still early morning outside, with the sky gradually brightening. Although it was difficult to see clearly from a distance, as soon as he stepped out, Qin Jiulin quickly discarded the keys by the flowerbed and transformed into the giant tiger.
Qin Jiulin flexed his limbs, then leaped lightly from his backyard onto the road outside. He shook his ears a bit and swiftly disappeared into the distant mountains, unnoticed by anyone.
Finding animals exhibiting atavistic traits was actually quite simple. If the probability of humans becoming hybrid beasts was only one in ten, then the probability of animals reverting to their ancestral forms was one in two!
In other words, half of all animals successfully experienced atavism, while the remaining half either partially reverted or showed no signs of reversion at all.
To hunt and consume animals that had completely reverted to their ancestral forms, Qin Jiulin only needed to roam the forests for a while. He would quickly find them. For example, shortly after leaving the villa area, he came across a group of… wild ducks in a forest.
Qin Jiulin wasn’t surprised. If there were only one or two ducks, he wouldn’t have been interested. However, there were over twenty ducks in this group, and ten of them were clearly fully reverted.
Identifying them was simple—the size of these ten ducks was ten times larger than the others, making it quite obvious.
Qin Jiulin decided that these ducks would be his food for the day!
However, wild ducks could fly, and if their numbers were too great, other ducks would fly away before he could hunt them all.
Qin Jiulin concealed himself in the shadows without making any noise. No matter how big a tiger was, it was still a cat. His padded paws… well, even though now he could easily crush a person’s head with a single swipe…
He lurked silently in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment. As the ten oversized wild ducks approached closely, he realized the opportunity had arrived.
With a powerful push, he lunged forward… His blood-stained jaws aimed directly at the necks of three ducks, whose unfortunate positioning made them an easy target. Qin Jiulin bit down, severing the necks of the three ducks.
Of course, his front paws weren’t idle either. One paw instantly swatted a startled duck nearby, leaving it stunned. His front paws moved swiftly, delivering cat punches… he meant, tiger punches. With lightning-fast speed, he managed to capture all ten wild ducks.
The entire process took less than two seconds. He acquired three ducks with severed necks and six ducks with broken necks or crushed skulls.
Qin Jiulin transformed back into his human form and searched the surroundings for sturdy, long blades of grass. He tied the ten ducks that were already lifeless. Of course, he couldn’t carry these ten ducks, which were ten times larger than regular wild ducks and had more vibrant feathers, in his human form.
Once he finished tying them, Qin Jiulin transformed back into the giant tiger. He grabbed the bound prey in his mouth and, with a few leaps, disappeared into the forest, leaving behind scattered feathers and plenty of fresh blood. In less than a minute, small insects emerged to feed on the blood that had scattered nearby. Nothing went to waste.
As Qin Jiulin approached the villa area, he stood at a high point to observe the surroundings. He noticed that there were no people on the roads, and there were no sounds of footsteps. Taking advantage of the increasing vegetation cover, he leisurely returned to his own backyard.
He placed the wild ducks on the grass near the entrance gate. As he approached the gate, he transformed back into his human form, picked up the keys hidden beneath the flowerbed, and opened the gate to return home. First, he cleaned the bloodstains from his body, then he put on his clothes before going outside to bring in the wild ducks, one by one.
Qin Jiulin found a basin of water on the spot where he had released the ducks. He diluted the bloodstains that had been left there, although the effect was minimal, it was better than nothing.
Next, he closed the door and started preparing his meal. Eating fresh raw meat while in the form of a giant tiger? It was possible, but that was only done in the absence of cooking facilities or in extremely dire situations.
Otherwise, all beast hybrids consumed cooked food.
Qin Jiulin was quite skilled in cooking such ingredients. When he used to live with Xia Liansheng, he was in charge of preparing the hunted meat. To treat Xia Liansheng well, he even learned cooking from some skilled individuals for a period of time.
Combining his previous experience with his own cooking skills, he gradually developed a set of cooking techniques that maximized the preservation of the meat’s vital energy and essence.
Qin Jiulin skillfully used a knife… no, his own claws, to slice open the ducks’ skin. He peeled off the entire skin, feathers included, and discarded it in the trash bin. Except for the heart, he had no use for the contents inside the ducks’ bellies, so he simply threw them away.
This method of processing was indeed quick, but dealing with ten ducks was quite a large quantity. It wasn’t that he couldn’t eat it all; at this point, he could have even eaten two cows and still had plenty left.
The only problem was that the pot was a bit small, so he could only cook and eat one duck at a time. And that’s how he spent the whole day, eating. By the time he finished, it was already dark outside.
Qin Jiulin efficiently cleaned up the kitchen, threw all the trash into a bin at a distance from his house, and then returned.
With a full stomach, Qin Jiulin’s mood improved. He lay on the bed, propped up by a pillow, planning to rest and have a good sleep. Unfortunately, the next morning, someone came to disturb him.
Qin Jiulin was sleeping soundly when suddenly his eyes snapped open. He heard the sound of the doorbell; someone was ringing his doorbell!
In the past, he would sleep so deeply that he wouldn’t be awakened, perhaps not even hearing the doorbell. But now things are different. The doorbell, to his ears, sounded like someone was shouting through a megaphone right next to him. It was maddening!
He got up with an unpleasant expression, put on his clothes, and pulled back the curtains to look outside. He saw several people standing outside his yard, and they noticed him as they waved their hands, probably because they saw him opening the curtains.
Qin Jiulin coldly stared at them.
There were three people outside the gate, all of whom he had encountered before… no, they all lived in the same villa area. He had seen them a few times before, including once a few days ago.
So, they must have smelled the aroma of the meat he cooked yesterday and knew that he was the one who prepared it. That’s why they came looking for food?
Sorry, there’s nothing here.
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