Chapter 2: The Bird in the Tree
Surrounded by dense grass, the ground was dark and damp, and the dense canopy only allowed specks of light to reach the floor of the forest.
Brandon lied in the grass, motionless, looking around with his eyes moving in the opposite directions.
It had been half a month since he became a lizard. Brandon had also grown from 5 inches at the beginning to about half a metre now. The golden bell shield art had also made rapid progress and had reached the first level. In his previous life, he had spent a whole year to reach the first level of the golden bell.
His whole body appears strong and muscular, with large veins adorning his scaly skin. It was obviously different from the slenderness of ordinary lizards, and his limbs had become more powerful, especially the hind limbs. Now Brandon was able to stand for a while only using his hind legs.
The claws had become more flexible through exercise and could now grasp anything flexibly. The sharp nails flashed with a cold light from time to time, leaving no doubt about their sharpness.
The scales of green and yellow all over the body appeared more compact and thick, with an indescribable lustre. However, these scales were different from before. Some of them were completely broken, and new, denser and stronger scales had grown below them. This was not a skin change, nor was it any injury. It was adaptation and cultivation. He was whipped by his tail every day when he trained his body.
After a while, he slowly got up and crawled away, with his forelimbs slightly touching the ground, his expression alert, and his tail dancing gently in the air. Lightweight and flexible.
As he ran, his tail slid in the air from time to time. With its thick tail waving around, lashing in the air, it portrayed a powerful lethality.
He reached the dead roots of an old tree. At the bottom of the tree, he suddenly stopped and looked up.
It was an old tree that had been dead for many years. The trunk was entangled with some dead vines. The tree looked devoid of any colour but brown. Even the surface was covered with brown moss and mushrooms.
Brandon tilted his head, and listened with his pinna-less ears for a while. With some uncertainty, he seemed to have identified a slight chirping sound inside!
There seems to be prey inside, Brandon thought to himself. But where was the entrance to the cave?
He circled around the giant tree and finally found a small hole wide enough to enter, and covered by dead branches on the other side, the only resistance was the height.
Brandon stretched out his sharp claws and started climbing. With the first click, he pulled his weight to stand along the height of the trunk. With the second click, he brought himself closer to the hole. And with the third click, he had reached the entrance of the trunk hole.
The entrance appeared very clean, with no moss or fungus. There were only some fallen feathers on it.
It should be a bird's nest. Brandon silently judged.
The tree hole was not very deep, only about half a metre. When he peeked through the hole, at the bottom of that chamber was a bird's nest, with a group of newborn birds on it.
They had no hair on their bodies and their eyes had not yet opened. When they heard the noise from outside, they rushed to open their little mouths.
Brandon was secretly happy, he could have a big meal today. There were five birds in total. Brandon directly picked up one bird with his mouth, carefully climbed under the tree, and quickly ran to his cave.
The cave was no longer as simple as it was at the beginning. The space inside has been expanded a lot. There were dense whip marks on the walls, created when Brandon used his tail when he exercised.
With five rounds from tree to cave, he brought all of the birds to his cave. The bottom of the cave was covered in a layer of hay. In the corner, there were some fresh green leaves in the pit, covered with caterpillars. This was Brandon's snack-breeding ground.
Although the cave was simple, it was already a huge project for the underage lizard. This week, Brandon basically spent all his spare time developing the cave besides practising and foraging.
Brandon placed all five of the birds in the soft hay bed.
After some pondering over selection, he chose the smallest bird and grabbed it, beat it to near death with his paws, and swallowed it whole without daring to waste a second.
There was no fire here at all, so he have to eat it alive. But he have become accustomed to it after so many days. he just feel a little uncomfortable in my stomach. He grabbed another bird, beat it to near death, and swallowed it in the same manner.
His stomach felt a little bloated, so he gave up on trying to devour the next one. But there were still three left, it looked like he wouldn't be able to finish them today.
He threw a few bugs from the pit onto the birds, and said, "Eat more. You will be fatter tomorrow."
Now, Brandon had almost caught all the prey in the nearby grass. He had to find a new food source. Moreover, the caterpillars are too small and are no longer suitable for his size. They can only be used as snacks.
They're useful as a snack, especially the green caterpillars that have just eaten grass. They have a fresh grassy smell. He gulped on some saliva unconsciously as he thought about them. It was so embarrassing, Brandon cursed in his heart.
After taking a nap in the afternoon, he started exercising. The external training was stimulating muscle growth, enhancing muscle and bone strength. However, in the internal training method, the internal qi was used to promote the growth of muscles and bones.
Through internal qi circulation, the earth qi was cultivated, accumulated, and circulated. At the same time, the muscles and bones inside the body are stimulated to undergo secondary growth, making the bones as hard as iron and stone. Thus obtaining the "power of the tiger and leopard" mentioned in the Shaolin manual.
The Golden Bell is a perfect combination of the two. It trains the muscles, bones and skin externally and qi internally. The external and internal skills complement each other and are indispensable.
Now Brandon's strength was basically comparable to that of an adult monitor lizard, and the ability to dig a hole is no less than that of a pangolin. Brandon was secretly proud of it.
At night, he was too lazy to hunt again so he ate two remaining birds and a dozen caterpillars.
The next day, Brandon woke up from trance and heard a chirping sound. When Brandon saw it, it turned out to be the chirping of the last bird.
Brandon stretched out his claws and was about to kill the bird, but his mind became hesitant. His human part of soul was still finding a meaning in his endless quest for hunger and survival. He couldn't show it but his mind could feel that loneliness.
Thinking about it, he grabbed a few bugs from the breeding pit and fed them to the little bird's mouth. Little bird, you have to grow up quickly.
After that, Brandon stood upright on his feet and performed a non-standard Arhat punch. He only heard the sound all over his body. His bones were cracking, his growth had been too rapid recently. I feel like I'm growing up every day.
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