"White Lion, I want to save it, you won't blame me, will you?"
Zhuang Rui crouched down and said to the white lion very seriously that he knew that golden eagles were very loyal to their mates, and if one died, the other would probably not live on alone.
Of course, this is not something Zhuang Rui only saw in martial arts novels; there are many such examples in nature.
"Waaah..."
The white lion growled softly. It only listened to Zhuang Rui and couldn't distinguish between good and evil. If Zhuang Rui said to save it, then it would save it.
Healing the white lion had consumed a lot of spiritual energy, so Zhuang Rui worked hard to condense a wisp of spiritual energy and, from dozens of meters away, let it seep into the wound of the female eagle.
Chapter 752 All Things in the World Have Feelings (Part 2)
"quack……"
Seeing his mate repeatedly getting up only to fall again, the male eagle spread its wide wings, like two hands, and supported the female eagle's body. The two golden eagles then stood in front of Zhuang Rui, supporting each other.
Zhuang Rui recalled a line from Wang Shifu's "The Romance of the Western Chamber": "Born to share the same bed, die to share the same grave, a pair of lovers for life," which describes a poignant love story.
At this moment, the emotions expressed by the pair of golden eagles in front of Zhuang Rui were no less than those of humans. Their mournful cries were like a knife piercing Zhuang Rui's heart.
"All things in the world have feelings..."
Zhuang Rui lowered his head and sighed softly, "Although humans stand at the pinnacle of life on Earth, we cannot erase the genuine and great emotions between some animals."
Because Zhuang Rui's spiritual energy was severely depleted, although the wisp of spiritual energy that had just entered the mother eagle's body could alleviate its pain, it was absolutely impossible to completely heal it.
At this moment, the mother eagle was still extremely weak, but her eagle eyes looked around and were still fixed on Zhuang Rui, constantly emitting mournful cries. Mother and child were of one mind, and the mother eagle had already sensed the presence of her child.
"I really made a mistake..."
Zhuang Rui shook his head. The golden eagle family was living a good life, but he had to interfere. Not only did he steal the chicks, but he also caused the mother eagle to be seriously injured. All of this was the original sin of his own desires.
"Go..."
Zhuang Rui unzipped the backpack on his chest, held the fledgling eagle, which was only slightly larger than a chick, in his hands, and carefully placed it on the ground.
"Chirp chirp... Chirp chirp..."
The little guy didn't know what was happening, but when he saw his parents in the distance, he immediately took off running towards them, making excited chirping noises as he ran.
Fearing something might happen to the eaglet, Zhuang Rui stayed close behind it. This snowy mountain wasn't just home to these few carnivores; there might be a jackal lurking in some bush.
"quack……"
Upon seeing Zhuang Rui return with his children, the male eagle raised its head high and let out a few warning cries. Although it was not afraid of Zhuang Rui, with its wife and children beside it, the male eagle had no opportunity to use its power.
"It's alright, don't get agitated, I'll treat its injuries..."
Zhuang Rui threw away the machete in his hand, unwrapped a roll of gauze, and waved it at the golden eagle. He didn't know if the eagle would understand, but Zhuang Rui really wanted to bandage the mother eagle's wound.
"Gah..."
As Zhuang Rui approached, the male eagle became somewhat agitated, flapping its enormous wings and knocking over the fledgling eagles that had just run over.
"Chirp chirp... Chirp chirp..."
The little guy, who had tripped and fallen, ran to his parents' side, then jumped onto the mother eagle's feet with a wronged expression, and turned back to bark at Zhuang Rui.
Although Zhuang Rui forcibly took it away, the fledgling eagle missed the feeling of being in Zhuang Rui's arms. The feeling of spiritual energy entering its body was as comfortable as returning to its egg and soaking in warm water.
However, the little one's cries clearly did not dispel the male eagle's doubts. It still let out a sharp cry, preventing Zhuang Rui from getting close. This gave Zhuang Rui a headache. How could he heal the female eagle if he didn't get close to her?
After thinking for a moment, Zhuang Rui poured the last trace of spiritual energy from his eyes into the male eagle's head. This cool spiritual energy immediately calmed the eagle down. Tilting its head, the eagle's sharp eyes looked at Zhuang Rui with some suspicion.
Based on his observations over the past two years, Zhuang Rui has found that animals are far more sensitive to spiritual energy than humans. Furthermore, animals that use spiritual energy for extended periods seem to be able to understand human language with ease; the white lion is the best example of this.
The greatest function of spiritual energy is to eliminate the hostility of animals. Both the snow mastiff and the snow leopard have proven this point. Moreover, the snow leopard seems to be getting used to Zhuang Rui's verbal commands. I believe that if it stays by Zhuang Rui's side for a long time, it will definitely be like the white lion.
Even the pair of golden eagles, after receiving Zhuang Rui's spiritual gift, became docile. After watching Zhuang Rui for about an hour, the feathers that had stood up on the male eagle's neck went down, and its outstretched wings were folded back down.
As for the mother eagle, it had already lost its hostility when Zhuang Rui used his spiritual energy to heal it from a distance. Of course, this only applied to Zhuang Rui himself. When she looked at the white lion, the mother eagle was still full of fighting spirit.
"Don't move, don't be afraid, it'll be over soon..."
Zhuang Rui cautiously approached the two golden eagles, while the fledgling eagle suddenly jumped onto Zhuang Rui's hand, gently pecking at his palm with its sharp beak. Its pair of dark, shiny eyes stared at Zhuang Rui with a dry look, as if it wanted Zhuang Rui to use his spiritual energy to groom its body.
"That won't do now. Even if there's spiritual energy, it must be used to heal your mother's injuries..."
Zhuang Rui smiled wryly, picked up the little guy and put him on his shoulder. Although he was only a little over a month old, the fledgling eagle's claws had already grown out. Grabbing Zhuang Rui's clothes on his shoulder, it stood quite steadily.
"Damn, the white lion is really fierce..."
Upon getting closer to the mother eagle, Zhuang Rui discovered that not only was a piece of muscle torn off the upper part of the mother eagle's right claw, but even its wing was severely injured. Its once soft and beautiful feathers were now covered in blood and stuck together.
Zhuang Rui had originally planned to pluck the feathers off the white lion and roast it after seeing its wounds.
However, upon seeing the pair of golden eagles' intelligence and emotions, which were no less than those of humans, Zhuang Rui now only wanted to save them. Not only that, but he also wanted them to be able to soar through the sky again. Fortunately, the trace of spiritual energy that Zhuang Rui had used earlier had stopped the bleeding from the mother eagle's wound. Otherwise, in such a short time, the bleeding alone could have taken the mother eagle's life.
After spraying the Yunnan Baiyao spray around the mother eagle's wound, Zhuang Rui took out gauze and bandaged the muscle on the mother eagle's right claw. He had no other choice; his spiritual energy was almost completely depleted, and even if there was a little left, he had to save it to treat the mother eagle's wing injury.
While Zhuang Rui was bandaging the mother eagle, this intelligent bird of prey remained completely still, except for a slight tremor at the very beginning.
Seemingly sensing his wife's pain, the male eagle gently stretched out his head and helped the female eagle groom the fur on her neck.
After bandaging the wound, Zhuang Rui didn't hesitate to use the last bit of spiritual energy he had left, pouring it all into the mother eagle's wings.
The long-lost stinging pain once again visited Zhuang Rui's eyes. If there were outsiders present, they would surely think that Zhuang Rui, who was now in tears, harbored some unspeakable thoughts about this magnificent female eagle.
"quack……"
After flapping her wings, the mother eagle felt that the pain from before had subsided considerably. Although she could not yet soar through the blue sky as before, gliding at low altitudes was no problem at all.
After flying dozens of meters, the excited mother eagle turned back and flew to Zhuang Rui's side. With her awe-inspiring sharp beak, she gently touched Zhuang Rui's feet, expressing her goodwill to him.
"Don't thank me, I caused all this trouble..."
Zhuang Rui's old face turned red, which was rare for him. The reason why the mother eagle was injured was because he coveted the eaglet. He was the real culprit.
However, Zhuang Rui knew he still had a conscience. If he left without a second thought, the result would likely be that the female eagle would die for her lover, the male eagle would die for love, and the remaining three eaglets would starve to death.
"Go back now, I'll come back tomorrow and heal your injuries..."
Zhuang Rui gently stroked the smooth feathers on the mother eagle's body. Only when he got closer did he realize that the golden eagle's feathers were not golden yellow, but rather chestnut brown, far from being golden. However, under the reflection of sunlight, they displayed a noble metallic luster.
"You should take this little guy back with you too..."
Zhuang Rui reluctantly held the fledgling eagle on his shoulder in his hands. To be honest, he felt that the fledgling eagle might not necessarily fare worse off with him than it would on the plateau.
In modern cities, private individuals no longer possess firearms. If a fledgling eagle were to follow you, the entire airspace of Beijing would be its domain—how prestigious that would be! Animal management regulations only state that golden eagles are a Class I protected animal in China, but they do not explicitly prohibit private ownership of them.
Moreover, Zhuang Rui treats all the animals around him with sincerity. For example, if the white lion had been willing to follow the Panchen Lama, Zhuang Rui would have been saddened, but he would still have respected the white lion's choice.
Zhuang Rui did not believe that animals kept by humans would necessarily lose their freedom and nature. Both were white lions, and neither had ever experienced a life-or-death battle. However, neither the snow mountain overlord nor the king of the sky was a match for the white lion.
Of course, Zhuang Rui forgot to mention the spiritual energy cheat he saw in his eyes. Without the nourishment of spiritual energy, the white lion probably wouldn't have grown to its current size.
"Chirp chirp... Chirp chirp..."
After Zhuang Rui put the little guy on the ground, he was unwilling to leave. He cried out to his parents a few times, and then looked at Zhuang Rui with pleading eyes, looking pitiful.
"You're willing to be with me?"
Zhuang Rui's eyes immediately lit up. As long as the little guy was willing, that was fine. As for the two golden eagles beside him, Zhuang Rui would explain to them what it meant for parents not to interfere with their children's marriage... uh, wrong, parents should respect their children's choices in life.
"Gah..."
To Zhuang Rui's surprise, the young eagle's parents were far more open-minded than he had imagined.
The mother eagle let out a cry, then lowered her head and rubbed the eaglet's face back and forth a few times with the side of her sharp beak, looking very reluctant to part with it.
Chapter 753 Spirituality
After cuddling with the eaglet, the mother eagle did something that surprised Zhuang Rui: she carefully picked up the little guy with her sharp claws and handed it to Zhuang Rui.
"This...this is for me?"
Zhuang Rui hadn't expected that the mother eagle, despite being seriously injured, insisted on going out to find her eaglet, but now she had given the little guy to him. This shocked Zhuang Rui and made him feel deeply ashamed.
"Don't worry, I will make sure it grows up healthy and strong, and I will definitely make it the king of the sky..."
Zhuang Rui almost trembled as he reached out and cradled the little guy in his hands. He pressed his cheek against the little creature's fluffy body. He absolutely adored this elf-like fledgling eagle.
"quack……"
The mother eagle glanced at her children with sharp yet tender eyes, then flapped her wings and soared into the sky with the father eagle, flying towards their cave, where three more hungry chicks awaited their arrival.
"White Lion, you're not angry, are you?"
Back with his own people, Zhuang Rui smiled and groomed the white lion's neck fur. The white lion loved this gesture the most; whenever this happened, it would comfortably lie down on the ground and play with Zhuang Rui.
This time was no exception. The loyal white lion was not angry because Zhuang Rui had just gone to rescue his enemy. It stuck out its tongue and licked Zhuang Rui's big hand, its eyes looking curiously at the little eaglet standing on Zhuang Rui's shoulder.
Zhuang Rui smiled and placed the eaglet on the white lion's head, saying, "Well, this is your new brother...sister. Okay, I don't know if this little guy is male or female, but don't bully it..."
The little creature seemed to sense the comfortable spiritual energy within the white lion's body. Instead of being afraid of the white lion, it gently pecked at its head with its sharp beak, making the white lion ticklish and shake its head.
"Let's go back up the mountain..."
Zhuang Rui glanced at his watch; it was already past four in the afternoon. Even without the task of treating the mother eagle tomorrow, he wouldn't be able to make it back to the mountain village at the foot of the snow mountain today and would have to stay another day.
"Xiaoxue, go catch something to eat..."
The white lion has worked hard today and is injured, so it should be treated well. The hunting can be left to the snow leopard.
In the snowy mountains during July and August, snow leopards, as the top predators of the food chain, have no worries about food. In these remote and untouched snowy mountains, argali sheep and wild rabbits can be seen almost everywhere.
Zhuang Rui felt that with these guys around him, he could survive on this snow mountain even without any supplies. Of course, he still needed to wear warm clothes, otherwise the snowy mountain in winter would definitely freeze him like an icicle.
The snow leopard truly lives up to its reputation as the king of the snow mountains. Although it couldn't hunt large animals like yaks, it returned to Zhuang Rui's temporary camp just over half an hour later, carrying a argali sheep weighing seventy or eighty pounds.
Zhuang Rui cut open the sheep's belly with a knife and threw the internal organs to the snow leopard, which loved to eat them. Then he cut off two hind legs and gave them to the white lion and its prospective mate to gnaw on. The hind leg meat, weighing more than 20 pounds, was enough for them to have a hearty meal.
Finally, Zhuang Rui cut the tender meat from the back of the argali sheep into strips the size of earthworms. He didn't need to feed it himself; he just placed the strips in front of the eaglet. The little guy excitedly chirped, pecked at the meat with its sharp beak, and then tilted its head back, swallowing the strip in one gulp.
"Alright, so animals also overeat..."
When Zhuang Rui saw that the little guy had eaten seven or eight meat strips in a row, he quickly cleaned up the rest. What if he ate himself to death? Wouldn't he be unjustly killed?
After serving several ancestors, Zhuang Rui slowly started a fire and began preparing his own dinner. No one urged him, and Zhuang Rui worked very leisurely.