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Unaware of it, the bird was flying away freely and without worries. He flew straight for more than an entire day, tiring himself. But it was worth it as he arrived at the very end of the forest. He could see behind the trees a brand-new beginning. And more realistically, a plain.

In the far right, he could see a few dots that seemed to be buildings. Probably a city was on that side.

In the left, however, he could see giant mountain peaks.

His direction was obvious. He flew towards the mountains while remaining at low-altitude. Who knew what kind of creature he could meet now that he left the sect's grounds? It would be a shame to end up as a stronger spiritual beast's meal after doing all this.

He reached the mountain half a day later, there was a lot of flora around here too which was perfect. He entered through the dense foliage and, as soon as he found a tree hole big enough, which wasn't too hard considering most trees were at least four meters tall, he slept.

He fell down out of exhaustion.

It had been a tiring escape. But a successful one and he deserved some rest.

…

He woke up during the next night and decided not to go out. Instead, he began to take off the rings from the fingers. As he looked at the fingers, he had the instinct to eat them. It was natural due to him being a spiritual beast. Human meat was meat. It was difficult to resist the urge to the point that he stopped mid-way and picked the closest spatial ring in hope to find food rations.

Fortunately, he did. And so, he gorged himself. He ate till his stomach was ready to burst. Only then was he able to throw away the fingers without a care. He even snickered at his past self for having been tempted.

He was a spiritual beast now but he had lived as a human for longer. There were still some remnants of him who were against eating this kind of meat, human meat. As he grew as a beast, he might end up eating one someday and the thought was frightening him at the moment. The pure thought of it was scary. Especially he nearly did it out of hunger and instincts. He feared his evolution as a beast. It wasn't like he could stop now though.

He needed to become a sentient beast. There were no other options if he ever wanted to stay alive in this world. His existence would then change to a 'product' to a 'being'.

Once he finished delving on those saddening thoughts, he turned back towards the task at hand. A dozen spatial rings. It meant a dozen spatial storages to rummage through in hope to find useful things.

He checked them all one by one. He found dozens of spiritual pills. Obviously, disciples at the spiritual accumulation were nurtured further by the sect and given more resources. This was exactly what he hoped for. He would have enough for some time.

Also, there were quite a few beast cores in there. The disciples might have been looking for him but it didn't mean they would just give up on easy gains from other spiritual beasts. The unfortunate ones who died to them were offered a silent prayer from the owl. He swore that their sacrifice would be useful to him. Not like they would care. But he still wanted to show his respect to them since they would become nourishment for his future.

Beyond that, there was a lot of food. It was great news. He would be able to enter secluded meditation once again.

There were quite a lot of different items aside from those, ranging from random materials to weapons to books and some… Peculiar things he wasn't sure what to make off. He decided to push all of it aside for now. What mattered was one's cultivation stage. And he needed his to get higher. He couldn't stop.

He wasn't sure how long an owl's lifespan was but it was unlikely to be very long. If he didn't reach the 30th stage in time, he would die from old owl age. After all, only after crossing the 30th stage could a being's lifespan be extended. It would actually extend by a hundred years for every stage as he recalled.

Unfortunately, he never reached that stage in his previous life. This time, he truly didn't have a choice but to reach much further if he wanted to live a real 'life' in his human sense. He would have to go beyond his human self as an owl… It seemed difficult at first glance and it was. But the purpose of cultivation was to go past the limits of one's existence.

At least, and ironically, in this life, he had a better start. He could start cultivating right away and even had resources that fell into his lap. As he considered this fact, he became more positive in his way of thinking. If he used up all the cores and pills, he would be able to grow a lot and quickly. What's more, he had no responsibilities and no ties to care about. He could truly focus on cultivation.

This was something very rare in the human world. Young cultivators were always forced to work for things, even the youngest. Unless you came from some well-off families of course… Anyways, he had resources and time, there was no need to waste any of either.

He ate a pill and began his cultivation.