The mission to heal the villagers was successfully completed.
For Sanbica, this was a job with no monetary reward and carried certain risks.
But as she had said, curing the villagers was the best reward she could ask for.
However...
The situation took an unexpected turn.
Although the antiviral medication had been developed, the source of the problem still needed to be addressed.
Thus, Sanbica had no choice but to seek help from her master, an Exorcist.
"Sanbica, I hate to disappoint you, but I don't know any Exorcists skilled in purifying Post-Mortem Nen. In fact, you could count the number of Exorcists capable of such a feat on one hand."
On the other end of the phone, after listening to Sanbica's explanation, the Exorcist fell silent for a moment before delivering an answer that left Sanbica disheartened.
"And don't keep ignoring what I've told you before. You've already done more than enough for your profession by healing the villagers without expecting anything in return. That's sufficient. Don't take on risks beyond your capabilities."
"But, Master..."
Standing by the window of the mud-brick house, Sanbica gazed at the darkening sky outside and said, "That Post-Mortem Will is directly linked to the virus."
"Sigh."
Inside an ancient ruin, Tessa let out a sigh over the phone, utterly helpless against her stubborn disciple.
Though she truly admired the rare and precious qualities her disciple possessed...
"Sanbica, the negative energy of Post-Mortem Nen is too strong for me to purify. But we can suppress its spread through methods like sealing it. That's the best compromise we can make. As for complete eradication… don't even think about it. Even if you could find an Exorcist skilled in purifying Post-Mortem Nen, they would refuse."
Realizing that Sanbica was determined to deal with the Post-Mortem Will, Tessa had no choice but to accommodate her.
Sanbica asked in confusion, "Why is that...?"
"Silly child."
Tessa sighed. "Because of the risks, of course."
She was well aware of Sanbica's abilities and understood that such reasoning might not seem particularly harsh to Sanbica.
But for an Exorcist, every act of Nen exorcism required careful and thorough consideration.
Assessing risks was an essential skill for any Exorcist.
If an Exorcist chose to take on a target beyond their capabilities, the outcome was usually disastrous.
On top of that, purifying Post-Mortem Nen carried even greater risks.
So even if an Exorcist possessed the ability, they would more often resort to sealing or weakening the Nen rather than purifying it outright.
Only under absolute necessity would they risk transferring the Nen onto themselves.
That was one aspect.
But there was another, even more critical point.
After an Exorcist transferred the Nen onto themselves, if they couldn't completely remove or purify it...
Then, even if the Exorcist could suppress the threat of the Nen through their own strength, they would effectively lose their Nen exorcism ability.
After all, if they couldn't remove the current Nen, they wouldn't be able to lift the ability and move on to the next exorcism.
Because of this, in terms of risk, even positive aura left on Nen-imbued objects was seen as equally dangerous by Exorcists.
For example, the aura left on a famous blade by a master craftsman, or the Nen intent lingering on a sword after years of use by a master swordsman...
Such pure and extreme Nen intent was no easier to remove than Post-Mortem Nen. The only difference was that it didn't carry the same risks. So no Exorcist would go out of their way to deal with such a harmless yet potentially irremovable Nen intent crafted with ingenuity—unless there was some benefit to be gained.
Tessa didn't elaborate further and got straight to the point: "Anyway, I've agreed to help. Open a video call later so I can assess the strength of that Post-Mortem Nen first."
"Understood, Master."
Sanbica smiled and immediately headed toward the Tomb Research Institute while chatting with Tessa.
In her view, as long as her master intervened, even if the Post-Mortem Nen couldn't be completely eradicated, its potential threats could at least be suppressed.
—--
Meanwhile.
Morrow ended his call with Argo.
Before deciding to attack this place, he had already given Argo some instructions.
The most crucial one was infiltrating the Tomb Research Institute to seize control of all computer and network-based permissions.
However, to avoid leaving traces, Argo only launched his hacking operation after Morrow had secured the situation.
Thus, the armed forces of the Tomb Research Institute had likely reported the attack before engaging Morrow and Hisoka.
Morrow wasn't concerned about this.
He wore a gas mask, thoroughly concealing his identity.
Of course, in a world with such terrifying intelligence capabilities, evading pursuit was likely only possible for someone like Ging Freecss.
Morrow didn't expect the Menu Organization to fail in tracking him down.
In fact, he hoped they would send more assassins like that Nen user from last time, who could materialize their body into a Hearth.
But regarding the assault on the Tomb Research Institute, Hisoka, who had taken no measures to disguise himself, would undoubtedly become the Menu Organization's primary target for investigation and retaliation.
Putting away his phone, Morrow returned to the coffin.
In his hand was a bottle of the special medicine Sanbica had prepared.
Let's give it a try.
Morrow's pupils reflected the corpse and the black Post-Mortem Nen.
Risk and reward.
Having long understood this principle, he ultimately decided to use Tree Rings to absorb this Post-Mortem Nen, which could endlessly generate viruses.
Once resolved, he acted swiftly.
Morrow reached out and grabbed the black Nen.
In an instant, the drifting black Nen, like smoke, seemed drawn by an unseen force and surged directly toward the back of Morrow's hand.
Under Morrow's unwavering gaze, the Post-Mortem Nen soon vanished, and the green energy bar in the Second Circle Growth Ring skyrocketed, leaping from 8% to 19%.
Simultaneously.
Fragments of information about this Post-Mortem Nen inexplicably surfaced in Morrow's mind.
Just like when he had focused his mind on the "X" mark on his hand before, the knowledge emerged naturally.
But this time, it came with a storm of destructive negative emotions that crashed against his psyche.
Morrow frowned slightly but remained unfazed.
The countless death experiences he had voluntarily endured before seemed to have forged an irreplaceable defensive barrier within him.
—--
Much later.
Sanbica arrived at the central area of the tomb and saw Morrow sitting at a table, examining the Scarlet Eyes.
"Morrow."
She greeted him.
Hearing her, Morrow nodded in acknowledgment. At this moment, Sanbica's phone was recording a video, and the camera inadvertently captured Morrow in the frame.
Tessa, upon seeing Morrow, scrutinized him carefully.
During their earlier call, Sanbica had mentioned Morrow multiple times.
However, the Post-Mortem Will was still the priority for now, so Tessa urged Sanbica to hurry.
Hearing Tessa's prompt, Sanbica quickly approached the coffin, only to freeze in shock.
Inside the coffin, there was no trace of Post-Mortem Will left.
Through the camera feed, Tessa could see the situation inside the coffin more clearly than Sanbica, noticing faint traces of lingering black death aura.
This was clearly the fragile aura that an Exorcist had filtered out before transferring the exorcism, residual Nen too weak to be worth removing. Typically, such fragile aura would dissipate on its own after losing its source.
This meant that someone had just removed the Post-Mortem Nen from the coffin.
And before Sanbica entered, Morrow had been the only one inside.
In an instant, Tessa reached a conclusion.
If it really was Morrow...
But how was that possible?
The video just now showed no sign of anything unusual about him.
As this thought crossed her mind, a look of shock slowly spread across Tessa's face.
How... could this make sense?!