Of course, it didn't make sense!
Whether it was a Nen ability imposed by someone else or Post-Mortem Will carried by extreme resentment...
Removing or purifying it would always be a battle of attrition, something that could only be worn down slowly over time.
If the Post-Mortem Will inside the coffin had just been purified, there would inevitably be some "external manifestations."
For example, if the exorcism method involved a Nen Beast, then the Nen Beast would remain by the Exorcist's side until the Post-Mortem Nen was fully purified.
Alternatively, if the Post-Mortem Will was simply transferred onto oneself, obvious symptoms, such as tumors, would appear until the purification was complete.
The commonality between both methods was that most of the Exorcist's aura would concentrate around either the Nen Beast or the affected area.
Yet, the Morrow Tessa saw showed no such abnormalities.
"Sanbica, is he the only one here?"
Suppressing her shock, Tessa lowered her voice and asked.
Sanbica was still in a daze. Hearing her master's question, she instinctively replied, "Yes, only Morrow has been here."
Everyone who had worked at the Virus Research Lab had already been killed by Morrow.
As for those who had suffered through the human experiments, they had all been given the Antiviral Wonder Drug and relocated to the mansion.
As for Hisoka, he had long since grown bored and wandered off, his current whereabouts unknown.
After confirming this, Tessa still kept her voice low. "Ask him."
"Okay."
Sanbica nodded and took another careful look inside the coffin.
The unsettling black Nen from before had truly vanished.
Still amazed by this, she turned to Morrow, who was sitting at the table, and said softly, "Morrow, the Post-Mortem Will on the body... it's gone."
"Really?"
Morrow immediately feigned surprise, then followed up with a question. "How did it disappear?"
Not only did he cut Sanbica off, but he also threw the question back at her.
Sanbica shook her head. "I don't know. I was actually going to ask you."
"I don't know either. If you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't even have realized the Post-Mortem Will was gone." Morrow rested his cheek on his hand, speaking casually. "Maybe it disappeared because you developed the Antiviral Wonder Drug. Think about it; some lingering spirits only pass on after their last wishes are fulfilled."
"Oh, I see!"
Sanbica's eyes lit up as if she had just uncovered the truth, then turned to look at her master on the phone screen.
What she saw, however, was Tessa's visibly exasperated face.
"Sanbica, you actually believe that?"
At this point, Tessa wanted nothing more than to leap out of the screen, pry Sanbica's eyelids open, and force her to take a good, hard look at that boy's shameless expression.
"Uh..."
Sanbica hesitated, uncertainty flickering in her eyes.
Seeing this, Tessa rubbed her temples with one hand and sighed. "Sanbica, let me talk to him."
"Okay."
Sanbica obediently walked over and turned the phone toward Morrow.
Morrow looked at the woman on the screen.
She appeared to be around forty, her stern and rigid demeanor evident in her sharp brows and eyes.
What caught Morrow's attention, however, was the red tattoo on her face, a winding crimson snake passing through a diamond-shaped pattern, impossible to ignore.
"My name is Tessa. I'm Sanbica's master, and an Exorcist."
Tessa's voice came through the phone. Morrow nodded at Tessa on the phone screen and simply stated his name: "Morrow."
"Mmm, Sanbica mentioned you. Thank you for helping my foolish disciple."
Tessa expressed sincere gratitude, though it was limited to the matter of breaching the Virus Research Lab.
Morrow didn't accept the thanks, replying, "Sanbica helped me too. It was mutual assistance."
…
Tessa paused briefly before cutting straight to the point, bypassing further pleasantries. "Morrow, I want to ask you something, are you an Exorcist?"
Without waiting for permission, she posed the question directly, revealing a glimpse of her assertive personality.
Facing Tessa's inquiry, Morrow answered without hesitation: "No."
Tessa's eyes flickered slightly as she pressed on. "Did you remove the Post-Mortem Nen from the coffin?"
"No."
Morrow's response remained calm.
Tessa took the hint and didn't push further, instead thanking Morrow again for his help with Sanbica.
Soon after, she made an excuse about Sanbica needing to check on a patient's condition, prompting Sanbica to leave the tomb research facility.
—--
Morrow watched as Sanbica departed.
Only when her figure disappeared around the corner of the tomb passage did he withdraw his gaze, lowering his eyes to the Tree Rings on the back of his hand.
When absorbing the aura from Nen-imbued objects left by artists, he had never experienced any discomfort, though the charging efficiency wasn't particularly high.
Especially after the Tree Rings reached their second circle, the process became noticeably more difficult.
Yet, unexpectedly, absorbing Post-Mortem Nen had caused it to surge from 8 % to 19 % in one go.
On the flip side, after absorbing the Post-Mortem Nen, his mind had been assaulted by its violent, crushing aggression, as if trying to shatter his consciousness into fragments.
Not only that, but it had forcibly implanted information into his awareness...
That information was like a shard of glass embedded in his mind—not painful, just unsettling.
The slightest association would cause it to unfold into fragmented memory segments.
In those fragments stretched a barren, desolate land with no end in sight.
Gray. Cracked.
Everywhere exuded an air of deathly stillness.
Yet, upon that land grew a single sprout no larger than a palm.
The only plant in that lifeless expanse.
Though there was no wind, the sprout swayed gently.
With each sway, jagged, smiling mouths would occasionally split open across its vibrant green leaves.
It was extracting vitality from the earth with some unknown force...
Until a figure arrived and plucked the sprout.
The jagged mouths on the leaves instantly sealed into thin lines before vanishing entirely.
In the next moment, the dead land burst into life, greenery spreading as far as the eye could see, erasing every trace of gray and fissures.
Morrow took a deep breath and stopped dwelling on the information, allowing the memory fragments to fade back into the depths of his mind.
Extracting vitality...
As he murmured to himself, Morrow raised his hand, and a Shooting Star of fluorescent green quietly materialized. Within the energy sphere, a vivid emerald hue seemed to flicker.
The information embedded into his soul had naturally altered some properties of his ability.
As if, atop the foundations of Emission and Manipulation, Transmutation characteristic had been added.
More complicated now... Hard to say if that's good or bad.
Morrow stared at the Shooting Star, focusing on that speck of emerald green at its core like a stellar nucleus.
Complexity...
That had always been the defining trait of Specialists.
—--
He's lying. Tsk, at such a young age, he doesn't even bat an eye.
Inside the mud-brick house, Tessa on the phone screen was lightly furrowing her brows.
Hiding the truth was understandable, but still...
She needed to keep her foolish apprentice at a distance.
--------
2 more power stones for a bonus chapter.