The funerary objects of the past Kings of Kukan'yu were by no means easy to retrieve from the royal tomb.
Morrow was well aware of this.
Only someone like Eve, leading the charge, could possibly pull off such a thing.
But as the beneficiary, Morrow naturally wouldn't be overly zealous in reminding her.
Besides, Eve's personality and methods were both very forceful; it might be useless to say anything anyway.
Night fell.
The last trace of twilight on the horizon was devoured by darkness.
Eve led Morrow onward, bypassing layer after layer of tomb guards, and finally stopped before a towering palace.
The Kukan'yu Kingdom was an ancient super-state that had endured since the Age of Contention. It had always used strict laws to consolidate royal power and maintain the royal family's image, placing extreme importance on the final resting places of its members.
Morrow had previously infiltrated the royal tomb of a Kukan'yu consort to help Kanzai resolve a matter of Post-Mortem Nen.
He remembered that tomb was built with extreme luxury, even featuring a triple-gated mountain entrance hall.
Now, following Eve to the burial grounds of successive monarchs, the magnificent palace built above ground before him was so grand in scale that it was not inferior to the main hall of the Kukan'yu capital palace.
And this was merely the entrance to the underground tomb.
This point alone showed how much importance the Kukan'yu Kingdom placed on this matter.
Yet Eve, as the current monarch, was about to lead him into the tomb to casually take funerary objects...
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it an act of high treason.
Morrow glanced at Eve's back, quietly concealing a flicker of strangeness in his eyes.
He followed Eve to the entrance of the underground tomb.
It was a massive, heavy stone gate. Normally, such a gate would be sealed forever after the tomb's completion.
However, he saw Eve reach out and feel around the intricate carvings on the door's surface, quickly touching a hidden compartment.
As the mechanism was triggered, a low rumbling sound arose, and the entire stone gate slowly slid to the right.
This was a functioning door, not a sealed one.
A trace of surprise flashed in Morrow's eyes.
He had thought that when Eve took funerary objects from the royal tomb before, she had entered through some other secret passage. He never expected that this seemingly sealed stone gate was actually a functional door.
From this, it seemed this royal tomb might also serve as an escape route for members of the royal family.
The stone gate opened.
A wave of cold, damp air, mixed with a fluorescent green glow, emanated from the depths of the passage.
The light source came from candles burning quietly on the stone walls on both sides. The fluorescent green flames flickered eerily, and there was no telling how many years they had been burning in this silence.
Eve gestured for Morrow to follow and then descended the stone steps.
The fluorescent green light enveloped the two of them, stretching their shadows forward, extending all the way into the deeper parts of the tomb.
After descending the stone steps, they arrived in a spacious antechamber.
Under the fluorescent green glow, the four walls were bare and empty.
"The funerary objects are all displayed in the side chambers."
Eve stepped onto the antechamber floor, explaining as she walked forward, "But the side chambers are at the very back, so we still have a way to go."
Morrow followed her silently.
Just as the two reached the center of the antechamber, a barely perceptible aura fluctuation suddenly appeared from the darkness in front of Eve.
Immediately after, a gaunt man silently emerged from the shadows beside her. The cold glint of a sharp blade in his hand flashed, striking toward Eve's throat like a bolt of lightning.
Faced with this sudden attack, Eve seemed not at all surprised. Her right hand flew to the dagger at her waist, about to draw it to block.
But Morrow's movement was faster than the assassin's blade and Eve's reaction.
In a single instant, he teleported to the spot, his explosive aura causing the air to stagnate.
For a moment, both the assassin and Eve felt their hair stand on end, stimulated by Morrow's terrifying aura fluctuation.
The next instant, as Morrow revealed his form, his right hand shot forward, seizing the assassin's neck a step faster than the blade. He then rushed forward several steps, lifting the man high into the air.
"Cough...!"
The assassin's eyes widened. Though he was struggling to breathe, he was still trying to fight back.
Crack.
With a crisp snap, Morrow decisively broke the assassin's neck.
All struggling ceased abruptly.
He released his hand, and the body fell heavily to the ground, the thud echoing in the empty antechamber.
Eve's dagger was only halfway out of its sheath.
She lowered her gaze to the corpse on the ground, then looked up at Morrow, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly.
"It seems this isn't the first time you've faced a similar attack."
Morrow turned to the side, looking at Eve's calm and composed reaction.
"Is the reason you're so severely 'carbonized' this time because you've been frequently assassinated?"
With a soft clang, Eve pushed the ruby-encrusted dagger back into its sheath.
"Yes, but not entirely."
"Oh?"
Just as Morrow's question arose, a sudden change in the corpse provided Eve's answer for her.
A jet-black Nen surged from the body and rushed straight at Morrow.
Eve's gaze followed the ominous black aura as she explained softly, "This seems to be a type of 'Post-Mortem Nen' ability. All these people who come to assassinate me trigger it when they fail and die."
Before her words had even finished, the black aura had already coiled around Morrow's body.
But Morrow simply raised his right hand and swatted casually, as if brushing away dust. The powerful Post-Mortem Nen was completely swept into his Tree Rings.
Eve's words continued just then, "But if it's you, it should be..."
Seeing how easily Morrow had dealt with the curse's power, she didn't continue, smiling faintly instead.
During this period, she had indeed experienced many assassination attempts.
Relying on the combination of her Harp Sonata and Life as Dust abilities, she could counter this type of curse through direct transference.
However, as the number of times accumulated, the carbonized price she had to bear gradually approached her limit.
After converting the Post-Mortem Nen from the curse into experience points, Morrow looked down at the corpse and said, "Emerging from the shadows... it's like the stealth arts from Jappon, but this person's attire doesn't look like a ninja's... Hmm?"
His gaze swept over the eye-patterned tattoo on the corpse's neck, and he suddenly looked up at Eve.
"Someone from the Eye of Truth?"
"Yes."
Eve nodded.
Morrow pressed on, "Does every assassin not only leave behind a curse, but also appear using shadows as a portal?"
Eve nodded again.
A flash of understanding crossed Morrow's eyes. He said flatly, "To be able to achieve this ability's effect so easily, it's probably because you used a card from the Eye of Truth, right? But why do they want to kill you?"
"Hah, they want to get something from me, but I refused. That's the motive," Eve replied with a smile.
Morrow didn't ask what the "something" was, nor did he press for more details. Instead, he asked, "Need help?"
"Hmm?"
Eve was quite surprised by Morrow's initiative.
Morrow continued, "For a fee."
In fact, as for the reward...
If these assembly-line assassins could continuously come after Eve, wouldn't that be a stable Mob Spawner?
(Translated by yourtl.app)