TL note: SRY for the mistake
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Although the Eye of Truth card possessed an ability akin to dream creation, considering its origins, Morrow had always kept his distance from it. A moment's thought was all it took to know that such items often concealed unforeseeable risks.
Eve, however, was exceptionally fascinated by the Nen System and paid no mind to the potential threats hidden behind the card.
This confidence of hers most likely stemmed from the assurance granted by her two abilities, Life as Dust and the Devil's harp solo.
Judging from the current situation, the Eye of Truth card likely had a contractual ability embedded within it, one that combined Manipulation and Emission.
Once a user utilized the card's convenience, whether once or multiple times, they would be deemed to have tacitly agreed to the embedded contractual terms.
And the general content of the contract was probably to construct a freely traversable portal within the user's shadow.
This also meant that people from the Eye of Truth could appear before Eve at any time through this shadow portal.
The mere thought of it was incredibly vexing.
It was a good thing Eve herself was not weak and could transfer the negative effects of the curse affliction through her ability.
Otherwise, she would have been done for long ago.
Hm?
It suddenly occurred to Morrow that perhaps the people from the Eye of Truth didn't want to kill Eve.
Otherwise, these expendable suicide soldiers, who used their lives to activate the curse affliction's power, could have just brought bombs to take her down with them.
Instead, after multiple failures, they continued to persist with their initial method of assassination.
"The people from the Eye of Truth might not have intended to kill you in the first place. They probably wanted to use the power of the curse affliction to achieve some other goal. It's just that you can transfer its effects, which is why they've never succeeded."
Morrow shifted his gaze from the corpse on the ground and looked up at Eve.
Eve said flatly, "No matter what they want to do, the final result will threaten my life."
"True."
Morrow nodded.
Eve's ability was extremely practical, but if it exceeded its tolerance limit, it would still directly threaten her life.
"Eve, I can help you deal with the carbonized effects of the Post-Mortem Nen at any time and protect you. But you should know that this is ultimately a temporary solution, not a permanent cure."
At this, Morrow paused slightly. He hesitated for a moment but quickly made a decision.
"So the best way is to find the mastermind and solve it from the root, or find an Exorcist who specializes in dealing with living Nen and see if they can remove this 'contractual ability' from you. But don't count on me to find someone."
Morrow's offer to help was mainly so he could continuously absorb Post-Mortem Nen from Eve.
As for finding the mastermind, he didn't have the time for that.
Before that, however, he could stay by Eve's side, waiting for the people from the Eye of Truth to deliver more Post-Mortem Nen to his doorstep while he researched how to combine a Nen space with an Unexplored Land.
At his current level, and with the upgrade bonus from the Tree Rings-improved Etude of Love, realizing this idea shouldn't be too difficult.
"I'm already working on that."
After the successive assassination attempts, Eve had already dispatched people to track down the core members of the Eye of Truth.
But although there had been some progress, the situation was still unclear.
The people from the Eye of Truth were mostly eccentrics and madmen who rarely gathered. Unless there was an important meeting, they always acted separately. This made the scope of the investigation too broad, making it difficult to achieve a substantial breakthrough.
But Eve didn't care about that at the moment.
A smile surfaced in her eyes as she asked softly, "But before that, Morrow, are you really willing to stay by my side?"
"Of course," Morrow said with a calm expression. "This is a transaction."
The smile in Eve's eyes instantly turned into a trace of helplessness.
"Alright, then. For this period, I'll entrust my safety entirely to you."
She gave her verbal agreement decisively.
Morrow nodded.
Confirming that Morrow would really stay by her side for a while, Eve's mood lightened considerably.
It wasn't that she truly needed Morrow's constant protection.
For her, it was enough for Morrow to come over and casually help her unload the effects of the Post-Mortem Nen when she was about to be overloaded.
What truly brought her joy now was that with Morrow around, she could have more in-depth exchanges with him in their daily lives and explore the mysteries of the Nen System together. That was what she cared about most.
A moment later.
The corpse lying on the floor of the tomb's antechamber was carried out by the guards.
Eve then led Morrow to a side chamber where the funerary objects were displayed.
The space here was no smaller than the antechamber. All sorts of burial goods were arranged in an orderly fashion. The most conspicuous among them were life-sized jade statues and a wide variety of weapons.
However, Morrow's attention didn't linger on these things at all.
The moment he stepped into the side chamber, he detected several extremely faint fluctuations of death aura from among the dazzling array of ritual vessels.
Evidently, among the pile of funerary objects, there were Nen tools similar to the Klein Bottle that needed to be activated to be used.
And there were more of them than he had expected, at least five or six.
Morrow didn't rashly reach for them, instead looking at Eve with an inquisitive gaze.
Eve nodded lightly.
Seeing this, Morrow strode toward the dazzling pile of funerary objects. Relying on his keen sensitivity to Post-Mortem Nen, he reached in and took out a bronze object with a faint fluctuation.
The bronze object had a rather peculiar shape, like a detached hilt.
The grip was carved with a spiral pattern, and the top was a handguard shaped like a ring of fire.
Morrow examined it for a few moments and quickly confirmed that this hilt-like bronze object was essentially the same type of thing as the Klein Bottle.
So, he tentatively injected a sliver of Tree Rings energy into the bronze hilt.
Suddenly, the instant he injected the energy, a translucent black aura blade pulsed into existence above the hilt without any warning.
The next second, however, the aura blade disintegrated and vanished.
This was obviously because Morrow had injected too little Tree Rings energy.
Isn't this a lightsaber?
Watching the black aura blade dissipate into thin air, Morrow looked at the hilt in his hand with some surprise.
As long as he injected energy, it could generate a blade condensed from that energy.
More importantly, the intensity of the energy produced after being converted by this hilt was clearly amplified.
Otherwise, the small amount of Tree Rings energy he had tentatively injected just now would have been completely incapable of condensing an aura blade.
In other words, this hilt possessed an energy amplification property.
Good stuff.
Morrow fiddled with the hilt, suddenly remembering the Abyssal Sheath he had set aside for a long time.
This lightsaber-like weapon might just be a perfect match for the Abyssal Sheath.
With this first gain, Morrow's gaze once again fell upon the dazzling pile of funerary objects.
With an ample supply of Tree Rings energy, these Nen tools, which might possess all sorts of strange abilities, were good things he couldn't afford to miss.
—--
While Morrow was collecting Nen tools in the royal tomb, in several places across the six continents, including within the Kukan'yu Kingdom, several kinds of calamities had begun to quietly spread toward humanity.
The source of these calamities was the modified human troops that Morena and Gyro had dispatched to the Dark Continent. After their exploration failed, the remaining modified humans retreated through several portals in ruins connecting the two lands, bringing the calamities back to the six continents with them.
Or rather, the calamities had simply used them as a path to smoothly descend upon the six continents.
And once a calamity began to spread among humans, it would inevitably bring about the demise of life on a massive scale.
—--
Yorbian Continent.
A village adjacent to a mountain range.
It was attacked by a diffuse mist-like life form.
No one in the village was spared. All the villagers were frozen into ice sculptures, refracting a cold brilliance under the twilight.
The terrifying thing about the diffuse mist-like life form was that as it spread over, if your body remained still, even the pupils in your eyes, you would freeze in an instant.
—--
And in a Dust People settlement in central Kukan'yu.
As the sun set and the last ray of twilight faded, there was no longer any sign of human life in this settlement, only white flakes of skin scattered across the ground like snow.
Calamity was beginning to threaten humanity's existence in all sorts of bizarre ways.
(Translated by yourtl.app)