At daybreak on the second day, Amos, who had finished his cultivation, and Kisho, who had just struggled out of his recent agony, opened their eyes at the same time, preparing to begin another life-or-death day.
"Morning~" Kisho twisted his stiff neck and greeted Amos.
Amos opened his eyes and looked at him. Although he wasn't used to greeting people, he still responded:
"...Morning."
"I didn't get the chance to ask yesterday, um... did you find the people you were looking for?"
"More or less." Amos thought for a moment and said, "But the few who are still alive have all been placed somewhere that's hard to get out from under surveillance. Bringing them here will be a bit troublesome."
Kisho frowned and asked, "Eh? Is it difficult?"
"It's not difficult, just troublesome." After a brief consideration, Amos said, "Take me to see Wenide today. I thought through several possibilities last night—letting them escape surveillance under the identity of having 'died in battle' is the most convenient method."
Kisho nodded. "Okay."
He stood up, continuing to loosen up his body as he spoke,
"After I take you to see Wenide, I won't be involved in White Eagle Association matters anymore. That's fine, right?"
"It's fine. Leave the rest to me." Amos curled the corner of his mouth toward Kisho and smiled calmly. "Don't worry, I'll also keep an eye out for your matters."
"That's great. By the way, you still remember the vice chairman I mentioned to you, right?"
Thinking of that vice chairman who had left a deep impression on him after just one meeting, Kisho knit his brows, stopped stretching, and asked seriously:
"...Do you have any way to deal with that vice chairman?"
"For now, it's fine," Amos replied, then explained, "I don't have any conflict of interests with him—at least not yet—so there's no need to deal with him for now."
"If we count the two of us, Wenide's faction is currently the strongest. And you told me that Wenide was promoted by the vice chairman. So on the surface, others will classify him as part of the vice chairman's faction."
He spoke softly, "If Wenide supports the vice chairman directly taking over as chairman, and he himself becomes vice chairman, the resistance he faces won't be too strong either."
"That's true. Anyway, whether the vice chairman becomes chairman or stays as he is, he won't really have any actual power. To him, the two positions aren't much different. At least this way, he still has a faction supporting him, ensuring his status isn't threatened."
Kisho relaxed. "When you think about it like that, his situation hasn't really changed at all compared to when Solzt was still around."
Amos snapped his fingers. "Exactly."
"Since that's the case," Kisho walked outside, "then let's head out now."
"After taking you to see Wenide, I'll come back and continue my cultivation."
...Ten days later...
After Kisho and Wenide returned from the East District that day, the other hall masters, seeing Beyer—who had narrowly survived after being gravely injured—looking utterly miserable, all put away their thoughts of targeting Wenide. Wenide thus firmly secured his position as hall master. On top of that, by killing Vincent and seizing his territory, Wenide became more and more established within the White Eagle Association.
As Wenide's influence continued to grow, Amos also made use of that power, leading people to overthrow several enemy strongholds in the East District. He killed everyone there, allowing those of his own faction inside the strongholds to escape under the guise of "fake death," change their identities, move to the West District, and join the White Eagle Association.
Kisho paid no attention to what happened within the White Eagle Association during those ten-plus days. Only when Amos contacted him would he briefly go help out.
All his remaining time was devoted entirely to cultivation.
He vaguely sensed that his Nen affinity was not the same as Noah Barton's—in other words, when he used Noah Barton's Nen ability, his original Nen ability would be replaced.
To verify this conjecture, which was completely different from what Vester had said, he once again performed the water divination test. The result was exactly as he had expected.
—When borrowing Noah Barton's "Nen" to use "Hatsu," the taste of the water would change depending on the element—"fire" was spicy, "water" was sweet. From this, it was evident that Noah Barton's Nen affinity was "Transmutation."
This change was actually quite practical. In the future, he wouldn't need to buy chili peppers or sugar anymore.
As Kisho poured out the water from the glass bottle, he sighed in amazement—Nen abilities were truly too strange.
Judging from his Song of the Four Seasons Nen ability, the badge could enhance the wearer's speed, strength, and stamina. That meant it should be an "Enhancement" ability, and when using it, Song of the Four Seasons had to be used as a medium to create the badge.
Therefore, when Song of the Four Seasons was taken away, it resulted in him having Nen but no Nen ability. Although he could still summon the Nen book, that was limited to mere "summoning." All abilities that required badges were completely invalid—once the badges were invalid, the bonuses originally provided by the instruments placed in the book were also invalid.
He let out a heavy sigh and cursed a certain someone ten thousand times in his heart.
If he were able to use the ability to condense badges, he guessed he could even use [Calamity's Mouth] to deal with the poison in his body—the thing that poisoned him was "Nen," not real poison. He wouldn't have needed to go to such lengths to find a way into Lashan Mountain in search of an inhibitor.
He cursed that same person another ten thousand times in his heart.
—That said, Noah Barton's "Transmutation" ability could convert Nen into "fire" and "water." If "fire" and "water" corresponded to Song of Raging Fire and Song of Clear Water within Song of the Four Seasons, then he should likewise be able to convert Nen into the "rock" and "wind" that also existed within Song of the Four Seasons.
During the ten days when Amos was running around busy, Kisho stayed holed up in the garbage mountain, developing his elemental abilities in preparation for any crisis that might arise at any time.
At noon, under the blazing sun.
Kisho sat on the ground, his left palm pressed against the earth, sensing everything within the ground that could resonate with his Nen.
Once his Nen was infused into the earth, he could feel every extremely subtle vibration within a ten-meter radius centered on himself. Even a cockroach crawling out of the garbage heap couldn't escape his perception.
Kisho sat there quietly, as if asleep.
His left eye suddenly snapped open, turning silver-blue without any warning. Ten meters in front of him, a rock spike as long as a finger and as thick as a wrist silently drilled out from beneath the ground, pinning a rat—probably a rat—that had crawled out of the garbage heap, dead to the earth.
The "rats" in the Meteor City industrial zone had no idea what they grew up eating. They were as big as house cats from his previous life, with blood-red eyes, long fangs, and terrifying aggressiveness.
"Chi chi chi~~"
The rat let out a shrill scream, green blood flowing from its wound. Pain and blood stimulated its ferocity, and its eyes grew even redder.
With a sudden heave, the rat forcefully snapped the rock spike.
It knew who had injured it. The blood-red eyes reflected Kisho's figure as it charged straight toward him.
However, halfway there, the rat's body abruptly stalled and fell into a mud pit that suddenly appeared on the ground without warning.
"Pu—" "Pu—"
Before the rat could crawl out of the pit, four or five more rock spikes shot up from underground, lightning-fast, piercing into its body and suspending it in midair.
"Chi—!"
The rat's entire body convulsed violently, thrashing about. As it struggled, streams of blood gushed from its wounds. Even so, this creature with extraordinarily strong vitality still didn't die.
Kisho remained silent. He raised his hand, and a wind blade slashed toward the rat, leaving a half-inch-deep wound on its neck and granting it release.
Kisho lowered his head, gazing at his hand, and muttered to himself:
"...Even though I've developed both 'wind' and 'rock,' the damage they can deal is still too low."
"When truly facing enemies, the only things that will probably be useful are 'rock's' sensing ability and its ability to create obstacles—even if the damage isn't high, what if it can make someone trip?"
Kisho gave a self-mocking smile, but his gaze remained firm. After making a slight adjustment, he once again entered cultivation.
If you feel that you're not strong enough, then keep working hard to make yourself stronger.
...
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