How to Lift Shizuku's Sweater

After repeated testing, Jing Yang discovered that his Star Mark ability had gained another application under No. ① Manipulation: after his consciousness occupied a target's body, he could free up some "brain capacity" for the controlled target, allowing them to communicate within the mind...

But fundamentally, this was still No. ① Manipulation. Jing Yang still controlled the target's body from the first-person perspective.

And once Jing Yang wanted the target to take over its body, his consciousness immediately went offline... This did not match Jing Yang's ideal scenario: a controlled bird continuing to act like a normal bird while his consciousness lurked in its mind, secretly monitoring enemies through its senses.

Controlling the Fanged Moon Tiger's body as it wandered around, Jing Yang thought, "But since we can communicate mentally, I should be able to 'update' its instructions before I 'go offline,' right?"

Jing Yang released his No. ① Manipulation over the Fanged Moon Tiger, then looked up at another white bird that was following his orders and serving as the tiger's wingman in the sky. He directly issued a command through No. ③ Manipulation. "Fly in an ∞ pattern."

The Star Mark on the white bird's beak flickered. As soon as the command changed, Jing Yang immediately switched to No. ① Manipulation, and his consciousness instantly occupied the bird's body in the sky.

Jing Yang only "logged in" for a few seconds, did nothing, then immediately "logged out."

Sure enough, the white bird continued carrying out its previous "No. ③ command," circling through the sky in an ∞ pattern... Jing Yang possessed the bird again, leaving room in its consciousness, and told it mentally, "After I leave, land on Wu Er's tail."

Having given the instruction, Jing Yang immediately "logged out" again.

This time, the white bird no longer circled along the ∞ trajectory. It immediately tucked in its wings, dove into the forest like a crashing plane, made a loop, then deftly flapped down onto Wu Er's tail.

Wu Er tilted its head. Naturally, it could not understand what Jing Yang was doing with all this fuss.

"A little cumbersome," Jing Yang assessed himself. "It's pretty roundabout... It'd be great if I could directly evolve an ability for 'telepathy' with Star Mark holders. But the essence of the Star Mark seems to be 'manipulation.' If I want to forcibly change that, then I either need to keep training diligently and improve my Manipulator proficiency, or add more 'restrictions' for the sake of a new ability..."

Instinctively, Jing Yang felt it was better to preserve the Star Mark's fundamental nature as a manipulation ability.

If he made the ability too convoluted and insufficiently clear and intuitive, only to end up lacking enough memory capacity and getting his head spun around by the rules he had designed himself, wouldn't that be completely screwed?

"For now, this will do. It's enough!"

Jing Yang let out a long breath and clenched his fist. A layer of Aura wrapped around it. "I can't get my priorities backwards. My recent training focus should still be increasing my Nen quantity and reinforcing the basics."

"Wu Er, let's go. Show me the perfect training spot you found for me."

Jing Yang vaulted onto the tiger's back, brought along the Rock Sparrow and the other two white birds, and sped away.

Along the way, Jing Yang casually caught quite a few more birds. This time, he was extremely patient. On their bellies, backs, beneath their claws, and various other locations, he placed Star Marks on each of the dozen or so birds. While ensuring each mark remained a Pentagram, he made them as small as possible. After giving them instructions, he tossed them into the sky.

Flutter, flutter... The flock flew into the blue sky, splitting into three groups as they headed deep into the distant woods.

After all that, Jing Yang was tired enough to pant. He had estimated that applying a Star Mark cost about 66 Aura. For someone whose total Nen quantity was currently only 1,000 Aura, those dozen birds had been no small undertaking. Fortunately, Jing Yang had rested intermittently while "signing" them. Otherwise, he probably would have been in rough shape by now.

As for why he had divided the dozen birds into three groups, it was because the people led by the Ochima officials who had stayed at the small West Town hotel last night had already left early this morning and begun splitting up.

Slooe, the young Ochima official whose hair had already receded, had taken Kang Jae—suspected to be Tiger of the Zodiacs from the Hunter Association—and driven directly around to the south side of the island. Jing Yang had looked at a map. That direction seemed to be where the main entrance of the peninsula's Fanged Moon Tiger Sanctuary was located.

Meanwhile, Shizuku and the other civilian amateur Hunters who had been hired changed into casual clothes and quietly infiltrated the sanctuary's outermost perimeter from another direction.

The Fanged Moon Tiger Sanctuary run by Blanche Company was divided into three layers, inside and out: the outer zone, the buffer zone, and the core zone, which no one was permitted to enter.

Jing Yang did not rashly have the Jing Green Bird that was tailing them follow Slooe's car. He had a nagging feeling about the glance Kang Jae had cast back before entering the hotel last night, and it made his skin crawl. That "Tiger," who looked none too bright, seemed to possess the sharp instincts of a beast... Then again, he was one of the Hunter Association's high-ranking Zodiacs!

If he let this Jing Green Bird linger around Tiger again, the risk of it being noticed would be too great.

So Jing Yang sent a group of about six birds to find Kang Jae's car. He guessed they had gone directly into the sanctuary to talk business with Blanche Company, so they should not be too hard to find.

Come to think of it, Jing Yang had no connection to either Kang Jae or the Ochima officials. But since Kang Jae was one of the "Hunter Association Zodiacs" Jing Yang knew of, he could not help being curious.

Jing Yang sent six birds over, but did not have them all approach at once. His instructions were for only two of them at a time to land nearest the target and observe, while the other four rotated in. He also mixed up the pairings from time to time, doing his best to keep the birds from catching the attention of that sharp-instincted fellow.

The other two groups of birds received the same arrangements.

The Jing Green Bird left by the North Coast cruise ship was nearly at its limit. Though Jing Yang felt he had already withdrawn far enough and only dared to quietly observe Babimayna and the others from the treetops two hundred meters away, he had a feeling that the man who seemed like an upgraded Miyagi Ryota might already have noticed him—not necessarily seen through him, but with his strong vigilance and observational skills, he might have formed an impression of this Jing Green Bird that kept appearing nearby.

That original pair of Jing Green Birds should not be sent out to tail anyone again.

The "Jing Green Bird" perched in the treetops watched from afar as Babimayna and the others on the shore two hundred meters away appeared to have discovered corpses beneath the nearshore water... He turned to look at the six "new birds" flying in. Time for a shift change.

On Jing Yang's actual body's side, he had already ridden the tiger while walking the birds to the supposedly excellent training spot Wu Er had found, a place with water and open ground. He jumped down from the tiger's back and patted it, signaling that it had done well.

Meanwhile, from his other perspective, inside the body of the Jing Green Bird that had not followed Kang Jae but had instead quietly trailed Shizuku and the others as they infiltrated the sanctuary's outskirts from the sky, Jing Yang silently observed them—though to be frank, he was mainly observing Shizuku.

Her shoulder-length black hair was somewhat messy. She wore a pair of glasses of uncertain prescription that kept sliding down her nose. And regardless of whether she was hot or not, she wore a slightly fitted black sweater...

Jing Yang focused on the black sweater she was wearing.

After entering the sanctuary, Shizuku and the others seemed to discuss matters for a while. After agreeing on a time to regroup, they split up and scattered through the sanctuary woods, apparently looking for something, though they did not seem to know exactly what themselves... Still, their separation made things easier for Jing Yang. Controlling the Jing Green Bird, he descended and landed on a branch, then continued staring at Shizuku's black sweater.

Every member of the Phantom Troupe had a numbered Spider Tattoo somewhere on their body.

If he remembered correctly, Shizuku's Spider Tattoo was on the left side of her abdomen, numbered 8.

By his recollection, Shizuku should not have joined the Phantom Troupe yet this year, but who knew for sure? What if those strange, ghostly Phantom Troupe bastards were on this island...

"I need to find a way to lift her sweater and take a look."

Possessing the bird on the branch, Jing Yang thought to himself. He swore he had no improper thoughts; he merely wanted to confirm whether this girl had joined that band of thieves yet.

Saving a girl who was about to embark on a path of crime was urgent, friends!

Naturally, Shizuku had no idea that a bird in a roadside tree had such strange thoughts. She walked through the sanctuary as if taking a stroll, extremely curious about the rumored Fanged Moon Tigers and hoping to encounter one.

Back to Jing Yang's actual body.

Thanks to every controlled target's brain functioning as an external "CPU" for him, Jing Yang could multitask so smoothly. While remotely keeping tabs on the progress of Kakin's Babimayna and the others, pondering how to lift Shizuku's sweater, and joining in to watch Kang Jae and the others, he was also patrolling around the "training paradise" Wu Er had found.

This place really did meet his requirements. It had open ground and water.

It just had one drawback: the water was undrinkable.

It was salty.

Seawater!

Under Jing Yang's stare, Wu Er guiltily lowered its head.