So Twitchy—Are You a Conjurer?

Jing Yang rubbed Wu Er's tiger head, gave him another hug, then continued wandering around the area while recovering the Aura he had spent creating more than a dozen Star Marks at once.

After resting enough, he resumed his routine training, much like during the past few days when he had lived like a wild man.

Ten, Zetsu, Ren, Hatsu...

Gyo, Shu, Flow, Ken...

This time, aside from his Emitter training, Jing Yang no longer skipped the Manipulator portion.

He realized that although he had become quite proficient at using Star Mark, there was still plenty of room to develop it from other angles. He had a great deal of room to improve.

As for Emitter training, he only remembered the level-five method Biscuit had mentioned while teaching Gon in the manga—doing a one-handed handstand, releasing Aura from the palm to push oneself backward until one could float.

So Jing Yang did a one-handed handstand.

He tried releasing Aura from his palm. Very quickly, his supporting hand jolted, and an invisible force bounced him off the ground. His palm swayed unsteadily, rising a full five centimeters from the ground...

"Holy shit, I can fly!"

Jing Yang got so excited that he nearly toppled over headfirst. When his palm was only half a centimeter from the ground, he barely managed to stop himself, continuously spraying masses of Aura from his palm to compress the ground and rebound upward.

"This is way more exhausting than maintaining Ken..."

Jing Yang lasted less than a minute before falling down.

But he never got tired of it. Whenever he grew exhausted from one exercise, he switched to another. Standing on level ground, he gave a low shout and released Ren throughout his body, then seized the right moment to wrap himself in Ten, forming Ken.

Time trickled away as Jing Yang trained alone...

He had gone out early in the morning. By now, the sun had slowly climbed overhead, and it was probably already past ten.

As noon approached, livelier sounds of daily life drifted over from East Town along the coast behind him.

When Jing Yang grew tired from training, he played with Wu Er for a while. He ate something simple himself, took a stroll to rest, and casually fed a bird.

This was already the southernmost part of the East Coast, very close to the exit of the Ghost Island peninsula leading farther inland. And because of that, Jing Yang found it increasingly strange. Although he had not come out by way of East Town's main road, as he looked around along the way, he found that there was not even a proper road built through the outskirts between East Town and the inland!

Did all those swarming amusement park tourists enter through the harbor by ship?

Following the "seawater creek" Wu Er had discovered southward, Jing Yang reached the point where the seawater stopped flowing. Jagged rocks lay everywhere, making for a convenient place to sit and rest, but he suddenly noticed something strange.

This was more or less the boundary between Ghost Island and the mainland.

Yet the geology before and behind him was vastly different—more specifically, the direction Jing Yang had just come from still looked like ordinary ground in a forest, but the rugged boundary one step ahead looked as though coastal reefs had been forcibly moved here.

"What happened here? Did two islands get stitched together?"

Jing Yang muttered jokingly.

"Yes, and no." Someone nearby suddenly spoke. Jing Yang turned and saw a burly yet round man with a huge natural afro held back by a headband, sausage lips ringed with stiff stubble, thick body hair, and an oddly honest-looking face. Beside him stood Menchi, the green-haired hottie, flashing Jing Yang a V-sign with a mischievous grin.

Jing Yang ignored the girl's cute act and asked the big man, "What's right, and what's wrong?"

The big man looked down at the jagged "boundary." "The Ghost Island beneath our feet wasn't originally here. As for why it appeared here, there is still no answer."

With her arms folded, Menchi nodded. "That's right. When I searched for Ghost Island online yesterday, I found it strange too. Why was there not a single result about this island suddenly appearing twenty-four years ago?"

"This island suddenly appeared twenty-four years ago..." Jing Yang immediately understood.

Babimayna and Slooe's cryptic exchange earlier had been because this island had originally been territory within the Kakin Kingdom? It seemed that ever since then, Kakin and Ochima had been wrangling legally over ownership of this island.

He frowned. "Wait, does 'Ghost Island' mean that this island appeared like a ghost, not that there are actually ghosts or spirits on it?"

Menchi paused, then said thoughtfully, "Now that you put it that way, maybe there are..."

The big man seemed to be a man of few words, standing there like a door guardian.

In truth, he did not need to say much. Jing Yang recognized him at a glance from his appearance and style. This man was probably Ging, one of the Hunter Association's Zodiacs.

What was going on? He had just run into a Tiger in Ochima, and now a wild Sheep had spawned here?

Why were the Zodiacs everywhere?

Ging suddenly said, "Looks like you recognized me."

"I checked the Hunter Association's official website," Jing Yang said. "I checked it together with this hottie."

Menchi sniffed herself.

Ging looked at Jing Yang. "Then it seems you are not actually twenty, as you claimed."

"Because I had to check the official website to recognize you?" Jing Yang said unconcernedly. "That doesn't prove anything. Aren't there Hunters with decent experience who know absolutely nothing about the Hunter Association's internal affairs?"

Ging nodded without saying anything. Speaking of such idiots, he had just happened to meet one that morning.

Jing Yang asked in return, "Don't you have anything else to do? Why do you keep coming after me, one after another?"

Ging still said nothing, merely pointing at Wu Er, who was watching quietly nearby.

Menchi reminded him, "He's the teacher guiding me in learning Nen Abilities, and he's a Poacher Hunter—a Hunter who specializes in hunting Poachers!"

"If you mean Poachers, just say Poachers. Why are you staring at me?" Jing Yang said with dissatisfaction. He looked Menchi over. "He's a Poacher Hunter, and he's your teacher. Does that make you a Poacher Hunter too?"

Menchi puffed out her chest. "I'm a Gourmet Hunter!"

Of course Jing Yang knew this hottie was a Gourmet Hunter. He was only using the opportunity to ask what he really wanted to know—Ging, with those thick brows and big eyes, one of the mighty Zodiacs, why were you inexplicably teaching a newly licensed Hunter from a completely unrelated field?

"I happened to be close to Menchi at the time," Ging said, "and I happened to be free."

Jing Yang was speechless. "I thought a Gourmet Hunter would be guided by another, more experienced Gourmet Hunter, like that old lady in the Association—Linne?"

"In terms of Nen Abilities, Senior Linne is stronger than ten thousand Menchis put together," Ging said.

"Hey!" Menchi protested. "Am I really that weak?"

"I suggest you get a better sense of yourself," Jing Yang said. "You can't even beat me when I give you one hand, let alone an old mon—senior like her."

Ging continued, "But in the culinary field, Menchi won first place in the World Cooking Championship at the age of twelve. Her talent and confidence are second to no one."

"Heh heh!" Menchi raised her brows at Jing Yang. "Even if I gave you one hand, the food I make would still be a hundred times better than yours! No, ten thousand times better!"

"I suggest you give me both hands," Jing Yang said.

"Besides," Ging said, "I only had to teach her the basics of Nen Abilities. Anyone in the Association could have handled it. It just happened to be assigned to me."

Jing Yang asked in confusion, "So after talking to me for so long, what exactly do you want?"

Ging looked at him. "I came to confirm whether you are a Poacher."

"Am I?" Jing Yang asked.

"I can confirm that you are not one in terms of character. As for the legal process, I don't know." Ging glanced at Wu Er, who looked healthy and in good spirits. "And I also came to tell you that the leader of the five Poachers you defeated was Galo, a former Floor Master of Heaven's Arena."

"Are Heaven's Arena Floor Masters all that weak?" Jing Yang asked.

"He only held the position once."

"That explains it."

"After Galo woke up, I tested him. He is actually an Enhancer, yet he trained Conjurer abilities and used them with Emitter and Manipulator techniques..."

"..." Jing Yang was truly speechless this time. What was this, Kastro?

"So you actually won by a lucky fluke," Ging said solemnly. "To keep a talented young Hunter like you from misjudging the difference between yourself and your enemies, I thought it necessary to remind you."

"Thanks," Jing Yang said sincerely. Then he pointed at Menchi. "But what is she doing? Why is she staring at my good brother like he's meat on a cutting board?"

At some point, Menchi had begun staring fixedly at Wu Er. Wu Er was no longer as relaxed as before, backing away two steps with his nerves taut.

"What's wrong with that?!" Menchi snapped in embarrassed anger. "I'm not a Poacher Hunter, I'm a Gourmet Hunter! As a Gourmet Hunter, when I see such a rare animal, I only thought of a few hundred ways to cook it. What's wrong with that..."

Jing Yang said speechlessly, "You're so twitchy. You're a Conjurer, aren't you?"

Menchi was shocked. "How did you know?!"

"Now you seem a bit like an Enhancer too..."

So he infers people's Nen category from their personalities... Ging silently thought.