Rainbow Seasoning

After taking his first bite, Jing Yang immediately noticed something.

The dining table before him was covered with a feast Menchi had cooked herself—meat, vegetables, flowers, greens, and all kinds of Hunter World cuisine Jing Yang could not even recognize, each dish perfect in color, aroma, and taste. Menchi truly deserved Ging's praise as a culinary genius with no one fit to be her teacher in the field of food. Even an ordinary Chinese cabbage, after Menchi worked her magic on it, melted in the mouth. Plain sea fish tasted so fresh and delicious it made him want to swallow his tongue.

But none of that was the important part.

The moment Jing Yang ate a bite of fish, he felt a warmth rise within his body.

The warmth swiftly spread through him. In an instant, it felt as though his eight extraordinary meridians had been opened and all thirty-six thousand Aura Nodes had stretched freely... Most importantly, Jing Yang discovered that his Nen quantity, which had been somewhat depleted after training, was suddenly recovering at an astonishing rate! It was as though his Aura had tasted exquisite food as well and been pumped full of energy. His stamina was rapidly recovering too. One bite of fish had nearly wiped away all his exhaustion.

Jing Yang said nothing. He grabbed his chopsticks and rapidly picked up food, devouring the feast like a whirlwind.

Though he said nothing, Menchi was already immensely satisfied when she saw his expression and reaction after that first bite.

She proudly puffed out her chest and waved a hand. A mass of Aura in her palm materialized into a seasoning shaker.

"Rainbow Seasoning—this is the ability I developed!" Menchi spun the shaker in her hand. Even as he listened to her explanation, Jing Yang's chopsticks never stopped moving. That was undoubtedly the greatest praise for a chef's cooking, and Menchi greatly appreciated it. She introduced it with dramatic flair, "Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple! The Aura I infuse into this 'Rainbow Seasoning' becomes special seasonings with different uses! And the seasoning used in this entire meal you're eating is..."

With a flick of her wrist, she scattered specks of green seasoning from the shaker. They reflected vigorous life force.

"Green recovery seasoning!"

Jing Yang was speechless. Had this girl developed such an ability because his recovery ability during training these past few days had provoked her?

Jing Yang glanced at Ging, who was calmly eating beside him. This so-called green seasoning had a recovery effect far stronger than the healing ability attached to his Star Mark. Menchi had developed it in only a few days—there had to be some restrictive condition, right?

There was no need for Jing Yang to ask. Menchi explained it herself. "I'm a chef, so I can't deceive my own heart—food that doesn't taste good doesn't deserve this kind of ability! Therefore, Rainbow Seasoning only takes effect when I'm satisfied with the dishes I make."

Though it was clearly a design that bound her own hands and feet, Menchi seemed to regard it as both a restraint and a challenge to herself, staking a chef's dignity on it!

She clenched the seasoning shaker in her hand. Her eyes shone with the unique light of a Hunter. "Nen Abilities... are so interesting! Hehe."

Jing Yang asked curiously, "A rainbow has seven colors. Does that mean there are six other kinds of seasoning with different uses?"

"Red seasoning is for combat~" Menchi raised a brow, dispersing the seasoning shaker in her hand back into a mass of Aura. With a grin, she said, "As for the rest, I'm not telling you!"

Jing Yang smiled. "I'd have a headache if you really told me everything."

"Why?" Menchi was curious instead.

"Then I'd feel like I had to tell you about my abilities too, otherwise..."

"Orange seasoning is—"

"Otherwise, I'd feel like I was tricking some silly girl—why are you taking out that kitchen knife?!"

Ignoring their usual bickering, Ging leisurely and calmly began clearing his plate. Such good food could not go to waste.

And so, the new year began.

Before they knew it, another ten days had passed. The date was January 10, 1995.

Jing Yang counted on his fingers in his mind. It had been nearly twenty days since he came to this Hunter World.

And it had been over half a month since he began training his Nen Abilities.

Every day, he gave it everything he had.

...Fully automated idle training was still giving it everything he had.

Besides, he had not always relied on the Star Mark to train. As the days of training went on, Jing Yang's willpower had been tempered into something increasingly resilient. He could now rely on his own will to endure an entire day of grueling training.

And the results of that half month of hard work were quite gratifying.

He had laid down a solid foundation in the four major basics of Nen Abilities: Ten, Zetsu, Ren, and Hatsu. As for advanced applications such as Gyo, Ken, Shu, and Ko... he could not say he had mastered them completely, but he had at least earned the recognition of Ging, the "Unfinished Goat" of the Hunter Association's Zodiacs.

His Emitter training had gone exceptionally smoothly. He could now casually use Nen bullets of ordinary strength, and Finger Flick Divine Art could deal considerable damage with the shortest possible charging time.

As for Manipulator...

Jing Yang had kept his eyes closed and maintained maximum Ken for over a full hour. Not only did he feel little fatigue, he still had enough energy to think about the new ability he had developed.

A new Manipulator ability.

...Well, Jing Yang had actually classified this new ability under his Manipulator ability, Song of the Earth.

It was a "Moon Mark," distinct from the Star Mark!

Jing Yang glanced at his palm. A dark gray crescent-shaped mark was imprinted there.

The inspiration for developing this ability had come from the earlier evolution of the Star Mark, which had gained the ability to communicate mentally with its controlled targets... Taking that as a foundation, Jing Yang separated the ability of "communication" from the Star Mark and continued developing it on its own. In the end, it became this crescent mark, gray and boundless like deep space.

In Jing Yang's vision, he would develop a "sun, moon, and stars" marking system. But if he found inspiration to develop a "Sun Mark" in the future, the name would be somewhat inelegant. So he renamed the Moon Mark "Bright Moon." Then, should he develop a third mark in the future, he could call it "Blazing Sun."

If the core of the Star Mark was control, then Bright Moon had only one core: communication.

In other words, telepathy.

As for the signal range of that telepathy, Jing Yang had some guesses, but he had not yet had a chance to test it. That could wait until later.

And throughout these more than half a month of training, his greatest and most obvious achievement was undoubtedly the increase in his total Nen quantity!

At first, his total Nen quantity had been only 100 Aura. After placing one Star Mark, he had lacked the strength to place a second and needed to stop to catch his breath.

But now...

Jing Yang had maintained Ken for over an hour without his face reddening or his breathing growing heavy. He had not even sweated a single drop.

He had tested it with a timer. If he kept going in one stretch, he could now maintain Ken for a full hundred minutes.

Total Nen quantity: 6,000 Aura!

Converted into Star Marks, he could continuously place nearly a hundred of them without stopping...

Judging by total Nen quantity alone, he was now twice the average level of Gon and Killua at the end of the Greed Island arc in the manga.

"Jing Yang, you're still training? You're really crazy..."

Not far away, Menchi came over carrying a plate of stir-fried pork. She casually materialized Rainbow Seasoning and shook out specks of green seasoning. "Haven't there been strange people asking around town lately? I heard today that Blanche Company received an official statement from the Kakin Kingdom, so they finally relented and allowed Ochima's people to enter the protected zone for an investigation. They're recruiting locally now, whether civilians or professionals..."

"Interested?" Menchi handed the prepared stir-fried pork to Jing Yang to restore his stamina and grinned. "I want to give it a try, anyway. Or do you want to go back to the amusement park and scam people with a stall?"

Jing Yang accepted it, picked up a piece of stir-fried pork, and tossed it into his mouth to savor it carefully. Under the effects of Menchi's Nen Ability, the Aura he had expended was recovering at a considerable rate.

He smiled. "Sure! My divine art has made a small breakthrough lately. It's time to leave seclusion and bring back a teammate."