I, Jing Yang, Never Lie

At night, a group of hired amateur hunters gathered at the residence of Slooe, the balding young man from Ochima.

Slooe asked in surprise, "Ghosts really exist?"

Jing Yang said, "We're Hunters. We don't deceive our employers."

"Of course. It's not that I doubt your professional ethics." Slooe nodded and rubbed the mostly bare top of his head.

The bodyguard Kang Jae frowned. Ghosts? It was probably some form of Nen!

Though he was simple-minded and practically illiterate, he still possessed basic professional ethics. When ordinary people—Muggles—were around, he would not bring up matters related to Nen Abilities.

After exchanging looks with Jing Yang and the others, Kang Jae understood that they shared the same suspicion.

The difference was that Dago and the others strongly suspected that the Nen resembling a ghost might be some illusion Jing Yang had created, meant to make a mystery of things and cheat them out of payment before the deadline expired.

Shizuku did not beat around the bush. She asked Slooe, "Does this count as progress?"

Ahem! Dago and the others looked a little awkward, but said nothing. So what if that kid Jing Yang was cheating them out of payment? They were all benefiting from it anyway...

Slooe said helplessly, "The Blanche Company staff accompanying you claimed that they did not see any ghosts or hear any voices. I'm afraid it will be difficult for me to regard the current findings as results suitable for submission... I'll have to ask you Hunters to keep working and produce something I can actually see. That way, you can receive double the reward, and I'll have something to report back with."

With things put that way, what else could they do?

Dago and the others nodded silently.

Shizuku left with Jing Yang and Menchi. In the night, the Professional Hunters and independent hunters looked at one another. Dago and his group rubbed their faces before plunging into the forest, while several Blanche Company staff sighed and changed shifts to follow them.

Jing Yang looked around. There was a beautiful woman on his left, and another beautiful woman on his right.

"If we're looking for ghosts, searching at night is more atmospheric, right?" He waved a hand. "Let's get moving too!"

Shizuku was the first to follow. Menchi shook her head, then hurried after them as well.

Nearby, Babimayna emerged from the woods, looking like a high-end Miyagi Ryota with a cauliflower hairstyle. He watched the backs of Jing Yang's group, thought for a moment, then called over several subordinates. After the Blanche Company personnel accompanying Jing Yang's group caught up, he followed behind at an unhurried pace.

"They said, the Kakin Kingdom's..."

"If you have grievances..."

"If you bear hatred toward Kakin..."

As Jing Yang's group walked through the dense forest at night, they vaguely heard familiar shouts coming from all around them.

Menchi said, "It's Dago and the others."

Jing Yang laughed. "They're just copying us outright?"

"Your method worked, after all," Shizuku said.

Jing Yang said, "But it only works once. That kid disappeared after he finished chanting. Even if they keep shouting like that, he might not show up again... It's the middle of the night, and the forest is pitch-black. Finding anything here is going to be difficult."

Menchi said, "Weren't you the one who wanted to keep searching at night?"

"Then what do we do?" Shizuku asked. "None of us knows En."

Jing Yang thought for a moment. "We don't..."

He suddenly turned around and looked at the Kakin group even farther behind the Blanche Company staff. "But someone does!"

"En?"

Babimayna's expression did not change. "How are you so sure I know how to use something like that?"

"You look like an expert." Jing Yang said, "When I threatened Dago and the others with that Nen bullet earlier, you were awfully calm, weren't you? If an ordinary person saw that kind of 'supernatural' scene, they should have reacted the way Mr. Slooe did. Give me a straight answer. Can you use En or not? If not, forget it."

Babimayna said, "I don't know what this so-called 'ghost' of yours is. Even if my En covers something like that, I can't be sure whether it would produce any reaction."

Menchi asked doubtfully, "Does Kakin really not know the true situation on this island?"

Babimayna reminded the three of them, "This place has been here for nearly twenty-five years."

The implication was that even if Kakin had once known something about this place, which had vanished into thin air and relocated elsewhere, that had been a matter of the past.

Shizuku said, "So you're willing to help us."

Babimayna did not answer. He glanced at the two girls, then let his gaze settle on Jing Yang.

Jing Yang said, "What I want to ask you to find isn't a ghost."

"If not a ghost, then what?" Babimayna asked.

Jing Yang said, "Divine Characters."

Babimayna said, "When it comes to researching Nen Abilities, the Hunter Association is the most professional organization in the world."

Jing Yang understood. This guy had not understood what Divine Characters were.

"Divine Characters are a special type of writing or symbol infused with Nen. I'm not a professional within the Association, so I don't know much about them."

Jing Yang spoke half-truthfully, "I've been fortunate enough to see them a few times. Once, someone carved Divine Characters into a rope knot. The moment it came into contact with Nen aura at the strength of Ten or above, the rope would snap on its own. Another time, someone covered an ordinary wooden box with Divine Characters, turning it indestructible. I've also seen an island where someone carved Divine Characters onto an arena to support Nen Ability techniques..."

As Babimayna listened, he nodded slightly in thought.

Meanwhile, Menchi muttered to herself, I didn't expect Jing Yang's experiences to really be this extensive. Could he actually be twenty years old?

Jing Yang smiled. "The most recent time was over there."

He pointed toward the amusement park at the northern end of East Town, then glanced at the nearby Blanche Company staff, who were keeping watch both for the tigers and wild beasts that might attack them and for Jing Yang's group. "When Shizuku and I were visiting Elf Amusement Park, we found Divine Characters somewhere inside."

He did not need to continue. Babimayna had already made the connection himself.

The founder of Blanche Company was a Professional Hunter.

There were Divine Characters inside his amusement park.

His company had also been responsible for this island's protected area for four years. If they had truly tampered with something, Divine Characters were indeed a possible avenue...

Babimayna asked, "What exactly do these Divine Characters look like?"

Menchi waved a hand. "Don't look at me. I haven't seen them either."

Shizuku said, "I forgot."

Jing Yang said, "They're just some hard-to-understand characters and symbols! Mr. Slooe said you arrived on this island together with the Ochima side over half a month ago. Don't tell me you really haven't had even the slightest direction for your investigation?"

Babimayna's expression remained unchanged as Jing Yang continued with a smile, "The places where you think something exists are probably also the places where Blanche Company would have left Divine Characters..."

The night was dark as ink, the moon nearly full, and everything around them was silent.

Jing Yang and the others walked slowly through the core area, crushing moonlight like frost beneath their feet.

Ahead, amid the sparse woods, across the stretches of grass, and between heaps of jagged rocks, clusters of jade-green light moved back and forth or lay curled up without moving. When they heard Jing Yang's group approaching, pairs of beastly eyes glowing in the darkness all turned toward them at once, like a vast swarm of fireflies suddenly lighting up in the night, their striped bodies gleaming together with the moonlight.

Babimayna, who was leading the way, stared at the pack of Fanged Moon Tigers.

The others raised their pistols and tranquilizer guns.

Menchi patted Jing Yang and pointed to the other side, where Wu Er stood beside another Fanged Moon Tiger. That tiger was the one Jing Yang had rescued from several poachers that day.

Jing Yang waved at Wu Er, signaling it not to approach for the moment.

Wu Er did not understand, but it lingered nearby with the other Fanged Moon Tiger, neither too close nor too far away.

"Found it." Babimayna suddenly spoke and walked straight ahead.

The pack of Fanged Moon Tigers resting beneath the moon scattered in every direction, like a drifting field of stars.