Wu Er

Jing Yang neither confirmed nor denied Muser's words, not knowing whether they were true or false.

He had too little information.

He did not know whether the woman suspected of being the birth mother of his current body had been a Nen User before her death. As for the specific identity of the guy before him, he could not exactly say he knew nothing—he could only say he knew absolutely nothing.

Most importantly, Jing Yang's "Star Mark" either controlled another person's body with his own consciousness or controlled or commanded them from an observer's perspective. The common point was that he could only control their body, not their thoughts.

Simply put, Jing Yang could make someone say what he wanted to say, but he could not make them reveal information that he himself did not know, information that existed only in their own minds.

Jing Yang knew his own limits.

At his current level, interrogating a trained desperado like this was far too difficult. If he mishandled it, not only would he fail to get any information from the other side, he might expose everything about himself instead...

Thinking of the spoils he had already obtained—a stack of cash and a Hunter License—he was satisfied enough.

Forget it. This was enough.

With that thought, Jing Yang chuckled. "What an imagination! That baby boy cried nonstop the whole way, so I tied a rock to him and sank him into the sea long ago. When your companions come looking tomorrow, you can call them down to fish him out with you."

"Aren't all my companions already dead?" Muser gave Jing Yang no chance to fish for information. The next second, his body rose uncontrollably from its kneeling position and followed behind Jing Yang of its own accord.

Jing Yang had not expected to trick any information out of him anyway. Even if Muser answered, Jing Yang had no way to verify whether it was true. Conversely, regardless of whether Muser answered or not, Jing Yang would assume that Muser still had companions who would come to this scene...

With his hands in his pockets, he led the way and soon brought Muser to a windowless room inside the cabin.

"Go in."

Jing Yang said, "Without my order, you are not allowed to come out."

As Muser obediently stepped into the cramped room, he was once again amazed by this kid's bizarre Manipulator Nen Ability.

From his personal experience, the kid could either completely strip away his consciousness for total control or leave his consciousness intact while controlling him through commands... Such a convenient and flexible Manipulator ability was simply too perfect.

And such a perfect Manipulator ability... Muser sat cross-legged on the floor, expressionlessly watching the door slowly close. There must be some kind of restriction!

Bang. Jing Yang shut the door securely. The cabin fell silent again, with only the waves outside rolling in waves.

"I can move?" Inside the room, Muser immediately noticed this fact. He muttered to himself, then instantly realized, "He has three methods of control! Complete control that deprives me of consciousness, command control that preserves my consciousness, and remote control that also preserves my consciousness. Before shutting the door, he had actually been using the last one all along!"

That made it even more perfect...

But unfortunately, I'm a Manipulator too. When you touched me earlier, it was also equivalent to me touching you. In that instant, both of us fulfilled the conditions to activate our abilities! Muser raised a hand, holding his palm up through the door. For a child, you are already outstanding enough. But you should have killed me immediately... Rear Window Bird!

How should he kill this guy?

After leaving the room where Muser was temporarily confined, Jing Yang walked along with a frown, pondering the question.

The other man bore his "Star Mark," which meant he had gained the passive self-healing effect. Jing Yang himself had benefited from that passive effect earlier. Even after a bullet pierced his neck, he had recovered quickly—though he had become even more exhausted. Still, it was easy to imagine just how considerable and impressive the healing capacity of his "Star Mark" was.

Is there something wrong with the fact that I can't effectively kill an enemy because my own Nen Ability has such powerful healing?

As he walked, he ran into the large tiger that had come over. That guy seemed to have called the tiger by name earlier. It was Fanged Moon Tiger, wasn't it? What a terrible name... Jing Yang reached out and slowly peeled away the thick scab covering Fanged Moon Tiger's injured eye, like peeling off a film. Fanged Moon Tiger blinked its fully healed eye, then affectionately rubbed its big head against Jing Yang's hand.

"Fanged Moon Tiger should be the name of your species, right?" Jing Yang smiled as he stroked the tiger's head. "It doesn't sound good. I'll give you a name—Wu Er! Hahaha."

Wu Er naturally did not understand the meaning behind the name, but it was clearly delighted. It rubbed its face against Jing Yang's even more affectionately.

"Alright, alright, that's enough. Where did that aloof air you had at first go?" Jing Yang scolded. "Go back to normal."

Wu Er blinked innocently.

Jing Yang reached out beneath Wu Er's white belly. If he parted the fur in a certain spot, he would see it... a Rose Gold Pentagram was imprinted there.

Hidden rule of "Star Mark": as long as Jing Yang's hand touched the mark, the mark would automatically be removed.

Wu Er took a step back, avoiding Jing Yang's hand.

Jing Yang took a step forward, and Wu Er retreated again.

"Are you addicted to being controlled?" Jing Yang chased, and Wu Er ran, as though they were playing around.

Fortunately, Jing Yang still remembered the important matter at hand. After strolling out of the corridor with Brother Tiger Wu Er and returning to the cabin lounge by the original entrance, he summoned "Jing Wolf," who had been hiding in the shadows.

Jing Yang restored Wild Wolf's own consciousness, then pointed toward the corridor they had come from and commanded, "Guard this place. If that guy from earlier leaves the room without permission, bite him to death."

Wild Wolf let out a low growl and nodded. It nimbly darted back, picked a spot opposite the door, and crouched there, glaring at the tightly shut room with a pair of wolf eyes.

Jing Yang touched the back of his neck. Beneath the collar of his short-sleeved shirt was the "Star Mark" he had placed on himself.

"I wonder where the limit of this thing's self-healing lies..." he muttered to himself as he turned toward the cabin entrance. "Could it recover from having its head cut off? What if the heart gets blown apart? How serious does an injury have to be before it crosses the boundary of what can be healed? Hmm... Should I test it on the guy in that room tomorrow?"

He squeezed one of his spoils, the Hunter License. Since he had killed a murderer, this thing should exempt him from liability, right? He remembered that a Hunter License came with quite a few privileges!

Crack.

Jing Yang stepped on something. Looking down, he saw that it was the branch.

Picking it up, Jing Yang sat down just inside the entrance. If anything happened, it would make retreating easier. Wu Er gave a very humanlike yawn, flicked its tail, and lay down on its side behind Jing Yang.

Jing Yang comfortably leaned back against the large tiger's warm body.

He examined the branch, plucked off one of its leaves, and toyed with it between his fingers...

This branch had grown from the leaf he had picked for Water Divination.

A single leaf had grown into a branch. What would it do next? It was truly hard to imagine. Would it take root right where it was and grow into a towering tree?

It was more than unscientific. It was utterly unscientific!

Jing Yang's gaze darkened, and before he knew it, his thoughts drifted back to when he had awakened from his brief unconsciousness, before Muser appeared...

****

"I got taller?"

Jing Yang looked down at his sleeves and rolled-up pant legs... The clothes on his body seemed to have become a little "shorter" in the blink of an eye.

He stood before Brother Tiger and Wild Wolf, comparing the change in his eye level, and confirmed one thing: whenever a living thing died near him, whether human or animal, a strange aura would burrow into his heart... And when that strange aura accumulated in his heart until it could no longer bear it, he would lose consciousness, and his body would instantly grow as if it had been artificially ripened!

Was this a blessing, or a curse?