Goodbye (Part 1)

Under the night sky, moonlight shimmered across the sea. "Jing Wolf" hid behind the window of the small cruise ship, its dim green eyes quietly watching the shore.

Suddenly, "Jing Wolf's" ears flicked forward. Faint footsteps came from the dark, deathly still shore.

The instant his wolf eyes, capable of night vision, spotted a pitch-black figure approaching from the shore with somewhat heavy footsteps, Jing Yang—who had been brooding in the cabin over his heart and the problems it had brought—reacted at once. There was no time to worry about the future. What mattered was getting through this immediate crisis.

The visitor had come with ill intent!

"Jing Wolf" darted back to its main body. Jing Yang controlled Wild Wolf to help move over a crate large enough to serve as cover, then had Wild Wolf hide in a room diagonally across the corridor, leaving the door slightly ajar with only a narrow crack for the wolf to see through.

Then Jing Yang looked at the striped tiger. "Brother Tiger, for the sake of better coordination, I can only offend you."

There was no blood left to use, so he could only make do by plucking out a hair. Jing Yang pinched the strand and reached toward the tiger's belly—the tiger merely tilted its head and watched him with its watery eyes, showing no intention of resisting. Jing Yang felt touched. Soon, he left a small Rose Gold Five-Pointed Star mark on the tiger's belly. He himself hid behind the crate, controlling the tiger to lie in ambush while continuously taking deep breaths and listening closely through three pairs of ears for any movement from the cabin entrance.

Before long, a soft thud sounded. The wolf ears and tiger ears hidden in separate rooms both twitched.

Tap, tap...

The visitor's footsteps were very light... Had he stopped?

He started walking again, but this time his steps were even more cautious... Was he sure someone was on the ship?

Damn it, it had to be because of that pile of snacks he had left behind and forgotten to clean up...

"Who's there? Come out."

The visitor entered the ship's corridor, threatening him as he slowly approached.

Tap, tap, tap...

Jing Yang leaned against the crate, his eyes closed as he breathed steadily. Behind a door crack Muser passed, a wolf eye silently appeared. In the darkness, the striped tiger crouched low, ready to strike...

Late at night, Jing Yang leaned against the prone tiger and briefly sorted through everything that had happened in such a short time. He had to admit that his first real battle had been a very lucky victory.

If that guy had possessed even a little more Aura, he would very likely have lost...

To a Nen User, neither Wu Er, the fierce tiger, nor that Wild Wolf was anything more than two animals with little threat. A Nen User's defenses could withstand bullets at close range, let alone the claws and fangs of two beasts.

His Manipulator ability was certainly powerful and could certainly kill with a single strike, but that was only if it actually hit.

From now on, I have to focus on training my fundamentals. The Four Great Principles of Nen training—"Ten," "Zetsu," "Ren," and "Hatsu"—I can barely be said to know half of Hatsu. I have practically no foundation at all. More importantly, my Nen quantity is utterly inadequate. Star Mark can drain me dry after only a couple of uses. That won't do...

And there's the issue with my heart... That strange Aura, I'll call it Death Qi for now. I still have no idea what it is...

With every breath Wu Er took, his body gave off a continuous faint tremor, like low rumbling thunder.

Jing Yang lay on his side in the warm, soft "tiger nest," enjoying a full-body massage while making plans for tomorrow.

Right, I also need to find a way to kill the one locked up on the ship and silence him...

Before he knew it, he had curled up and fallen fast asleep.

'Rear Window Bird' activation failed!

Muser remained dazed in the tightly sealed room for a long while before weakly lowering his hand.

How was that possible?

Could that brat... have had the same habit as him of placing a Manipulator ability on himself before a fight?

Muser simply could not understand it. That little brat was around a meter tall and looked no older than five, right?!

A five-year-old mastering a mature Manipulator Nen Ability was already enough to shatter Muser's understanding. But now he had discovered that this brat was as cautious as a battle-hardened veteran of the Nen User world! It was almost as though he had witnessed countless duels between Nen Users... But how could that be possible? Who had taught that brat Nen?

How ridiculous!

From the very beginning, that brat had been standing in an invincible position...

As for the "guess" Muser had told Jing Yang earlier, Muser himself did not really believe it.

Or rather, if it really was as he had said—if the woman's stronger Nen had remained after her death, parasitized her son, and force-grown him into his current five-year-old appearance... then how had this boy learned to speak? Where had he gotten even the most basic logical thinking?

That woman had given birth to the bastard less than a week ago!

A brat whose actual age was less than seven days old—his body might have been force-grown, but for him to use Nen Abilities so naturally, possess such seasoned experience, be rational, and act normally... It sounded absurd at first glance, and it was still especially absurd upon closer thought.

"No matter what, my mission has failed... To lose to a five-year-old brat..."

Muser muttered to himself in a daze within the sealed room.

He desperately wanted to open the door and rush out, but whenever his hand reached for the doorknob, his body would stiffen and refuse to move. He could not advance another inch, much less turn the handle.

The "manipulation command" the boy had imposed before leaving was still in effect.

Fine beads of cold sweat emerged across Muser's forehead.

He finally realized that his fate was entirely in that brat's hands...

As he thought this, Muser's expression gradually calmed. He sat down, removed several mechanical components from a hidden compartment in his shoe, and without pausing, assembled them into a miniature pistol.

One bullet.

That was enough.

After straightening his clothes, Muser stood up and rigidly came to attention. Through the sealed cabin wall, he gazed north toward Kakin, then raised the pistol to his temple and released the safety.

"Goodbye, Prince Benjamin. You will surely become Kakin's king! Your subordinate will go on ahead..."

He pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Bang!

The muffled gunshot echoed through the entire ship.

Wu Er, the Fanged Moon Tiger resting at the cabin entrance, immediately opened his eyes alertly and looked toward the sound. Then he lifted a paw and nudged the sleeping human cub curled up against him.

"Stop messing around..."

Jing Yang pushed the tiger paw away, turned over, and instinctively took a breath of "cat."

The tiger lowered his head, licked Jing Yang's crown, then gave him another nudge with his big head, urging him on with neither too much nor too little force.

Jing Yang had already groggily opened his eyes. Had there been some kind of noise just now?

Frowning, he sat up and looked toward the corridor.

After a Star Mark was successfully placed on a target, it generally had two states—active and dormant.

When the mark was active, Jing Yang could clearly sense the direction in which it was located and could switch at any time how he controlled the person carrying the Star Mark.

But when Jing Yang severed all control without touching the Star Mark to remove it, the Star Mark entered a dormant state during that period, and Jing Yang could no longer sense its position or direction. Perhaps there was a faint connection, but with Jing Yang's current level of precise control, he truly could not feel it...

For example, at this very moment, Jing Yang could still sense the mark on Wild Wolf, whom he had arranged to watch Muser. But he could not sense the Star Mark on Muser at all, even though Muser had likewise been controlled by a command and was unable to leave the room.

Did I sleepwalk?

Or did I talk in my sleep and accidentally switch to the first control method? Then immediately release the control, causing it to disconnect completely and the mark to enter its dormant state?

With that thought, Jing Yang switched the way he controlled Wild Wolf to a first-person perspective. His consciousness instantly projected over.

"Jing Wolf" blinked, adjusting to its night-vision perspective in the dim room.

Directly opposite its line of sight was indeed the door to the room where that guy was being held, and it was still shut tight—but a gunshot had clearly gone off just now, yet this stupid wolf had kept standing there like an idiot?

Well, the only command he had given it before going to sleep had been to bite to death anyone who left the room without permission... It had not included any other unexpected situations...

"Jing Wolf" rushed out of the room, leaped up onto its hind legs, wrapped both paws around the doorknob, and gently turned it open.

A thick smell of blood hit it head-on.

"Jing Wolf" saw Muser lying in a pool of blood.

After glancing at the miniature pistol tightly clenched in Muser's hand, "Jing Wolf" could not be bothered to wonder where Muser had hidden the gun. It was more curious how this guy had managed to commit suicide.

Perhaps it could use the method for reference.

"Jing Wolf" turned the dead Muser's head over and saw the left temple where he had been shot at point-blank range. It immediately understood.