Bai Zhu pulled over a wooden chair, ready to deal with the sniveling woman, when a freezing chill suddenly poured in through the doorway without warning.
The already weak fire in the stove flickered with a puff, nearly going out.
The wooden door had somehow been thrown wide open. Two figures stood outside like ghosts, blending into the wind and snow.
Milluki's gaze swept back and forth between Pige Aaron, who was tied up on the floor like a dumpling, and the tear-streaked Ella. Finally, it locked onto the yellow Light Rope, curiosity practically spilling from his chubby face.
Illumi, meanwhile, did not look at the two captives at all.
His hollow, emotionless catlike eyes were now lit by a spark—a light mixed with extreme curiosity and twisted possessiveness—fixed firmly on the fingers Bai Zhu had just used to cast his technique.
The air inside the room seemed to have been sucked dry in an instant, and the temperature plummeted.
Illumi walked in step by step. The oppressive presence belonging to a top-class assassin was infinitely magnified in the cramped space, like countless invisible ice needles stabbing into every inch of Bai Zhu's skin.
Milluki, following behind him, wisely shrank his neck and took half a step back, sensibly distancing himself from the zone where his older brother was about to lose control.
Pressure?
Bai Zhu felt it, but rather than being intimidated, he found it even more interesting.
As if he felt none of that pressure at all, he even brought his index and middle fingers together again under Illumi's gaze. A faint gleam flashed at his fingertips as he pointed directly at the dazed Ella.
"Ma'am, this is for your protection too."
A thinner yellow Light Rope shot out instantly. Before Ella could cry out, it gently bound her to the chair. The force was not strong, yet she could no longer move at all.
This was a blatant provocation.
"Your ability..."
Illumi finally stopped in front of Bai Zhu. Excitement he could not suppress had entered the cool voice of the young man.
He extended his pale, slender hand straight toward the Light Rope binding Pige Aaron.
That was not Nen.
His En could not detect even the slightest energy fluctuation, yet his eyes could clearly see the Light Rope!
This completely overturned his understanding of Nen Abilities.
Just as Illumi's fingertips were about to touch the Light Rope,
Bai Zhu lazily warned him, "I wouldn't touch it. This thing... is a little hard on the hands."
Illumi did not pause in the slightest.
His fingers touched it anyway.
"Bzzzt—!"
A soft crackle of electrical discharge rang out, and Illumi jerked his hand back as if shocked!
There was no extra expression on his poker face, but his hollow catlike eyes stared fixedly at the fingertips that had just touched the Light Rope. His pale fingers unconsciously curled and stretched, as though confirming that his hand was still intact.
A violent, pure, alien energy entirely different from Nen had rushed up through his fingertips just now. It was weak, but incomparably domineering!
"See?" Bai Zhu met Illumi's gaze and revealed an unfathomable smile. "I call it 'Reiatsu' and 'Kidō.'"
Without waiting for Illumi to question him, Bai Zhu stood up. He knew that this was his stage now.
Like the most devout preacher, he slowly spread his arms and began his "performance" in a nearly chanting tone.
"You can understand it this way: it is also a kind of 'Nen,' but after undergoing some... 'ultimate' Restriction and Vow, it underwent a fundamental mutation!"
He paused, thoroughly enjoying the increasingly grave expressions on the Zoldyck brothers' faces before continuing at an unhurried pace.
"I offered everything I had to a supreme being! At the price of forever giving up the freedom and limitless potential of my own Nen, I gained another form of power!"
"From then on, my Nen was no longer ever-changing. It became this singular, pure energy under absolute control—Reiatsu."
"As for Kidō..."
Bai Zhu raised a finger. A faint yellow glow danced at its tip like a living sprite. "...it is the fixed 'miracle' I can use after that mutation."
This explanation perfectly applied the underlying logic of the Nen Ability system while introducing a "supreme being" that they had no way of verifying.
Wasn't the system a supreme being?
Giving up the potential for Nen growth? He did not even know Nen in the first place!
This was called getting something for nothing!
"A supreme being?" Milluki muttered instinctively. The shut-in database in his mind spun wildly. Then, as if he had thought of something, his eyes lit up.
"Are you talking about Tiga? One of the Giants of Light?!"
"..."
Bai Zhu gave Milluki a loving glance, the kind one gave an idiot.
Illumi completely ignored his foolish younger brother.
He was rapidly processing the information in Bai Zhu's words.
Giving up Nen's limitless potential in exchange for fixed, powerful techniques... that in itself was an extremely harsh Restriction, enough to support the formidable binding power displayed by Bakudō.
No wonder... no wonder he could not sense any Nen aura from him.
It was because his Nen had become something else.
Once he understood that, the biting chill around Illumi finally receded somewhat.
Kill this mysterious man? The risk was extremely high, while the benefits were unknown.
Use him to pry open the secrets of the Creation Society? That aligned with the mission objective.
The weighing of pros and cons took only an instant.
"Alright, that concludes our academic exchange." Bai Zhu clapped his hands and jerked his chin at the muffled Pige Aaron on the floor. His demeanor instantly switched from charlatan to project manager. "Instead of studying my personal secrets, shouldn't we get on with something important?"
He lazily glanced at Illumi.
"A Zoldyck professional should be better at interrogation than I am, right?"
Illumi gave him a long look. Without saying another word, he turned and walked toward Pige Aaron.
Bai Zhu smiled in satisfaction.
Done.
Illumi slowly crouched down, several Nen Nails gleaming with chilling light spinning nimbly between his fingers. Using two fingers, he pinched the smelly sock out of Pige Aaron's mouth in disgust and tossed it aside.
The flickering firelight cast his distorted shadow onto the wall, making him look like a demon ready to devour someone.
He gently pressed a Nen Nail against Pige Aaron's temple.
"Hiss..."
A faint sound, nearly inaudible.
Pige Aaron's body stiffened sharply, then collapsed like a puddle of mud. His struggling stopped completely. Only his eyeballs still spun wildly, filled with absolute terror.
At that moment, Ella, bound to the chair by the Light Rope, felt as though an invisible hand had clenched her heart viciously.
She looked at her husband.
The man who had lied to her, who had become crazed and violent for some illusory god, yet who would clumsily tuck her in at night... was gone.
Right before her eyes, that living person had had his soul stripped away and become a Husk that could only drool and wait for orders.
Fear and heartbreak twisted together. She wanted to scream, but her throat felt clogged with cement, and no sound came out. Her tears finally burst through the dam, falling hot onto the backs of her hands.
Bai Zhu glanced at her, utterly unmoved.
See? This was where having a lovesick brain got you.
What interested him more was Illumi's almost miraculous method.
Holy shit, a real professional!
The Zoldycks really did things properly!
Illumi looked at Pige Aaron and spoke without emotion.
"Now, let's talk about why this 'god' needs so many children."
Pige Aaron's eyes instantly lost focus.
The flames, fanaticism, anger... every emotion in his eyes was completely emptied out within a second, leaving behind only dead, ashen gray.
His eyes rolled back, saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth, and a flat voice like a leaking bellows came from his throat.
"Okay..."
"God... God needs sacrifices..."
His voice stuttered, as though he were struggling against some instinct, but in the end, he was completely controlled.
"Living..."
"...'containers'..."
Before you continue