Becoming One with Nature

The moment he stepped into the jungle, the clamor of voices seemed to be shut away behind an invisible wall.

Hot, humid, stifling air washed over him, carrying the earthy tang of soil, the sour smell of rotting vegetation, and the faint musk left by some wild beast.

Towering trees blotted out the sky around him, their thick trunks covered in vines and moss. Layers upon layers of leaves shattered the sunlight, leaving only dim, mottled patches on the ground.

Most candidates reacted to entering the jungle by sprinting desperately, trying to shake off any hunters who might be following them;

or, like startled rabbits, immediately seeking out secluded corners to hide themselves away.

But Lin Yan did neither.

He walked over to a fern half a person's height and stopped.

He neither hurried onward nor looked around in panic. Instead, under the guide's puzzled gaze from a distance, he bent down and untied his shoelaces.

He took off his casual shoes and socks, then casually tossed them into the nearby bushes.

Then he planted his bare feet firmly on the thick, damp layer of humus.

"Ah..."

A cool, soft sensation rose from his soles, carrying the vitality of the soil and the slight sting of grit, invigorating him.

"What the hell? Has this kid lost his mind?"

Watching from a distance, the guide couldn't help muttering:

"This is Zevil Island's primeval jungle. There are venomous snakes, insects, and leeches everywhere, and he actually dares to walk barefoot?"

The guide shook his head and turned to leave. His only responsibility was bringing people to the landing point; whether the candidates lived or died was none of his concern.

Without another glance, he turned and disappeared down the path he had come along.

Lin Yan was entirely unaware of the guide's departure.

He closed his eyes, sinking his entire awareness into his body.

In his lower dantian, the dantian embryo-only the size of a grain of rice and smooth and lustrous as jade-was slowly rotating at an exceedingly slow yet utterly steady rhythm.

The Dao follows nature; the earth's qi is the root.

That was the only thought in his mind.

With each breath, streams of gentle true qi flowed from the dantian embryo, slowly descending through his meridians until they gathered in the soles of his feet.

Taoism spoke of "the unity of heaven and humanity." A person was a microcosm, while heaven and earth were the macrocosm. The best way to conceal oneself within this vast natural world had never been to dig a hole and bury oneself, but to become part of nature.

"Whew..."

He let out a long breath.

Like a tree putting down roots, the true qi gathered in his soles passed through his Yongquan Points and silently reached into the deep, expansive earth beneath his feet.

It was an extraordinarily profound process.

Lin Yan felt the restless heat in his body that belonged to a "human"-that "human presence" steeped in modern society and wholly out of place in this primeval jungle-being slowly absorbed and assimilated by the earth beneath him.

At the same time, a cool flow of "earth qi," fragrant with vegetation, returned along the same route from deep underground into his body. Like a gently trickling stream, it eventually spread over his skin, forming an invisible "outer garment."

Through his Qi Observation Technique, he witnessed a wondrous change.

The red-and-white aura that had represented the radiance of his life was visibly dimming and blurring. In its place appeared a faint gray-green aura almost identical to that of the surrounding bushes.

If a Nen Ability expert had observed him with Gyo at that moment, they would probably have seen only an ordinary person whose life force was extremely weak, almost plantlike, and might even have subconsciously overlooked his existence.

It worked.

Lin Yan slowly opened his eyes. His gaze was clear, without a trace of the tension he had felt upon first entering the jungle.

He now felt like a tree or a stone, at one with this vast jungle.

Good. Step one: conceal myself and erase my traces. Complete.

Lin Yan knew very well that drawing Hisoka as his target meant starting on hell difficulty. But before dealing with that monster, he first had to remove another sword hanging over his head.

He hadn't forgotten that he, too, was someone else's prey.

He remained motionless, standing quietly in place like a tree, pushing his perception to an unprecedented peak.

He did not deliberately "listen" to the insects and birds around him, nor did he "smell" the various scents in the air.

He simply emptied his mind and "felt" the wind.

The wind was a messenger.

Like the most patient fisherman, he quietly cast the vast net of his perception, catching every faint disturbance in the air currents.

One minute...

Two minutes...

Suddenly, Lin Yan's eyebrow twitched.

Something's wrong.

In his perception, everything around him brimmed with flowing vitality. Only one presence was "frozen"-behind a patch of bushes on a rise roughly six hundred meters to one side of the entrance.

That presence was superbly concealed, almost blending into the rocks, yet it carried a metallic chill.

Most importantly, it had not just arrived. It had been lying there for some time, and its exchange of heat with the surroundings had already stabilized.

The candidate who entered two minutes before me...

Lin Yan reached his conclusion instantly, recalling the information on the landing roster.

By rights, someone who had entered two minutes earlier should already have headed deep into the island or sought a hiding place. But this person hadn't.

She had stopped near the entrance.

She was waiting.

A sniper.

A flicker of coldness crossed Lin Yan's eyes.

Only the most confident-and most treacherous-hunter would choose this approach: using that tiny time advantage not to escape, but to establish the perfect sniping position for the moment their prey entered the jungle and let their guard down.

Though faint, that presence resembled a venomous snake that had long lain in ambush. The cold muzzle of her gun was trained squarely on the entrance area.

Without his Qi Observation Technique and his ability to sense earth qi, taking just a few more steps earlier would probably have brought him straight into her scope.

Is she waiting here specifically for me?

If I were still the person I was when I first crossed over, I probably wouldn't even have known what killed me in an ambush like this.

But now...

If you want to be the hunter, you'd better be prepared for your prey to turn around and kill you.

Lin Yan neither looked back nor made any evasive movements. That would only tell her, "I've spotted you," and force her to fire early.

Pretending to know nothing, he lifted his foot and walked unhurriedly toward the dense woods to one side.

His bare feet landed soundlessly on the fallen leaves.

He moved with care, perfectly playing the part of a "weakling" who was oblivious to danger and cautiously exploring his surroundings.

He even deliberately chose a route that exposed his back at an angle seemingly riddled with openings, while trees actually blocked her line of sight.

He knew the sniper was steadying her breathing, waiting for the moment he stepped out of cover.

And he, too, was preparing a wholly unexpected "surprise" for this hunter who thought she had everything under control.