The darkness at the jungle's edge was deep as ink, utterly silent.
Only the rush of flowing water beat monotonously against the riverbank.
Lin Yan stood on the open stretch of gravel, his breathing long and steady.
The purple malice that had shadowed his every step stopped as well the moment he halted and turned around.
It no longer surged like a tide. Instead, it became a giant python coiled in the shadows, concealing every scale and sound, watching the prey on the riverbank-who seemingly had already given up resisting-with cold, mocking, slit-pupiled eyes.
Lin Yan's mind was focused to the utmost, like a fully drawn bowstring.
He knew Hisoka was there.
He was observing, assessing, wondering.
Why had this little mouse, who had just snatched food from his mouth, stopped running?
What was he trying to do? What gave him the nerve to stop?
That uncertainty was Lin Yan's only bargaining chip.
Time slipped by, second after second, each passing moment like a dance on a knife's edge.
The immense pressure of Nen hammered at Lin Yan's nerves like a tangible weight, making every pore on his body tremble uncontrollably.
I can't lose my composure... If my mind falls into chaos, I die.
Lin Yan bit down hard on the tip of his tongue. Using that trace of blood-sweet pain, he forcibly suppressed every tangled thought, sinking his awareness like a heavy stone into the depths of his dantian.
The dantian embryo, which had dimmed slightly as his true qi ran dry, began to radiate a gentle glow again under his steady breathing and unwavering will.
Faint wisps of energy from heaven and earth were slowly drawn into his body-from the surrounding air, the ground beneath his feet, and the flowing river. Through the method of the Primordial Chaos Stance, they became true qi in its most fundamental form, replenishing his parched meridians.
Though his recovery was pitifully slow, his presence was strengthening little by little.
At last.
A tall, slender figure slowly emerged from the shadows of the trees.
Fiery red hair stood wild beneath the moonlight. Strange stars and teardrops adorned his deathly pale makeup, and his bizarre clown outfit fluttered in the night wind.
Hisoka was toying with an ace of hearts.
His narrow eyes roamed brazenly over Lin Yan, their aggression and possessiveness undisguised, as though he were admiring a rare collectible soon to be his.
"Why run? Hmm?"
His voice carried a languid magnetism, its pitch rising slightly at the end. It echoed across the empty riverbank, every word seeming to carry a hook.
"That move just now... was wonderful~"
He approached one step at a time.
Not quickly, but every step seemed to land on Lin Yan's heartbeat.
Even the surrounding air seemed to tremble with his footsteps, growing thick and oppressive.
Lin Yan did not answer him.
He merely raised his left hand calmly, palm facing upward.
The mud-stained number 44 badge lay quietly there.
Then he raised his right hand as well, displaying the number badge on his chest.
[No. 81]
"Let's make a deal, Hisoka."
Lin Yan spoke, his voice quiet but exceptionally clear, without the slightest tremor.
"Oh?"
Hisoka stopped, tilted his head, and regarded him with interest.
"A deal? You're using my own belongings to bargain with me? Little mouse, have you still not grasped the situation?"
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, and a killing intent colder than before began to spread.
"Do you believe I could tear you to pieces right now, then take my badge back?"
"I do."
Lin Yan nodded, his gaze never wavering.
"With your strength, killing me as I am now would be easier than crushing an ant."
"But," he shifted tack, looking straight into Hisoka's eyes, which seemed capable of seeing through a person's heart, "where's the fun in that?"
Lin Yan understood perfectly.
Trying to reason with a chaotic, evil psychopath like Hisoka, pleading for his life, or begging for mercy was the stupidest thing anyone could do.
He cared nothing for morality or rules, or even winning and losing.
He cared about only one thing-fun.
Whether Lin Yan could make him feel "interested," whether he could stimulate that nerve called "the urge to fight," was the sole criterion that would decide his survival.
"You've already killed countless people stronger than me. What would killing one more person, so weak he can barely stand, give you beyond a cheap thrill with nothing worth savoring?"
There was a peculiar cadence to Lin Yan's voice, as though he were explaining an eternal truth.
"As I am now, I'm indeed nothing more than a little mouse you can crush whenever you like, bland and tasteless."
"But have you considered that this little mouse holds a power you've never seen before?"
"If given time, he might grow into a dragon... one that even you would find troublesome, one that could even devour you."
The curve of Hisoka's lips stiffened slightly.
Then the interest in his narrow eyes deepened.
"A dragon? Hehe... big words."
He extended his bright red tongue and licked his dry lips, leaning forward slightly as that enormous pressure instantly doubled.
"Something that exists only in fairy tales... Then show me where your 'dragon scales' are. If you can't... I'll make your death very ugly~"
There it is!
That was exactly what Lin Yan had been waiting for.
He drew a deep breath and mobilized every last wisp of the true qi that had just recovered in his dantian.
He extended his right index finger.
Slowly and visibly, he gathered that supremely pure wisp of true qi at his fingertip.
Hum!
A white gleam quietly lit up at his fingertip, gentle as jade yet radiating an aura of supreme sharpness.
This was not a Nen user's state of Ken.
Ken enveloped parts of the body in large amounts of aura; it was an accumulation of "quantity."
But the gleam at Lin Yan's fingertip was a concentration of "quality."
It was faint, less than an inch long, like a translucent jade needle.
Yet the aura it gave off made Hisoka's pupils abruptly contract!
He "saw" it.
In that instant, his exceptional perception caught the anomaly directly.
An energy utterly unlike any Nen in this world!
Nen was life energy, a power originating in the flesh.
It could be wild, sinister, or nimble, but its essence always carried the breath of a living being, brimming with desire and emotion.
Yet the gleam at Lin Yan's fingertip carried a certain... transcendence beyond worldly things.
It was ancient, pure, sharp.
It seemed not to be a product of this world, but rather... a manifestation of some higher-order "law"!
"This is..."
For the first time, genuine astonishment entered Hisoka's voice.
"This is my 'dragon scale.'"
Lin Yan's face was pale as paper, but his eyes shone with startling intensity.
He lightly touched his fingertip to a fist-sized black river pebble beside him.
There was no sound.
No sparks.
No grating screech.
That white wisp of "sword qi" slipped soundlessly into the hard pebble like a red-hot knife through butter.
As though the stone had no substance before it at all.
Then Lin Yan withdrew his finger.
The evening breeze swept across the riverbank.
Crack.
A faint sound.
The pebble split cleanly down the middle, its cut surfaces smooth as mirrors!
Hisoka stared fixedly at the split stone.
The smile on his face had vanished completely.
In its place was an intense excitement mingled with greed, obsession, and fervor, carrying even a hint of sick, twisted delight.
Traces of extremely faint white energy lingered on the smooth cut surfaces, slowly dissipating.
That energy was annihilating the stone's material structure in a way he could not comprehend.
This was not cutting.
This was... decomposition!
"Interesting... far too interesting!!!"
Hisoka's shoulders began to shake violently. His arms even wrapped around himself involuntarily, as though he were suppressing the pleasure about to erupt within him.
"This power... this property... it's different from Transmutation, different from Enhancement too... I've never seen it before! What exactly is this?!"
Lin Yan slowly lowered his hand.
A powerful wave of dizziness battered his brain. That single use of Transforming Qi into Sword had drained the very last of his reserves.
Now even standing required tremendous willpower.
But he could not fall, much less show fear.
Looking at Hisoka, who had fallen into a state of extreme excitement, he spoke each word distinctly:
"As I am now, I've only just formed a 'dantian embryo' inside my body. Like a newly planted seed, it's still very fragile."
"If you kill me, all you'll get is a dirt-covered seed that hasn't sprouted yet. Beyond dirtying your hands, it has no value."
"But if you give me time, until I cultivate this 'dantian embryo' into a true 'golden core' and refine this wisp of qi into a real 'sword'..."
An unprecedented light burned in Lin Yan's eyes.
"When that time comes, what I can offer you will be the ultimate delicacy, something you've never tasted before."
Before you continue