Plan Five X Training X The Four Seasons and the Elements

At dawn the next day, A-Wu, having finished his training, and Qi Zhou, having just emerged from his agony, opened their eyes at the same time, ready to begin another day of risking their lives.

"Morning~" Qi Zhou twisted his stiff neck and greeted A-Wu.

A-Wu opened his eyes and looked at him. Though he was unused to greeting people, he still replied, "...Morning."

"I didn't get a chance to ask yesterday. Um... did you find the people you were looking for?"

"More or less." A-Wu thought for a moment. "But the few who are still alive have all been placed somewhere it's hard to escape surveillance. It'll be a bit troublesome to bring them here."

Qi Zhou frowned. "Huh? Is it difficult?"

"I wouldn't call it difficult, just troublesome." A-Wu considered it briefly. "Take me to see Wennide today. I thought through a few possibilities last night, and the easiest way is to have them escape surveillance by being declared 'killed in battle.'"

Qi Zhou nodded. "Okay."

He stood up and continued loosening his body as he spoke. "After I introduce you to Wennide, I won't get involved in the White Eagle Society's affairs anymore. Is that all right?"

"No problem. You can leave the rest to me." The corners of A-Wu's mouth lifted in a calm smile. "Don't worry. I'll keep an eye out for your business too."

"That's great. But you remember the vice president I told you about, right?"

Thinking of the vice president, who had left a deep impression on him after only one meeting, Qi Zhou frowned and stopped stretching. He asked seriously, "...Do you have any way to deal with that vice president?"

"It's not a problem for now," A-Wu answered, then explained, "I don't have any conflicts of interest with him-at least not yet. So there's no need to deal with him at the moment."

"If you count the two of us, Wennide's faction is the strongest right now. And you told me the other day that the vice president was the one who promoted Wennide. So, on the surface, everyone else will consider him part of the vice president's faction."

He said softly, "If Wennide supports the vice president taking over as president directly and becomes vice president himself, there won't be too much resistance."

"That's true. Either way, whether the vice president becomes president or stays where he is, he won't have any real power. There's no difference between the two positions for him. At least this way, he'll still have a faction supporting him, ensuring his position isn't threatened."

Qi Zhou relaxed. "Come to think of it, his situation hasn't changed at all from when Suoerzite was still around."

A-Wu snapped his fingers. "Exactly."

"In that case," Qi Zhou said, heading outside, "let's go now."

"After I introduce you to Wennide, I'll come back and continue training."

...Ten days later...

Since Qi Zhou, Wennide, and the others had returned from the eastern district that day, the other hall masters had seen the miserable state of Bayer, who had barely survived his severe injuries, and abandoned their plans to target Wennide, allowing him to secure his position as hall master. On top of that, he had killed Vincent and seized his territory, and he was making an increasingly good showing for himself in the White Eagle Society.

As Wennide's influence grew, A-Wu borrowed his forces and led men to take down several enemy strongholds in the eastern district. They killed everyone, allowing the people of A-Wu's faction in the strongholds to escape by "faking their deaths," take on new identities, and come to the western district to join the White Eagle Society.

Qi Zhou paid no attention to what had happened in the White Eagle Society over those ten-odd days. He only went to help A-Wu briefly when A-Wu contacted him.

He spent all the rest of his time training.

He had a vague feeling that his Nen Ability type was different from Noah's. In other words, when he used Noah's Nen Ability, his own Nen Ability was replaced.

To test this conjecture, which was completely different from what Weisite had told him, he performed Water Divination again. The result was just as he had guessed.

When he borrowed Noah's "Nen" to use "Hatsu," the taste of the water changed depending on the element. "Fire" was spicy, and "water" was sweet. From this, it was clear that Noah's Nen Ability type was "Transmutation."

The change was quite practical. He wouldn't need to buy chili peppers or sugar anymore.

As Qi Zhou poured the water out of the glass bottle, he marveled at how truly extraordinary Nen Abilities were.

Judging by his "Song of the Four Seasons" Nen Ability, the badges could enhance the wearer's speed, strength, and stamina, so it ought to be an "Enhancement" ability. When using it, he needed the "Song of the Four Seasons" as a medium to create badges.

So when the "Song of the Four Seasons" was taken away, he was left with Nen but no Nen Ability. Although he could summon the Nen book, that was all he could do: every ability that required a badge was ineffective. The badges were ineffective, and the boosts that the instruments placed in the book would normally provide were ineffective as well.

He heaved a heavy sigh and cursed a certain someone ten thousand times in his heart.

If he could use the ability to condense badges, he guessed he might even be able to use the Mouth of Calamity to deal with the poison in his body. What had poisoned him was "Nen," not actual poison, so he wouldn't have needed to go to such trouble to find a way into Spicy Fragrance Mountain and search for a suppressant.

He cursed a certain someone another ten thousand times in his heart.

But then again, Noah's "Transmutation" ability could transform Nen into "fire" and "water." If "fire" and "water" corresponded to the Song of Blazing Fire and Song of Clear Water in the "Song of the Four Seasons," then he could likewise transform Nen into the "rock" and "wind" that existed in the "Song of the Four Seasons."

During the ten days A-Wu spent running around, Qi Zhou stayed on the garbage mountain, developing his elemental abilities to deal with any crisis that might arise.

At noon, beneath the blazing sun.

Qi Zhou sat on the ground with his left palm pressed against it, sensing everything in the earth that could resonate with his Nen.

Once he infused his Nen into the earth, he could sense every extremely subtle vibration within ten meters of himself. Even a cockroach crawling out of a garbage heap couldn't escape his perception.

Qi Zhou sat there quietly, as though asleep.

His left eye suddenly opened and turned silver-blue without warning. On the ground ten meters in front of him, a rock spike as long as a finger and as thick as a wrist silently emerged from beneath the earth, pinning a rat-or what was probably a rat-that had crawled out of a garbage heap to the ground.

No one knew what the "rats" in Meteor City's chemical district ate to grow up. They were as big as house cats from his previous life, with blood-red eyes and fangs, and they were frighteningly aggressive.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak~~"

The rat let out a miserable cry, green blood flowing from its wound. The pain and blood roused its ferocity, and its eyes turned blood-red.

The rat's body jerked violently, snapping the rock spike.

It knew who had hurt it. Qi Zhou's figure was reflected in its blood-red eyes as it charged straight at him.

But halfway there, the rat faltered and fell into a mud pit that had suddenly appeared in the ground without warning.

"Pfft-" "Pfft-"

Before the rat could climb out of the mud pit, four or five more rock spikes shot up from underground, piercing its body like lightning and holding it suspended in the air.

"Squeak-!"

The rat convulsed and twisted violently. As it struggled, blood gushed from its wounds in streams, but even then, the creature, with its extraordinarily tenacious vitality, still didn't die.

Qi Zhou silently raised a hand. A blade of wind slashed at the rat, leaving a half-inch-deep wound in its neck and putting it out of its misery.

Qi Zhou lowered his head and stared at his hand, murmuring, "...Even though I've developed 'wind' and 'rock,' the damage they can do is still too low."

"When I'm actually fighting an enemy, the only things that'll probably be useful are 'rock's' sensing ability and its ability to create obstacles. The damage isn't high, but what if I can trip someone?"

Qi Zhou gave a self-deprecating smile, but his gaze remained firm. After making a few adjustments, he returned to his training.

If he didn't think he was strong enough, then he would keep working hard to make himself stronger.