I'm extremely interested in Nen abilities.

The group of people Sloe brought were all dressed in identical black suits. One of them, upon hearing the short man's words, couldn't help but ask curiously, "What do you want to talk about?"

The short man asked curiously, "I work as a bodyguard, so of course I want to ask if they need me."

Upon hearing this, the others nearly fainted. Was this kid really a professional hunter? Was he out of his mind? Did he want to have his cake and eat it too?

The short man retorted angrily, "Don't look down on me! I'm very capable. I can fire you all and be a bodyguard for both sides by myself!"

Sloe turned around and sighed as he walked away, "Mr. Kangzai, we are not enemies with Kakin's people this time, but we are not allies either."

Kang Jae said "Oh," and then regretfully added, "Well, since that's the case, there's nothing we can do about it!"

The woman in the black suit who had asked the question earlier concluded, "It turns out she was just slow-witted, not greedy."

"You're being way too blunt!" The others couldn't help but look at him sideways.

"Who are you calling stupid?!" Kang Zai roared, glaring at the woman. "...Glasses girl, what's your name again?!"

The woman said, "My name is Xiaodi. I came to give this job a try because the pay is very high."

The second half of the sentence doesn't need to be said... The others sighed.

"Alright, everyone get in the car." Sloe felt like he was going to lose hair again tonight. "Let's go back to West Town first. You've been traveling all day, by spaceship, train, and ship. You must be tired. Tomorrow we still have to negotiate with those vampires from Blanchett Corporation... Sigh, Mr. Kangzai, the only person you need to protect is me. Everyone else can be considered an enemy or a potential enemy. Do you understand what I mean?"

Kang Zai said, "You should have said that earlier. It's such a waste of time to chat with you bunch of idiots!"

Everyone took a deep breath, swallowing their words, and got into the two SUVs, one in front and one behind, and drove off into the night, kicking up dust.

Amidst the swirling dust, a green bird followed closely behind, darting past in the taillights of the car behind and landing on the roof of the vehicle behind.

Chapter 20 Star Evolution

Jing Yang's place of residence is the eastern coast of Ghost Island, which the locals call East Town; the northern coast is the site of abandoned small cruise ships, most of the land in the peninsula is designated as a protected area for the Moon Tiger, which is managed by the Blanchett Corporation, while the east leads to the inland of the Okima Federation... The western coast is called West Town, which is also the place where Okima's official representatives, such as Sloe, and others went to stay.

Apart from the two towns, East and West, there are no proper roads on this island. The two off-road vehicles bumped along the way and finally drove into West Town.

Compared to the East Town, which resembles a tourist town, the West Town, lacking an amusement park, becomes exceptionally quiet after nightfall, with few neon lights visible, as if it exists in a different era from the East Coast. Two cars stopped one after the other in front of a small hotel.

The car in front opened its door, and Sloe touched his thinning hair and tightened the collar of his trench coat. Kang Zai, who was in the passenger seat, also got out of the car. He was not tall and looked like he had nothing special. He had a head of spiky, frizzy hair, which was dyed with yellow as the base and black as stripes. Combined with his low IQ, he looked like a wild tiger wearing human skin.

Xiao Di and the others got out of the car behind and followed the two into the small hotel where they were staying. Everyone was dressed in suits and ties, looking very professional.

However, before entering the door, Kang Zai, who was following behind Sloe, suddenly turned around and glanced at the bird flapping its wings and flying away from the roof of the car behind.

Little Di, naturally very curious, turned around and looked back, asking in confusion, "Is there something there?"

“It’s a bird,” Kang Zai said. “There was a bird on that ship before. When we got in the car and left, it seemed to land on the roof of your car and has been there ever since.”

Xiao Shi said, "Really?"

"There were indeed two birds that landed on the rocks next to the boat," the others said, blushing with embarrassment.

Like Xiao Di, they were amateur hunters who had accepted the mission two days ago after hearing about Sloe's recruitment. Although they had only known each other for about two days, the black-haired, bespectacled girl's peculiar memory had already left a deep impression on everyone. What was most infuriating was that while they remembered her forgetfulness vividly, she forgot it immediately and seemed quite puzzled as to why they were looking at her strangely…

"However, we didn't notice that one of the two birds landed on the roof of the back car."

"It's just a coincidence, don't worry about it too much."

"Didn't the other one disappear? This one flew away too."

As they whispered among themselves, they followed Sloe back upstairs. Before going to their respective rooms to rest, they first gathered at Sloe's place.

Sloe glanced at Xiao Shi and the other amateur hunters he had temporarily recruited, and said earnestly, "I predict that Blanchett Corporation won't easily agree to let us enter the protected area for arbitrary investigations in the next few days. They'll probably only relent after the Kakin authorities stop protesting. Babima and the others started their investigation as soon as they arrived, probably wanting to end some kind of mission and this cooperation as quickly as possible. They might not even be able to drag it out until the 20-day period expires..."

He paused, loosened his tie, and continued, "Starting tomorrow, I will negotiate with Blanchett & Co. as the official representative. Let them delay for as long as they want. As for the real investigation, that will depend on the experts from the public."

Xiao Di raised her hand, asking curiously, "They say it's an investigation, but what exactly are they investigating?"

“A Moon Tiger?” the other amateur hunters murmured. “Speaking of this island, it must be a Moon Tiger. This precious and endangered protected animal used to be found only within the Kingdom of Kakin…”

"Are we going to catch some Moon Tigers?" Xiao Di continued curiously. "I've heard that those tigers are very beautiful, and I really want to see them."

Sloe said, “It is precisely because we know nothing about this place that we need to investigate. If we have to give a reason, it is that we really want to find out why, for 24 years, the royal family of Kakin has been so evasive and secretive about this island.”

……

Jing Yang naturally had no idea what these people talked about after entering the hotel. Before he was discovered, he had already controlled the green bird that was hitchhiking to fly away. After circling around, it landed on the other side of the small hotel's roof and chose a spot where he could see people coming and going through the main entrance.

The man who possessed this green bird, along with another green bird near the cruise ship on the North Coast, were grappling with the same problem.

If I were to switch out of the first-person perspective now, the two green birds would continue to execute the command they had given me before I possessed them: upon seeing a human, they would use their beaks to puncture their bodies, activating the star's self-healing function to warn me, who was far away on the East Coast.

One can imagine that the moment you touch those two green birds, they will immediately lower their heads and start pecking at you...

My consciousness has no choice but to stay in place for now!

Jingyang controlled two green birds, one keeping watch at the small hotel in West Town, and the other hiding in the woods in the wilderness of the North Coast, secretly observing what Barbimainna and his gang could find out.

Even Neferpitou, one of the three Chimera Ant Guardians, couldn't monitor what lay beneath the surface with his exaggerated "circle." It's unlikely that Babymaine, with her cauliflower-shaped haircut and military bearing, would easily discover the corpses she threw into the sea, or the two she buried...

--------

In a small inn on the east coast, Jingyang thought to himself, "What I feared most has come to pass. My godmother's chase has attracted people who seem to be from the Kakin Kingdom."

My small arms and legs are no match for such a behemoth.

However, there's plenty of time, and who knows what will happen in the future? Jingyang secretly noted this down and decided to wait and see.

The little rock sparrow had already tilted its head to the side and was fast asleep on the sheets, as if it had been hanging up.

Jingyang carried it to the bedside table and quickly went to rest.

Since Jingyang was controlling the two scattered green birds from a first-person perspective while his main body was asleep, it's no surprise that his sleep quality that night wasn't very good.

The next day, in the bathroom of the room, the faucet was turned on with a whooshing sound. Jingyang looked up, wiped his face with cold water, and splashed it all over the little rock sparrow that was struggling with its toothbrush, causing it to chirp incessantly.

"Go out for breakfast."

The little rock sparrow immediately stopped chirping and eagerly flew down to Jing Yang's shoulder, nuzzling his cheek affectionately.

After finishing breakfast and feeding the chirping little rock sparrows, Jingyang, carrying a large pile of meat, sensed the location of the two white birds next to Wu Er and went to find them.

"Roar!"

In the woods outside Dongzhen, the Miserable Moon Tiger, who was lying under a tree, suddenly raised its head and saw Jing Yang walking towards it carrying large and small bags. It immediately stood up happily, leaped out, and pounced on Jing Yang—Jing Yang fell.

"Haha, stop fooling around."

After frolicking for a while, Jing Yang nimbly leaped up with a somersault, "Wu Er, do you want to eat something delicious or not? Attention! At ease!"

Wu Er sat down in front of him.

Jingyang spread out the large and small bags of meat, and under his urging, Wu Er finally couldn't resist and went over to gnaw on them.

Jingyang stroked the fur on the back of the tiger's neck as it ate, pondering his manipulation-type Nen abilities.

The current control scheme is somewhat rigid and inflexible. It would be better if the applied control commands could be modified after switching to first-person perspective.

With that in mind, Jingyang decided to give it a try.

According to Jingyang's guess, the Manipulation-type Nen ability "Earth Song" was formed subconsciously as the optimal solution that could be achieved under the circumstances when facing the gaze of a pack of wolves and feeling the suffocating crisis of death. In order to escape the deadly situation by doing everything possible, even a series of implicit constraints were formed spontaneously in order to increase its power.

For example, there must be a complete pentagram symbol, the mark must be imprinted on the target's body surface, and one must make contact with the pentagram symbol using one's own energy...

So now, this is my first attempt at actively developing, or rather optimizing, this operating system capability.

"Tiger, it has to be you again." Jing Yang patted the tiger skin. "These birds are too stupid, and Wolf is dead, so you're the only one who can help me develop them. I'll count to two—"

Wu Er chewed on the cooked meat, looked up at the human cub with a puzzled expression. The instant the cub counted to two, its consciousness seemed to suddenly go black, completely blocked, suppressed, and squeezed into the deepest part of its mind by another layer of consciousness...

At the deepest level of this subconscious, everything is almost still, discontinuous, and the passage of time is imperceptible.

It's unclear how much time has passed, but Wu Er suddenly had a vague sense of awareness in his subconscious.

It raised its head, tearing a rift in the pitch-black world, scattering a faint silver light, just like the bright moon that the Azure Moon Tigers loved most...

The "movie screen" suddenly lit up again.

Wu Er's consciousness surfaced from the subconscious through the moonlight filtering through the crack, and he could see the scenery in the forest again and smell the scents. However, his body no longer belonged to him; it was like a stone, beyond his control.

As it drew nearer, the joyful voice of the human cub echoed in its mind: "Ha! As expected, my Nen ability is still developing, and its potential is quite strong! Takeji, can you hear me? Please respond if you hear me, please respond if you hear me..."

Chapter 21 How to lift Xiaodi's sweater

After Jingyang's numerous tests, he discovered that his Star Mark ability, under the first operation, had an additional use: after his consciousness occupied the target's body, he could free up some space in the target's "brain capacity" to achieve a level of mental communication with the target...

But in essence, this still falls under the first operation. Jingyang is still controlling the target's body from a first-person perspective.

However, once Jingyang wants the target to take over the body, Jingyang's consciousness will immediately go offline... This is not in line with Jingyang's ideal scenario of making the controlled bird behave like a normal bird while his own consciousness lies dormant in the bird's mind, secretly monitoring the enemy through its senses.

Jing Yang, controlling the body of the Miserable Moon Tiger, wandered around the ground, thinking to himself, "But since we can communicate mentally, I should be able to 'update' the commands before I 'log off,' right?"

Jingyang deactivated the first operation on the Can Yue Hu, looked up at the other white bird that was obeying his command and acting as the Can Yue Hu's wingman in the sky, and directly shouted the third operation: "Fly in the trajectory of ∞".

The star on the white bird's beak fluctuated, and after the command was changed, Jingyang immediately switched to operation number 1, and his consciousness immediately took over the bird's body in the sky.

Jingyang was only "online" for a few seconds, did nothing, and then immediately "logged off".

Sure enough, the white bird continued to execute the "third instruction" from before, circling in the sky in an ∞ trajectory... Jing Yang took over the bird's body again, leaving room in his consciousness, and said to the white bird in his mind: "After I leave, land on Wu Er's tail on the ground."

After giving his explanation, Jingyang immediately went offline again.

This time, the white bird no longer circled along the ∞ trajectory. Instead, it immediately folded its wings and swooped into the forest like a plane crashing. It circled once and nimbly flapped its wings to land on Wu Er's tail.

Wu Er tilted its head, of course it couldn't understand what Jing Yang was doing all this fuss.

"It's a bit cumbersome," Jing Yang assessed himself. "It's roundabout... If only I could directly evolve the ability to 'telepathically connect' with the star holder. However, the essence of the star seems to be 'control.' If I want to forcibly change that, I either need to continue to cultivate diligently and increase my proficiency in manipulation, or I need to add more 'constraints' in order to create a new ability..."

Jingyang instinctively felt that it was better to let the star retain its controllable nature.

If you make your abilities convoluted and unclear, you'll end up with insufficient memory capacity and bewildered by the rules you designed for your abilities—that would be disastrous.

"That's enough for now!"

Jing Yang let out a long breath, clenched his fist, and a layer of energy wrapped around it. "We can't get our priorities mixed up. The focus of our training recently should still be on increasing our mental capacity and solidifying our basic skills."

"Wu Er, come on, show me the auspicious place you found for me to cultivate."

Jingyang flipped over and jumped onto the tiger's back, taking the rock sparrow and two other white birds with him, and flew away.

Along the way, Jingyang caught quite a few more birds. This time, he was very patient. He applied the star mark to each of the dozen or so birds, making sure it was a pentagram symbol, by minimizing the size of the mark. After giving them instructions, he tossed them into the sky.