I'm extremely interested in Nen abilities.

"Didn't expect so many reporters to come?" The employer, a middle-aged man who looked like an ordinary office worker, with his collar casually open and no tie, smiled and waved to the photographers. As he turned away, he muttered under his breath, "Damn it, what kind of Tom, Dick, and Harry can sneak in like this? Who sent these low-class paparazzi invitations? They're really lowering the class..."

The square-faced bodyguard chimed in, "Perhaps the reporters also want you to rate them."

The employer laughed, "Make them skyrocket in value? Dream on!"

The square-faced man shrugged. "Those artists would give anything to get a single comment from Damart, and which journalist chasing after artists and celebrities wouldn't want a compliment from Damart?"

"Hahaha!"

The employer, Damat, patted the square-faced bodyguard on the shoulder and laughed heartily.

The other bodyguards remained calm. The one with the square face was the strongest and most senior.

Kurapika remained expressionless throughout, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small gray shadow approaching, landing in the corner of the room, and looking in his direction.

When he turned his head to look, the little gray bird also turned its head to look at him.

[Jingyang?]

【What else could I do? You've been offline for so long, I thought you couldn't find your way up the mountain.】

If I were really in trouble, I would have contacted you for help long ago. You didn't contact me either, did you?

[Hehehe, there's no reason for the eldest brother to take the initiative to contact the third brother!]

[That makes sense. 】

Kurapika nodded, when suddenly his employer, Damat, exclaimed in disgust, "Get him out of here! This is... utterly absurd! How could something like this appear on Sensui Mountain?!"

Kurapika thought it was Damat who had discovered the little gray bird that Jingyang was controlling, but when he turned around, he saw that it was a beggar who had rushed over and was stopped by the bodyguard on the other side.

【what's the situation? 】

"Didn't you arrive before me?" Kurapika answered through the moon mark on his index finger ring, while saying to his employer, "I'll handle it."

His employer, Damat, nodded, his face contorted with disgust as he dodged the beggar and quickened his pace to enter the hotel within the Xian Shui Shan Qian Shan Villa with his other bodyguards. Upon seeing the welcoming lobby staff, he demanded, "What's going on here? How can you let a beggar up the mountain? This is a place of art! This is outrageous..."

"I didn't ask about the beggar. I'm asking about you, my employer." The little gray bird flew over and landed on Kurapika's head.

Kurapika's eyes immediately went dead.

He reached out and snatched the little gray bird from his head, placing it on his left shoulder. [He was the most influential critic; artworks he critiqued had miraculously increased in price 50 times overnight. Even movies and pop songs, receiving just a word of praise from him, could see their popularity soar… He was invited to the Xianshui Mountain Art Exhibition and temporarily hired some hunters as bodyguards.]

Those people just now didn't all look like amateur hunters.

Two of them were professional hunters. To be honest, the skill level of professional hunters was much lower than I initially expected...

【hehe! 】

Kurapika gave a deadpan look again, sighed, and said, "...That's because I have a good teacher, of course."

"No need for a teacher, the eldest is great." "Jingyan Que" said generously, flapping its wings. "I thought you'd find an artist to hitch a ride with."

[Initially, I did want to find a painter. Ideally, Matthew Harrison would hire me directly, then I wouldn't even need to come to Xianshui Mountain...]

While rapidly communicating with Jingyang using the ring, Kurapika had already helped the beggar to his feet and asked kindly, "Are you alright?"

The beggar raised his head, his pure black eyes meeting Kurapika's gaze.

"Jingyan Que" noticed that Kurapika's "voice" had suddenly gone offline and stopped, which puzzled him. He turned his head and saw that the old beggar whom Kurapika had helped up had dark, round eyes and was grinning with a strange smile.

The old beggar's voice was shrill, and he laughed strangely, "Compared to him, you're more like a work of art! Plus, plus, plus..."

He's laughing so hard his mouth is practically stretched to his ears!

Kurapika reacted instinctively, decisively grabbing the old beggar's arm tightly with such force that it seemed he could break it.

But soon, Kurapika's hand gradually loosened, and he stood there stunned. Anyone who didn't know better would think he was frightened by the old beggar's "sunny smile".

what's the situation?

"Jingyan Que" opened its beak as if to give Kurapika a command to activate the star mark on his body, but only heard a "chirp chirp" sound coming from its own mouth.

By North!

"Jingyan Que" grabbed Kurapika's shoulder and tugged at his clothes with his toes, then switched to first-person control mode.

Possessed by Kurapika!

Jingyang instantly gained Kurapika's perspective.

Everything before my eyes seemed to be instantly shrouded in a light red mist.

It looked like firelight, and also like the color of blood.

"Jing Kula" made a decisive move, grabbing at the strange old beggar in front of him with a ball of energy, but missed.

The old beggar seemed to have vanished into thin air, as if he had never existed.

Even when using "凝" (Ning), "景酷拉" (Jing Kula) could only see a fleeting wisp of air disappear right before his eyes.

Did he escape while he switched control modes and took control of Kurapika?

With that thought in mind, Jingyang released Kurapika from his control, and the star mark under the latter's clothes quickly went silent.

Kurapika staggered two steps, then steadied himself by supporting himself on his knees.

"Jingyanque" asked: "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine..." Kurapika straightened up.

Your eyes. They don't look okay.

Kurapika's eyes were still burning red. He closed them briefly, took a deep breath to regain his composure, glanced at the ground where the strange old beggar was no longer there, and turned to walk towards the hotel.

"The moment I made eye contact with that person, I felt like I saw that day again..." Kurapika clenched his fist and smiled bitterly. "It's probably an illusion caused by some kind of Nen ability they used. After you took control of my body, my consciousness was pushed deep into my mind, and the illusion became even longer..."

What Tsukuyomi!

"Jingyan Sparrow" chirped a curse, then asked, "[That old beggar just said you're more like a work of art than him?]"

"He probably refers to my employer," Kurapika said calmly. "He probably sees my experience as material for some kind of artwork. As far as I know, the latest painting being exhibited at this art exhibition by the painter who bought those red-eyed people from the mafia is on this very theme..."

[Calm down! My eyes are getting red again!]

……

Kurapika quickly entered the hotel.

"Where is that old beggar?" asked the employer, Damat, frowning.

"I've already sent them away," Kurapika replied. His employer was an ordinary person; he couldn't very well say that he suspected the other party was a Nen user with malicious intent who had escaped using some means.

"You still say there are no beggars?!" Damat turned around and yelled at the hotel waiter, but the waiter still had a polite smile and claimed to know nothing. He said, "Why don't you bring the old beggar over here?"

The "Rockfinger" perched on Kurapika's shoulder, blending into the atmosphere. The others simply assumed it was a bird Kurapika had found outside.

The square-faced bodyguard reminded him as he went upstairs, "Be careful of unfamiliar objects, whether they are physical objects or living creatures."

"Thank you for reminding me," Kurapika said calmly. "The beggar I just saw wasn't sent away by me; he launched an illusion attack on me and then vanished into thin air."

The square-faced bodyguard was quite surprised, "An attack using Nen abilities?"

"In short, be extra careful."

They didn't even know where the enemy was, so this was the only way they could handle it. They were bodyguards, there to deal with any trouble that might come near their employer.

The employer, Damat, arranged two rooms for the bodyguards, working in two shifts, one day and one night. One shift stayed with him, while the other shift stayed in the next room to rest.

Kurapika was assigned to the night shift, so he had some free time during the day. After gathering and listening to his employer talk for a while, they dispersed and went to the next room.

The other bodyguards, who were also on the day shift, planned to go out for a walk and familiarize themselves with the terrain, while Kurapika said he would go later.

After everyone else left, Kurapika sat alone on the sofa, looking at his hands.

"Jiji?"

The little gray bird hopped onto the coffee table in front of him.

"What?" Kurapika looked puzzled.

[What are you spacing out for?] "Jingyanque" switched to the monthly chat channel. [Has anything unusual been discovered?]

"Hmm." Kurapika looked at his palm and, using the Moon Mark to communicate telepathically, said, "[In the instant I hallucinated outside, I grabbed that beggar's arm and used 'Skull Rider' to pierce his skin and obtain a drop of his blood...]"

Oh, your ability requires the target's blood as a medium.

"But when he disappeared, the blood I obtained also disappeared." Kurapika looked at his clean palms, then suddenly flung out a ball of energy that materialized into a dolphin-shaped bookshelf, from which he pulled out the fourth volume, "Revelation." Kurapika's eyes burned red, entering Scarlet Eyes mode, and he activated his Special Nen ability, "Absolute Time."

Wow!

The fourth volume, "Revelation," opens to a blank page and floats before Kurapika, whose eyes are red with fire.

Jingyang knew that Kurapika's "Revelation" had the functions of lie detection and finding people. Especially after entering the Scarlet Eyes state, this function was upgraded again. Even if he had only met a stranger once, he could detect lies through the monitoring screen and perform tracking and divination remotely... But now, Kurapika had burned "Absolute Time Revelation" for a full 30 seconds, and the blank page was still blank. There was not a trace of revelation.

Whoosh, the books and dolphin bookshelf disappeared, returning to a wisp of air.

Kurapika rubbed his temples and said to the "Jingyanzhu" on the coffee table, "That beggar... isn't a real creature."

……

It was dusk, and the sky was getting dark.

In the training ground on the back mountain, seven or eight more martial artists could not hold on and returned to their physical bodies, their "souls" dissipating.

Only eleven or twelve fighters remained in the arena.

Yung-Gu and Zhe-Hao are among them.

Jing Yang goes without saying; he doesn't need to be described as persistent at all. The whole process seemed very ordinary and not difficult at all.

Yun Gu, sitting cross-legged on the ground to control his physical body, was already struggling to move and almost lost his composure. At this moment, the "soul" behind his head was obediently holding his breath and sitting cross-legged in mid-air, not daring to move at all.

Jingyang's "soul" sat on top of his physical body's head, resting his chin on his hand.

If it weren't for the stars on Taliyah, Shizuku, and Kurapika that allowed him to truly "daydream" and avoid getting bored, he probably would have given up long ago...

Seeing his idle demeanor, Zhehao and the other martial artists' "souls" almost lost their composure and collapsed.

Is the difference really that big?

[Did you take the photo?] Jingyang's "soul" looked at Xiaodi, and his voice traveled through the ring on the index finger of his physical body to Xiaodi's mind.

Xiao Di shook her phone and then said to Hart, "Let's go back."

"Huh?" Hart scratched his head.

Xiao Di didn't repeat herself a second time and turned to walk towards the hotel behind the mountain.