That was no ordinary heartbeat. It was powerful, like the beating of a war drum.
Law felt surprised inwardly, but his expression remained as calm as still water.
He simply watched as the female corpse, as if time were reversing, transformed into a woman with a slender and well-proportioned figure.
All the changes occurred during the performance of the flute's four movements.
Before the memory fragment ended, even though he witnessed the corpse turn into a living person, Law still didn't understand the ability of the flute Sonata.
'It was a stark change from white to black, but was it simply an exchange of life and death?'
'If so, how could a corpse move?'
'Before the flute was played, the woman truly had no heartbeat, and her body was decomposed to that state.'
'Could it be that the woman wasn't the performer initially, but a listener?'
'As a listener, she heard the tune and then became this way.'
'Now, she transitioned from listener to performer, reclaiming what she had lost.'
'However, this phenomenon differed from what Melody had described, although Melody had only heard one movement at the time...'
'The available information was too scarce to form a basic judgment.'
Law shook his head slightly and continued watching the woman, now brimming with renewed vitality, gently place the flute back into the man's hands.
Now, the man's body inside the platform was pitch black, with faint signs of decay visible.
The woman, restored to her living appearance, glanced at the clothes on the floor, paused, and then walked directly towards the wall facing the platform.
Without any visible action from her, the stone wall opened automatically, flooding the chamber with a blinding white light.
Law instinctively took a step forward, his entire field of vision filled with the white light.
The next second, Law regained his sense of being in reality and opened his eyes, seeing Kuro and Ging standing before him.
Quietly setting aside the information brought by the end of the memory fragment, he then looked at the score in his hand, now devoid of its black Nen.
"So that's how it is," Law murmured to himself. A subtle surge of Nen shattered the score into pieces.
Having reduced the time limit by about a year and a half, he could still manage to use a bit of Nen to destroy a sheet of music.
The shorter the countdown time limit, the greater the degree to which his pores could open.
Even though the amount of Manifested Aura he could control was extremely limited, he could still manipulate it freely.
Kuro hopped onto Law's shoulder and asked, "How long?"
"Four years."
"That long!" Kuro was shocked. This meant he'd have to protect Law for at least a year, and who knew how much Nen that would cost.
Ging also heard the time limit and was immediately taken aback.
Four years... that was far too long.
After all, that large ship from the Kakin Empire was scheduled to depart in about a month at most.
Ignoring Kuro, Law looked at Ging and explained, "The time will shorten with training. If nothing unexpected happens, it should end in about a year."
Hearing Law's explanation, Ging nodded slightly.
'A year was acceptable, not too long.'
'Moreover...'
Ging observed the Aura currently emanating from Law, and it was roughly maintained at the level of Ten. Just a few minutes ago, Law's Aura hadn't been this much.
This indicated that Law had managed to slightly widen his Aura Nodes a bit more in those few minutes.
"Let's go down," Law said. He had many things he needed to sort out and prepared to return directly to the Lawlin Museum.
Ging glanced at the fragments of the score Law had casually discarded but didn't ask anything, following Law downstairs.
When they returned to the Lawlin Museum, Law, like most Nen Users, maintained Ten around his body. The others didn't notice anything unusual about his condition.
Late into the night, Ging and the others left one after another.
First, Law made sure Machi was exhausted enough to fall asleep, then he got out of bed, left the room, and went to the empty living room.
Shortly after sitting on the sofa, a wisp of black smoke seeped in from outside and instantly transformed into Kuro in front of Law.
Law extended his hand and said, "The score."
Upon hearing this, Kuro took out the violin version of the Dark Sonata from his mouth and handed it to Law.
The moment Law's hand touched the score, the White Smoke Font once again presented the option of whether to absorb.
'As expected, it was the overflow of Nen that reduced the time limit,' A flicker of thought passed through Law's eyes.
If absorbing this time could also reduce the time limit, then he could shorten it not only through training but also by utilizing the Nen on ancient artifacts.
However, in a sense, using the overflow Nen from artifacts solely to reduce the time limit was somewhat wasteful. But since his numerical value had already reached 100%, it didn't matter much.
The idea was, after releasing Zetsu, he could try absorbing Nen from artifacts again to see what effect it would create.
"What are you going to do?" Kuro asked curiously, watching Law who was deep in thought.
"Absorb the Nen on this score," Law replied casually.
"But aren't you..." Kuro was surprised.
"It might reduce the time by a significant chunk," Law said, looking at Kuro.
"Oh?"
Hearing this, Kuro couldn't conceal his joy. This would be even better.
"Then absorb it quickly," Kuro urged.
Law wasn't in a hurry, and he didn't immediately absorb the black Nen from the violin version.
He was thinking about the ability effect of the flute version.
It was also an ability that traded a price for a result, but it was different from the [Wish Power Embryo] of the harp version, and it wasn't purely [Damage to Enemy Equals Damage to Self] like the piano version.
In essence, the nature of the flute version's ability seemed more like [Exchange].
It exchanged a 'phenomenon' belonging to the performer for a 'phenomenon' belonging to the listener.
This ability had no clear upper limit, nor an obvious lower limit.
For example, if the performer had cancer and the listener had a healthy body, once the exchange conditions were met, their bodies wouldn't literally swap. But the performer's body would become healthy, while the listener would immediately develop cancer.
Or, if the performer was severely injured and the listener was unharmed, the performer could complete the exchange of their respective 'phenomena' through playing.
Theoretically, this seemed more like a transfer, but in essence, it was indeed an exchange.
It appeared the initiative lay with the performer, so the beneficiary was often the performer, but that wasn't entirely true.
Because the beneficiary would inherit the 'Misfortune' of the disadvantaged party, and the disadvantaged party would gain the 'Good Fortune' of the beneficiary.
In gaming terms, it was like a luck stat, similar to the unlucky crow in the white mist forest.
When the 'Misfortune' index reached a certain level, it wouldn't be strange to be hit by a meteorite while walking down the street.
Having roughly understood the flute version's ability, Law thought it could be used in combination with the piano version's ability.
The nature of the piano version's ability was 'inflict a thousand damage on the enemy while taking eight hundred yourself'.
Both the performer and the listener would shed their flesh and blood, turning into walking skeletons, the difference being the performer's flesh shed at a slower rate.
If using the piano Sonata to attack an enemy, one would also turn skeletal, becoming a complete Bone Clan member.
At that point, one could switch to the flute Sonata and exchange the 'phenomenon' of their own skeletal state with the enemy's intact 'phenomenon'.
Thinking of this, Law focused his attention on the violin score.
'Let's give it a try,' Law thought, activating the White Smoke Font's ability.
'Absorb!'
The black Nen from the score flowed unimpeded into Law's body.
Within his consciousness space, the countdown timer's speed accelerated once more!
"It works!" Law's spirits lifted.