Perhaps Law's Tempest Cut angered the giant dandelion hidden in the mud, causing it to reveal its true form.
The thick root stem had a diameter of up to ten meters, and the white fluffy ball, due to the extended threads, made its exact diameter unclear, but it was undoubtedly over five times that of the stem.
Through the gaps in the white fluffy threads, one could vaguely see that the inside of the sphere was a mass of blood-red flesh, like a heart, beating at a steady rhythm.
"A dandelion?"
Knov stared blankly at the giant dandelion breaking through the ground, a look of surprise in his eyes.
Compared to Knov's focus, Law noticed other details.
When the dandelion emerged, its threads only lightly touched the plants, instantly slicing them apart, like Emission-type Aura Blades… the effect occurred remotely.
However, the mud splashed up when the dandelion broke ground didn't cause this phenomenon.
This reminded him of the earlier test with the mud balls… they had exploded, not been sliced.
'What was the reason?'
'Could it be that the dandelion's bizarre, sharp threads didn't work on mud?'
The dandelion's fluffy ball hovered in the air, its dense threads suddenly shooting towards Law and Knov, tracing countless trajectories in the sky.
"Knov, the task of finding Nitro Rice is yours."
Seeing the approaching thread swarm, Law changed direction, continuing deeper into the swamp.
"Okay," Knov agreed.
Behind them, the giant dandelion hovered unmoving, but its thread swarm extended indefinitely, closely pursuing Law.
However, Law's speed surpassed even Kuro's, and within moments, he left the thread swarm far behind.
"We shook them off, but..."
Knov first glanced at the thread swarm falling further behind, then quickly scanned the miniature groves on the swamp.
Their flight speed was too fast. His eyesight couldn't clearly see if the tree crowns bore Nitro Rice, and even if he saw some, by the time he warned, they'd likely be hundreds of meters past.
In that situation, if they turned back to pick the Nitro Rice, the sky-filling thread swarm would descend from above, leaving them no escape.
"Law, eleven o'clock direction, five stalks!"
Knov suddenly spotted a tree crown bearing five Nitro Rice stalks and immediately warned.
But, as he feared, Law's speed was too fast. Even though he warned as quickly as possible, they still passed the target in an instant.
However, Law did see the five Nitro Rice stalks and immediately halted his momentum, turning to stabilize himself mid-air as if running in place.
His gaze crossed several hundred meters, landing on the five Nitro Rice stalks Knov had spotted, while in the distance, the thread swarm approached rapidly.
'Turning back now would be surrounded by the threads.'
Weighing the speeds, Law quickly judged and turned without hesitation, continuing to increase distance from the thread swarm.
Knov said gravely, "This way, we can't pick Nitro Rice at all."
"Hmm, ultimately, it's because of this troublesome dandelion."
"So what now? Kite it?"
Law shook his head, saying seriously, "When the dandelion emerged earlier, I noticed its threads didn't slice the mud."
Knov was taken aback. When the dandelion broke ground, his attention was entirely on the dandelion, so he hadn't noticed this at all.
"What I'm about to do next is dangerous, so you go back to the Hide-and-Seek dimension first."
"No, I must stay with you. Only then can you escape danger anytime, anywhere." Knov realized Law's next action was to verify the relationship between mud and the threads.
But there were too many threads. Getting too close might erect an inescapable 'birdcage'… that would be too dangerous.
"Knov, listen," Law looked back at the tenaciously pursuing thread swarm and said gravely, "Having you with me indeed gives a 'get-out-of-jail-free' card, but the margin for error is too low. Understand?"
"I..." Knov was speechless.
He understood clearly: in this environment, more people were useless… speed was the only guarantee, and he precisely lacked that.
Insisting on staying would only bring potential trouble to Law.
"I understand."
Knov's thoughts raced. To avoid causing Law trouble, he decided instantly.
"Good."
A smile appeared on Law's face… this was what he liked about Knov: understanding the situation.
After deciding, Law landed directly.
"When I think it's impossible, I'll return here directly. Be ready to receive me then," Law said to Knov, who was drawing the black circle entrance.
"Understood. Be extremely careful."
Knov finished and decisively dove into the black circle.
He knew staying one second longer meant one more second of danger for Law.
Watching the black circle disappear, Law quickly made a mark at the entrance, then continued forward.
This time, he didn't take to the air but ran swiftly across the swamp.
"Are you really going to play this big?" Kuro emerged from the back of Law's hand, shrinking to a size that wouldn't hinder Law, then perched on his shoulder.
"Without trying, getting more Nitro Rice will be too difficult. If we can deal with that dandelion, all the Nitro Rice in this swamp will be ours."
Law looked back at the thread swarm beginning to descend towards the ground, a glint in his eyes.
Originally, he planned to use the Dark Sonata to deal with one of the five known Calamities, Hellbell. He didn't expect a more troublesome dandelion to appear.
Likely, Hellbell in the swamp had been eradicated by this dandelion.
Law deliberately slowed his speed, reducing Nen consumption accordingly, while the thread swarm visibly closed the distance.
"It's a pity the threads' movements are too uniform, hard to find isolated ones for testing."
Law's movement speed slowed further. A white light flickered behind him… during movement, he materialized the White General.
"Blade."
Hearing this, Kuro immediately took out Shin from space and handed it over.
Law took the long blade, his eyes glowing with Nen.
[Domain]
The mud stepped over seemed drawn by a strange gravitational force, gathering towards the long blade in the White General's hand. Instantly, it formed a thick layer, turning the long blade into a club.
"This distance gives me enough time to react."
Law stopped, directing the White General to move two meters ahead.
Based on precision, two meters from his body was the maximum distance.
And at this distance, if his guess proved ineffective, he still had room to escape.
Calmly watching the overwhelming thread swarm, Law held his breath, waiting.
As for Kuro, to avoid hindering Law, after handing over the blade, he returned to the back of Law's hand.
When the thread swarm entered within ten meters, Law swung the blade.
The White General moved with him. The long blade, wrapped in thick mud and surging Nen, slashed out a dense curtain of blades towards the front. The surrounding air instantly distorted, invisible shockwaves shooting in all directions.
Nen firmly held the mud in place… even as the blade swung, it wouldn't scatter.
Clusters of threads directly crashed into the blade curtain!
Thump, thump, thump!
The threads hitting the blade curtain instantly disintegrated, and the remaining momentum surged like electric current towards the other end of the threads.
'It works.'
A glint flashed in Law's eyes… he released the mud wrapped around the long blade.
Instantly, the mud spread out like waves of fire, igniting all threads it touched, making the thread swarm retract rapidly towards its source like a burning fuse.
Moments later, the thread swarm disappeared from Law's sight, and the disintegrated threads turned into fine ash-like particles, drifting slowly down from the sky.
Law didn't expect it to go so smoothly. Instead of taking advantage to search for Nitro Rice in his joy, he chased after the retracting threads.
He wanted to eliminate that giant dandelion. Only then could they freely search for Nitro Rice.
Hide-and-Seek Dimension.
"Holy crap!"
Watching this through the projection, Shiro couldn't help but curse.
He saw the air around the blade curtain distort.
'A normal Nen User facing that would probably only dodge in panic, right?'
Not just Shiro, others noticed too.