Kurapika's throat was dry and hoarse. He slowly opened his eyes and saw double images on the white ceiling.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The sounds in his ears were very regular. Is this a hospital?
Memories slowly emerged. Sensui Mountain. Scarlet Eyes. Clues. Helmando. Teleportation. Divine script space. Scarlet Eyes. Scarlet Eyes. Liam...
"You're awake." Someone said next to him.
Kurapika rolled his eyes and saw Liam and Shizuku from the corner of his vision.
Shizuku was sitting reading a book. She raised her head when she heard the noise, then quickly lowered it and turned the page as if nothing had happened.
Liam sat with his legs crossed, looking at something in his palm—looked like scraps of paper or... rice husks?
It was Liam who'd spoken.
"The operation went well," Liam said to Kurapika. "You've now cut off the root of your troubles and become a beautiful girl."
As he spoke, he pointed to a glass of water next to Kurapika's bed.
Shizuku raised her head and glanced at Kurapika again in surprise.
"Stop joking..." Kurapika helplessly sat up on the hospital bed. After lying down for too long, I still feel weak.
After sitting up against the bedside, he suddenly fumbled under the blanket twice and breathed a sigh of relief.
Liam couldn't help laughing.
Kurapika just pretended nothing happened, took the water glass, and drank it in one breath.
Liam clenched the rice husk crumbs in his hand and suddenly said, "Putting things into perspective—in a situation like yours, have you ever considered recruiting beautiful women to spread the blood of the Kurta Clan?"
"Why do you have to emphasize beauty?" Kurapika said with a pale face. "According to your despicable thinking, as long as the other party is a woman."
"Oh, you're right." Liam nodded. Obviously based on Kurapika's character, it's impossible for him to accept the behavior of tainting feelings purely for the sake of breeding.
"Besides, I'm only 14 years old."
"Well, a beautiful 14-year-old boy who can already pick and choose whether his partner is a beautiful girl or not."
"When have I ever been picky?!"
"Oh, you don't deny that you're a beautiful boy..."
Kurapika's forehead pulsed with veins. He took a deep breath—no longer meaninglessly arguing with such a childish boss.
"So you're quite energetic." Liam smiled. "Then we can talk about business."
Shizuku immediately understood. She closed the old book she was reading, raised her hand, and materialized Blinky. The vacuum cleaner opened its mouth and spat out two solution bottles, placing them at Liam's hand.
Two glass jars filled with solution. A pair of eyes suspended in each.
In the four pupils, the unquenchable anger in the eyes before death was permanently retained. A fiery red color—known as one of the seven most beautiful colors in the world.
Liam handed them to Kurapika.
Kurapika looked at the two pairs of eyes floating in solution. His eyes unconsciously showed sadness. "What's the point? I'm the only one left of the real Kurta Clan. Even if I have children in the future, they'll be mixed blood."
Liam said, "I didn't expect you to be a racist."
"When the Kurta Clan was still around, I wasn't." Kurapika said. "When I'm the only one left, I seem to be."
He raised his red eyes that seemed to be burning with fire. "I must remember everything about the Kurta Tribe—including the hatred we bear."
"Be positive. Who said you're the last Kurta?" Liam clapped his hands and reminded, "Have you forgotten the ultimate goal of our organization? The Ten—the light that sweeps away darkness. The way to salvation is here." He pointed to the two jars on Kurapika's blanket. "They can come back.I believe in your potential."
Kurapika remained silent. He raised his hand and materialized the dolphin bookshelf, pulled out the sixth volume "Resurrection," and sealed the two pairs of Scarlet Eyes in the book.
The dolphin bookshelf and six books turned into aura and dispersed. The color of Kurapika's eyes returned to normal. The size of the aura around his body dropped accordingly. He breathed a little tiredly.
"The good news is that we are—unintentionally—a little closer to our ultimate goal."
Liam spread his hands. In his palm were some crushed rice husks. "The thing you mentioned before that might be hidden in the stone—Nitro Rice."
Kurapika was stunned. Recalling what happened before, he asked in surprise, "Is it really Nitro Rice?"
"Not sure, because I didn't eat it. But I guess it is." Liam said, pouring the rice husk powder on Kurapika's blanket. He said slowly, "But I asked that Ryan—the Black Mist Lions' lifespan isn't much different from humans. So the fact the Great Elder can live for hundreds of years obviously has something to do with the bowl of rice King Wangu Hui Guo Rou gave him..."
"Wait a minute." Kurapika asked doubtfully. "What Ryan? What elder?"
Shizuku also had question marks.
She seems to have forgotten all the Black Mist Lion characters...
"I'll tell you later." Liam pointed at Shizuku, then turned to continue explaining to Kurapika. "Let's start from the beginning and talk slowly."
So Liam told the story: how he and Shizuku received a call from Essi using Kurapika's mobile phone in the middle of the night. How, based on the signal from the Star Mark on Kurapika's body, they found the Kamavor Mountains and met the Black Mist Lion clan. About the Leader and the Black Mist Lions. About the Great Elder and Kakin's legendary True Martial King three to four hundred years ago...
After listening, Kurapika couldn't help but fall into deep thought. Then asked, "Why did the rice wither so quickly after the seal was released?"
"That's a good point!"
Liam slammed the hospital bed, causing Kurapika to frown.
"Yeah, why did it suddenly wither?" Liam said. "Because it was stored for too long and oxidized when exposed to air? But you see—these rice husks aren't much different from ordinary rice husks. They don't look like oxidized and decayed cultural relics that will rot completely, turn into powder, and disappear with the wind."
"Rather than saying they're broken, it's better to say after the seal was lifted, they changed from sacred objects that can extend life to ordinary rice..." Kurapika said thoughtfully. Looking through the scene, you could find some shriveled rice grains in the crushed rice husks that had fallen.
Liam said, "Because of this, Shizuku, you, Essi, and I originally wanted to divide the Nitro Rice among us. But in the end, Essi didn't want it."
On one hand, it's not polite to accept a strange thing of unknown origin. This thing starts to decay as soon as you take it out. Essi can't take it away even if he wants to.
Unless the moment you take it out, you pour it directly into the pot and steam it.
The kind with the shell attached.
Kurapika obviously immediately thought of this and asked, "According to your report, the Black Mist Lion Elder said the food given to him by True Martial King Wangu Hui Guo Rou wasn't raw rice, but hot, cooked white rice. Judging from the results, he indeed experienced the life-extending effect of Nitro Rice."
While thinking, he said, "One: Even if the rice looks rotten, it can still be eaten and has the same effect. Two: Because of different eras, the Nitro Rice obtained by King Wangu Hui Guo Rou couldn't be preserved at the beginning. It would only rot uncontrollably and become inedible. Three: Before Nitro Rice is cooked, it must rely on a special environment to maintain it—and King Wangu Hui Guo Rou knew this very well."
Liam raised three fingers one after another. "One: These shriveled rice grains after decay will be very shriveled even after being cooked. I'm afraid it'll be difficult to eat. Two: If they can't be preserved long-term, why did Wangu Hui Guo Rou go to such trouble to store this Nitro Rice sealed in stone? This possibility can also be eliminated. Then there's only three..."
"Divine script space." Liam and Kurapika said in unison.
Kurapika recalled, "In that place, my physical strength, energy, and even mental will were consumed very quickly. Difficult to recover..."
Even with this kid's tenacity, he couldn't help but frown when recalling the more than ten days in the divine script space.
"Do you think that place could be..." Liam wondered. "Wangu Hui Guo Rou recreated the environment of the Dark Continent through the divine script?"
If Nitro Rice could only exist normally in a certain special environment before being put in the pot, then what? This so-called special environment is also related to the Dark Continent.
Kurapika nodded. "This is the only conclusion we can draw for now."
"You're right. When we land in the Dark Continent in the future, we can take out this rice and look at it—then we can find out the truth." Liam said with a smile.
What he was thinking of was actually Netero's description of the Dark Continent in the manga.
Before V5 concluded the treaty on the inviolability of the Dark Continent, adventurers in the human world who were keen to go to the Dark Continent—full of curiosity and desire to explore—were like pawns crossing the river.
Even after V5 concluded the treaty, some people were still stubborn. Secretly crossed the boundless dark sea to explore the boundless continent.
The survival rate can almost be said to be approximately 0.
The reason it was "approximately" was because there were special cases of strong people like Netero who came back alive.
According to Netero, what he pursued was the power of winning and losing between individuals. To my understanding, it's the so-called "measuring strength, but also determining life and death."
But Netero believed the kind of power he wanted to pursue didn't exist in the Dark Continent. What existed there was only an extremely harsh natural environment. Nothing more.
Harsh natural environment...
Liam recalled Kurapika's scrawny appearance when first rescued—almost dying. In the Dark Continent chapter of the manga, I haven't seen any special personal protection preparations made by Beyond and the others... The story hasn't unfolded to that point yet?
If the natural environment of the Dark Continent is so harsh that even a Nen user with certain basic strength like Kurapika would be tortured like this after more than ten days, that would be totally unreasonable.
"It's a pity the divine script in that space dissipated so quickly. Otherwise we'd have to study it carefully." Liam said.
Kurapika said, "There's insufficient evidence. A lot of it is just speculation. Whether that space is a simulated environment of the Dark Continent—we'll have to wait until later to find out."
"If it's true, it seems we need to make more preliminary preparations than we expected."
Liam couldn't help but sigh. He noticed Kurapika was looking behind him strangely. He also turned his head and looked—immediately a black line appeared on his forehead.
At some point, Shizuku had released the cracked black jade Buddha statue and was observing it curiously.
Kurapika said, "I heard you right. You just said this is the Buddha statue that was enshrined in the temple by the Black Mist Lion clan—left by the original True Martial King Wangu Hui Guo Rou. He carved it with his own hands..."
Liam coughed lightly. "You don't need to add so many attributive words. Well, yes. The Doraemon in our organization is very aware that thieves never slip up."
Or should I say—Shizuku was indeed a thief who would join the Phantom Troupe in the original timeline?
The thief's ultimate move, right?
Regarding this point, when Liam was surprised by Shizuku's "heist" a few days ago, Shizuku denied Liam's statement in a rare move.
"It's not stealing," she corrected Liam seriously at that time. "Only insignificant things count as stealing."
Liam had a question mark at that time.
"This statue is very beautiful. When I first saw it in the temple, I decided to take it." Shizuku said seriously. "So it's not stealing."
...It was deliberate robbery, right?
Liam recalled Shizuku had said she liked books, playing Gungi, and jewelry...
She usually seems indifferent to the world and doesn't bother anyone. But that's just because she has fewer personal desires. It's not that she doesn't bother anyone—few things bother her.
The Buddha statue left by Wangu Hui Guo Rou was indeed beautiful—like magnificent black jade. Even though it had lost its spirituality and was full of cracks, it was still full of a broken beauty. No wonder Shizuku likes it.
Kurapika stared blankly at the black jade Buddha statue. His brows wrinkled unconsciously. "Kakin, the statue..."
"What are you muttering about?" Liam asked strangely.
Kurapika frowned. "I seem to have seen records in some book—related to ancient cultural relics of the Kakin Kingdom..."
"Don't bother if you can't remember." Liam said. "Take good care of your body. There's a wedding in a while—we're going to crash it. Didn't you forget?"
"Wedding. Scarlet Eyes. How could I forget?" Kurapika calmed down and suddenly asked, "How long did I sleep this time?"
Liam said, "You've been lying in this hospital for a week."
"That wedding is in November..."
"It's November—" Liam couldn't remember anymore. He looked back at Shizuku, opened his mouth to speak, then turned back. He thought for a moment. "Forget it. I'll call and ask Melody later. Just follow them together. Take a ride in the car—look more impressive."
"Anyway, you need to rest well. Not only your body needs to recover—your strength also needs to recover." Liam said with a smile. "I guess you won't need to perform, but you don't want to be a burden, right?"
"Yeah." Kurapika closed his eyes, then opened them. "Then I'm hungry."
"Okay. The patient is the boss."
Liam stood up to say goodbye and pulled Shizuku along. "Let's go. Get some food for our cool baby. Oh—don't look at it. He's not as handsome as me!"
Shizuku swallowed the black jade Buddha statue with Blinky and was led by Liam to leave the ward. On the way, she wondered, "Why did it become this kind of material?"
"Who knows? Maybe Old King is a Conjurer like you..."
The Conjuration type can even transform themselves into shapes—a motorcycle, a plane, a Gundam... So it doesn't seem surprising they can turn a piece of reef into a lump of black jade.
With this in mind, Liam took out his phone and planned to take a photo of the black jade Buddha statue to send to Rabbit Pyon—consult her expert opinion.
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