Liam and the others quickly enacted their plan, pretending to completely split up their formation into three entirely distinct groups. He grabbed the leash of Lumos and deliberately separated his path from both Shizuku and Bisky.
However, he and Shizuku simply took a wide detour through the forest and soon quietly rejoined each other far ahead on the trail, waiting in the shadows.
From the high-altitude, sweeping bird-eye view of Jaku, Bisky was walking leisurely entirely alone down the dirt road. Suddenly, without a single sound of warning, a dark, thin person shot out violently from the deep shadow of a jagged rock shelter located diagonally behind her. The hidden man struck incredibly fast. He was tightly gripping a sharp, metallic weapon and thrusting it violently directly toward the center of the back of Bisky, aiming perfectly for her heart. Even observing the ambush with the sharp, enhanced naked eyes of Jaku, and even with the highly trained combat consciousness of Liam completely possessing and dominating the bird, he could absolutely only manage to capture a blurry afterimage of the lightning-fast attack of the man.
But Bisky was vastly faster.
She utilized the absolute smallest, most efficient physical movements possible, taking full advantage of the sheer convenience of having a highly petite, compact frame, to easily and concisely completely avoid the lethal attack from behind.
However, probably entirely because she didn't naturally possess the combat concept of actively protecting her long hair as a vital, physical part of her body, the very end of her long, bouncing blonde braid was cleanly sliced off by the sharp edge of the weapon of the attacker.
While the crazed man reached out and snatched the severed blonde hair directly out of the air, gripping it tightly in his pale hand, Bisky spun around gracefully and kicked him brutally in the chest. He hit the hard ground with a sickening thud and violently bounced back up to his feet.
The opponent quickly regained his balance, crouching low. He was holding the sharp weapon from the failed attack just now—which turned out to be nothing more than a simple, ordinary pair of large metal scissors—tightly in one hand, and securely holding a few long strands of the blonde hair of Bisky in his other hand. He smiled a highly strange, sickening smile and muttered something completely incomprehensible to Bisky, then aggressively threw the fistful of hair directly into his own mouth.
Liam instantly recognized the face and knew exactly who this guy was. His name was Binolt. He was a disgraced former bounty hunter and a highly dangerous, escaped violent prisoner currently carrying a massive bounty on his own head. He was a deranged cannibal who shared the exact same horrific culinary tastes as Hannibal Lecter. He especially, exclusively loved capturing and eating the fresh flesh of healthy young women entirely in their early twenties...
And his highly specific, entirely bizarre Nen ability deeply involved the physical hair cleanly cut with his favorite pair of metal scissors. If he successfully cut and then physically chewed and ate the hair of a target, he could instantly, perfectly know absolutely all the hidden biological information about the physical body of the other person: the exact quality and tenderness of their meat, any hidden diseases they carried, their absolute genetic qualifications and potential, etc.
It could absolutely be said that this highly specific Nen ability had extremely little practical use in actual, fast-paced combat. After all, the true, lethal secret of the vast majority of Nen users lay entirely within their specific, complex Nen abilities, absolutely not just the raw physical stats of their bodies.
The bizarre Nen ability of Binolt fully, perfectly embodied the core, fundamental characteristic that Nen abilities are nothing more than the direct, unfiltered reflections of the true heart of the user. Because this deeply sick guy absolutely loved the taste of eating human flesh above all else, his twisted, dark heart had naturally derived a highly specific, biological scanning ability entirely to strictly assist him in perfectly selecting his meat.
"So you see, buddy, our highly complex cooperative Nen ability absolutely requires you to genuinely, sincerely want to physically transform into a wearable tiger-skin skirt and completely become my personal tool. Only if you actively possess such a strong, dedicated supporting spirit can this specific ability development finally get twice the result with only half the required effort!"
Liam was currently entirely ignoring the fight. He was gently caressing the beautiful, smooth crystal-white fur of Lumos with highly sincere, encouraging words. He really was desperately racing against the clock. Since they had such a good chunk of completely free time while Bisky handled the trash, he aggressively urged the big tiger to lie flat on the dirt ground and actively study the complex flow of his Nen ability.
His bright, flowing aura and the massive aura of Lumos seemed to smoothly blend together in the air, perfectly merging into a vastly larger, highly unstable, flowing white water sphere. As the massive water sphere violently swayed and rippled in the air, the physical body of the heavy tiger lying inside it began to wildly fluctuate. Sometimes his thick muscles became completely shriveled and flat, sometimes his entire physical volume shrank down rapidly, and sometimes he bizarrely changed entirely into a tiny, perfectly formed little tiger absolutely as small as the palm of a hand...
Shizuku stood perfectly still, watching the bizarre, flashing display from the side.
The natural, massive aura pool of Lumos himself definitely wasn't nearly enough to keep actively struggling against the physical laws of reality like this for very long. Absolutely all the massive, continuous aura consumption actively fueling the complex transformation process was entirely provided by Liam continuously, forcefully supplying a thick stream of his own aura into the beast.
After letting Lumos intensely practice the transformation feeling for a while longer, Liam finally dropped the connection and stood up, wiping sweat from his brow. "Well, they are probably almost finished over there by now. Let's head back and take a quick look."
Shizuku turned back down the trail with him. When they arrived at the site of the ambush, they saw a pathetic, thin man with small, cruel eyes looking exactly like a completely broken homeless person. He was currently kneeling heavily in a massive, spreading pool of his own fresh blood directly opposite Bisky, violently spitting out thick mouthfuls of blood onto the dirt.
While actively spitting out blood, he looked up at the girl and said in a highly hoarse, completely awe-struck voice, "I absolutely admire you... It truly, undeniably is a physical body that has been flawlessly trained to absolute perfection..."
Unlike the heavily bleeding, broken man, Bisky had absolutely no visible physical changes or injuries whatsoever, completely except for the very bottom of her blonde hair being cut off a little bit. Even after being so intensely, weirdly praised exactly like this by a deranged cannibal, her highly calm, detached demeanor didn't fluctuate a single degree. The incredibly old, experienced heart of Bisky was exactly as hard and firm as a flawless diamond. You could intensely praise her to the heavens or violently belittle her to the dirt; it absolutely wouldn't affect her solid core in the slightest.
Absolute silence is truly the greatest form of contempt.
Binolt looked up at the completely silent, utterly unbothered Bisky, exactly as if he had suddenly seen a painful vision of his own tragic childhood again. He remembered when he was a starving, desperate orphan wandering alone on the cold street, and he clearly saw the heavy, lost wallet of a wealthy passerby drop to the ground. He had kindly, honestly picked it up and tried to politely return it, but he was completely misunderstood and severely, brutally beaten by the owner and the police... Were desperate, poor people exactly like him simply born into this world to be this incredibly humble and pathetic? Had they truly absolutely never once been taken seriously or treated kindly by others?
"So, his specific ability is actually entirely based on eating hair?" Liam walked casually over to the bloody scene and asked, intentionally pretending complete ignorance of the lore.
Bisky didn't turn around. "Did you manage to see it happen?"
She absolutely didn't bother to look up at the actively circling rock sparrow high in the sky when she spoke. "This pathetic person seems to be completely able to perfectly analyze the highly specific physical conditions of other people simply by eating a sample of their hair," she commented in her usual, habitual teacher tone. "It is actually an incredibly good, highly useful diagnostic ability to specifically assist a master in perfectly tailoring a training regimen. It is an absolute, profound pity that he apparently seems to entirely only use it to hunt and find highly suitable prey to eat."
"Assist... in training?" Binolt asked as hard as he physically could, with fresh, hot blood actively spraying from his ruined mouth. He looked exactly as if he had just been violently struck by real lightning.
Bisky completely ignored his profound revelation.
Liam completely ignored him too.
Instead, Liam casually raised his hand, reached up, and sharply pulled exactly a few strands of his own dark hair right off his head. He pointed a finger directly at his own chest. "Hey, cannibal. You want to eat mine? I really, truly want to know exactly what is biologically going on with my own body right now."
A massive, highly visible question mark practically appeared directly over the blonde head of Bisky. But Shizuku knew exactly what Liam was actually talking about—his body was currently aging incredibly rapidly!
Binolt ignored the others and looked directly at Bisky with his small, desperate eyes. "My ability... only hair physically cut by the blades of my own specific scissors is useful..."
"Oh, is that it?"
Liam carelessly flicked his fingers and threw away the few loose strands of dark hair he had just pulled. He casually shoved both his hands deep into his pockets, leaned his tall body entirely forward, and completely stretched his exposed head right over the kneeling cannibal. "Come on then. Cut it."
Binolt stared in absolute shock. He slowly raised his trembling, blood-covered hands, tightly gripping the metal scissors, and reached directly toward the exposed top of the head of Liam. The fragile human skull and the pulsing, highly vulnerable carotid artery of the arrogant opponent were sitting less than exactly 10 centimeters directly under his sharp, open scissor blades. He literally only needed to aggressively add a little bit of sharp aura to the metal blade and thrust...
Binolt hesitated, then gently, carefully cut off a single, clean strand of the dark hair of Liam. He shakily poked the hair directly into his own mouth that completely reeked of copper blood, slowly chewed the hair exactly a few times with the closed metal scissors, and finally swallowed it.
The remaining aura inside his broken body immediately fluctuated, and his complex Nen ability rapidly began to take full effect. A second later, his small eyes widened in absolute, profound surprise.
Liam also widened his own eyes in deep anticipation. Together with the entirely blank stare of Shizuku, two distinct pairs of highly curious eyes stared intensely directly at the kneeling Binolt. "Well? How exactly is it? Give me the full, detailed physical examination report right now!"
Binolt murmured in a highly hoarse, completely confused voice, "How is this even biologically possible... twenty-six years old... eighteen years old... why exactly are there two completely different, actual physical ages..."
Liam was completely, absolutely shocked. Did this weird cannibal's highly specific Nen ability really accurately read entirely different biological ages based strictly on the bizarre state of his transmigrated physical body?
There was absolutely no logical way the exact, literal age from my previous life would actually appear completely embedded inside my new physical body after officially transmigrating, right?
How the hell did you even eat that specific data out of a single piece of hair?
Shizuku calmly turned her head to look directly at Liam. "You absolutely cannot logically be 26 anymore. You are 18."
"I am 18," Liam stubbornly corrected her. "Absolutely do not listen to this guy. This specific person clearly has a massive, biological problem with his palate."
"Wait, twenty-six years old?" Bisky also looked up at him, her expression highly strange and suspicious.
"Fifty-three years old?" Liam immediately shot back, looking at her with an even more highly strange, judging expression, and then aggressively jumped backward reflexively to dodge. But it entirely turned out that Bisky had absolutely no immediate intention of physically beating him this time.
Over there on the dirt, Shizuku suddenly also stretched her own head directly in front of the bleeding Binolt, exactly like Liam had just confidently done.
Binolt was currently so profoundly mentally confused by the bizarre data that he entirely subconsciously raised his scissors, cleanly cut off a small piece of her dark hair, and chewed and ate it without a second thought.
He murmured blankly, completely without any of his usual predatory interest, "Biological age, exactly 16 years old... The vision in the left eye is highly impaired at 200 degrees, the right eye is slightly worse at 220 degrees. There is absolutely no underlying disease present in the system entirely except for the severe myopia. Overall physical fitness and muscle density is easily several times that of completely ordinary people..."
He continued to mechanically read out a massive lot of highly specific, biological details, exactly like an incredibly thorough, highly advanced medical physical examination report. He could perfectly, accurately detect her exact blood pressure, her resting blood sugar levels, and several other complex internal indexes.
Liam seriously, deeply doubted that this pathetic person could ever successfully change jobs to become a highly paid gynecologist or a respected obstetrician in a real hospital. By simply chewing a single strand of hair, he could maybe even easily, perfectly check the exact, detailed physical condition of a hidden fetus entirely inside the body of a pregnant mother with absolute clarity. Whether the tiny fetus was currently hungry or not, maybe he could easily tell that too...
With possessing such an incredibly profound, highly useful diagnostic ability, he had somehow stupidly ended up entirely becoming a wanted murderer and a deranged cannibal. It was really, truly an absolute, tragic waste of immense talent!
"Please... before you finally kill me, can you at least tell me..." Binolt looked away from the teens and asked Bisky in a broken voice, "What exactly did you mean by using my ability for training?"
"Kill?" Liam was instantly, highly alert, stepping forward.
"You absolutely must have clearly thought of the exact answer entirely yourself by now," Bisky said coldly, looking down at him.
"Wait, are you really going to actually kill him?" Liam asked urgently, his hand hovering near his pocket.
"Yeah..." Binolt knelt heavily down and looked entirely down at the massive, dark pool of his own blood that was already almost completely solidified on the cold dirt.
The blurry reflection staring back at him in the dark pool seemed exactly like a painful vision of that of himself as a young, lost kid again. Was his highly specific Nen ability really just entirely convenient for him to violently judge the meat quality of young women's flesh, or was it actually perfectly convenient for him to flawlessly check his own physical condition and exact progress, so he—who had absolutely nothing in this cruel world—could easily cultivate his body along the absolute perfect, right path and eventually emerge completely from his pathetic cocoon as a beautiful butterfly?
Why? Exactly why did he stubbornly continue down this completely dark, twisted path after finally successfully becoming an official Professional Hunter and possessing magical Nen abilities...
Bisky had simply pointed out the agonizing truth, completely breaking straight through the dark, twisted heart of Binolt with a single sentence.
A small, perfectly round hole was suddenly blown violently straight through the front of the bloody clothes of Binolt, exactly at the location of his heart. As his broken body finally fell completely limp into the dirt, the lingering aura around him gradually, completely faded away into nothingness.
Perhaps it was entirely because he had clearly felt exactly the way the arrogant instructor sent by the official Hunter Association looked at him back then, and that incredibly condescending, disgusted tone had simply been far too annoying to bear...
"How incredibly, entirely pathetic..."
Liam aggressively curled his lips in disgust and quickly glanced sideways at his glowing death panel with a massive, satisfied grin.
"You are really incredibly weird sometimes, you know that?" Bisky shook her head, thoroughly disgusted by his absolute lack of empathy, and then suddenly saw Shizuku pointing a pale finger directly behind them.
Liam and Bisky both quickly looked back toward the edge of the camp and clearly saw that the massive Lumos had completely, entirely disappeared—absolutely only a glowing, moon-white tiger-skin skirt was left sitting cleanly in its place on the dirt.