Half an hour passed. The jade-faced Taoist nun raised her wide left sleeve. A concentrated sphere of aura shot out, hitting the grass and rapidly expanding. The bright light faded, leaving Bisky standing perfectly still in the center of the clearing.
For a long, tense moment, she did not move a single muscle. Then, her delicate eyebrows knit together, and she slowly turned around to face Liam.
Liam took one look at her eyes and immediately threw both hands in the air. "Hold on! Wait, wait, wait!"
He felt like a man who had just kicked a sleeping dragon. The air pressure in the clearing plummeted. Bisky was not just getting angry; she was physically transforming into a humanoid monster. Her petite frame violently swelled with thick, corded muscle. Astonishing waves of heavy, suffocating aura exploded from her body like an erupting volcano, radiating a ferocious and terrifying bloodlust.
Lumos instantly bristled. The massive tiger arched his back, the fur on his neck standing straight up as a deep, rumbling growl vibrated in his chest.
"Calm down!" Liam waved his arms frantically, backing away. "Calm down, Aunt Bi! Master Bi! Princess Gem! Sailor Moon!"
A few meters away, Shizuku clutched Blinky tightly against her chest. She watched in wide-eyed silence as Bisky's silhouette underwent a drastic, horrifying mutation. For a split second, a nearly two-meter-tall giant stood before them. Long, heavily muscled limbs like cast steel bulged with unimaginable explosive power. But the terrifying image flickered like a broken illusion. Just as quickly as the monster appeared, the overwhelming aura vanished, and Bisky returned to her original petite, cute, pink-dressed appearance.
It was exactly like watching Gon snap into his dark mode, Liam thought, wiping a cold drop of sweat from his forehead.
"Sailor Moon?" Bisky paused, raising a delicate eyebrow. The compliment actually seemed to soothe her. Then, she adopted her strict master persona. Her face hardened, and she marched up to Liam, jabbing her index finger hard into his chest. "Do not ever test your Nen abilities on people casually!"
Every poke felt like being hit with a hammer. Liam did not dare activate his aura to defend himself. He just took the hits, trying to explain. "I was just trying to simulate an actual combat scenario."
"Actual combat? If this was actual combat, how did you know I didn't have a trigger-type counter ability?" Bisky poked him faster and harder, physically driving Liam back step by step across the grass. "Once an irreversible counter is triggered, there is no taking it back! You would be dead before you even knew what hit you. Do you know what kind of Nen user is most likely to fall into the trap of a rule-based ability? I will tell you. Other rule-based Nen users!"
Liam opened his mouth to reply. "I haven't even answered yet."
A thick blue vein throbbed visibly on Bisky's forehead. She glared up at him with murderous intent.
Liam immediately stood at rigid attention. "I am sorry, Master. I was completely wrong."
From a safe distance, Shizuku slowly raised her hand like a student in a classroom. "Excuse me. What was that huge appearance just now? Is that your Nen ability, Bisky?"
Bisky whirled around to glare at Shizuku. Liam also turned to look at the girl in shock, and then both of them slowly looked back at Bisky.
Bisky let out a long sigh and glanced over at the jade-faced Taoist nun, Jade, who was still floating silently nearby. "You have it backward, Shizuku. It is not what I looked like just now. It is what is wrong with how I look right now."
Shizuku tilted her head, thinking it over. "Oh. Right. You are actually very old, Bisky. So that huge appearance just now is your real body, and the little girl standing in front of us is the result of your Nen."
Bisky crossed her arms, her tone casual. "When I was young, I trained my body to the absolute physical limit. The massive changes in my physique are almost entirely the result of decades of intense Enhancement practice."
"Oh?" Shizuku blinked. "But didn't you say your main affinity is Transmutation?"
"Transmutation is my innate talent," Bisky said. She held up her right hand, her white glove contrasting with the dark forest background, and slowly curled her fingers into a tight fist. "Enhancement is my pride and persistence as a martial artist. And Conjuration..." Her serious expression vanished, replaced by an incredibly cute, bubbly smile as she flashed a perfect peace sign. "Well, Conjuration at least satisfies my girlish heart, doesn't it?"
Liam opened his mouth. "Exactly how old are you again?"
Before the last syllable even left his lips, a fist moved faster than his eyes could track. A dull thud echoed through the clearing, and Liam was sent flying twenty meters backward, skipping across the dirt.
Lying flat on his back staring at the sky, Liam thought it over. As a master gemologist, Bisky might have been the very first rough gem she had ever carved. That fierce, unrivaled, muscular martial artist form was like a heavy, indestructible diamond. Meanwhile, the petite, cute little princess persona was a bright, gorgeously polished ruby.
The only person skilled enough to carve and maintain both of those flawless gems was Bisky herself. Her magical beautician ability could turn raw aura into specialized massage oil. It didn't just provide perfect skincare and anti-aging; it entirely eliminated physical training fatigue, allowing her to enhance her strength with twice the efficiency of a normal martial artist. Thinking about it that way, Bisky's Nen ability was incredibly simple, yet absolutely perfect.
"So," Bisky called out, her voice easily crossing the distance. "The rule of your Nen beast is that as long as you call out someone's name and they verbally respond, it sucks them into that sleeve?"
"That is right," Liam groaned. He flipped himself up and dusted the dirt off his clothes, walking back to join them. "Though, to be honest, it feels like I am rushing the development a bit. The limitations and conditions are piling up, and I haven't really thought them all through yet."
Bisky studied the floating, jade-faced Taoist closely. After a moment, she gave her professional assessment. "Distance. There has to be a strict limit to the release distance. If you want to successfully capture a target, your Nen beast has to be physically close to them."
Liam smiled, nodding. "You got it. The beast has to be within exactly one meter of the target for the vacuum effect to take hold."
"For an Emission ability, a one-meter effective range is terrible," Bisky said, shaking her head in disappointment. "I honestly don't know what to say to that."
Liam quickly corrected her. "No, that is only the range for triggering Universe in the Sleeve. The real advantage of this Nen beast being an Emission type is that there is basically no distance limit between me and the beast itself."
Bisky gave him a flat look. "Think about that statement again."
Liam paused, scratching the back of his head. "Oh, right. My current level of Emission practice isn't maxed out yet, so the control distance is still somewhat limited. I can send her about five kilometers away from my physical body. As long as she stays within that radius, I can operate her freely."
According to the five-level rating system Bisky had taught him earlier, Emission levels were strictly defined. Level one meant maintaining full aura power at ten meters. Level two was over a hundred meters. Level three was over a kilometer, and level four was over ten kilometers. Bisky had never explicitly stated what level five was, but following the math, it had to be over a hundred kilometers. Though Liam secretly suspected that if someone pushed their Emission to the absolute extreme, there might be no distance limit at all.
Right now, Liam's Emission training sat comfortably at level three. If his aura traveled further than five kilometers from his body, it would lose its structure and dissipate. Since Jade was a pure Emission construct, she naturally obeyed his current proficiency limits.
"If calling a name is the primary trigger, does the target have to be human?" Bisky asked, tapping her chin. She quickly answered her own question. "No, pets have names too. Ah, I think I understand how this works."
Liam smiled slightly. With a simple thought, the Taoist Nen beast glided smoothly into the air, drifting toward a small bird resting on a low branch. She raised her wide left sleeve.
"Hey! Bird!" Liam shouted loudly.
The bird, completely unable to see the invisible Nen beast hovering right next to it, let out a startled chirp in response to Liam's voice. The moment the sound left its beak, the bird morphed into a streak of pure aura and was instantly sucked into the dark depths of the Taoist nun's sleeve.
The nun floated back down to the ground, her jade mask turning toward Lumos.
"Lumos," Liam said casually, not putting any real intent behind the word.
The giant tiger let out a low, cooperative rumble. Nothing happened. The sleeve remained completely still.
Liam shifted his posture, locking his eyes onto the tiger with clear intent. "Lumos!"
The tiger roared back in response. This time, the massive beast instantly transformed into a swirling ball of energy and vanished into the open sleeve of the Taoist's left arm.
"Just as I expected," Bisky nodded in approval.
Shizuku adjusted her glasses, summarizing the rule. "It works just like my Blinky. The definition of what counts as a name is entirely based on your own personal perception."
If Liam genuinely believed a target had a specific name, he had to know it and call it out to trigger Universe in the Sleeve. But if he looked at a target and truly believed it did not have a proper name, like a random wild bird, simply shouting a generic identifier like "Hey, bird" was enough to satisfy the condition, provided the creature made a noise in response.
"This is actually much more of a strategic support ability," Bisky concluded, crossing her arms again. "It is far better suited for rapidly transporting or saving your companions than trying to capture hostile enemies."
"Speaking of which," Liam said, stepping closer. "How do you feel? I just released you after keeping you in there for half an hour. What was your experience like inside the sleeve?"
Bisky froze, her eyes widening in utter shock. "Wait. Half an hour?"