Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ Monica was a careful woman.
Even so, with her attention fixed on Kieran the whole time, she still had not noticed the impossible detail about him.
He had no shadow.
Before entering the room – no, more accurately, after the fight ended – Kieran had done three things.
First, he settled the unconscious Monica.
Second, he used her phone to look up the information he needed.
Third, he sent his shadow out to keep watch.
The reason for that third step was simple.
The threat might not be limited to Ian.
Ian was the name of the homicidal addict lying outside.
There probably were not any other attackers in the surrounding mountain forest.
But what if there were?
For that one possibility alone, Kieran felt that even if sending his shadow out as a sentry turned out to be wasted effort, it was still worth doing.
Just now, the shadow acting as his warning net had sent back a piece of information.
Someone had stepped across it.
That was how Kieran knew someone was outside.
He judged that the newcomer was not police based on the number of footsteps and how lightly they moved.
Only one person had arrived, and that person was deliberately keeping their steps quiet.
That alone was enough to tell him they were not police.
After turning off the wall lamp, Kieran pressed himself against the side of the bookshelf and waited in silence.
From where he stood, he could watch both the door and the window.
“For now, I can confirm there is only one.” He frowned.
Anyone sneaking into the temple at this hour clearly had unclean motives.
It could be a thief, but what was there to steal from a run-down temple like this?
The pile of small coins in the release pond in the courtyard?
Too strange.
Compared with a thief climbing the mountain in the middle of the night for a pile of pocket change, Kieran was more inclined to believe the owner of those footsteps might be one of Ian’s accomplices.
“Watch and wait first.” He quickly glanced toward the single bed.
The worst possible outcome was that the newcomer was Ian’s partner and was even stronger than Ian.
If that was the case, Kieran might not even be able to protect himself, much less take care of Monica.
‘Whether the shadow outside has been noticed or not, I need to move it into a position where it can help me fight immediately.’ He gave the command to the shadow outside in his mind while focusing his attention on the situation beyond the room.
So far, he had not heard a single sound.
That meant the other party was at least extremely good at concealment.
That was not good news.
Because it suggested the newcomer was probably even more troublesome than Ian.
In silence, the seconds ticked by.
Kieran waited without breathing too loudly.
Monica, curled up in the corner of the bed and ignorant of the situation, began to feel uneasy.
She did not know what had happened, but she could infer from Kieran’s reaction that the situation was probably bad.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Five minutes passed after the light went out, yet there was still no movement outside.
Soul Echo was only an embryonic ability.
Before Kieran developed a shared-vision effect, the most it could do was detect an enemy’s footsteps at the first moment.
To prepare for the possible fight ahead, he had already moved Soul Echo nearby and lost the spare capacity to scout further.
That was because he had to compress the shadow mannequin’s presence as much as possible.
Naturally, he could no longer send the shadow out to investigate.
Unfortunately, his Nen was still at the beginner stage.
He did not know how to use En yet.
Otherwise, he could extend his aura outward and sense what was happening outside.
The room was deathly silent.
Monica’s unease grew stronger.
She was only an ordinary person.
Her endurance had limits.
Kieran, by contrast, remained calm from beginning to end.
“I am starting to understand why Ian Archer fell to you.” A slightly deep male voice suddenly sounded from beyond the half-open door.
The content of those words made Monica’s heart jerk violently.
Kieran remained pressed against the bookshelf like a stone, his gaze on the door unchanged.
He had already prepared himself to fight.
The male voice continued with a puzzled tone.
“My Zetsu is not perfect, but it is still quite good.
I am curious.
How did you discover me?” “…” Kieran’s pupils tightened.
Of course he would not answer.
At the same time, he extracted a very important piece of information from the man’s words.
The shadow he had left outside as a sentry had not been discovered.
Soul Echo currently had two forms.
One was two-dimensional.
The other was three-dimensional.
The former did not belong to the material world, so its nature was closer to a transformation of aura.
That also meant that even if the normal shadow could blend into the environment, it would inevitably leave traces of Nen in the eyes of a Nen user.
The latter was a solid materialized entity, so even an ordinary person who knew nothing about Nen could see the completed shadow mimicry.
For an ambush or a warning net, the ideal method would be to use In to erase the normal shadow’s Nen traces.
Another method would be to knead the mimicked shadow into a thin black veil that matched the environment, letting it merge with surrounding patches of shadow as camouflage in order to avoid an enemy’s Gyo.
Kieran could not do either of those things yet.
In reality, the shadow warning net he had laid outside was just a normal shadow carrying traces of Nen.
However, the unknown man outside the room had entered while using Zetsu.
That meant that with his aura nodes closed and all aura withdrawn, he could not see the Nen traces on the normal shadow.
Even if he stepped across it, he would not notice.
That discovery was good news for Kieran.
The next development, however, caught him off guard.
“Relax.
I mean you no harm, and I am not the enemy you are imagining.” The man outside, who had waited for a long time without receiving any answer, revealed his identity with some helplessness.
“My name is Wright Bulwer.
I am a licensed Blacklist Hunter.
This is my Hunter License.” To gain further trust, the man named Wright actually threw his Hunter License with precision right in front of Kieran.
That was enough to show that Wright had already confirmed his position.
“You can verify it, but be careful.
Do not damage it.” After tossing out the license, Wright added a reminder.
“…” Kieran’s brow tightened.
He certainly was not going to pick up the so-called Hunter License.
He remained silent.
Seeing that Kieran was still so cautious and restrained, Wright did not find it strange.
This was how a mature Nen user should behave.
“I understand that you are also a capable Nen user.
To show sincerity, I will use Zetsu from here on and then walk inside.” After saying that, Wright put the words into action.
He closed his aura nodes, withdrew all his aura, and walked in, his gaze pointing straight toward the side of the bookshelf.
“Hoo…” Kieran exhaled and stepped out from beside the shelf.
Wright looked at him.
When he saw that Kieran was only a boy, surprise flickered through his eyes.
Then he quietly opened the aura nodes around his eyes.
The faint aura that leaked out allowed him to see the Ten around Kieran’s body.
Uh.
Immature.
Crude.
Practically beginner level.
That was Wright’s first judgment.
Of course, he did not believe it.
“Sigh.” Wright let out a long sigh and said helplessly, “I think I have shown more than enough sincerity, yet you are still hiding your strength in front of me?
Do you really expect me to believe you are a rookie just because you show me such clumsy Ten?” “This is my actual level.
Right now, I only know Ten.” Kieran stared at him without blinking.
“Do not mess with me!” Wright grimaced, and his voice rose before he could stop it.
“With Ten that barely counts as beginner level, how could you possibly have killed Ian?!” “Believe it or not.” Kieran did not bother arguing further.
Wright watched his reaction, and his heart gave a small jump.
“You are really not joking?” “…” Kieran no longer felt like speaking.
“Really, truly not joking?” “…” Reading some information from the aura around Kieran, Wright began to believe him.
He fell silent.
“That is way too fake!” His tone did not hide his shock at all.
✦ ✦ ✦ Ready for more?
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS EmberHollow Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter pulled you deeper into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.