Hunter: I became stronger even after I died.

Chapter 281 Is it you? !
Schwadani.

This is the city where the Hunter Association headquarters is located.

In the city center, there is a hospital with the same name as the city.

At this moment, one floor of the hospital's inpatient department has been urgently requisitioned, and hundreds of poisoned patients exhibiting petrification symptoms are lying in their beds.

Their bodies were stiff as stone, their skin was grayish-white, and their vital signs continued to deteriorate.

Currently, this toxin has caused the deaths of twenty patients.

In the office at the end of the corridor.

The Dog (戌) of the Twelve Earthly Branches is intently reviewing the latest pathology report.

She pushed up her glasses with her white-gloved left hand, a solemn look in her eyes.

At the desk.

Wearing a black dress, Si She Gai Lu crossed her arms, her cold and beautiful face showing no emotion whatsoever.

Her profession encompasses fields such as toxicology, autopsy, and pharmacy, while Kita combines the professions of doctor and lawyer, excelling in multiple fields and being one of the few three-star professional hunters in the association.

The two have similar areas of expertise.

Therefore, in order to resolve this incident, they rarely get together.

The office was so quiet that only the sound of Qiduo turning the pages of papers could be heard.

After a while.

Gai Lu's cold voice broke the silence: "The root of the problem is that snake-like spirit beast. If it is not dealt with, the number of victims will only continue to increase."

“I understand, but in the absence of effective means of eliminating Nen, even if that snake-like Nen beast is damaged, it can become stronger by ‘molting’ → Gail.”

Without looking up, Qi Duo calmly said, "So it's still just treating the symptoms, not the root cause. Prioritizing the development of a drug that can neutralize the toxins will at least improve the survival rate of patients."

“I have already hired an exorcist.”

Gailu's face remained cold and aloof, exuding an aura that kept strangers at bay. "As long as you use your ability to solve difficult problems to find that snake-like spirit beast, you can completely eradicate the problem."

"..."

Upon hearing this, Qi Duo stopped flipping through the report, looked up with slight surprise at Gail's cold and beautiful face.

Even the exorcist in the association couldn't deal with the snake-like spirit beast that remained after its death, and was unwilling to take the risk of restricting its movement.

However, when Gail talked about hiring an exorcist, he seemed full of confidence.

How can we be sure that this exorcist will succeed?

Qi Duo remained calm and said, "If we fail again, that snake-like spirit beast will only become stronger with the blessing of its spirit after death → Gai Lu."

"I don't know anything about that exorcist's skill level, I don't even know his name."

Gail said indifferently, "But he was recommended by that guy Jin. Although I don't want to admit it, I trust Jin's judgment."

"Yeah……"

Qi Duo was even more surprised. Her eyes seemed to ask in a change of expression: You actually managed to contact Jin?

The twelve members of the association are generally familiar with Jin's character.

Therefore, after seeing the change in Qiduo's eyes, Gail immediately understood the meaning and explained, "Actually, Jin took the initiative to contact me and recommended this exorcist to me... I trust his judgment and am willing to try again."

"Even if it's an exorcist recommended by Jin, I don't intend to stop the research and development of the antidote."

Qiduo shook her head slightly, rejecting Gail's suggestion.

Gail frowned slightly.

This situation feels a bit out of place.

As a toxicology and pharmacist, Gail advocates prioritizing the elimination of Nen Beasts, while Qiduo, who specializes in treating intractable diseases, insists on developing an antidote.

Logically, the detoxification work should have been led by the potion hunter, Gail, while Kido was responsible for suppressing or dealing with the snake-like Nen beast.

It can only be said that the actions of professional hunters sometimes depend more on their personality and style of doing things than on their professional characteristics.

Qi Duo could see that Gail was determined, but she was the same; she would never give up halfway.

"Go find Lu Pei."

Qiduo proposed a compromise: "His ability can also locate the snake-type Nen beast's position → Gelu."

This suggestion preserves room for maneuver for both parties while also accelerating the resolution of the incident.

Even with differences in ideas, we can still maintain a professional attitude towards cooperation.

After thinking about it, Gail realized that it was better to give up most of the commission than to have a few more people die.

She accepted Qiduo's suggestion and turned to leave without hesitation.

--------

"This is the famous city of Schwadani..."

After a simple disguise, Morrow stood on a bustling street in Schwadani.

His eyes, now changed, swept across the shops along the street, most of which were firms specializing in handling various commissions.

Some of the owners of these agencies are professional hunters, but most are amateur hunters.

After all, this is the city where the Hunter Association headquarters is located. As long as they can squeeze out a few commissions, it's enough for these agencies to survive.

In fact,
As the most prestigious organization of extraordinary individuals in the private sector, the Hunter Association indeed finds it difficult to handle all the requests from all over the world.

At times like these, the numerous agencies located in the city can take on some of the less difficult commissions for the Hunter Association.

It can be said that the main achievements of Schwadani City come from the Hunter Association and the offices that can be seen everywhere on the streets.

This was Moro's first time in Schwadani, and after seeing this street, he had the idea of ​​opening a mind-removal agency here.

But with business to attend to, he stopped thinking about it and went straight to the agreed meeting place.

quickly,

Moro arrived at a members-only tea room. After giving his reservation number, he was led by a hostess to a quiet tea room.

In the tea room.

Gai Lu and Lu Pei had been waiting for a long time.

When the two saw Morona's heavily disguised appearance, which only revealed her eyes, a strange look flashed across their faces.

Moro didn't care about their reactions at all and casually sat down in one of the seats.

I thought Gail was the only one here, but I didn't expect that Lu Pei, the lost item hunter, was also there.

Then it goes without saying...

Lu Pei's role should be to find the spirit beast left behind by the thoughts after death.

In this way, we won't waste too much time.

This is good.

Thinking of this, Moro looked up at the two of them and said calmly, "I'm in a hurry, let's resolve this as soon as possible."

"..."

Seeing Moro's confidence, Gail and Lu Pei reacted differently.

Gai Lu was somewhat surprised, while Lu Pei was more curious.

The former only wanted to quickly resolve the threat posed by the snake-like spirit beast, while the latter valued talent above all else.

"I hope your abilities match your confidence."

Gail stared at Moro for a moment, then turned to look at Lu Pei and said indifferently, "Then let's begin."

"no problem."

Lu Pei habitually pushed up his glasses and then used his Nen ability.

"The Call of the Lost"

As his spiritual energy surged, a slightly swollen palm visibly formed on Lu Pei's left hand.

"This is my ability: to call out to lost items."

Lu Pei gently held the hand that seemed to be made of silicone and began his explanation as usual:

"Before activating the ability to find lost items, the seeker needs to wear this hand and draw a picture of what they want to find. The drawing doesn't need to be exactly the same, but the seeker must have the feeling of 'I want to find it' in order to establish a connection with the 'lost item'."

Each time a request is accepted, the Nen ability must be explained.

This allows Lu Pei to speak quickly and clearly when giving his explanations.

Back in the ancient kingdom of Ganyu, Moro had already witnessed Lu Pei's Nen abilities, but he didn't react much.

When Gail realized that she needed to wear that hand, she couldn't help but frown.

She has a mental obsession with cleanliness.

But to avoid more victims, she could only suppress her nausea and take Lu Pei's hand.

After putting on the hand, Gai Lu quickly drew the snake-like spirit beast. She then tried to take the hand off, but found that it was stuck tightly to her skin and couldn't be removed.

At that moment, a mouth suddenly appeared in the palm of his hand.

"Oh, what a pity, what a failure!"

"?"

Several wrinkles immediately appeared on Gailu's broad forehead.

Lu Pei calmly explained, "If your 'emotions' are not strong enough, there is a chance of failure. Please redraw it."

"..."

Gail's face was no longer cold and indifferent; instead, it was filled with gritted teeth.

She took a deep breath, suppressed her nausea, and drew the image of a snake-like creature on the paper.

"Is this okay?"

After finishing the drawing, she couldn't wait to remove the hand.

However, the unmoving palm was essentially telling her—

"Oh, you failed again. Looks like you weren't sincere enough!"

The mouth on the palm of the hand was stretched high and shouted loudly.

Black lines instantly appeared on Gailu's broad forehead, and her eyelids even began to twitch.

Although she wasn't a severe case of mysophobia, the strange hand in front of her made her feel extremely uncomfortable.

Upon seeing this, Moro's lips curled slightly upward beneath his mask, a hint of amusement flashing in his eyes.

Since coming into this world, he has only had one encounter with Gail.

At that time, he noticed that this member of the Twelve Earthly Branches had a cold and aloof temperament that kept people at a distance, as cold as a snake.

But looking at Gail's gritted teeth and almost broken state, one can imagine that beneath that coldness lies a warmth that is not easily noticed.

Lu Pei pressed his middle finger against the frame of his glasses, clearly having figured out why Gai Lu had failed, and reminded him, "Don't resist so much, otherwise you'll still fail even if you try a few more times."

"You make it sound so easy, such a disgusting thing..."

Gailu took a deep breath, not wanting to say anything more, and tried to draw the snake-like beast once again.

This time, she actually took Lu Pei's advice to heart.

After she finished drawing, she felt the separation between her skin and the hand that was searching for the object. She immediately detached the hand and threw it forcefully onto the table.

pat.

The palm immediately exclaimed in surprise: "Oops, barely passing, barely passing!"

"The voice isn't loud enough, but it should be fine."

Lu Pei sighed softly and took the lost item in his hand.

Gai Lu suddenly stood up, her face full of black lines, and rushed into the bathroom.

After a few seconds,
The sound of running water came from the bathroom.

Clearly, the disgusted snake lady is washing her hands.

Lu Pei didn't care much about Gailu's exaggerated reaction and got up to look at Moro across the table.

Seeing this, Moro also got up and went to the door to wait.

After a while.

Gailu walked out of the restroom, her expression returning to its previous coldness, as if nothing had happened.

"I can feel it, over here, over here!"

The index finger of the searching hand kept pointing south while shouting.

That's the characteristic of ability; you can't silence it even if you want to.

Moro glanced at Gail, who had just come out of the restroom, and asked, "Before finding the target, tell me what information you have."

Gail glanced at the still chattering searching hand with disgust, then briefly explained the origin of the snake-like beast.

That was a Nen user's Conjuration ability, which allowed him to conjure a snake with one eye, two wings on its back, and eye patterns all over its body.

This materialized snake possesses abilities that lean towards the Transmutation type, allowing it to convert Nen into venom.

The venom's effect is to petrify the target, but it's not fatal. It's just that Nen abilities become stronger through death; not only did this one-eyed snake survive, but the venom's effects were also enhanced, causing the person to gradually die during the petrification process.

Furthermore, because the ability user was filled with resentment before dying, this venomous snake eye had no specific target of hatred.

Or,

Its target is all of humanity.

"Another point."

After explaining the origins of the snake-like spirit beast, Gai Lu's tone suddenly became serious, "This one-eyed snake possesses a molting ability; once it suffers a fatal attack, it will become even stronger through shedding its skin. Therefore..."

"so good?"

Moro blurted it out instinctively.

"?"

Gai Lu paused for a moment, looking at him with a slightly puzzled expression.

Moro immediately realized what was happening, his eyelids lowered slightly, and his tone became serious: "It seems this is going to be a tough battle."

"..."

Gai Lu was silent for a moment, but a hint of doubt arose in her heart.

For some reason, the exorcist in front of her, whose face was covered, gave her a strange sense of familiarity, both in his eyes and his voice, as if she had met him somewhere before.

If Morrow knew what Gail was thinking, he wouldn't care too much.

He wasn't going to take the Hunter Exam, so his disguise was a bit casual.

She neither wore colored contact lenses to change her eye color nor deliberately adjusted her voice.

A few hours later.

Guided by the hand that finds things, Morrow, Gail, and Lu Pei arrived at a concert hall where a concert was about to be held.

When Gail's expression turned serious upon discovering that the Cyclops might be lurking among them, she immediately became serious.

In two hours, this place will be filled with nearly 500 spectators.

If Cyclops launched an attack at that time...

Without the slightest hesitation, Gail immediately found the person in charge of the concert hall and, based solely on her identity as one of the Twelve Earthly Branches, quickly cleared out all the staff.

"Found it! Found it!"

In the central aisle of the concert hall, a hand suddenly pointed to the light fixtures above the stage.

The three of them immediately looked up.

A one-eyed snake, about two meters long and as wide as an adult's five fingers, was coiled on the lamp stand, its cold, serpentine eyes looking down.

Seemingly because of the noise from the searching hand, it suddenly jumped down from the lamp stand.

But during its fall, its body suddenly straightened and a pair of wing membranes unfolded out of thin air, shooting straight at the three people standing in the passage like an arrow.

"Flying Star"

Without hesitation, Moro raised his hand, and a condensed Nen star shot out instantly, heading straight for Cyclops.

puff!

The flying star struck precisely, its violent psychic power tearing the one-eyed snake's body to shreds.

“?” Lu Pei was stunned.

“??” Gail’s pupils contracted slightly. Because the Cyclops’ ability to shed its skin had been explained beforehand, he obviously did not expect Moro to attack the Cyclops so rashly.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm quite afraid of snakes, and I reacted suddenly without warning."

Moro offered a casual explanation, but his gaze remained fixed on the one-eyed snake's mangled remains.

The shattered snake bodies were not completely dead; instead, they exuded dark spiritual energy, wriggling and coalescing like living things.

Immediately afterwards, the snakeskin on the clump of flesh peeled off in a flash.

But then the one-eyed snake emerged unharmed from under its skin, raised its upper body, and its eyes gleamed with a cold light.

Even more alarming is—

The black spiritual energy surrounding it was even more concentrated and ferocious than before.

Moro's eyes lit up slightly when he saw this.

Just as Gail said, the molting ability of this serpent was essentially an enhancement of the intensity of its thoughts after death.

However, even if this power has the ability to continue to grow stronger after death, there must be a limit to it, and it cannot continue to grow stronger indefinitely.

However, in order to increase the benefits of the annual ring energy, Moro needs this mind serpent to become stronger.

The one-eyed snake stared intently at Moro, then, enveloped in a black aura, shot towards him like a spring.

"I'll limit its mobility."

Seeing this, Galo forgot to reprimand Morrow and his right arm suddenly transformed into a black snake with four hearts printed on its forehead.

However, before she could make a move, she saw Moro raise his hand and send a flying star flying towards her.

The release speed was extremely fast, clearly indicating a very high level of mastery in the emission technique.

"???"

Gail watched helplessly as Feixing tore the one-eyed snake to pieces once again.

"you……?!"

She whirled around, her icy gaze piercing Moro like a blade, and demanded, "What exactly do you want?"

Lu Pei, standing to the side, looked surprised and uncertain, and subconsciously took a half step back.

Moro, however, shrugged nonchalantly and sighed, "Snakes are truly terrifying creatures. Fortunately, my Nen is fast enough."

Before he could finish speaking, Gail had already manipulated the snake's head to approach his cheek, its scarlet tongue almost touching his skin.

But Moro showed no reaction whatsoever, completely contradicting his claim of being afraid of snakes.

"You'd better give me a reasonable explanation."

Gail's voice carried a chilling undertone.

Although Lu Pei did not speak, his expression became increasingly solemn after sensing the surge of Nian She's aura, and his gaze toward Moro became wary.

"Don't worry, I'll handle it."

Moro replied, then released his manifested power and went directly to the Nen Serpent, which had completed its molt and thus become stronger again.

Seeing that Morrow did not respond to the question directly, Galo frowned and immediately used her conjured heart-shaped snake head to bite Morrow's cheek.

But this offensive action is more of a threat.

Moro did not sense Galus's hostility, so he did not react and let the heart-shaped snake head bite him.

Hiss.

As it made its threatening gesture, the sharp teeth inadvertently hooked up the mask, and then, with a swing of its head, tore it to shreds.

With the mask gone, Moro's true face was revealed.

Gai Lu and Lu Pei's gazes both fell on Mo Luo's face.

Although Moreau's eyes were somewhat different from what I remembered, that face—

"It's you!?"

The two spoke almost simultaneously, their voices filled with surprise.

Lu Pei was simply surprised, but Gai Lu felt an indescribable tremor in her heart.

She never imagined she would see Moro again.

I never expected to meet you again in this way.

That's why she was deeply shaken when she saw Moro appear before her in this guise.

Why him?

Is he acquainted with Kim?
Is he a highly skilled exorcist?
And the intensity of this spiritual energy...

What exactly is going on?

One question after another surfaced in Gail's mind.

She even suspected that Moro simply looked like the frail boy she had met two years ago.

Suddenly, the hiss of the one-eyed snake interrupted her thoughts.

"Ok?"

Gai Lu looked up at the stage and saw that Nian She had been torn apart and shed its skin by Fei Xing again.

However, after this molt, the black aura on Nian Snake's body seemed to freeze, no longer changing.

"It seems that we can only keep this intensity constant."

Then she heard Morrow talking to himself.

The next moment.

The image of Moro reflected in his eyes suddenly vanished, appearing without warning next to the Nen Serpent who had just shed its skin.

"What exactly do you want..."

Gai Lu's pupils contracted, and she was interrupted by what she saw before her as she was about to speak.

She saw,
Moro reached out and transferred the serpent, which was shrouded in a thick aura of death, into his body.

The malevolent aura emanating from the Serpent that had been flowing through the air vanished without a trace.

Gai Lu fell silent, and Lu Pei was also speechless.

However, the two looked at Moro differently.

Gai Lu was taken aback and confused.

Lu Pei was shocked and excited.

on the stage.

Moro glanced at the back of his hand almost imperceptibly.

The energy of the third growth ring has finally been accumulated...

And it also overflowed by 4%.

Fortunately, the strength of the snake spirits was enhanced several times; otherwise, it might not have been possible to gather enough energy for the third ring of annual energy.

"Awesome, so awesome!"

After Lu Pei came to his senses, he clapped vigorously as if he had just enjoyed a breathtaking concert, his eyes sparkling with undisguised admiration as he walked toward Moro.

"Moro, I should have recognized you sooner..."

His smile held a hint of annoyance, but it was quickly replaced by enthusiasm. "But I must say, you are truly outstanding. Please allow me to extend another sincere invitation to you."

"Let's talk about it next time."

With his back to Lu Pei, Moro received the negative emotions from the Serpent, as well as a detailed potion recipe from a memory fragment that could remove the petrifying venom's effects.

Lu Pei was not annoyed by being rejected again, and said seriously, "It's a real pity, but my invitation is valid indefinitely, and you are welcome to change your mind at any time."

"Yes, I will."

Moro turned around and gave a perfunctory reply, then looked at the somewhat bewildered Gail.

Looking at Gailu's slightly widened eyes, I recalled her cold and aloof demeanor when we first met.

Compared to that vivid expression now...

That's much more interesting.

A smile flickered in Moro's eyes as he said, "Can we settle the payment now? I'm in a hurry, Sister Galo."

Upon hearing this address, Gail's memories surged, and her earlier speculation about their resemblance crumbled instantly.

She looked at Moro with even greater astonishment.

At this moment.

She preferred to believe that Kang Zai could recite a hundred idioms fluently, rather than believe that the unfathomable exorcist in front of her was the same frail boy from two years ago.

Moro watched Gail's reaction, a smile spreading from his eyes to his face.

When he was in the antique business, he used to be used to calling the stall owners "brother" and "sister" when he went out to find bargains.

When she first met Gai Lu after her rebirth, Gai Lu offered her help. Since she was in a weak position, she called Gai Lu "Sister Gai Lu" with genuine sincerity.

She is still called Sister Gai Lu today.

But it carries more of a joking tone.

This also allowed Gail to instantly confirm his identity.

However, Moro didn't care much about Gail's subsequent attitude. Once the payment was settled, he would leave immediately to participate in the Hunter Test.

As for the potion formula that came with the memory fragments, if it's useful, let Jin pass it on.

(End of this chapter)