Chimera's stone egg was placed deep within the unexplored land of Petrus' Eye of Death Sinkhole.
Previously, while studying Divine Script, Morrow had attempted to use its power to connect the unexplored land's entrance to a teleportation gate.
This would maximize the unexplored land's value.
However, this idea ultimately proved too fanciful.
Without the corresponding ability, it was nearly impossible to realize such a concept.
Fortunately, the time and effort he invested weren't in vain. Through repeated research, he at least improved the precision of his Insidious Shooting Star ability.
Moreover, he mastered the technique of engraving Star Marks onto Divine Script coins, perfectly resolving the Limitation issue of Deceptive Shooting Star.
Now, with ambitions to explore the Dark Continent, his proficiency in Divine Script could provide crucial assistance.
If there was any regret, it was his inability to transform the unexplored land into something like Hide and Seek.
—--
That evening.
Morrow arrived at the depths of Petrus's Eye Sinkhole.
Having previously placed a Star-Marked Divine Script coin nearby, he could travel by continuously transferring through Shooting Stars, moving at speeds far exceeding that of an airship.
After entering the sinkhole's depths, he familiarly followed the cave entrance and arrived before the mural depicting floating top-shaped sky islands.
A moment later.
A flash of white light.
Morrow's figure appeared atop a mountain within the unexplored land.
He walked directly toward a nearby tree.
Beneath the tree rested a stone egg, roughly the size of a basketball, with a gray, hard texture and surface covered in thick veins.
This stone egg was precisely what remained after Chimera's death.
Morrow approached and cradled the stone egg in his hands.
74% Post‑Mortem Nen... I wonder if it's enough.
Morrow glanced down at the fifth Tree Ring's energy, which had accumulated to approximately 74%.
With the fourth Tree Ring already filled, granting him one chance to turn back time, having nearly three-fourths of the fifth Tree Ring's Post‑Mortem Nen reserves could be considered quite ample.
With a thought, Morrow began channeling Post‑Mortem Nen into the stone egg.
Instantly, a black Nen aura rose from the Tree Rings, slowly seeping into the stone egg's interior.
As the energy continuously transferred, the energy within the fifth Tree Ring rapidly decreased.
60%, 50%, 40%...
Until the energy dropped to around 35%, the stone egg finally stopped absorbing Post‑Mortem Nen.
At that moment, the thick veins on the stone egg's surface suddenly trembled, then began pulsing rhythmically like a heartbeat.
A vibrant life force pulsed powerfully from within the stone egg.
Morrow felt the life force transmitted through his palms.
It only absorbed nearly 40% of the Post‑Mortem Nen. Not bad.
Originally uncertain how much Post‑Mortem Nen would be required, Morrow had even prepared mentally for all 74% to be depleted. This result was clearly much better than he had anticipated.
He looked down, intently observing the stone egg whose surface veins still pulsed rhythmically.
Just as he focused his observation, those thick veins suddenly developed fine cracks visible to the naked eye.
Seeing this, Morrow gently lifted the stone egg and placed it on a nearby stone table.
Within a mere second or two, the cracks on the stone egg's surface multiplied rapidly. With several crisp cracking sounds, the entire stone egg's shell fractured and fell away, revealing a small tail.
The tail was covered in dark red scales, its tip still an unopened fleshy lump.
With a thud, the fleshy lump at the tail's end struck the remaining shell, shattering it.
Immediately after, Chimera broke through the remaining shell, its full form emerging.
Its appearance remained largely unchanged, a slightly plump torso, twin wings sprouting from its back, and a smooth bird-like head atop a long neck, with three feather crowns clinging to its mucus-smeared neck.
The only difference lay in the dark red scales now covering its tail, torso, and even the folded fleshy wings.
Morrow observed the changes on Chimera.
Having hatched from the egg once more, Chimera seemed far more composed, no longer displaying the novelty of its first exposure to sunlight and air.
Its neck suddenly arched, lifting the bird-like head as its slit-like eyes slowly opened, gaze settling on Morrow beside the stone table.
"Roar!"
The moment it recognized Morrow, it immediately spread its wings and lunged straight at him.
Morrow smiled faintly, reaching out to steadily catch the pouncing Chimera.
"Roar... roar..."
The little creature shook its head, rubbing against Morrow's arm repeatedly with evident excitement.
It was then that Morrow noticed a faint, hazy white glow subtly emanating from Chimera's body.
The light was extremely pale, shrouding its form like a thin veil.
It truly awakened.
A glimmer of understanding flashed in Morrow's eyes.
The veil-like white glow enveloping Chimera was none other than life energy.
In other words, the manifestation of Nen.
Before transforming into the stone egg, despite its many unique traits, Chimera had never mastered the ability to wield Nen.
This had unconsciously limited Chimera's breakthrough at the biological level.
But after this death and rebirth, Chimera had finally awakened this power.
In a sense, like Morrow, Chimera had undergone the process of "becoming stronger through death" under the baptism of Post-Mortem Nen.
"Chimera, you must be very hungry. I've prepared a feast for you."
Morrow gently stroked Chimera's small head with his fingertip.
Chimera narrowed its eyes and emitted soft roars.
Having retained its memories and consciousness through rebirth, it could not only understand Morrow's words but indeed felt ravenous.
Subsequently, Morrow took Chimera away from the Unexplored Land, heading toward the outer Evil Enclave.
The return journey would still take half a day. Before setting off, Morrow specifically hunted a mountain beast nearby to let Chimera fill its stomach first.
This was its first meal after rebirth.
Morrow carefully skinned the beast, selecting the freshest and most tender flesh, personally preparing this meal for it.
But his meticulous efforts were clearly unnecessary.
Though currently in its juvenile form, the reborn Chimera was born with powerful feeding mechanisms.
It unfolded the fleshy lump at the end of its tail, revealing dense, sharp mouthparts inside, then inserted it into the prey's body.
Gurgle, gurgle...
The tail acted like a straw, efficiently channeling the flesh and blood into Chimera's body at a rapid pace.
Morrow watched from the side.
To his slight surprise, as Chimera fed with high efficiency, its size visibly increased at a noticeable rate.
The growth speed has accelerated.
Morrow looked astonished.
The reborn Chimera's speed in feeding and growth was clearly many times faster than before its rebirth.
Judging from this phenomenon, as long as Chimera returned to Hide and Seek to devour the corpses of the Chimera Ant soldiers, it would likely return to its mature state in a short time.
In just a moment.
Chimera managed to consume an entire large beast.
After finishing its meal, its size directly grew from that of a house cat to a large dog.
The entire growth process took only about ten minutes.
Magical beasts truly are like creatures born of fantasy, exuding an air of the unbelievable everywhere, Morrow thought to himself.
Humanity's understanding of magical beasts was extremely limited, with even opportunities for close contact being few and far between.
Compared to the various magical beasts controlled by humans, those born with fantastical attributes were even rarer in number.
As one of them, Morrow wasn't sure if Chimera still retained its ability to turn into a stone egg after death.
If it did, after another round of rebirth, would its innate abilities undergo further enhancement?
Moreover, in a sense, as long as the supply of Post-Mortem Nen remained uninterrupted, Chimera was essentially an immortal and indestructible existence.
In comparison, while Tree Rings could grant Morrow the ability to rewind death, its rings were ultimately finite.
Thinking of this, Morrow extended his right hand to stroke Chimera's head.
An ultimate life form, immortal and indestructible... and you've taken the first step ahead of me...
"Roar?"
Chimera didn't understand the meaning behind Morrow's words. After realizing it couldn't comprehend, it simply narrowed its eyes and enjoyed the caress.
—--
Late at night.
Morrow brought Chimera back to Hide and Seek.
Now, most of the rooms in the apartment were used to store the thousands of flesh eggs.
The entire process, from hatching and killing to disposing of the corpses, required proper coordination.
For example, corpses needed to be cleared and concentrated in specific rooms, while ensuring other rooms didn't accumulate too many Chimera Ant soldiers at once, as that would significantly increase the difficulty of hunting.
The workload for this coordination naturally fell to Knov, who held the "apartment key."
In response, Knov simply stated it was a trivial matter, diligently cooperating with every one of Morrow's requests.
Thanks to Knov's wholehearted assistance, Kalluto and the others leveled up smoothly.
By the time Morrow returned, Ponzu had reached Lv.60, Kalluto was just one step away from Lv.70, and Menchi had directly surged to Lv.75.
As for Biscuit, who joined later, her level was now as high as Lv.90.
This was because the leveling ability of Etude of Love, modified by Tree Rings, aligned its level system with the range from the lowest to the highest human potential.
Based on this, Biscuit, who was already a top-tier practitioner, could easily raise her level to her original proficiency range.
However, after Lv.90, the difficulty of leveling up would depend on Biscuit's innate talent.
If her inherent talent destined her to reach Lv.100, representing the peak of human potential, then her leveling difficulty wouldn't be as stringent.
This was precisely the most remarkable aspect of the Tree Rings version of Etude of Love. For those with exceptional talent, its existence essentially provides a shortcut for monstrous geniuses to rapidly improve through life-and-death battles.
For those with average aptitude, it offers a direct path to the peak.
After checking Biscuit and the others' level status information, Morrow gained a more intuitive understanding of this point.
Without disturbing Biscuit and the others who were leveling up, Morrow took Chimera to the room specifically designated for storing Chimera Ant soldier corpses.
He had just signaled that Chimera could eat freely when the little creature excitedly pounced forward, swinging its tail with mouthparts as it began frantically devouring the corpses.
Morrow stood quietly nearby, watching Chimera eat at astonishing speed.
As it consumed large amounts of high-nutrition food, its originally giant dog-sized body began visibly expanding at a remarkable rate.
In just over ten minutes, Chimera had grown to nearly the size of a car.
Following this trend, reaching truck-size was clearly only a matter of time.
At that size, it would be sufficient to carry humans in flight.
However, the ideal form would still be like its original state, approximately the size of two blue whales.
If it could continue growing beyond that, it might either reach the colossal scale of Dark Continent behemoths or maintain its current size.
The worst scenario would be getting stuck in between, too small to contend with Dark Continent giants, yet conspicuous enough to become a prime target for other creatures.
But such thoughts seemed somewhat meaningless now.
Morrow shook his head slightly.
With Chimera's return, the accumulated Chimera Ant soldier corpses in the Hide and Seek room were finally being processed.
Moreover, Chimera's mouthparts functioned like powerful vacuum cleaners, leaving not a drop of blood during feeding, saving the trouble of cleaning the room afterward.
In the following time, Morrow let Chimera continue its frenzied eating.
He had considered using these Chimera Ant soldiers to gain some experience points himself, but given his already high level, he ultimately abandoned the idea.
After all, in terms of conversion value, leaving these experience bundles for Kalluto and the others was clearly more appropriate.
The upgrade capability of Etude of Love is truly remarkable, but selecting infection targets must be based on absolute trust... There aren't many qualified candidates.
Morrow mentally screened potential suitable candidates.
He thought of Kastro and Calista, though he wasn't sure if they, as martial artists, would have any interest in the Dark Continent.
He even thought of Ging.
Previously, while studying the "drift bottle," he had essentially accepted Ging's invitation to explore the Dark Continent together in the future.
Now that he was preparing for the journey, he could proactively inquire about Ging's intentions.
However, with Ging's ability, he probably didn't need to rely on Etude of Love to break through his talent limits.
Finally, Morrow remembered Sanbica, with whom he hadn't been in contact for a long time.
Given her professional positioning as a Virus Hunter doctor, she would undoubtedly be an indispensable specialist for exploring the Dark Continent.
In Morrow's view, Sanbica's abilities were beyond doubt. If he could invite her to join the team, it would be ideal.
I should find time to visit Sanbica.
Morrow thought to himself.
If Sanbica had no interest in exploring the Dark Continent, he naturally wouldn't force the matter. On the contrary, if there was even the slightest willingness in this regard, he would do his utmost to persuade Sanbica to accompany them.
—--
Several days passed in the blink of an eye.
The number of Chimera Ant soldiers within Hide and Seek had dwindled to just a few hundred.
Ponzu smoothly reached Lv.70, but her leveling speed noticeably slowed afterward.
Menchi and Kalluto successively broke through Lv.80, but as the experience decay mechanism began to take effect, leveling up became increasingly difficult.
Biscuit, relying on her efficient monster-clearing ability, managed to push her level to Lv.91 through sheer volume of experience.
During this leveling process, she gained a deeper understanding of the mechanics of the Tree Rings version of Etude of Love and, like Morrow, decided to abandon further leveling.
In her judgment, even if all the remaining Chimera Ant soldiers were cleared, it would likely be impossible to break through to Lv.92.
Thus, it was better to leave them for Ponzu and others who needed the experience more urgently.
Apart from level increases, Kalluto's new ability had also fully taken shape.
With the level rewards from "Etude of Love," the difficulty of creating Nen abilities was significantly reduced. The only consideration was how to make the ability align with her Nen type to maximize its value.
Kalluto's new ability essentially involved manipulating the corpses of the King, Neferpitou, and Youpi.
By incorporating concepts of paper dolls and familiar spirits, she could directly store the three corpse puppets within paper dolls using her newly developed Manipulation ability.
Surprisingly, with the paper dolls serving as a link between them, her control precision over the corpse puppets significantly improved.
This phenomenon was difficult to explain with conventional logic.
Perhaps Nen abilities originate from the heart, often, when you believe "something should be this way," the power of Nen responds accordingly.
After transforming the three corpses into familiar spirits, in addition to improving control precision, Kalluto could also enhance their autonomy by nurturing the paper dolls.
This method was similar to Illumi's nurturing of Nen needles, a common Manipulation technique.
But Kalluto's potential was clearly higher, and the effects were more direct.
In theory, as long as the paper dolls bound to the three familiar spirits were nurtured to a certain extent, they could potentially develop basic intelligence, similar to Nen Beasts, even if not full sentience.
At that point, control precision would reach an even higher level.
However, the greatest strength of this ability still lay in the inherent power of the King, Neferpitou, and Youpi corpses.
It could be said that the stronger Kalluto's control precision, the more these familiar spirits could leverage their own strength in combat.
Morrow hadn't expected that the three corpses preserved intact back then would ultimately benefit Kalluto the most.
With this ability, Kalluto could likely defeat Menchi easily just by controlling Youpi alone.
If she controlled all three familiar spirits simultaneously, she could even defeat Hisoka without issue.
—--
On the sixth day after the Chimera Ant extermination incident concluded, Netero quickly mobilized several teams led by Zodiac Twelve members and successfully cleared out the remaining Chimera Ant factions that had escaped from NGL.
This swift and decisive action effectively contained further spread of the threat and drew a provisional conclusion to the entire incident.
However, in reality, two Chimera Ants evaded this purge: the low-profile Morena and Gyro, who was preparing to make his mark in Meteor City. The two shared common traits: clear objectives, strong execution, and sharp strategic minds.
In contrast, other Chimera Ants who had narrowly escaped NGL, while capable of using subordinates to divert the Hunter teams' attention, lacked the ability to plan for the future.
More importantly, they couldn't restrain their inner desires, inevitably making repeated moves that exposed their whereabouts, ultimately becoming conspicuous targets in the eyes of the pursuing forces.
As the cleanup operations against the remaining Chimera Ants drew to a close, Pariston's continuous layout began to show results.
Driven by multiple factors, and facing the reality that someone had to take responsibility, Netero voluntarily resigned from his position as Chairman of the Hunter Association.
However, as the former chairman, he retained the authority to decide the method of electing his successor.
Netero didn't act recklessly in this matter; instead, he took it very seriously.
After consideration, he directly adopted the simplest and most straightforward voting method, allowing the candidates to rely on their own charisma to garner support.
The only intervention he made was to publicly endorse Cheadle in his personal capacity when announcing the start of the election.
This move undoubtedly gave Cheadle a significant advantage from the very beginning.
After completing these actions, Netero seemed to no longer concern himself with the final outcome of the election. After giving Beans a few instructions, he left Swardani City and headed straight for where Linne was.
Everything that needed to be done had been done.
Now, Netero only wanted to use Linne's ability to recover his physical condition as quickly as possible.
—--
While the election assembly was in full swing at the Hunter Association Headquarters, Netero arrived alone at an Evil Enclave on the Yorbian continent.
Deep within this Evil Enclave, a tranquil lake was surrounded by forest, and a wooden house with connecting corridors stood by the lakeside.
This was where Linne lived in seclusion.
As soon as Netero arrived, Linne was already waiting outside.
Perhaps due to her advanced age, her body had severely shrunk, resembling a dwarf, her face covered in wrinkles, exuding an aura of stillness.
At this moment, aside from still being relatively tall, Netero wasn't much different from Linne in other aspects.
"Isaac... you've grown old too."
Linne lifted her head, opening her eyes to look at Netero.
Perhaps seeing Netero's severely depleted state now made her vaguely realize that he had truly aged.
Netero chuckled hoarsely, "Hoho... I haven't been young for a long time, haven't I?"
"But you're different."
Linne's voice was soft, yet carried the weight of years.
Hearing this, Netero fell silent for a moment before asking directly, "In my current condition, roughly how long will it take?"
Linne naturally understood what he was referring to and slowly replied, "At least a month."
"Quite fast."
Netero nodded.
In truth, he wished it could be faster, but he understood that some things couldn't be forced.
"Come in."
Linne turned and slowly walked into the wooden house.
Netero followed her inside and immediately saw the window-side kitchen counter already filled with an array of ingredients and medicinal herbs.
"Linne, I'm troubling you again."
His tone carried a touch of emotion.
Hearing this, Linne suddenly stopped walking and, just like in her youth, couldn't help rolling her eyes at Netero.
"If you'd had this much self-awareness back then, Zigg and I wouldn't have been so exhausted."
"Hoho."
Netero somewhat awkwardly raised his hand to scratch his head.
Back when the three of them trained together outside, he had indeed caused Linne and Zigg plenty of trouble.
Linne pointed to the recliner in the living room and said softly, "Have a seat for now. I've grown old, my legs aren't as nimble as they used to be. I can't prepare meals as deftly as I could in my youth anymore."
"Take your time, no need to rush."
Hearing her words, the urgency in Netero's heart suddenly faded considerably.
A long while later.
Sitting in the recliner, Netero caught a vaguely familiar aroma, along with the quite potent scent of medicinal herbs.
Linne's Transmutation ability could multiply the inherent effects of ingredients and medicinal materials during the cooking process.
Therefore, her medicinal cuisine possessed remarkable efficacy in regulating the body.
Netero slightly lowered his gaze, inevitably recalling many memories from the past, feeling another wave of emotion in his heart.
"Adding one more set of bowls and chopsticks shouldn't be too troublesome, right?"
Just then, the voice of an uninvited guest came from the porch.
Netero and Linne almost simultaneously turned to look at the entrance, where Beyond pushed the door open and entered with complete composure.
He walked into the room as if he owned the place, while examining the current appearance of the two elders, his tone carrying a touch of emotion:
"It's been a long time, my respected father, and Linne... I never imagined you've aged this much."
"..."
Netero's expression remained calm as he silently stood up.
On the other side, Linne slowly put down the ladle in her hand, a sharp glint flashing in her slightly opened eyes.
"Seeing how you are now..."
Beyond's tone was calm and resolute:
"I've become even more convinced of one thing, when it comes to the hope of 'what we seek,' nothing is more important than Nitro Rice."
Life is too brief.
Too brief to see all the wonders of the world, and too brief to walk all the paths one wishes to tread in the heart.
Precisely because of this, the importance of Nitro Rice becomes evident.
Beyond felt this deeply at this moment.
His dream was to conquer the Dark Continent.
Such a thing could never be accomplished within the limited lifespan of a human.
"Sigh."
Seeing Beyond still emphasizing the importance of obtaining hope, Netero let out a rather helpless soft sigh.
-------------------
Bonus chapter @800powerstones