As Ronin looked at the Nen wrapped around his hand, an idea came to him. Following that thought, he spread his Nen outward and extended it onto the bottle.
He knew this way of using Nen was also a technique—one called En.
As he used En to envelop the Scarlet Eyes, a warm current flowed from the eyes and into his body.
What was even more shocking was that the Scarlet Eyes inside the bottle began to slowly melt as they were wrapped in his Nen.
A vivid crimson color flowed out from the melting Scarlet Eyes, passed into Ronin's Nen, and then traveled along it toward his eyes.
There was no pain—only a gentle warmth blooming around his eye sockets.
At the same time, Ronin felt a sudden surge of strength return to his body. He knew it immediately—he had entered the Sharingan state once again.
His guess had been right.
Fusing with the Scarlet Eyes was the path of evolution for his Sharingan!
And he could clearly feel that as the bright red color inside the glass bottle gradually faded and disappeared, his stamina recovered dramatically. Even the chakra within his body seemed greater than before.
Could it be that fusing Scarlet Eyes didn't just evolve his eyes—but also granted him additional life energy?
Time passed little by little. Ronin remained seated on the tree trunk. At some point, the rain had stopped. The forest was quiet, broken only by the occasional chirp of insects and birds.
Meanwhile, Uvogin had already returned to the Kurta Clan village.
There were only a few people left in the village. The short-statured Feitan was among them, and his eyes lit up the moment he saw Uvogin return.
"Yo—where are the eyes?" Feitan squinted, his tone dripping with mockery.
Uvogin's expression darkened.
By the time his phone had been bombarded with calls, he had already realized what had happened. Failing to capture his target—that was his own incompetence.
So when faced with Feitan's taunts, all he could do was grit his teeth in silence.
"Kortopi, can you still sense his location?" Uvogin brushed past Feitan and walked straight up to Kortopi, whose head was completely hidden by long hair, with only one eye visible.
Kortopi raised a hand and touched the sticker on his chest. "Yes. But he's been stationary for a while now."
"Tell me where he is." Uvogin bared his teeth in a grim grin. If he could catch that kid, he would personally crush every single bone in his body—slowly.
Kortopi shook his head. "Things here are already finished. I'll go with you. I'm kind of curious what sort of abilities a kid who escaped from you actually has."
"Two pairs of eyes. Once you find him, head straight to X City—no need to come back here," Feitan's smug voice chimed in again from the side. "The boss already went ahead with Pakunoda and the others."
Uvogin didn't reply. He just waved his hand dismissively.
But Feitan clearly wasn't about to miss this rare chance to mock him. "If you can't find him, that's fine too. You really are a bit weak, after all. When the time comes, you can beg me—I'll help you out."
The only response he got was Uvogin raising his middle finger.
…
The vivid red color inside the bottle had completely vanished. At this point, Ronin felt better than ever.
In fact, he felt even better than when he'd been fleeing for his life.
Forming the Sheep seal once more, a clone appeared in front of him.
Ronin looked at the clone's Sharingan—its tomoe had increased from one to two—and a wave of joy surged through his heart.
Thinking it was one thing. Confirming it with his own eyes finally let him relax completely.
Still, once he realized that Scarlet Eyes were the energy source behind his eyes' evolution, his thoughts inevitably turned toward the Phantom Troupe.
That idea flashed through his mind only briefly before he forced it down.
Even though he could clearly feel how much stronger he had become after fusing his predecessor father's Scarlet Eyes, he didn't believe that his current self was a match for the Phantom Troupe.
Rather than trying to snatch Scarlet Eyes directly from the Troupe, it seemed far safer to wait until they sold them—and then go after the buyers.
Of course, that didn't mean he planned to let the Phantom Troupe off the hook.
Ronin was the kind of person who held grudges.
But holding a grudge didn't mean being reckless. He preferred to wait until he had overwhelming strength—then appear before his enemies and crush them completely.
For now, his priority was still to leave this place.
He didn't believe for a second that Uvogin would let him go so easily. After taking loss after loss, that man would definitely continue hunting him down.
And next time, Uvogin would most likely bring Kortopi with him—possibly even other members of the Troupe as well.
Facing Uvogin alone was already difficult. If he were surrounded by multiple Troupe members, it would be a guaranteed death sentence.
X City was not an option.
It was the closest city to the hidden village. If the Troupe left the village, they would most likely head to X City first, then take an airship from there.
As Ronin rapidly moved forward along the tree trunks, he also reviewed the manga in his mind.
Not just the main story up through chapter 410, but also Kurapika's flashback arc—he had read it all. As a hardcore Hunter × Hunter fan, he knew it inside and out.
When the village was attacked, Kurapika had already been gone for six weeks. He had left to find a doctor for his friend, Pairo.
That wasn't the key point, though.
What mattered was that the manga mentioned the Kurta Clan massacre being reported worldwide.
And the one who discovered the massacre was a woman who had gotten lost in the forest.
The Kurta Clan had hidden themselves deep in the mountains to avoid outsiders, so discovering their location should not have been easy at all.
That made Ronin suspicious—and curious—about the identity of that "lost" woman.
Still, he couldn't be sure. It was entirely possible that the Phantom Troupe had arranged it deliberately.
All to drive up the value of the now-irreplaceable Scarlet Eyes.
After all, once the Kurta Clan was wiped out, the total number of Scarlet Eyes in the world was fixed at 34 pairs.
Subtract Ronin's, his father's, and Kurapika's—that left the rest.
Just one pair of eyes had taken him from a one-tomoe to a two-tomoe Sharingan. Ronin couldn't help but imagine how far his Sharingan would evolve if he obtained all of them.
Including himself and Kurapika, the Kurta Clan had a total of 129 members.
More than half of them weren't actually Kurta—they were ordinary outsiders from beyond the village. The Kurta weren't a completely closed-off people; once they reached adulthood, clan members were free to come and go.
Still, most of them believed the outside world was full of bad people, so they preferred to stay in the village. That was also why the Phantom Troupe's attack had nearly resulted in total annihilation.
Among them, 27 Kurta members possessed Scarlet Eyes.
Which meant that the Phantom Troupe currently held 25 pairs of Scarlet Eyes.
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