What emerged from the fog were apes standing four to five meters tall. They had thick limbs, broad shoulders, and powerful backs, but their heads were very small.
Their tiny eyes were only the size of coins, and the flesh on their faces was squeezed together, resembling a blooming chrysanthemum.
The apes' legs possessed explosive strength, allowing them to leap easily between trees with wide gaps, yet they made very little noise.
"Thud."
A faint sound came from above.
Law and Biscuit prepared for battle.
'If that curse-like ability was still active, facing this group of apes now would undoubtedly be troublesome. Fortunately, the apes didn't seem particularly threatening.'
"Tonpa, over here." Law glanced at the apes on the surrounding trees and called out to Tonpa.
Tonpa had also noticed the dozens of apes watching menacingly from the trunks.
He immediately scrambled over to hide behind Law.
In his current weakened state, even a single ape could probably finish him off.
Bruna curled up slightly and landed next to Tonpa, trying her best not to interfere with Law and the others' fight.
"Hold our ground." Biscuit said calmly.
Their location had no cover. So-called 'holding their ground' meant standing still.
"Mm." Law nodded. In this situation, they could only stand still. If the negative effects of tripping and slipping were triggered during combat, they could get injured.
The group of apes whispered among themselves for a moment, then leaped down one after another, arms raised high, descending upon Law's group.
In an instant, a jade-white phantom holding a long sword materialized behind Law.
Law looked up at the numerous apes falling from the sky. Aura condensed into the form of a long sword in his right hand.
With a single slash, an Aura Slash split the thick fog, piercing through the bodies of many apes like lightning.
Accompanied by barely audible sounds, red flowers bloomed within the white mist.
Over twenty apes were bisected mid-air by the single slash, falling to the ground.
The remaining apes, nearly twenty of them, charged directly at Law and Biscuit.
Law dismissed the jade-white phantom, switching to his Domain, forming a semi-circular protective shield around them.
The apes came on fiercely. Upon touching the Domain, their descent speed was reduced.
At that moment, Biscuit unleashed a series of fist shadows, injecting Aura into her punch, knocking all the apes away from a distance.
To ensure every ape was struck, Biscuit adjusted her position, taking a few quick steps.
This immediately triggered the 'curse' effects of tripping and slipping, but she stubbornly landed her final punch before falling to the ground.
The apes roared as they were sent flying by the punch.
Law materialized the jade-white phantom again, slaughtering the remaining apes in the air.
In less than a minute, all the apes became corpses on the ground. A strong smell of blood spread through the fog.
Watching Law and Biscuit dispatch the apes so quickly, Tonpa breathed a sigh of relief.
"We need to go. Don't touch the blood." Biscuit said, slightly annoyed as she got up from the ground.
"Mm." Law grunted in agreement. He had Bruna stand on his shoulder and, along with Biscuit and Tonpa, detoured around the apes' corpses, moving forward.
Inevitably, the sensation of obstruction at their ankles continued, along with exaggerated slipping out of nowhere, and the occasional crow's cry.
Thus, the group left their original position amidst constant stumbling.
Within minutes, various creatures emerged, scrambling for the apes' corpses.
The crow's cry persistently lingered. Law's group walked a few kilometers before stopping because all sorts of unlucky things queued up to happen.
When a hundred-square-meter dropping from an unknown creature fell from high altitude, nearly crushing them to death, Law decided not to proceed further, waiting for Kuro to return instead.
He avoided that dropping from some giant sky creature and used the old method, hollowing out a tree hole in a large tree.
However, shortly after they entered the tree hole, the ground inexplicably collapsed.
Tree roots broke through the earth, and the tree fell over directly.
After that, Law hollowed out several more tree holes, but unfortunately, all those trees fell over.
Looking at the several fallen trees, Law showed a wry smile.
"Caw, caw."
The crow's cry always came at the opportune moment.
Two hours passed. Kuro returned and rendezvoused with Law.
"Couldn't find it," Kuro returned empty-handed. If even Tonpa's Nen Ability couldn't locate the crow, the possibility of Kuro finding it wasn't high.
Tonpa was currently slumped on the ground, having nearly pulled his intestines out.
Law and Biscuit had also used the bathroom a few times, though not as miserably as Tonpa, who had gone over forty times.
"What's wrong with him?" Kuro glanced at Tonpa's pale face.
"He's been to the bathroom forty-two times." Law said.
Hearing this, Kuro couldn't help but be stunned, then laughed heartlessly.
Law slapped him to shut him up.
Tonpa glanced weakly at Kuro, feeling truly pained that someone was gloating at his misfortune in such a miserable situation.
"Caw, caw."
The crow's mocking cry timely added insult to injury for Tonpa.
Tonpa sprang up, opened his mouth, then slumped back down.
After all, rather than shouting in anger, it was better to save his energy.
All sorts of unreasonable misfortunes came in turns. If not resolved, forget climbing the World Tree… even traversing the sea of trees would be a problem.
Law listened to the crow's cry, thinking about how to deal with this trouble.
By now, he had every reason to believe these incidents were caused by the crow.
"Sound…" Law thought of the Dark Sonata, 'But the effects of those two musical scores didn't seem applicable to the crow's cry. So what was left… Ah, right. Stargie's Sound of Seven Verses.'
"Kuro, turn into a harp," Law ordered.
Hearing this, Biscuit frowned, "Are you going to use the Dark Sonata again?"
Even though Law had half of the Hope that could increase lifespan, she felt things like the Dark Sonata were best used sparingly.
"No, I want to use Stargie's Sound of Seven Verses," Law explained.
Biscuit couldn't help but look surprised and astonished. She knew of Stargie's Sound of Seven Verses, as it was the Nen Ability Stargie had used to attack them in the tomb back then.
Kuro also found the crow's cry extremely annoying, so without another word, he turned into a harp.
Law held the harp. If possible, he didn't want to make too much noise and attract trouble, but he had to find a way to solve the problem of the crow's cry.
Strumming the strings, clear, crisp music emanated from his fingertips.
Nen traveled down his arm into the harp, merging with the music, spreading out in all directions.
Sound of Seven Verses: Fan Melody.
"Caw, caw."
The crow's cry sounded, crashing into the music.
Twang!
The strings snapped in response.
Law's eyes lit up.
Without needing to be told, Kuro repaired the strings himself, though the incident struck Kuro as odd.
The music continued.
Using sound to probe the crow's cry, layer by layer, they finally located the crow's position.
"It's actually so close?"
Law pressed the harp, which Kuro had turned into, against the back of his hand, pushed off with his foot, and leaped into the air.
He stumbled with every step, but he used Emission-type Nen to immediately adjust his posture, wobbling his way to a tree trunk ten meters away.
His vision pierced through the thick fog, revealing a crow of normal size perched on a branch.
Its body was entirely black, but its head was covered by a layer of snow-white unknown substance, like a faceless mask made of plaster.
Seeing Law approach, the crow dispersed into Nen.
"A Nen Beast?"
Law's eyes narrowed. He wouldn't let the crow escape.
He activated his Domain, imprisoning the dispersing Nen into a ball, controlling it in his palm.
At that moment, the White Smoke Font suddenly popped up with the option to absorb it.
'Hmm?'
Law was startled.
'Nen that could become an absorption target was only… Post-Mortem Nen.'