When the crow dispersed into black Nen, Law was inwardly startled.
Now that he had imprisoned the Nen, the White Smoke Font presented the option to absorb it.
Law's thoughts only paused for a moment before he chose to absorb without hesitation.
The black Nen seeped into his palm, its volume gradually decreasing.
Suddenly, a shrill cawing sound came from it.
Hearing the sound, Law remained unmoved, absorbing the black Nen completely.
The numerical value immediately increased by 0.5%.
Simultaneously, several vague memory fragments entered his mind.
He saw a person with a crow perched on their shoulder, walking through a forest, fighting fierce beasts.
The person's face was hazy and indistinct, their features were unclear. He only knew this person was a Nen User, and the crow was their Nen Beast.
"Post-Mortem Nen that grew stronger," Law murmured to himself.
The Surprise Box he had was a Nen Object materialized by Ghost Lady. It should have vanished along with Ghost Lady's death, but due to the Post-Mortem Nen, it remained, becoming an independent, tangible object.
The Nen Beast crow he had just absorbed was of the same nature as the Surprise Box… both were created with Nen. The former was a Nen Beast, the latter an object.
'Nen Beast, Nen Beast…' Law looked down at his palm, a flash of inspiration crossing his mind.
'Probably not.' He shook his head, dismissing the thought that had just flashed by.
'Even if Nen Users from long ago had left behind some Nen Beasts, they shouldn't be connected to those strange creatures of the Dark Continent.'
'Humans were at an absolute disadvantage on the Dark Continent, arguably at the very bottom of the pyramid. To suggest those strange creatures originated from human's Nen… that sounds impossible.'
Law had inexplicably had such a thought but quickly snuffed it out.
He rubbed his now-normal stomach and jumped back to the ground. The curses of tripping and slipping no longer triggered, 'Indeed, everything was related to that crow.'
Finally having resolved this thorny trouble, Law hurried back to reunite with Biscuit and the others.
"Solved it?" Seeing Law return, Biscuit instinctively touched her stomach.
The churning reaction in her stomach had disappeared. Before Law returned, she had also tried walking a few steps without any issues, but she still asked again.
"Yes." Law nodded and looked at Tonpa.
Although his stomach was no longer churning, Tonpa had had diarrhea too many times before and was now weak and exhausted.
It wasn't suitable to continue forward, and they could only find a place to rest first.
They once again hollowed out a hole in a tree.
This time, without the crow's cry causing trouble, the hollowed-out tree did not inexplicably collapse.
Tonpa could finally rest, contentedly curling up in a corner.
That contentment was like being able to sleep soundly when having a fever or a cold.
Later, Law told Biscuit about the crow's details.
"It was actually a Nen Beast, and one that grew stronger after death…" Biscuit couldn't hide her surprised tone.
Kuro sat crouched nearby, watching the two converse with a calm expression, who knows what he was thinking.
Law pinched his chin, "I'm certain that crow was a Nen Beast left behind by a deceased Nen User because I used an exorcism method to deal with it."
Using exorcism to conceal the absorption… whichever way you looked at it, it proved the crow's true identity.
Biscuit didn't doubt Law's judgment. Moreover, Post-Mortem Nen wasn't a rare phenomenon. It was just that being on the Dark Continent made the matter seem unfathomable.
"Could it have been left behind by a Nen User who came to the Dark Continent in the past?" Biscuit said in an uncertain tone.
"Don't know," Law shook his head slightly. It was a pity the memory fragments were so vague and contained too little information.
There were humans on the Dark Continent as well, so the origin of the Nen Beast couldn't be determined.
Afterward, Law and Biscuit didn't continue discussing the issue.
However, the more Law's thoughts wandered, the more the idea that had sprouted earlier refused to leave him.
…
A few days later, Tonpa had mostly recovered. It was time to leave the tree hole and continue forward.
The thick fog hadn't dispersed, like seasonal weather.
The group walked through the thick fog, sometimes moving straight, sometimes detouring, step by step toward the other end of the sea of trees.
Time passed, and three months went by.
Bumping along the way but ultimately encountering dangers yet emerging unscathed, Law's group finally traversed the sea of trees and arrived at the foot of a range upon range of mountains.
The peaks pierced the clouds.
The mountain base was barren, devoid of any plants.
Standing at the mountain's foot, looking back at the sea of trees, it was still shrouded in thick fog, undispersed for three or four months.
Outside the sea of trees, however, the sun was bright and beautiful, as if they were two different worlds.
"Those clouds look really low." Tonpa looked up at the white clouds above the mountain range. By eye, they were only three or four hundred meters high, looking like another thick fog.
The white clouds resembled cotton wool, wrapped around the waists of the mountains, also like wool growing on a sheep's body.
From here, only high mountains and white clouds were visible. There was no sign of the World Tree.
They didn't know if their direction was correct.
"Let's climb up."
Law looked at the steep mountain slope, thinking that just climbing to the summit of any mountain would open up their field of vision. At that time, finding the correct direction of the World Tree shouldn't be difficult.
The group didn't linger.
After emerging from the sea of trees, they headed straight for the mountain top.
Climbing mountains was simple for Nen Users. A height of a few hundred meters was trivial.
Soon, their figures penetrated the clouds and mist, continuing upward.
It was unclear how high they had climbed, only that the mountain wind was cold, sharp, and powerful, scraping their skin painfully.
Looking up, the summit was nowhere in sight.
How high was this mountain? No one knew. They could only keep climbing.
After climbing for another half hour or so, they finally saw the summit.
A moment later, the entire group reached the summit.
They had originally thought their field of vision would become wide open, but there were still many towering, cloud-piercing peaks in all directions.
"There." Biscuit suddenly pointed in a direction.
Everyone followed her direction.
There, two tall mountains stood side by side, with a large patch of blue sky between them.
Their gaze passed through the gap between the two mountains and saw the outline of the World Tree, towering among the mountain range like a sky-reaching pillar.
From here, the World Tree didn't seem far away. Numerous enormous flying creatures circled in the airspace near the World Tree.
"That is… what?" Tonpa noticed something and rubbed his eyes in shock, "A mountain?"
The World Tree was rooted in the mountain range, using magma as nourishment.
Near the World Tree stood a giant black hand, fingers spread open. Its height and volume were astonishing.
Law and Biscuit also saw that 'black hand', which was no different from a human arm. They frowned in silence.
They couldn't judge its exact height, but it was at least twice as tall as their current location.
Disregarding its appearance, it was probably just a mountain.
After all, the mountain Law's group was on was at least three thousand meters high.
Suddenly, the palm of the 'black hand' moved, grabbing a flying creature and clutching it tightly.