The several hundred elites led by the Kakin Empire's top master, Nugui, were the core of the ship's fighting force and the heart of the vast nation's military power.
However, even this formidable team couldn't last a single round against Morrow.
The instantaneous collapse of the battle lines left the Nen users from the V5 and the International Permit Agencies, who had rushed in as reinforcements, frozen in place.
No one could stop this monster anymore...
At this moment, that was the only thought in their minds.
At least in an enclosed space like the Black Whale, if even Nen couldn't suppress Morrow, it was even more impossible to expect conventional military tactics to have any effect.
The Nen users from the V5 and the International Permit Agencies all realized this at that moment.
But they were powerless to change anything.
Even if Morrow were to go on a rampage like a human-shaped nuclear bomb inside the ship until the entire Black Whale was destroyed, they could only passively accept this reality.
How... how can a monster like this exist in the world!?
The survivors from the Cha-R and Xi-Yu Families struggled to their feet, their eyes filled with horror as they stared at the passageway leading into the ship's hull.
Even though Morrow's figure had already vanished from the deck, the terrifying images from moments ago seemed to be seared onto their retinas.
He... he probably held back against us.
One person tried to stand, only to fall back to the ground several times. In the end, he could only roll onto his back and gaze up at the sky.
His companion beside him whispered, "It's not 'probably.' He definitely held back. Otherwise, we wouldn't still be alive."
As they spoke, a faint, dark red ring of light suddenly passed through the deck from below. In an instant, it passed through their bodies and solidified in the air above the deck, like a translucent, arched dome.
"This is..."
"En?!"
The group looked up at the dome-shaped Nen aura, immediately realizing it must be Morrow's doing.
That monster was indeed after the King of Kakin!
Using En often meant one was trying to lock onto a specific target in a very short amount of time.
And the only motive that could compel a monster so suffocatingly powerful to venture out to sea alone and raid the Black Whale was likely the King of Kakin himself. Just then, someone abruptly noticed something was wrong.
"The range of this En...?!"
They had initially thought Morrow had only deployed his En on the deck below them.
But now, looking closely, they were shocked to find that the dark red arc of light enveloped the entire colossal ship, even covering the massive pool on the Black Whale's top deck. "The diameter is at least over two thousand meters..."
"Is he really human?!"
Faced with this reality-defying En, everyone, from the remaining gang members to the Nen users of the V5 and the International Permit Agencies, was completely stunned.
Everything that had happened today was like a nuclear bomb dropped on the Nen system as they knew it.
The aftershocks of the shock lingered for a long, long time.
—--
Inside the ship's hull.
Morrow deployed his En.
Although he could roughly pinpoint the Lotus Anchorite's location through its black hand-shaped death aura, it didn't stop him from using En for a more precise fix.
The En, with a diameter exceeding two thousand meters, gave Morrow a complete grasp of the entire situation within the ship in an instant.
Normally, an En of such a massive scale would inevitably place a certain burden on the user when processing the feedback from countless objects.
But Morrow was all too familiar with this kind of operation.
Accustomed to using Starlight Convergence, he easily integrated and processed all the information that flooded back in an instant.
He then pinpointed the location of the Lotus Anchorite.
The Seed Urn, which he had also targeted, happened to be in the same place as the Lotus Anchorite.
Saves me the trouble.
Morrow retracted his En at light speed, then casually stomped his foot, shattering the black hand-shaped death aura emanating from the Lotus Anchorite.
Astral Step.
He immediately activated his teleportation ability, and his figure vanished into thin air.
The next instant, he appeared in the room where the Seed Urn and the Lotus Anchorite were stored, thanks to his prior pinpointing.
What appeared before him was a pitch-black floor and fourteen coffins arranged in a circle.
The floor was covered in circuit board-like engravings that snaked their way to each coffin, all converging on a furnace-like machine in the center of the room. This was the Sacrificial Altar that Nasubi Hui Guo Rou had set up for the Succession Contest to gather aura.
The princes who died in the Succession Contest would eventually be placed in these coffins, their final value transferred as fuel to the central mechanical furnace. The energy they released after death was one of the reasons the three sacred treasures of Kakin could be sustained for so long.
Even the two hundred thousand passengers on the ship would ultimately become fuel for this furnace as sacrifices.
Morrow had already scouted the room with his En before teleporting, so he wasn't surprised by the scene.
However, the formation on the floor, which resembled Divine Script, did pique his interest slightly.
But for now, business came first.
His gaze passed over the central Sacrificial Altar and fell upon the divine platform set against the wall.
The Lotus Anchorite and the Seed Urn were placed neatly on it.
The Seed Urn was a ceramic pot with human facial features carved into it, bearing a striking resemblance to a card pattern Morrow knew from his past life called the Pot of Greed. The Post-Mortem Nen it emitted was very faint, perhaps because its power was temporarily distributed among the fourteen princes participating in the Succession Contest.
In contrast, the divine body next to it, wrapped in heavy Zen robes, was erupting with a towering black aura of Post-Mortem Nen.
It had clearly sensed the threat Morrow posed.
In an instant, a sky-blotting swarm of black Nen hands surged over the entire Sacrificial Altar, rushing toward Morrow.
Morrow raised his eyes slightly, his pupils reflecting the dense silhouettes of the black Post-Mortem Nen.
Swoosh!
He took another step.
In a flash, he passed through the astonishing number of black Nen hands and arrived before the Lotus Anchorite.
Just then, a hidden door on the nearby wall, also covered in engravings, suddenly opened.
It was Nasubi Hui Guo Rou, who had rushed in.
As the King of Kakin, he initially thought Morrow was there to assassinate him.
But when Morrow's En had swept over him, it hadn't lingered with any particular focus.
Coupled with the fact that he valued the regalia more than his own life, he had immediately rushed over as soon as he sensed something was amiss.
His judgment was correct, and his arrival was timely.
However, in Morrow's eyes, all of this was meaningless.
"You're courting death!"
Seeing Morrow so close to the Lotus Anchorite, a chilling bloodlust erupted from Nasubi Hui Guo Rou's eyes.
He knew the power of this divine body all too well.
Its rule-based domain ability became more terrifyingly powerful the more its range was constricted.
For Morrow to dare get so close was undoubtedly a death wish.
And what he needed to do now was to distract Morrow.
Nasubi Hui Guo Rou was, after all, a king who had walked out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. His strength and courage were far beyond what his portly appearance suggested.
In a split second, he made his decision. Fearlessly, he surged with tumultuous Nen, stomped on the ground, and charged straight at Morrow. At the same time, the spider-like Guardian Spirit Beast behind him attacked first.
Its hairy, slender limbs suddenly extended, section by section, like cracks tearing through space as they stabbed toward Morrow's vitals.
Faced with this assault, Morrow merely gave it a casual glance.
Without any discernible movement, stellar cross patterns materialized on the ground and ceiling near Hui Guo Rou, as well as on the wall next to the hidden door behind him.
It was as if a cluster of stars had suddenly fallen into the Sacrificial Altar room.
Hmm?
The stellar crosses bloomed with an azure glow, stabbing into Nasubi Hui Guo Rou's eyes from every angle.
Following the light was a web-like barrage of Nen bullets that completely engulfed him and his Guardian Spirit Beast as they charged.
Rumble, rumble...!
A continuous series of explosions rocked the room.
Morrow didn't spare it a second glance, merely extending his right hand toward the Lotus Anchorite.
At that moment, the Anchorite unleashed its final, ultimate move.
Taking advantage of the moment Hui Guo Rou bought for it, it abruptly raised its head. The mummified face hidden in the shadows beneath its hat was suddenly exposed to the light, and its two empty eye sockets gushed with an incredibly dense Post-Mortem Nen.
The Post-Mortem Nen shot out like two black arrows, aimed straight at the nearby Morrow.
If hit, any human's will and perception would be completely altered.
However, this fatal blow, which required immense energy and could only be activated at close range... was caught firmly by Morrow's outstretched right hand.
If the Lotus Anchorite still possessed a complete consciousness, it would probably be crying out in horror right now.
Morrow gripped the surging Post-Mortem Nen, his expression unchanged from beginning to end.
While using his Tree Rings energy to absorb the vast Post-Mortem Nen, he smoothly placed his right hand on the crown of the Anchorite's head.
Absorb.
With a silent command, the Tree Rings instantly intensified their suction, like a black hole.
Under the extremely envious gaze of the Entropy Bird, the Lotus Anchorite was forcibly twisted into a vortex of energy, all of it swirling into the Tree Rings. As the immense Post-Mortem Nen was converted into Tree Rings energy, Morrow's level soared.
Lv. 154, Lv. 155, Lv. 156...
His level shot all the way up to Lv. 162 before finally stopping.
The increase is about the same as what the Sword of Good Omens gave me. Morrow looked down at the level rune on the back of his hand and thought to himself. But if I factor in the experience decay, the Lotus Anchorite provided more energy and was clearly a greater threat...Hmm, but it's not that simple a comparison.
The Sword of Good Omens' ability to manipulate Luck is actually much more precious and rare than a direct offensive ability.
Just as Morrow was quietly contemplating his gains, the aftershocks of the explosion in the room gradually subsided.
Nasubi Hui Guo Rou, covered in wounds, emerged from the dust that had not yet fully settled. The Guardian Spirit Beast behind him had lost more than half of its body and looked utterly wretched.
It had just sacrificed itself to block the attack, absorbing the vast majority of the damage for Hui Guo Rou.
The name Guardian Spirit Beast was indeed well-deserved.
"N-No... Impossible!!"
At this moment, Nasubi Hui Guo Rou looked at Morrow in front of the divine platform in disbelief.
The reason he had dared to risk creating an opportunity for the Lotus Anchorite was partly because he firmly believed the Anchorite's ultimate move was enough to deal with Morrow.
On the other hand, he was also confident that his Guardian Spirit Beast could keep him alive.
Moreover, he was now under the rules of the Succession Contest. As long as the contest was not over, he could at most be severely injured or even become a vegetable, but he would not die easily.
But he had never imagined that this divine body of the Anchorite, which had protected the Kakin Empire until now, would be... completely absorbed by Morrow! Nasubi Hui Guo Rou was both shocked and furious, his fat face gradually twisting.
Suddenly, he thought of the Sword of Good Omens, which had also mysteriously vanished from the world, and a terrifying guess shot through his mind.
"The Sword of Good Omens, was that you too...?!"
Nasubi Hui Guo Rou's eyes widened to their absolute limit, his voice trembling violently with shock and rage.
This king, who had orchestrated a revolution to seize the throne thirty years ago and even dared to confront the V5 for the title of a New World pioneer, was now showing such a loss of composure.
It was a testament to how utterly reality-shattering the events unfolding before him were.
Morrow ignored Hui Guo Rou's shock and rage. From the brief exchange, he had confirmed that a Guardian Spirit Beast's ability to protect its host was indeed extraordinary. This point had already been hinted at in the original story's Succession Contest arc.
But Hui Guo Rou's Guardian Spirit Beast was clearly more mature and complete, showcasing its protective nature to the fullest.
So, upon realizing that the spider-like Guardian Spirit Beast could withstand at least one more fatal attack for Hui Guo Rou, Morrow stopped attacking directly. Instead, he transferred 50% of his seventh ring's Tree Rings energy to the Entropy Bird on his shoulder.
Then, ignoring the Entropy Bird's excited chirps, he reached out again, this time for the Seed Urn next to them.
Once he absorbed this final regalia, Hui Guo Rou's Guardian Spirit Beast would naturally be defeated without a fight.
"Stop!!!"
Witnessing Morrow's action, Nasubi Hui Guo Rou's mind was thrown into turmoil. Powerless to stop him, he could only let out a hysterical roar.
Morrow was completely unmoved, absorbing the Seed Urn in an instant.
The 50% of Tree Rings energy he had just transferred to the Entropy Bird was instantly replenished, and his level climbed again from Lv. 162 to Lv. 163. As the Seed Urn turned into energy for the Tree Rings, the Guardian Spirit Beast behind Hui Guo Rou let out a piercing shriek before disintegrating into a cloud of dust that drifted toward Morrow.
It wasn't just Hui Guo Rou's Guardian Spirit Beast.
At this very moment, the princes scattered throughout the ship's cabins found their own gradually maturing Guardian Spirit Beasts quietly disintegrating without their knowledge. The remnants then passed through layers of bulkheads, all flying toward Morrow's location.
The Guardian Spirit Beasts were extensions of the Seed Urn's power.
They were supposed to be further strengthened by the deaths of their hosts after the Succession Contest ended, eventually returning to the Seed Urn.
But under the devouring power of Morrow's Tree Rings, they could now only be absorbed along with the Seed Urn, vanishing completely from the world. With the return of this vast energy, Morrow's level leaped again, breaking through to Lv. 169.
"Entropy Bird."
Morrow's gaze shifted to the bird on his shoulder.
Without him needing to say more, the Entropy Bird understood. It immediately consumed energy to cast a layer of good luck on Morrow, then flapped its wings once. Seeing this, Morrow quietly waited for the negative effects of the Post-Mortem Nen to arrive.
But before that... he looked at Nasubi Hui Guo Rou.
The latter was also staring at him, his eyes churning with indescribable resentment, fury, and bloodlust.
The very foundation upon which the Kakin Empire stood had been turned to nothing in this instant. The king's despair was imaginable.
Morrow, however, remained unmoved.
If he were ruthless enough, he could have waited until the end of the Succession Contest, allowing the sacrifices of the princes and the two hundred thousand passengers to further enhance the power of the two regalia.
If he had struck then, the gains would have been far greater.
Had he done so, the king's reaction would likely have been far more broken than it was now.
However, Morrow was still a human.
There were some lines he would never cross.
He slowly raised his index finger, preparing to finish off Hui Guo Rou first before focusing on dealing with the impending negative effects of the Post-Mortem Nen.
But just as he was about to strike, a sudden change occurred.
A portion of the aura surging around him suddenly peeled away, transforming into a ball of flame that was a mixture of three colors: azure, dark red, and black.
The flame spun and condensed in mid-air, gradually outlining the shape of a wolf's head and a partial torso, its form still evolving.
Seeing this, all the churning anger and bloodlust on Nasubi Hui Guo Rou's twisted face froze solid.
"A Guardian Spirit Beast... How is this possible..."
He recognized the essence of the wolf-headed flame at a glance.
His already shattered perception completely collapsed at this moment.
How could this be... How could this be?!
The three sacred treasures of Kakin had been so easily absorbed by Morrow.
This was already enough to subvert his imagination and understanding, but he could never have predicted... that the power of the devoured Seed Urn would actually coalesce into a unique Guardian Spirit Beast for Morrow.
How was this possible!
Nasubi Hui Guo Rou was dumbfounded.
(Translated by yourtl.app)