Ronin was not at all surprised that Ging had interacted with Morel before.
Still, even after accepting that Ging could imitate other people's abilities, he remained stunned by how flexibly Ging could use his own abilities to reproduce theirs in a more convenient form.
Just how deeply did Ging understand Nen to accomplish something like this?
A genius?
No. Perhaps even the word "genius" was insufficient to describe Ging.
According to Hisoka, everyone who trained in Nen was limited by something called memory capacity.
When a Nen user devoted most of their energy to developing a certain ability, that ability would occupy a large portion of their memory capacity.
An Enhancer developing an Enhancement ability was fine. But if an Enhancer forced themselves to train in Conjuration or Manipulation, they would waste a tremendous amount of that capacity.
Ging, however, did not seem bound by this rule.
Every ability appeared effortless in his hands, provided he had seen someone use it before.
Ronin wondered whether this counted as an unusual form of vow and limitation—using Ging's inhumanly powerful comprehension to imitate most abilities in the world.
Perhaps the Rainbow Egg truly was the perfect divine treasure for Ging.
As Ronin looked at the large number of Deep Purple smoke soldiers Ging had created, he released a shadow clone as well.
"There's still one problem. The smoke soldiers can't fly." Ronin looked expectantly at Ging.
"You seem quite familiar with Morel," Ging remarked casually before returning to the main topic. "The smoke soldiers don't need to fly. They only need to climb the buildings and leap across the rooftops."
Ronin immediately understood what Ging meant.
He did not respond to Ging's remark about his familiarity with Morel. Instead, he picked up on the second part.
"The smoke soldiers are nothing but bait."
Ging snapped his fingers.
"Exactly."
"All right. Let's try it." Ronin immediately agreed.
Both he and Ging understood that this operation had only one objective—to allow the shadow clone to fly farther.
Ronin actually had other methods, such as creating more shadow clones.
After all, he had mastered the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique a long time ago. But for now, he did not want to use it.
He was not Naruto. He did not have the Nine-Tails supplying him with virtually unlimited chakra.
Creating large numbers of shadow clones would weaken his real body. That weakening might not be limited to his life energy; it could also affect him mentally.
After all, producing many shadow clones also meant that when they dispersed, he would receive an enormous amount of information all at once.
Ronin even suspected that if he created enough clones and had them all explode simultaneously, the flood of information might let him personally experience something like Infinite Void.
Unfortunately, that method could not be used on an enemy.
Otherwise, he genuinely would have liked to try it.
If Ronin had possessed enough sealed shadow clones, he would not have minded using some of them either. Unfortunately, he did not have many sealing scrolls left.
Putting those thoughts aside, Ronin's shadow clone began climbing toward the top floor of their current building alongside the smoke soldiers.
They climbed from inside the building.
Ronin did not have enough bronze armour to equip the entire force of smoke soldiers. Without its protection, the moment those soldiers exposed themselves outside the building, the dormant Gold and Silver Ingots would instantly awaken and enter combat mode.
Even the shadow clone was not wearing bronze armour.
After all, the armour would completely lose its effect once the clone used the Ultra-Light-Weight Rock Technique and took flight.
The city's buildings were constructed from ordinary massive stones. Under the shadow clone's attack, an opening large enough for him and the smoke soldiers to leave through was easily created.
The moment the shadow clone emerged—or, more accurately, the moment his feet reached the rooftop before he had even taken flight—a faint noise sounded outside the building.
It was the sound of the dormant Gold and Silver Ingots retracting their roots.
The appearance of that sound meant they had been activated!
The shadow clone did not dare waste even an instant. He immediately used the Ultra-Light-Weight Rock Technique, leaping into the air and rapidly flying forward.
Determining the direction of the city centre was simple. They only needed to observe the orientation of the buildings and streets.
Every building in the city was slightly narrower on the side facing the city centre.
Even though the difference in width was extremely subtle, it could not escape Ronin's eyes.
However, as the shadow clone flew higher and gained a complete bird's-eye view of the city, light flashed below.
Several golden beams shot into the sky.
The awakened Gold and Silver Ingots had attacked!
But the shadow clone had no time to pay attention to them.
His gaze remained fixed on the city below, as though he intended to determine the group's precise location through aerial observation.
At the same time, large numbers of smoke soldiers emerged from the buildings below.
Although they could not fly, scaling walls and racing across rooftops posed no difficulty for them.
Their appearance instantly diverted more than half of the golden beams that had been aimed at the shadow clone.
One smoke soldier after another raced across the rooftops, while Ronin and the others patiently waited for the information the shadow clone would send back.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Golden beams pierced through the bodies of the smoke soldiers one after another.
But it was useless.
Because the soldiers were composed entirely of smoke, the golden beams simply passed straight through them without posing any threat.
However, this clearly was not enough to trouble the Gold and Silver Ingots.
Although the Gold and Silver Ingots here differed from those on the floating island, the moment they discovered that the smoke soldiers were unaffected by the penetrating golden beams, they immediately changed tactics.
The instant the golden light touched a smoke soldier, it exploded directly.
In a single moment, the smoke soldier struck head-on by the explosion dispersed into smoke.
But Ronin and Ging soon discovered something at the same time.
The Gold and Silver Ingots here still maintained their usual trait—they did not share information with one another.
In other words, for each Gold and Silver Ingot to eliminate a smoke soldier, it first had to fire a golden beam and confirm that the penetrating attack was ineffective. Only then would it change tactics and make the beam explode upon contact.
But that method also had a drawback.
It took the Gold and Silver Ingot nearly a full second to gather enough power to release an explosive golden beam.
That brief moment was exceptionally valuable in a situation where every second counted.
The attacks of the Gold and Silver Ingots resembled predetermined programs. Only after destroying one smoke soldier would they turn toward the next one that appeared.
The thirty-odd smoke soldiers managed to buy the shadow clone more than twenty seconds.
And the shadow clone only died because even more Gold and Silver Ingots gathered from farther away.
Yet those brief twenty-odd seconds were enough for the rapidly flying shadow clone to witness from high above exactly what Ronin wanted to see!