A torrential downpour, under extreme low temperatures, swiftly froze the special room Joey had exited.
Joey didn't know what method Nasubi Hui Guo Rou would use to return to the Coffin Zone, but as long as there was even the slightest chance he would enter the zone the same way—by stepping into a room—then sealing the "entrance" could buy Joey more time.
Were there really only three people in the room?
Joey harbored some doubts.
The key lay in the fact that the special spatial ability within the room didn't seem to belong to Nasubi Hui Guo Rou.
From the previous footage captured in the King's Quarters, Nasubi's Nen Beast ability appeared to be time-rewind based, yet his own ability remained unrevealed.
The Guardian Spirit Beast of the 13th Prince seemed to follow a rule to activate its power—it required the host to remain within its protected domain.
And although the Guardian Spirit Beast sheltered the prince in a hidden realm, the beast itself should still exist in the material world.
That meant, if the 13th Prince's beast had activated its ability, Joey's clone should've been able to locate it upon entering the room.
Even if it had been on high alert, it should've been detectable.
But the reality was—he found no trace of the Guardian Spirit Beast.
This left two possibilities: either the power that obscured people and objects in the room didn't originate from the 13th Prince's beast…
But this was later disproved when Fatty pulled Nasubi from the hidden realm—just before the beast vanished, it suddenly became visible. That confirmed it was the 13th Prince's beast cloaking the room.
The other possibility: another person—or some other ability—was hiding inside the supposedly empty room, helping the beast remain concealed.
And yet, one strange point stood out.
Why would the Guardian Beast suddenly appear at the final moment, right before its ability broke?
What purpose did that serve?
Among the people who rushed out of the room, none appeared to possess stealth-type powers.
However, among those transferred from the hidden realm, several Nen users could've had such an ability. The cloaking might've been one of theirs.
Only after Joey's main body forced his way into the broken-ability room and was transported did the answer reveal itself.
He was right—there had always been someone inside that seemingly empty room assisting the Guardian Beast's concealment.
The reason they dropped the cloaking at the last moment was likely because they intended to enter the Coffin Zone with Joey.
That sudden assassin who appeared by Joey's side must've stepped into the zone at the same time, from that outer room.
They'd likely been monitoring the clone all along from inside the empty space, feeding intel to those within the hidden world.
Once the ambush failed and those in the hidden realm were relocated, the assassin shifted focus to target Joey's main body.
Thus, they dispelled the cloak, re-entered the room after Joey stepped into the Coffin Zone, and followed him in.
That would explain how they appeared so quickly—almost as if they'd known exactly when Joey would appear, and had prepared an ambush.
Judging by the killer intent and Nen aura the assassin released just before striking, Joey knew—if the attacker hadn't emerged suddenly, they never would've been able to get that close, much less pierce his defenses with a dagger.
Another strong piece of evidence came from the brief shock flashing across the eyes of the other two people in the Coffin Zone.
Even though they reacted quickly, small details betrayed their panic.
Joey's mind ran at full throttle. Aside from the assassin, aside from the cloaked Guardian Beast, there was something else he noticed.
There were people in the Coffin Zone.
Given Fatty's ability—if Nasubi had been with them before, inside the Coffin Zone—then when Joey entered, no one should've been there.
So there was only one explanation.
Two distinct spatial abilities were acting on the same room.
One—Nasubi using the 13th Prince's Guardian Spirit Beast to create the inner world.
Inside that inner world: royal guards, and Nasubi himself.
The second—another space-type power that activated only after the beast's ability was broken, serving as a teleportation mechanic.
That room acted as an entrance to the Coffin Zone.
But the Coffin Zone wasn't like the inner world—it truly existed on the Black Whale ship. Otherwise, Fatty's ability should've been able to pull people from it, the same way he extracted Nasubi.
And this led to the most crucial question:
Was the teleportation ability Nasubi's own?
Regardless of whether it was his, if the entrance to the Coffin Zone was that bizarre room in the center, then coming through again wouldn't be easy.
As for whether anyone else remained in the room, at least by Joey's En, he sensed no one.
There was no more point in creating clones. The weather—torrential rain—began to manifest its true ability.
The extreme cold slowed the archer's movements. Suddenly, the puddles on the ground surged toward his back, as though someone had blown water-arrows from beneath the surface.
The cold froze the jets into spikes before they even struck him.
Threads of Nen climbed up the ice spikes. A splash of vivid crimson bloomed in the water. A muffled grunt escaped the archer's lips.
The spikes pierced through his Nen defense and sank into his body.
The man spinning the top, however, fared differently. Though ice spikes shot up around him as well, the whip in his hand snapped through them with crackling speed, shattering them into glittering shards.
The ice crystals, melted by rain, became mere puddles again.
More spikes erupted from the puddles, targeting both men.
In the clouds above, serpentine bolts of lightning writhed, unpatterned, unleashing jolts of weakly-charged Nen upon them.
The rain on their bodies acted as a perfect conductor. Even when the lightning missed, the current crawling across their soaked skin left their muscles numb.
That moment of paralysis gave the ice spikes all the opening they needed.
A single scream was all the archer managed before it was silenced forever. His bow clattered to the floor, and his body was transformed into a pincushion of frozen death.
Same Emission-type Nen. But the gulf in skill was as vast as heaven and earth.
The cold, seizing on his moment of vulnerability, froze him into a red-tinged ice statue.
The man with the whip and spinning top managed to shatter the spikes again—buying just a thread of hope for his weapon-like comrade.
The whip's crack kept drawing Joey's attention, even as the rain blurred his vision of the spinning top. Its effects—visually reliant—were dampened, failing to sway Joey.
1 minute 30 seconds—Joey silently counted his time inside the Coffin Zone.
If Nasubi could return quickly, he would've arrived already—emerging from ice or somewhere else in the zone.
But he hadn't. Which meant he couldn't come back just yet.
If that was true, then Nasubi's only option would be to find the true, physical entrance to the Coffin Zone—not a teleportation gateway.
How long would that take?
Joey's gaze swept from the besieged top-spinner to the hazy outline of the coffins beyond the rain.
Through that blur, he saw four flaming lotus blooms rise.
Each matched a coffin housing one of the dead princes.
Joey had noticed them when he first arrived—back then, embedded in the floor. Now, reacting to his presence, they lifted and emitted faint threads of Nen.
A sense of dread curled in Joey's gut.
And then—a tiny dragon burst from one of the flaming flowers. It rapidly grew, warping into a grotesque form as the bloom shattered.
Elsewhere, another flower cracked open, revealing a tiny gas wisp at its center.
A strange presence began emanating from behind Joey.
He turned—only to see black resentment bursting from a frozen ceremonial urn, screaming souls clawing into the air with twisted faces.
In an instant, an icy grip seized his body.
Endless screams echoed in his mind. Within the layered cries, it was as if countless voices were whispering secrets.
But when Joey tried to focus, to understand—he heard only senseless wailing.
His Nen-shielded body shuddered. The protection felt like it had vanished.
The other fighter—the man with the top—also lost all resistance the moment the screams began. Ice spikes pierced him clean through.
But the tops kept spinning.
No matter the cold, wind, or lightning—they didn't waver, didn't slow.
Joey narrowed his eyes. A thought emerged.
Hallucination?
Staring at the tops, his mind drifted—to a long-forgotten movie.
He couldn't recall the plot. But it had a top.
And the rule was—if it kept spinning, it meant you were still dreaming.
Was he dreaming now?
Did it begin when he looked at the top? Or was it the combined effect of the top, whip, and archer?
What was the archer's ability?
Did those arrows really carry nothing?
Once the seed of doubt was planted, the details revealed themselves.
The rainclouds started to fade. The rain and lightning stopped.
But oddly, the puddles didn't freeze in the cold.
The flaming flowers continued shattering. The Fourth Prince's beast emerged—identical to Joey's past encounters.
Yet it simply stared at Joey. It didn't attack.
Then, with the final flame's rupture, a massive golden coin materialized in the zone.
With the rain cleared, everything came into focus.
Two lifelike ice statues. The top-spinner's body sprawled in the puddle. Joey took it all in.
The tops kept spinning—but their oppressive aura was gone. As if, without the whip, they'd lost all will to fight.
The cursed ceremonial urn still vomited black spirits…
But none of it moved toward Joey. They simply churned in place.
Trying to crush him with presence alone.
And in that standoff—a crack appeared in Joey's vision.
It spread, widened. Within a minute, it shattered.
The vision broke. The wailing souls vanished. The four beasts dissolved. The water still flowed, ankle-deep. The tops had long since stopped.
The whip-user stared, stunned and bitter.
Where the archer had stood—nothing remained but drifting ashes.
A nearly invisible frog leapt from the ash and vanished into the puddle.
"A formidable combo. I take it you two are together? You're not Kakin soldiers, are you? Nasubi really trusted you," Joey muttered, face growing solemn.
If he hadn't launched that glass frog—loaded with his first Nen bomb—hidden in the rain from the start, escaping that illusion might've been impossible. He'd be the one in danger now.
But from the start, he aimed for swift, decisive battle. There was no way he'd withhold his trump card.
Glancing at his watch, Joey arched a brow.
Looks like I caught a cold…
(End of Chapter)