There was no doubt that the autonomous actions of the Guardian Spirit Beasts had made the already treacherous first deck exceptionally dangerous. Various eerie occurrences and "accidental" deaths were cropping up one after another.
In a mere day or two, nearly seven bodyguards and private royal soldiers involved in the Succession Contest had met gruesome ends. The air was thick with the heavy scent of blood and a faint, lingering sense of foreboding. As time passed, this aura continued to spread, already extending toward second deck and third deck. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before the entire Black Whale was completely enveloped.
Simultaneously, on the other side, the Mafia families in deck 3, 4, and 5, each allied with different princes, were beginning to stir. Slaughter and death were spreading like a contagion. In the lower tiers where the civilians resided, military presence was spread thin; each guard was responsible for three hundred civilians, rendering law and order virtually non-existent. Despite the Hunter Association's best efforts to maintain stability, it was a losing battle.
If things continued at this pace, large-scale riots and insurrections were inevitable. When that happened, how many of the 200,000 people on board would survive would be entirely down to luck.
Clearly, all of this was a deliberate arrangement by King Nasubi Hui Guo Rou. Like a master conspirator, he had orchestrated every detail of the Succession Contest, intending to use the lives of these 200,000 civilians and hundreds of elite Hunters to facilitate the birth of the most powerful King in Kakin's history.
Reviewing the vast amount of intelligence he had gathered, Allen rubbed his chin, looking puzzled. "Interesting. Is it just about creating mass death? The problem is, not all the deceased are Nen users. What is the significance of such indiscriminate slaughter?"
"Still no luck finding the location of the Urn?" Kite asked, his expression unreadable.
Allen shook his head regretfully. "No. So far, we only know for a fact that the Urn was brought onto this ship, but its exact hiding place remains unknown. Nasubi is cunning; catching his tail is no easy feat."
"Could it be in the lower tiers? The population there is more transient, making it easier to hide things," Kite suggested.
"Don't worry, someone is already taking action in the lower tiers," Allen replied nonchalantly.
"You mean V5 intelligence personnel?" Surprise registered on Kite's face.
"Exactly. You have to realize the V5 top brass are quite displeased with Kakin's recent coercion. They will certainly do their utmost to cooperate with me to cripple or even completely destroy the entire Royal Family. If there are any leads in the lower tiers, they will be delivered to my hands immediately."
As he spoke, a meaningful glint flickered in Allen's eyes. His relationship with V5 was less of a partnership and more of a mutual exploitation; otherwise, a few intelligence agents wouldn't be able to cause much of a stir on this ship.
"Are we just going to wait around like this without any intel on the Urn?" Baise frowned instinctively.
"Have patience. Haven't you noticed? The Princes' Guardian Spirit Beasts are growing more powerful as the death toll rises. This means that when the Succession Contest reaches its climax, no matter how Nasubi tries to hide it, the Urn will be exposed to our sight. Moreover, from my observations of Nasubi over the past few days, although he plays a vital role in this game, he isn't a hundred percent in control of it," Allen analyzed seriously.
"Using the citizens and one's own flesh and blood to kill each other just to select the strongest King? The founder of this Royal Family was truly a cold and cruel individual," Bodoro said, his voice dripping with disgust.
Allen smiled and explained, "From a human perspective, this practice is indeed cruel. But from a political and ruling perspective, sacrificing a few to gain an exceptional ruler is a very cost-effective bargain. Imagine if an incompetent monarch took power, what kind of terrible disaster would that cause? The death toll then might not be in the hundreds of thousands, but millions or even tens of millions. Furthermore, the Kakin Royal Family has always had ambitions to dominate the entire human world, which is why V5 is so eager to see them destroyed."
"I never imagined that on the journey to the Dark Continent, we'd end up involved in such a troublesome mess," Baise complained in a low voice, leaning her head on her hand.
Just as Kite was about to speak, Allen, who had been sitting on the sofa, suddenly bolted upright. A smile of excitement and anticipation burst forth in his eyes.
"Aha! I finally found it! So you put the Urn and the coffins together, no wonder I couldn't sense it."
"What? You found it? Where?" Bodoro scrambled up from the floor, striking a pose as if ready for a fight.
"Wait here and don't do anything rash. I'll go check it out first."
With that, Allen instantly activated God's Accomplice, vanishing from the room. He slipped through the door into the corridor and headed right. After bypassing several layers of heavy security, he finally arrived at a vast, empty chamber.
In the center of the room stood a cylindrical structure, inside which sat the oddly shaped Urn. Fourteen coffins surrounded it in a circular formation. Strange patterns and inscriptions connected the floor and walls, as if some mysterious ritual were in progress.
Through a semi-transparent coffin lid, the corpse of the 12th Prince, Momoze, was clearly visible. Although the young girl's life had ended, a surge of Nen, far more powerful than what she possessed while alive, swirled around the coffin, creating a tangible sense of pressure.
"As expected, it's Nen that becomes stronger after death! I think I'm beginning to understand how this Urn operates. First, ordinary sacrifices are killed to strengthen the Princes' Nen. Then, when a Prince dies, they become the true sacrifice used to empower the eventual winner of the Succession Contest.
"Through this double-increment model, every King chosen this way would possess unimaginably terrifying power. As for these interesting patterns on the floor... they seem similar to the Inscription Ging used in Greed Island, yet they belong to a completely different branch. Their function is to further amplify this post-mortem Nen..."
Despite having seen this scene in the manga, Allen couldn't help but marvel at the sheer scale of the Kakin Royal Family's ambition.
Setting aside personal grievances, purely in terms of the understanding of Nen, there was likely no other individual or organization in the world that understood the application of "Nen that becomes stronger after death" better than the Kakin Royal Family. To be precise, they had pushed this phenomenon to its absolute limit.
Under this continuous cycle of inheritance, even if V5 sent a task force specifically designed to handle Dark Continent threats, they might not necessarily pose a fatal threat to the Kakin Royals.
The sheer volume of post-mortem Nen stored within this Urn was staggering! Allen even suspected that if it were dropped into the epicenter of a nuclear explosion, it might emerge completely unscathed.