Mutual Stalemate X Seeing Through

Youpi was sent flying by Kevin's kick.

Like Neferpitou, his out-of-control body slammed heavily against the solid outer wall of the Royal Palace.

However, the power control in this kick was clearly not as precise and skillful as Netero's.

"Boom!!!"

With an even more deafening crash and the deafening roar of the wall collapsing, Youpi smashed a huge hole through the thick wall.

He was thrown about in a disheveled state, landing in an open area outside the Royal Palace.

Fortunately, there were already people waiting outside the wall.

Morel waited patiently, well-prepared. Thick purple smoke, as if alive, billowed from his enormous Pipe under his skillful control.

In an instant, it coalesced and Spiral, precisely and seamlessly enveloping Youpi's landing point and the location of his squad.

A nearly completely enclosed spherical battlefield, composed of thick, viscous purple smoke, suddenly appeared out of thin air on the open ground outside the Royal Palace.

Because the creation and maintenance of this massive enclosed battlefield was extremely costly, Morel no longer had much spare capacity to allocate smoke to create other Purple Smoke Machine Soldier for auxiliary combat.

Men Qi silently landed the Nen Aura Lion she controlled in the Purple Smoke Cage, and she stood lightly on the lion's broad back.

Their sharp gaze remained fixed on the core landing area shrouded in smoke, not daring to relax for a moment.

At this moment, Gon and Meruem were carefully hiding within Morel's thick, ever-flowing purple smoke barrier.

They were the team's only, decisive, and lethal force.

The two huddled close to the inner edge of the smoke Cage, moving slowly under the natural cover of the smoke, trying their best to ensure that their figures and scents would not be detected by the enemy.

All they had to do was wait for that fleeting, perfect moment.

Activate Meruem's Nen ability "Accomplice of God" to enter a state of perfect invisibility, and then Gon will charge up his power with all his might.

Approach the target silently, then deliver the decisive blow with overwhelming force.

Whether they can eliminate this guard in one fell swoop depends on whether their next move is executed perfectly.

Their mission is of paramount importance.

Under the cover of thick purple smoke, they held their breath and intently observed the situation in the center of the battlefield through the only narrow field of vision between the smoke gaps.

The smoke and dust gradually dissipated.

Youpi staggered to his feet, his magnificent butterfly wings covered in dust and debris, his clothes torn in many places, and he looked utterly disheveled.

But his head hung low, utterly and helplessly.

When he slowly raised his head, everyone saw a distorted face, streaked with tears and filled with despair and collapse!

He cried like a heartbroken child who had been abandoned by the whole world.

Tears mixed with snot covered his handsome face, and his shoulders trembled violently from extreme pain and self-loathing.

I am an incompetent guard----

I am unworthy to continue guarding the king.

I am a complete and utter failure.

He's a useless piece of trash.

Various self-destructive thoughts gnawed at his mind like venomous snakes.

I was not there when I should have been protecting the king!

I wasn't there when I should have been protecting the king!

I was not there when I should have flown to the king!

And now—I've arrived here—

We arrived at this godforsaken place, incredibly far from the king.

Seeing Youpi's miserable state, with tears streaming down his face and his seemingly complete mental breakdown, Morel and Men Qi quickly exchanged a solemn look.

The two moved in perfect unison, one on the left and one on the right.

They quietly created distance, forming a distinctive angle at the edge of the Purple Smoke Cage.

He firmly surrounded Youpi in the core area, his face extremely vigilant, his entire body tense.

They were far too naive to believe that a guard would actually break down because of such a setback.

This could very well be a deliberately created illusion, or a harbinger of an even more terrifying outbreak after the collapse.

We must be extremely careful.

"What do you want—"

Youpi's voice was thick with nasal tone and a sobbing quality.

He raised his arm and hastily wiped the tears and snot from his face with the cuff of his luxurious clothes.

The sound suddenly became unusually calm, even carrying a strange emptiness.

"Only then will you let me out?"

Morel gripped his signature Pipe tightly, his gaze sharp, and replied in a deep voice, "Perhaps—only if I die can that be done."

His tone was resolute, and his voice, though full of emotion, sounded so cold.

"Yeah."

Youpi's voice was light and airy, revealing no emotional fluctuations.

The next second, he floated up without warning.

The magnificent butterfly wings on its back suddenly vibrated at a high frequency, emitting a rapid buzzing sound.

[Phosphorous Powder is Love Spring]

Buzz-!

As the Nen ability was activated, a large amount of Butterfly Dust, shimmering with a strange light, poured down like a waterfall of light.

Instantly, the Purple Smoke Space, centered on him.

These Butterfly Dust carried a faint yet instinctively unsettling energy fluctuation, which filled the entire spherical battlefield almost in the blink of an eye.

This was an enclosed space, and Men Qi couldn't easily disperse the deadly Butterfly Dust using the airflow generated by the Griffin's wings.

This is the price that must be paid to trap the enemy.

As the effects of his Nen ability activated, Youpi floated steadily in mid-air, his tear-stained eyes now devoid of sorrow, only filled with solemnity.

He looked down at Morel and Men Qi, who were waiting in full battle array below.

In his special vision, different colored points of light, representing different emotional states, instantly lit up on the two people, and information flowed between them.

He can discern the most detailed and secret information about each person's state through these ubiquitous Butterfly Dust that permeate the air and adhere to their Nen Aura.

His Nen ability is of a fundamental nature.

One can perceive the aura emanating from a soul that surrounds others, and accurately judge their emotions based on the fluctuations in their Nen Aura.

He can detect and distinguish more than thirty different emotions.

While it cannot fully encompass all the emotional details of a person, by combining and inferring, it can achieve an accuracy of almost 80-90%.

Morel and Men Qi immediately held their breath.

Before entering the battlefield, they had already taken deep breaths to store enough oxygen.

Thanks to the physique and strong lung capacity of elite Nen user, they can continue fighting for a considerable period of time even while holding their breath.

And if all else fails, there are Specialized Potion provided by Kevin that can be used as a backup, as an emergency measure.

However, once the medicine is used, the effect only lasts for fifteen minutes, so the timing of using the medicine is the most critical and crucial moment.

At this critical juncture, all we can do is hold our breath, wait, and observe how things unfold.

The two sides thus entered into a brief, suffocating stalemate within the Purple Smoke Cage filled with eerie Phosphor Powder.

Just then...

Hidden within the smoke, Gon and Meruem noticed that the tiny hole that allowed them to observe the battlefield outside had quietly closed.

The two of them had just held their breath in time, but now Morel had opened a more concealed, finer hole on the back near them, continuously providing them with relatively clean oxygen.

The two exchanged a tense glance.

He did not speak.

But their eyes had already conveyed a message silently.

Continue to wait and remain vigilant.

They nodded to each other and continued to follow the swirling smoke, slowly moving their positions to avoid lingering for too long.

To prevent Youpi's deadly Phosphor Powder from penetrating through the smoke gaps and detecting their presence, closing the observation port was a necessary safety measure.

When Morel judged that the time was about to ripen, he would naturally reopen the observation port, and all the two of them needed to do was seize that fleeting, perfect moment and launch a deadly surprise attack.

Floating amidst the Phosphor Powder specks, Youpi calmly observed the shifts in emotions between the two below.

The man with the Pipe exuded a sense of alertness, but it was very low-level.

The emotion was primarily serious and focused, accompanied by intense fluctuations in thought, as if the brain was rapidly analyzing something.

Do you think I'm not a threat?

Is it the advantage of numbers that makes the other side confident that they can easily hold them off?

The woman standing on the Griffin's back was less wary than the man, and the emotions emanating from her were mostly intense and high-spirited Fighting Spirit.

He wants to fight against himself and is very serious about it, but there are not many signs of complex thinking.

Analyzing the changes in the emotional glow around the two individuals, Youpi quickly made a judgment about them.

That woman was an outgoing and hot-blooded person.

The man, on the other hand, is calm, cautious, and constantly thinking and formulating strategies during battle.

He's somewhat similar to me.

However, none of them showed any strong murderous intent directed at me.

In other words, their true intention was not to kill him, but to hold him back and prevent him from returning to the king's side?

This is a very reasonable guess.

After all, the person who blocked him was not the same person who could go toe-to-toe with the guards before.

Although he was the weakest among the guards, he was not someone that could be dealt with by just anyone.

Sensing the messages conveyed by the emotions emanating from the two, Youpi suddenly spoke, his voice echoing in the enclosed space. "Aren't you going to make a move?"

Morel and Men Qi held their breath, naturally unable to respond.

After a brief silence, Youpi also shut his mouth and stopped speaking.

"In that case, wait and see how I change."

The air around him suddenly began to swirl rapidly, twisting like invisible spider silk.

In an instant, it enveloped and bound his entire body, forming a dense, white Cocoon that floated in mid-air.

"Since you're not going to make a move, then I won't hold back."

A deep, strange sound emanated from within the thick Cocoon.

Morel and Men Qi outside quickly exchanged a glance.

The specific command of this battle mainly fell to the experienced Morel. Men Qi would not act rashly before he gave clear instructions.

So she simply turned her head slightly and cast a questioning look at Morel.

Morel, on the other hand, frowned deeply, lost in rapid thought and weighing of options.

Are they stalling for time?

To be honest, while their goal was to eliminate Youpi, their more fundamental strategic objective was to prevent Youpi from interfering with the battle on the Ant King's side.

If Youpi is truly willing to stall for time with them here, then that would be exactly what they want.

But the question is, is this even possible?

If one hadn't witnessed firsthand Youpi's almost manic Loyalty to the Ant King in the nest...

If Morel cannot ascertain the other party's true emotions and intentions, he might choose to play it safe and delay the inevitable.

But the harsh reality is not like that.

He had personally witnessed and experienced the guard's reckless madness in protecting the Ant King during the fierce battle deep inside the Ant Nest.

These guards' Loyalty to the Ant King is etched into their very genes, and the one standing before them, Youpi, is perhaps the most sentimental and therefore the most fanatical of them all.

He would never honestly play the stalling game with them.

The core objective of all their actions is to break through the Blockade and return to the king's side.

Moreover, driven by this obsession, he often lacks rationality and his actions are unpredictable.

This is precisely the core judgment that the team reached after in-depth analysis.

In their previous strategic assessment:

Neferpitou possesses a cunning and quick-witted personality like a cat, but after experiencing several setbacks from Kevin and others' actions and the birth of the Ant King, he gradually becomes calm and restrained, becoming the most rational and troublesome of the guards.

Menthuthuyoupi is a pure, savage beast. Although it possesses a certain level of intelligence, it relies more on instinct in battle. It is equally Loyalty, but it will choose the most direct and violent way to solve problems.

Youpi is an extremely Loyalty and emotional creature. He should have been the strategist and advisor among the guards, but due to his excessive emotions and morbid Loyalty to the Ant King, he often falls into emotional states, causing him to lose rational judgment and become unpredictable.

Therefore, Morel completely disbelieved that Youpi's current "sitting still" behavior was genuine.

More importantly, the opponent possesses the ability to create Clone, dividing their mass and Nen Aura into tiny individuals of varying sizes.

It seems to have become a Cocoon waiting for change, but if we consider the other party's consistent personality and current situation...

So at this moment, he is definitely using the Cocoon as cover to secretly divide himself.

It transformed into countless tiny Clone, attempting to silently penetrate the barrier of the Purple Smoke Cage, slip out, and return to the Royal Palace.

This also illustrates this point from another angle.

The other party lacked confidence in their own strength, believing they couldn't defeat them quickly enough, so they decided on the fastest way to leave.

Hehe, you cunning Butterfly Chimera Ant, I've seen through your tricks.

Having quickly determined this most likely possibility in his mind, Morel no longer hesitated. He blinked rapidly in a specific frequency in the direction of Men Qi, sending a signal to take action.

Men Qi immediately understood the coded signal that Morel was sending with his blinks.