Divine Might and Royal Authority

"Lord Champa." Chen Feng withdrew his gaze, his voice steady as it echoed through the hall.

Every word came out as clearly as if squeezed through clenched teeth. "The Saiyans are citizens of my Planet Sadala. They are warriors with freedom and honor, not merchandise. If you want warriors, I can help—but I have a few conditions."

"Conditions?" Champa stopped chewing. One of his ears twitched, and the laziness on his face was entirely replaced by gloom.

He narrowed his eyes, danger flashing through his pupils. "You, the king of some mortal planet, dare bargain with me? Do you know who I am?"

"This is Planet Sadala—and I am its king." Chen Feng's voice was not loud, but it carried the weight of stone and an authority no one could ignore, rippling through the empty hall. "Even if you are a God of Destruction, if you wish to take my people, you must follow my rules. That is the most basic respect, Lord Champa."

"Insolence!" Champa completely lost his patience and suddenly slammed his palm onto the stone table beside him! With a boom, the carved stone table turned directly into fine powder. Fragments pattered to the floor, while the fruit platters and cups atop it crashed down with a clatter, juice splashing everywhere.

"Do you know who you're talking to?!" Champa roared, a terrifying aura erupting from his plump body.

This was no ordinary pressure. It was the wrath of a god that truly belonged to "destruction," bearing down like an invisible tsunami! The air instantly grew heavy. The flames on the walls were nearly pressed flat against them, and even the light dimmed.

Cabba's face turned deathly pale. Without even thinking, he rushed forward and planted himself firmly before Chen Feng's throne, though his legs were already trembling uncontrollably.

Caulifla also let out a low growl and clenched her fists. A crimson aura burst forth around her, and the stone floor beneath her feet cracked with sharp snaps, spreading fine fissures.

Kale, who had kept her head lowered all this time, suddenly looked up. The timid eyes she once had now glinted with chaotic, violent golden light. Her black hair stirred without wind, and an unstable aura that made one's skin crawl seeped from her body.

"Stand down." Just as everyone's nerves tightened to the breaking point, Chen Feng's voice came from the direction of the throne. Calm yet resolute, it pierced straight through Champa's pressure and rang clearly in every Saiyan's ears.

Cabba froze and looked back at Chen Feng, his eyes full of worry and confusion.

Chen Feng merely nodded to him, his gaze steady.

Cabba gritted his teeth. He loosened his fists, then clenched them again. In the end, he slowly stepped aside as Chen Feng ordered, though every muscle in his body remained taut, ready to rush forward at any moment.

Unhurried, Chen Feng rose to his feet, his dark royal robe falling around him with the motion.

He descended from the throne one step at a time. His boots struck the stone floor, each footfall exceptionally crisp and loud in the deathly silent hall.

He walked straight up to Champa. Less than two meters remained between them as they calmly met each other's eyes.

The divine aura around Champa weighed down on people until they could barely breathe, sticky as a swamp and heavy as a mountain.

An ordinary person would have suffered a mental breakdown and collapsed to the ground long ago.

Yet nothing about Chen Feng changed. Not even the edge of his robe stirred, as though that pressure was nothing more than a faint spring breeze to him.

In his deep eyes was reflected Champa's plump face, twisted by rage.

"Lord Champa," Chen Feng said evenly, his tone barely fluctuating, "I respect you as the God of Destruction of the Sixth Universe, with the power of life and death, which is why I have treated you with courtesy. But if you think you can solve every problem here through force, and make me and my people bow our heads..." He did not continue. He simply stood there, open and fearless. The unfinished words carried even greater weight—Planet Sadala would not be frightened into submission by pressure.

Champa's pupils abruptly narrowed into slits.

He had lived for millions of years, destroyed countless planets, and encountered innumerable mortals who called themselves strong. Flattery, fear, despair, arrogance—he had grown sick of them all.

But someone like Chen Feng—a mortal who could stand this close to him, remain composed before his wrath, and dare speak to him in such a manner—he had never encountered before.

The hall was so quiet that a pin dropping to the floor could have been heard. Only the faint glow flowing through the crystal atop Vados's staff remained, along with the increasingly restless sound of Kale's energy, like the low growl of a wild beast.

"Heh... interesting." The rage on Champa's face suddenly faded. He grinned, but that smile was full of icy mockery. "So, you little king really intend to oppose me, Champa? All for these monkey-like Saiyans?"

"I am merely defending a king's dignity and my people's rights." Chen Feng's voice remained calm, but every word was like iron.

"Dignity? Rights?" As if he had heard the biggest joke in the universe, Champa sneered, his fat shoulders shaking twice. "A mere mortal thinks he deserves to speak of dignity and rights before me? Let me tell you: in the Sixth Universe, I am the law! Whatever I say goes! If I want a planet destroyed, it will be destroyed! If I want a civilization to vanish, it will vanish! You, a little king who only recently unified his country, are no different from a stone on the ground in my eyes. What right do you have to negotiate with me?!" His voice rose higher and higher until he was nearly roaring. His pressure surged again, shaking dust down even from the vaulted ceiling of the hall.

Those words were like the final spark thrown onto a pile of explosives.

"You fat, foul-mouthed, grease-covered cat!!!" Caulifla could no longer contain the fire in her Saiyan blood. She stomped the floor apart and shot in front of Chen Feng like a crimson bolt of lightning, nearly pressing herself against Champa's nose. She pointed straight at his face, her voice warping with rage. "Watch your mouth! Lord Chen Feng is our one and only king, the leader every one of us would follow with our lives! If you dare disrespect him again—" Her aura exploded with a boom like a crimson storm. Every strand of her hair stood on end, and the fighting spirit in her eyes was about to burst forth. "Believe it or not, I'll beat your teeth out right now! I don't care whether you're some God of Destruction or any other kind of god!"

Kale also let out an uncontrollable low roar. A golden aura erupted around her. Though it was still unstable, the ground beneath her feet had already been scorched into a pit, and her violent aura began to spread.

Cabba stepped forward again, standing shoulder to shoulder with Caulifla in a fighting stance.

At some point, Hit had left the throne area and appeared like a ghost in the shadows on the other side of the hall, as though he could unleash a lethal blow at any moment.

Vados slightly opened her eyes then. She glanced at the furious Caulifla and the wildly agitated Kale, then at the mountain-steady Chen Feng and Champa, whose expression had darkened. The smile on her lips deepened as she murmured softly to herself, "My, my, this really has become... interesting."

The atmosphere in the hall was taut to the extreme.

Gods and mortals, a king and a God of Destruction—everyone was like a spark beside a powder keg, and even the air seemed on the verge of igniting.

"Fat... fat cat?!" Champa's face instantly turned ashen. Veins bulged on his forehead, and terrifying ferocity burst from his narrowed eyes.

What he hated most was being called a fat cat—not only was it ridicule of his figure, it was an insult to his authority.

Those three words meant death to whoever said them.

"You're courting death!"