Lin Yan's voice was quiet, his tone as calm as still water, yet it landed like a boulder in a deathly still pool, stirring towering waves throughout Meteor City and in every elder's heart.
Talk business?
He had killed the Executioners and destroyed their sacred ground, and now he casually claimed he had come to talk business?
Deep within Meteor City, the Nen auras already on the verge of fury seemed to have boiling oil poured over them, instantly erupting!
"Bastard! Who does he think he is?!"
"He's humiliating us! He destroyed the Sacred Relic and thinks he can walk away unscathed? Who does he think he is!"
"Brother! Give the order! Activate the 'Divine Punishment' protocol! With all thirteen of us together, even if he were Netero himself, he'd die here today!"
Furious roars echoed through the Elders' Council's mental link-the hysteria of people long accustomed to power being challenged by an ant. Meteor City's rules had always been written in blood and brute force. Since when did an outsider get to dictate terms here, let alone seize control?
Yet atop Metal Mountain, the embodiment of the Elders' Council's supreme will, Grand Elder Hai, remained silent.
His old face, like withered bark, was so dark it seemed ready to drip water. In his cloudy, half-lidded eyes, an emotion called apprehension appeared for the first time and spread wildly.
Just a moment ago.
The terrifying Ren he took such pride in, honed over sixty years and powerful enough to crush a small city, had been casually sliced open by a single finger.
There had been no violent collision, no clash of energies.
It had been pure, unreasonable domination by rules of a higher order.
It was as though he had thrown a punch with all his strength, only to strike