Mia dashed out of Xiang Nan's operating room.
The scene inside had been far too gruesome for her to stomach—she simply could not appreciate that sort of "art."
She had reacted the same way the last time Brunson was given a craniotomy.
Porcupine's vitality, however, was clearly far greater than Brunson's; even after his skull had been opened, his vital signs remained remarkably stable.
Xiang Nan took the chance to ask him a great deal about the Ten Dons and the Shadow Beasts.
Mia left first to make the arrangements for accompanying Xiang Nan when he appeared before the Ten Dons.
Xiang Nan had to go along for two reasons. First, his presence would ensure nothing changed en route: so long as she was alive, it proved the Zatobi family had neither been wiped out nor replaced Brunson to seize control of the entire western Mafia.
Second, the Ten Dons had explicitly told her they also wanted to meet the man who had killed Porcupine.
…
In the room, Xiang Nan slowly peeled off his gloves.
Now that he possessed Nen, surgery came to him far more naturally, and his grasp of cerebral anatomy had deepened markedly.
"Injecting a special drug to alter genes… they've been experimenting."
He narrowed his eyes at Porcupine, whose forehead bore a freshly sutured scar.
Porcupine was the first of Xiang Nan's craniotomy "patients" to survive.
Although part of his brain tissue had been destroyed, his basic life functions were still intact.
Yet even if he woke up, his intellect would be no better than that of a one‑ or two‑year‑old, able to follow only the simplest commands, and his combat ability would plummet.
Strictly speaking he was still a Nen user, but brain damage crippled Nen proficiency severely—just as Xiang Nan had foreseen. Porcupine was now half a cripple.
Only Xiang Nan's Nen ability, "Hands of Love," could heal and mitigate such lethal harm, so Porcupine still lived; before awakening Nen, Xiang Nan could never have managed it.
Right now he was mulling over the information he had just coaxed out of Porcupine.
Many Shadow Beasts had undergone an experiment: they were injected with a mysterious drug that altered their constitutions at the genetic level. Survival odds were dismal; most subjects' bodies collapsed and died once mutation set in.
The creation of the Shadow Beasts had thus cost countless lives to an inhuman project.
Even more intriguing, Porcupine said their becoming Nen users seemed pre‑engineered: their genes carried traces of other animals, and once they awakened Nen, their abilities leaned toward animalistic traits.
That compatibility amplified their Nen powers significantly—indeed, such abilities could never be as potent if built on a purely human template. Their Nen and physiology were tightly linked, something Xiang Nan had never imagined.
"A criminal outfit like the Ten Dons is dabbling in gene engineering?" He was fascinated.
At first the Ten Dons had probably wanted to mass‑produce Nen users, but that goal was unrealistic. By now they must know it: the genetic death rate was too high. After all that effort and time, they had produced only one Shadow Beast unit.
Did the Mafia have that kind of scientific backing? Technology had to be involved.
Perhaps the Ten Dons were working with some nation—or with the V5. Without a powerful patron, a loose underground gang could never reach this level.
Having long studied biology and genetics, Xiang Nan knew just how hard it was. No small country on earth held such technical reserves.
"V5, then?"
All things considered, he leaned toward the V5 pulling the strings. Though the Ten Dons were disreputable, used shrewdly they could handle plenty of dirty work. The underworld's strength lay in its ties to political power: rival factions in various nations, unable to fight openly, hired the Mafia to do their bidding. The V5's shadow surely loomed behind it all; otherwise the underworld would never have grown so vast.
"Could it involve something brought back from the Dark Continent?"
Muttering, Xiang Nan turned to leave.
Whoever devised the Shadow Beast experiment had to base it on some data—under normal gene‑splicing limits, success would be virtually impossible without a supernatural factor.
The Shadow Beasts would not exist. The planner must have witnessed something that convinced them humans could evolve—and it could not have been a Nen ability, because Nen's rules and individual limits would never yield such a high fatality rate.
That logic, again, pointed to the V5, those five world powers whose technology far outstripped common imagination.
…
Several days later Xiang Nan, Mia, and the now‑deaf Porcupine followed the Ten Dons' directions to a remote mountain in the Republic of Padokea—the Dons' stronghold.
Even from the foot of the mountain they could see, through the car windows, an entire palace complex clinging to the mountainside. Xiang Nan had visited the Kakin Empire's palace before; this residence was styled almost the same, only slightly smaller. The whole range, from base to summit, had been carved into a private estate—reminiscent of the Zoldyck manor on Kukuroo Mountain. Grand, secretive, and impressive.
Remarkably, not only the mountain but even the roadway was the Dons' private property.
The Ten Dons had already ordered all Mafia in their territory to lift the bounty on the Zatobi family. Thanks to that favor, Mia could finally "step outside" and breathe free air.
Their sedan wound up the broad mountain road and stopped before a towering gate, nearly thirty feet high, joined to an endless wall that sealed off the slope above. If no one told him otherwise, Xiang Nan might have thought he had reached the Zoldycks—though this gate was no match for the Zoldyck "Gates of Hell."
Cameras dotted the estate; Mafia patrols led scores of hounds, and every kilometer they had passed a checkpoint.
"Come here."
As Xiang Nan and Mia got out, a Mafia man—evidently head of security—waved them over. Unlike the others in suits, he wore plain clothes.
They stepped forward. The man opened his palm to reveal a white egg, marble‑sized.
Xiang Nan smiled imperceptibly. The fellow was clearly a Nen user and had already activated his ability.
"Name?" he asked Xiang Nan.
"Xiang Nan."
"Purpose of today's visit?"
"To see the Ten Dons."
"No other plans? Any hostile intent toward the Dons?"
"None."
"Do you intend to harm the Ten Dons?"
"No."
The man fired question after question; Xiang Nan answered calmly. After a moment, the man glanced at the egg, then waved him through. "You pass. Go ahead."
He turned to Mia. "Your turn."