A hundred various monsters and demons appeared behind Meruem, instantly submerging Jed and the demon Rakshasa behind him. Then a light sound rang out, the sound of glass breaking. The Rakshasa materialized behind Jed cracked from directly above, then shattered and turned to ash, dissipating in the night sky.
And Jed was no longer in his previous form. Not a single part of his body was intact. He probably only had one breath left, and that was only because Meruem had shown mercy and deliberately spared his life.
Chrollo's Bandit's Secret had the ability to steal others' Nen abilities. Squadron Leader Leol's Nen ability could also use a Walkman to rent others' Nen abilities. Both of their Nen abilities could use others' Nen techniques. However, Meruem's Nen ability was different.
It was neither taking, nor stealing, nor renting.
But rather - learning.
Meruem's talent was extremely terrifying. He only needed to see something once to understand an opponent's technique about seventy to eighty percent and could imitate it roughly. However, once he obtained the opponent's blood or part of their body, or a part containing the opponent's Nen, and used it with Meruem's unique Nen ability Gluttonous Feast, he could learn it completely. Moreover, with his own understanding, techniques could even surpass the original and reach even more superb realms. This was Meruem's terrifying aspect. Unlike the original work's Specialist technique of eating opponents to increase his own Nen, the current Meruem had higher growth potential. Most importantly, Meruem's Nen ability wasn't fully developed yet. The current him had only developed a part of it, and those Golden Silkworm Gu Nen beasts were also part of Meruem's Nen ability. There was still the possibility of becoming even stronger in the future. Not only could he learn others' Nen abilities, he could also learn opponents' martial arts. Most terrifyingly, he could improve others' Nen abilities to make them stronger, and fuse others' martial arts to create his own path.
Night Parade of a Hundred Demons - Lord of Demons and Spirits was exactly the more powerful technique Meruem developed based on Jed's Hundred Demons Curse Grudge - Rakshasa. To some degree, this technique's power had already surpassed Netero's Hundred-Type Guanyin Ninety-Ninth Style, and was even very close to Netero's strongest ultimate technique, Hundred-Type Guanyin - Zero Style.
Jed became Meruem's first stepping stone for testing techniques.
"How about it, Jed-san? You've calmed down now, haven't you?" Meruem looked down at Jed, who had fallen and couldn't get up, purple blood continuously flowing from his mouth.
"I'm asking you one last time: submit or die!"
"Hehehe, I... Jed will never submit to anyone. Give up on that idea." Jed said with difficulty, intermittently.
"Very well then, this is your choice. Do you have any last words? If possible, I'll try my best to fulfill them."
"Since they... chose to be loyal to you, then... I hope you can... treat them well and not drag them into the abyss like I did. They... are all victims of this world. Please take good care of them." This could be called speaking kindly when death was near. Previously he had wanted to kill all the traitors. Now, as Jed was about to die, he instead asked Meruem to take care of those subordinates who had betrayed him. Perhaps at this moment he also had a trace of repentance and guilt.
At this time, although Purgatory was still kneeling on the ground, tears flowed from her lifeless eyes, unstoppable.
"Of course, I won't casually sacrifice those loyal to me. Then farewell, Jed!" After saying this, Meruem waved his hand and personally killed Jed. He wouldn't spare Jed's life because of some women's compassion. Don't look at what Jed was saying now - if he could luckily survive this time, he would definitely think of every way to take revenge on Meruem. Wildfire never burns out completely; spring breezes blow and it grows again. Meruem wouldn't do this kind of thing where you don't eliminate the roots after cutting the grass.
"Hey! Hundred-Type Guanyin!" At some point Netero had already broken free from the two chains binding him and shattered them. He used his strongest technique, Hundred-Type Guanyin, toward Meruem's position.
Unfortunately, after witnessing Meruem's Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, Netero didn't think his attack could cause any harm to Meruem.
Sure enough, not only did Meruem suffer no damage at all, he also rescued Purgatory, who had been shaken away by Netero's breakthrough, and held her in his arms. Of course, it definitely wasn't because Purgatory was a kuudere cute girl that Meruem rescued her.
He casually pulled out the knife stuck in Purgatory's chest and performed simple bleeding control treatment on her. Meruem wasn't a support-type healing Nen user after all, so he couldn't heal Purgatory's wounds. He could only stop the bleeding and use Nen's life activity to prevent Purgatory's injuries from worsening.
"You may withdraw. Leave this to me. Lead your subordinates to find my loyal Royal Guard Pouf. That Golden Silkworm Gu will prove your identity. After I finish dealing with this old guy, I'll lead you all away from here." Although he quite liked the feeling of holding a soft girl, Meruem knew now wasn't the time to think about such messy things. There was still a world-class strong person in front of him who needed to be dealt with.
"Yes." The kuudere girl Purgatory answered quite briefly. Actually, when first meeting Jed, Meruem had already placed a Golden Silkworm Gu on Purgatory. Because she was the only one among the original characters who wasn't utterly loyal to Jed, and was even eventually turned by Killua's verbal persuasion. From this you could see that Purgatory wasn't someone obsessed with revenge. He hadn't expected her to bring him such a surprise later. Although not many people had joined him, there were still over a hundred. Moreover, those people joining him could absolutely never betray again, because in this world, apart from Meruem, no one would tolerate them anymore.
"Ugh!" Of course Netero didn't want to let Purgatory leave so easily, but his every move was closely watched by Meruem, who continuously emanated killing intent. As long as Netero showed the slightest intention to intervene, he would definitely receive stormy attacks from Meruem.
So until Purgatory completely disappeared from the rooftop, Netero still maintained his previous posture.
"I didn't expect we'd meet again so soon, Chairman Netero?" The first person to break the silence was Meruem. He was already getting tired of this boring staring contest, especially with an old man.
"I didn't expect you monster to have grown to such a degree. I really should have killed you back then." What Netero was referring to here was Meruem's growth shown in his previous clash with Jed using the ultimate technique Night Parade of a Hundred Demons. Two months ago, although he had the confidence to perish together with Meruem, in the end he still couldn't make that decision. Come on, as the chairman of the world's top organization, the Hunter Association, who would be willing to perish together with some monster from who knows where when there were other options? This wasn't a question of being afraid to die or not, but whether it was worth it. But there was no such thing as regret medicine in the world. Moreover, if Netero hadn't had that nuclear bomb in his body two months ago, even risking his life, Netero wouldn't have had the ability to kill Meruem.
"Stop talking big there. Unless you can return to your youth, you don't have the slightest hope of defeating me." Meruem scoffed at Netero's statement. If not for being wary of whether a nuclear bomb was hidden in Netero's body and not daring to act, letting him go, did you think Meruem would so easily spare Netero? He definitely would have kept him there on the spot. Without Netero, as long as he didn't do something like an extermination plan for humanity or go too far, without such world-class strange Nen users to deal with him, he, Meruem, would be an unbeatable existence. Try facing him head-on if you have the ability - with godly equipment in hand, 1v9, are you afraid or not?
"I didn't expect you to know so much. But facing the current you, perhaps even if I returned to my youth, I wouldn't be your match." Although Netero had imagined Meruem to be very strong, he hadn't expected him to be strong to such a terrifying degree. You have to know that Hundred Demons Curse Grudge was an ultimate technique that Jed had cultivated for decades to be able to use. This was a super strong technique not the least bit weaker than his own Hundred-Type Guanyin that he had cultivated his entire life. But look how long Meruem had cultivated? At most, Meruem had only been born for less than three months. Even counting the time he'd known Jed, it was only about ten days. Not only had he learned all of Jed's techniques and abilities, he could even improve Jed's ultimate technique and turn it into a technique completely his own. This could no longer be described with the word genius - it was simply like a monster. Even the extremely conceited Netero had to say he was impressed, because even if his current abilities doubled, he might not be Meruem's match.
It seemed that in the end he'd still have to use that. His carefully prepared Zero Style probably couldn't eliminate him either. Only that method would work. It was just a pity for those innocent people around here. But your sacrifice will be worth it. Netero first looked at that position on his chest, then his gaze toward Meruem became sharp.
"Oh, old man? Do you want to be passionate once?" Meruem felt Netero's eyes full of fighting spirit. "You can't possibly defeat me. Use whatever techniques you have."
"Hundred-Type Guanyin!" Behind Netero once again materialized that enormous thousand-handed Guanyin statue.
"Do you think this level of technique is useful against me?" Meruem said disdainfully. But this was only surface disdain - actually Meruem had always been secretly wary of Netero. This old man wasn't like the previous Jed who...
(End of Chapter)
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