After a short while, Xiang Nan led Manman outside the hotel.
"Hide somewhere, watch from the dark, and don't show yourself," Xiang Nan said, glancing at her. "And stay alert in case the Ten Dons' people try to take Mia out."
"Didn't you say only one Shadow Beast was coming? That shouldn't be a problem, right?" Manman asked, puzzled.
Given their combined strength, they should have no trouble unless all the Shadow Beasts showed up.
Since Xiang Nan told her to hide, it clearly meant he was confident.
"There's no need to reveal extra information. The less the enemy knows about our numbers, the better," Xiang Nan replied.
"Got it."
Manman turned and jogged away.
Xiang Nan figured that to deal with a bit player from the Zatobi family, the Ten Dons wouldn't mobilize their entire Nen-armed force—probably only part of it.
If too many came—even he could be in mortal danger. One‑on‑one, or even one‑against‑seven or eight, he was confident, as long as it wasn't every Shadow Beast… or some hidden expert who never appeared in the original story.
By now all hotel staff had been dismissed; the place was empty.
In the vast, deserted hotel, Xiang Nan stood alone at the main entrance.
Time ticked by. A few hours later, just before dawn, headlights flashed on the distant road.
Seeing this, Xiang Nan knew—the Ten Dons' people had arrived.
This "hotel," the Zatobi family's safe house, sat in a remote coastal forest, far from any town and normally closed to the public.
So anyone arriving at this hour could only be the Ten Dons' men.
Three Mafia sedans stopped at the hotel gate.
The doors opened and a group of people got out.
Dressed in a black trench coat, Xiang Nan stood at the entrance. Although the hotel was deserted, the porch lights were still on, shining directly on him—making him impossible to miss.
"Nine of them in all," he counted at a glance.
Every one of them was a Nen user…
His eyes locked onto a familiar figure—a chubby little man in a red tracksuit, almost bald, with tiny black‑bean eyes.
"So it's him…" Xiang Nan thought.
The Ten Dons' trump card in the Republic of Padokea was this character from the story: Porcupine, one of the Shadow Beasts killed by Uvogin in the Yorknew arc—the guy who could freely control his body hair, able even to pierce Uvogin's muscles.
Xiang Nan also gauged the strength of their Nen auras.
"Doesn't look like there's anyone else hidden…"
One Nen user, smoking, ignored Xiang Nan at first and instead scanned the unnaturally quiet hotel grounds, frowning at Porcupine.
"Think the woman ran?" another asked, surprised.
"No way. This is the Zatobi family's last safe house. Given their situation, if she shows her face anywhere else she's dead. Unless she's hiding here, she has nowhere left," someone answered.
Only then did their eyes turn to Xiang Nan.
"Another Nen user the Zatobis bought from Meteor City?"
"Looks pretty strong…"
"That woman had connections—managed to buy so many death‑row fighters, all pretty capable. It took us a lot of effort to deal with them."
A punk‑looking guy swaggered up, stopping right in front of Xiang Nan and staring arrogantly.
"You've saved us trouble by coming out to die—no need to hunt you like a rat. Where's the woman?"
Xiang Nan smiled silently.
"Hey—cat got your tongue? I'm talking to you!" The punk reached for Xiang Nan's face, sneering.
"Careful!" a teammate warned.
Porcupine grunted, nodding as he confirmed, "He's alone—no other Nen users nearby."
"This is the Ten Dons' elite force?"
Just as the punk's hand was halfway out, Xiang Nan spoke, sounding disappointed.
Such classic Mafia arrogance—overbearing and dismissive.
Their Nen felt strong and fearsome, yet to Xiang Nan they were still mediocre. Their cruelty came less from real power than from hiding behind the Ten Dons' reputation.
Now he understood why, in the original story, four Shadow Beasts dared charge the Phantom Troupe face‑on and boasted even when fighting Uvogin. Trained personally by the Ten Dons, they swaggered through the underworld, always the hunters—never the hunted. But endless "low‑tier matches" had convinced them they were invincible, so they brazenly approached an unknown foe. Ridiculous.
"Huh?" The punk's face darkened.
Splat!
As he moved, his vision shrank. Blood sprayed. Xiang Nan, eyes cold, stood before him.
The punk's arm had been sliced off and flung aside.
Before he could react, Xiang Nan's white‑gloved hand clamped onto his skull. Fingers tightened—he screamed, struggled, bones cracked, blood seeped under his skin, drenching his face.
"I may be alone, but shouldn't you show at least some respect? Aren't you being a bit too arrogant?" Xiang Nan pushed down, and the punk's body bent, his frantic limbs weakening to faint tremors. His skull was visibly misshapen.
Witnessing this brutality, Porcupine and the other eight Nen users weren't frightened at all; their expressions remained calm.
"The idiot. We told him to be careful."
"This is the woman's last refuge. Of course her top guard would be here—he's nothing like those disposable fighters we faced before."
The smoker flicked away his cigarette, crushed it underfoot, cursed, then stepped forward and glared at Xiang Nan. "The arrogant one is you. You dared touch the Ten Dons'—that whore from the Zatobi family—and as her dog you think you can match us? Absurd."
With that, he spread his arms and charged.
At the same moment, the other Nen users blurred into dark shadows behind him.
Seeing them rush in, Xiang Nan slipped into the shadows of the nearby forest—and several enemies immediately gave chase.