To reach the Dark Continent, four conditions must be met.
These are: "permission, means, qualification, and contract."
However, all human-initiated voyages worldwide are strictly controlled by the International Permit Agencies.
The agency's public duty is to uniformly manage and investigate global voyage intelligence, and based on digitized data, regularly publish safety indices to society.
But its true mission is to completely block the path to the Dark Continent.
Therefore, apart from "illegal immigration," no non-governmental organization, no matter how hard they try, can legally gather all four conditions.
In fact, V5 had privately signed a secret colonization agreement targeting the Dark Continent many years ago.
Simply put, they don't allow others to join the table.
Beyond had previously failed repeatedly in challenging the Dark Continent. The reason he spent decades meticulously planning to bring the Kakin Empire, a behemoth comparable to V5, onboard...
It was certainly to use the "power of a great nation" to increase the success rate of the challenge. On the other hand, he also wanted to flip the table by leveraging the momentum to force V5 to accept the mass voyage event initiated by the Kakin Empire.
As for how to ensure V5 would react as expected?
The Kakin Empire's own scale and international influence were the most powerful answers.
But the Vows and Limitations mechanism, which embodies the principle of equivalent exchange, often isn't just manifested in Nen abilities.
Beyond leveraging the Kakin Empire's influence to advance the voyage plan and enjoying the tremendous benefits it brought was precisely the Vow effect he enjoyed.
Correspondingly, he had to fulfill the military-order-like guarantee set by Kakin's King Hui Guo Rou: only success is permitted, failure is not an option.
So when Netero survived the Chimera Ant incident...
If Beyond didn't want decades of effort to go to waste, he had to face this severe problem.
He had to break the shackles Netero had placed on him, which was...
The Limitation that he couldn't set foot on the Dark Continent again before Netero's death.
This meant that to ensure the plan could proceed smoothly, Beyond had to face his biological father, who had done everything possible to obstruct his dream.
As for why Netero imposed such a Limitation on Beyond, it's hard to say whether it harbored a kind of maddened emotion.
Perhaps Netero held a certain expectation.
Hoping that Beyond would come before him to personally break the shackles in order to set foot on the Dark Continent again.
This is also one of the outcomes you hoped for, isn't it, my beloved father.
Beyond rested his elbow on the armrest, supporting his cheek with the back of his hand, his lowered eyes concealing a trace of cold light.
—--
Hide and Seek, a room temporarily serving as a medical ward.
Netero concluded his deep meditation.
With the aid of nutrient fluid infusion, his physical condition had improved considerably.
However, his nearly decayed, emaciated appearance made him look like an ordinary old man on the verge of death.
Morrow stood beside the sickbed, looking at Netero's deeply sunken eye sockets.
Only the two of them were in the room now.
"I plan to transfer the flesh eggs from the palace courtyard to Knov's Hide and Seek. Once the Nen-using soldiers inside hatch, I'll use them to hone my abilities. Of course, their final fate will be death."
Morrow brought up this matter.
He wasn't seeking Netero's approval, merely informing him.
Given his contributions during the subjugation campaign, it was entirely reasonable for him to claim these flesh eggs as spoils of war.
As for any subsequent merits and rewards the Hunter Association might issue, since he wasn't originally on the official action roster, he naturally couldn't receive them anyway.
This made him even more justified in controlling these spoils.
Netero could clearly sense Morrow's attitude of notification rather than request, and believing the other wouldn't use these flesh eggs for malicious purposes, he slowly nodded in agreement with this arrangement.
After confirming the ownership of the flesh eggs, Morrow glanced at Netero's exposed, withered-tree-like arm and stated bluntly: "In your current condition, restoring your previous strength probably won't be easy, right?"
"Hoh hoh."
Netero laughed in his usual manner.
Though his current appearance made the laughter seem somewhat unsettling.
"Are you suggesting by this..." Netero slightly raised his head, looking at Morrow beside the bed, his voice hoarse: "That I'm like someone with one foot already in the coffin, so I should contentedly live out my remaining years rather than keep thinking about martial contests, is that it?"
"Exactly, that's precisely what I mean."
Morrow frankly admitted.
Given his current strength, if Netero couldn't restore his condition to previous levels, there was no need to insist on an unequal match.
That would be completely meaningless.
Netero didn't take offense, saying calmly: "I'll take that as you showing concern for these old bones. But don't trouble yourself; an old friend can help me resolve this issue."
"Is that so..."
Morrow responded, immediately picturing a certain figure in his mind, Linne, the most senior Gourmet Hunter in the Hunter Association.
She had traveled alongside Netero in their youth, journeying together to the Dark Continent.
With such history between them, she certainly qualified as Netero's "old friend."
If it was indeed her, she might use medicinal cuisine methods to help Netero recover, or perhaps employ Nen abilities to achieve this.
Since Netero had said so, he likely could truly restore his previous strength.
"That's good then."
Morrow nodded slightly, then immediately added:
"There's one more thing. The people who attacked you can basically be confirmed as Beyond's men, and I believe Pariston is definitely involved. I suggest you strike first; if not expelling Pariston from the Association, at least remove him from his vice chairman position."
"..."
Upon hearing this, Netero habitually stroked his sparse beard.
"This matter... is difficult to handle."
"Difficult?"
Morrow raised an eyebrow.
When he had previously sought out Netero on his own initiative, he'd already mentioned the relationship between Pariston and Beyond.
He had made similar suggestions back then, but Netero didn't seem inclined to remove Pariston from the Association.
Now it appeared it wasn't that he didn't want to, but that he couldn't.
Just as Morrow had anticipated, Netero slowly explained:
"Over the years, Pariston has leveraged his position to build his own connections and influence within the Association. Removing him from the Association now is far from something that can be accomplished with a simple order from me."
"..."
Morrow let out a soft sigh.
At this moment, he could somewhat understand Beans' feelings.
What sane person would intentionally keep someone like Pariston around, inviting trouble?
Not to mention allowing him to freely build his influence within the Association.
Only Netero would do such a thing.
Now, it seemed like he had created his own trap.
Netero wouldn't reflect on whether his initial decision was right or wrong, but he had to admit that his early permissiveness and indulgence had now become a troublesome problem.
If interfering with the personnel selection in the review department was just Pariston's usual tactic of weakening opponents and strengthening himself...
Then directly intervening with forceful measures in this critical battle was no longer the same as his previous minor provocations.
As for why he would go this far...
Netero knew perfectly well and understood what Pariston intended to do next.
Yet, he was powerless to stop it now.
"These troubles, you can worry about them yourself, old man."
Morrow shook his head, showing no intention of sharing the burden of the mess Netero had created. As he turned to leave, he only said:
"After I deal with this batch of flesh eggs, I'll go directly to Kakin to settle things with Beyond. If nothing unexpected happens, I'll kill him."
"Hoh..."
Hearing Morrow's declaration of intent to take his son's life, Netero showed no reaction.
At this moment, he had other matters to concern himself with.
He needed to handle the aftermath of this incident while remaining vigilant against Pariston's potential exploitation of the situation.
Only after fulfilling these duties as chairman could he turn his attention to that personal obsession, a martial contest with Morrow where one either grows stronger in battle or dies in it.
"Morrow, how about helping this old man with a small favor?"
Just as Morrow reached the door of the Hide and Seek room, Netero suddenly spoke.
Without even stopping, Morrow bluntly refused: "No time, won't help."
"..."
Netero could only helplessly scratch his forehead with a finger.
He had originally thought of having Morrow take responsibility for eliminating one of the Chimera Ant groups that had escaped from the Mitene Union.
He hadn't expected Morrow to refuse outright without even hearing what the matter was.
But in a way, Morrow taking the initiative to handle the flesh eggs could be considered taking on cleanup work.
Let the Zodiac Twelve handle this matter then...
Netero thought to himself.
The pursuit and elimination of the remaining Chimera Ants was important in many aspects.
However, even if he made amends through meritorious service, it wouldn't change the fact that he had already revealed "a weakness" before Pariston.
—--
After leaving the medical room, Morrow began moving the flesh eggs from the palace courtyard.
Due to some being affected by Zeno's star rain earlier, and some soldiers having already hatched during the Extermination Team's assault on the palace, fewer than four thousand flesh eggs remained.
Moving such a quantity of flesh eggs one by one into Hide and Seek remained a heavy task.
When Morel and the others learned of this matter, they all voluntarily came to help.
Despite the limited number of portals in Hide and Seek, the overall transportation efficiency was significantly improved with the addition of Morel's Smoke Troopers.
In no time, all the flesh eggs were moved into Hide and Seek.
Morrow and his group stood in the largest room, all gazing at the densely stacked flesh eggs.
Through the natural white light inherent in the apartment, they could see the vague, curled-up figures inside the flesh eggs.
Next, it was time to wait for these flesh eggs to hatch one after another...
Morrow glanced inconspicuously at the Tree Rings on the back of his hand, then looked at Kalluto, Ponzu, and Menchi, who were observing the flesh eggs up close.
The Etude of Love from the Tree Rings imprint had already surpassed Lv.100.
In theory, he could now bestow the level-up ability upon Kalluto and the others.
After that, they could use these soon-to-hatch Nen-using soldiers to rapidly increase their levels.