One Piece: The Celestial Dragons' Self-Cultivation

Page 39

"Secret Technique: Mirror Reflection!"

The deflected wave flew diagonally into the sky, tearing a huge rift in the clouds.

Blake seized the opportunity to charge forward, his long scroll transforming into a silver rainstorm, each thrust aimed at the blind spot where the Divine Judge was defending.

Garin was forced to switch from offense to defense, and the defensive trajectory of Divine Judgment wove an impenetrable net of lightning in the air.

After a fierce attack, Blake landed on the ground, slightly panting, and couldn't help but curse under his breath again:

"Damn it, it's such a loss not to have the 'Domineering Entanglement' skill."

Garin's every attack was imbued with Conqueror's Haki, while Black could only rely on his physical strength and Armament Haki to withstand it.

Not only do they expend far more physical energy than their opponents, but they also suffer greater damage in a direct confrontation.

The moment Black's attack ceased, Garin raised his hand and swung his sword, unleashing a black and red lightning dragon that roared along the blade.

"Divine Judgment - Heavenly Dragon Flash!"

"Secret Technique: Galaxy!"

Blake gritted his teeth and took the blow head-on.

The blade clashed with the Thunder Dragon's fangs, unleashing a flare like the sun, and the blast stripped away all the reliefs on the outer walls of Pangu City.

The two retreated several hundred meters each. Garin remained expressionless, while Blake's hands, holding the knife, trembled slightly.

"It seems that swordsmanship is still not enough to deal with experts of your level."

Blake casually tossed the longsword aside and clenched his fists:

"So, you've now entered the second phase of the BOSS fight!"

Black abandoned his swordplay against Garin and switched to hand-to-hand combat, which seemed to increase his speed as well.

Black burst into Garin's defensive perimeter and delivered a precise chop to the wrist of the man holding the sword.

At the same time, he raised his left knee and thrust it towards Garin's abdomen.

Garin first used his sword to block Blake's hand chop, then took a half step back to avoid the knee strike.

"Divine Chief Amaterasu!"

A slash in the form of a giant flaming bird flew from Garin's longsword, melting magma trenches into the ground.

Blake crossed his arms to receive the attack, and Armament Haki crystallized on his skin, forming a black-gold armor.

When the flames subsided, a ten-meter-diameter vitrified crater formed where the boy had stood, and he merely flicked his smoking sleeves.

"Anyone can chop fire. Sure enough, even dogs won't eat the Flame-Flame Fruit."

Black lunged forward again, his fist, imbued with Armament Haki, clashing with the longsword, which was wreathed in Conqueror's Haki, causing visible distortions and cracks to appear in the space.

Just as Garin was withdrawing to dissipate the force, the Divine Judgment in his hand suddenly shone with a dazzling golden light, like a solar flare.

"Divine Judgment - Nine Stars Descend!"

Nine black and red sword energies attacked from different dimensions, each carrying the power to destroy the island.

The first sword strike evaporated the central fountain of Mary Geoise into a vacuum, and the second sword strike melted the ground within a radius of several kilometers into a liquid state.

Black dodged four of the sword energies with his Observation Haki, which was at a level that allowed him to foresee the future, and then punched away two more. He could only withstand the last three sword energies by crossing his arms.

A soft cracking sound came from the bones, and Blake felt pain again, something he hadn't felt in a long time.

He was then thrown out and crashed into the manor of a Celestial Dragon.

Before the smoke and dust had cleared, the pile of rubble suddenly exploded, and a black and gold fist shadow pierced out from the ruins.

Black, dragging his broken forearm, leaped out from the ruins, his left fist brimming with compressed Armament Haki, and slammed it fiercely towards the tip of Garin's thrusting blade.

But at the moment of contact, he suddenly changed his move to a hand chop, his fingertips precisely piercing into the space between Garin's left ribs, while Garin's Divine Judgment also pierced through Black's lower abdomen at the same time.

Chapter 53 No, is that right?

In the exchange just now, Blake had realized—

Garin's attack power was enough to penetrate the triple defense he had built up using Armament Haki, Armament Haki tempering, and the Steel Balloon.

Furthermore, Garin's understanding of defense surpasses even Mihawk's, making it virtually impossible to break through his defenses in a short period.

Continuing like this will almost certainly lead to defeat.

Then let's put ourselves in a do-or-die situation and strive for survival!

They traded injury for life with their superior physical defense.

Blood trickled from the corner of Blake's mouth as he gripped the blade in his abdomen, his muscles contracting to trap the Divine Judge firmly inside his body.

With lightning speed, his right hand seized Garin's throat and slammed him to the ground with tremendous force.

Garin twisted his body at the last moment, but the shockwave still splashed the surrounding foundations like water, and scattered the debris like a rainstorm.

He displayed amazing flexibility the moment he was slammed to the ground, twisting his waist as if it were boneless.

Divine Judgment swiftly drew his weapon, slashing in a deadly arc towards Blake's neck.

Blake actually opened his mouth and bit the sword, his teeth shattering:

"You didn't expect that, did you? This is a martial arts secret technique from Zephyr!"

Black crouched down and his right elbow, radiating Armament Haki, struck Garin hard in the chest.

The left hand, which was originally stuck between Garin's ribs, suddenly exerted force and instantly pierced through the other's heart.

That wasn't all; Blake threw another punch.

The fist struck Garin squarely in the temple, and Garin's figure finally turned into blue light and dissipated.

Back in the system space, Blake's injuries had been fully healed, and the pain had disappeared.

Blake let out a long sigh of relief:

"The Conqueror's Haki-infused look is just too supermodel-like."

Young Garin's swordsmanship was not much better than that of young Hawkeye.

At most, Garin's swordsmanship is more fluid, while Hawkeye's swordsmanship is more ruthless.

Both have their own characteristics, and it's hard to say which is better or worse.

However, thanks to his Conqueror's Haki technique, Garin's overall attack power is several levels higher than Mihawk's.

It's important to know that Black's body, after being tempered by Armament Haki, has completely surpassed Charlotte Linlin's in the original work.

Even so, Garin's slash still shattered the bones in his arm.

They finally won by resorting to a near-suicidal fighting style.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. Charlotte Linlin didn't break through her defenses because she was facing opponents who were far weaker than her.

Moreover, these people are mostly suffering blunt force injuries, which are not easy to cause injuries on the body surface.

That's why Charlotte Linlin adopted a "attack me if you want" attitude.

But when faced with lasers fired by pacifists, Charlotte Linlin chose to dodge for the first time.

The Pacifista's laser is inspired by Kizaru and is purely penetrating damage.

If the outer skin of the steel balloon truly cannot be damaged, she has no need to hide at all.

It would be absurd to think that a master could disregard all weapons and use them as weapons.

This was the first time Blake had ever been in such a miserable state since he transmigrated.

Even when he was a minor pirate, Black would simply exit the card space once he realized he couldn't win; he would never fight to the death.

He was surprised to discover that deep down he also harbored a ferocity and a desire for battle.

"No, I need to stay calm and not get carried away. That's not my style."

Blake shook his head, dispelling the nascent ambition that had just risen in his heart.

Isn't the reason he's working so hard to level up just so he can use his numerical advantage to crush those weaker than him?

He never imagined he would fight to the death with an evenly matched opponent in real life.

Composing himself, Blake looked at the ability card in his hand.

This time, the swordsmanship that Blake most wanted was not revealed.

"Conqueror's Haki can enhance combat power more, but I still prefer a sword technique suitable for Celestial Dragons."

Blake sighed greedily and crushed the ability card in his hand.

Instantly, an incomparably powerful aura erupted from Blake, and it seemed that the entire system space began to tremble at that moment.

Dark red lightning crackled on Blake's clenched fists.

Blake raised his hand and saw the lightning between his fingers; his regret vanished.

"I finally understand!"

Having suffered many losses from being entangled by Conqueror's Haki, Black's desire for this advanced technique had reached its peak.

From then on, they no longer needed to be timid when facing top experts.

At this moment, Blake's strength leaped to another level, truly reaching the pinnacle of the ocean.

If we had to make a comparison, Black's current strength is no less than Luffy's, who trained on Onigashima.

Although Luffy has developed the Nika Devil Fruit to the awakened stage, Black's quality of the three types of Haki and his physical strength are far superior to Luffy's.

Today, Blake has the qualifications to conquer the ocean.

"Luffy became one of the Four Emperors at the age of 19, and I also reached this level of strength at the age of 19."

"No, is that right?"

"You're the one who's cheating, aren't you?"

Blake originally thought he had already used a pretty big cheat code.

Thinking about it that way, it doesn't seem like a big deal.

Shaking his head, Blake cleared his mind of the jumbled thoughts and began to experience this new power.

There are many Conqueror's Haki users in the original work, each with different strengths and uses.

When Shanks intimidated Green Bull on Onigashima, he used Conqueror's Haki from an extremely long distance.

However, it's hard to say whether Shanks' Conqueror's Haki neutralized Green Bull's Devil Fruit ability, or whether Green Bull, after sensing Shanks' arrival, decided it wasn't the right time to fight him and thus chose to abandon the mission.

However, the Conqueror's Haki that Im used when possessing Junko almost knocked out all the warriors of Elbaf, the kingdom known as the strongest in the world.

Even if some people eventually manage to stand up, Elbaf, as an island where giants live, is quite large.

When Shepard Somaz was counting down, a group of people ran around for ages but still couldn't get to the scene.

This demonstrates the high level of Im's Conqueror's Haki.

In addition, there is the Conqueror's Haki that Joy Boy stored inside the ancient giant Emmett.

This time, they were truly shaken out of their beast forms.

Although both are users of Conqueror's Haki, the intensity of their Haki is vastly different.

Black's Conqueror's Haki was already strong, and it was combined with the Conqueror's Haki of young Ace and young Garin.

Regarding the strength of his Conqueror's Haki, Black vaguely felt that he should be able to reach Im's level.

Whether it will affect Devil Fruits is still uncertain; we'll have to try it when the opportunity arises to find out.

After all, Black doesn't know whether influencing Devil Fruit abilities through Conqueror's Haki is about the strength of Conqueror's Haki or some unknown technique.

After leaving the system space, Blake neither continued to play dead on the recliner nor went to continue his crazy fun with Perona.

He stood at the bow of the ship, gazing at the calm horizon, still contemplating his own strength.

"My strength has now completely reached a bottleneck, and it will be very difficult to make a significant improvement in a short period of time."

"Im's Devil Fruit must be able to rival Nika's."

"Whether it's the few Devil Fruits I have or the information I have about Devil Fruits, it seems that none of them are on the same level as Nika."

"It seems that this path is not feasible for the time being."