Chapter 116: Endless Emergence
I shall see you off, send you to the afterlife!
Zephyr, if you lack the qualifications to be my whetstone, then you might as well die!
With this thought in mind, just as Chu Yi’s voice fell...
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
The six arms of the Asura Susanoo clenched into fists simultaneously!
Ignoring the toll on his stamina, Chu Yi unleashed several "Fierce Tiger Earthquakes" with the six arms of the Asura Susanoo in rapid succession!
Immediately following...
Amidst the roar of golden panther shadows, several of these manifestations launched an indiscriminate, omnidirectional assault toward Zephyr’s position.
This was a terrifying attack that could be perceived by Observation Haki, yet left the body with no time to dodge—an assault so fierce that Zephyr’s pupils constricted, forcing him to clench his teeth and exert every ounce of his strength to defend.
Because, as the cat-cat fruit leopard form material fully integrated into the origin fruit, the stamina consumption for Chu Yi to manifest "Fierce Tiger Earthquakes" via the Asura Susanoo had decreased.
The stamina that once sufficed for a single "Fierce Tiger Earthquake" could now sustain ten!
In that case, why bother with tactics?
He would simply exhaust his opponent!
At this moment, even with his original stamina, Chu Yi could have unleashed at least twenty "Fierce Tiger Earthquakes." With the consumption reduced by the fusion of the fruit material, as long as the first few strikes exposed a flaw in Zephyr’s defense, Zephyr would be looking at a barrage of at least a hundred more!
How could Zephyr withstand such a quantity of "Fierce Tiger Earthquakes"?
Even if Zephyr was the pinnacle of the Navy’s combat power, one of the few at the zenith of the current seas, even a combatant of his caliber could not survive a head-on collision with a hundred "Fierce Tiger Earthquakes"!
Because of this, as Zephyr perceived the situation through his Observation Haki, he realized his position was dire.
The punches he threw could not merely be a simple matter of parrying the "Fierce Tiger Earthquakes" from the Asura Susanoo’s six arms.
He had to defend against those strikes while simultaneously dealing a heavy blow to Chu Yi, or else he risked being overwhelmed by Chu Yi’s momentum in a single, decisive wave!
Therefore, facing the golden panther shadows unleashed by the Asura Susanoo, Zephyr suddenly took a deep breath.
The next second!
"Armament Haki: Hardening!"
Boom!
Suddenly, the Armament Haki from within his body erupted. As Zephyr’s Haki surged outward, his entire form was coated in a layer of pitch-black color before Chu Yi’s eyes!
Zephyr had actually applied Armament Haki Hardening...
Across his entire body!
Moreover, as the hardening completely enveloped him, causing the muscles hidden beneath his naval uniform to bulge and his stature to swell significantly, a look of sudden, intense pain flickered across Zephyr’s resolute face.
Then, as Zephyr struggled to throw his right fist with agonizing slowness, the surrounding space began to emit faint, shattering "crack, crack" sounds!
Immediately...
"Boom!"
The space collapsed!
A black hole emerged, and the void manifested!
Relying on his formidable mastery of Haki, the punch Zephyr threw with his fully hardened body undoubtedly confirmed Chu Yi’s earlier hypothesis.
That is, after breaking through the heavens in swordsmanship, the future path of cultivation must involve shattering the void!
Because the Zephyr before Chu Yi proved it with this punch—the iron fist he threw had shattered the void, channeling the terrifying power of nothingness!
And when the power of nothingness manifested, what were mere "Fierce Tiger Earthquakes"?
They were nothing but worthless debris!
When Chu Yi integrated the power of the Heavenly Dao into himself, he had faintly groped toward the usage of the void power, almost causing even Whitebeard to suffer.
Now, as Zephyr fought back with a relatively mature mastery of this void power, how could a half-baked novice like Chu Yi resist?
Therefore, the moment the power of nothingness appeared, the golden panther shadows filling the sky vanished!
In a mere instant, Zephyr’s iron fist "devoured" the sky full of panther shadows, first pulverizing Chu Yi’s "Fierce Tiger Earthquakes," and then, the fist—faintly accompanied by the power of nothingness—landed once again upon the sturdy ribcage defense of Chu Yi’s Asura Susanoo!
"Damn it, I think I understand what Whitebeard felt when facing the power of nothingness!"
The moment the sturdy ribs of the Asura Susanoo collided with Zephyr’s iron fist, the sound of shattering echoed in Chu Yi’s ears. As Chu Yi activated his Resurrection Blue Flames to rapidly repair the damage to the Asura Susanoo...
A terrifying thing happened!
In an instant, Chu Yi discovered that no matter how he tried, his Resurrection Blue Flames could not mend the cracks in the Asura Susanoo.
Because the power of nothingness on Zephyr’s fist swallowed the Resurrection Blue Flames the moment they appeared, before they could even touch the Asura Susanoo.
If the flames could not touch the Asura Susanoo, they could not repair it.
And for Chu Yi, gritting his teeth in an attempt to use the flames to maintain his defense, he was forced to endure the stamina drain of continuously casting them.
But it was all in vain!
The power of nothingness accompanying Zephyr’s iron fist seemed to be telling Chu Yi that no matter how many flames he cast, the power of the void would swallow them all.
No matter how much stamina he spent, his Asura Susanoo was doomed to shatter!
Thus, even though Chu Yi burned through endless stamina trying to repair the cracks, he saw the strained look on Zephyr’s face and knew that Zephyr, too, was paying a heavy price to throw a punch imbued with the power of nothingness.
But Chu Yi was not happy at all.
Because he could afford it even less!
Perhaps in the very next moment, the sturdy defense of the Asura Susanoo would shatter.
And once the defense was broken, if Zephyr’s iron fist could maintain its momentum for even half a second longer, Chu Yi, who had treated Zephyr as his whetstone, would likely be the one snapped against this very hard stone!
Meanwhile.
Zephyr clearly understood the nature of their clash, so as Chu Yi gritted his teeth to cast the flames, a slow smile spread across Zephyr’s face.
That smile seemed to say...
Kid, when it comes to endurance, you cannot outlast me!
However, just as Zephyr held this thought, his smile growing ever more pronounced...
"Hoo!"
With a soft sigh, Zephyr watched as Chu Yi, standing before him, suddenly shook his head with a bitter smile.
"Zephyr, do you know what it means to be 'endless'?"
"What?"
Hearing Chu Yi’s question, Zephyr narrowed his eyes and countered, "What are you implying?"
"My meaning is simple. I just wanted to say..."
"Zephyr, if you don't understand what 'endless' means, then let me explain it to you!"
As soon as Chu Yi’s voice fell.
"Click!"
Suddenly, a glimmer of crystalline color flashed into Chu Yi’s body, then slowly spread to the Asura Susanoo surrounding him.
In that instant, Zephyr was completely stunned.
Especially when the diamond-like armor, brilliant and dazzling, completely encased the sturdy ribcage defense of the Asura Susanoo shortly after Chu Yi finished speaking, Zephyr suddenly understood exactly what "endless" meant!
It meant...
His, Asura Chu Yi’s, hidden cards were endless, truly too numerous to count!