Chapter Eighty-Eight: Inner Demon

Under the veil of that eerie violet radiance, the golden leopard silhouette had just seized the phoenix wreathed in blue flame.

In the next instant—

With a whoosh, the restorative blue fire appeared.

But this time, it did not envelop Marco. It wrapped itself around Chu Yi’s Asura Demon Avatar instead.

Which was to say...

It enveloped Chu Yi himself.

Yet oddly enough, beneath that blue flame, Chu Yi felt no trace of heat. Instead, a warm current spread through his entire body.

It was the same tranquil, tender feeling as a fetus lying within its mother’s womb—peaceful, comforting, serene.

Within that calm, that warmth, there was no need to force away distracting thoughts. Chu Yi’s mind remained naturally lucid, effortlessly focused.

And under the protection of the restorative blue fire, the web-like cracks across the Asura Demon Avatar were rapidly mending.

The exhaustion Chu Yi had suffered, the abrasions on his palms from gripping the Asura Blade through the fierce battle—all of it vanished in the blink of an eye.

However...

What in the world was going on?

Why had Marco’s restorative blue fire become his?

Could it be...

Following the gaze of the Asura Eye, Chu Yi fixed his eyes on the blue phoenix above Marco’s head as it battled the golden leopard silhouette and was gradually forced into retreat. A faint realization began to form in his mind: the secret behind his being able to use the restorative blue fire lay in what was happening before him.

Or rather...

It lay in the Asura Eye.

He still remembered that his Asura Eye had awakened because, after successfully awakening with Lucci’s awakening materials and the leopard form of the Cat-Cat Fruit, he had grasped the ultimate technique known as Tiger Shaking the Earth under the crushing pressure of Aokiji.

Now, seeing the situation before him, Chu Yi could not help but wonder: was the true cause of the second ripple in the Asura Eye not his comprehension of Tiger Shaking the Earth, but rather the fact that he had used the awakening material of the leopard form of the Cat-Cat Fruit?

“My Asura Eye is almost exactly like the Rinnegan from Naruto.”

“And the Rinnegan in Naruto should control the powers of the Six Paths: the Deva Path, the Animal Path, the Human Path, the Asura Path, the Hell Path, and the Hungry Ghost Path.”

“My three awakenings are very much like the power of the Deva Path in the Rinnegan, and the first ripple in the Asura Eye appeared precisely when I completed that special awakening mission and achieved the three awakenings.”

“If the main reason for the second ripple in my Asura Eye really isn’t that I comprehended Tiger Shaking the Earth, but that I used the leopard-form Fruit Awakening material of the Cat-Cat Fruit...”

“Then does the second ripple of the Asura Eye represent the power of the Animal Path?”

“Animal Path, as the name implies, means that my Asura Eye can... can restrain the abilities of all Animal-Type Devil Fruit users?”

He silently analyzed what was happening before him, trying to uncover the truth.

Once Chu Yi had seized on the clue of the Asura Eye, endless possibilities rose in his mind. However, those possibilities had not yet been confirmed, and he could not be certain whether his conclusion was correct.

But in any case, his clash with Marco was essentially over.

Especially now, beneath the violet light, Chu Yi could clearly feel that as the golden leopard silhouette cast by his Asura Eye gradually devoured the blue phoenix above Marco’s head, Marco—under the suppression of the Gravity Field—was growing weaker and weaker.

In other words, Marco’s Devil Fruit power was about to be devoured by that golden leopard silhouette and become Chu Yi’s possession.

“Searching everywhere in vain, only to find it all effortlessly at my doorstep.”

“I never expected the system to assign me an awakening-material collection mission of nightmare level, and in the end... because of the mystery of the Asura Eye, I’ve been able to obtain the power of the Phoenix Fruit without ever completing that mission!”

Slowly extending his hand, Chu Yi canceled the Gravity Field.

When a wisp of restorative blue flame condensed in his palm at his will, he turned to look at Marco, now utterly weakened before him, and a faint smile rose at the corner of Chu Yi’s mouth.

At that moment, the blue phoenix within the violet glow had shrunk to no more than the size of a fist.

The vast body it once had had been entirely devoured by the golden leopard silhouette cast forth by Chu Yi’s Asura Eye.

By Chu Yi’s reckoning, once the blue phoenix above Marco’s head vanished completely, Marco’s own fruit ability would disappear in full. Chu Yi would then have, in effect, stripped Marco of his power entirely and taken that precious Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit for himself.

The golden leopard silhouette devoured swiftly; consuming the phoenix, now no bigger than a fist, would take at most a brief minute.

Smiling at Marco, Chu Yi knew that without that precious Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit, Marco’s life path would likely change.

But that precious Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit was irresistibly tempting to anyone, wasn’t it?

Wasn’t it?

More importantly, Chu Yi felt that all he had done was strip Marco of his Devil Fruit power, not kill him.

After all, there were many ways to grow stronger in the world of pirates. At worst...

If you, Marco, had lost the road ahead for the moment, you could simply choose another path.

With that thought, Chu Yi felt no burden at all for taking Marco’s fruit power. Instead, he was delighted at the prospect of mastering the ability of restorative blue flame in the future.

Yet just as the blue phoenix above Marco’s head was being devoured smaller and smaller by the golden leopard silhouette, shrinking from the size of a fist to the size of an egg...

A thunderous blast suddenly erupted from behind Marco!

The smile on Chu Yi’s face froze in an instant. Relying on the terrifying defense of the Asura Demon Avatar, he successfully withstood the assault of that scorching aura.

As for Marco before him...

With his fruit power already fading, he was utterly frail—probably so weak that even a slightly sturdy adult could kill him.

Thus, when that scorching aura struck him, what Chu Yi’s narrowed eyes reflected was the cruel sight of Marco’s chest being violently pierced through by that blaze.

And while Chu Yi stood there dumbfounded, completely unable to understand why he and Marco had suddenly come under attack, a towering figure slowly emerged from behind Marco.

That man...

Was Akainu.

“Shura, you really made me search hard for you!”

Withdrawing the fist that had pierced Marco’s chest, Akainu appeared behind Marco and said indifferently to Chu Yi, “Though I should thank you. Without you, dealing with the Whitebeard Pirates’ people would have been somewhat troublesome. As for the reward for my gratitude...”

“Shura, take a look at this!”

As soon as Akainu’s words fell, there came a sharp crack.

Tigress’s blood-soaked, battered body was flung carelessly before Chu Yi by Akainu.

Chu Yi’s gaze first locked onto Tigress’s grievously injured body, then shifted in a daze to Akainu. Yet the thought that rose in his mind was not why Tigress was so badly wounded, nor why Akainu could appear on Fish-Man Island.

In that instant, there was only one thought in Chu Yi’s mind.

Only one.

That was...

Whether he should abandon the restorative blue flame he had obtained by chance in order to save Marco of the Whitebeard Pirates.

And the source of that thought...

Was plainly the stirring of a demonic inner heart.