Hozuki Zangetsu was definitely a ruthless man. Back when he assassinated Mei Terumi, if not for Mei Terumi's Scorch Release happening to counter Boil Release, Mei Terumi would have died long ago.
The child clone rapidly expanded, soon becoming a five-meter-tall, massively fat man. Somehow, Hozuki Zangetsu had skipped the stage of accumulating heat.
"Hidden Mist—"
Sizzle~
A crisp sound of a thread being pulled rang out. A blue metal thread was dragged up from the muddy water. The moment he saw it, Hozuki Zangetsu instinctively sensed that something was wrong.
Hozuki Zangetsu's premonition was right. Just as he was about to liquefy, a metal thread had already wrapped around his leg, spraying blood into the air.
The Boundary Severing Thread cut through Hozuki Zangetsu's leg, splashing water mixed with blood everywhere. Hozuki Zangetsu successfully liquefied and avoided having his lower leg severed, but a surge of blue energy took the opportunity to seep into his body. It was Blue Steel Shadow energy.
Hozuki Zangetsu immediately sensed an external energy invading his body. The threat posed by this energy was not great yet. It was attempting to erode his Chakra, but it would not reduce his Chakra reserves in the short term.
After noticing this, Hozuki Zangetsu attempted to expel the energy from his body with Chakra. Unfortunately, although this energy had "no particularly strong destructive power," it was extremely tenacious. It slowly eroded his Chakra, causing a faint pain throughout his body.
After learning the properties of this foreign energy, Hozuki Zangetsu relaxed. Although this was a troublesome energy that could gradually reduce his Chakra reserves, fortunately, it posed no threat in the short term.
Was that really the truth? Of course not. Su Xiao was suppressing the eruption of the Blue Steel Shadow energy—and doing so from a