Zi Xu's Strength

Chino smoothed her slightly disheveled blue-black short hair, positioned her hands one in front of the other, and once again assumed a combat stance. The Eight Trigrams Disk materialized beneath her feet in an instant, making it clear she was taking Zi Xu very seriously—she had started with her strongest posture from the get-go. If it weren't for the terrifying chakra consumption after opening her eyes, she would have activated her Byakugan directly to face Zi Xu, which would have been even safer.

Watching Chino on high alert, Zi Xu decided to get a bit more serious too, at least putting forth a portion of his strength to respond. Although they all tacitly understood Zi Xu's true power, deliberately losing too obviously wouldn't hold water.

"Then let's go." Zi Xu also assumed a serious fighting stance, loosening his joints. A breeze lifted the slightly wrinkled corner of his robe. He glanced at the sky—it was getting dim, but the sun hadn't fully set yet.

A gust of wind blew a few fallen leaves between Zi Xu and Chino. The moment the leaves fully touched the ground, they both charged at each other without a word.

"S-start...? Hey? Why didn't you wait for me to say it before starting... forget it..." Hatsumi bristled a little, but could only shake her head helplessly, pouting as she sat down to watch their duel.

Chino attacked first. She held her ground, the Eight Trigrams Disk beneath her feet slowly shifting toward Zi Xu's position. She gathered chakra in her palms and used Gentle Fist techniques to fire it off. Steadying her horse stance, she punched out air bullets that flew through the air one after another.

"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"

Although the energy from the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm was invisible and colorless—usually only special ocular techniques like the Sharingan or Byakugan could track its trajectory—Zi Xu could clearly discern the path of every Vacuum Palm aimed at him using just his five senses. He could have tanked them head-on given their power, but after a moment's thought, he quickly shifted his footing across the ground, pushed off with his back leg, and leaped into the air to dodge them.

After doing all this, Zi Xu charged toward Chino without even breathing hard, aiming to close the distance and use his favored Taijutsu. But as Chino released the Vacuum Palms, the Eight Trigrams Disk beneath her feet kept moving toward Zi Xu, and as he got closer, the disk enveloped him entirely.

"Byakugan!" Chino activated her Byakugan in an instant. Through it, she could clearly see that Zi Xu was wearing blue under... wait, wrong view—she could clearly see the flow of chakra in his body. But his physique was so overwhelmingly powerful that she couldn't fully penetrate his body to see inside; she could only glimpse some surface meridians. Still, that was enough.

"Hm?" Zi Xu felt a chill on his back, as if something had struck him. He glanced sideways and noticed several pebbles rising from the ground on their own, hitting his body at a decent speed. Against an ordinary person, Chino would have used these airborne stones to strike acupoints and seal their chakra, but against Zi Xu, the effect was negligible.

"So that 'Mystic Gate' can be used like that... She really hasn't been going all out against me..." Hatsumi watched Chino's new technique and felt a bit discouraged, but she didn't lose heart. Following the cultivation path Zi Xu had given her, she was sure she wouldn't fall behind Chino.

She shifted her gaze to Zi Xu, who was locked in battle with Chino. The attacks that could seal her acupoints bounced off him like toys, showing no effect whatsoever, yet he still made dodging motions. Hatsumi knew Zi Xu was putting on an act again—he always did this, handling their attacks with ease while pretending he was "about to run out of steam, just a little more effort and you'll hit me."

But whether it was an illusion or not, Hatsumi felt that Zi Xu seemed a bit different today. She couldn't pinpoint exactly what had changed, but if she had to describe it, his aura had shifted—sharper, somehow.

Zi Xu and Chino's fight continued. When Chino realized the pebble attacks weren't very effective, she stopped and directly activated her Red Eye, attempting to use Genjutsu on Zi Xu. A crimson glow spread through her pupils, and red chakra gradually seeped from her right eye as she locked eyes with him.

Zi Xu felt as if something had licked his mind—that was the only way to describe it. It wasn't an attack sensation; it was like being hit by cream from a cake. He didn't even lose focus for a moment, just blinked and came to.

"Should I act like I'm about to fall for the Genjutsu? What does being under Genjutsu look like? Standing there dumbly?" Zi Xu wasn't sure what to do. If he just walked over to Chino casually, wouldn't that be awkward? Better to pretend he was caught in the Genjutsu.

Watching Zi Xu stand there like an idiot, Chino was also at a loss. Wait, the Genjutsu I used was supposed to make you see that rock as me—why are you staring at me? Did I use the wrong technique?

Chino was starting to doubt herself. She cast the Genjutsu on Zi Xu again, but this time the effect was even weaker. Not even the feeling of cream hitting his face—just nothing. Her Genjutsu attack was like a small investment in the stock market: not even a ripple, completely gone without a trace.

"I don't have any measures to resist Genjutsu attacks. I figured I'd just tank it with my body, but how am I immune now?" Zi Xu still stood there dumbly, using the chance to figure out why he hadn't fallen for the Genjutsu.

"...Maybe it's because of the Conqueror's Haki awakening? The awakening gave me some mental foundation, so I can resist some Genjutsu?" Unable to find a better explanation, he chalked it up to Conqueror's Haki. Then he stopped standing still—Chino hadn't attacked him yet, and he sensed something off, so he chose to go on the offensive.

Seeing Zi Xu finally move, Chino's mind was full of question marks. When she wasn't using Genjutsu, he stood there like he was under its control, but when she was maintaining it with all her strength, he charged at her like nothing was wrong. Was her Genjutsu lagging?

All of this would have to wait until after the fight. The most important thing now was the battle at hand. Chino refocused on Zi Xu and stopped bothering to maintain the Eight Trigrams Disk beneath her feet. Since the Mystic Gate had little effect on him, she might as well concentrate her power and engage him in Taijutsu.

"So it's come to this. Now the rhythm's going to be in Zi Xu's hands again." Watching the two about to engage in close combat, Hatsumi wore an expression of "I knew it." In past fights, it was always the same—he had no special techniques, just solid Taijutsu and a ridiculously unreasonable physique that crushed the opponent's offense head-on.

They had never managed to break such a simple tactic. Although Zi Xu always found some excuse to lose whenever he was about to win, making his win rate among the three the lowest, they all knew who the real victor should be.

"Gentle Fist!" As they closed in, both used Gentle Fist at the same time just before colliding.

Chino bent her elbow slightly, turned her left hand from a fist to a palm, fingers pointing down, palm pushing forward while raising her right hand high, side-palm poised to follow up the left-hand attack. Zi Xu assumed the same stance, but with his body leaning slightly forward, his left elbow blocking in front of him.

"Boom~" Their attacks collided, the force kicking up dust from the ground. Both Chino and Zi Xu stepped back half a pace, then clashed again. The Gentle Fist Chino had just used was executed exactly as her family had taught her, inevitably a bit formulaic.

But Zi Xu's mastery of Taijutsu, perhaps influenced by Kaido's Physique, reached a level where even he sometimes found it strange. More accurately, his combat intelligence in real fights was extremely high—he always made the fastest and most correct response when an attack came, and this had become muscle memory.

Just like their exchange of blows earlier, Zi Xu's elbow blocked Chino's incoming palm while his forearm extended, interrupting the motion of her other prepared hand. Then he landed a hit, and the situation gradually tilted in his favor.

Zi Xu didn't have Chino's Byakugan, so he couldn't guarantee hitting all her acupoints, but with the acupoint chart she had given him, he could hit most of them. Zi Xu learned theory from Chino, while Chino learned practical combat skills from him.

Thus, they began a back-and-forth confrontation of solid, flesh-to-flesh blows. Thanks to the Bug Body Refinement provided by Hatsumi, Chino's physique had also improved, so she wouldn't easily get hurt by Zi Xu—of course, that was when he held back.

"Phew, phew~" Chino stood panting heavily, like a fish out of water greedily trying to suck moisture from the air. In contrast, Zi Xu stood across from her as if nothing had happened, exuding an inexplicable aura.

Unnoticed, the stars and moon had already claimed half the night sky. The twilight sun reluctantly clung to the western mountains, as if trying to vie with the moon for the night. Chino was now sprawled on the ground, drenched in sweat from the fight, her shirt soaked through. Zi Xu stood over her, and before Hatsumi could guess what excuse he'd come up with to lose, he smiled slightly.

"I win." He extended a single hand toward the exhausted Chino. She looked at his outstretched hand.

"I thought you were going to think of some way to lose again."

Chino took Zi Xu's hand and stood up with his help. Hatsumi stepped forward to brush the dust off Chino, then poked Zi Xu.

"You seem a bit different today?"

"Different how?"

"Your aura seems to have changed a little, like... hmm, a fish turning into a young dragon?"

"Hahaha, is that so? Anyway, you and Chino should go take a bath later."

"Of course. Oh, right, my Moonlight Worms need to absorb moonlight..."

As she spoke, Hatsumi released a few dim-looking little bugs. They flapped their wings slowly under the moonlight, their tails gradually emitting a faint blue glow.

"Ta-da! Moonlight Worms can also serve as light sources at night. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah, pretty cool," Chino said, sounding exhausted.

"Hey, hey, that's way too half-hearted!"

"Mm-hmm, really cool."

Under the moonlight, the three of them walked home laughing and chatting, illuminated by the Moonlight Worms and the stars and moon. Joyful voices, wild grass, and chirping insects—for a moment, Zi Xu showed a genuine smile he hadn't worn in a long time.