Suppressing the Five Elders, Imu Appears

Ethanbaron V. Nasujuro stared at the stretch of Marine Headquarters that had already been reduced to ruins before him.

The once-majestic, solemn buildings now lay shattered beyond recognition, smoke and dust still hanging in the air. His expression darkened against his will, as if a storm were about to break.

He thought back to when he had been in Mary Geoise, sitting with the other four as they discussed how to deal with that fellow named Luo Chuan. After all, Luo Chuan had not only defeated an admiral—he had even had the audacity to kill a Celestial Dragon!

Because of that, they had specially sent people to investigate Luo Chuan's background and abilities in depth. Yet the results of the investigation had left them somewhat surprised—this man could actually fly freely like a bird, could vanish without a trace in an instant and then appear elsewhere without warning; even more unbelievable was that his physical constitution was extraordinarily powerful, but strangely, he did not know how to use any form of Haki.

Even with this information in hand, it was still difficult to infer just what origins Luo Chuan truly had.

Precisely because of that, in order to uncover the truth hidden behind Luo Chuan, Saint Nasujuro decided to make a personal trip and find out for himself.

"Brat, you dared commit such an outrageous atrocity. Aren't you afraid retribution will come for you one day?"

After hearing Saint Nasujuro's furious rebuke, Luo Chuan merely dug at his ear with a finger in a careless manner, his face showing not the slightest sign that he took the other man seriously.

That contemptuous attitude was undoubtedly like a spark, instantly igniting the rage in Saint Nasujuro's heart.

"All right, all right, quit dawdling over there and droning on endlessly! If you're going to fight, then hurry up. Cut the crap!"

Luo Chuan yelled impatiently at Saint Nasujuro, who still looked like he wanted to speak, mercilessly opening his mouth and cutting off what the other man was about to say next.

When Saint Nasujuro heard this, he was so angry that his beard bristled and his eyes bulged. "Good, good, good! This old man has lived for so many years, and never have I met someone as arrogant and insolent as you! Since you are so ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth, then don't blame this old man for showing no mercy! Today, I will personally weigh you and see just what you are made of!"

With that, Saint Nasujuro abruptly drew his sword. In an instant, an incomparably dense demonic aura surged from the blade and swiftly spread outward, as if shrouding the entire space in a gloomy, terrifying atmosphere.

Luo Chuan fixed his eyes on it and could not help muttering softly, "Oh? Could this be the legendary Kitetsu I? It does look like it has a little something to it..."

Although the demonic aura emitted by this sword was rather powerful, to Luo Chuan, it was not worth mentioning at all.

Just then, with a whoosh, the demonic blade in his hand suddenly swung. Along with a humming sound, a sword aura of astonishing power howled toward Luo Chuan.

This sword aura stretched for hundreds of meters, and wherever it passed, the air seemed to be torn in half. Its momentum was so vast that it left one speechless.

Back in the day, Saint Nasujuro had been the world-renowned greatest swordsman, his swordsmanship godlike and his rivals few. However, ever since he had become one of the Five Elders, he had gradually faded from people's sight, and his once-glorious reputation had slowly been forgotten by the world with the passage of time. Even so, his mastery of the sword remained unfathomable, and he was by no means someone ordinary people could contend with.

Facing the sword aura that drew ever closer, Luo Chuan did not move in the slightest. He even opened his mouth and yawned, seeming utterly unconcerned by the crisis gradually approaching him.

Just as that incomparably sharp sword aura was only a few centimeters away from him, Luo Chuan casually curled a finger and flicked it lightly. With a crisp crack, the once-unstoppable sword aura actually shattered like glass in an instant, turning into specks of starlight that dispersed into nothingness.

Seeing this, Saint Nasujuro's expression could not help tightening slightly.

Even a seasoned powerhouse like him had failed to see what kind of miraculous move the other party had used. He had only seen the other man flick out a finger as if it were nothing, and his own astonishingly powerful attack had been effortlessly dissolved without a trace.

However, Saint Nasujuro did not shrink back because of this. He covered the demonic blade with Armament Haki.

He abruptly stepped forward and used Shave, moving in front of Luo Chuan at a speed beyond ordinary imagination. Raising the demonic blade high, he chopped down fiercely with the force of a mountain crushing an egg.

For a time, sword light flickered and layers of sword shadows overlapped.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

A continuous series of crisp impacts rang through the clouds. Shockingly, no matter how Saint Nasujuro accelerated the rhythm of his attacks or what vicious, tricky sword techniques he used, every offensive was steadily and easily blocked by Luo Chuan with a single finger.

"Hey! Old man, aren't you looking down on me a little too much?" The corner of Luo Chuan's mouth lifted in a disdainful smile as he spoke indifferently.

The moment his words fell, he suddenly struck out with a palm. The palm wind howled past, carrying incomparable pressure as it swept toward Saint Nasujuro.

Sensing the power contained in this palm strike, Saint Nasujuro's expression changed drastically. He did not dare be careless in the slightest and hurriedly gripped the hilt with both hands, holding the demonic blade horizontally before his chest in an attempt to block this world-shaking blow.

A deafening clang rang out. Saint Nasujuro only felt an irresistible force suddenly crash into him. His entire body was struck as if by a heavy blow, and he involuntarily flew backward. In the end, under the impact of that immense power, he smashed straight into the ruins behind him like a hot knife through butter, kicking up smoke and dust that filled the sky.

BOOM!!!

The ruins exploded apart, and Saint Nasujuro charged out from within. At this moment, his appearance had already changed drastically. He was no longer human, but had become a skeletal horse, transforming into a human-beast form as he galloped.

He likewise slashed out, and this slash was a freezing strike, colder even than Kuzan's ice. Wherever the freezing slash passed, the ground rapidly froze over, and even the air showed signs of icing up.

"Your strength improved quite a bit after transforming."

Luo Chuan grabbed the freezing slash with one hand and directly crushed it. Then he stepped forward and appeared in front of Saint Nasujuro in his human-beast state.

One had to admit, his build really was quite large. Luo Chuan's stature in front of him was like that of a child.

In any case, Luo Chuan simply threw a punch, except this punch carried a combat power of around sixty thousand.

Saint Nasujuro chopped down with his sword.

BANG!!!!

Sparks flew in every direction, black lightning crackled and spread, and shockwaves swept outward.

Suddenly, Saint Nasujuro's pupils shrank slightly. He discovered that he could not block the other party's fist at all. With a bang, he flew out, large areas of bone cracking.

"This... how is this possible?"

Saint Nasujuro simply could not understand it.

When he raised his head, Luo Chuan was already standing in front of him, one hand reaching toward his collar.

Just then, several muffled sounds rang out. Around the two of them, several mysterious magic circles appeared. Black smoke emerged, and the other four had arrived.

These four had received Saint Nasujuro's message in advance and had come transformed into their strongest forms, so each and every one of them had the appearance of a monster.

The four monsters attacked Luo Chuan at the same time. When their attacks made contact, a violent explosion erupted, but Luo Chuan teleported above them.

Luo Chuan slowly raised his right hand and extended one finger. Energy gathered into a huge energy sphere. With a slight movement of his finger, the energy sphere swiftly plummeted. When the Five Elders saw this scene, they were utterly dumbfounded. When had they ever seen a move like this?!

They had never seen such a technique before, but they could also feel its terror. As if sharing one mind, the five of them unleashed their strongest Haki one after another to resist the energy blast.

Unfortunately, their attacks seemed so tiny before Luo Chuan's energy bomb. Under the Five Elders' terrified gazes, the energy bomb swallowed them, and another horrific explosion erupted.

The range of this explosion was even greater than the one that had destroyed Marine Headquarters earlier. The sea level could be clearly seen dropping sharply, and the oceanic plates shifted across a vast area.

After the explosive effects faded, the ruined Marine Headquarters had vanished completely, leaving only a huge crater, with scorching currents of air still rising from within.

Five people lay in the pit. All five had already released their strongest forms and were lying there, gasping heavily.

Luo Chuan hadn't expected the five of them to actually withstand the explosion. In that case, he would just strengthen it a tiny bit more next time.

"This... Is this really... something a human can do?"

Saint Nusjuro looked at Luo Chuan, who stood in the air like a god, and spoke while panting like an ox.

No one could answer his question. Even if someone could, they would not know how to answer, because this was the first time they had encountered something like this in all their long years of life.

Forget there being no precedent—there definitely would be no one after him who could surpass Luo Chuan.

To suppress the five of them by his own strength, his power was so great that it far exceeded their imagination.

A wisp of black smoke suddenly appeared, condensing into a person whose appearance could not be seen clearly.

When they saw this person, the severely injured Five Elders still bowed respectfully and said at the same time, "We pay our respects to Lord Imu."

Luo Chuan narrowed his eyes in the air, feeling that this Imu was not an ordinary life-form.

Because he sensed an abnormal aura from Imu.