A Move Ahead (Please Bookmark and Recommend)

In the fields outside the town, Zhong Hao crouched low, lying in wait amid the tall wheat.

Before long, Rudifen chased out of town. Looking over the endless crops, he knew Zhong Hao could not have gone far at his speed and had to be hiding inside. He shouted, "Brat, run then! Why did you stop running? Weren't you going to teach me the secret to growing taller? Why are you hiding now?"

He held a dagger in one hand and pushed aside wheat stalks with the other as he moved forward cautiously. At only 1.4 meters tall, walking through wheat nearly a meter high was extremely difficult.

The tall wheat not only blocked his vision but also hindered the speed he prided himself on. Under normal circumstances, he would never have entered a place like this. But the fury in his heart was burning fiercely, and remembering Zhong Hao's exhausted appearance while fleeing, he could not care about anything else. All he wanted was to kill him.

Hidden amid the wheat, Zhong Hao closed his eyes and fully unleashed his Observation Haki. He sensed Rudifen approaching. When Rudifen was six or seven meters ahead of him, Zhong Hao knew he could wait no longer. He pulled twenty buckets of seawater from his storage space and hurled them at Rudifen. Then, with a sweep of his long blade, he sent out a slash that cut every bucket in half. The seawater inside joined into a curtain of water and poured down.

Rudifen had been on guard all along. When he suddenly saw twenty wooden buckets flying at him, he did not know what they contained, but he did not dare let down his guard. He bent his knees slightly, yet did not flee immediately. He had great confidence in his speed, confident that he could evade any attack.

Then he saw another familiar silver-white slash fly out. The buckets were cut in half, and the liquid inside spilled out. His heart jolted. The liquid gave off a scent that filled him with instinctive fear and disgust. He immediately stopped caring about anything else and vanished from the spot in an instant.

The moment Rudifen disappeared, seawater crashed down, splattering across the ground.

Zhong Hao stood up and looked disappointedly at Rudifen in the distance, sighing inwardly. "As expected, it didn't work. Of all martial arts under heaven, nothing is unbreakable except speed. Being fast really is cheating. If you can win, you can keep pestering your opponent until they die, and they can't escape. If you can't win, you can slip away, and your enemy can't catch you."

Rudifen had moved sideways over twenty meters. Still shaken, he stared at Zhong Hao. Though he had moved quickly, half his body had still been splashed. The instant weakness and numbness told him at once what had been in those buckets—the absolute nemesis of Devil Fruit users, seawater.

He swallowed hard, repeatedly thinking, That was close, while cursing inwardly, Which bastard has so much time on his hands that he'd put so many buckets of seawater in a wheat field? Does seawater even irrigate crops?

He could never have imagined that Zhong Hao possessed a storage space with enormous capacity.

Having nearly fallen for a trap, Rudifen was furious. "You little bastard, who exactly are you?"

Zhong Hao brushed away his disappointment and slowly walked forward. "An external member of the Marines. Zhong Hao."

Rudifen frowned and cursed, "I've never heard of the Marines having external members. If you're going to lie, at least say something believable."

Zhong Hao shook his head. "Whether it's true or not doesn't matter. Your pirate crew is probably all dead. Are you still going to resist? If you surrender, I can spare your life and only send you to prison."

Rudifen sneered. "Those trash are dead, so what? As long as I'm alive, I can recruit plenty more anytime. As for killing me? You've seen my speed. Do you really think you can manage that?"

Zhong Hao mocked him, provokingly saying, "I don't know why, but every time I hear you call yourself 'your old man,' it feels incredibly out of place. As a dwarf, can't you use a different form of address?"

"Bastard, don't mock my height!!!"

Zhong Hao had repeatedly touched his sore spot. Rudifen's rage surged in his chest, and with a roar, his body vanished from the spot. When he reappeared, he was already to Zhong Hao's left.

"Found you." Zhong Hao's Observation Haki had caught his movements long ago. He thrust his sheath toward him with his left hand.

Rudifen flashed away again, vanishing just before the sheath reached him. He reappeared behind Zhong Hao, his dagger thrusting straight at Zhong Hao's back.

"Found you again. Kami-e." Zhong Hao did not dare use Iron Body to defend. Just as Kizaru always said in battle that speed was power, Rudifen did not look like a master of physical combat, but once speed reached a certain level, attack power would rise exponentially. Coupled with the short dagger suited for assassination, Zhong Hao did not dare defend with his still-unrefined Iron Body.

Kami-e barely evaded the strike. Rudifen vanished again and appeared twenty meters away, panting heavily as he glared viciously at Zhong Hao.

Rudifen had an injured thigh and was fighting in a field full of wheat stalks, so his speed had been greatly restricted. It was now roughly on par with Zhong Hao's Soru. However, Zhong Hao's Soru was not yet suited for actual combat. It required half a second of preparation before use, and there was an instant pause afterward. In a high-speed battle, that was extremely deadly.

Therefore, after realizing Rudifen had slowed down, Zhong Hao had never considered competing with him in speed using Soru.

But under Observation Haki, Zhong Hao could track Rudifen's movements at any time. Thus, from the very beginning, he had stood in an invincible position.

Generally speaking, movement speed could hardly compare to striking speed. With Zhong Hao's swordsmanship, as long as he found an opportunity to land one more cut, the battle would be over. However, having suffered greatly at Zhong Hao's hands, Rudifen remained extremely cautious even in his rage. He struck and retreated immediately, never lingering, making it difficult for Zhong Hao to deliver a killing blow.

Just then, Zhong Hao noticed Rudifen breathing heavily. The corner of his mouth lifted as he thought, This piece of trash has such pathetic stamina. I'm still warming up, and he's already done for.

With that thought, he pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket. He unfolded it, spread it over his palm, and began reading. "The secret to growing taller: first, train your body to become flexible, then..."

Zhong Hao paused and glanced at Rudifen. Seeing him pretend to be dismissive while his ears strained to listen, Zhong Hao continued with a wicked grin. "Then curl yourself into a ball and roll back into your mother's womb in the roundest posture possible to be remade."

"Huh?" Rudifen was stunned for a moment and did not understand.

Zhong Hao casually tossed away the paper in his hand. The wind carried it before Rudifen, who hurriedly caught it. But when he looked at it, he found it was nothing more than an ordinary blank sheet of paper. There was no secret to growing taller at all. He immediately looked up, gritting his teeth at Zhong Hao. "You dare fool me!"

Zhong Hao sneered. "A deranged beast like you wants to grow taller? Keep dreaming! You'll never grow taller in this life!"

"Huff—huff—" Rudifen panted violently. Blood vessels filled the whites of his eyes as he roared, "I've never hated anyone this much in my life. I swear, I'll kill you! I'll cut you into a thousand pieces..."

Before his voice even reached Zhong Hao, he had vanished and reappeared behind him, thrusting his dagger straight out.

"The same move again? Is that all you've got? Trash. You've completely wasted such a powerful ability as the Quick-Quick Fruit. Kami-e."

Among Zhong Hao's Six Powers, Kami-e was undoubtedly the one he had mastered best, one he could use almost perfectly.

He easily evaded the dagger thrust. Then Rudifen's figure appeared all around him, stabbing from every angle. Zhong Hao stood in place, his upper body drifting like a sheet of paper in the wind, dodging every one of Rudifen's attacks.

One attacked while the other dodged, and this continued for a full five minutes.

Gradually, Rudifen slowed down. At last, he realized something was wrong. His legs felt weak, and his throat felt as though he had swallowed a burning coal—dry, hot, and stabbing with pain.

After crying, "Damn it, I've been tricked," he said nothing else and turned to run. Zhong Hao sneered and immediately chased after him.

Zhong Hao's speed was ultimately inferior to Rudifen's. Rudifen's Quick-Quick Fruit ability had no sluggishness at all, allowing him to run at full speed continuously. Zhong Hao's normal speed was far below his, while his Soru was still incomplete and could only be used again after intervals of half a second.

One chased and one fled. Before long, they reached a secluded stretch of shore. By the time Zhong Hao arrived, Rudifen had already boarded the pirate ship and set sail.

The pirate ship was already more than a hundred meters from the shore. Rudifen laughed wildly at Zhong Hao on land. "Brat, I admit you're strong, but I can also tell you're protecting those civilians. I can't beat you, but after I recover, I'll come back and slaughter every last one of them! Hahahaha!"

Rudifen laughed for a while, only to discover that Zhong Hao was neither furious nor grim as he had expected. Instead, Zhong Hao sheathed his sword and looked at him with an amused expression. "Idiot. The sea is my home ground."

His voice was soft, yet it strangely reached Rudifen's ears over a hundred meters away.

Rudifen froze slightly, unable to understand. Just as he was about to speak, he felt the ship shake and sink. Then, as though something had blocked out the sunlight, a shadow covered the deck. He turned around in confusion and immediately went pale. A colossal creature had risen halfway from the sea and sprawled across the ship, its fierce eyes fixed firmly on him.

Out of nowhere came a tiger's roar: "Awoo—"