Metamorphosis (Part 2)

Suddenly, as the three men and one beast rested in tacit understanding, an unexpected change erupted. Nangong Yan was the first to end his rest. His figure appeared beside the chimpanzee's massive head, his middle finger coated in pitch-black Armament Haki. A dazzling golden light flashed at his fingertip as he aimed at roughly where the chimpanzee's temple was and viciously jabbed forward.

Piercing Sun and Moon!

Squelch. The great ape's hard skull was pierced by the fingertip carrying tens of thousands of degrees of terrifying heat. Incomparably horrifying heat erupted inside the chimpanzee's head, instantly incinerating its brain matter and every other tissue.

The chimpanzee let out an incomparably shrill scream that shook the earth, but the cry abruptly stopped. Its enormous body crashed to the ground with a boom, blood vessels filling its eyes, its pupils stretched wide as it completely lost all signs of life.

After striking first and taking out one of them, Nangong Yan immediately charged toward the saber-toothed tiger. His incredible speed whipped up a storm of snow behind him, while Eastern Emperor in his hand glinted with an icy cold edge.

The saber-toothed tiger roared wildly. Rolling sound waves condensed into something tangible, sweeping up the flying snow as they blasted toward Nangong Yan. Its bare tail whipped out with a sharp whistle, the tip piercing toward Nangong Yan's heart like a spear.

Crocodile Tyrant noticed the chimpanzee's death and hurriedly attacked as well. Its huge mouth, packed with sharp teeth, flew open, firing a jet-black water column reeking of nauseating stench toward Nangong Yan.

A sneer appeared on Nangong Yan's face. The ground shook, and a deep crater appeared in the earth, hard as iron. Nangong Yan shot into the air, narrowly avoiding the sound waves and water column. Eastern Emperor swept upward in his hand, and with a clash of metal, the spear-like tiger tail was knocked away.

Tap, tap, tap... The sound of air being stepped on rang out. As Nangong Yan rapidly ascended, his right leg became shrouded in golden Solar True Flame. He kicked off the air, spun his body, and transformed into a golden firestorm that crashed down.

Blazing Star-Cloud Rift! (I love Storm Cloud Rift—it's cool as hell, hahahaha!)

Crack... Nangong Yan's kick slammed into the saber-toothed tiger's spine, shattering its backbone. The Solar True Flame instantly burned away its fur, then flowed through its pores and into its body like water. Faint popping sounds, like firecrackers, exploded within the saber-toothed tiger.

Its shattered bone spurs had already injured its internal organs, and now its insides were blasted apart. No matter how strong an exotic beast's life force was, it could only die instantly.

Kamui!

Nangong Yan suddenly turned around. His Mangekyo Sharingan emerged, and his left eye rapidly focused on Crocodile Tyrant, which was trying to flee. A terrifying force of spatial distortion tore at Crocodile Tyrant's body.

Crocodile Tyrant struggled in terror, trying to escape Kamui's tearing range. Unfortunately, Kamui unleashed through both eyes was not so easy to escape.

The terrifying spatial distortion force forcibly snapped Crocodile Tyrant's neck. Bright red blood gushed out, bloody, cruel, and strangely tragic.

"Phew..." Nangong Yan sheathed Eastern Emperor, his Mangekyo Sharingan fading as he let out a deep breath.

"This battle wasn't easy. Although I took out three exotic beasts whose strength was no weaker than Marine vice admirals, I used up a lot of stamina and revealed quite a few trump cards. I still need to keep working harder!" Nangong Yan muttered to himself as he pulled out a bottle of red wine and took several hard gulps.

After resting briefly, Nangong Yan stored away the corpses of the chimpanzee, saber-toothed tiger, and Crocodile Tyrant. Though the meat of these exotic beasts was tough, dry, and tasted terrible, their flesh contained an enormous amount of energy.

The flesh of these exotic beasts had contributed greatly to Nangong Yan's physique reaching the point where ordinary blades could hardly harm him, as well as allowing him to quickly cultivate Armament Haki.

Though it tasted awful, Nangong Yan forced himself to eat it. If he wanted to become stronger, he naturally had to get rid of some bad habits. Could it possibly taste worse than a Devil Fruit? Whenever he could not stomach it, Nangong Yan used those two reasons to comfort and encourage himself.

Although the Kamui Dimension contained abundant food, Nangong Yan only ate it as an occasional treat. Normally, he tried to eat the meat of exotic beasts as much as possible.

While staying on Divine Punishment Island, Nangong Yan completely shut himself off from the outside world. He did not care about anything happening beyond the island and immersed himself in cultivation and slaughter.

After every two and a half hours of sleep, he would train and fight madly. Whenever he truly could not endure it any longer and loneliness became unbearable, he would howl some incomprehensible songs like a madman or drink himself into a stupor. After venting, he would continue training.

This training lasted for a year and a half. At the end of Sea Circle Calendar 1496 and the beginning of 1497, earth-shaking booms erupted from the center of Divine Punishment Island. Terrifying roars and explosions made the exotic beasts around the island's perimeter tremble in fear.

A Tyrannosaurus rex as tall as a ten-story building, covered from head to toe in incomparably hard scales, and a super python several hundred meters long and over twenty meters thick were madly besieging a man clad in black, wielding a famous blade, and radiating astonishing heat.

That man was Nangong Yan, who had cultivated bitterly on Divine Punishment Island for a year and a half.

At this point, Nangong Yan had grown to over two meters tall. The muscles of his upper body coiled like dragons, eight clearly defined abdominal muscles lined his waist, and his body possessed smooth, flowing lines. His face had grown more resolute, while a golden flame mark between his brows made him look incomparably noble.

Nangong Yan unleashed wave after wave of terrifying silver-white sword energy and frightening golden flames, blocking the attacks of the Tyrannosaurus rex and super python time and time again.

These two exotic beasts lived in the central region of Divine Punishment Island and counted as two of the island's overlords. Under the joint assault of these two overlords, even a Marine admiral would not come away unscathed!

Nangong Yan had also adopted a hit-and-run strategy, clashing head-on with them from time to time, but he simply could not sustain a direct confrontation.

"Hahahaha..." Nangong Yan dodged the super python's tail strike and stood there laughing wildly. His black hair whipped about, and battle intent blazed in his eyes. His Mangekyo Sharingan emerged, terrifying ocular power surging forth like a roaring Yellow River.

Pale golden energy appeared, swiftly forming a skeleton and then a skull. Muscles condensed around it, and vast, unique energy rapidly constructed an armored warrior covered in pale golden flames!

Susanoo, Third Form!

Standing inside Susanoo, Nangong Yan sheathed Eastern Emperor and spread his hands to either side. With a puff, flames surged from his right hand, condensing into a golden greatsword covered in strange patterns. Two massive golden shuriken were wedged between the fingers of his left hand.

"Come on, stupid dinosaur, dumb snake! Let's keep hurting each other!" Nangong Yan's black hair fluttered wildly, his scarlet eyes opened wide, and the golden flame mark between his brows flickered endlessly as though it had come alive.

With a thought, the golden greatsword in his right hand slashed toward the Tyrannosaurus rex with a terrifying howl and astonishing heat. The two golden shuriken in his left hand flew out, incredibly fast yet making no sound as they cut through the air, seemingly appearing beside the super python through teleportation.

The Tyrannosaurus rex threw back its head and roared, causing the earth, rocks, mountains, and forests to tremble. Its two claws, each over thirty meters long, slashed fiercely at the golden greatsword... Boom! A shockwave like a missile explosion erupted, uprooting all the remaining ancient trees in the surrounding area.

The Tyrannosaurus rex's claws wrestled against the golden greatsword. Airwaves like a Category 18 typhoon spread outward, sweeping shattered rocks and ancient trees into the sky and flinging them far into the distance.

Suddenly, the golden greatsword shone brilliantly, its patterns flowing. The sword's already tremendous temperature abruptly surged to a horrifying one hundred thousand degrees. The claws were severed—no, they had been melted through.

The air distorted. The soil on the ground began to crystallize before rapidly melting. Within a few breaths, the places where man and beast stood turned into a boiling lake of magma.

The Tyrannosaurus rex possessed intelligence roughly equivalent to that of a seven- or eight-year-old child. Seeing this, it hurriedly withdrew its claws in distress. Its hind legs bent and sprang forward, shaking the ground as magma shot into the air. With one leap, it easily crossed several hundred meters and escaped the sea of magma.

The Tyrannosaurus rex was about to question why the super python had not come to help when it turned its head and discovered a massive hole in the super python's body. Its enormous tail was nearly severed because of it, blood flowing out like a stream and quickly forming a pool, its stench spreading everywhere.

The badly wounded super python was angrily hissing while trying to stop the bleeding. How could it have time to pay attention to the Tyrannosaurus rex...

What had happened? Although the golden shuriken looked small, they did not carry any high temperature. Aside from being large and beautifully colored, they appeared rather unremarkable.

The overconfident super python had directly tried to sweep the shuriken away with its tail before launching another attack. The moment it touched them, tragedy struck. The two shuriken turned into spatial vortices and nearly shredded its tail apart. After fighting for so long, it had previously suffered only superficial injuries.

"So, what now? Do you still want to keep hurting each other? Come on!" Nangong Yan laughed smugly at the sight. At the same time, he raised the golden greatsword again, another golden shuriken wedged between his fingers.

Roar... The Tyrannosaurus rex lowered its head and rumbled.

Hiss... The super python also lowered its head and hissed.

"You mean you acknowledge my position as overlord? From now on, I'll be the boss of Divine Punishment Island?" Nangong Yan temporarily lowered his attack and asked with a serious expression.

The two overlord-class exotic beasts nodded, expressing their agreement with Nangong Yan's words.

"Then that's for the best. From now on, you two and that stinking pterosaur will be my little brothers. Today, I'll treat you to roasted meat!" Nangong Yan said joyfully. He had finally beaten those three overlord-class exotic beasts into submission.

There were three overlord-class exotic beasts on Divine Punishment Island. Besides these two, there was also the leader of the pterosaur flock Nangong Yan had encountered when he first arrived on the island.

Nangong Yan had first transformed into a Golden Crow and targeted the pterosaur leader. It took him half a day to beat it into submission. Just when he intended to defeat the others one by one, he had not expected the final two overlords to join forces, forcing Nangong Yan to use Susanoo.

Over the past year or so, Nangong Yan had fought them many times. At first, he had fled in utter defeat. Slowly, he became able to fight them to a draw, until eventually, he defeated them.

Ignoring intelligence, each of the three possessed strength comparable to a top-tier Shichibukai, apart from Dracule Mihawk. One alone was no match for an admiral; two could fight an admiral without falling behind; three could even force a Marine admiral to flee in defeat.

If two fought Nangong Yan to the death, then even if he won, he would likely be severely injured and on the verge of death. Against all three, Nangong Yan could only barely hold them off and had to flee.

That was why Nangong Yan wanted to subdue them. They happened to possess a certain level of intelligence, so they could provide him with a powerful source of assistance in the future.

Over the years, Nangong Yan's strength had increased greatly. His physique had reached the point where ordinary muskets could hardly harm him, his Observation Haki and Armament Haki had improved tremendously, and his physical techniques had also advanced considerably. However, his greatest improvements were being able to use the third form of Susanoo and developing a new ability.

The Solar True Flame mark between his brows stored a vast amount of stamina and Solar True Flame, granting Nangong Yan one chance at rebirth from flames. As long as even a trace of life remained, he could be reborn.

Nangong Yan had created this by drawing inspiration from Tsunade's Yin Seal and the phoenix's Rebirth from the Ashes Technique.

As the demon emperor, the Golden Crow stood alongside the phoenix as an emperor of flames. Although developing an ability like rebirth from ashes was difficult, Nangong Yan had finally succeeded after deep contemplation and arduous cultivation!