Developing Abilities

Although this Mythical Zoan-type Golden Crow Fruit did not enhance physical abilities as much as a pure Zoan, much less an Ancient Zoan, Nangong Yan's physical capabilities had still increased roughly fivefold. It was practically like turning a frail scholar incapable of trussing a chicken into an overlord strong enough to lift a cauldron. The improvement was nothing short of immense.

Compared to ordinary Zoan Fruits, this Mythical Zoan granted Nangong Yan four abilities. As for whether new abilities would emerge later, Nangong Yan did not know. He could only find out through gradual development.

The first ability was the power to transform into a Golden Crow. The second was derived from the first: the ability to fly, and at no slow speed. The third was the ability to control the Golden Crow's own pale golden flames, which Nangong Yan mischievously named Solar True Flame. The final ability allowed him to replenish his stamina by absorbing sunlight. Under the blazing sun, his strength would multiply, and he would scarcely need to worry about running out of stamina.

After moving his body and feeling the power within him, Nangong Yan excitedly headed toward a place he had once avoided, never daring to cross its threshold. A four-meter-long fierce tiger lived there.

Upon reaching the tiger's territory, Nangong Yan began shouting and making a racket, deliberately creating a huge disturbance to draw the tiger's attention.

Nangong Yan's expectations were not in vain. Before the time it took to drink a cup of tea had passed, a colorful tiger, one and a half meters tall and four meters long excluding its tail, suddenly burst out of the forest. Carrying a foul wind with it, it landed steadily on the ground and scrutinized Nangong Yan with vicious eyes.

Nangong Yan smiled at the tiger, extended his right hand, opened his palm, and curled his middle finger in a provocative gesture.

The tiger was immediately enraged. It let out a wild roar that shook the forest, bent its powerful limbs slightly, and sprang across a distance of six or seven meters like a coiled spring. Opening its bloody maw and baring its savage fangs, it blocked out the sunlight filtering through the forest, becoming a shadow as it pounced at Nangong Yan on a gust of wind.

A smile appeared on Nangong Yan's face, as though he had been eagerly awaiting this. He punched his right arm toward the tiger in midair, sending a basin-sized ball of pale golden flame crashing toward it with terrifying heat.

Fear appeared in the tiger's eyes. It wanted to twist its body and evade the flames, but unfortunately, Nangong Yan had deliberately aimed at its body rather than its head. With nowhere to push off in midair, the tiger could not dodge easily.

Boom... The tiger was struck by the pale golden flames, and its path toward Nangong Yan shifted slightly, allowing Nangong Yan to evade with ease.

Its heavy body crashed to the ground. The scorching flames ignited its fur, and the scent of cooked meat instantly filled the air. Wracked by agony, the tiger rolled madly on the ground, howling in misery. The pale golden flames were terrifyingly aggressive and tenacious; no matter how the tiger rolled, it could not extinguish them. Instead, they only burned more fiercely.

Nangong Yan was not a sadist. Though he wanted to take the tiger's life, he would not deliberately torture it and let it burn to death alive.

Standing where he was, he gathered a little energy within his body and flicked his finger. A pale golden beam of flame streaked across the air and pierced through the tiger's head.

Relief appeared on the tiger's pained face. It stopped struggling and lay motionless on the ground.

Looking at the Solar True Flame still burning fiercely without showing the slightest sign of stopping, Nangong Yan smiled. It seemed these flames truly carried something of the flavor of Solar True Flame.

With a beckoning gesture, the blazing pale golden flames turned into a shadow and merged into Nangong Yan's body, leaving behind a bare tiger stripped of all its fur.

Nangong Yan's Fruit was a Mythical Zoan, not a Logia. Its quantity of flames was far inferior to Logia Fruits such as the Flame-Flame Fruit and Magma-Magma Fruit, but in terms of quality, the Golden Crow Fruit was slightly superior.

Therefore, given Nangong Yan's current stamina, retrieving flames from the outside world was still quite useful and could reduce his stamina consumption.

Stamina was the foundation of all forms of Haki and all kinds of Devil Fruits. Even people as powerful as Kaido, Whitebeard, and Golden Lion could only submit helplessly if they ran out of stamina.

After testing the power of the Golden Crow Fruit, Nangong Yan had finally satisfied his craving. He walked over to the tiger, now bare and half-roasted, grabbed it by the tail, and headed back toward his dwelling.

When Nangong Yan had first transmigrated here, there was no way he could have dragged a tiger weighing several hundred jin. But now that his physical capabilities had increased fivefold, including his strength, dragging the tiger was no longer difficult.

The island was sparsely inhabited, with only various wild beasts for company. Nangong Yan did not place his hopes on a ship passing by. He focused on himself and improving his strength.

Once his strength reached a certain level, whether he transformed into a Golden Crow and flew across the sea or used Kamui's spatial ability to leave, he would be able to do so with ease.

In the mornings, Nangong Yan mainly focused on training his body: push-ups, sit-ups, squats, rock climbing, tree climbing, running, and fighting wild beasts.

As for swimming, the form of exercise Nangong Yan had loved, it was basically impossible for him in this life. Swimming? He would never swim in this life.

When Nangong Yan fought wild beasts in the mornings, he did not use his Fruit abilities. Thus, he did not dare choose opponents that were too powerful, and he generally picked beasts that were not much stronger than himself.

In the mornings, Nangong Yan did not dare provoke tigers. He could only choose opponents on the level of cheetahs, wolves, monkeys, and gorillas.

In the afternoons, Nangong Yan focused on developing his Fruit. Sometimes he meditated quietly, sometimes he stood before the sea and unleashed all manner of strange moves, and sometimes he practiced transforming. He had to become proficient at switching between human form, beast form, and human-beast form.

Besides developing his Fruit abilities, Nangong Yan also tested the moves he had developed in the afternoons, while hunting dinner along the way.

The wild beasts on the island suffered terribly as a result. As ordinary animals, they were no match for a Devil Fruit user. They could only let Nangong Yan slaughter them at will. Whoever caught his eye was the unlucky one.

In the evening, he trained his body once more. After dinner, Nangong Yan devoted most of his attention to his Kamui Mangekyo Sharingan.

What left Nangong Yan utterly speechless was that his Mangekyo Sharingan could not regress into an ordinary three-tomoe, two-tomoe, or one-tomoe Sharingan at all. Perhaps due to its mutation, although this Mangekyo Sharingan possessed the abilities of both ordinary Sharingan and Mangekyo Sharingan, it could only switch between black eyes and Mangekyo Sharingan.

As a result, Nangong Yan's stamina consumption was extremely high, making it impossible to use for normal operations. Even with the Devil Fruit increasing his physical abilities fivefold, if he kept his Mangekyo Sharingan activated, he could sustain it for at most fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, he could only collapse on the ground, unable to move.

Thus, in order to cultivate, Nangong Yan went through food at an astonishing pace. Training his body, developing his Fruit, and studying the use of his Mangekyo Sharingan all required enormous amounts of stamina.

After removing the organs and head, a tiger weighing several hundred jin would last Nangong Yan three days if he ate sparingly. If not, it would only last a little over two meals.

Nangong Yan was fourteen years old, a perfect time to grow and improve his strength. Naturally, he could not afford to eat sparingly.

That meant he consumed a great deal of food. The island was not large to begin with, and its food supply was limited. To make his food last longer and vary his meals, Nangong Yan added wild fruits, berries, and the like to his diet. Fish were not easy to obtain. There were a small number of freshwater fish on the island, but as for sea fish, it mostly depended on luck—blasting the sea with highly concentrated Solar True Flame.

Half a year passed like this. No ships had passed by the island, and Nangong Yan had destroyed more than half of its ecosystem. Who knew how long it would take to recover? As food grew scarcer, Nangong Yan had no choice but to consider leaving.