Three Months: Mastery, Evenly Matched

Ever since Zephyr explained the Six Powers to everyone, he had set sail on a mission. He had been gone for three months.

Over those months, Vergo and the others had all grown considerably. Everyone had mastered at least one of the Six Powers.

Vergo was the most impressive of them all. No one knew how he trained, but after mastering Soru, Geppo, Tekkai, Shigan, and Rankyaku had posed no difficulty for him. He had now gotten the basics of all of them down, and he could use Shigan and Soru proficiently.

Ye Chen had also mastered Soru, Geppo, and Rankyaku. As for combining them with the Bomb-Bomb Fruit, he had yet to succeed.

Overall, Ye Chen's strength had undergone a complete transformation. He had also developed the Devil Fruit through all four limbs. Aside from his hands, he had now trained it as far as his thighs. However, the farther he progressed, the more difficult it became. Over the entire three months, he had only advanced from his knees to his inner thighs. The progress was painfully slow.

As for Smoker, he had not trained all six forms. Instead, he had chosen only a few, since Geppo, Tekkai, and Kami-e were of little use to him.

Now, all of them could use Soru and remain suspended in the air briefly.

At first, Hina had been thrilled.

Shu and Very Good were the same. After succeeding in their training, they had been overjoyed. The six of them even held a proper banquet to celebrate. However, there was one extra guest: Gion.

By now, Gion and Hina had become close sisters. Other than training, they would go shopping together, dragging Shu and Very Good along. Even Smoker had not escaped.

Hina had originally wanted to invite Ye Chen and Vergo as well, but the two were completely immersed in training, like a pair of wooden blocks. They had flatly refused.

Ye Chen was even worse. He merely glanced at Hina and Gion, then ignored them and continued training.

Even now, Hina was still a little angry. Gion had frowned as well, feeling somewhat displeased.

That day, wind and sand swept across the training grounds. Two figures constantly vanished from one spot and appeared in another. Their fists collided, producing deep, muffled booms.

Bang!

Their knees slammed together. Ye Chen and Vergo were practically face-to-face, their expressions grave. They moved almost simultaneously, clenched fists crashing together with terrifying force.

Ye Chen staggered back several steps, then stomped down hard, his right foot sinking slightly into the dirt. His right cheek was swollen and red.

Vergo performed several backflips through the air before landing steadily. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

The two stared at each other without speaking. In an instant, they vanished, reappearing ten meters away as sand and dust billowed up around them.

A roar rang in his ears. Ye Chen tilted his head as a fist swept past right in front of him. At the same time, he launched his own attack toward Vergo's chest.

At the critical moment, Vergo vanished and appeared behind Ye Chen, his right leg sweeping toward him.

Expressionless, Ye Chen twisted aside. His right knee drove upward and collided with Vergo's right leg, while his left fist shot toward Vergo.

Bang!

Gales burst outward. The two fought like battle machines, endlessly exchanging and countering moves. They appeared in the air one moment and on the ground the next. Before long, the entire training ground had been torn beyond recognition.

Rankyaku.

The ground split apart as fragments of stone flew everywhere. A bright white, crescent-shaped slash over a meter high shot from Vergo's right foot, sweeping mercilessly toward Ye Chen.

Ye Chen did the same. His right leg flashed out, sending a slightly larger bright white slash ripping across the ground.

A violent explosion erupted, and dust filled the sky. The two vanished again. Slashes occasionally tore out of the smoke, accompanied by repeated collisions.

Shigan.

Within the smoke and dust, Vergo's eyes widened as his right hand shot toward Ye Chen.

Ye Chen's expression turned grave, but he did not take it head-on. He simply dodged aside.

The battle grew more intense with every exchange, and the two had completely entered a fierce deadlock. Compared to Vergo, who had mastered offensive techniques like Shigan and Rankyaku, as well as the defensive technique Tekkai, Ye Chen was far more limited. Aside from Rankyaku's ranged attacks, he relied entirely on his fists.

Even so, Ye Chen and Vergo remained evenly matched.

Although their battle was full of openings in the eyes of an expert like Zephyr, who could have broken through them with a single move, one had to remember their ages.

After fighting for a full hour, both were bruised and battered. Their scar-covered bodies had gained several more patches of discoloration.

Drenched in sweat, they ended their spar and sat in the resting area, gulping down several mouthfuls of cold water.

"Whew, that was a satisfying fight today."

Vergo took off his clothes, revealing a physique far beyond what someone his age should have had. There were at least a dozen scars across his body.

Ye Chen, on the other hand, had no habit of taking off his clothes. Even though they were already tattered, he kept them on, because he had far more scars than Vergo. His back and chest were covered in whip marks and horrifying blade wounds. Even the smallest scar was three centimeters long.

The blurry, bowl-sized mark on the right side of his chest was especially eye-catching. That was why Ye Chen generally disliked exposing his chest and back in front of others.

In fact, Ye Chen's hands and feet bore scars as well. Yet every time he recovered from an explosion, those scars remained. This led him to a conclusion: the Bomb-Bomb Fruit could not heal injuries that had exceeded a certain time limit.

When he had suffered that abuse in the past, he had not yet developed the Bomb-Bomb Fruit throughout his body, which was why those marks had remained.

But now that the Bomb-Bomb Fruit had been developed through his limbs, if Ye Chen's hand were cut at this moment and he did not detonate the injured area, the scar would remain forever.

In other words, the Bomb-Bomb Fruit only healed injuries sustained at the moment of detonation. It could not repair old scars.

Only now did Ye Chen realize that the Bomb-Bomb Fruit was not as ideal as he had imagined. It was powerful, but it also had many flaws.

No wonder so many people had eaten seemingly powerful fruits without displaying the same level of strength. There had to be limitations and weaknesses involved.

No ability could be flawless. That was absolute.

"Looks like I lost this fight again."

Lying on the ground, Vergo looked up at the sky, somewhat unwilling to accept it.

"Don't you plan on eating a Devil Fruit?"

Ye Chen sat there, slowly drinking water as he gazed into the distance, seemingly lost in thought.

"Eating a Devil Fruit comes with major flaws. More importantly, there isn't one suitable for me right now."

Vergo rested both hands behind his head and sighed for some reason.

"If I find a good Devil Fruit in the future, I'll save it for you."

"Then I'll thank you in advance." Vergo grinned.

"You still haven't found the trick to Kami-e?"

"No. It's harder than I imagined, but I'll definitely learn it."

Ye Chen said nothing more. The two rested in silence. After all, neither of them was much of a talker.

This battle had ended in a draw. Although Vergo had learned more of the Six Powers than Ye Chen, Ye Chen was slightly more proficient in his three techniques. Vergo had to divide his attention, while Ye Chen only needed to focus on mastering Soru, Geppo, and Rankyaku.

However, that was only in terms of physical techniques. If Ye Chen added his Devil Fruit ability, Vergo would undoubtedly lose. That was why Vergo had said he had lost again.

Although Ye Chen had never used his ability to fight him, Vergo had gained some understanding from watching Ye Chen train with the Bomb-Bomb Fruit.

Unless his Tekkai became much stronger or he awakened Armament Haki, he might withstand one or two explosions. But after ten or twenty, there would not even be scraps of him left.

What Vergo did not know was that, with Ye Chen's current physique and his development of the Bomb-Bomb Fruit, its power was no longer what it used to be. In the past, it could only blast a pit within a radius of four or five meters. Now, its power had grown far greater.