Three Months of Training, Evenly Matched

Since Zephyr finished explaining the Six Powers to everyone, he had gone out to sea on a mission. He had been gone for three months.

Over those months, Vergo and the others had all improved greatly. Every one of them had mastered at least one of the Six Powers.

Among them, Vergo was the most impressive. No one knew how he trained, but after learning Soru, Geppo, Tekkai, Shigan, and Rankyaku posed no difficulty for him at all. He had now gained a basic grasp of all of them, 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 not succeeded yet.

Overall, Ye Chen's strength had undergone an earth-shaking transformation. He had also developed his Devil Fruit through all four limbs. Aside from his hands, it had now reached his thighs. However, the farther he progressed, the harder 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 in all the Six Powers either. Instead, he selected a few, because Geppo, Tekkai, and Kami-e were of little use to him.

By now, all of them could use Soru and briefly stay suspended in the air.

At first, Hina had been thrilled.

Shu and Very Good were the same. After succeeding in their training, they were extremely excited. The six of them even held a proper banquet to celebrate. However, there was one more person now: Gion.

Gion and Hina had somehow become close friends. Other than training, they often went 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 absorbed in training like a pair of blocks of wood. They refused outright.

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 field. Two figures repeatedly vanished from one spot and appeared in another, their fists colliding with heavy, muffled booms.

Bang!

Their knees slammed together. Ye Chen and Vergo were close enough to touch, their expressions grim. They struck almost simultaneously, clenched fists crashing together with shocking force.

Ye Chen staggered back several steps, then stomped down hard. His right foot sank slightly into the dirt, and the right side of his face was swollen.

Vergo flipped backward several times through the air before landing steadily. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

They stared at each other without speaking. Their figures vanished in an instant, reappearing ten meters away as sand and dust swirled up around them.

With a roar in his ears, Ye Chen tilted his head as a fist swept past his face. At the same time, he launched his own attack, driving a punch toward Vergo's chest.

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

Expressionless, Ye Chen twisted aside and drove up his right knee, smashing it into Vergo's leg. At the same time, his left fist shot toward Vergo.

Bang!

Wild winds scattered in every direction. The two fought like battle machines, constantly exchanging and deflecting moves. They appeared in the air one moment and on the ground the next. Before long, the entire field had been battered beyond recognition.

Rankyaku.

The ground split apart as shattered stones flew everywhere. A bright white, crescent-shaped slash over a meter tall shot from Vergo's right leg, mercilessly sweeping toward Ye Chen.

Ye Chen did the same, kicking out with his right leg at high speed. A bright white slash slightly larger than Vergo's tore across the ground.

A violent explosion erupted, sending sand and dirt flying into the sky. The two disappeared again. Slashes occasionally cut through the dust, accompanied by repeated collisions.

Shigan.

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

With a solemn expression, Ye Chen did not take it head-on and merely dodged aside.

As the fight continued, it grew more and more intense. Both had completely entered a heated state. Compared to Vergo, who had mastered offensive techniques like Shigan and Rankyaku as well as the defensive technique Tekkai, Ye Chen's arsenal was far simpler. Apart from Rankyaku as a long-range attack, he relied entirely on his fists.

Even so, Ye Chen and Vergo were evenly matched.

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

After fighting for an entire hour, both were bruised and battered. Their scar-covered bodies had gained several more bruises.

Drenched in sweat, the two finished sparring and sat in their resting area, gulping down several mouthfuls of cold water.

"Whew, that was a satisfying fight today."

Vergo took off his shirt, revealing a physique far beyond what someone his age should have possessed. There were no fewer than a dozen scars across it.

Ye Chen did not have the habit of taking off his clothes. Even though they were already tattered, he did not remove them. The scars on his body far outnumbered Vergo's. His back and chest were covered in whip marks and horrifying blade wounds. Even the smallest scar was three centimeters long.

The most eye-catching was the blurry, bowl-sized patch on the right side of his chest. That was why Ye Chen generally disliked exposing his body in front of others.

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

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

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

In other words, what the Bomb-Bomb Fruit restored after an explosion was only the injury suffered 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 perfect as he had imagined. It was powerful, certainly, but it also had many flaws.

No wonder many seemingly powerful fruits failed to display the same might when eaten by different people. There had to be limits and drawbacks involved.

No ability could ever be flawless. That was absolute.

"Looks like I lost this fight again."

Lying on the ground, Vergo looked up at the sky with some reluctance.

"Are you not planning to eat a Devil Fruit?"

Ye Chen sat there slowly drinking water, staring into the distance as if lost in thought.

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

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

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

"Then thanks in advance." Vergo grinned.

"Still no progress with Kami-e?"

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

Ye Chen said nothing more. The two rested silently like that, since neither was particularly talkative.

This battle had ended evenly matched. 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 hand-to-hand combat. If Ye Chen added his Devil Fruit into the equation, Vergo would undoubtedly lose. That was why Vergo had said he had lost again.

Although Ye Chen had never used his ability to fight Vergo, Vergo had seen him train with the Bomb-Bomb Fruit often enough to understand some of its power.

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

However, Vergo did not know that as Ye Chen's physique improved and he continued developing the Bomb-Bomb Fruit, its power was no longer what it had once been. It was no longer merely enough to leave a crater four or five meters wide. Its destructive force had become much greater.