Level 55 of Impel Down, two months later.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Several pebbles cut through the vast air, continuously shooting toward the blindfolded Ye Qiong. Ye Qiong shifted his body slightly, just managing to dodge the stones.
After this period of training, he vaguely "saw" surrounding things with his mind, grasping the trajectories of the incoming stones through the air!
A few more stones flew across the air. Ye Qiong moved his body in rhythm a few times, dodging them all safely. The stones missed their target and landed on the Crow King behind him.
"Ouch!" The Crow King was struck for no reason, screaming repeatedly and taking a stray hit innocently.
"Master, I'm going to counterattack!"
A smile curved the corner of Ye Qiong's mouth. His newly mastered Observation Haki felt like using R, allowing him to clearly sense everything around him as well as the Night Emperor's location.
He stepped forward, sprinting sideways, and lunged toward the Night Emperor with open arms, about to grab a handful of beard.
"Disciple, my body has recovered somewhat during this period."
Seeing Ye Qiong attack, the Night Emperor didn't mind. He shook his head slightly, extended two fingers on his right hand, and circulated Armament Haki, covering them like pitch-black armor.
Then sword qi condensed at his fingertips, sweeping toward Ye Qiong, who was about to rush in front of him.
A faint black edge swept out. Ye Qiong felt a chill, but he didn't retreat or dodge, meeting it with his fist!
Screech!
The black edge cut through the skin of his hard fist, splashing a drop of blood. Ye Qiong clenched his teeth, his fist continuing forward unstoppably, and was about to hit the Night Emperor, only to stop steadily at the very last moment.
"Not bad." The Night Emperor nodded, patting his fist, and expressed satisfaction with Ye Qiong's progress.
Basically mastering Observation Haki in two months was already quite extraordinary.
"Master, was that just now..." Ye Qiong untied the blindfold, looking at the flat and smooth wound on the back of his hand. Such a sharp edge was somewhat like Dimensional Sky Slash.
"Correct, that is my self-created swordsmanship that dominated the seas—Dark Night Style." The Night Emperor's gaze was somewhat complicated, his tone difficult to calm. "The once strongest offensive swordsmanship school!"
"Once?" Ye Qiong asked doubtfully, quickly asking, "Why only once?"
"Because the person who defeated me in swordsmanship within a dozen moves is the true strongest." The Night Emperor sighed, feeling emotional. "Besides, I've been locked up here away from the sea for forty years. Who knows if there are new powerhouses outside who have surpassed my swordsmanship!"
"Disciple, never underestimate this world! Your master is a lesson from the past for you!"
At the Night Emperor's warning, Ye Qiong nodded earnestly. He already vaguely understood what kind of person it was that had defeated his master and imprisoned him in Eternal Hell.
Only one of those five people standing at the pinnacle of World Government power would have such strength and qualifications!
"However... for the past forty years, I've been thinking about the profound meaning of swordsmanship, thinking about ways to defeat that person, and eventually I understood one thing..."
"Dark Night Style doesn't need to make any changes, because its own swordsmanship techniques definitely didn't take the wrong path! It's just that I didn't walk all the way to the end!"
The Night Emperor's tone was agitated, somewhat unable to control himself. For someone like him who had given his life to the sword, the thing he feared most was for his swordsmanship to be questioned by the world!
Forty years of contemplation allowed him to see through the profound meaning within!
Dark Night Style did not lose! The only one who lost was him!
"Disciple, no matter what, I have already lost! I have no right to challenge him again, but I hope that after you inherit my Dark Night Style, one day you can truly defeat that peerless swordsmanship powerhouse!"
The Night Emperor heavily patted Ye Qiong's shoulder, his whole person spirited like a youth—that was the gratification of having a successor.
Ye Qiong solemnly promised.
Let power be towering, let swordsmanship be peerless. If they want to fight, then fight!
If he feared the Five Elders, how could he reach the strongest? How could he make the world's powerhouses make way for him?
"Of course, your body arts cannot fall behind either." The Night Emperor looked at Ye Qiong's hand, only to see that the wound had already quietly healed.
Such self-healing ability was simply unbelievable.
"Master, you spent more than a decade or so on the sea, have you never seen the tattoo on my body?" Ye Qiong asked strangely.
The Night Emperor frowned, pondered for a moment, and shook his head. "This tattoo of yours has the ability of self-healing blessing, somewhat like the patterns of a Devil Fruit awakening, yet somewhat unlike..."
"It shouldn't be the manifestation of a fruit ability awakening."
Ye Qiong himself ruled out this theory. With his current use of deeper R abilities like "Space Banishment" and "Spatial Annihilation" being extremely difficult, his spatial ability development was definitely not yet at that level.
"The plant tattoo began to appear from your navel... How does it seem to be sprouting and growing on your body..." The Night Emperor pondered.
Plant? Sprouting? Growing?
A flash of inspiration crossed Ye Qiong's mind, causing his body to tremble in disbelief.
Damn it, could this be the Tree of Omniscience Seed...
Ye Qiong muttered. He remembered the day Dr. Clover handed him the glass bottle containing the Tree of Omniscience Seed. He kept it in the right chest pocket of his outer clothing, and later during the battle with Sakazuki, his right abdomen was pierced by his magma fist.
He thought the seed and the glass bottle had been directly melted together, never expecting it to grow on his body as a tattoo.
"Truly miraculous."
The Night Emperor, knowing a bit, felt emotional. But if not for this strange tattoo providing vitality and repairing Ye Qiong's severely injured body, where would he have such a lively disciple now?
Afterward, Ye Qiong officially began learning Dark Night Style swordsmanship from the Night Emperor. After being taught the training method for Armament Haki, the Crow King went off to dig holes and figure it out on his own.
"In Dark Night Style, with a single slash, everything is severed! With the pinnacle Night Radiance Strike, there is nothing in this world that cannot be resolved with a single slash! If there is, then two slashes!"
The Night Emperor's tone was incomparably confident, and his words were equally simple and crude.
"If you want to practice Dark Night Style, the absolute basics lie in explosive power and the perfect control of muscles, placing extremely high demands on the wrists!"
"Starting today, swing the sword ten thousand times! Incrementally add a thousand each time, until reaching one hundred thousand!"
The Night Emperor pointed to the ground. That so-called sword was actually a stone sword carved from a boulder. The blade was thick, and only the hilt size was no different from an ordinary sword.
Ye Qiong was speechless. Presumably, only a physique like his own could endure such a perverted training regimen.
He didn't resist either, walking straight forward to grip the stone sword, and began exercising his wrist strength.
As long as he could grow stronger, how could any amount of bitterness or exhaustion count as anything? Thinking more of Robin's smile, his heart felt like it was healed, filled with sunshine and vitality.
"Robin, wait for me to get out!"
Ye Qiong's pupils ignited with fighting spirit. As the stone sword went up and down, his entire body followed the bulging muscles on his arms to pulse, the blood qi within his body churning and steaming with heat.
The huge stone sword was swung and brandished, the wind whistling.
He sweated profusely, yet mechanically repeated the sword-swinging motion, seemingly without feeling tired.
Beside him, the Night Emperor nodded secretly, highly gratified.
Even if a person had supreme talent, they were merely considered strong. A true powerhouse, besides talent, required both perseverance and conviction.
As for Ye Qiong, apart from having superb talent, he also possessed tenacious perseverance and an indomitable conviction.
If he walked out of this Impel Down, he would inevitably plunge like a dragon into the ocean and stir up countless turbulent waves!
Before you continue