If Your Training Is Slow, What Does That Make Me?

Beiyuan Heng was almost certain that while he and Zephyr were fighting, the Visual Den Den Mushi above the training ground had recorded every move they made.

Sengoku, Garp, and Vice Admiral Tsuru were surely watching every detail of the battle as well, using it to assess his strength and potential.

"Not the ideal situation, but it's not far off," Beiyuan Heng thought.

In this situation, displaying his Haki training was a good choice too.

After all, the Navy's top brass was basically all paying attention to this place.

The recognition they could provide was unquestionably top-tier in terms of quality.

He immediately stopped hesitating.

Bright black Armament Haki instantly wrapped around his forearm.

"Not bad. You can barely make it into the New World."

Seeing Beiyuan Heng's Armament Haki, Zephyr spoke.

"Then let me see how strong this Armament Haki is."

Yet before Zephyr could attack Beiyuan Heng, Beiyuan Heng had already appeared before him with lightning-fast speed.

His black Armament Haki combined with the reinforcement of Iron Body in his hand.

He thrust directly toward Zephyr's heart.

"Your use of Armament Haki is fairly skilled, and you can combine it with Iron Body too. Not a bad idea."

Zephyr neither dodged nor evaded. Since he was testing Beiyuan Heng's Armament Haki, he naturally had to make contact with it.

Just as Beiyuan Heng's arm was about to touch Zephyr's body.

A pitch-black iron arm had already seized Beiyuan Heng's arm and violently yanked him toward Zephyr.

At the same time, Zephyr gathered strength in his other hand and smashed it fiercely toward Beiyuan Heng.

Beiyuan Heng's eyes narrowed slightly. He suddenly exerted force with his right hand and broke free from the grip on his arm.

At the same time, he lightly stepped on the air with his toes, using Moonwalk to vault over Zephyr's head.

The instant he passed over Zephyr's head, black light flared around his foot as Armament Haki wrapped around his right leg.

The next instant, he kicked straight at Zephyr's head.

At that moment, even Zephyr felt a faint sense of danger.

If that blow truly landed, it might actually injure him.

Zephyr spun around sharply and swung his right arm upward to the right.

Yet the strike that had seemed certain to land had already missed!

Zephyr paused in slight surprise, immediately understanding what had happened.

"Good brat. I didn't even use Observation Haki, yet you used it first."

At the very instant Beiyuan Heng tried to kick at Zephyr's head.

The various traits on his body frantically warned him of danger and pinpointed the right timing!

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately used Moonwalk: Treading Void: Kick.

The next second, he instantly appeared in Zephyr's blind spot behind him.

In that instant, the sound of Zephyr's right arm tearing through the air rang beside his ears.

Beiyuan Heng had no doubt that if that blow struck him, even with his physical strength, Armament Haki, and Iron Body defense, he would immediately lose his ability to fight.

Although Zephyr had restrained his strength to the level of a Commodore.

His Armament Haki would not weaken in the slightest just because he was holding back. Its power remained exactly what it was.

At most, he limited the attack of his Armament Haki so he would not injure himself.

"Now is the best time to attack!"

With the boosts provided by the traits on his body, Beiyuan Heng seized that fleeting opportunity.

He clenched both fists and placed them lightly against Zephyr's waist. The Armament Haki in his forearms surged to its limit as all the strength in his body gathered in his fists.

"Secret Technique: Rokuogan!"

The next moment, an immense penetrating force passed straight through Zephyr's body.

Behind Zephyr, Ain and Binz could still see the obvious blast of air.

BOOM!!

Almost instantly, the ground beneath Zephyr's feet caved in, forming a massive crater.

And that was merely the shockwave produced as Zephyr's body resisted the Rokuogan!

Looking farther back, a large hole had already been blasted through the wall of the training room not far behind Zephyr.

"Cough, cough..."

The area fell silent, with only Zephyr's soft coughing echoing through the training ground.

Ain and Binz's eyes nearly popped out of their heads.

They had never imagined that this would be merely a sparring match—one that should have been an absolute crushing victory for an admiral against a Commodore.

Yet Beiyuan Heng had actually made an admiral cough up blood!!

Zephyr coughed softly twice and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Now, the look in Zephyr's eyes when he regarded Beiyuan Heng had changed from appreciation to astonishment.

He did not care about such minor injuries at all.

What truly shocked him was that Beiyuan Heng's last attack had sent the force of Armament Haki into his body.

This was no ordinary Armament Haki.

This was the highest-level application of Armament Haki!

"Could this brat have already learned Armament Haki's Internal Destruction?"

Whether it was Zephyr, Garp, Vice Admiral Tsuru, or Sengoku, the same thought flashed through their minds.

As one of the foremost users of Armament Haki, Zephyr naturally knew exactly how many ways it could be used.

Whether it was basic coating and hardening, flowing emission, or even the most complex Internal Destruction, he understood them all thoroughly.

But he had never seen anyone like Beiyuan Heng.

He had not even perfected coating and hardening, yet he could already strike Armament Haki into another person's body.

"Brat, how long have you been training your Haki?"

Beiyuan Heng pondered for a moment before answering.

"I've been training it on and off for about a year and a half. Only in the past few months has my Haki training really gotten on track."

As Beiyuan Heng spoke, a trace of shame appeared on his face.

"This training is far more complicated than I imagined, and it's also where I've progressed the slowest."

Hearing this, Zephyr, as well as Sengoku and Garp watching the two fight from the Fleet Admiral's office, all fell silent.

Was reaching this level of Haki in a year and a half really slow?

Even Zephyr, renowned as Black Arm, had spent a full twenty years training his Armament Haki to its current level.

Yet this youth of merely sixteen or seventeen had nearly grasped the ultimate secret of Armament Haki at such a young age.

And he said he trained slowly?!

Beiyuan Heng was indeed telling the truth.

Compared to everything else, his Haki training had progressed the slowest.

Since joining CP9, he had constantly completed missions and accumulated merit.

After saving up nearly a year and a half's worth of merit, he exchanged all of it for materials on Haki training techniques.

What followed was a full year of exploring Haki training on his own.

Only Beiyuan Heng knew how many setbacks he had faced along the way.

Without the relevant traits, his progress had been extremely slow.