Chapter 48
Chinjao's pupils constricted, and formidable Conqueror's Haki erupted from his body once more.
Yet the Conqueror's Haki, which in the past had at least been able to suppress his opponent slightly for a moment, had no effect on White Ghost whatsoever.
In the blink of an eye, Adrian closed the distance, and Yubashiri, coated in Ryuo, slashed at Chinjao once again.
Chinjao's fan-sized right hand instantly covered itself in jet-black Armament Haki, his five fingers closing into a fist that moved with lightning speed to block the front of Yubashiri.
"Hasshoken!"
However, Ryuo was not so easily blocked.
Chinjao felt a sharp, intense pain in his fist as if he had been pierced by needles, and caught off guard, he drew his fist back.
Taking advantage of this opening, the longsword in Adrian's hand continued its thrust, the sharp blade swiftly slicing across Chinjao's waist and abdomen.
Even though the latter managed to timely protect his body with Armament Haki at the very last moment, he was still sent flying fiercely by this sword, and the visual impact was astonishingly breathtaking.
Naturally, Adrian would not let go of the opportunity to beat a drowning dog. Taking advantage of the moment Chinjao was sent flying, he entered the ghostification state, followed him like a shadow, and appeared above Chinjao.
At the [trough] when Chinjao's own [breath] grew weak, Yubashiri was raised high.
Steel Tempest!
The snow-white sword light carried an unstoppable momentum as it swept horizontally toward the enemy!
Too fast!
Chinjao's pupils contracted, too late to even dodge.
Screech--Puff!
The snow-white blade was exceptionally sharp, breaching the defense of Chinjao's physique and carving a tragic, massive wound across his chest. Fresh blood gushed out endlessly, and one could even faintly see the crimson internal organs pulsing within!
This was a swordmaster's proudest ultimate attack. With the aid of the Breath of All Things, there was nothing in the world that could not be severed!
Yet such an injury did not inflict too much negative impact on Chinjao.
The intense pain simultaneously triggered his ferocious nature.
Fallen into an extreme state of fury, Chinjao let out a fierce roar. Disregarding his injuries, his entire body soared into the air, concentrating all his vital energy and spirit onto a single point on his head, and violently smashed toward his opponent.
"Hasshoken Secret Technique: Drillless Dragon: Drillless Nail!"
Under Adrian's perception, with his speed and reaction capability, wanting to completely evade this strike was not difficult, but there was no need for that at all.
At this moment, with fury crowning his head, Chinjao had concentrated all his strength onto a single point on his head, but at the same time, he had completely abandoned the defense of all other parts of his body!
Adrian merely shifted slightly to the side, dodging the "Drillless Nail" at the peak of its momentum while his gaze briefly intersected with Chinjao's as they crossed paths and fell.
Yubashiri flicked lightly, breaking open Chinjao's body from bottom to top as blood spattered all over the ground.
Chinjao the Drill is dead!
[85. June Summary]
Well, this is actually not a main text update. While typing halfway through, I realized it is already the last day of June, and suddenly wanted to say something.
Judging from the current situation, this book's performance is quite good, with over ten thousand favorites and a ranking in the top twenty of the New Star List.
However, book friends who have been following from the very beginning know that this book's start was not all that smooth.
Last month, which was May 24th, I published the book. At the time, I didn't look for an editor to talk about internal submissions, and directly published the book on the author backend.
Then came the long, stagnant waiting period...
Usually, if a station message doesn't arrive within ten thousand words, you can wait.
If it doesn't arrive by thirty thousand words, most people are considering scrapping it...
Fifty thousand words... Very few authors can persist until fifty thousand words without a station message and still continue writing, really.
This book only received its station message on June 3rd. By that time, it had been updated to twenty chapters. I remember that day was just a hair's breadth away from fifty thousand words, because I was genuinely prepared to give up if the station message didn't arrive by fifty thousand words...
Messaging editors on QQ, changing category classifications, and finally, I waited for the station message.
The station message arrived on June 3rd, and the first recommendation came on June 11th. Until today, it is already the middle of the third recommendation.
As for the temporary performance...
Everyone can see it.
Before the recommendations, the book's cumulative favorites had just exceeded 500, and now it's over 10k. The backend shows the cumulative favorites at this moment are: 11,830.
In a recommendation period of exactly 20 days, cumulative favorites increased by over 11,000.
It's unimaginable for a Pirates fanfiction to achieve such results in the gaming category...
I think this is a remarkable achievement, and none of this is separable from the support of all the book friends!
Now, let's officially report on the performance for June, up until the publication of this author's note.
This summary will be deleted on July 4th, which is this coming Sunday.
Currently, the total number of cumulative tips in the backend is: 31,700. There might be some miscellaneous ones not counted, but roughly it should be around this much.
According to the original rules, a tip of 3,000 Qidian coins adds one chapter. I have already repaid 7 chapters, and still owe 3.
Currently, the total number of cumulative monthly votes in the backend is 178 votes, with 47 votes coming in just today alone... I don't know if it's because people's enthusiasm for casting monthly votes goes up at the end of the month, otherwise, I feel like I need to change the rule for monthly vote additions...
Cumulative 178 votes, so there is still 1 chapter owed for monthly votes.
Thus, the total cumulative owed chapters is 4 chapters.
On Monday, I asked the editor about the follow-read data, and they said it "feels eligible for Sanjiang."
The last time I asked about follow-read, the wording was "promising for Sanjiang," and now it's "feels eligible for Sanjiang." Savor the subtle difference between the two.
So if there are still book friends who want to invest, you can go and add your investment to see if this book can make it onto the Sanjiang list during the new book period!
That is all for the author's June summary!
Tomorrow is the first day of July, and next month we will continue to update diligently!
I also hope everyone can continue to support!
The author bows in gratitude!
[86. Chapter 85: Harvest and Rewards]
The warm corpse fell into the icy abyss, leaving behind only an eyesore of glaring scarlet blood upon the ice layer.
The vast Precious Jade Icefield fell into a death-like silence.
None of the members of the Happo Navy dared to believe that [Chinjao the Drill], who had once rampaged across the seas and even vied with the Hero of the Marines Garp in his era, would actually die in the lair of the Happo Navy, dying at the hands of a rookie who had only recently emerged in West Blue.
The Happo Navy roared in hoarse disbelief.
"Chinjao-doryo... is dead?"
"This is impossible! How could Chinjao-doryo die here! How could he die at the hands of White Ghost!"
"Chinjao-doryo must have just passed out from heavy injuries, just like when he was defeated by Garp before!"
Adrian ignored the group of Happo Navy members who instantly lost their composure upon losing their leader. He only gripped Yubashiri, its blood not yet dry, with a cold demeanor, walking toward them step by step with a calm expression.
Seeing White Ghost approach with his sword in hand, the low-ranking grunts of the Happo Navy either turned and fled in terror or mustered up their courage to fight to the death.
No matter what, the final outcome would not change in the least.
After harvesting the lives of all the Happo Navy grunts present, Adrian left only Tsai Dou, who could barely be considered an acquaintance, for the last.
"Sorry for the trouble, Mr. Tsai Dou..."
Mini Hollow: Withering Heart-Piercer.
The next instant, a semi-illusory mini hollow was manufactured, slowly flying toward Tsai Dou's chest and sinking into his body.
Accompanied by a muffled sound that was not particularly loud, blood instantly splattered from Tsai Dou's chest. He opened his mouth as if wanting to say something, his lingering gaze filled seemingly with hostility, seemingly with regret.
Adrian slowly exhaled a breath.
Cutting weeds without eradicating the roots always leaves a hazard.
From the very moment the battle with Chinjao ended, the remaining Happo Navy members present were doomed to meet a fatal end.
The system panel refreshed madly.
[You killed Flower Country - Happo Navy Leader - Chinjao (LV81). You obtain 800 million EXP.]
[Crossing 20 levels to kill an enemy, you additionally obtain a 400% EXP bonus.]
[You cumulatively obtain 3.2 billion EXP!]
This was the largest sum of experience points Adrian had ever obtained in his life!
Especially under the powerful bonus of cross-level slaughter, this massive amount of experience was enough for Adrian to instantly raise the level of [Swordmaster] to LV15!
After much thought, however, he abandoned this seemingly extremely tempting idea.
For one, the experience required for subsequent upgrades of Swordmaster was too terrifying;
Secondly, as levels increased, the corresponding additional reward bonus for cross-level kills would become smaller and smaller, and the difficulty of acquiring large amounts of experience would further increase.
After officially stepping into [Swordmaster], suppressing levels and hoarding experience had become a necessity!
However...
"Chinjao of the present even has the strength of LV80+? It seems Chinjao in his prime can indeed be classified into the standard of sub-top-tier combat power on the seas, as he is a Great Pirate with a 500-million bounty after all."
Adrian had a faint conjecture in his mind: perhaps any Great Pirate with a bounty of over 500 million would have a corresponding level of above LV80!
"If this is the case, finding enemies in the future will be much simpler..."
Yet the chain reaction brought by the deaths of Chinjao and Tsai Dou did not stop there.
[You killed Happo Navy Leader - Chinjao. The Happo Navy's favorability toward you has decreased. Current relationship: Deadly Enemy!]
[You killed Happo Navy Acting Leader - Tsai Dou. The Happo Navy's favorability toward you...]
[You killed...]
[Flower Country's favorability toward you has decreased. Current relationship: Hostility!]
[Warning: When a faction's favorability toward you drops below indifferent, entering territories belonging to that faction carries an extremely high probability of suffering attacks from native forces.]
Aside from the frantic plummet in faction favorability with the Happo Navy itself, the remaining chain reactions brought by the deaths of Chinjao the Drill and a large number of Happo Navy members were also quite astonishing!
Compared to before, when Hog, the leader of the Second Treasure Navy, died, Flower Country's overall favorability had merely dropped to the "indifferent" tier, which was merely the first layer of negative faction relations.
Yet after Chinjao was killed, the faction relationship with Flower Country instantly plummeted to the second-to-last layer of negative faction relations: Hostility!
It was merely a step away from the final [Deadly Enemy]!
It seemed Chinjao the Drill and the Happo Navy's prestige within Flower Country was far from anything that bunch from the Second Treasure Navy could compare to...
Perhaps in the eyes of people from other West Blue countries, the Happo Navy and its leaders were unadulterated pirate factions, yet in the eyes of the locals of Flower Country, the Happo Navy and Chinjao were their most powerful guardian deities.
The saying "one man's enemy is another man's hero" could not be truer.
The system panel continued to refresh.
[Random Quest [Dragon Without a Drill] ended. You obtain 8 million EXP!]
[You obtain the reward: Randomly draw a certain skill or specialty of the enemy.]
[Randomizing... Extraction complete.]
[Please select one of the following five abilities as a reward:]
[1: [Hasshoken] - Skill: A powerful move integrating offense and defense. Passed down from generation to generation by the Happo Navy with a history of a century, it unleashes a diffusive shockwave with powerful attacking power while striking the opponent. General shields cannot block this offensive. It also possesses extremely powerful defensive capabilities, making it impossible for even swords and guns to harm the user of Hasshoken.]
[2: [Observation Haki] - Skill: Omitted]
[3: [Drillhead] - Specialty: A peculiar, sharp, drill-shaped skull. Increases head attack power by 500%!]
[4: [Drillless Dragon: Drillless Nail] - Skill: Hasshoken secret technique, one of Chinjao's strongest moves. First, wrap "Armament Haki" around the head, then use whole-body strength and body weight to charge at high speed toward the clouds, and subsequently concentrate the shockwave of "Hasshoken" onto the flattened head to collide with the opponent by focusing strength onto a single point.]
[5: [Armament Haki Specialty · Black Jade] - Skill: Armament Haki resembling solidified jade, capable of massively increasing one's own offensive and defensive capabilities.]
A quick skim revealed no Conqueror's Haki.
"What a pity. Chinjao is one of the few possessors of Conqueror's Haki... Could it be because my luck is too low? Let's see what the other rewards are... Wow, my luck really is a bit dark this time..."
Among the five rewards, the only specialty actually turned out to be an irreversible "appearance-type specialty"?
What is the use of that bizarre drillhead anyway?
Even if it can boost head attacks by 500%, do I need to headbutt people?