It greedily drained what little life force Zoro had left.
"Idiot."
Lin Xuan snorted. Without making any large movements, he merely raised his right leg and whipped a kick into Zoro's side.
Bam!
Zoro flew backward and slammed into the wooden wall on the other side of the cabin. Heavy as the kick was, it forcibly severed his connection to the demon sword.
Clutching his skeletal right arm, Zoro gasped for breath. The fervor in his eyes as he looked at the sword faded, leaving only horror.
Just touching it... nearly drained me dry?
This was the so-called secret treasure of the sea?
"What an eyesore." Lin Xuan lowered his leg, brushed nonexistent dust off his trouser cuff, and walked straight toward the wooden box emanating an ominous aura.
He reached out.
"Don't! You'll die!" Nami, who had been trembling all along, instinctively shouted, finding courage from somewhere. "Even that swordsman ended up like that..."
Lin Xuan's hand paused in midair for a moment.
He turned to look at Nami's terrified face, his lips spreading to reveal stark white teeth in a thoroughly nasty grin.
"Die? A third-rate curse like this thinks it's worthy?"
Before he finished speaking, his palm clamped down hard on the hilt, which pulsed like a living thing.
Boom!
The instant he gripped the hilt, a crimson murderous aura erupted around him. The temperature in the cramped cabin plunged until it felt like an ice cellar.
Nami and Carina felt as though an icy hand had clenched their hearts. Even breathing became difficult. It was as if an apex predator had fixed its gaze on them, every cell in their bodies screaming at them to flee.
Inside Lin Xuan's consciousness, however, an entirely different scene unfolded.
At that moment, mountains of corpses and seas of blood filled his vision. Countless vengeful souls and vicious ghosts roared shrilly in his ears, trying to shatter his reason and seize his body.
It was the accumulated resentment of the souls who had died beneath this demon sword over hundreds of years.
"Is that all?"
In reality, Lin Xuan lowered his head and looked at his right hand gripping the sword.
His palm was visibly shriveling, its skin losing its luster-a sign that his life force was being drained.
But Lin Xuan did not let go.
In his mind, the phantom of a man with a savage scar across his face-Kenpachi Zaraki-seemed to overlap with his soul at that moment.
The excitement of mortal combat and the urge to crush everything instantly overwhelmed the demon sword's resentment.
"A mere piece of iron dares turn on its master?"
Lin Xuan's grin grew more savage.
"Since you want to feed... I'll let you eat your fill! Provided you can take it!"
The next second, dark golden Spiritual Pressure, even more overbearing than the demon sword, poured out of Lin Xuan and surged madly down his arm into the blade.
The force Lin Xuan unleashed was like an ancient tyrannosaur, brutally crashing against the demon sword's cold resentment.
The nascent Three Types of Haki mingled with highly concentrated Spiritual Pressure, producing a powerful suppressive force.
Buzzz!!!
The Demon Sword Murakumo let out a shrill wail, filled with pleas for mercy, unable to withstand the tremendous surge of energy.
In that instant, Nami and Carina even experienced an illusion.
They saw what seemed to be an asura demon several dozen feet tall standing behind Lin Xuan, golden lightning coiling around its body as it opened its enormous mouth and roared silently at the demon sword.
Lin Xuan's shriveled right hand rapidly regained its fullness, its muscles swelling once more with strength.
The dark red glow on the scabbard was forcibly suppressed until it could only obediently turn into a subdued gleam of submission.
"So this is... taming it?"
In the corner, Zoro stared fixedly at the scene, an incredulous voice emerging from his dry throat.
The monster that had nearly sucked him into a dried corpse was as docile in this man's hand as a wild dog beaten into submission.
"Let's test its edge a little."
Holding the sword in one hand, Lin Xuan kicked the oak table aside and walked to the damaged opening in the cabin.
The tide was rising. A kilometer away, a massive Lord of the Coast burst out of the sea, opening its huge, fang-filled maw as it chased a school of fish.
It was a giant sea beast nearly twenty meters long, a nightmare for ordinary fishing boats.
Lin Xuan assumed no sword stance.
He casually swung the long blade as though waving a branch, cutting through the air toward the sea beast a kilometer away.
"Slash."
There was no whistle of sword energy.
Only an extremely fine, dark purple line flashed through the air and vanished.
In that instant, time seemed to stop.
One second later.
Splat!
A kilometer away, before the enormous sea beast leaping from the water could even scream, its massive body split in two in midair.
Then an invisible force tore open the sea beneath it, leaving a terrifying trench several meters deep and a hundred meters long. The slash was so sharp that the water on either side even stopped flowing for a moment.
A rain of blood mixed with seawater fell from the sky, staining that stretch of sea crimson.
The cabin was deathly silent.
Sea wind poured through the hole, chilling Nami and Carina's backs, which were already soaked in cold sweat.
This wasn't something a human could do.
Was this... the strength of that man who called himself a captain of the Gotei 13?
Lin Xuan looked at the distant crimson and clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.
"My aim was a little off, and it's too light. It still doesn't feel as satisfying as the resistance of a serrated blade cutting straight in."
With a turn of his wrist, the demon sword that had just wrought such terrifying slaughter obediently slid into its scabbard.
With a soft click, the murderous aura filling the room instantly vanished without a trace.
Lin Xuan turned around. Ignoring the three terrified spectators, he walked straight to a reasonably intact chair in the corner, sat down, and closed his eyes.
He had his weapon, and the small fry had all been intimidated. Now was the time to tally the gains from this battle.
Deep within his consciousness, the pale blue translucent panel floated quietly, awaiting his inspection.
He pressed his hand back against the hilt. The demonic aura that had been so imperious a moment earlier instantly fell utterly silent, like a quail seized by the throat.
Having dealt with the disobedient little toy, Lin Xuan settled into a comfortable position and sank his awareness into his mind.
The previously still system panel was now rippling.
[Template: Kenpachi Zaraki] [Current unlock progress: 7.8%] [Spiritual Pressure level: Seated Officer (upper tier)]
Lin Xuan's eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly.
Something wasn't right.
Before reaching this ship, even after those days of "friendly sparring" with Ace, his unlock progress had barely held at around 5.2%.
Back then, every tiny increase had been earned through brutal exchanges of flesh-pounding blows.
But what had he just done?
He had merely released a little Spiritual Pressure, given that Moss Head a kick, and casually swung his sword once.
That amount of exercise did not even qualify as a warm-up.
His gaze quickly shifted downward. In the log, a line of inconspicuous small text glimmered:
[Detected that key character "Roronoa Zoro" sustained severe injuries and experienced extreme psychological intimidation. Classified as "mental suppression."] [As the target possesses the blessing of "world fortune" and represents an important milestone on the host's path of swordsmanship, reward adjustment coefficient assessed as: extremely high.] [Unlock progress increased substantially.]
So that was it.
Lin Xuan rubbed the stubble just emerging on his chin. That nasty grin spread across his face again, though his eyes now held a more calculating glint.
Now this was interesting.
Simply defeating small fry, even if he left corpses strewn everywhere, probably would not persuade the system to grant even 0.1% progress.
But interacting with these "chosen ones" who held important positions in this world-especially through crushing, defeating, or intimidating them to establish his superiority-would make the rewards grow exponentially.
In that case...
Lin Xuan turned his head slightly. Through a slit between his eyelids, his gaze fell on the green figure in the corner struggling to rise against the wall.
Originally, the current Zoro had been nothing more than a young beast whose teeth had yet to grow in his eyes, with nothing to offer but vicious determination.
But that young beast instantly took on a different appearance in his eyes.
What young beast?
This was clearly a flourishing, top-quality crop he could harvest over and over.
If he killed this fellow now, or crippled him completely, it would be a one-time deal. He would receive this bit of progress, and that would be the end of it.
What a waste.
What if he let him grow freely for a while?
Once this kid recovered, honed his swordsmanship, and thought he had what it took again, he would come back to challenge him... and then Lin Xuan could crush him once more.
The unlock progress provided by this repeated cycle of "harvesting" would probably be more than ten times faster than simply finding somewhere to train hard.
Kenpachi Zaraki deliberately suppressed his strength and waited for his opponents to grow so he could enjoy fighting to the death... Lin Xuan chuckled inwardly, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the armrest. But I'm doing it to maximize my returns.
Different paths, same destination.
That gave him a reason to spare his life.
The smell of blood still lingered in the air, and the sound of waves striking the hull outside the cabin was especially clear.
"Cough... cough, cough..."
A bout of stifled coughing interrupted Lin Xuan's thoughts.
In the corner, Zoro finally straightened up.
His face was still pale, and his right arm hung limply at his side, its shriveled skin a horrifying sight. Yet his left hand gripped the white Wado Ichimonji tightly.
The fervor in his eyes and the dejection of his crushing defeat had both disappeared, replaced by a purer, firmer resolve.
It was ambition rekindled after witnessing true strength.
Zoro did not even glance at the black wooden box that had nearly killed him. His gaze passed over the cowering Carina and Nami and shot straight toward the man sitting in the chair, his eyes full of challenge.
With heavy steps, he struggled forward.
Chapter 19: You can leave, but carry this box aboard first!
Zoro walked very slowly, dragging his feet with every heavy step.
His withered right arm hung limply at his side, swaying slightly as he walked. Every swing tugged at his shoulder, sending sharp pain through it.
But he made no sound. He merely pressed his lips tight, his left hand nearly crushing Wado Ichimonji's scabbard.
Zoro stopped three paces away from Lin Xuan.
For a swordsman, that distance marked the boundary between life and death. But Zoro knew very well that before this man, three paces and three hundred paces made no difference.
Before you continue