"Is this the threshold of the New World?"
Lin Xuan grinned, revealing a smile that sent chills down the spine.
He could feel an aura rising rapidly within that seemingly peaceful bamboo grove.
Unlike its earlier gentleness and probing, that aura was now as sharp as a razor pressed against his throat.
It felt dangerous.
An ordinary person would probably have turned and fled out of instinctive fear by now.
But every cell in Lin Xuan's body was screaming, "Charge!"
"Hey, Moss Head over there."
Lin Xuan suddenly spoke, casually planting Demon Sword Murakumo in the floor without looking back.
The peerless demon sword gave a soft hum and sank partway into the floor.
Standing in the doorway, already rigid from the terrifying destructive power, Zoro shuddered violently. He instinctively tightened his grip on his sword hilt, his throat too dry to make a sound.
"Let me borrow something."
Ignoring Zoro's reaction, Lin Xuan strode toward the weapons rack in the corner of the dojo.
Several wooden swords the students normally practiced with lay scattered there.
Slashing with Murasame had felt good, but he had not actually come here to kill anyone.
More importantly, the Kenpachi Zaraki template was stirring wildly. The pleasure attainable only through evenly matched combat, or even fighting while weakening himself, was devouring his reason.
Since his opponent was using a bamboo sword, he would use a wooden one.
This was not mercy.
It was for purer enjoyment.
Lin Xuan bent down and picked up a heavy, hard wooden sword.
The instant his fingertips touched the rough wooden hilt, a strange fluctuation unlike anything before surged from deep within his body.
It was not merely Armament Haki. Mixed into it was a golden spiritual pressure from the depths of his soul, belonging solely to "Zaraki."
Crack.
The wooden sword seemed unable to withstand this power and gave a faint cracking sound.
Rather than restraining himself, Lin Xuan poured power into it even more recklessly.
Hundreds of meters away, deep in the bamboo grove, Koshiro had just steadied himself when he abruptly raised his head.
His normally unruffled Observation Haki was now frantically sounding shrill alarms.
In his perception, the aura of the boy back at the dojo had suddenly changed.
If he had been a rampaging beast before, then what stood there now... was a golden sun radiating destruction.
Lin Xuan tightened his grip on the wooden sword and turned toward the bamboo grove.
Dazzling golden light began seeping through the wooden sword's pitch-black surface.
Chapter 23: Swordsmanship reborn, one strike decides the victor
Dazzling golden light seeped through the wooden sword's pitch-black surface, and an almost tangible spiritual pressure overflowed along its rough grain.
This was not Haki, but a purer form of life energy.
The wooden sword creaked in his hand, as though it would crumble to dust in Lin Xuan's grip the next second.
"Don't break too easily, buddy."
Lin Xuan chuckled, and the cloth shoes on his feet burst apart.
Like a shell fired from a cannon, he hurtled straight into the deep bamboo grove, wrapped in that golden storm.
There was no exquisite footwork, only a straight line carved out by sheer speed and strength. Wherever he passed, swathes of tough green bamboo that had grown for decades toppled.
Deep in the bamboo grove, Koshiro's perpetually narrowed eyes snapped open.
That long-absent hot blood began boiling anew in the retired man's veins.
Against such a brute-force charge, any evasion would trample a swordsman's dignity.
"Since you are so enthusiastic..."
Koshiro slowly raised the Black Blade in his hand. The surrounding air instantly grew thick, as though the blade were drawing in all the moisture in the bamboo grove.
"One Sword Style: Torrent!"
The Black Blade slashed down.
Its vast momentum was like a great river bursting its banks.
Golden spiritual pressure and a black torrent collided thunderously in the heart of the bamboo grove.
Boom-!!!
For that instant, all sound vanished from heaven and earth.
Then a visible white shock wave swept outward, instantly pulverizing every bamboo stalk within fifty meters.
Zoro had only just reached the edge of the grove. Before he could even make out that man's back, the violent blast sent him flying, slamming him into a moss-covered rock.
"Cough, cough..."
Zoro clutched his chest in pain, his throat filled with the rusty taste of blood.
He raised his head, his eyes filled with horror.
This was what that guy called "further training"?
This was clearly a natural disaster.
Amid the swirling bamboo leaves and dust, two figures collided at high speed.
Every clash brought an explosive crack of air that set teeth on edge.
Though the wooden sword in Lin Xuan's hand was not as sharp as Murasame, reinforced by that terrifying spiritual pressure, it was as hard as a famous sword. Every swing carried the weight to split mountains and shatter stone.
Koshiro fought as he retreated. Though his handling of the Black Blade was exquisite, Lin Xuan's injury-for-injury fighting style left him somewhat constrained.
This fellow was getting stronger.
Koshiro's gaze grew increasingly grave.
Even during this fierce fight, he could feel the boy's strength continuing to rise. Those beastlike combat instincts were devouring his swordsmanship experience at a terrifying speed.
A move that forced him back one second could be endured with a bizarre posture and countered the next.
How was this a human? He was clearly a piece of uncut jade being tempered in the fires of battle.
"What's all that noise? An earthquake?"
"It sounds like it's coming from the dojo!"
Noisy voices and the wavering glow of torches came from the distant village road.
The commotion here was too great. It had ultimately alarmed the simple villagers.
Koshiro frowned slightly.
He could not let this drag on.
Once a battle of this level reached the villagers, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Besides, he also wanted to see whether this boy with a monstrous physique could comprehend that realm.
"Lin Xuan!"
Koshiro suddenly used the recoil from a collision to leap backward, landing on a jutting boulder.
His aura abruptly changed.
It was no longer as gentle as water, nor as violent as a torrent.
He became utterly silent, as though he had become one with the sword in his hand, the stone beneath his feet, and the wind behind him.
"The Breath of All Things lies in listening."
Koshiro's voice passed clearly through the noisy wind and reached Lin Xuan's ears.
"You want to learn to cut steel? Then let your body remember-what it means to cut through anything!"
The Black Blade in his hand was no longer pitch-black. Instead, a layer of transparent ripples appeared over it.
This was the pinnacle of a master swordsman, the secret of cutting steel.
Before that slash was even unleashed, Lin Xuan could already feel his skin prickling. That was the taste of death.
"Bring it on!"
Instead of retreating, Lin Xuan advanced, the savage grin on his face growing utterly crazed.
The blood in his body screamed, and every cell craved this blow.
He made no attempt to defend.
He even lowered the wooden sword he could have used to block by two inches.
What was he doing?
Watching from afar, Zoro's pupils contracted sharply, his heart feeling as though a large hand had clenched it tight.
That stance left him wide open!
Did he want to die?!
"One Sword Style: Lion's Song!"
Koshiro's figure vanished in an instant.
A fierce silver line sliced through space and dust, heading straight for Lin Xuan's neck.
It was too fast for even thought to follow.
But Lin Xuan's beastlike instincts were faster than thought.
At the critical instant before that lethal silver line struck him, he abruptly sank down-not to evade it, but to trap it.
Squelch!
Blood sprayed.
Koshiro's killing stroke sliced deep into Lin Xuan's left trapezius and even cut into his collarbone, producing the sound of scraping bone.
But that was as far as it went.
Lin Xuan's muscles, as though cast from steel, locked the blade firmly in place and would not let it advance another inch.
"Got you."
Lin Xuan raised his head, baring stark white teeth through his blood-covered face. A crazed fire burned in his dark golden eyes.
Koshiro's pupils contracted violently.
This madman had actually countered the secret of cutting steel like this?!
Before Koshiro could withdraw his blade, the golden wooden sword Lin Xuan had long held ready in his right hand slammed into Koshiro's unguarded abdomen like a battering ram, carrying all his spiritual pressure and monstrous strength.
Bang-!!!
There was a deep, thunderous crash.
The back of Koshiro's clothing burst apart instantly. He flew backward like a kite with its string cut, smashing through more than a dozen thick green bamboo stalks before crashing heavily into the distant earth, throwing up a skyful of dust.
Lin Xuan staggered and dropped to one knee.
He yanked the wooden splinters lodged in his shoulder free-they were fragments of the scabbard Koshiro had shattered with sword energy at the last moment-and blood instantly stained half his body red.
Yet he was laughing.
"Ha... hahaha... that felt good!"
He casually grabbed the half-empty bottle of rum he had tossed onto the ground earlier. Ignoring the dirt and blood mixed into it, he tilted his head back and drank.
The fiery liquor ran down his throat, aggravating his wound, yet making the light in his eyes burn even hotter.
Before you continue