Before he finished speaking, Lin Xuan brought the rotten timber in his hand crashing down without any flourish.
There was not even a trace of swordsmanship in the blow, only a savage release of his entire body's strength.
The air violently detonated in that instant.
A visible, transparent shock wave erupted from the end of the rotten timber, roaring toward Trejer like an invisible beast.
Trejer's expression changed drastically. Instinctively, he controlled dozens of chains, weaving them into a shield wall before him.
Yet before that brute force, his supposed defense was easily torn apart.
The sharp cracks of snapping chains rang out in an unbroken chorus.
An immense force blasted Trejer off his feet. Screaming, he smashed through the wreckage of the pirate ship teetering behind him.
Rumble...
The hull, already reduced to half its original size, groaned again, broke completely in two, and slowly sank into the harbor.
Dead silence.
Only the sound of waves slapping broken wood remained on the dock.
The surviving Marines and pirates alike stood with their mouths agape, unable to make a sound.
Captain Trejer, who had beaten them so badly they could not fight back... had been taken down in one blow with a piece of rotten wood?
"M-monster..."
Carina sat collapsed on the ground, staring blankly at the figure before her, still holding his striking pose.
She had been closest to him and had clearly heard something like steel cables tightening inside the boy's body.
"He really is the grandson of that old lunatic, Vice Admiral Garp..."
Lieutenant Commander Domon leaned against a reef rock, wiping blood from his face with a bitter smile. "That utterly unreasonable way of fighting is cut from exactly the same cloth."
His voice was quiet, but it carried with particular clarity across the deathly silent battlefield.
"G-Garp?"
Amid the wreckage, Trejer pushed aside the planks pinning him down and clambered out in a sorry state.
A large section of his golden armor had caved in, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
At that name, Trejer's pupils contracted sharply.
That was the nightmare haunting every pirate's heart: the Marine hero, Garp the Fist.
"No wonder... no wonder you're so tough." Trejer stared fixedly at Lin Xuan, all contempt gone from his eyes, replaced by blood-red fury. "So you're that old monster's family. Kill you... as long as I kill you, my name will ring out across the four seas!"
Chapter 27: Take Off Your Clothes-Now This Is a Fight!
Clatter!
As he roared, an uncanny transformation came over Trejer's body.
Countless chains burrowed out from beneath his skin. Instead of attacking outward, they wound tightly around him in layer after layer, like bandages.
In the blink of an eye, he became an enormous metallic ball of a man made of Steel Chains, with only his bloodshot eyes exposed.
"Chain: Absolute Fortress!"
Trejer's voice emerged from beneath the thick metal layers with a muffled, thunderous echo. "This is the defensive form I developed to deal with those monsters in the New World! Even cannons can't leave a scratch on it! Boy, no matter how strong you are, can you smash solid steel?!"
At the sight, Zoro, who had just arrived, stopped abruptly.
He looked at the monster resembling a steel fortress, then at the rotten beam still shedding splinters in Lin Xuan's hand. His face instantly went deathly pale.
"Hey! You idiot!"
Zoro could not help shouting at Lin Xuan. "That's the power of the Chain Chain Fruit! Once he compresses his chains to that density, they're several times harder than ordinary steel! Without the technique for 'cutting steel,' brute force alone is-"
"Zoro!"
A low shout interrupted him before he could finish.
Koshiro had appeared behind Zoro at some point and gently placed a hand on his pupil's shoulder.
"But, Master! All he's holding is a rotten piece of wood! If we don't tell him how breathing works..." Veins bulged on Zoro's forehead in his agitation.
"Too late."
Koshiro shook his head. His perpetually narrowed eyes opened slightly, his gaze passing over the chaotic battlefield to settle on Trejer.
Sure enough, after hearing Zoro's shout, a smile appeared on Trejer's face beneath the layers of chains.
"Cutting steel? I see. So that's what you're worried about." Trejer laughed wildly. The chains around him tightened again with a teeth-grating crunch, their metallic luster deepening. "Thanks for the reminder, you little Moss Head! Now I've raised the hardness to its limit! Come on! Show me how you're going to cut through my defenses with that rotten piece of wood!"
Zoro's expression instantly froze.
He had screwed up.
His warning had instead made the enemy strengthen his defenses, completely sealing off whatever tiny opening there might have been.
Zoro's fingers went white from gripping his sword hilt too tightly.
"Just watch quietly."
Koshiro's voice remained gentle and calm. "A true swordsman doesn't care whether he holds a Famous Sword or a withered branch."
At the center of the battlefield.
Lin Xuan lowered his head to examine the rotten timber in his hand, which had developed several cracks from the earlier impact.
Then he looked up at the steel turtle shell still shouting away.
"The technique for cutting steel?"
Lin Xuan raised an eyebrow.
He slowly raised the rotten timber in his hand, moving so slowly that everyone could clearly see the contours of each muscle bulging along his arm.
In the system's view, the lingering effects of the Enlightenment Talisman he had just used still flowed through his veins.
Back in the Bamboo Grove, he had seen the veins of bamboo leaves.
Now, within his eyes, which were gradually lighting up with a dark-golden glow, that seemingly indestructible steel fortress was covered in lines as clear as blood vessels.
That was the Breath of All Things.
And the lines of death in all things.
"Who told you I was going to use technique?"
Lin Xuan's lips slowly spread into a grin. It looked neither like a Marine's smile nor a swordsman's, but rather that of a beast that had finally found prey to its liking.
"I just thought smashing such a hard turtle shell would sound really satisfying."
Lin Xuan casually twirled the rotten timber in a sword flourish, raising a low rush of air.
"Technique?"
Lin Xuan looked at Zoro's face, nearly twisted with anxiety, then glanced at Trejer, who was huddled inside his chains and casting smug looks through the gaps. The corners of Lin Xuan's mouth could not help lifting.
That little Moss Head was right. Cutting through a lump of steel like this with rotten wood really did require comprehending the "Breath of All Things," that advanced realm sufficient to cut steel.
The Enlightenment Talisman's brief effect just now had indeed brought him to the very threshold.
If he wanted, he could cut along those "lines," and this turtle shell would split as easily as tofu.
But... that was too dull.
That was a swordsman's way of fighting, not Kenpachi Zaraki's.
That madman's template stirred restlessly deep within his soul, like a hungry ghost caged for too long, drooling over the durable punching bag before him.
What it craved was not precise dissection, but pure impact and shattering-the primal sense of destruction that came with every blow striking flesh.
"Hey, Moss Head."
Lin Xuan rested the rotten timber on his shoulder while his other hand settled on the second button of his coat. "Who told you I was going to use swordsmanship?"
Zoro froze.
Trejer froze too. His eyes narrowed to slits behind the chains. "Huh? No swordsmanship? Are you planning to tickle me with that stick? Don't make me laugh! Right now, I'm-"
"You're too noisy."
Click.
The second button came undone.
Then the third, and the fourth.
As Lin Xuan's fingers worked downward, his smooth, close-fitting black coat began to loosen in an uncanny way.
Though there was no wind, its hem seemed weighted with an immense burden, making a thud like something heavy hitting the ground as it dropped.
"Fighting in this coat really does cramp my movements."
Like an office worker hurrying to change into pajamas after coming home from work, Lin Xuan deftly shrugged the entire coat off his shoulders.
The moment the last bit of fabric left his body.
Boom-!
An oppressive force originating at the level of the soul came crashing down.
Without warning, the ground within ten meters of Lin Xuan sank half a foot.
Small stones seemed to lose their gravity, floating in midair in defiance of physics for an instant before being crushed to dust.
A visible pillar of golden light, like a golden dragon awakening, violently pierced the sky amid the shrill scream of Spiritual Pressure!
The air grew thick as mercury.
It felt like an invisible hand had clamped tightly around their throats, making even breathing an impossible luxury.
"Wh-what is this...?"
Carina's legs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground once more.
She covered her mouth in terror, staring at the boy bathed in golden light.
He had clearly been nothing more than an ordinary person with a bit of strength just moments ago. How had taking off a coat turned him into a savage beast freshly crawled out of hell?
"So that's it..."
At the edge of the dojo, Koshiro's usually half-narrowed eyes were now wide open, the towering pillar of golden light reflected in his lenses.
Looking at his stunned pupil, he explained bitterly, "Zoro, we both misjudged him. That coat was a shackle."
"A shackle?" Zoro swallowed with difficulty, his sword hand trembling uncontrollably.
"He was suppressing himself." Koshiro drew a deep breath, seemingly cowed by that violent presence as well. "He shackled himself partly to control his power more precisely. And partly, perhaps, because this world is too weak, leaving him bored. But now... the mountain has been moved aside."
The golden light dispersed.
Lin Xuan stood bare-chested. His previously unremarkable muscles were now engorged and bulging, each one like steel tempered countless times, radiating a heart-stopping heat.
He rolled his neck, and his spine produced a series of sharp cracks like popping beans.
"Ah... that's better."
Lin Xuan exhaled a long breath of white vapor. His dark-golden eyes fixed on Trejer in the distance, and his lips spread into a savage grin. "Now, let's return to that discussion about 'stress relief.'"
Under those eyes, the blood throughout Trejer's body seemed to freeze in an instant.
It was the gaze of a predator at the top of the food chain looking at its prey.
"You're bluffing! Don't think taking off a coat means you can break my def-"
Before Trejer could finish, the boy's figure vanished from his sight.
The next second, a tremendous force that seemed capable of shattering his internal organs slammed into his chest!
There were no fancy techniques.
Gripping the rotten timber in both hands as though swinging a heavy hammer, Lin Xuan smashed it into the thick turtle shell of chains, wrapped in nearly tangible golden Spiritual Pressure.
"Break... damn you!"
Crack!
At that moment, the rotten timber, which had soaked in the sea for who knew how long, displayed a hardness rivaling a divine weapon.
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