He had spent his entire life as an instructor and was acutely sensitive to the atmosphere on the training grounds.
In the past, whenever he roared, the recruits would roar back in shame, eager to gain greater strength.
But now, although the hundreds of recruits still held their horse stances, their eyes kept straying uncontrollably toward the long sword in Tashigi's hand, which was still giving off black smoke.
That was genuine Armament Haki.
Tashigi, who normally managed to trip twice on a five-kilometer run, had now truly mastered that power.
"What are you all staring at?!"
Zephyr suddenly stepped forward. Spiderweb cracks spread across the concrete beneath his feet, and the blast of air forced the soldiers in the front row to close their eyes.
He turned his head, his massive mechanical arm letting out a teeth-grating hydraulic hiss as it nearly touched Tashigi's nose. "Explain yourself. What do you mean, you managed it? What do you mean, because of Lin Xuan? If you dare tell me that sixteen-year-old brat was performing some kind of ritual, I'll go twist his head off right now."
Tashigi stiffened under his murderous aura. Shigure slid back into its sheath with a clang, and the Armament Haki she had barely maintained instantly dissipated.
"It wasn't a ritual!"
She frantically straightened her glasses before they could slip off. Her voice trembled with nerves, but that only made her next words sound more credible.
"It was guidance, a special form of potential development! Chief Instructor, the whole headquarters is talking about it! Just now, in the square, Admiral Lin Xuan... he took less than ten minutes to bring more than a hundred soldiers stuck at a bottleneck to the threshold of Haki!"
"How many?!"
Zephyr's voice shot up like an overloaded steam engine.
"A hundred...