Observation Haki and Bagua Black Hand

"One last thing."

The boy pulled off his cloak, took two deep breaths, and raised both hands, showing the sharp knuckle-dusters on his fingerless combat gloves.

"I heard you've already awakened two types of Haki. I've only awakened Observation Haki so far, and my knuckle-dusters are an essential means of attack, so I won't take them off later.

In return, if you need a weapon, I'll agree to that too."

"I didn't expect you to be so aboveboard."

Lu Ye curled his lip. "If you're letting me choose, I'd like a city-defense cannon with a 280-millimeter bore..."

"Shameless!"

The boy shouted. His recently calmed emotions surged again, and he said through gritted teeth:

"Father was wrong about you. You have none of the bearing of a strong fighter!"

Lu Ye raised his fists and grinned wickedly. "What does it matter? Does a strong fighter still count as one if he loses? I'm after victory. I don't mind fighting a little dirty."

"Soru!"

The boy wasted no more words. His figure flickered and vanished from where he stood.

It was the same move Hoffman and the others used!

Lu Ye felt the hairs on his body stand on end. His eyes searched his surroundings warily, but he could only catch the afterimage left when the boy vanished. His ears were filled with a jumble of footsteps coming from everywhere.

Thud!

A fist slammed squarely into Lu Ye's lower back. He instinctively kicked backward, but hit nothing.

The boy appeared in his field of vision, smiled disdainfully, and vanished again.

Clutching the four bloody holes, Lu Ye grimaced in pain.

"Hoffman, what the hell is this? How can a human possibly move that fast? Is it a superpower?"

Hoffman remained expressionless. "Lord Saint Longinus, I cannot answer your questions during the fight. But if you die in battle today, I will burn the answer for you."

"You don't even know the Six Powers, so how dare you fight me? Little Longinus, I'll be taking the Hoffman Squad!"

The boy flashed into view and launched a flying kick, landing a heavy blow on Lu Ye's backside and sending the previously overbearing Double-flower Red Pole staggering.

This wasn't right!

In the underworld novels Lu Ye had read, the local natives' fighting skills had clearly been no different from those of his previous life.

So when Lu Ye saw Garling, Hoffman, and the others moving at high speed, he had assumed it was a natural result of their powerful physiques.

Those damn writers led me badly astray!

"Shigan!"

While Lu Ye was still bewildered, alarm bells suddenly rang in his head. A certain delicate little flower seemed to sense the danger of its defenses being breached and contracted violently, but had nowhere to retreat!

Move! Move! Move!

Lu Ye twisted his body violently, then saw the boy dart swiftly past him like a big black rat.

"You're lucky. Did your Observation Haki sense it?"

The boy blew on his finger and looked at Lu Ye disdainfully.

"You're every bit as shameless as I am!"

As though he had just escaped death, Lu Ye clutched his backside, still shaken. If he had been a moment slower, he would probably have spent the rest of his life in adult diapers.

The boy smiled. "Observation Haki can only improve in a crisis. I'm just helping you."

Lu Ye raised an eyebrow. "Cut the nonsense. At that speed, you wouldn't have been able to stop in time even if you wanted to!"

The boy shook his head lightly. "Why would I stop? If you got hit, that would only prove you were inferior dirty blood, not worth cultivating at all."

Fuck, that boomerang came back and hit me.

Lu Ye let out a long breath. As a Double-flower Red Pole who had spent years struggling on the edge of life and death, he was highly accepting of all sorts of strange methods.

"It doesn't matter where you are. As long as I can see where you're going to attack, I just have to dodge, right?"

Lu Ye took off his floral shirt, riddled with bloody holes, and wrapped it around his eyes.

[Timidity] would always point the flock toward the wolf!

"Smart move. Your eyes are never as reliable as Observation Haki. But how good is yours? Let me test it for you."

The boy rushed at Lu Ye like a gale, his fists raining down.

Without needing to see with his eyes, Lu Ye found that every one of the boy's attacks seemed to take shape in his mind as a point of light speeding toward him.

Sometimes the points of light were exceptionally bright, and Lu Ye could easily block them with the Armament Haki on his hands.

At other times, the points of light were dim and hard to discern, and he only noticed them when they struck his body.

As the two exchanged more and more blows, bloody holes appeared all over Lu Ye's body.

His injuries were not without value.

Lu Ye had also begun to discern a pattern. The more important and sensitive an area was, the more clearly his Observation Haki responded. In areas he didn't pay much attention to, it was as though his Observation Haki were blind.

But as he used it more frequently, the number of attacks he could sense gradually increased.

At first, he couldn't block nine out of ten punches. Later, he blocked three, then five, then seven!

Every hit was like a lamp being lit in the darkness. The next time the same area was attacked, his Observation Haki would sound the alarm.

The corners of Lu Ye's mouth rose as he continued trading punches with the red-haired boy.

Observation Haki really was like a flower blooming from cowardice. Only by facing fear could one see everything clearly.

Shalria wrung her hands. Seeing that Lu Ye's bare upper body was already covered in blood, yet he still refused to retreat, she bit her lip and asked timidly, "Sister Flora, Longinus won't be beaten to death, will he?"

"Yare yare..."

Flora smiled. "Don't worry. The young master of the Figarland family is already holding back."

Sure enough, the boy jumped back out of the fight and asked, "How's your Observation Haki now? Can you keep up with my speed? I'm tired of looking after a child..."

"You damn tsundere!"

Lu Ye cursed with a laugh, pulled the floral shirt from his eyes, wiped some of the blood from his body, and tossed it aside.

"Thanks for your help. I've more or less gotten used to your strange speed."

The boy chuckled. "Arrogant! Even without the Six Powers, there's still a gap between our Observation Haki!"

With that, the boy's figure flickered and vanished, and a barrage of fists rained down on Lu Ye from every direction.

"Useless, useless! I can see them all!"

This time, Lu Ye missed nothing. He swung his own fists, turning and shifting as he answered every one of the boy's punches.

No matter how fast the boy moved, with their strength evenly matched, he couldn't possibly be faster than the fists Lu Ye threw in advance using Observation Haki.

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

The two seemed to have reached some wonderful balance. Explosive impacts rang out without pause, and the unusual commotion drew quite a few Celestial Dragons over to investigate.

"Get lost! A duel between purebloods isn't a game for trash like you to watch for amusement!"

Without stopping, the boy coldly shouted at the onlookers, startling the Celestial Dragons into backing away.

Lu Ye asked with a smile, "Is that your limit?"

The boy asked in return, "Besides this, do you have any other moves?"

Still throwing punches, Lu Ye nodded. "Yeah. I've got a few things Hoffman called unpresentable, but I'd like to find a chance to let you sample them."

The boy said arrogantly, "Don't bother serving up garbage!"

Lu Ye chuckled. "They can't compare to Haki techniques, but they really are what I'm best at."

Evan nudged Hoffman in the lower back. "Boss, was Lord Saint Garling as strong as them when he was little?"

Hoffman shook his head. "They're a little more gifted, and they've found suitable opponents as well. But it's hard to say whether they can ultimately reach Lord Saint Garling's level..."

Flora picked up the thread. "Yare yare! After all, Conqueror's Haki appears in only one person in ten thousand. Without awakening it, one's achievements will be locked at a bottleneck, just like the boss now."

Bang!

While they were talking, the red-haired boy suddenly flew backward and tumbled awkwardly to the ground.

Lu Ye wiped two fingers through the blood on his chest and put them in his mouth. With a wicked smile, he said, "I saw all your punches. Did you see mine clearly?"

The boy wiped his cheek, his eyes full of disbelief. "That's not right! Your Observation Haki is weaker than mine. I clearly saw every one of your punches, and I dodged them all!"

Lu Ye pointed to his elbow. "That just means your Observation Haki can't see far enough. I hit you with my elbow."

"Again!"

"Come on!"

Bang!

It ended even faster this time. The red-haired boy flew backward almost the moment they made contact.

"I dodged your elbow too!"

"Yes, but you didn't dodge my elbow when I pulled my punch back."

"Again!"

"Come on!"

Bang!

The red-haired boy flew back again, even faster than last time.

"No! I saw your elbow coming back!"

"Then did you notice there's still a hand attached behind the elbow?"

The boy touched the faint finger marks on his cheek and asked blankly, "How did you do that?"

Lu Ye chuckled. "Bagua hands strike dirty, and the palm never returns empty. One palm strike holds four killing moves. Want to learn? I'll teach you!"

"Is it a martial art from the Flower Country?"

The boy asked seriously.

Jinbao landed on Lu Ye's shoulder and explained in his ear, "The Flower Country has a Huaguo background, like us."

Lu Ye nodded. "What I'm best at is the rather underhanded Bagua Black Hand. One move conceals four, enough to fool even your Observation Haki. But with your simple straight punches, I only need to watch your shoulders..."

"Impressive. I look forward to fighting you again, Longinus."

The red-haired boy put his cloak back on. He frowned and wrestled with himself for a while, then said solemnly:

"But I'm sorry, I still can't tell you my name. To make up for it, I'll help you pick the best dog, one from the Flower Country, where your martial art originated."