Chapter 111: Artificial Devil Fruit, Great Boar Model [Second Update]

[She has not come to see me for three days. Thoughts flood in.]

The Holy Land of Apayado was shrouded in towering clouds of dust. Accompanied by the Sky Lord’s furious roar, the earth split open in a fissure stretching for a thousand meters. The beast was sent tumbling, utterly dazed, its serpentine body writhing wildly as it flattened swathes of forest.

A vicious glint flashed through Shu Mingyuan’s eyes. This savage beast had hide as tough as leather and immense strength; had they been fighting in the ocean, it would probably have rivaled a gigantic Sea King. He raised his enormous fists and hammered down blow after blow like a torrential rainstorm.

The scales and flesh on the Sky Lord’s tail were smashed into a bloody pulp. It reared upside down, then lunged at Shu Mingyuan with its cavernous jaws wide open. Shu Mingyuan released his grip and retreated, never imagining that the Sky Lord’s attack had merely been a feint. In a flash, it fled toward the distant horizon.

Shu Mingyuan stared in astonishment. The beast had actually run away?

His body rapidly shrank, returning to its normal form. Shu Mingyuan breathed heavily. In that state, his chakra had been draining at an alarming rate. Had the battle lasted any longer, he might have reached his own limit.

He returned to the altar and finally found the scattered artificial Devil Fruit lying on the nearby ground. He had been fortunate. During the earlier battle, Shu Mingyuan had deliberately avoided this area; otherwise, even the shockwaves would have obliterated it completely.

Shu Mingyuan bent down to pick one up. A streak of white light flashed from behind him, stabbing viciously toward his heart. His eyes narrowed slightly, but he did not move. Drawing Lightning Cutter, he swung it behind him. The white light struck the blade, and his body merely trembled faintly before absorbing the force.

“Brat from the Blue Sea, hand over the Devil Fruit in your possession. I can ask God to spare your life!”

A bald man stood upon a nearby tree branch. The small wings on his back likewise revealed him to be a native of the Sky Island. The sword in his hand, however, was a hundred meters long. After his ambush failed, the weapon began shrinking until it returned to its normal size.

“You are Ohm, the priest of the Iron Trial, whose survival rate is supposedly zero percent?”

Shu Mingyuan recognized him. That bizarre longsword was a Cloud Dial capable of spraying iron clouds, making his blade as light as a white cloud yet as hard as iron. It could also change size and shape at will. With such a weapon, Ohm’s swordsmanship became exceedingly swift and unpredictable, which was why he was the strongest of the four priests.

“Oh? I never expected a man from the Blue Sea to know my name. Since that is the case, hand over the Devil Fruit at once. It is something the Almighty God has specifically designated as necessary,” Priest Ohm said indifferently.

A faint sneer touched Shu Mingyuan’s lips. “Stop flattering yourself. In the Blue Sea, there are countless people who could kill someone of your caliber with a single slap. Aside from Enel, who is at least somewhat worth mentioning, all you so-called priests are trash in my eyes.”

“You insolent whelp! How dare you insult God? You are courting death! After fighting the Sky Lord, how much strength do you have left?”

Priest Ohm flew into a rage. With a sweep of his arm, the long blade formed from iron clouds shot forward, thrusting straight for Shu Mingyuan’s head.

“How much strength does it take to deal with trash like you? One hand is enough.”

Shu Mingyuan sneered. As the blade stabbed toward him, he tilted his head aside, allowing the iron cloud to skim past his cheek. His palm hardened in an instant, and he seized the weapon formed from the cloud.

“How much strength do you have left without this blade?”

With a mocking laugh, Shu Mingyuan crushed the iron cloud in his grasp, warping its shape. Then, turning his palm into a fist, he struck it once and shattered the cloud, dispersing it from its sword form.

“Here is one for you.”

The young man stamped his foot and surged forward. At his current speed, the hundred-meter distance vanished in the blink of an eye. Lightning Cutter trailed a chain of crackling sparks through the air as it stabbed toward Priest Ohm’s vital points.

Ohm was horrified. The man was unbelievably fast; even with his Mantra, he could perceive only a blurred trace. In an instant, iron clouds gathered before him and formed a sturdy shield. Yet beneath the keen edge of Lightning Cutter, the iron shield was no more than paper. The blade pierced straight through it.

As one of the finest swords, cutting through iron like mud was merely its most basic attribute. How could an iron shield possibly stop it?

Priest Ohm felt his soul leave his body. At the critical moment, he shifted half an inch, allowing Lightning Cutter to pass through beneath his ribs. It missed his vital organs by the narrowest margin.

Cold sweat soaked his back. He remembered Enel telling him that the Sky Knight Shura had nearly been killed in a single strike. He had paid no attention at the time, but now he realized that he had badly underestimated this man. Shu Mingyuan was even more terrifying than Enel had described.

“Missed? What a pity…”

Shu Mingyuan sighed. The iron shield had ultimately bought Ohm a split second, giving him just enough time to evade. Shu Mingyuan immediately swept his sword sideways, sending a blade of light shooting out to cut Ohm in half at the waist.

“You little wretch, you have succeeded in angering me. Now I will show you my true strength. Speaking of which, I should thank you for that Devil Fruit. God bestowed it upon me, granting me such tremendous power. So, to repay you, I shall offer your life as a sacrifice!”

Ohm gave a cold, sinister laugh and cast aside his cloud sword. Then he let out a roar that shook the heavens. Hard bristles sprouted from his bald crown, while the rest of his body erupted in a thick brown mane. Two tusks protruded from deep within his mouth, his eyes turned scarlet, and drool dripped continuously from the corners of his lips.

“Is that… a giant boar?”

The corner of Shu Mingyuan’s mouth twitched. He had long known that artificial Devil Fruits were hardly pleasant, but even so, he had not expected such a bizarre Zoan form. His gaze drifted toward the other Devil Fruit hanging at his waist, and an uneasy thought arose within him.

Could this one also turn its user into some bizarre cat, dog, or rat?

He was even somewhat relieved that Conis had not eaten it on a whim. If its transformation were somehow even worse than a giant boar, the joke would have gone far beyond amusing.

The giant boar was over three meters long, with each of its tusks measuring more than a meter. A savage aura radiated from its entire body. It slammed down all four hooves and charged toward Shu Mingyuan like a bolt of brown lightning.

Shu Mingyuan could clearly sense that after Priest Ohm activated his ability, every aspect of his physical strength had nearly doubled. His attack power was therefore terrifyingly formidable. Those two razor-sharp tusks could effortlessly pierce through anything.

“Disgusting creature. Your performance ends here. The gap between us is not something a mere Devil Fruit can bridge.”

“Super-Multiplication Technique: Super Heavy Fist!”

His cold voice rang out. His right arm extended, and in Ohm’s eyes it suddenly grew enormous, just as Shu Mingyuan’s entire body had moments earlier when he transformed into a giant. A dark aura seeped from his body, clinging tightly to his skin and hardening in an instant, gleaming with a deep black radiance.

His enormous fist, wrapped in pale-blue chakra, shot forward in a single devastating blow. The air exploded with the impact. The giant boar’s tusks shattered on the spot, and countless bones throughout its body snapped.