Chapter Ninety-Seven: Exhausting All Means [First Update]

[Night thinking of you, how I wish you were by my side. Night thinking of you, I beg you, let me love you once more.]

“Thousand Birds Piercing Spear!”

At the very instant the fireball was swallowed by the darkness, a bolt of thunder erupted from Shumingyuan’s body. A lightning spear, crackling with arrogant electric radiance, suddenly tore through the thick darkness and plunged fiercely forward!

Ah!

A agonized scream echoed from within the shadows. The dazzling electric light flashing on the spear pierced through Blackbeard’s body. His form writhed, countless shadows surging forth to envelop the lightning spear, which was ultimately devoured without a trace.

“Hahaha! Kid, see that? Your powers are useless against me—I’m unkillable!”

Blackbeard stepped out from the black fog, an eerie mist swirling around him. His gaze upon Shumingyuan now betrayed unabashed greed. “Kid, your endless array of abilities surprises me. Fire and lightning now—what other powers are you hiding? I’m eager to know if devouring you will grant me all your abilities at once.”

Shumingyuan’s expression darkened further. The Dark-Dark Fruit was far trickier than he had imagined. Facing such an opponent, unless he wielded absolute power to defeat him, he would always feel restrained.

“Lightning Release: Earth Walk!”

Countless dazzling electric lights erupted from his body, electric serpents converging to viciously bite at Blackbeard!

Blackbeard spread his arms, letting the electric currents coil around him. Black mist billowed from his body, extinguishing the electricity in the blink of an eye.

“Hahaha, kid, don’t you get it? With the Dark-Dark Fruit, I’m invincible. The era of the Four Emperors’ Whitebeard is over. Now it’s my time!”

Blackbeard charged forward, black mist swirling with his every movement. Against Shumingyuan, he now displayed overwhelming dominance.

“Shukaku!”

With a thought, Shumingyuan summoned the immense chakra of the One-Tail Shukaku hidden deep within his body. A pale yellow cloak of tailed beast chakra surfaced on his skin, emanating an ancient, violent aura.

Invisible chakra waves rippled outward, turning the ground beneath into swirling wind and sand.

Half of Magu Town was transformed into a desert. Everyone was stunned; the battle between these two was nothing short of a clash between gods!

The shockwaves alone could annihilate everything.

“This is... sand? You’ve acquired the abilities of the former Warlord Crocodile? Kid, how can you wield so many powers of the natural elements?”

Blackbeard’s pupils contracted sharply. He knew that only due to the Dark-Dark Fruit’s unique trait could he possess two Devil Fruit powers—but this kid was already using three distinct and incredibly powerful abilities.

“If I devour him... hahaha!” Blackbeard laughed ever more arrogantly.

“Sandstorm Spear Burial!”

Over a dozen colossal sand spears condensed in the air, piercing through space and shooting toward Blackbeard!

This was tailed beast chakra—capable of harming those with natural element Devil Fruit powers. It had to cause him some damage.

“Dark Water!”

His hands turned pitch black, as if embodying true darkness. With a swipe, a massive black vortex appeared, altering the trajectories of all incoming sand spears.

“Kid, let me show you my power!”

Blackbeard clenched his fist, releasing a peculiar aura. His once pitch-black fist gleamed with a steel-like luster.

“Armament Haki: Hardening!”

With a low roar, he slammed a punch forward. The gathered sandstorm spears—more than ten enormous spears—were shattered by his blow!

Shumingyuan’s face grew grimmer. Blackbeard’s strength was steadily revealing itself as formidable. Who knew how many secrets he had hidden aboard Whitebeard’s ship!

“Flowing Sand Waterfall!”

At his indifferent command, yellow sand exploded upward, forming a colossal sand wave hundreds of feet high, surging fiercely toward Blackbeard!

No matter how strong his body, he could not withstand a double assault from such a tsunami of sand!

“Dark Hole Path!”

Countless shadows suddenly surged from Blackbeard’s body like an abyssal black hole rapidly expanding. In the blink of an eye, the entire sand-swallowed land was enveloped in an utterly malevolent darkness.

“Devour!”

Boom!

An invisible force transformed into an indescribable gravitational pull. The roaring yellow sands were drawn into the black hole; the towering sand wave shrank rapidly until, before Blackbeard, even the last grain of sand was completely swallowed.

A chasm thousands of feet wide was left in the town.

“Hahaha! There’s no power the Dark-Dark Fruit can’t absorb! Ghost Hunter, hand me your head and become a stepping stone to fame across the seas!”

“Release!”

The black darkness behind Blackbeard surged hundreds of feet into the sky. All the yellow sand he had just devoured now poured down in a torrential cascade, aimed directly at his feet!

“Slash!”

“Moon Step!”

Shumingyuan’s feet struck the ground, leaping upward to evade the sand’s attack.

“Heh, kid, I never said you could run!”

Blackbeard’s laughter was cold and unrestrained. The tremendous gravitational pull emanating from his palm tugged at Shumingyuan’s body, drawing him swiftly closer.

At the same moment, the sand amassed from nearly half the town thundered down, heavily crashing onto Shumingyuan!

“Ugh...”

Struck by the heavy blow, he spat a mouthful of blood. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he was last injured. Back at Sabaody Archipelago, he had only narrowly clashed with Shiryu of the Rain.

Looking back, his escape from Sabaody was mostly due to luck. Had either Shiryu or Magellan awaited him at Hell’s Gate, he wouldn’t have left so easily.

Tens of thousands of tons of flowing sand buried him, filling the huge chasm. Shumingyuan’s body was completely entombed deep underground!

Magu Town lay calm and still, the aftermath of the battle having almost utterly destroyed the entire town. The pirates who barely escaped stared horrified at the devastation, their deepest fears ignited.

“Is that even human power?”

“Who are those two?! How can such monsters exist in the first half of the Grand Line?”

Blackbeard stood at the center of the darkness, laughing heartily as he gazed at the sand-filled pit. “Ghost Hunter, you won’t die so easily, will you? I’m far from done playing! What a disappointment. But your death will bring me honor! The news of killing the Great Demon Ghost Hunter will surely spread worldwide by tomorrow. From now on, the name Blackbeard will strike terror across the seas!”

Blackbeard lingered a while longer, yet still felt no trace of the Ghost Hunter Mengqi D. Shumingyuan’s aura. The black mist behind him churned, ready to excavate the body.

In his understanding, Shumingyuan’s powers were even more tempting than Whitebeard’s Tremor Fruit.

However, just as he prepared to act, a roar like that of an ancient primordial beast thundered up from beneath the earth.

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