This novel is finished, and I have posted all the advanced chapters on my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395
Everything unfolded exactly as "Rowen" had anticipated.
Imu was extremely weak at this moment. Already in a frail state, he had further lost divine power after being partially devoured by the two of them. There was simply no way he could contend with Rowen and Shi Ji head-on.
But if he wanted to recover, there was only one way,
He had to feed on divine power.
Thus, there was only one target he could choose!
"Ugh!"
Pain surfaced on Rayleigh's otherwise cold and detached face. Thick vines, as wide as an arm, were bound tightly around his waist, making escape impossible. At the same time, a shadow appeared behind him, pressing a hand onto his shoulder and forcibly extracting a ribbon of sapphire-blue light that shone like a band of stars.
Only gods could devour gods, and only gods hunted gods.
The relationships between gods were even more brutal and chaotic than the intrigues of the mortal world.
Rowen believed that neither Imu nor Shi Ji was an exception.
Boom!!
At that moment, the Mountain Ancestor snapped one of its massive pincers shut on the thick vine, crushing it in the middle.
The face of Imu growing from the vine let out a shrill scream, yet refused to let go (?), instead accelerating the rate of extraction.
He wouldn't die that easily, but giving up the prey before him would mean a future worse than death.
"Such audacity!"
But there was more than one enemy targeting him. In the blink of an eye, Shi Ji appeared beside the vine and struck out with a palm.
Shuā!
Blue light erupted violently, sweeping across a vast stretch of space like a giant brushstroke.
The vine caught in the sweep vanished instantly, leaving not even a trace behind between heaven and earth.
After severing the vine with one strike, Shi Ji extended his other hand, reaching toward Rayleigh.
"Don't even think about it!"
A frenzied roar rang out. Amid repeated bang bang explosions, even more vines burst forth from beneath the sea. Though none were as thick as the previous one, each was still as wide as a human head. Combined with their thousands in number and lengths reaching thousands of meters, the scene was overwhelmingly spectacular.
However,
"Without divine power to support them, what meaning do they have?"
Shi Ji saw through the illusion at a glance. The vines rushing up from below looked imposing, even blotting out the ocean, but they were nothing more than ordinary plants. They weren't even true extensions of Imu's main body, just techniques stimulated by divine power. Once that stimulation ended, the power dispersed.
Shuā!
Bringing his palms together like a blade, Shi Ji didn't even bother to look before slashing downward.
A massive blue curtain of light swept horizontally. Amid countless chi-la sounds, the forest of enormous vines was severed cleanly at the roots.
Countless broken branches splashed into the sea with plop… plop…, leaving Imu's already gray, withered main body looking even paler.
Seeing Shi Ji tear apart the vines entangling Rayleigh, Imu panicked.
"Wait! We can work together!"
"Together?"
Shi Ji paused and asked, "What exactly can you do?"
If the opponent were the earlier "Rowen," Shi Ji would never have stopped. But the current Rowen was growing stronger by the moment, his power swelling to a level that even inspired fear. Unless time itself reversed and returned him to his prime, Shi Ji had no hope of victory.
Add to that the Mountain Ancestor watching him like a tiger eyeing its prey…
Under such circumstances, Imu might indeed become a powerful ally.
What "Rowen" could see, Shi Ji could also see.
So he needed a way to break the deadlock.
"Many of his family and friends are Devil Fruit users. As long as I recover even a little strength, I can retrieve them all!"
Extracting immature fruits was useless, it would even damage their growth, causing that portion of the origin power to dissipate. One would have to wait several more years to make up for the loss.
But to deal with the Soryu (Azure Dragon), Imu couldn't afford to care anymore.
Those people might be willing to die for victory, but Imu knew Rowen was extremely proud. If his victory required others to help him, or even die for him, he would never be able to accept it.
To him, that would be a pain greater than the death of those he cherished!
So Rowen would never allow things to drag on that long.
As long as Imu retrieved the remaining fruits, even at tremendous cost, he could still regain considerable strength.
He might even,
Win in this increasingly chaotic struggle!
Naturally, Imu didn't say that part out loud. Instead, he told Shi Ji:
"You can feel it, can't you? How much world origin I assimilated with my own power. Aside from the ocean, I hold the vast majority!"
"As long as I reclaim even a little of it, I can help you."
"But the premise is that I must recover some divine power. I'm far too weak right now."
Hearing this, Shi Ji hesitated.
He knew Imu would never cooperate sincerely. Betrayal would come the moment an opportunity arose, but that went both ways.
So was this bargaining with a tiger for its hide…
Or,
Killing the wicked dragon looming overhead first?
"One-tenth!"
"…Hm?"
"I'll only give you one-tenth of the power inside him!"
Shi Ji extended his hand, severing the shadow's arm with a single chop, making Imu flinch as if sharing the pain.
"Your control over Devil Fruits is instinctive, not dependent on divine power. You only need a little power to drive it, don't you… or do you want more?"
Shi Ji narrowed his eyes dangerously.
If Imu demanded more, he would have to reconsider keeping this ally at all.
Naturally, Imu wanted more…
But he didn't dare say it. Circumstances were against him. Suppressing his greed and desire, he nodded.
"Fine. That's enough!"
"Hurry!"
Shi Ji dragged Rayleigh out, pressed a hand to his forehead, extracted a sapphire-like sphere of light from his body, and tossed it to Imu.
"I have a feeling… he's definitely plotting something."
The premise of this four-way chaotic battle was that none of them possessed a decisive trump card. The confidence of "Rowen" lay in his ability to continuously devour the power of his other self, allowing him to grow stronger without limit.
But now, the Rowen who had swallowed his other self was giving Shi Ji an overwhelming sense of pressure.
The complete power of the Heavenly Demon combined with his original lightning power,
That was a force even greater than that of a God!
Could it be that he was unable to act while digesting it?
Shi Ji made this guess.
Otherwise, he couldn't understand why Rowen would allow him to come over and rescue Rayleigh.
Such a heaven-sent opportunity, if it weren't for being unable to act during digestion, he would already have had the impulse to extract all the divine power from Rayleigh's body, an urge he had forcibly suppressed with reason.
So was the truth…
Really like this?
High in the sky, Rowen stood motionless, his entire body entwined with radiant light-flames. The faintly leaking energy drew in endless dark clouds. Amid dancing lightning serpents, his presence appeared incomparably majestic.
Rowen discovered that after he had completely devoured the Goro Goro no Mi, the Thunder Thunder Fruit, and awakened it, this extended power, which Imu had created to plunder the world's origin, had undergone subtle changes.
The greatest difference was that it had become a part of his body.
Just as humans who breathe and eat naturally maintain a body temperature of around 36–37°C, that awakened power was like body heat, it spread continuously without any need for conscious control.
If this continued, the entire world would eventually become a world of lightning.
"When a lifeform undergoes a qualitative transformation… it's no longer me adapting to nature, but nature adapting to me… is that it?"
Feeling the increasingly dense electrical signals in the air, that surging power reminded Rowen of the time when he had developed the Thunder God Seal on a desolate island outside Newland Island.
The entire island had been covered and eroded by lightning, trees scorched black, almost no living creatures able to survive.
And that hadn't even been the effect of awakening. Back then, he hadn't reached the awakening stage at all, just the constant gathering of attracted electric charges had formed clouds of that magnitude.
"If I don't want to destroy the world, I'll have to be careful in the future."
With a thought, he cut off the leaking energy. The electric charges gathering in the humid air quickly dissipated, leaving one feeling refreshed.
Then he raised his head and looked toward the distant Mountain Ancestor.
The Mountain Ancestor, which had pounced toward Shi Ji, was blasted head-on by a blue beam of light. Having been suppressed for many years and burdened by previous injuries, it was no perpetual-motion machine, its stamina had declined sharply.
"This angle… should be just right."
The corners of Rowen's mouth lifted slightly. He raised his right arm, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and held them upright like a gun.
He was simply waiting for the perfect moment,
A moment to end the battle in a single move.
After all, he still hadn't fully digested the Heavenly Demon's power within him, he wasn't yet strong enough to annihilate all three of them with one overwhelming strike.
Fighting one-on-one would be too much trouble.
But this required an angle, a flawless angle, one that required the three of them to cooperate nicely.
As for Imu's plan, Rowen hadn't paid it the slightest attention.
He had never been this powerful before. He had come to this world precisely to grow stronger, so he simply couldn't understand that once one reached a certain level of strength, conspiracies, schemes, and even differing instincts all became irrelevant.
Everyone knows that a lion fighting a rabbit still goes all out.
But who has ever wondered how a lion steps on an ant?
Watching tiny opponents struggle on the brink of death, futilely trying to turn the tables, would be Rowen's sole amusement for a long time to come.
Put simply,
"Go ahead and do whatever you want. If it works, I'll admit defeat."
He narrowed one eye. A dazzling white light gathered at his fingertips as Rowen slowly aimed forward, silently forming the words with his lips.
"Pa."
The next instant,
A meteor fell from the heavens!
(End of Chapter)