Chapter 281: Roy VS Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai x Kaidō
Sanemi Shinazugawa's eyes widened in anger~!
Stubborn and hot-tempered, he refused to believe it and insisted on looking up at the sky again...
That pitch-black vertical line seemed to transcend the boundaries of time and space, carrying endless scorching heat and unmatched sharpness. It plunged a second time into his bloodshot, stubbornly ferocious pupils, suddenly...
Making him cry out in unwilling pain, forcing him to close his eyes once more!
Slowly, two trails of blood tears flowed from the corners of Sanemi Shinazugawa's eyes. The man, now returned home and living with his younger brother Genya, covered his eyes and fell to his knees with a "thud".
Behind him was Genya, who had hurried over and caught him in an embrace.
"Nii-san, don't look anymore."
"That is not a realm we can touch,"
"Have you forgotten that battle with Lord Eiichiro?"
That great sword wrapped in flames that pierced through the entire courtyard... According to the people from the "Kakushi" organization, it was entirely... something only a god could do!
Humans are insignificant, yet equally great... "Namo Amitabha, Praise the Sun..."
"What an ordinary yet brutal slash!"
Perhaps because his eyes had long been blind, or perhaps because after opening his aura nodes, his control and perception of himself had become increasingly stronger.
In front of that ancient temple of the past, Gyomei Himejima sat pressing down on his Nichirin sword, his hands pressed together as he looked up at the sky. The Nen aura around his body was completely restrained, not leaking in the slightest. After undergoing two rounds of training, following Kyojuro Rengoku who was the first to convert, he finally learned [Zetsu].
Thus, under the condition of completely restraining his own Nen aura,
He was like duckweed drifting and flowing in the world, his perception of everything around him becoming extremely keen!
Now, with this vertical slash from Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai,
Gyomei Himejima's breath caught instantly. Within his heart, he saw a fire, a pure, scorching, overbearing fire that seemed capable of devouring everything through extreme high temperatures... Fire!
This fire, compared to Kyojuro Rengoku's fire,
Even though the Flame Hashira was now completely different from the past, stronger by an unknown number of times, it was like comparing a lesser wizard to a great sorcerer, impossibly out of reach!
Pfft...
Fast is slow, slow is fast. Fast and slow depend on each other, similarly possessing an extreme visual deceptiveness like Kyōka Suigetsu.
At this moment, facing the pitch-black vertical line directly, Roy felt as if his hands and feet were forcefully bound, completely unable to move. In just an instant, he lost the concept of "speed," plunging into this terrifying, black sword light containing the embers of the residual fire...
Pop~
It sounded as if something shattered,
The vertical line drew near,
The boy's fiery red long hair suspended and danced, his eyes staring blankly. Amidst the hazy sword light, he seemed to see a person... A man who was not yet bald in the past, a head of black hair tied into a samurai topknot on the crown of his head.
He stood shirtless in a small courtyard, his back to Roy. Facing him charged one Shinigami after another. As he sliced open their chests, chopped off their limbs, pierced their hearts, and severed their heads, sword after sword, beneath his feet, subsequently...
The piled-up corpses grew higher and higher...
For ten years, he fought,
For a hundred years, he fought,
For five hundred years, he was still fighting.
At a certain point in time, Roy even saw a familiar face under his sword. That opponent was also the most powerful among the many who fell by the man's hand. He came up and slashed a huge cross-shaped gash across his face. With white hair and golden eyes, holding a rapier in his hand... It looked like Chojiro Sasakibe, who now resided in the 1st Division, serving exclusively as the Vice-Captain!
"Genryūsai!"
"Chojiro!"
Blood spurted... A thousand years passed, and the man was still fighting. Only this time, he held back, gaining a loyal subordinate who would follow him for nearly a thousand years into the future.
Then, a thousand two hundred years, a thousand five hundred years, two thousand years... Time flew like a shuttle, heaven and earth changed, yet the man's original intention for fighting remained unchanged. The murderous aura upon him grew increasingly dense, his Reiatsu stronger, his Kidō more refined. When clashing with others, even without swinging his sword, merely with a pair of fists, a single move of [Sōkotsu] (Twin Bone) could smash a person into dust...
A leisurely, weathered, and majestic voice then echoed:
"Boy, can you block this slash representing two thousand years of effort?"
At the right moment, Roy instantly snapped back to reality, suddenly understanding. What he had just seen was not an illusion, but the pinnacle sword technique forged through two thousand years of life-and-death tempering, telling him of its hardships and difficulties!
Just as no one can succeed casually,
Talent can only be called talent when it is realized... Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai wielding the oldest "Flame" type Zanpakutō; rather than saying he called out the sword's true name, it would be better to say... Ryūjin Jakka chose him because it valued his perseverance, continuous persistence, ability to endure loneliness, and ability to withstand pain!
Therefore,
"Block it?"
"The Captain-Commander truly overestimates me,"
Pfft The vertical slash abruptly sank into Roy's glabella, splitting him cleanly in two from the middle!
As his mouth split open, he smiled and said: "In the end, I am nothing but a half-baked novice who has practiced the sword for less than two years."
He then fell stiffly backward, still gripping the [Solar Eclipse]!
Hmm?! Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai frowned. At a certain moment, he suddenly drew his sword and swept it horizontally behind him.
Clang! The crisp sound of clashing metal rang out...
A sword wreathed in black embers and a sword burning with raging flames abruptly collided, sending Reiatsu and Nen aura scattering like exploding fireworks!
"Sly boy, what kind of [Kidō] is this?!"
Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai squinted behind him.
The boy, who had just been split in half by his sword, had somehow bizarrely appeared behind him. Delivering the exact same vertical slash, he aimed straight for his back!
Only, he hadn't expected,
Roy's identical vertical slash, just like Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai's vertical slash, failed to hit the opponent!
Buzz A smear of scarlet surfaced from the depths of the boy's eyes. As the three pitch-black tomoe slowly spun within, reflecting in Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai's eyes, it invisibly brought him an oppressive feeling of being trapped in the netherworld!
Sharingan opened, illusion broken... Roy clashed swords with Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai, having long anticipated that the "feigned death" illusion he created couldn't deceive such a powerhouse. Just like Aizen's Kyōka Suigetsu failed to hypnotize the opponent, being shattered by a casual vibration of his Reiatsu.
Roy blinked and said: "I told you from the start, everything is but... Kyōka Suigetsu (Mirror Flower, Water Moon)..."
As his words fell, his shoulder dipped, and with a backhanded upward slash, accompanied by the Nen aura pouring out en masse, it instantly turned red, completely transforming into the [Scorching True Meaning]. The boy said faintly: "[Ken: Zanka no Tachi]!"
The exact same slash, cleaving through the night sky, condensing into a pitch-black vertical line slashing diagonally towards Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai...
Whoosh~ The high temperature of nearly fifty thousand degrees had already surpassed his former self, crossing the sun's surface and entering the photosphere,
Closing in straight for Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai's face.
The old man's white beard, meticulously braided, hung in front of him. Visibly, he was clearly stunned. Regaining his senses, he looked deeply at Roy, an unprecedented, scorching divine light suddenly erupting from the depths of his old eyes!
Ken... Zanka no Tachi... Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai carefully savored Roy's upward slash. The instant the 0.0001-second slash was about to strike his chest,
The old man phantom-like parried with his sword horizontally, once again blocking Roy's slash with perfect precision.
Then, veins bulging on his right arm, carrying unrivaled Reiatsu, he pressed down fiercely against Roy, coldly snorting: "Boy, you must know... those who learn from me live, those who imitate me die!"
"A swordsman should... forge his own path, that is the righteous way!"
Clang~ Another crisp sound of clashing rang out.
Through the blade came an immense force, like a bursting great river, crashing over him abruptly!
Roy only felt his forearm go numb, the webbing between his thumb and forefinger instantly splitting open. He almost lost his grip on the [Solar Eclipse]. Then... like an artillery shell just fired from a cannon barrel, unable to hold on for even a breath's time, on the spot,
He was blasted by Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai's inhuman strength, speeding towards the earth!
Visibly,
The boy, wrapped in flames, was like a meteor, trailing a long tail of fire, tearing through the night sky, striking straight towards the earth...
Boom!
With a loud sound,
Plunging below the horizon,
Causing the earth to seemingly tremble along with it,
Frightening many people into mistakenly thinking the earth dragon was turning over, making them flee in panic!
"Namo Amitabha, I cannot see... I cannot see through it..."
With a Buddhist chant, the Nichirin sword Gyomei Himejima sat on jumped, and was subsequently pressed down heavily again by the monk's buttocks, becoming obedient... This strongest Hashira in history, the number one person after Yoriichi Tsugikuni and Kokushibo successively left the Demon Slayer Corps,
Now, having opened his aura nodes and adorned with Nen aura, his strength surpassed the past by an unknown amount.
Yet now, as his gaze lingered between the sky and the underground, flipping back and forth, it was so hazy he could no longer clearly see the situation, unable to distinguish who was who...
"Is the one who fell Lord Eiichiro?"
Unease, anxiety, and worry... permeated every corner of the world.
Kagaya Ubuyashiki held Amane Ubuyashiki's arm, with the children Kanata, Kuina, and Kiriya by their side, looking anxiously up at the sky, and occasionally looking towards the earth. At a certain moment, waiting until the nearest Kyojuro Rengoku received the Kasugai Crow's message and rushed over, he hurriedly asked.
Kyojuro Rengoku, with a white haori draped over his shoulders, remained silent before stating truthfully: "Reporting to Oyakata-sama, this is a battle I cannot comprehend. I am not clear on exactly who fell either."
The youngest, Kiriya, usually worshipped Roy the most. Practicing swordsmanship day and night, he dreamed of receiving personal instruction from Roy one day. Hearing this, unable to contain himself, he asked: "Lord Kyojuro, can you not see clearly either?"
"It's too fast, too bright, and too sharp," Kyojuro Rengoku slowly shook his head. Taking another look, he took a deep breath and said: "The only thing I can be certain of is that whether it is Lord Eiichiro or the one fighting him, they have both transcended the realm of ordinary swordsmen!"
The more he studied [Nen Aura], the more he knew the terror of divine power, the more he understood that there is always someone better, a sky beyond the sky!
He wasn't the only one who thought this way;
Muichiro Tokito, Sanemi Shinazugawa, Obanai Iguro, Tengen Uzui... anyone who had their aura nodes opened by Roy and became a believer officially accepted by him personally, shared the same thought.
They felt ashamed of their former selves, like frogs at the bottom of a well, while simultaneously generating a deep curiosity and yearning for the "sky" beyond the sky!
"Lord Eiichiro will not fall!"
"I believe in him,"
"He could even kill Muzan Kibutsuji!"
"There is no swordsman more formidable than him!"
Kiriya raised his fist, seemingly hyping up not just himself but Roy as well... Seeing this, Kyojuro Rengoku hesitated, wanting to tell the boy... Muzan Kibutsuji, compared to the two in the sky, wasn't even fit to tie their shoes.
The words reached his lips, but were noticed by the perceptive Kagaya Ubuyashiki, who shook his head to stop him!
The man's curse was completely gone, and from then on, he lived happily with his family, asking for nothing more in this life. Filled with infinite gratitude towards Roy every day, he smiled gently and said: "There's no need to agonize over who fell and who didn't."
Kagaya Ubuyashiki opened those pale-colored eyes, looking deeply at the sky, at the figure standing under the moon, and said: "Look closely, the opponent hasn't pursued, nor shown the slightest intention of delivering a finishing blow. This means they bear no hostility towards each other, they are not enemies, perhaps even..."
Kagaya Ubuyashiki squinted his eyes: "I suspect Lord Eiichiro knows the opponent. Perhaps... he is also another Divine Envoy Lord from the cult's headquarters."
"As expected of Oyakata-sama!" Kyojuro Rengoku was stunned, then suddenly understood, his eyes clearly brightening!
Another Divine Envoy... didn't that mean the cult was far more powerful and mysterious than he had imagined!
"Praise the Sun!" A sudden utterance echoed in the Ubuyashiki estate, followed by... more devout prayers and... wishes!
Hiss
Pain... Heart-wrenching pain seemed to materialize at this moment...
On the surface of the earth,
In a remote, dark forest somewhere,
A deep, humanoid crater of unknown depth was suddenly smashed out!
Through the moonlight, vaguely visible,
A hand abruptly clawed at the dirt and reached out,
Following that... revealing a face, Roy lying at the bottom of the pit, covered in dirt, his mouth twitching non-stop!
[Prompt: "Swordsmanship" +100]
[Current "Swordsmanship": LV4 (91,240/100,000)]
[Note: Approximately nine thousand points away from breaking through to LV5]
Nine thousand points... meaning ninety slashes!
That was only two slashes,
And I broke eight ribs,
The strongest Shinigami in a thousand years, truly lives up to his name!
The panel prompt sound rang out...
Roy endured the severe pain, clumsily getting up from the pit. With a leap, he jumped onto the surface. Taking a deep breath, his suddenly flattened chest, amidst converging Nen aura, slowly puffed outwards. In less than the time of three breaths, it instantly recovered as before.
Even the internally shocked organs returned to their original positions and resumed their functions.
At this moment, the upgraded [Rebirth from a Drop of Blood], based on Muzan, exerted a massive effect!
Buzz~ A hazy mass of green Nen wrapped the boy tightly from the inside out, seeking out every single injury on his body to perform on-the-spot repairs.
High in the sky,
Beneath the bright moon,
Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai, carrying the moonlight on his back, looked down. His white eyebrows imperceptibly twitched, and he asked in astonishment:
"Kaidō ?"
☆☆☆
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