Chapter 31: Had a Good Fight, Didn't You?
Ice shards scattered, white mist rose upward. Beside a massive ice crater, Su Xiao raised his arm. The green vines clinging to his skin gradually withered and detached from him.
This was likely the ability of one of the couple from earlier. During the fight, Su Xiao had felt a stinging sensation on the skin of his arm, but he had no time to check. Now he realized it must have been caused by the impact of that light pillar covered in pink flowers that expanded outward. On it were spores or pollen with extremely strong vitality. Once they touched a human body, they would absorb stamina at a considerable speed to grow, eventually leaving the victim completely exhausted.
Fifth-rank contractors were completely different from fourth-rank. Even though Su Xiao's strength had been at the top among fourth-rank, he had just been promoted to fifth-rank. The Summit War was his first world in fifth-rank, and his strength was likely somewhere in the middle to lower end of fifth-rank.
The good news was that in this One Piece world, there wouldn't be too many contractors with a level exceeding Lv.45. The reason was simple: although participating in the Summit War had no lower rank limit, it had an upper limit—fifth-rank.
This didn't mean contractors above fifth-rank couldn't participate in the Summit War, but their rewards would rapidly decrease as their rank increased. For fifth-rank contractors, once their Reincarnation Paradise mark level exceeded Lv.45, their rewards from participating in the Summit War plot event would drop by 80%. As for sixth-rank contractors, their reward reduction was even more terrifying, possibly not even getting 10% of the total rewards.
It was for this reason that Su Xiao entered the One Piece world right after being promoted to fifth-rank. With his current Reincarnation Paradise mark level, after the Summit War plot event ended, he would receive additional rewards during settlement. The extra rewards for first-rank contractors were even more terrifying, possibly multiplying several times.
Su Xiao's gaze turned toward the execution platform. This time, a total of 25 fifth-rank contractors entered the One Piece world. Excluding himself and the dead couple, there were 22 left. Among these 22, at least three could fight Su Xiao to the death. Bubu Wang, who had infiltrated Marine Headquarters last night, had already sensed the auras of those three. One was full of gunpowder smell, another was so strong he didn't seem human—Bubu Wang had personally seen this contractor, who had a little boy beside him.
As for the last one, that guy's aura was the most ominous. Based on Bubu Wang's reconnaissance, he likely had parasitic or spawning abilities.
Besides these three, there was one even stronger, but that guy's Reincarnation Paradise mark level should have exceeded Lv.45, so he didn't participate in the Summit War. If that person wasn't lying, he was currently located at Impel Down. That person was the gray-haired man from the Traveling Group, whose specific name or codename was unknown.
Boom!
A pitch-black cannonball exploded on the ice near Su Xiao. Flames surged, black smoke drifted, and the impact point was a bloody mess, probably having blown apart a corpse.
"Ah!!"
A prolonged shout came from above. Su Xiao looked up to see a large group of figures in prison uniforms falling from the sky. It was the protagonist team and the funny team arriving. Behind them was a Marine battleship also descending.
"The ice is below! Think of something, Straw Hat! You must have a plan for bringing us down here, right?"
Bucky, dressed as a clown, shouted in midair. His words clearly reminded Luffy, who had been yelling, to shut up.
"I'm rubber. I won't die from the fall."
Luffy seemed to think of something. As he fell, he looked around and quickly spotted Ace on the execution platform.
"We're not rubber! You bastard kicked the ice layer apart on purpose, didn't you?"
"Saying something like that, are you a demon?"
"Help! It's getting closer!"
Amid the shouts, this large group fell into the sea, splashing water everywhere. Seeing this, Su Xiao narrowed his eyes. Luck could really come in handy sometimes. That huge ice hole wasn't the one Jozu had dug out in the original story. Right now, Jozu was charging ahead in the battle group, about to reach the port. That big ice hole was actually blasted by the couple earlier, originally intended to take Su Xiao down with them.
Su Xiao only glanced at the ice hole before losing interest. Amu was still getting beaten up, so he needed to go reinforce him quickly.
Bang!
Amu, flying backward, crashed into a group of pirates. Cold air rose from his body. His bull face was already bruised and swollen, with dark circles under his eyes.
"Moo~"
Amu stood up and wiped the blood from his face.
A sound of air being torn came from behind Amu. It was Aokiji, half of his body kept in elemental form, holding an "Ice Saber" as he slashed toward the back of Amu's neck.
Ding!
Ice shards flew. The blade of the Ice Saber clashed with a longsword. Due to the height difference, Aokiji slightly lowered his head.
"Had a good fight, didn't you?"
Su Xiao, holding Dragon-Slaying Flash, stood in front of Amu, a red gleam flashing in his eyes.
The ice beneath Su Xiao's feet cracked. As he exerted force in his arm, Dragon-Slaying Flash tilted slightly. With a screech, the blades scraped, and the Ice Saber in Aokiji's hand uncontrollably slashed forward. This was a gap in swordsmanship. Although Aokiji had some experience with bladed weapons, he was far inferior to Su Xiao.
'Ten.'
Su Xiao leaned forward, assuming a slashing posture. In reality, he had already delivered two slashes in quick succession at a speed invisible to the naked eye.
With a crack, a horizontal and a vertical cut appeared on Aokiji's head, forming a cross. Ice shards flew. Before the slash landed, Aokiji had already elementalized and actively split his head with a cross-shaped cut to evade Su Xiao's attack.
'Blade Storm.'
Clang, clang, clang...
Slashing light surged forward from Su Xiao's starting point, carving half-meter-wide cuts into the ice layer.
With a crash, Aokiji's body shattered into a dozen pieces of cold ice.
As soon as Aokiji disappeared in his elemental form, Su Xiao stomped on the ice beneath him. Vibrations spread from his feet.
'Inside the ice layer to the front right.'
Through the vibrations, his Instinct ability successfully tracked Aokiji. Su Xiao held Dragon-Slashing Flash horizontally in front of him, the blade level with his line of sight.
Hum~
Cyan Steel Shadow energy condensed into a solid form on the blade, reflecting a dark blue light.
'Blade Path Sword: Extreme.'
The blade edge rang sharply. A black slashing light shot out from the blade, striking the ice layer where Aokiji was.
The slash rang out. A terrifying slashing light, over ten meters long and four to five meters wide, appeared on that ice layer.
These moves Su Xiao used were all inspired by the Land of All Beings, newly developed based on the techniques of those strong individuals. Although he developed them himself, they were indeed inspired by those experts, so he didn't change the names of these moves.
Practical combat proved that Blade Grandmaster + Dragon-Slashing Flash + Su Xiao's self-developed moves were very powerful. Their power was clearly much higher than his normal slashes, and they could handle various situations. More importantly, enemies couldn't easily judge his attack direction.
Beside the massive trench, a block of ice emitting cold air rose up. Aokiji dispelled his elemental form. A trickle of blood dripped from his finger. He had been cut, but the injury was very light—a half-centimeter-deep wound on his forearm. This was just a graze; if it had been a solid hit, his entire forearm would have been severed.
"Hoo~"
Su Xiao exhaled a breath of cold air. Just now, a cold current had spread from under his feet, making his internal organs ache faintly. This was Aokiji's Devil Fruit ability. In terms of terrain, this place was more advantageous for Aokiji.