Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 216, so close!

The divine bird's flight was graceful and magnificent, as if it were not attacking an enemy, but dancing in the air.

The sea surface froze instantly as the ice phoenix flew over it, and beautiful, exquisite feather-shaped icicles appeared on the ice, but they also contained an indescribable sharpness.

The giant mushroom of ice dust, which had not yet completely dissipated, was attracted by the ice phoenix. The ice dust gathered behind the divine bird and formed three magnificent phoenix tails.

The blue, green, and cyan phoenix tails respectively contain the power of Ren water, Bing fire, and Xuan ice, serving not only as the driving force for the Ice Phoenix's attack but also as a follow-up attack to the main body's attack.

Shanks and Borsalino exclaimed in unison, "A beautiful attack!"

He immediately shook his head and said, "Unfortunately, the three powers have not been integrated into one. Not only are the powers somewhat complicated, but there are also considerable conflicts between them."

"No flaw can be hidden from me, and even the smallest conflict can be fatal."

Red-haired Shanks lifted Griffin with his left hand and thrust it forward with a fierce stab. A sharp blade of light grazed Ice Phoenix's head and struck its abdomen.

Such a negligible sword aura attack doesn't even qualify as a [Flying Slash]; it can only cause a slight fluctuation in the Ice Phoenix's strength.

But Xia Zuo was surprised to find that the faint fluctuations were actually increasing in strength as they spread, and were generating stronger echoes, which caused the power within the Ice Phoenix to vibrate.

After the initial fluctuations completely disappeared, the shock they triggered suddenly erupted, causing the fragile combination of the three forces—Ren Water, Bing Fire, and Xuan Ice—to collapse, resulting in the most severe conflict.

After a mournful cry, the magnificent ice phoenix imploded into a terrifying ball of blue flame, continuing its charge toward Shanks using its momentum.

Shanks's smug smile, which had just blossomed after easily defeating Xia Zuo's ultimate technique, was frozen in shock by the blue flames that followed the collapse of the Ice Phoenix.

Only then did he realize that after the magnificent and noble ice phoenix was defeated, it would naturally collapse into this ice and fireball shaped like the sun.

【Ice Curve Belle】is prepared with a second attack from the start.

If Shanks hadn't detonated the Ice Curve's true form prematurely to show off his skills, but instead had destroyed the Ice Phoenix beside him, he would have been engulfed by the collapsing, erupting Ice Flame Sun and turned into an eternally frozen ice sculpture.

But the situation is equally dangerous now. The Ice Flame Sun is rapidly approaching, and even though it is still far away, Shanks' eyebrows and hair are already covered in frost.

This icy sun is actually able to actively steal heat!

Shanks leaped rapidly across the ice, only to be even more surprised to find that the Ice Flame Sun was still tracking him!

In fact, the Ice Flame Sun has no ability to actively track; it simply moves naturally with the air currents caused by the target's rapid evasion because it is weightless.

boom-

A sniper bullet wrapped in black domineering aura pierced through the icy sun. Not only was the bullet frozen and cracked, but the domineering aura wrapped around it was also frozen, turning into a black ice sculpture.

However, the airflow from the sniper bullets slowed down the speed of the Ice Flame Sun and even slightly changed its direction of travel.

Shanks noticed this and immediately understood why he was being chased.

He stopped, bit his sword with his teeth, and then suddenly threw a punch, creating a strong gust of air that blew the terrifying icy sun off course.

At that moment, a long, sharp gunshot rang out.

Shanks took Griffin back into his hands and praised him without reservation: "What a magnificent and dangerous move. If the conflict of power could be resolved, the level of danger would be absolutely terrifying."

Even Borsalino in the air fell into deep thought. Compared to Shazo's still immature move, his own development of the Glint-Glint Fruit seemed so crude.

The Yata no Kagami, the Ame no Kusanagi no Tsurugi, and the Yasakani no Magatama are all direct, straightforward attacks.

Moreover, these light skills, aside from being dazzling, are nothing like gorgeous, and are worlds apart from the two divine birds that Xia Zuo displayed.

Borsalinos are lazy and have an exceptionally slick personality. Their appearance is somewhat wrinkled, but their love of beauty and their penchant for posing are absolutely no less.

Akainu Sakazuki is an unromantic fool, but how much effort did Borsalino put in to surpass Aokiji Kuzan?

It's a pity that there wasn't a qualified and excellent example before, which led Admiral Kizaru to keep running wildly down the wrong path of becoming even more brilliant.

Now that he has seen what true magnificence is, Borsalino will never lose to a mere naval lieutenant commander. Otherwise, wouldn't he have to avoid Shazo in the future?

Upon hearing Shanks' words, Xia Zuo felt that what he said made a lot of sense, and immediately nodded without hesitation, saying, "Shanks, what you said makes a lot of sense."

"Actually, that's what I was thinking too. And I already have an idea. I'm going to remove Ren water and Xuan ice, and only keep the Bing fire attribute, so that the Ice Phoenix can be restored to absolute purity."

"Although Bingluan is a descendant of the phoenix, it has clearly not inherited the phoenix's ability to balance yin and yang, and is following its own path purely."

"As long as I make changes that align with its characteristics, I will be able to greatly increase the power of the Ice Phoenix."

Shanks was speechless, thinking to himself: Even if you have ideas, you can't say them in front of me!

Xia Zuo's eagerness to share his ideas made him feel as if he had proactively reminded the other party, leading to Xia Zuo's significant breakthrough.

The thought that a more perfect and ferocious azure giant bird might soon swoop down on him made Shanks' teeth ache.

What troubled him even more was that Xia Zuo, despite his words, did not stop walking and kept moving towards his left.

Borsalino, however, seemed distracted, and slowly and steadily drifted to his right.

These two bastards pretend to be innocent, but their malicious intent is both brazen and carefully concealed; they're not good people at all.

Shanks grinned, touched his wound, assessed the balance of power between the two sides, and then made no further decision.

Without even gathering his strength, he unleashed a burst of Conqueror's Haki, then used his sword Griffin to absorb the Haki, transforming it into a chaotic sword aura.

Although this sword energy was propelled by Conqueror's Haki, its cohesion was practically nonexistent, resulting in extremely poor attack power; it couldn't even be considered a [Flying Slash].

However, the destructive power of Conqueror's Haki, when condensed through the blade, should not be underestimated. Borsalino and Shazo must both concentrate and deal with it.

Conqueror's Haki is difficult to cause direct harm, but once it does, it combines with mental damage, making it difficult to treat and dispel, in short, it is very troublesome.

Otherwise, with the self-healing power that Xia Zuo shared with Hokage Xia Zuo, namely "Hashirama never dies on the battlefield," how could he have waited so long to grow granulation tissue to recover from the damage?

Before the fleshy buds grew out, Xia Zuo mobilized all his power to fight against Shanks' Conqueror's Haki, and it took him a great deal of effort to drive it away.

That's why Xia Zuo behaved like a corpse.

Now that Shanks knows about his healing ability, he no longer has the chance to buy himself time to recover by playing dead, so naturally he doesn't dare to take Shanks' Conqueror's Haki attack head-on.

Borsalino was a top-tier slacker; he was much more composed than Shazo. Upon seeing the red lightning appear, he immediately transformed into a beam of light and flew far away.

In the end, Xia Zuo withstood all the damage with his Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki.

While the two were dealing with their own attacks, Shanks didn't hesitate for a moment. He sheathed Griffin, then covered his straw hat and skipped away on the broken ice.

Shazor and Borsalino then huddled together, looked at each other, and then stared at Shanks as he walked away, neither of them saying a word.

Finally, Borsalino felt a little embarrassed and asked, "Aren't you going after Shanks?"

Xia Zuo rolled his eyes: "I'm just the vice commander of the 787th branch of the East Blue. What do I have to do with such a powerful pirate of the Yonko level?"

Admiral Kizaru's eyes widened in surprise as he asked, "In my memory, you were a dim-witted fool. I was already suspicious during the battle just now. It turns out you're actually a cunning, ah, no, a clever guy."

Xia Zuo chuckled and said, "Of course I'm very smart."

Borsalino asked curiously, "Since you're so smart, why—"

He didn't know what words to use to express his meaning, so Xia Zuo answered the question for him: "You want to ask me why I deliberately publicly promote 'simple justice'?"

"First, that's what I think. Saying what you think allows your thoughts to flow freely and your will to be consistent, which is very beneficial for improving your strength."

"Secondly, I did it on purpose."

"I deliberately promoted my ideas, and I deliberately frightened the Warring States Marshal, forcing them to exile me to the East Sea, or some other remote place."

Borsalino's eyes gleamed, and he asked curiously, "Why do you do that?"

Xia Zuo snorted coldly: "Is that even a question? Of course, it's to avoid being noticed by the Celestial Dragons too early."

1

"This world is sick, and the root of the disease is the Celestial Dragons!"

"Whether it's the Great Pirate Era, the challenges facing the Navy, or the bankruptcy problems faced by various kingdoms, I'm quite certain that 80% of the problems can be traced back to the Celestial Dragons."

"But the Navy is just a bunch of disobedient dogs kept by the Celestial Dragons."

"If I show my face in the Navy too early, wouldn't that just be inviting the Celestial Dragons to put a leash on me sooner?"

"Admiral Kizaru, does it feel good to be ordered around to do things you don't want to do by someone you hate?"

Borsalino groaned, "Of course it's uncomfortable! Those fat pigs, they're all ugly as hell, and the stupid ones are infuriating. Just looking at them makes me feel nauseous for half an hour."

He said this while gesturing wildly, trying to emphasize his words as much as possible.

But Xia Zuo noticed that there wasn't a trace of complaint in those eyes behind the sunglasses, but rather a lot of caution and wariness.

Xia Zuo sneered: "I don't know what weakness the Celestial Dragons have exploited to make you so obsequious. At most, you're just complaining."

"Even the hero Garp, in the end, only mutters a few words and gives a cold shoulder to a few Celestial Dragons."

"I don't want to be this stifled. I can't be as crazy as Fisher Tiger, nor do I have his despair. I can only try my best not to attract the attention of the higher-ups."

Borsalino's expression gradually turned serious: "However, at the rate at which your strength is increasing, one day you will be noticed by the Five Elders, and Fleet Admiral Sengoku will not be able to cover for you indefinitely."

Xia Zuo laughed and said, "It's alright. By then, my strength will definitely have reached a level that satisfies me. I believe the Five Elders won't be stupid enough to force me to leave the Navy."

Borsalino understood. Shazo meant that when the Five Elders couldn't defeat him even after using all their strength, it wouldn't matter whether he stayed in the Navy or not.

Whether as a lazy navy officer or as an undercover agent, Admiral Kizaru felt he had nothing more to say.

So he changed the subject: "Well, so Shanks ran away on his own, right?"

Xia Zuo agreed, "Yes."

Borsalino smiled with satisfaction and nodded. Before he could say anything, Xia Zuo fluently recited in rapid succession: "Under the brilliant long-range command of Fleet Admiral Sengoku, the ingenious tactical guidance designed by Vice Admiral Tsuru, and the deterrent power of Vice Admiral Garp, Admiral Kizaru, through his valiant and fearless battle, finally made the world-renowned pirate, the captain of the Red-Haired Pirates, and a former member of the Pirate King's crew, Shanks, feel the majesty of the Navy."

Borsalino was dumbfounded: Holy crap, you can talk like that?

If I had known these speaking skills earlier, I wouldn't have had to go through so much trouble to pretend. Even if the Marshal and Lieutenant General He discovered something, they certainly wouldn't have the heart to punish me!

But Admiral Kizaru's smile quickly faded.

Xia Zuo continued, "This despicable villain was terrified. Filled with fear, like a rat in the sewers, he tucked his tail between his legs and dragged that twig-like Griffin away in a panic."

"With just a little more, Admiral Kizaru will be able to cut off Shanks' head and demonstrate the Navy's might to all pirates."

"At this moment, Admiral Kizaru represents the entire Navy. His majesty is like the blazing sun, its dazzling light so intense that even the Pirate Emperor is terrified!"

"Admiral Borsalino is not alone. Behind him stand all the naval heroes: Fleet Admiral Airborne, Fleet Admiral Broken Bones, Fleet Admiral Sengoku, and Hero Garp. They are all silently watching over him!"

"That foolish, cowardly, and despicable Red-Haired Shanks has escaped! Admiral Kizaru was just a hair's breadth away from capturing him!"

"So close, really!"

Borusalino: ∑(°A°；)

Stop talking, or I'll die!

That old killer Garp is getting close. If he hears even three words of me, he'll be chasing me and beating me for a month!

People will die! People will really die!!

Under Borsalino's pleading gaze, Shazor shut his mouth expressionlessly.