Chapter 481: Hunting Souls
A faint commotion could be sensed coming from the surrounding pirates, but not a single one dared to move. Anyone with eyes could recognize the man ahead, pressing down the brim of his hat, radiating suffocating pressure—Wayne Sturwell.
And on the nearby wall crouched a large, imposing black figure—the man with a 225,000 Vecktas bounty, Batman, the one who single-handedly defeated the King of Lavides. He even struck the classic attacking pose from his bounty notice, glaring like a predator, making everyone's blood run cold.
"Wayne Sturwell and Batman? How are we supposed to fight that?"
Zhou Ning walked forward while drawing Anduril, silently channeling the Blade of Hearthfire. Under his strengthened grip, the holy sword, once wrapped in dreamlike moonlight, erupted into blazing fire. He stepped forward and slashed hard.
Explosive Flame: Wave Sword!
Before everyone's stunned eyes, a brilliant sword aura wrapped in roaring flames tore through the building in front of him, punching cleanly out the back. As rubble burst apart, he "saw" a mass of thorns and leaves stretch out from the darkness, rapidly expanding and curling toward him. At the same time, another person seized the chance to charge straight at him.
His expression didn't change. He swung again—
A wet slicing sound.
The thorns rushing toward him ignited instantly and were split apart. The sword light didn't slow, slashing directly at the charging Cotton Benson, illuminating the man's brown skin.
Clang! The other man blocked the strike with his forearm, producing a ringing metallic impact. Clearly, he had used the unknown miracle item mentioned by Richie Burke to stop the attack.
But an instant later, his arm caught fire from the Blade of Hearthfire, crackling loudly.
"Aah!"
Cotton Benson let out a scream, and at the same time, his extraordinary ability burst forth—his arm's skin squirmed and hardened, forcibly extinguishing the flames.
This unknown miracle item seemed stronger than he expected. Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes slightly, and the next moment, dark clouds gathered overhead. The meteorologist "One-Eyed" Martin had switched the weather at some unknown point, and massive hailstones came pelting down toward him.
Then "One-Eyed" Martin noticed the weather instantly shift to rain. Countless raindrops sharpened into needles and shot toward them. He saw the young man in a black coat turned sideways toward him.
But Martin didn't panic. Calmly, he reached into his pocket, scattered spell materials into the air, and they transformed into deep-blue splashes of water, surging out in all directions and dissolving the rain needles entirely.
Zhou Ning's right-hand glove burst into radiant light. He gripped the sword with his right hand and raced toward "One-Eyed" Martin in a rapid burst of steps, unleashing another Sacred Avoidance slash.
Letting a meteorologist act freely was unquestionably dangerous.
"One-Eyed" Martin shuddered and quickly backed away, while Cotton Benson moved in front of him, taking the slash head-on.
Clang!
His health dropped by only the barest sliver.
At that moment, the shaman Taching came rushing from behind. Before he even arrived, a volley of bright blue lightning arrows streaked toward Zhou Ning.
"No blades allowed here!"
Cotton Benson pushed out his palm, announcing the decree—in the same place at the same time, only one decree could exist. Cotton Benson had observed long enough to finally set his decree.
This was exactly what Zhou Ning had expected. In fact, once he learned Cotton Benson belonged to the Church of the War God, he had already planned his combat approach.
Although Zhou Ning hadn't had time to sheathe his sword, he had long since anticipated this moment. Silently, he had already switched weapons to the revolver Retribution, aiming it at Cotton Benson. Behind him, two massive wings of light burst open—Vengeance activated!
"Those who violate it will have their blades rust and break!" Cotton Benson instinctively shouted the next line.
But this time, the decree hit nothing. Zhou Ning simply gave him a strange look, slid back in a blur, skimmed past Benson's right side to evade the lightning arrows, and opened fire in rapid succession. The bullets arced broadly through the air, curving around Benson and heading straight for "One-Eyed" Martin!
One shot, two shots, three shots—each bullet infused with the Solar Ripple. Every round hit its mark, punching into Martin's chest.
Just three shots, and the famous pirate with a 4,000 Vecktas bounty already had his health bottoming out, barely clinging to life.
Since he still needed to harvest souls, Zhou Ning didn't finish him immediately. But a sudden sense of danger surged behind him, the sound of wind rushing close.
Zhou Ning didn't look back. His sharpened senses had already locked onto everything. He slid back again and unleashed his Conqueror's Haki at full force.
For an instant, the entire space seemed to tremble.
Cotton Benson had just lunged behind Zhou Ning when the burst of Conqueror's Haki stunned him. He instinctively tipped his head back, dazed for a moment. At the same time, Zhou Ning pivoted sharply, turning 180 degrees to face him head-on. Spirit surged through him, and Beowulf in his hands flared with holy light. Blood Echo activated, and he pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Zhou Ning fired shot after shot—sometimes straight ahead, sometimes curving backward to hit the man's back.
Cotton Benson was completely overwhelmed, unable to fend off anything, screaming repeatedly as his health plummeted. In the end, he finally lost control—black fur sprouted densely across his face and body, his nails and teeth lengthened into sharp points. In the blink of an eye, he turned into a monster covered in black fur.
A black-furred monster? Zhou Ning's eyes narrowed. He vaguely felt he had grasped some important pattern.
Seeing this, Shaman Taching's pupils shrank. He immediately pulled out a bright blue rune and chose to activate it:
"Thunderstorm!"
The rune cracked instantly, bursting into blue radiance.
A massive surge of blue lightning swept across the entire area like a raging tide, blasting everyone indiscriminately.
Zhou Ning took one strike, and his health dropped by a fifth, but the most unfortunate was One-Eyed Martin on the ground. He was charred black, left with only a single breath.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Taching bolted down the street without looking back.
At that moment, the pirates who had been watching finally found their opening. They all leapt out at once, swarming after Taching. The scene briefly resembled a rugby match.
Just as he expected.
Zhou Ning smirked slightly, bent down, grabbed Cotton Benson and One-Eyed Martin, and walked forward while unleashing another wave of silent, black-and-red Conqueror's Haki.
Right then, Richie witnessed a scene he would never forget.
Thud!
Thud!
Along the road ahead, on the walls on both sides, in the trees, in the bushes—countless pirates rolled their eyes white and dropped unconscious, clattering to the ground.
It was like rain falling.
Among them were no small number of high-value pirates worth over a thousand Vecktas.
Only now did Richie Burke finally understand why he had been told to clean up afterward.
Reaching the walrus-man, Zhou Ning grabbed him as well, then turned back to Richie Burke:
"You have less than three minutes to clean the battlefield. Release what needs to be released. Convert whatever can be turned into bounty. The Church of the War God will arrive in three minutes."
"Ah?!" This was the thing Richie Burke had said most today.
…
Carrying all three, Zhou Ning headed into an empty alley. Hearing the chaotic noise in the distance, he set them down.
Now he had plenty of time to deal with the three of them.