Want to read ahead? Join my Patreon for just $7 to get early access to all advance chapters!
> Patreon.com/NegativeTranslations
───────────────────────────
Chapter 176: Turn the Tables
"Dodge? Where can you possibly dodge to!"
Shiki hovered in mid-air, his right eye webbed with blood vessels, the black ship's wheel pattern within his pupil spinning madly.
He made a grasping motion at the empty air, his gaze tracking Garp's figure frantically.
Sshhh! Sshhh! Sshhh!
Without any warning, without any trajectory.
The rock Garp had just landed on disintegrated instantly, the cut as smooth as a carefully polished mirror.
Next was the ancient tree beside him. The trunk, thick enough for three people to wrap their arms around, slid down silently, only making a dull thud when it smashed into the mud.
"Damn bastard!"
Garp rolled through the mud, cursing incessantly.
It was too stifling.
He had never fought such a stifling battle in his life. Against this kind of attack with no telegraphing, he could only rely on his body's instincts to dodge.
Damn it, it seems this 'Red Eye Disease' really is something.
Wherever the gaze fell, space would be severed.
Garp seized an opening and stomped his foot violently. His entire body transformed into a purple lightning afterimage, attempting to close the distance.
As long as he got close.
As long as he landed one punch!
"Naïve!"
Shiki laughed wildly, his right eye snapping into focus on Garp's sprint path.
Hum!
A chill that made one's scalp numb descended instantly.
The hairs all over Garp's body stood on end; it was the instinctive scream of a beast facing death.
He forcibly arrested his momentum, putting power into his waist to twist his body into a bizarre shape in mid-air.
Rip—
Clothes and flesh were sliced open neatly together.
A wound deep enough to see bone appeared on the outside of Garp's thigh. Blood sprayed out instantly, dyeing the muddy water beneath his feet red.
If he hadn't stopped just now, what would have been severed was his waist.
"Jihahahaha! Run! Keep running!"
Watching the wretched Garp, the tyrannical feeling in Shiki's heart was satisfied like never before.
This was power.
This was the feeling of standing above mortals.
"Die!"
Shiki roared, pouring out the pupil power of his right eye without reservation.
He wanted to thoroughly crush this nemesis.
In the distance, Black Zetsu's face darkened—don't ask how one could tell.
This idiot. Squandering pupil power so recklessly... does he think he has the Eternal Mangekyo?
Black Zetsu never imagined that the Uchiha he had set his sights on was actually a "hybrid."
Moreover, information regarding the Mangekyo was unknown to even many true Uchiha clan members, let alone a half-baked one like the Golden Lion.
This led to the phenomenon of him spamming his ultimate move like a basic attack.
Just as Shiki was preparing to launch his next attack.
A sharp needle pierced his optic nerve without warning.
"Argh!"
Shiki suddenly clutched his right eye, his body swaying violently in mid-air.
The world in his vision suddenly became blurry and double-imaged. The originally clear Garp turned into three, then four.
Immediately after, a warm liquid flowed down through the gaps in his fingers.
Not tears.
It was blood.
A large amount of blood.
"Damn it... what is happening..."
Shiki gasped for breath, his right eye searing with pain as if it were on fire.
Overdrawing pupil power with such high intensity caused the side effects to arrive faster and more violently than expected.
His vision began to turn black.
"Now!"
The mud on the ground exploded.
Garp, who had been dodging wretchedly, underwent a drastic change in aura the moment Shiki's movement stagnated.
It was the instantaneous explosion of a top-tier predator smelling blood.
Without the slightest hesitation.
Without a single wasted word.
Enduring the agonizing pain in his thigh and shoulder, Garp compressed all the remaining Lightning Release chakra in his body into his legs.
Boom!
The ground collapsed into a crater ten meters in diameter.
Borrowing this terrifying reaction force, Garp launched like a purple intercontinental missile, crossing the hundred-meter distance instantly to appear directly beneath Shiki.
"What?!"
Shiki forced his eyes open despite the intense pain, only to see a fist constantly enlarging in his vision.
It was an iron fist wrapped in dark purple lightning, powerful enough to shatter mountains.
"Get down here... for this old man!!!"
Garp roared, his fist smashing heavily into Shiki's abdomen.
Dong—!!!
A loud noise, dull enough to stop one's heart.
The clothes on Shiki's back exploded instantly—proof that the fist's force had penetrated through his body.
This punch had no fancy technique, only pure power and extreme anger.
"Pfft!"
Shiki's eyeballs bulged, and a mouthful of blood mixed with visceral fragments sprayed out wildly.
The intense pain prevented him from even screaming; his body bowed like a cooked shrimp.
But it wasn't over.
Garp grabbed Shiki's ankle. The muscles in his arm bulged as he swung him like a ragged strip of cloth, smashing him ruthlessly toward the ground.
Boom!
The earth wailed again.
Shiki was smashed deep into the soil, kicking up mud and crushed stones dozens of meters high.
"Cough... cough cough..."
Amidst the dust, Shiki lay at the bottom of the deep pit, his limbs twisted and his sternum collapsed.
He struggled to stand up, but his body felt as if it no longer belonged to him.
His vision was a wash of crimson red.
His right eye was almost blind, and his left eye was in agonizing pain from the previous overload.
Lost?
I possess the power of a god, yet I still lost to this brute who only knows how to use his fists?
"You must be... joking..."
Shiki's fingers dug deep into the mud, his fingernails breaking, blood dripping.
He was unwilling to accept this.
He was Golden Lion Shiki!
He was the King who would dominate the world!
How could he fall in a damn place like this!
"It's over, Shiki."
At the edge of the pit, Garp strode over.
He was covered in wounds too, and the cut on his thigh was still bleeding, but he stood straight as a ramrod, like an immovable iron tower.
Garp raised his fist, his eyes cold.
"Dying once in a dungeon should help you sober up."
The tables had turned.
The fist wind howled.
With this punch, this fragile body would definitely turn into a puddle of meat paste.
The emotion of unwillingness enveloped Shiki.
Damn it, am I going to lose to this guy again?!
I clearly awakened the power of Shinra Bansho!
I haven't fully displayed the power of a god yet!
I'm not resigned to this!
I am not!!
Just then.
"My, my, looks like you've played yourself into a corner."
A frivolous, mocking voice abruptly sounded in Shiki's mind.
Immediately after, Shiki felt the mud beneath him suddenly become sticky as a swamp.
A pale arm extended from the dirt, instantly grabbing his back.
"Who?!"
Before Shiki could react, the white substance spread rapidly across his skin like a living liquid.
Cold.
Slimy.
Nauseating.
"Don't move," White Zetsu's unique voice rang against his eardrum. "Let me help you."
"Get out of my body! I don't need..."
Shiki started to struggle, but suddenly froze.
The moment the white substance wrapped around his body, an indescribable life force surged into him.
The law of "eating one's words" might be late, but it always arrives.
Broken bones began to knit together.
Ruptured internal organs repaired rapidly.
Most importantly...
The eyes.
Those eyes that were on the verge of drying up and aching with pain now felt a cool nourishment.
It was like parched earth welcoming sweet rain.
His originally blurry vision cleared instantly, becoming even sharper than before.
That was the perfect combination of Hashirama Senju's cells and the Uchiha clan's power.
Shinra Bansho.
The union of Yin and Yang.
"This is..."
Shiki's eyes widened as he felt the vigorous chakra exploding within his body.
It wasn't just recovery.
It was a qualitative leap.
The cells that had previously feared the overdraft of pupil power were now cheering, seemingly urging him to release even stronger power.
"Can you feel it?"
Black Zetsu's gloomy voice came from underground. "Uchiha power, added to Senju vitality... this is the true way to open these eyes."
"Young man, having awakened these eyes, you are qualified to peek into the truth of this world!"
───────────────────────────
Support this fanfic by leaving positive reviews, comments, and Power Stones!
For advance chapters, visit:
> Patreon.com/NegativeTranslations