Chapter 291: The Edge of Ambition

“You keep saying we sailed together, but then why did you agree to John’s request?”

“Or was it me who invited you onto Cake Island in the first place?”

A sharp light flashed in Karl’s eyes. He couldn’t stand people who tried to guilt-trip others.

Wang Zhi’s face went pale. He had no strength left to argue.

“From where I stand, you and John are cut from the same cloth.”

“Arrogant, cowardly, no trace of a true conqueror in either of you.”

Wang Zhi swept his arm out, answering, “Looks like whether I resist or not, I’m doomed anyway.”

“Then let me die on my feet and not curled up in fear.”

Before he finished speaking, his left fist smashed down onto the Emperor’s Blade.

The sudden attack forced them apart for a moment.

He dodged Charlotte Linlin’s blade, darted over to Silver Axe’s side, and scooped up the longsword.

He looked at Silver Axe’s lifeless head on the ground, then gently closed the fallen man’s blank eyes with his left hand.

“One Sword Style—Soaring Heaven!”

On the blade, armament haki flowed like a river of cherry blossoms, a pale pink swirl coalescing into something almost beautiful.

But the more dazzling the attack, the more terrifying the killing intent lurking beneath.

After all, Wang Zhi was a master swordsman on par with the best.

The power he unleashed in his final moments forced Charlotte Linlin to give it her all.

You can’t let the prey trapped in the cage hurt the hunter, can you?

“Blazing Light Sword!”

This was a combination move of lightning, fire, and swordplay. Several energy rings gathered around the sword, sending out waves of slashes with every swing.

First within a hundred meters, then a thousand—all saturated with intense sword energy.

The ground was shredded to pieces, trees destroyed, even the very air seemed suffocating.

Brown stepped forward and with a playful grin ripped a piece of cloth from his shirt, tossing it in.

Everyone watched, stunned, as the scrap of fabric entered the sword aura’s range.

It unraveled into threads, then vanished into nothing.

“Tch!”

Brown sucked in a pained breath at how instantly the cloth disappeared.

“Are all Admiral-level fighters this much of a monster?”

“If I went in there myself, wouldn’t I be torn apart in a split second?”

Perospero, seeing the heavy expressions all around, was first to step forward.

“Don’t be fooled by how ‘Vice Admiral’ and ‘Admiral’ are only a word apart.”

“The gulf in power between them couldn’t be greater.”

“Once you reach Admiral level, unless your opponent is just as strong, it’s rare anyone wears you down and captures you by attrition.”

In the original story, if Douglas Bullet hadn’t stubbornly withstood the full force of the Buster Call and fought Garp and Sengoku for days straight…

…he never would have been thrown into Impel Down in the first place.

With Perospero’s words, not a soul doubted him.

After all, Perospero was with the Rocks Pirates for many years. With their battle prowess at their peak, Admiral-level fights were almost daily events.

When he spoke, it carried real weight.

But maybe because those words came from Perospero, everyone realized just how far their current strength was from the Admiral level.

“Let’s get fired up!”

“Let’s climb to the very top—together!”

Notty’s words lit a fire in their hearts. Now that they’d seen the power of an Admiral, didn’t that just make reaching that level worth chasing even more?

Honestly, their original goals might have been set a bit too high.

Wang Zhi had already forged his own path among the greatest swordsmen, while Charlotte Linlin was standing at the pinnacle of Admiral class.

To reach that height? It would take more than talent—they’d have to push their training to the limit.

Some people might say Charlotte Linlin was wasting her gifts.

If she’d truly honed herself, with her iron skin she could’ve gone even farther down the path of the Four Emperors.

But anyone who made that claim just didn’t understand.

Maybe Charlotte Linlin was talented—but you could never accuse her of not working hard.

Just in moves she developed herself, there were more than a dozen.

The Soul-Soul Fruit became a source of countless tricks in her hands. Others in history probably owned it, yet left no record.

There’s a saying for that: There are only useless wielders, never useless Devil Fruits.

Give a so-called ‘useless’ fruit to someone with a wild imagination, and they’ll do things you never dreamed possible.

Devil Fruits aren’t so much about the demon inside—more like the embodiment of people’s thoughts, dreams, all their hopes and ideas linked together.

In the world of pirates, these things can become reality—and that’s what gives people such superhuman powers.

“Wang Zhi, how long can you keep fighting like this?”

The two blades collided in a blur.

A towering black figure rose up behind Wang Zhi, clad in ancient armor and gripping a deadly blade.

This was the kind of swordsmanship that, when mastered, could truly affect the real world.

They called it—Sword Dao Asura!

“Heh. If that’s what you want, then so be it.”

“One Sword Style—Overlord Blade!”

In that instant, Wang Zhi and the giant phantom behind him became one. The massive blade split the sky as it fell.

The shockwaves turned the whole battlefield into a cloud of smoke and dust.

“Blazing Light Cannon!”

Charlotte Linlin wasn’t about to back down. This was a new combo move she’d just created.

A fusion of lightning, fire, and blade. Sun Prometheus bit the end of the blade while Zeus crackled at its tip, forming a swirling loop of energy.

With each swing, the energy ring fired off a blazing beam, many times stronger than Sovereign Nation.

Lightning and darkness crashed, and the world seemed to fall silent.

Violent energy tore at each other, but all the sound and fury was trapped in a tight space around them.

Red light flashed in Charlotte Linlin’s eyes as her overwhelming Conqueror’s Haki surged out.

The scales finally tipped.

With a heavy sound, Charlotte Linlin took back control of the fight.

A blinding pillar of energy blasted through Wang Zhi.

An uneven half-circle was blown open from his right chest crossing to the left, slicing into half his heart.

Wang Zhi gently drooped his head, staring at his exposed, still-beating half-heart.

He opened his mouth to speak, but choked out a mouthful of blood first.

“I…won’t accept this…”

His arm fell limp, longsword driven deep into the ground. Even as death took him, he never let go.

Once it was finally over, Krell rushed to organize cleanup.

Karl went to Charlotte Linlin’s side and spoke softly. “It’s done, Linlin. The real culprit is dead.”

“Let them take care of the rest.”

Charlotte Linlin turned to see fishmen pouring in, clearing out the ruins around the Lab.

There may only have been three battles here, but every one was Admiral-level and the land and everything around had been utterly ravaged.

Even with the fishmen helping, this place wouldn’t be back to normal anytime soon.