Country
With Rayleigh's guidance, Luo Fan's swordsmanship broke through to Lv3 after a week. Without much hesitation, Luo Fan directly used an Upgrade Scroll on it, raising his swordsmanship to Lv4.
Upon reaching Lv4, just as Luo Fan had expected, he reached the realm of a Master Swordsman.
Luo Fan closed his eyes to sense the changes brought about by the upgrade, then immediately transformed into his Cat Sword Form, raising his right claw as four lightning-infused sword slashes flew out from between his claws.
The sword slashes flew toward a massive boulder; with a'shua' sound, the boulder was sliced into five pieces.
After cutting through the boulder, the sword slashes continued flying into the distance, heading straight for the sea.
In the next second, accompanied by bursts of thunder, an explosion occurred on the sea surface. Under the flickering lightning, an unknown number of sea fish were electrocuted.
Rayleigh, who was leaning against a tree trunk drinking wine, was startled by this scene. By his estimation, Luo Fan should have still been some distance away from becoming a Master Swordsman. How could he suddenly unleash a Flying Slash? Had he achieved some breakthrough insight? Are young people nowadays—no! Are young cats nowadays all this fierce?
The day after Luo Fan broke through to Master Swordsman, Rayleigh used the excuse of inspecting Luo Fan's training results to engage him in a battle in the forest.
Facing Rayleigh, Luo Fan did not dare to be the slightest bit careless. As the first mate of the Pirate King, Rayleigh undoubtedly possessed Emperor-level strength. Furthermore, Rayleigh was currently in his prime; the gap between Luo Fan and him was simply too large. Any slight oversight would result in an instant kill.
Therefore, Luo Fan immediately transformed into his Cat Sword Form from the start, his fur moving without wind as it accumulated lightning.
Rayleigh was in no hurry to strike, smiling as he waited for Luo Fan to get ready.
Once the lightning had accumulated to a certain point, Luo Fan suddenly switched to Cat Gun Form and shot two Thunder Feathers at Rayleigh.
The Thunder Feathers were extremely fast, arriving before Rayleigh in the blink of an eye.
Facing Luo Fan's strongest offensive skill, Rayleigh wasn't naive enough to catch them with his bare hands. He coated his longsword with Armament Haki and parried the Thunder Feathers first.
Just as Rayleigh was about to use Advanced Armament Haki to deflect the Thunder Feathers, the lightning attached to the feathers had already entered Rayleigh's body through the sword.
Rayleigh's arm went numb, causing the activation of his Advanced Armament Haki to be delayed by one second.
It was exactly this one-second time difference that allowed Luo Fan to switch back to Cat Sword Form and unleash eight lightning-infused Flying Slashes toward Rayleigh.
The corners of Rayleigh's mouth curled Up slightly. Luo Fan's combination of moves was played quite well, but unfortunately, Luo Fan's Observation Haki level was too low to seal off all of Rayleigh's escape routes.
The moment the sword energy neared Rayleigh, he seemed to know its target location in advance and dodged early. The eight slashes flew past Rayleigh's body just like that.
However, in the next second, Rayleigh saw the mischievous grin on Luo Fan's face, and alarm bells rang in his heart. He fully unleashed his Observation Haki, only to discover that the Thunder Feathers he had previously deflected with Advanced Armament Haki were actually flying toward him once again.
The Thunder Feathers were too fast, leaving Rayleigh no time to parry with his sword. The moment the feathers touched Rayleigh's body, a burst of electrical sparks flickered, followed by the sound of thunder mixed with explosions.
If it were an ordinary person, their body would be paralyzed by the lightning from the Thunder Feathers and then caught in the center of the explosion; they would be dead or heavily injured.
But Rayleigh was different. Under the perception of Luo Fan's Observation Haki, Rayleigh took the explosion of the Thunder Feathers head-on and only suffered a few skin scrapes and an afro hairstyle; other than that, there was no damage.
"Tsk tsk, Luo Fan, those two moves of yours are quite good! I accidentally suffered a bit of a loss," Rayleigh said as the dust settled, smoothing down his hair.
"You're too much of a freak, Uncle! You're actually fine after that!" Luo Fan said helplessly.
"Hahaha~ I didn't actually take your attack head-on. Your lightning still isn't strong enough; the time it paralyzed my body was too short.
The moment the explosion started, I had already regained my ability to move, and then I used Advanced Armament Haki to deflect the blast wave, so I didn't take much damage.
If I hadn't used Advanced Armament Haki for defense, I would have been injured taking it head-on."
"Sigh! As expected, for powerhouses like you, millions of volts of electricity can at most paralyze the body for a moment; it doesn't have much of an effect," Luo Fan said with a sigh.
"You don't need to be discouraged. During your time here with me, the power of your lightning has nearly doubled. Besides, lightning isn't your primary means of attack; it's just a supplement. Being able to paralyze an enemy for a short time is enough.
And, not to brag, but among the few on this sea stronger than me, your attack just now would definitely be effective against anyone else."
"What about Kaido?" Luo Fan pressed.
"Kaido? That intern from the Rocks Pirates? It's been over ten years since we encountered him. If it were the Kaido from back then, your attack just now would have been enough to kill him.
However, over ten years have passed now, and his talent isn't bad. He had already awakened all Three Types of Haki back then. Your attack would certainly be effective, but the effect probably wouldn't be that great."
Luo Fan nodded upon hearing this. What Rayleigh said was similar to what he thought. Kaido certainly isn't as strong now as when Luffy encounters him twenty-odd years later, but he should have already reached the threshold of Emperor-level.
It is now the concealed era year 1499. No matter how hard Luo Fan works, he won't be able to reach that level in just over a year.
So, dealing with Kaido will still have to fall to Oden. Furthermore, only if Oden himself defeats Kaido can he rightfully reclaim Wano Country.
Wano Country holds great significance for Oden's family, Wano Country itself, Luo Fan, and even Pops.
As soon as Oden reclaims Wano Country, Luo Fan will find a way to solve the issues of sewage and toxic gas emissions from the weapons factories.
Once these two problems are solved, the weapons factories can bring huge profits to the people of Wano Country, and Luo Fan can use alcohol iron ore weapons to officially participate in the games of the Underworld.
Given the special status of alcohol iron ore weapons, the World Government would most likely send the CP Organization to communicate with the Shogun of Wano Country, just like in the original story, ensuring Wano Country's transcendent status.
And the Whitebeard Pirates could also get a large slice of the Underworld cake, just like Kaido's Pirate Crew. By then, Pops would have enough money to support his hometown. It truly hits many birds with one stone.
Of course, all of this depends on whether Oden can successfully reclaim Wano Country, a goal Luo Fan has been working toward for all these years.
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