Chapter 36: The Trapped Beast

“Great Flame Sword Slash.”

Luffy suddenly raised the Thousand Thunder Sword high and brought it slashing down at one of the corpse apes.

With a deafening roar, the corpse ape howled and staggered back several steps, a patch of its matted fur scorched away.

The creature was enraged, pounding its chest violently before lunging at Luffy.

Luffy’s Samsara Heavenly Eye spun, and the corpse ape’s movements seemed to slow to a crawl, as if moving in slow motion. Luffy kicked it away with a single powerful strike.

It crashed heavily into the pool.

This time, Luffy had channeled a trace of dragon energy, but still hadn’t found their weakness. These two corpse apes were truly tougher than anything he’d ever faced.

It was the kind of thing that would make even dying difficult.

“Kill!” This time, Luffy infused himself with dragon energy and unleashed the fourth form of the Flame Sword Art:

“Flame Sword Flash!”

In a blink, his figure vanished from in front of the two corpse apes.

The second corpse ape had just crawled out of the water, dripping wet and roaring in fury.

Sensing imminent death, both beasts charged with all their might.

But suddenly, their vision turned black and white as a dark line swept past them.

Luffy’s silhouette appeared behind them.

Fiery torrents erupted from beneath the two corpse apes, instantly engulfing them.

A scorching wave swept outward in all directions.

In a flash, the two corpses were reduced to ashes, leaving behind only two black crystals on the ground.

Luffy sheathed his sword across his back, turned, and gazed at the two pitch-black objects, uncertain of their nature. He strode over and picked them up.

“System, what are these?” Luffy asked with curiosity.

“Ding. These have the same effect as the zombie nails you found before, but they’re even more potent. They're treasures,” the system replied.

“So they’re treasures.” Luffy quickly stored them away, then turned to face the little Dragon Girl, who stood nearby with her arms folded, watching him.

“Wow, that was so cool…” The Dragon Girl couldn’t help but run over, throwing her arms around Luffy, her ample chest pressing against him.

“Uh…” Luffy was speechless. Why did she suddenly—? He’d thought she just wanted to run over, but to his surprise, she took the opportunity to cling to him. What a hopeless fangirl.

“Have you hugged enough?” Luffy was nearly pitching a tent below; her scent was intoxicating, her chest soft and feverishly warm.

“Of course not,” the Dragon Girl hummed.

“Well, I have.” Luffy pushed her away, exasperated.

“Ah… You push me away and still take advantage of me,” the Dragon Girl said shyly, her cheeks flushed as she looked at him.

“Uh…” Luffy realized, as he’d pushed her, his hands had pressed right into her softness. It really was as soft as it looked.

Embarrassed, he turned away and walked toward the far side of the pool.

Thankfully, there had only been two corpse apes in the water. Any more and things would have gotten troublesome.

Luffy pressed on, the Dragon Girl stamping her foot in frustration. She hadn’t managed to seduce him after all—his heart was really too hard.

Teddy bounded in after them.

The cave was damp and dripping with water.

It was eerily quiet, broken only by the sounds of their footsteps and voices.

“Hmph… I refuse to believe I can’t win your heart. I’ll eat it if I have to,” the Dragon Girl muttered.

“Heh, you’re just a heroic spirit. If you try to eat me, have you considered what would happen if I ate you and then got struck by lightning?” Luffy shot her a look.

“That would never happen,” the Dragon Girl replied, gritting her teeth with determination.

“But I don’t want to.” Luffy continued on.

Ahead, clusters of bats hung upside down from the cave ceiling, each the size of a basketball, their bellies bulging grotesquely—mutated vampire bats, clearly.

Luffy drew the Thousand Thunder Sword from his back, igniting it in flame, and hurled sword after flaming sword at the bats.

With a wet splat, another, and another, the bats fell one by one, but this soon roused the rest. At once, they shrieked and swarmed toward him, their red eyes glinting as they streaked through the air too quickly for Luffy’s attacks to hit.

His gaze turned cold.

He dashed forward.

Cross Flame Slash.

Great Flame Sword Slash.

He unleashed every move he had, but the swarm was overwhelming, engulfing him entirely.

“Are you alright?” The Dragon Girl was just about to charge in when she heard a dragon’s roar echo through the cave. In an instant, all the vampire bats were blasted to mist by a surge of mysterious golden energy, leaving Luffy standing there, radiant and unscathed.

“What could happen to me? These bats are nothing but small fry. I let them get close on purpose so I could wipe them out all at once.” Luffy bent down to collect the many crystal cores scattered across the ground.

He continued forward, the Dragon Girl following in his wake.

The divine beast Teddy seemed more and more excited as they went, as if something ahead suited his tastes.

They reached the deepest part of the cave, where a massive stone door loomed, undecorated. Luffy gave it a solid kick.

A rumbling shook the chamber, but the door didn’t budge. Instead, pain shot through Luffy’s foot.

No wonder—the door that could imprison such a powerful Evil Corpse Overlord Beast was certainly made of special material.

“Woof woof…” Suddenly, Teddy leapt aside, his form shimmering with green light, transforming into a gigantic stone key. He thrust himself into the keyhole. With a click, the stone door began to groan and open.

Teddy reverted to his usual shape.

“Wow, little guy, you really are useful! Didn’t raise you for nothing.” Luffy grinned, retrieving a meaty bone from his temporary storage and tossing it to Teddy.

“Hmph…” Teddy turned his nose up at the treat, standing on his hind legs with arms crossed, looking very pleased with himself.

“Alright, you win.” Luffy was speechless. He turned to peer into the darkness beyond the stone door.

Inside, it was gloomy, suffused with mingled dark red and blue shadows. An ordinary person wouldn’t be able to make out anything within.

But Luffy could see clearly: inside, a gigantic Evil Corpse Overlord Beast was shackled by more than a dozen iron chains. It seemed to be imprisoned here, despite being the sacred beast of the Heavenly Evil Sect.

Luffy didn’t know why this beast was locked away, but seeing it chained gave him the confidence to venture down. Even if he couldn’t defeat it, he could always escape. If he managed to slay it, it would be a huge gain.

“Greedy little thing. You sense a trace of dragon blood in me and come to claim it?” The beast’s sinister voice rumbled, like a king of hell, showing Luffy visions of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Luffy instantly shattered the illusion and sneered, “You’re just a trapped beast. We guessed wrong before—you’re actually imprisoned here, and the formation above was indeed set by the Heavenly Evil Sect. They want to feed you strength, to break the formation down here that binds you, don’t they?”

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Author’s note:

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