IW: Chapter 227 - Mahapadma? Sorry, but that won't work on me, Esdeath!
"Your opponent is me!"
Bai Ye raised his hand and directly grabbed the punch Esdeath threw.
The moment her fist was caught, Esdeath froze for a moment, then a sinister smile flashed across her face.
"Your Majesty, be careful!"
Enkidu shouted a warning.
Having fought Esdeath before, he naturally understood what was most terrifying about her.
"Your Majesty?"
Upon hearing Enkidu's shout, Esdeath's smile became even brighter.
She had originally been wondering what kind of small fry had shown up, but she never expected it to be such a big fish.
The 'Your Majesty' Enkidu spoke of should be the newly crowned Emperor of the Hairan Empire, right?
He's really young...
If she captured him and brought him back, it seemed the Hairan Empire would have no successor?
Thinking of this, Esdeath had originally intended to kill Bai Ye directly, but now it seemed capturing him would be more cost-effective.
A chilling aura spread from Esdeath's body. Seeing this, Enkidu, who was ready to act at any moment not far away, grew anxious.
At such a close distance, it felt like he couldn't help Bai Ye at all!
"Just turn into an ice sculpture!"
Esdeath said, and the cold air in her hand intensified. The cold air spread from the point of contact between them to Bai Ye's arm. Just as everyone thought Bai Ye was about to be frozen into an ice sculpture,
the cold air, instead, froze Esdeath into an ice sculpture.
Reversed Heaven and Earth!
A breath of cold air exhaled from Bai Ye's mouth. Bai Ye shook his head, a hint of regret flashing across his face as he said, "I'm truly sorry, but it seems your freezing ability isn't as potent as mine!"
Ho... How could this be?!
Everyone present stared blankly at the scene before them, completely unprepared for Bai Ye to actually freeze Esdeath!
What kind of joke is this?!
Everyone knew what Esdeath's Imperial Arms was. With her, only others could be frozen; how could she possibly be frozen by someone else!
"Lady Esdeath was actually frozen?!"
Liva's eyes widened in disbelief at the sight before him.
The next second, he was about to move to rescue Esdeath, but before he could act, he felt that the trace of cold air Bai Ye had just exhaled made him feel somewhat frozen, even unable to move his feet.
"Look behind you!!"
Niu's trembling words made Liva and Daidaras, who still retained consciousness, look behind them.
They had only ever seen enemies turn into ice sculptures before, but they had never seen their own people become ice sculptures.
At the same time, cracks began to appear on the ice sculpture of Esdeath, and then the ice shattered with a crisp sound: "This is truly interesting, an ability similar to mine?"
A hint of curiosity flashed in Esdeath's eyes. Was this the magic of the Hairan Empire?
But she had fought Enkidu before; was he ever this strong?
"No, your ability isn't magic!"
Esdeath had just entertained that thought, but now she immediately dismissed it.
Because when Enkidu used magic, a hexagonal magic circle would appear before he cast it, so his state just now didn't look like magic at all; instead, it resembled an Imperial Arms.
"I never said my ability was magic."
Just now, it was merely a combination of Da Kou True God and Imperial Arms power used together.
Furthermore, Esdeath herself was careless. She thought she had already frozen Bai Ye and had victory in her grasp, so she naturally lowered her guard against him.
"Very well, let me see your strength!"
Esdeath glanced behind her. Although she was warlike and never cared about the lives of foreign races she tortured and killed, she was unwilling for her own soldiers to die with her like this.
Now, the lives of the soldiers behind her seemed to be in Bai Ye's hands.
"Don't worry, I won't be so despicable as to harm the people behind you. Let's have a fair and square battle."
Bai Ye wasn't foolish enough to threaten Esdeath into submission using her soldiers.
If she were to submit, she wouldn't be Esdeath. If he truly proposed that, Esdeath would probably be the first to refuse, and she might even personally eliminate these burdens.
She wouldn't allow anyone to hinder her battle.
Besides, he didn't want to leave such an impression on Esdeath.
It wouldn't be conducive to him subduing Esdeath later.
Although Bai Ye wasn't sure if Esdeath would ultimately submit to him, since she could even cooperate with the Minister, then he seemed to have even more value for her to cooperate with, right?
Although there likely wouldn't be any wars after he unified this place, didn't she need an opponent? He could fight her continuously!
"I will fight to my heart's content, so please entertain me!"
A sinister smile flashed across Esdeath's face as she twisted her arm. Now that she knew about Bai Ye's abilities, she would no longer hold back.
Martial arts.
In terms of combat experience, Bai Ye was inferior to Esdeath. Even with the various combat techniques and martial arts usage methods provided by Bai Ye in the chat group, from every world, these all required experience.
During his battle with Esdeath, Bai Ye was constantly learning, visibly growing stronger and stronger. This made Esdeath realize a problem: Bai Ye was using this battle with her to learn.
Even her combat techniques were being learned by Bai Ye.
It's... those eyes?!
"What's wrong with your eyes?"
Just now, Bai Ye's eyes had azure blue pupils, but then they directly transformed into three tomoe, which were also spinning.
"Who would tell their abilities to their opponent?"
Bai Ye felt that abilities from other worlds were simply like cheating, especially in terms of martial arts, using Sharingan combined with Observation Haki to foresee the future. On one hand, he copied the opponent's martial arts, and on the other hand, he predicted the opponent's martial arts attacks.
Bai Ye was increasingly fond of martial arts combat with this kind of predictive flow martial arts.
"In that case, I can only use my most proficient torture to make you speak!"
Esdeath didn't care. Bai Ye was right; no one would tell their abilities to others.
She was the same.
Currently, she was still leisurely fighting Bai Ye, even wanting Bai Ye to become stronger.
However, as they fought, Esdeath found that the battle with Bai Ye became increasingly difficult. It seemed Bai Ye was becoming more formidable than her, and she was gradually being suppressed in martial arts.
Since childhood, her father had called her a born warrior. As a child, she could single-handedly kill Danger Beasts. After her tribe was annihilated, she joined the Empire and steadily rose through the ranks of the military.
But what she found utterly unbelievable was that this person before her seemed to have gone from zero experience to having more experience than herself.
This also made Esdeath realize that if she continued to compete with Bai Ye in martial arts, the probability of her ultimate defeat was absolutely high.
She threw a punch at Bai Ye, and as Bai Ye swung his fist to block, a glimpse of his clothing lifting caused Esdeath's eyes to widen.
Bai Ye's tattoo... Impossible, right?!
"As expected of His Majesty, it seems we underestimated him before. Even without us, he seems capable of ascending to the throne!"
Despite possessing such formidable strength, he had not displayed it at all when seizing the throne.
Enkidu now couldn't help but admire Bai Ye's profound cunning. There were several times when he almost died, yet he still showed no intention of revealing his strength, remaining as steady as an old dog...
It seemed he hadn't felt any danger before, so he hadn't revealed his power?
It simply wasn't enough to make him act.
Awesome!
No wonder he said before that he could definitely conquer the Empire. He had thought it meant relying on the Revolutionary Army to wear down the Empire, then continuing the old Emperor's plan, needing to spend some time waiting for an opportunity.
What opportunity is there to wait for?!
With Bai Ye's performance today, he would dare to directly step into the Imperial Capital tomorrow and declare war on Budo!
Esdeath was just a general of the Empire, but Budo was a loyalist of the Empire. As long as Budo died, the Empire would fall apart!
The Minister didn't act precisely because his current position was already quite good. He also needed the Supreme Imperial Arms and Budo's presence, plus Esdeath wouldn't agree to the Minister ascending to power, which kept the situation in a stalemate.
But if Budo died, that balance would be broken, and if Bai Ye could defeat Esdeath here, he dared not even imagine!
"Your Majesty, Esdeath's freezing ability... Forget it, just freeze her to death!"
Originally, Enkidu wanted to remind Bai Ye that Esdeath's Demon God Manifestation: Demon's Extract was very powerful, but then he suddenly remembered that Bai Ye had just frozen Esdeath, and he felt that there was no need for him to remind him at all.
Esdeath was just frozen by Bai Ye; was there still a need to remind Bai Ye?
"Enkidu, where's your composure?"
Bai Ye inwardly complained, it seemed that the cautious Captain-Commander's personality had undergone some changes.
To actually say something like that.
However, he indeed needed to be careful of Esdeath's freezing ability. The reason he could freeze Esdeath just now was due to the combined power of Da Kou True God and Esdeath's carelessness.
In fact, he had only just acquired these abilities, and to say he was proficient in using them was not true at all.
He was slowly experimenting during his battle with Esdeath.
Especially the Mahapadma technique, which directly froze even space-time.
In the contest between Imperial Arms, Esdeath fought Bai Ye using various abilities of Demon God Manifestation.
But what puzzled her was that her techniques were, without exception, copied by Bai Ye.
She could no longer distinguish whether Bai Ye's power was an Imperial Arms or magic. Why did Bai Ye also know her techniques?
But now was not the time for her to think about this matter.
Esdeath now had to consider whether she could instantly defeat Bai Ye.
He... is still getting stronger!
Esdeath also realized that if she didn't get serious, she would definitely be defeated by Bai Ye in the end.
He wasn't just one person; Enkidu was also there. When she fought Enkidu before, although they only exchanged blows, he was able to hold her off for a short period of time.
Once she fought both Bai Ye and Enkidu simultaneously, she had no chance of winning. Plus, her entire army was frozen. Of course, she could also use Ice Storm General to completely incapacitate the Hairan Empire soldiers.
But the Three Beasts + herself clearly couldn't defeat the growing Bai Ye and Enkidu.
So...
Then I'll use you to test this move, my ultimate trump card, Mahapadma.
In the future vision, Bai Ye saw...
"You lost, Esdeath!"
A strange smile played on Bai Ye's lips, and she had a bad premonition in her heart.
However, upon hearing Bai Ye say she had lost, Esdeath's eyes narrowed, and she smiled: "You're the one who lost!"
Mahapadma activated!
Everyone's expressions froze, and then the entire space-time seemed to solidify.
Esdeath walked in front of Bai Ye, hesitated for a moment, and ultimately decided to break Bai Ye's hands and feet and take him back.
Although she had promised Bai Ye a quick death before.
But the current situation didn't allow Esdeath to do that.
She raised her hand and reached directly towards Bai Ye, but the moment she touched Bai Ye, she froze.
Her hand passed directly through Bai Ye's body; she didn't touch him at all. Bai Ye, who was here, seemed to not exist at all!
Kamui!
In Bai Ye's future vision, he saw the scene of Esdeath breaking his hands and feet.
Therefore, Kamui was a very good way to avoid this attack.
Why?
Kamui is its own dimension; why is it called the Hokage's number one BUG Mangekyo Sharingan ability!
This was the Double Kamui that Kakashi used to fight Kaguya!
It only appeared once in 720 episodes.
He wasn't in this space; he was just a projection here.
And after she activated Mahapadma, Esdeath couldn't use it a second time.
It wasn't until the space-time freeze disappeared that Esdeath recovered from her shock, looking at Bai Ye's teasing gaze, as if he knew she was going to use Mahapadma against him just now.
"You have an Imperial Arms, and your Imperial Arms is also Demon God Manifestation?"
Esdeath stared intently at Bai Ye. She had never told anyone about her Mahapadma.
To know this, and to continuously use ice abilities, does that mean she wasn't mistaken just now?!
Just now, she had caught a fleeting glimpse of a tattoo on Bai Ye's chest.
She had originally thought she was mistaken, but now it seemed she could confirm it; it must be!
That would explain why Bai Ye could use ice abilities and also understood her abilities so well.
But...
This raised another question: even if Bai Ye knew about her ability, when she used Mahapadma to freeze space-time, Demon God Manifestation shouldn't have been able to make Bai Ye disappear from that area?
At that time, Bai Ye's body was like a phantom.
"Esdeath, you've already lost. Everything about you has been seen through by me!"
Bai Ye grinned, but inwardly he was also glad that his Pirate World self had managed to acquire Future Sight, otherwise he really wouldn't know when Esdeath would use that move.
If he were truly frozen and couldn't use Kamui, then even his elementalization would probably be frozen by Esdeath. At that point, he probably wouldn't be able to escape, and she wasn't Tatsumi.
However, wasn't this technique developed to keep Tatsumi from escaping?
It seems this wasn't the case at all. And rightly so... if it were that simple to develop, it would be a miracle.
Then, the offense and defense will be reversed, Esdeath..
---
Want to read 40+ chapters ahead? Join my Patreon! Want to read 10 FREE chapters ahead? Join as a free member!
patreon.com/Rogue_Reader