Chapter 159: The Mammoth Fruit Ability User, Entrusting Life and Death to Another

Jiangcheng Tian Shu Bureau, training ground.

“Boom—!”

A massive mammoth crushed the ground beneath its feet; each heavy step sent violent tremors through the earth, making surrounding buildings sway as if about to collapse.

It lifted its head and let out a deafening roar, its trunk sweeping sideways to fling the alloy test target dozens of meters away, where it slammed into the protective wall with a dull thud.

The surrounding monitoring instruments flashed wildly, their readings spiking rapidly before stabilizing at: 23,371!

“Good! Excellent!”

Lu Yuan Shan, director of the Jiangcheng Tian Shu Bureau, stood on the observation platform, his face beaming with barely contained joy; he rested both hands on the table before him, eyes fixed intently on the mammoth, his voice brimming with uncontainable excitement:

“In less than half a month, it’s already reached power equivalent to Second Stage! Though the mammoth fruit’s inherent strength plays a major role, with this growth rate, it won’t take long to break into Third Stage—already, it’s extremely close!”

Although its spiritual energy value has just reached twenty thousand, still far below the Third Stage standard of thirty thousand, what truly defines Third Stage is destructive power.

How long has this individual been consuming the Devil Fruit? Even though its body has been enhanced by the fruit, allowing it to convert more spiritual energy, spiritual energy growth remains fundamentally limited.

But in terms of destructive power, in mammoth form, it absolutely possesses capability nearing Third Stage.

The Bureau defines Third Stage as “ability matured, capable of directly confronting a small armed unit, with moderate resistance to conventional firearms”; under mammoth form, standard firearms inflict zero damage—how hard would it be to stand against a small armed unit?

Gu Che, Lin Ruoxi, Lu Jing, and others—individually, their strength likely surpassed Third Stage long ago; they simply lacked sufficient spiritual energy, which is why their respective Tian Shu Bureaus only recently acknowledged them as Third Stage.

The official 【Classification Standard for Ability Users’ Strength】 only cares about the actual power of ability users and holders of Celestial Treasures, yet everyone here obsesses over spiritual energy values—I can’t even announce that Jiangcheng has produced a “Third Stage” yet.

Forget it, I’ll just delay the announcement a little longer—it won’t take long anyway.

Hmm? No, that’s not right—I can still announce someone has reached Third Stage.

That unlicensed Knight Template holder in Bi Bo City, Shen Xuan, recognized by the Steel Combat Insect Device—his spiritual energy probably doesn’t even reach Second Stage, yet he was classified as Fourth Stage based on power alone.

Lu Yuan Shan rubbed his chin, already plotting how to announce Jiangcheng’s new “Third Stage combatant.”

“Regardless, trading the Chang Hong Sword for the mammoth fruit was the right decision.”

“Though we later confirmed that the Seven Swords contain the legacies of their respective masters, within the world of Hongmao and Lan Tu, only Hongmao likely reached Fourth Stage.”

“Of the other six sword masters, only Lan Tu and Tiao Tiao probably possess comparable potential.”

“Even though I traded for the Chang Hong Sword, how many people in this world could even gain its recognition and obtain its legacy?”

“Compared to that, the mammoth fruit—directly convertible into combat power with a formidable upper limit—is clearly more suitable for us.”

But how did the Capital Headquarters confirm that the Seven Swords contain the legacies of their masters?

And they confirmed this news shortly after the Chang Hong Sword was traded—could it be that Ye Xuan gained the Chang Hong Sword’s recognition?

That shouldn’t be possible… no, maybe it isn’t impossible.

Ye Xuan is already the master of the Flame Dragon Armor—why wouldn’t he be able to gain the Chang Hong Sword’s recognition?

Online, everyone assumes Ye Xuan possesses only three Celestial Treasures, but he actually has four—including the Chang Hong Sword—though aside from Hongmao’s legacy, the sword itself likely holds no value for him.

After all, no matter how sharp Fire Dance Whirlwind is, it can’t match the heat of Ryūjin Jaku’s Shikai or Bankai.

How envious—I mean, Hangcheng doesn’t even have its own promoted ability user or Celestial Treasure holder, yet because of Ye Xuan, it now has the highest public attention.

“Hmph, lucky bastard.”

Lu Yuan Shan snorted, refocusing his gaze on the mammoth in the training ground.

Once it truly enters Third Stage, Jiangcheng’s overall strength will leap a full tier—then, even against sudden beast hordes, we’ll have more confidence.

I don’t want what happened in Qingshan County to happen here in Jiangcheng.

Hangcheng Tian Shu Bureau, reception hall.

A young man, around twenty-one or twenty-two, paced back and forth in the hall; he sat down, then couldn’t stay still, rising again moments later, glancing repeatedly at the wall clock.

His name is Zhang Tian, the original holder of the Kati Dog Egg—though he didn’t know it was a Kati Dog egg; had he known, he’d have traded it without hesitation.

This isn’t the Pokémon world—mutant creatures won’t fight him one-on-one.

He’d rather place his hope in himself than entrust his life to an egg.

Half an hour ago, he received a call from the Tian Shu Bureau informing him the egg trade was complete and to come at 3 p.m. to collect his exchanged Celestial Treasure.

But how could he wait until 3 p.m.?

The moment the call ended, he dashed out the door—his home was near the Tian Shu Bureau, and he arrived in under ten minutes, even earlier than Su Mengyao.

“Why hasn’t she arrived yet?”

Zhang Tian sighed, his gaze drifting again toward the door—eager yet tense.

He wondered what Devil Fruit the Tian Shu Bureau had prepared for him.

But Su Mengyao said on the phone he’d be satisfied—even in pure value, the Devil Fruit was worth more than the egg he provided.

A Logia?

Though many Paramecia Devil Fruits are powerful, even more bizarre than Logia, when people think of strength and rarity, Logia always comes first.

But if it’s Logia, the Mera Mera and Gura Gura fruits are out—would it be Magma, Hie Hie, or Pika Pika?

Still, Paramecia is possible.

The Gura Gura Fruit, causing earthquakes, tsunamis, and atmospheric vibrations; the Yomi Yomi Fruit, extracting souls to animate objects and absorbing others’ lifespans to strengthen itself; the Gomu Gomu Fruit, repelling all matter—including damage and fatigue—enabling teleportation and space compression, granting perfect defense and offense, theoretically capable of bouncing back any attack.

If it were any of these, they’d be more appealing to him than Logia Devil Fruits.

But it’s far more likely they’re not this rare—first, he didn’t think his egg, even if it were a Pokémon egg, held such value; second, if the Tian Shu Bureau possessed such a precious Devil Fruit, they’d use it themselves, not trade it to him.

(End of Chapter)