The Near Sea King let out pained roars under Kuina's fierce sword Shadow attacks.
Its massive body swayed from side to side, and the water columns it stirred up crashed against the Shadow's surrounding Shadow screen like a tsunami.
"Tsk, it's really quite resilient."
Although the Near Sea King was massive and incredibly powerful, it appeared clumsy in front of the agile Shadow.
Its attacks repeatedly missed, allowing Kuina's Shadow to seize opportunities to inflict wounds on its abdomen, back, and other weakly defended areas.
However, these wounds were clearly not enough to kill the thick-skinned Near Sea King. The Near Sea King, after all, was a deep-sea overlord and remained incredibly ferocious.
Just then, the Near Sea King suddenly opened its gaping maw and swallowed Kuina's Shadow whole!
It was only then that Cheng Xiaoyu's expression changed slightly. Kuina must have intentionally allowed it to be swallowed.
This fighting style was truly risky!
Sure enough, a moment later, a dazzling light suddenly shone from the Near Sea King's abdomen.
"Moonlight. Flash!" Kuina murmured.
Immediately after, a massive wound tore open from within the Near Sea King, and blood gushed out!
Kuina's Shadow flew out from within, appearing particularly chilling under the Moonlight.
The Near Sea King let out a mournful wail, and its massive body crashed down, stirring up towering waves.
Its huge body rolled a few times on the sea surface, then lay motionless!
Just like that, Kuina single-handedly slew the Near Sea King!
At the same time, the system's voice resounded in Cheng Xiaoyu's mind.
"Ding! Mission complete, gained 2000 experience points! Congratulations, Host, your level has increased to 35! Gained 20000 points!"
"Kuina (C+ → B-rank)"
"Learned Esoteric Skill: Moonlight. Flash"
"New deep-sea combat unit added. Can extract Shadows of aquatic creatures to form a powerful underwater legion! Total Shadow extraction capacity increased to 100!"
Cheng Xiaoyu seized the opportunity to activate the Shadow Fruit's ability, instantly extracting the Near Sea King's Shadow.
"Obtained B-rank Shadow: Near Sea King"
"Unlocked new unit: Deep Sea Shadow Guard"
Cheng Xiaoyu raised his hand and made a grasping motion. The Near Sea King's corpse suddenly twisted and deformed, transforming into a pitch-black Shadow that merged into the ship's hull.
The Shadow's keel emitted a low hum, and scale-like patterns appeared on the ship's body.
Covering the entire Shadow with the Near Sea King's scales greatly reinforced the entire hull.
This way, the integrated land, sea, and air Shadow Legion he wanted to form was only missing the air component.
"Captain…" Kuina suddenly called out to him.
"What's wrong?" Cheng Xiaoyu turned around, looking at her in confusion.
Kuina's Shadow hesitated for a moment, then spoke, "I… I feel like I'm a little different."
It was then that Cheng Xiaoyu noticed that Kuina… seemed to have grown quite a bit?
No, it wasn't an illusion.
The originally slender youthful Shadow had now become plump and full, and her characteristic short hair had grown longer.
Most importantly, the Shadow that originally only reached his chest height now vaguely showed a tendency to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him!
From the looks of it, she had grown at least five years!
Cheng Xiaoyu couldn't help but rub his eyes, confirming that he wasn't dreaming.
"You…" He pointed at Kuina's Shadow, a hint of teasing in his tone, "You look like this… Did you eat pig feed?"
Kuina's Shadow froze for a moment, looked down at herself, then shook her head blankly, "You ate pig feed… Your whole family ate pig feed!"
Cheng Xiaoyu's eye twitched, "Then how did you…"
He originally wanted to ask, "How did you get bigger?", but the words caught in his throat as he felt it wasn't appropriate, as the word "bigger" could easily cause ambiguity in certain situations.
He cleared his throat and rephrased, "I mean, how did you… suddenly seem to have grown?"
Kuina's Shadow tilted her head, seemingly pondering the question.
A moment later, she spoke with some uncertainty, "Maybe it's… because of the battle?"
"Battle?" Cheng Xiaoyu was even more confused, "Can battle make someone grow bigger?"
"Mm…" Kuina's Shadow nodded.
"I feel that during battle, my strength and… body, both experienced a kind of improvement, especially after defeating this monster."
It was then that Cheng Xiaoyu remembered the system's previous prompt, which mentioned Kuina's "S-rank Growth Talent."
So that was it!
Growth Talent, it turned out, was the ability to improve one's own capabilities through battle, and even one's physical form would change!
This was simply too heaven-defying!
Moreover, Kuina had actually comprehended a sword skill like "Moonlight. Flash" in actual combat.
This kind of Iai slash reminded him of Zoro's One-Sword Style, Iai: Lion's Song!
This learning speed was simply like having a cheat!
At this rate, perhaps it wouldn't be long before she could catch up to Zoro's pace.
He had originally worried that Kuina's strength would be insufficient to cope with future challenges, but now it seemed his worries were completely unnecessary.
With S-rank Growth Talent, Kuina's growth speed would far surpass ordinary people, and in the future, she might even become his most capable assistant!
"Not bad, not bad." Cheng Xiaoyu nodded in satisfaction, "It seems my judgment was indeed correct."
He walked in front of Kuina's Shadow, scrutinizing her from head to toe, a hint of surprise in his tone.
"Tsk tsk, in just a short while, you've become so… well-endowed."
Kuina's Shadow felt a little uncomfortable under his gaze, instinctively taking a step back, her pretty face slightly flushed.
"Captain… you pervert…"
"Hahahaha, just kidding." Cheng Xiaoyu laughed.
"However, your strength has indeed improved a lot now. You must continue to work hard in the future and strive to become my right-hand person as soon as possible."
"Nonsense! Of course!" Kuina nodded vigorously.
Kuina's rapid growth made Cheng Xiaoyu realize a problem: his own strength had already reached a bottleneck.
Currently, daily quests only gave 100 experience points per day, and just to level up to 36 required a whopping 1000 experience points!
Moreover, the further he leveled up, the more experience he needed, which led to his level progression becoming very slow.
It was important to know that no matter how strong his Shadows were, as long as his main body was instantly killed, all Shadows would disappear with him!
This couldn't go on; he had to find a way to become stronger.
Furthermore, based on his understanding of the plot.
It was now the year 1520 of the Sea Calendar, which meant that if there was no artificial intervention, the Summit War would break out by the end of this year.
With his current strength, he would only be treated as an appetizer by the Admirals during the Summit War.
He had to continuously level up within a limited time, and relying solely on the Devil Fruit's ability was far from enough; he also had to cultivate Haki.
Top-tier powerhouses might not have eaten a Devil Fruit, like Roger, Shanks…
But they absolutely had to possess top-tier Three Colors Haki! That is, Armament Haki, Observation Haki, and Haoshoku!
Cheng Xiaoyu was not like Luffy, who had connections, with Rayleigh, the Pirate King's first mate, teaching him Armament Haki, then Katakuri activating his Observation Haki, and later encountering the Four Emperors Kaido as a sparring partner…
He had someone to teach him everywhere he went. He couldn't compare, truly couldn't compare.
So, how was he to break this deadlock?