#1048 - Lily's swordplay tutorial

"clang!"

"This is impossible!"

Seeing that the moves he was proud of were easily deflected by Lily with just a table knife, Zoro felt extremely shocked. This shock was even greater than when he was defeated by Mihawk with just a knife.

"The power is too dispersed. As long as you find the right angle, nothing is impossible. Especially since you are using three knives, I can make the power of your three knives cancel each other out as long as I find the right time. What's more, you are still in a state of fatigue. It's great that you can hold on for so long in this state."

Lily put away the dinner knife in her hand and said with a smile, Zoro is indeed very talented and his training is indeed hard enough, but this form of three-sword style has never been achieved by anyone before, so Zoro has to rely on his own exploration along the way. Many of his methods are very good, but some of his moves are rather strange. For example, the demon slash just now, although it looks as if the three forces are concentrated at one point and have great destructive power, it also causes mutual interference in their forces.

Lily is very sensitive to the flow of power, and naturally discovered the weak point of Zoro's attack. As we all know, when you find the supporting point of an object, you only need very little force to pry the structure of the entire object, and the same is true for swordsmanship. Lily easily found Zoro's stress point with a strike, and then things became very easy next. In terms of speed, Lily is at the world's top level, and the same is true for swordsmanship, so as long as he sees the flaw, Zoro has no way to deal with it. Lily stood still from beginning to end, and successfully blocked all of Zoro's moves with just a table knife. Even Kuina next to her was dumbfounded.

"Your moves are too straightforward. Although they are powerful, they won't give you the upper hand against someone who is better at swordsmanship than you. I can even see through your moves easily."

As Lily spoke, she turned the dinner knife in her hand to the backhand and slashed it upwards seemingly casually. Zoro hurriedly tried to block it, but when Lily was about to hit Zoro, she instantly changed her move and changed the knife from backhand to forehand. The back of the knife gently scratched Zoro's blade, and the next moment, the dinner knife in Lily's hand was pointing at Zoro's choking throat. If Lily used a little more force, she could cut Zoro's trachea and artery.

"See? When facing a true swordsman, you must learn not to reveal your intentions and hide your real killer moves behind a seemingly ordinary attack. This is not cheating, but real control of your swordsmanship. I know you are a spy who can cut through iron, and I know you can hear the sound of swords. Your swords may be good or evil, but there is no doubt that your temperament and character all like to fight head-on. However, you cannot completely obey your sword. You are the real sword holder, you are the master. You can take care of the emotions of your subordinates, but you cannot be indulged blindly."

Lily saw Zoro's weakness, took back the knife in her hand and said.

"Thanks for the instruction."

Zoro also sheathed his three swords, bowed very respectfully and said.

"Go find your uncle. Although Shimotsuki Ushimaru is not as strong as me, he is worse than me in the orthodox katana. After all, my sword is not a true katana in a certain sense, and it is not so compatible with your swordsmanship. The only thing I can help you with is to correct your mentality and some common minor problems."

Lily walked forward, patted Zoro on the shoulder and said.

"Yes, I will ask later."

Zoro nodded and said that during this period of time, he could be considered to have returned to his roots. Yes, Zoro's grandmother was the sister of Shimotsuki Gyumaru who ran away from home, so Shimotsuki Gyumaru was Zoro's uncle, a real one, without any adulteration.

After learning this from Hiyori and confirming at the Beast Hospital that the two parties were indeed related by blood, Shimotsuki Ushimaru and Shimotsuki Yasuie happily brought Zoro and Kuina to the island. If Zoro had not been so tough and repeatedly stated that he must become the world's number one swordsman, Shimotsuki Ushimaru and Shimotsuki Yasuie might have kept Zoro to inherit the family business. Although they were no longer daimyo, their families were wealthy people. Both of them had no descendants (Toko was only one of the children adopted by Shimotsuki Yasuie), and they were from the same clan. It could be said that if Zoro wanted, the money from these two families was enough for him to live a glorious life for several lifetimes.

Unfortunately, Zoro was not interested in this. He could acknowledge Shimotsuki Ushimaru's identity as his uncle, after all, he was his uncle, but he could not accept inheriting the family business and giving up his dream of pursuing the world's greatest swordsman. However, in the end, Shimotsuki Ushimaru and Shimotsuki Yasuie did not stop Zoro, and Shimotsuki Ushimaru even taught Zoro personally. After all, he was the second strongest man in the entire Wano Country back then. Although he was unable to make further progress due to his physical fitness, if only the level of exquisiteness of swordsmanship is counted, even if Kozuki Oden came back, he could not compare to Shimotsuki Ushimaru.

Moreover, he is an orthodox samurai swordsman, which is different from Lily who uses a broadsword. For Zoro, he understands some of the samurai sword tricks better than Lily.

So Lily recommended that Zoro go to find Shimotsuki Gyumaru to learn some knowledge in this area. Lily was sure that Shimotsuki Gyumaru would know these things. As for why she didn't teach Zoro before, it might be because she felt that Zoro and Kozuki Oden were the same type of people who could defeat a man of great skill with one strength. But unfortunately, in Lily's opinion, Zoro's strength was not small, but it was not at that level. What's more, swordsmanship itself is not a job that is particularly suitable for relying solely on strength. Otherwise, when Kozuki Oden faced the untied Kaido, he would not have been defeated so easily.

"The little girl named Kuina over there, let me talk about your problem as well. In terms of swordsmanship alone, you have far fewer problems than that brat Zoro, but you do have problems too. Your father's problem is that he is too upright, and your swordsmanship is too rigid. You are the user of the black panther form of the Cat-Cat Fruit, and you have to know one thing, that is, the biggest feature of the Cat-Cat Fruit is flexibility. In the entire animal-type fruit, it is known for its flexibility, but you didn't give me the feeling of flexibility just now. You only used the speed of the black panther, but forgot that flexible and silent attacks are the essence of the black panther."

Lily said to Kuina.

"You should not practice swordsmanship with Zoro next. What you need to do next is to change your habits and go find Xia Ji. You should know her. She should be fine now. Let her take you for training and tell you what a true animal-type fruit ability user is. This is the first time I have seen an ability user who can suppress his instincts in all these years. Alas, it seems that you have never thought about how to become an animal-type fruit ability user."

Lily's words made Kuina blush. In fact, Hiyori had also said something similar quietly, but at that time Kuina didn't react to Hiyori's meaning at all. Now after Lily said this, Kuina suddenly felt that what she said in front of Hiyori at that time was so embarrassing.

"Yes, I see. Thank you for your reminder, Mrs. Lily."

Kuina said awkwardly.

"No need to express gratitude or feel awkward. You are friends of Yamato, Hiyori and the others. We naturally don't mind teaching you this little thing, just like Kaido teaching you what real Haki is. Okay, take a good rest today and heal your injuries first."

Lily looked at the two of them, waved her hand, then turned and left. It was not a bad thing to recover from injuries appropriately, as it allowed them to take a break. Lily was indeed able to help them recover quickly, but mental fatigue was not so easy to solve. After all, these people had just been brought back from the devilish training by Kaido.

"Mrs. Lily and Mr. Mihawk give people completely different feelings."

After watching Lily leave, Kuina said to Zoro.

"Um."

Zoro nodded without saying much. After being instructed by Lily, there were still some things he hadn't figured out, which made him keep thinking with his head down.

"Okay, don't think about it, go back and rest first."

Looking at Zoro's appearance, Kuina knew that this guy was lost in his own world again and couldn't extricate himself, so she patted Zoro on the back and said.