Changes to the Cheat

During his time at this Navy branch, Doflamingo had not wasted a moment. He had constantly trained his body.

He woke at six in the morning and performed all kinds of weighted physical exercises. At eight, he went to the cafeteria to eat, then took a half-hour nap.

From nine to twelve, he practiced swordsmanship, followed by another meal and deep sleep.

At one in the afternoon, he began training in the Navy Six Styles and continued until six in the evening.

Then came dinner and sleep. At ten, he resumed training, outwardly going to sleep as he entered the Illusion Space. Within the Illusion Space, he trained his Devil Fruit ability and various techniques.

Although the Illusion Space had brought his techniques to an extremely high level, it could not help him train his body. Thus, even now, his stamina remained his greatest weakness.

He had also failed to encounter the powerful pirates and opponents he had hoped for. The Navy branch stationed on the island merely maintained public order. As long as no one caused trouble in Water 7, they would not mobilize, much less take the initiative to sail out and pursue pirates.

"This is so boring. This infiltration plan is seriously awful. If I'd known, I might as well have gone straight to Marineford to enlist!"

In the middle of the night, Doflamingo fought the Three-Headed Hydra brothers in the Illusion Space while sighing in boredom.

Half a year had passed. Doflamingo, who was only twelve and at an age of rapid growth, had made remarkably obvious progress in strength.

The most obvious sign was that a faint black trace had now appeared on the fine blade in Doflamingo's hand.

Of course, this did not mean Doflamingo had forged his fine blade into a Black Blade. Rather, he had gained the ability to coat his blade with Armament Haki.

Back in Holy Land Mary Geoise, the sacred land of the Celestial Dragons, Doflamingo had collected quite a few training manuals on martial arts, swordsmanship, and Haki.

The Hasshoken of the Flower Country, Fish-Man Karate, the sword techniques of various great swordsmen, Haki training methods from Amazon Lily, combat techniques of the Giant Tribe, Elbaf Spear - Weiguo—he had read almost all of them.

Even now, copies of those training manuals he had collected remained in his Illusion Space.

But the Pirate World was not some martial arts world. Possessing a secret martial arts manual did not mean one could successfully master its techniques. When true powerhouses trained here, they often needed actual combat far more than they needed to follow a manual.

For the monsters of the Pirate World, studying the Navy Six Styles until the manual fell apart was less rewarding than fighting an expert proficient in the Six Styles once.

Still, those manuals had at least pointed Doflamingo in the right direction. That was why he had so quickly trained his Armament Haki to the point where he could coat his blade with it.

With Armament Haki coating his fine blade, Doflamingo's killing power had increased drastically. Even Andrew, the toughest and most durable of them, who had awakened Haki, was no longer his match.

His figure flickered as he pushed his physique and technique to their limits. With Observation Haki, he easily dodged the attacks of the three hulking men. His fine blade remained still until it struck, and whenever it did, it left a bloody mark.

This was unlike their previous battle, when he could only leave superficial wounds. Every slash now drew a spray of blood. After merely half an hour, the three hulking men were already on the verge of collapse, and Doflamingo beheaded them with a single slash.

During their last clash, Doflamingo had been forced to use the phasing ability of the Illusion Fruit against Andrew alone. Yet this time, facing Andrew and his two younger brothers together, he had won with ease. Clearly, he had not wasted the past half year.

Stretching his arms, Doflamingo slowly walked out of the city. Another Blood-colored Puppet rose from the crimson sea.

"Grinding these things every day is making me sick of them!" Doflamingo sighed and reached out, but the Blood-colored Puppet suddenly thrust forward. A blood-red longsword nearly pierced Doflamingo's eye.

"What the hell was that?" Doflamingo rolled away from the strike and immediately widened his eyes.

It could not be helped. In the Illusion Space, unless he was conducting combat training, he certainly did not keep Observation Haki active.

Besides, Blood-colored Puppets generally had no combat ability at all, much less the ability to suddenly produce a blood-red longsword.

That strike had not been particularly fast or powerful, but that was only from Doflamingo's perspective.

After all, the Blood-colored Puppet possessed only the physical strength of an ordinary person. Yet with the strength of an ordinary person, it had stabbed out a strike that Doflamingo had nearly failed to dodge. One could imagine just how exquisite its swordsmanship was.

To put it another way, it was like an ordinary person wounding a Navy Headquarters Captain with one sword thrust. Even if it had relied on a sneak attack, the depth of its skill was plain to see.

Looking at the humanoid puppet holding the blood-red longsword, Doflamingo first showed surprise, then delight.

He did not know what was going on with this Blood-colored Puppet wielding a longsword. But to Doflamingo, any change was better than no change. His cheat had already become like this—how much worse could it get?

Doflamingo reached out again. Within the Illusion Space, he possessed near-omnipotent power to alter the world. The Blood-colored Puppet had only succeeded through surprise. Now that Doflamingo became serious, it was pinned to the ground, unable to move.

Doflamingo then absorbed it with ease. Only the blood-red longsword remained, eventually turning into a tiny, crystal-clear sword that Doflamingo held in his hand.

He examined the tiny sword in his hand, which looked like a blood-red crystal and was only four or five centimeters long. Doflamingo frowned, then shoved it straight into his mouth and swallowed it.

In an instant, he seemed to see a full moon, a towering palace, and two utterly breathtaking flashes of sword light.

The two flashes of sword light crossed. He could feel the sword light in his own hand shift slightly. Then pain burst through his chest, and he woke up.

"This is..." The scene he had just witnessed had lasted only a few seconds, yet it was already the most complete memory he had obtained so far, aside from those of Andrew and the original owner of this body.

Besides that scene, he had also received a name: Outer Heaven Flying Fairy!

"So that was Ye Gucheng and Ximen Chuixue's final battle at the Forbidden City? That Blood-colored Puppet contained a fragment of Ye Gucheng's obsession?"

Doflamingo casually swung the fine blade in his hand, but he did not unleash Outer Heaven Flying Fairy. He was not surprised. After all, it was a move from a martial arts world. He did not even possess inner force. How could he possibly bring out the power of that move in the Pirate World?