Pirates Attack

Although he had not managed to unleash Outer Heaven Flying Fairy, Doflamingo suddenly felt that the weapon in his hand had become much easier to wield.

"Wasn't a skill passed on, but talent and instinct?"

In the past, whenever Doflamingo wielded his quick blade, he had basically relied on brute force. But this time, he could feel the blade's smoothness as it sliced through the air.

Though the Pirate World did indeed favor overwhelming strength, that did not mean skill was completely irrelevant. And among them, swordsmen naturally made the greatest use of technique.

In the Illusion Space, Doflamingo had not felt it very clearly. Only when he practiced swordsmanship again in the real world did he truly sense that unique instinct.

Every bit of weight in the quick blade in his hand was clearly imprinted in his mind. With every slash, he instinctively knew how to maximize its power and how to bring its speed to the limit, without needing to think about it at all.

He could even sense the gentle "breathing" of the quick blade in his hand, and through it, hear the "breathing" emitted by all things.

"Is this the so-called Breath of All Things? A realm where one can cut through anything, yet also cut through nothing?"

He casually swung the quick blade in his hand, effortlessly slicing a large training stone in half. The cross-section was incomparably smooth, like a mirror.

Doflamingo had not used even a trace of Armament Haki in that strike. He had used nothing but an ordinary steel weapon.

If he had used brute force to cut through a stone like this before, the blade would definitely have chipped. It would have been even more impossible to cut the entire stone as smoothly as a mirror.

"Rather than breathing, it would be more accurate to call it frequency. Sensing an object's frequency and cutting through it—that is the mystery of the Breath of All Things."

"And now, it is as if I have become several times more perceptive. I can easily sense these frequencies."

"Ye Gucheng's obsession may not have increased my strength or taught me Outer Heaven Flying Fairy, but it has greatly improved my talent for swordsmanship!"

Doflamingo's talent for swordsmanship had actually been fairly average. He was much better than ordinary people, but in the eyes of true swordsmanship geniuses, he was nothing special.

As for why he had chosen swordsmanship, it was naturally because the most people on the seas used blades and swords.

Any random sailor could perform a few flashy blade tricks. With the greatest number of practitioners, swordsmanship techniques had developed to their peak. As long as Doflamingo studied them, he could improve his strength the fastest.

Feeling the improvement in both his talent and mastery of swordsmanship, Doflamingo's face was full of smiles. Of course, another reason was that he had discovered that although his golden finger was mostly broken, it still seemed to be somewhat useful.

"The greatest reason Ye Gucheng's swordsmanship talent remained behind was probably his obsession with swordsmanship."

"And before, I thought the Sea of Souls created by my golden finger was filled with ordinary souls. I never expected them to be characters from other works."

"In that case, perhaps those characters with deep obsessions may also leave behind some talents for me to inherit."

There were not many people with deep obsessions in the real world, but in all kinds of literary works, comics, and movies, there were plenty of such people. And they were often truly powerful characters.

With that, Doflamingo's golden finger had finally begun to serve a real purpose.

Just as Doflamingo was immersed in the progress of his swordsmanship, a huge commotion suddenly erupted.

"What the hell?" Hearing the noise, Doflamingo immediately leaped up, using Geppo to jump into the air and look into the distance.

Thick black smoke drifted over Water 7, accompanied by the sounds of shouting and fighting.

"Pirates are causing trouble in Water 7?" A hint of surprise appeared on Doflamingo's face, but then he thought it over. Pirates, especially pirates in the Pirate World—how much brains could one expect them to have?

Even though this was not yet the Great Age of Piracy, there were still no shortage of pirates on the Grand Line. Unspoken rules were only unspoken rules. Once there were enough pirates, every sort of scum would appear. Trying to rob Water 7 was perfectly normal.

Before he could take a closer look, he heard the assembly whistle sound from the Navy branch.

Amid waves of grumbling curses, all the Navy soldiers in the branch quickly assembled.

"All Navy personnel, move out immediately! Reinforce the Seventh Shipyard! Damn Cyclops Pirates, they even dared to steal our Navy warships!" the Navy branch's captain shouted furiously, then charged out with the mass of Navy soldiers.

Doflamingo was secretly startled. The Seventh Shipyard was no ordinary place. It was an official shipyard with a cooperative relationship with the Navy and had produced quite a few Navy warships.

As for the Navy Captain leading a crowd of Navy soldiers charging out like they were going into a brawl, Doflamingo could not even be bothered to complain.

Thinking about it carefully, the Pirate World relied on individual martial strength anyway. Formations and discipline were not entirely useless, but their effect was barely worth mentioning. Rather than spending time on those things, they might as well do more physical training, which would improve the Navy's combat strength more.

So this situation was not all that surprising.

Seeing that the Navy had already rushed out, Doflamingo was unwilling to lag behind. His strength had just improved, and he happened to want to find a capable opponent to test it against.

He pushed off with his feet and used Soru, darting to the front in just a few flashes. "Captain Alexander, who are the pirates causing trouble?"

Captain Alexander, who was hurrying forward, frowned. "It's the Cyclops Pirates. Their captain is Buck the 'Cyclops,' with a bounty of 120 million!"

Doflamingo whistled. "Looks like we've run into a big fish this time. The question is whether we can deal with them."

A bounty of 120 million was the price of a Supernova even in the era when Luffy went to sea. To have such a bounty in this era, when the Pirate King had not even appeared yet, meant his strength was practically at the peak of the first half of the Grand Line.

At Doflamingo's words, Captain Alexander revealed a bitter smile. To be honest, without Doflamingo, he truly would not have had much confidence in facing the Cyclops Pirates head-on.

Over this period of time, Doflamingo had naturally sparred with the officers in the Navy branch. Even without using his Devil Fruit ability, only Captain Alexander himself in the entire branch could exchange a few moves with Doflamingo.

In Alexander's eyes, Doflamingo's strength was already nearly comparable to that of a Navy Headquarters Captain. It could be said that he was the trump card of the entire Navy branch.

Otherwise, Captain Alexander would not have dared to directly charge in with all the Navy soldiers. He would definitely have requested reinforcements from nearby Navy bases first, and whether they would even fight would be another matter.