Accumulating Strength

"Ten thousand!" As the final slash fell, Doflamingo immediately staggered to a stop, his vision going dark and his ears ringing.

Bell hurried over to support Doflamingo. Then he took out a canteen and fed him a few mouthfuls of lightly salted water.

"Whew..." Doflamingo let out a long breath and quickly came back to his senses. Only then did he realize that his entire body ached so badly it barely felt like his own.

Honestly, even Bell found Doflamingo's training intensity terrifying. His rapid progress was certainly due in part to his natural talent, but this almost insane level of training was the true key.

"Alright." Doflamingo pushed Bell away. "Go prepare some food for me. Once I wake up and finish eating, I'll continue training."

The moment he finished speaking, Doflamingo lay down on the ground and immediately fell fast asleep.

It was not because he had been influenced by the great sleepers in One Piece. This was his unique method of recovering stamina: deep sleep induced through self-hypnosis.

This deep sleep could completely restore all his energy within two hours, making it far more effective than an ordinary person's eight hours of sleep. Moreover, while in this state of sleep, his physical condition would improve to a certain degree.

Back when he was still Wang Sen, he had relied on this technique to struggle against illness for several years. Now that he no longer needed to fight disease, it was also an excellent aid for training.

After every training session, Doflamingo would enter deep sleep for half an hour. Once he woke up, he would eat a huge meal and recover all his stamina and energy.

He trained four times a day, each session lasting four hours. With two hours of rest, that made eighteen hours. The remaining time was spent eating, dealing with bodily needs, and pretending to sleep while actually training his Illusion Fruit ability in Illusion Space. It could be said that he wasted not a single moment.

Only once every ten days would Doflamingo go out and socialize. Even then, his main purpose was to plant a few hidden connections in Mary Geoise and advance certain plans.

For example, by using his illusion ability, Doflamingo easily became the leader among Celestial Dragon children his age. It might not seem meaningful now, but once he left Holy Land Mary Geoise in the future, these connections would bring him immense convenience.

He despised the Celestial Dragons, but he would never reject the benefits that came with this identity. On the contrary, only by making use of those benefits could he overthrow the Celestial Dragons more effectively.

In addition, he had openly revealed his illusion ability. There were not many Celestial Dragons who had eaten Devil Fruits, but there were not none at all. The Illusion Fruit ability also seemed rather "novel and interesting" to the Celestial Dragons, so none of the others suspected anything.

Feeling that time was far too tight, Doflamingo also did everything he could to influence his current parents, hoping they would postpone moving out of Mary Geoise for a few more years.

Although he believed that leaving that hellhole was only a matter of time, he still hoped to be fully prepared before leaving, rather than departing without any preparation at the age of eight.

After all, time was too short, and his age was also a massive limitation. He was not a monster like Charlotte Linlin. Even if he intensified his training now, by the time he was eight, he would at most be a little stronger than an ordinary marine.

Such strength was practically meaningless on the open sea, especially since Holy Land Mary Geoise was located on the Grand Line. On the Grand Line, any pirate from any Pirate Crew could take down more than a dozen marines.

Although he had developed the Illusion Fruit to a formidable degree, it was ultimately borrowed strength. It could not change the fact that he was fragile, which left him feeling deeply insecure.

"According to the original timeline, in less than a year, the entire Donquixote family will have to move out of Holy Land Mary Geoise. Though that is also what I want, I'm still not fully prepared. It would be best if I could delay it for a few years, until I'm twelve or thirteen. Then I can leave."

Having just woken up, Doflamingo wolfed down food while planning in his mind.

"Delay it, delay it... I've got it!" Doflamingo tore off a huge chunk of meat still attached to the bone. His mind raced, and he suddenly thought of a method.

Crunch, crunch. After swallowing the meat in his mouth, Doflamingo stood up. "I'm full. Now it's time to continue training!"

After putting on his weighted clothes, Doflamingo began another round of training beneath the blazing sun.

What he mainly trained now was his physical strength, along with some swordsmanship. As for things like the Navy Six Styles, with his current physique, he was simply not qualified to learn them.

Another half a month passed. Doflamingo continued training his body every day, while his younger brother Rosinante came down with a strange illness.

Every day, Rosinante would remain unconscious throughout the daytime. No matter what methods were used, no one could wake him. Only at night would he regain consciousness.

This strange illness immediately occupied all of the Donquixote family's attention. Donquixote and Homing no longer had any thoughts of leaving Holy Land Mary Geoise. They focused entirely on how to cure their son.

As for the source of this strange illness, it naturally came from Doflamingo. With his Illusion Fruit ability, it was far too easy for him to tamper with Rosinante.

However, all he did was make his adopted little brother enter deep sleep during the day. It actually caused no harm to his body and even brought quite a few benefits.

Homing invited many doctors. As a Celestial Dragon, the physicians he found were naturally among the finest on the entire sea. Yet no matter how they examined Rosinante, they could not discover what strange illness he had contracted.

On the contrary, Rosinante's physical condition was even healthier than that of ordinary people, leaving the doctors scratching their heads in confusion.

Fortunately, Homing was not an ordinary Celestial Dragon and was far less cruel by nature. Otherwise, these doctors would likely have met grim ends.

Rosinante's strange illness became a source of deep worry for the Donquixote family. Before his condition improved, they clearly could not leave Holy Land Mary Geoise.

And because of this, Doflamingo gained time to grow.

Time flew by, and soon five years had passed.

On the Training Grounds, Doflamingo wielded a fast blade. Blade light flashed as he forced Bell back step by step.

Bell was not going easy on Doflamingo. Doflamingo's attacks showed no mercy whatsoever. At this moment, Bell was covered in blood and could only barely fend off Doflamingo's assault.

After five years of grueling training, Doflamingo now looked no different from a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old youth. He was even taller and larger than most.

However, it was still too early to say that Doflamingo could defeat Bell. The main reason was that Bell did not dare attack with all his strength. After all, Doflamingo was now a Celestial Dragon.

Yet even while Bell focused entirely on defense, Doflamingo could still push him into such a state with ease. This meant Doflamingo's swordsmanship had already reached a level close to that of a Navy Headquarters field-grade officer.

"One-Sword Slash!"

Very quickly, after driving his blade momentum to its limit, Doflamingo suddenly swung his sword. A crescent-shaped blade aura shot out in an instant. Bell, who had already been struggling to hold on, revealed utter terror in his eyes. With a miserable groan, he was sent flying by the Flying Slash, blood spraying through the air.

Doflamingo slowly caught his breath, then walked over and found that Bell had already fainted. A massive wound had been cut from his chest to his abdomen, faintly exposing the bones and organs within.

Seeing the ground soaked in blood beneath Bell, Doflamingo knew that if this were the real world, even emergency treatment might be too late.

However, humans in the Pirate World possessed tremendous vitality, and those with some strength were especially hard to kill. Even without treatment, Bell had a good chance of pulling through an injury like this.

Doflamingo gently stroked the steel blade in his hand, hesitation flashing through his eyes. In the end, he did nothing and instead spoke to the doctor at the edge of the Training Grounds. "Take him away for treatment."

As he spoke, Doflamingo casually placed the steel blade onto the nearby weapon rack.

Although he was a Celestial Dragon, the weapon Doflamingo used was not one of the Great Grade Swords.

In fact, he had already collected quite a few fine blades. Yet he had not taken them out to use, and he never used them in combat training.

His current strength was still too weak. If he obtained a divine weapon, he would inevitably develop a strong dependence on it, which would not do much good for improving his own strength.

Not only divine weapons, but all kinds of fast blades and even some Devil Fruits were within Doflamingo's collection range.

His Celestial Dragon identity had indeed brought him immense convenience. Over these five years, he had collected many treasures, including seven or eight Devil Fruits, two Supreme Grade Swords, and five Great Grade Swords.