Golden Lion's Guidance

After Minos boarded Golden Lion's Floating Island, seven or eight days had already passed.

During this time, Minos had not been idle. There were no figures in the Big Mom Pirates renowned for swordsmanship. In terms of pure swordsmanship, the strongest was Charlotte Amande, Big Mom's Longleg Tribe daughter known as the Demon Wife.

However, Big Mom's third daughter did not have much of a personality either. She was cold and melancholic, and Minos could barely hold a conversation with her, let alone ask her for guidance in swordsmanship.

Among the remaining members of the Big Mom Pirates, quite a few carried swords, but practically none were highly skilled with them. Even Big Mom herself could only be considered mediocre at swordsmanship; she relied entirely on overwhelming strength.

Golden Lion was different. At his peak, Golden Lion had absolutely been a strong contender for the title of the world's greatest Great Swordsman! At the very least, he had been a Great Swordsman on the same level as Hawk Eyes and Kōzuki Oden.

Although his strength had declined now, guiding Minos was more than within his abilities.

They had not found Germa 66 during this time, so Minos trained with Golden Lion every day. His swordsmanship improved considerably once again.

After hearing Minos's words, Golden Lion had been investigating Germa 66's whereabouts. Although the Flying Pirates possessed mobility unmatched across the entire sea, they were severely lacking in intelligence. Germa 66 were mercenaries who roamed all over the seas, and Golden Lion still had not caught their trail.

Fortunately, Germa 66 were mercenaries, not some assassin organization. Golden Lion casually captured a few nobles and kings for interrogation, then obtained Germa 66's contact information and learned that they were currently suppressing a rebellion in some kingdom in the East Blue.

Although Germa 66 was an army from the North Blue, their specially made biological Snail Ships could effectively cross the Red Line, so their range of operations was quite broad. Minos and Golden Lion had not expected them to have already reached the East Blue, but the Flying Pirates possessed the best mobility in the world, and the group quickly pursued them.

The reason Minos had told Golden Lion this information was naturally because he wanted to stir things up. Now, he felt that joining the Golden Lion Pirates was not such a bad thing after all. His former inclination to flee immediately whenever things went wrong had faded considerably.

Although the Golden Lion Pirates were far weaker than the Charlotte Pirates, and Golden Lion, whose mind had gone wrong, was now far inferior in strength to Charlotte Linlin, it was precisely because Golden Lion's Pirate Crew had no reliable subordinates and Golden Lion himself had lost his mind that Minos could influence, or even determine, the Golden Lion Pirates' direction.

If it had been the Charlotte Pirates, unless under special circumstances, Minos would never have had the chance to make suggestions. Among all the family's officers, what rank did he even hold? At least a dozen people were stronger than him!

Within the Golden Lion Pirates, Golden Lion was not right in the head, while Dr. Indigo was half a clown himself. Never mind intelligence; his emotional intelligence was roughly on par with the average pirate at sea—somewhere between an idiot and a normal person.

In this Pirate Crew, Minos could truly spread his wings. He could call himself the strategist of the entire Golden Lion Pirates. In any case, he believed that his own intelligence was already rare in the entire pirate world.

Even if he could not be the pirate world's Zhuge Liang, he could at least be its Wu Yong, the Resourceful Star. He could manage the level of a Dog-headed Strategist.

For example, this time, Golden Lion had gone directly after Germa 66 under his influence. This would definitely have no small impact on the pirate world's plot and would surely bring him quite a few Karma Points.

If anything went wrong later, then when facing the backlash of the world's will, Minos could simply use Golden Lion as a shield. It was simply wonderful.

That would have been difficult with the Big Mom Pirates. The key was that Big Mom stayed on Cake Island every day without going anywhere. If Minos really caused trouble, he would probably be dead before he even reached Cake Island.

"Your swordsmanship is too rigid. Stop clinging to the rules and carefully feel the sword's breathing!"

"A true swordsman makes every move resonate with the surrounding environment. Even when the same person uses the same move, it will undergo subtle changes based on the outside environment, seeking harmony with it!"

"Think of yourself as the wind! Think of the sword in your hand as lightning! Do not treat it as ordinary steel!"

On the floating island in the sky, Golden Lion rose into the air. The two blades beneath his legs, Withered Tree and Cherry Blossom Ten, transformed into several streaks of light and relentlessly suppressed Minos.

As someone who had once been able to contend for the title of the world's greatest Great Swordsman, Golden Lion's current swordsmanship was still far superior to Minos, who had not even reached the realm of a swordsman! Even using only his legs to wield swords, suppressing his physical abilities, and fighting a training match, he still forced Minos to give everything he had just to hold on.

As an old-fashioned pirate, Golden Lion's teaching method was simple and brutal. Did Minos not know how? Beat him until he did! As long as he did not die, beat him half to death. After enough beatings, his body would eventually learn something.

Because of the ship's wheel embedded in his head, Golden Lion's Armament Haki and Observation Haki had both declined severely. However, perhaps because it was not yet time for him to fight the child of destiny, these two forms of Haki had merely weakened rather than disappeared completely.

Golden Lion's Armament Haki had certainly declined greatly, but Minos's own Armament Haki was not particularly strong to begin with. If not for the Dragon Blood Ritual, he would not even have been able to use hardening yet! Compared to Golden Lion's weakened Armament Haki, Minos was still far inferior.

But when it came to Observation Haki, Minos's level was extremely high. He could almost be said to be only one step away from the peak. Golden Lion at his peak might have been able to compare with Minos, but now he was far behind.

But even powerful Observation Haki was useless if the body could not react in time! Golden Lion himself was as fast as lightning, and with the Float-Float Fruit's support, his attack range and angles expanded into three-dimensional space. In battle, he appeared in front one moment and behind the next, leaving trails of afterimages and making Minos struggle tremendously as slash after slash carved bloody wounds across his body.

The two fought for more than two hours. Minos's blood had splattered across the entire training ground before Golden Lion finally withdrew. "All right, bandage your wounds. Your rate of improvement is not bad. But you still have not corrected your habit of relying too much on Observation Haki!"

Minos was covered in blood and swaying on his feet. If not for his unusual physique, an ordinary person would have fainted long ago under such circumstances. Hearing this, he merely rolled his eyes.

There was nothing he could do about relying too much on Observation Haki. His Observation Haki was so much more developed than his other abilities. If he did not rely on Observation Haki in battle, he might just die!