Sure enough.
After Nojiko and Nami woke up and couldn't find their beloved possessions, they were both anxious and aggrieved, crying like little teardrop dolls.
Xia Nuo was furious. He joined Bellemere in cursing the unscrupulous thief, calling him a scumbag. What kind of bastard stole even children's belongings? He was worse than an animal!
He immediately went to the marketplace, bought a pile of new hairpins and several new headbands, then coaxed and cajoled the two little ones for quite some time before finally making them smile through their tears.
After all that fuss, along with some follow-up comparative experiments,
Xia Nuo finally figured out the Sacrifice System's judgment logic.
1. The sacrifice had to be something closely connected to a manga character. Its value was positively correlated with the closeness of that connection;
For example, Nami's treasured Orange Blossom Hairpin was worth far more than the stinky socks she had taken off.
2. Its value was also positively correlated with the strength of the sacrifice's source and the importance of that character within the manga;
The connection to strength was obvious. Something tied to a strong person by emotional bonds was harder to obtain, so its value would naturally be higher;
As for character importance, that was easy to understand too. A sacrifice obtained from Nami, for example, was worth an entire tier more.
Ultimately, Nami was the main heroine in the manga, while Nojiko was merely a peripheral supporting character, and Bellemere existed only in memories.
To confirm this, Xia Nuo had waited until Uncle Genzo dozed off, then sent his capable subordinate, Thief Cat Nami, to steal the Little Windmill from atop his head, earning a pitiful 10 points.
Still, even the tiniest mosquito was meat. There was nothing he could do about its low value. After all, most manga readers didn't even remember who this man was.
3. A sacrifice from the same source could not be offered again until a year had passed.
In other words,
shearing sheep came with a cooldown, and a very long one at that. He couldn't keep fleecing the same fat sheep over and over.
Looking at his remaining 25 points, Xia Nuo sighed sadly. This rule was the reason he was so poor now.
If it weren't for this restriction...
A hairpin worth one hundred Beli could be exchanged for three hundred points. If he had a few years to develop quietly, Xia Nuo didn't even dare imagine how strong he would be by the time he went to sea as an adult.
He wondered whether even the combined might of the Three Marine Admirals could take a single punch from him.
"What are you spacing out for?"
Bellemere waved a hand in front of him, snapping Xia Nuo out of his fantasy. "You've changed already, so hurry up and eat. You worked all afternoon. Aren't you hungry?"
Indeed, eating was more important.
Warm light filled the kitchen, carrying the rich aroma of meat.
The two little gluttons had already eaten their fill, but their mouths and stomachs were too small. The table still looked lavish, as though nobody had touched it.
As soon as Nojiko came in, she immediately pretended to be a refined lady, sipping her corn chowder in tiny mouthfuls. Nami was still intently battling the crisp shell atop her Caramel Pudding.
But when Xia Nuo sat down, clapped his hands, and said, "Let's eat," the scene changed completely.
The honey-glazed ribs vanished at a rate of one piece every three seconds. The steamed fish was reduced to bones in the blink of an eye. Mashed-potato rice and garlic bread lasted only a few seconds longer, as if swallowed by an endless black hole.
The number of empty plates rapidly increased, soon piling into a small mountain.
If an outsider had been there, they would surely have been dumbfounded.
But the family had long since grown used to it.
Probably starting a year or two ago, Xia Nuo had begun shooting up in height, and his appetite had grown with him.
The boy had entered puberty, worked physical labor every day, and could eat just a tiny bit more than a little girl. That was perfectly normal!
Bellemere propped her elbow against her cheek and watched Xia Nuo eat heartily with a beaming smile.
She wondered whether she had saved East Blue in her previous life, and that was why the heavens had sent her several adorable little angels—especially Xia Nuo. He was steady, sensible, diligent, and reliable.
If he really was an angel, he was probably the most popular one in heaven too, right?
Speaking of which,
although she had served as a Marine for several years and had a stronger physique than ordinary people, supporting such a large family by herself was still difficult.
For a long time, the three children's childhood had been quite poor and difficult.
At one point, Nami could only wear her older sister's hand-me-downs. Bellemere often felt guilty about it. Their days only gradually improved after Xia Nuo grew into the family's greatest source of labor.
The harvest seasons of the past two years had been especially good. Xia Nuo could harvest the entire orange grove within a week each time. In the past, she would have needed a whole month.
Finishing the harvesting and sorting earlier meant they could sell everything as soon as the first cargo ship arrived to purchase oranges, when the price was also slightly higher than later on.
Thus, after several years of positive growth, the family's income had steadily climbed.
Bellemere had counted it out on her fingers. Once this year's oranges were sold, her savings would exceed three hundred thousand Beli!
Wow, seriously. Was her childhood dream finally coming true? Who could have imagined a few years ago that she would one day become a millionaire?
"Were these delivered today?"
This time, Xia Nuo's voice shattered her beautiful daydream.
"Huh?"
Bellemere came back to herself and saw that Xia Nuo had somehow already finished eating and had picked up a newspaper lying at the corner of the table.
"Yeah. The News Coo only came at noon." Bellemere complained, "I don't know what the World Economic News Agency is doing. They raised the price again. It was 40 Beli last week, and now one issue costs 50. When I was your age, they were only 20 Beli an issue..."
She had never subscribed to newspapers every day before. She couldn't afford to.
She had only begun subscribing in the past two years, after their circumstances improved and Xia Nuo insisted on it. He also read them carefully every day.
Bellemere didn't understand why her adopted son cared so much about newspapers. The major events at sea seemed far removed from them, who grew oranges in the countryside.
Her nagging went in one ear and out the other. Xia Nuo murmured a few responses and began scanning the newspaper.
He had barely read a few lines when his gaze was instantly drawn to a report beneath the front page.
<Agreement Reached! Sun Pirates Captain Jinbe Becomes the New Shichibukai!>
There was also an accompanying picture. Flanked by several Marine Officers, a blue, heavyset fish-man in a yukata and wooden sandals calmly stared at the camera.
Xia Nuo stared at the photograph for a long time without looking away.
His hand gradually clenched tightly around the edge of the newspaper.
"Is it finally happening..." he muttered under his breath.
"What?" Bellemere tilted her head in confusion.
"Nothing."
Xia Nuo shook his head slightly and quickly finished scanning the remaining pages.
After confirming that there was no other information worth noting, he glanced out the window, pushed back his chair, and stood.
"The rain seems to have stopped. I'm going to practice swordsmanship in the grove for a while. If it gets late, go to sleep first. Don't wait for me."
He smiled, grabbed the Wood Sword from the corner, and pushed open the door, leaving a retreating figure beyond the glass window.
"Hmm..."
Bellemere withdrew her gaze and fell into thought, rubbing her chin.
She was not particularly perceptive. When she was young, the elders in her hometown had even called her a reckless idiot with nothing in her head.
But after living with Xia Nuo day and night for so many years, she understood him too well. She felt that this reaction of his definitely meant he was hiding something from her.
She suddenly recalled, hazily,
that when the child was ten, he had once seemed to suffer a long and incredibly realistic nightmare during an afternoon nap.
He had then awoken abruptly, drenched in sweat, and come looking for her. He had said that in the future, a group of terrifying pirates with hideous faces would come to occupy the island.
He had asked her to move away early, far from here, and find another island where they could start their lives over.
That was naturally impossible. This was her hometown. How could they move away because of a child's inexplicable nightmare?
Besides, the East Blue 16th Branch where she had served was very close by.
If pirates really came, how could the Marines at Branch 16 possibly ignore it?
Bellemere had been both amused and exasperated as she comforted him for a long time, finally calming the little fellow down.
From that day onward, the child's temperament had grown steadier by the day. He never mentioned moving again. Time passed, and he gradually became the pillar of the family.
All along,
she had merely assumed that Xia Nuo had grown older and, having been raised amid hardship, had matured far beyond his peers. She had felt only pleased about it.
Could it be...
that the nightmare's impact had been far more intense than she imagined, and had continued to this day?
"Whew!"
On an autumn-winter night, the temperature had dropped to around freezing, and the white vapor from Xia Nuo's nostrils was clearly visible.
Xia Nuo jogged around the orange grove more than a dozen times, digesting dinner while warming up.
He then came to an open area, removed his clothes, and revealed his sturdy chest.
He settled into a firm stance, placed the Wood Sword to one side, and began practicing Breathing Fist.
He had bought this technique from the marketplace last year, after saving for a long time and spending the full eight hundred points—a huge sum.
Its core seemed to share some origins with the breathing techniques of the Demon Slayer world, but there were also clear differences.
At the edge of the orange grove was a specially cleared circular patch of ground.
Nine thick wooden posts driven into the soil formed a formation. They varied in height, distance, and position, and both ends were tightly bound with iron hoops.
Xia Nuo had commissioned the village carpenter to make them from old varieties of orange trees that had been discarded the previous year.
If not for Nami covering every post with crayon doodles—clouds, moons, little rabbits, and the like—they might even have possessed the imposing air of a grandmaster's dojo.
There was also half a basket of oranges inside the formation.
Most had insect holes or had rotted. They were the defective fruits discarded during the harvest these past few days.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three rotten oranges were tossed into the air. The instant they hit the ground, the black-haired boy moved.
His right foot slammed onto the growth rings of a wooden post. His waist and hips twisted, producing a ripping sound, and his elbow struck the first falling fruit with perfect accuracy.
The airflow driven by Breathing Fist Seventh Form surged wildly beneath his skin, bursting the orange with a pop into eight evenly sized segments.
Before the juice could splash onto his eyelashes, his left knee had already crushed the seed sac of the second orange.
When the third orange was still thirty centimeters above the ground, Xia Nuo suddenly halted. His right foot, which had been a hair's breadth from shattering the peel, came down firmly on the ground.
Drip.
Sweat ran from his chin onto the dead leaves, steaming into a thin wisp of white smoke.
Suddenly relaxing after swelling his muscles to the limit and repeatedly tempering his capillaries was precisely the secret recorded in the Breathing Fist Secret Manual.
Xia Nuo did not stop. He took three more oranges from the bamboo basket and repeated the process again and again.
Only when the half-basket of oranges was nearly empty did he finally stop and go to the faucet to wash his face.
Whoosh—
He kicked the empty basket aside. After a brief rest, the black-haired boy shifted his target to several orange trees nearby.
These were also varieties Bellemere had purchased in the early days. Their yield and flavor were both far inferior to the batches planted later.
They ought to be discarded after this winter.
Just like certain fish-men who were born lowly and deserved to be torn into sashimi!
Breathing Fist, Eighth Form!
"Ha!"
Xia Nuo gave a low shout. The instant his left foot crushed the dead leaves beneath it, his right fist struck the tree trunk in the arc of a diving seagull.
As his fist passed through the air, the joints of all five fingers cracked like popping beans.
Bang, bang! One punch followed another like a violent storm. At the points where his knuckles collided with the trunk, an iron-gray color gradually appeared.
This hue was a sign that Breathing Fist had stimulated the subcutaneous tissues to harden. It resembled the effect of Armament Haki coating to some extent.
However, the covered area was tiny and its strength was inferior. For now, it could only be considered a low-grade version.
After completing the entire set of punches, a faint crack came from the center of the orange tree, but the exterior had gained only several fist marks as deep as his finger joints.
Again!
After a brief rest of merely a few seconds, the old orange tree began groaning in pain once more.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Beneath the silent night, dull, rapid blows rang out endlessly through the orange grove.
"One thousand nine hundred ninety-six, one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven... two thousand!"
Stop!
Xia Nuo returned to his original position, steadied his lower body, and exhaled deeply.
Nearly transparent white vapor drifted from both shoulders and the top of his head, fading into the night.
From his shoulders down, his torso trembled violently. Only after several seconds did the movement gradually weaken.
Every inch of muscle pulsed in harmony with his heartbeat. His pores released waves of heat, steaming the frost clinging to the dead branches and fallen leaves at his feet into twisting vortices.
"Progress is pretty good!"
Feeling the power still clearly coursing through every part of his body despite his extreme weakness and exhaustion, Xia Nuo rolled his neck. He felt reborn and couldn't help grinning in satisfaction.
It had to be said.
He truly possessed some talent for physical training.
He had practiced Breathing Fist for exactly a year and a half.
From his clumsy beginnings to his growing proficiency, his progress had accelerated as though he had activated a cheat.
He had spent a year going from knowing nothing to entering the basics. Then, after another three months, he had finally reached minor mastery in late summer and early autumn.
And now, before winter had fully arrived, he could already sense the barrier before breaking through his limits.
At this rate,
he was confident that with at most another ten days of such bitter training, he could achieve great mastery in Breathing Fist.
Before you continue