"Thud!"
Colonel Aster's corpse slammed heavily onto the ground.
Luo Yi slowly withdrew his right leg and adjusted the mask on his face. "It's been a while since I last used it, but it feels fine. I haven't gotten rusty."
Indeed—as mentioned before, Rokushiki was not exactly a secret among the Marines.
Any Marine officer above the rank of lieutenant who had spent several years at Headquarters would have a chance to learn it, either through other Marine officers or at a Training Ground.
The true limitation on learning Rokushiki was the extremely high level of physical strength it required.
Once their physical strength reached the necessary level, quite a few people could even comprehend one of the Rokushiki techniques on their own.
And clearly, physical strength was not much of a limitation for Luo Yi.
Although the two Zoan Devil Fruits he possessed were both only LV1, the physical enhancement they granted him was already enough to train in Rokushiki.
So in fact, Luo Yi had long since learned four of the Rokushiki techniques: Geppo, Rankyaku, Soru, and Iron Body.
Although he could not be called proficient, he could still use them skillfully.
"Soru is standard equipment for fighting powerhouses, Iron Body is a defensive technique, Geppo is one of the few flight abilities, and Rankyaku is a long-range attack. I can't afford to miss out on any of them."
Muttering to himself, Luo Yi slowly approached Manager Mantar's corpse.
Looking at the other man's three-folded body, Luo Yi reached out and searched his pockets.
Sure enough, he soon pulled out several things.
A few superb-quality gemstones and several bundles of ten-thousand-Belly bills were naturally not enough to intoxicate Luo Yi.
"Slurp. Cough, cough... What's this?"
What truly caught his attention were the two remaining items besides the treasure.
The first was a string of keys, each bearing a number.
The second was a sheet of paper folded into a neat square.
"The keys are obviously for these treasures—but this sheet of paper was stored together with them."
Curious, Luo Yi unfolded the paper. Then—
"This is..."
His expression suddenly froze.
Afterward, his breathing became somewhat hurried.
Because once the sheet of paper before him was unfolded, it was clearly a Sea Chart, with a distinct route marked across it.
More precisely, it was a Route Chart.
The route began at the Sabaody Archipelago.
It was not difficult to guess that this was surely the Route Chart Manager Mantar had used to return after selling those slaves at the Sabaody Archipelago.
But that was precisely where the problem lay.
As the manager of a royal merchant ship, Mantar's destination should logically have been the capital of the Kingdom of Nysmal.
Yet the endpoint of this Route Chart was not the capital of the Kingdom of Nysmal, but another island called Arashit Island.
That island was quite far from the capital and was even very close to the Calm Belt.
So why was that?
Luo Yi almost instinctively recalled a piece of information he had heard Manager Mantar mention earlier—the treasure would become part of the Kingdom of Nysmal's Celestial Gold offering this year, and the time to pay the Celestial Gold was already near.
The answer was obvious.
"Arashit Island... That island is the port where the Celestial Gold is stored and transported!"
But just as Luo Yi was inwardly horrified—
His keen hearing also caught movement coming from the Marine Branch above. Clearly, the drunken Marines were gradually waking up.
So he stuffed the sheet of paper back into Manager Mantar's pocket, took the string of keys, and decisively turned around to begin opening the chests.
As the treasure chests piled up in the storeroom were opened one after another, every chest was indeed filled with glittering treasure or stacks of Belly.
Luo Yi immediately placed his hand on them.
As the system began operating, the treasure and Belly kept vanishing, replaced by voices that continuously rang out beside Luo Yi's ears.
[Current Belly: 45.23 million → 75.30 million] [Current Belly: 75.30 million → 110 million] [Current...]
"Sure enough, every way to make money is written into the World Government's constitution."
Looking at the rapidly increasing numbers, Luo Yi could not help sighing.
"No wonder everyone is willing to go out to sea and become pirates—what's the point of working this job!?"
And just as Luo Yi was lamenting on behalf of the wage slaves—
His movements suddenly halted.
Because at that moment, he had noticed one of the treasure chests in front of him.
"Seastone?"
Looking at the gray, seemingly stone-made chest, Luo Yi immediately determined that it should have been made of Seastone.
Among all the treasures here, what would require such an elaborate effort to store in a Seastone chest?
"The Devil Fruit those two mentioned earlier must be inside!"
Luo Yi immediately realized it. He had heard Manager Mantar and Colonel Aster mention earlier that the former had obtained a precious Devil Fruit at the Sabaody Archipelago.
So Luo Yi immediately came before the chest, took out the key bearing the corresponding number, and opened it.
Sure enough, Luo Yi saw a dark-blue fruit inside.
The unique spiral patterns of the Sea Secret Treasure clearly wound around its surface.
At the same time, the voice of the Fruit Encyclopedia rang out beside Luo Yi's ears.
[Unclaimed Devil Fruit detected] [Devil Fruit confirmed as "Zoan: Ancient Zoan—Dragon-Dragon Fruit: Model Pterodactyl." Analyzing and storing in the "Fruit Encyclopedia."] [Please touch the fruit to begin analysis. Current analysis progress: 0%]
As the system's voice sounded, Luo Yi's expression turned blank.
It was not merely because this was the first genuine Devil Fruit he had ever obtained.
More importantly—
"Ancient Zoan?"
Luo Yi had never expected that the fruit he obtained this time would actually be a precious Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit.
It was said that Ancient Zoan Devil Fruits granted Ability Users far greater Life Force and physical strength than ordinary Zoan fruits.
Looking across the entire sea, although they could not compare with Mythical Zoan or Logia Devil Fruits, they were still absolutely rare types of Devil Fruits.
Obtaining such a Devil Fruit was naturally an unexpected delight for Luo Yi.
So without hesitation, Luo Yi placed his hand on the fruit.
The next moment, he saw the fruit begin to dissolve.
At the same time, the "analysis progress" on the Light Screen before him began to jump continuously.
After only a few breaths, he watched the fruit disappear into thin air.
In its place—
[Fruit analysis complete. Current ability level: LV.3] [LV3: All Fruit Effects acquired. You can transform into the ancient creature "Wind God Dragon." Recovery ability and Life Force greatly enhanced. You can freely switch between "Human Form," "Beast Form," and "Human-Beast Form." You can flap your wings to create powerful winds.] [LV4: Deep Fruit development. You can stir up raging winds and transform them into slashing attacks. You can use the winds you generate to move at extreme speed. Recovery ability and Life Force further enhanced. Requires 2.5 billion/800 million Belly to permanently/temporarily unlock.] [LV5: Fruit Awakening—Return to the Ancient Past. Perform the unique awakened transformation of a Zoan Devil Fruit Ability User. Flame clouds will coil around your body. Life Force and recovery ability will reach their peak. You can unleash catastrophic winds. Requires 9 billion/3 billion Belly to permanently/temporarily unlock.]
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