"Then you'd better look after me, Rocks!"
"If I make a request in the future, I hope you'll help me out. I'll trade you even more information."
Fang Yuan swallowed his food and accepted Rocks's invitation without hesitation, becoming the 001st member of the Rocks Pirates.
He even began negotiating terms with Rocks.
"Wahahahaha! Sure! A trade of benefits sounds good too!"
Rocks laughed brazenly, his ambition swelling ever higher. In high spirits, he led Fang Yuan and a group of soldiers out of the gloomy ship's brig.
"The free wind, the warm sunlight...
You only know how precious they are after you've lost them..."
Standing at the bow, Fang Yuan embraced it all with open arms, his gaze growing ever sharper.
He swore he would never become a prisoner again!
Seastone Handcuffs and shackles, an explosive collar—they were truly enough to make anyone despair!
And he would avenge the kind old couple who had helped him in Kozuki Village!
Just then,
as his strength and spirit recovered, clusters of white Soul Fire Worms appeared around Fang Yuan, circling his shoulders as if his Devil Fruit power had awakened.
"Hey, kid! Is this your ability?"
Rocks was extremely interested in Fang Yuan's Future Sight.
His powerful Observation Haki kept scanning the white fireball-like worms that had suddenly appeared around Fang Yuan.
"Something like that!"
The pale blue crescent mark on Fang Yuan's forehead suddenly transformed into a translucent blue crystal worm, curved like a crescent moon.
One blue and eight white worms circled around Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan gently held the blue crystal worm in his hand.
The blue crystal worm seemed to weigh almost nothing.
The plump, transparent little worm looked very cute.
It was only about the size of a jade pendant. Through its clear body, Fang Yuan could still see the lines on his palm.
"What is that?"
Rocks gave him a curious look.
"My ability. My Gu Insects!"
Fang Yuan spoke calmly, his eyes gleaming.
This was the mutation of his soul after crossing worlds.
Soul Insects!
Plump, chaotic clusters of souls, complete with eyes and noses...
As Fang Yuan directed the blue Gu Insect to exert its power, a small crescent blade took shape.
The pale blue crescent blade was over a meter long, like the crescent moon in the night sky.
"Go!"
The pale blue crescent slash shot out at tremendous speed, carving a trench across the sea's surface.
"That's way too weak!"
Rocks didn't hold back, immediately voicing his criticism. That slash wasn't even as powerful as an ordinary swordsman's.
"This is only the beginning!"
Fang Yuan glanced at the monster that was Rocks, then affectionately stroked his blue worm and eight white ones.
He slowly sank into his memories.
His name was Fang Yuan, and he came from Kozuki Village in Nanjiang Province, Longguo, on Blue Star.
The villagers made a living—and even grew wealthy—by raising venomous snakes, toads, scorpions, spiders, centipedes, and other commercially valuable poisonous creatures.
At the same time, Fang Yuan was a newly enrolled university student who had just turned eighteen.
But who could have imagined that only a month or two into the school year, an accident would send him to this world?
The place he'd crossed into was also called Kozuki Village.
Fortunately, it wasn't Kozuki Village from the Reverend Insanity world, but Kozuki Village in the One Piece World.
Otherwise, he might have been refined by Fang Yuan, that old demon!
As it happened, there really was a young uncle named Fang Yuan in Fang Yuan's village, with the same name as Great Love Immortal Venerable.
More than ten years ago, while he was at university, he'd had an accident and been struck down by a Dongfeng truck.
Now that Fang Yuan had also been hit by great fortune and crossed over to Kozuki Village in the One Piece World,
he couldn't help finding the thought a little unsettling.
Could his Uncle Fang Yuan really have been hit by a Dongfeng truck and sent to Kozuki Village in the Reverend Insanity world?
If so, he hoped they might meet one day in the three thousand worlds.
Of course, Fang Yuan wasn't eager to meet that cold, heartless old demon.
By today, Fang Yuan had already lived in this world for two and a half years.
It had taken him a year or two to gradually adapt and learn the language of this world,
but fortunately, perhaps the mother planet Blue Star hadn't abandoned him completely, or perhaps it was all thanks to the coincidence that brought him here.
After the great fortune had struck him and sent him across worlds, Fang Yuan's soul had been shattered by the impact.
It had split into nine fragments.
As those soul fragments fused with the power of this world, they slowly became the Soul Fire—or Soul Insects—circling around Fang Yuan.
They were both fragments of Fang Yuan's own soul and Soul Insects independent of him.
Fang Yuan treasured those plump Soul Insects like priceless treasures.
He knew they had to be his cheat and golden finger, and that his future depended on them!
But for more than two years, he hadn't found a way to cultivate or use the Soul Insects.
He'd tried the methods he'd used in his previous life to raise snakes and poisonous insects, even trying the elusive art of raising Gu...
But none of it worked.
For two and a half years, Fang Yuan had studied the world's common language and writing, trained his body, and searched for a way to use the Soul Insects.
Then, not long ago, while looking for wild plants and vegetables in the mountains behind Kozuki Village, he had stumbled upon a Devil Fruit, blessed by the Goddess of Fate.
Only then did he understand the true purpose of his Soul Fire!
Perhaps they should now be called Soul Gu Insects.
One of the Soul Insects had rushed forward of its own accord and devoured the Devil Fruit, transforming into a Soul Gu Insect.
The plump white Soul Insect had become a pale blue crescent-shaped Gu Insect.
Fang Yuan experienced the power and thrill of the Devil Fruit-powered Gu Insect!
He began to understand the truth behind the saying, "Man is the spirit of all things; Gu are the essence of heaven and earth."
It turned out that his Soul Fire could gain special abilities by fusing with Devil Fruit powers.
That meant Fang Yuan could one day become a multi-Devil Fruit User with nine different Devil Fruit abilities!
If his main body could eat one too, he'd have ten Devil Fruit abilities!
Through the shared origin and connection between their souls, Fang Yuan learned the ability of that Devil Fruit.
Paramecia: Moon-Moon Fruit Ability.
It was the first Devil Fruit ability to fuse with one of Fang Yuan's Soul Insects.
He now called the Soul Fire that possessed the Moon-Moon Fruit ability the Moonlight Gu, or the Moonlight Soul!
It could unleash crescent-blade slashes, and under the moonlight, it also possessed other enhanced abilities.
Kozuki Village, the Moon-Moon Fruit ability, the Moonlight Gu—it was all such a coincidence!
After gaining his first ability, Fang Yuan seemed to glimpse boundless hope, and his ambition began to flourish.
But out of adherence to the true path of keeping a low profile, he hadn't planned to go to sea and make a name for himself so soon.
He would train his Moonlight Ability before setting out to sea in search of other Devil Fruits!
He believed that as long as he lived long enough, he could become one of the world's supreme powerhouses.
The longer he lived and the more abilities he gained, the stronger he would become!
For a time, Fang Yuan had thought Kozuki Village was his land of fortune. It had let him obtain the Moon-Moon Fruit, discover his cheat, and embark on the path to power.
But who could have imagined that just as Fang Yuan planned to keep lying low and developing his strength,
Kozuki Village, like the village of the same name in the Reverend Insanity world, would suddenly meet its doom.
Fang Yuan hadn't even trained his Moon-Moon Fruit ability or gone to sea to find a second Devil Fruit.
The small country Kozuki Village belonged to had already been invaded by a powerful Affiliated Nation called the Cang Kingdom.
Amid the unrestrained looting and slaughter, Fang Yuan, who had only recently gained the Moonlight Ability, was forced to fight back to protect himself and the villagers who had helped him.
In the end, a powerful Cang Kingdom general suddenly struck and swiftly crushed Fang Yuan, who had only just begun to show his strength.
It filled Fang Yuan with helplessness and resentment. His journey to become the strongest had only just begun, yet it was already about to be cut short...