Shaking the World

White smoke filled the training grounds of the rookie camp.

"White Fist, White Fist, White Fist... Damn it, do you only know how to dodge?"

Smoker threw punch after punch, white smoke surging like snakes, but Zhong Hao evaded them all with Kami-e. It had been difficult at first, but after ten minutes, he had grown familiar with the trajectory of Smoker's punches and was dodging with increasing ease.

"If I didn't dodge, should I just stand there and let you hit me? If you didn't turn your body into an element, I'd have cut you down long ago. And is this your only move? Can't you spray white smoke from beneath your feet to accelerate, then attack from every angle? Such a powerful Devil Fruit, yet you've turned it into a side character's ability. Are you an idiot?"

Once he had become familiar with one type of attack, Kami-e had almost stopped improving. He needed to experience more attacks, so Zhong Hao began offering Smoker advice.

"Uh..." Smoker's face reddened. He had only eaten the Smoke-Smoke Fruit recently and did not understand its powers well enough. Many techniques had yet to be developed.

He tried spraying smoke from beneath his feet. With a whoosh, the fierce thrust launched him into the air. Only after a brief flurry of panic did he stabilize himself.

"Um... let me get used to it first." The white-haired boy shamelessly called for a pause.

"Go ahead." Zhong Hao stood where he was and gestured for him to continue.

Garp: "Wahahaha~"

Hearing Garp's laughter beside him, Zephyr's mouth twitched. You were the one who provoked him first. It was already embarrassing enough that you had fought for so long without defeating him, and now he was teaching your student new moves and even waiting for him. This was no longer just Smoker losing face—it was the entire rookie camp and him, the instructor, losing face!

The onlookers began chattering again, this time not only about Zhong Hao, but Smoker as well.

Smoker was quite talented. In only ten minutes, he had gained a preliminary grasp of the technique.

"Sorry for making you wait. I'm coming now," Smoker said seriously. At this point, Zhong Hao's generosity had dispelled his initial hostility, though the fight still had to be finished.

"I'm ready." Zhong Hao nodded.

"White Fist, White Smoke Launcher, White Fist, White Smoke Launcher, White Fist..."

After launching a White Fist, Smoker sprayed white smoke from beneath his feet and shifted to another position. He fired another White Fist, moved again without stopping, and before long, Smoker's figure filled the entire semicircle around Zhong Hao, attacking from multiple angles.

In truth, the method was highly effective. At the very least, Zhong Hao's success rate with Kami-e had noticeably dropped. Sometimes attacks came from the left, sometimes from behind, and sometimes even from overhead. Assaults from every direction made them impossible to guard against. He took several hits, but his Kami-e improved rapidly as well, and his evasions became increasingly natural.

Smoker was improving too. His White Smoke Launcher grew more proficient with use, and his attacks came from ever trickier angles. One attacked while the other dodged, leaving traces of their battle everywhere.

Outside the field, Zephyr smiled in satisfaction at the sight. Helping each other grow—this was the most important purpose of practical sparring. At the same time, his gaze toward Zhong Hao grew more fervent. Smoker was fourteen or fifteen, so it was normal for him to possess such strength. But this brat was only seven and already shone so brilliantly. It made Zephyr itch with anticipation.

Garp grinned outwardly, but inwardly, he was making plans.

This won't do. It's completely turned into a battle of endurance. Zhong Hao is half his age, so he's definitely at a disadvantage in stamina. I came here to show off my disciple—I can't let him lose. Garp's eyes suddenly lit up as he thought of something, and a sly smile appeared on his face.

Zhong Hao was beginning to grow anxious as well. In the future, he might be able to suppress Smoker with a wave of his hand, but not now. And Kami-e's improvement had begun to slow again. Was he really going to have to compete in stamina?

Then he noticed Garp winking at him. Zhong Hao froze for a moment and was hit by another punch from Smoker. Garp continued gesturing, making an explosion motion in front of his chest.

That shameless old man... but this is the only way. Zhong Hao quickly understood and gave an almost imperceptible nod.

Zephyr had been watching Zhong Hao closely. Noticing his movement, he looked at Garp in confusion—only to see Garp's pupils suddenly shrink. An invisible ripple spread through the air, and Zephyr was instantly alarmed.

"Conqueror's Haki! Garp, you shameless—" Zephyr thought Garp was going to cheat by using Conqueror's Haki to knock Smoker unconscious, and immediately began cursing. But halfway through, he realized that Conqueror's Haki was not targeting Smoker at all. It was targeting Zhong Hao.

"Why... would he knock out his own disciple?" Garp's actions filled Zephyr with confusion.

Now! Zhong Hao felt Garp's Haki and shouted inwardly as his Conqueror's Haki erupted.

A vast, overwhelming pressure descended, spreading who knew how far and covering who knew how wide an area.

"Buzzz—"

Smoker bore the brunt of it. He had been excitedly throwing punches at such a perfect target when, without warning, his eyes rolled back and he collapsed unconscious. Then came the onlookers, drool spilling from their mouths as they fell in heaps with a series of thuds.

The Conqueror's Haki did not stop. It continued sweeping outward in every direction.

In an instant, silence fell over the land. Darkness shrouded more than half of Marineford, and everyone below colonel-level strength lost consciousness and sank into endless darkness.

"Looks like this got a little out of hand. Why is this kid's Conqueror's Haki covering such a huge range this time?" Garp scratched the back of his head with a troubled expression.

Zephyr was practically losing his mind. Wasn't this just a sparring match between children? Yet what had he witnessed? His Observation Haki clearly told him that most of Marine Headquarters had collapsed. What was this supposed to be?

At the same time, Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Admirals Akainu, Aokiji, and Kizaru, along with numerous powerful vice admirals, rushed toward the rookie camp as though mad.

The Fleet Admiral and the three Admirals arrived first. Seeing Zhong Hao wildly unleashing Conqueror's Haki in the middle of the training grounds, they were all dumbfounded. With Conqueror's Haki covering such a huge range, shouldn't several great pirates be launching a joint invasion? Why is there only this brat?

One of Akainu's hands transformed into roiling magma as he prepared to throw a punch, but Sengoku hurriedly stopped him.

"Garp, I knew it was you again! What exactly is going on?" Sengoku roared. With this mess, all of Marine Headquarters had fallen into paralysis. Who knew how much damage had been caused?

Garp and Zephyr had just moved the people nearby away. Hearing Sengoku's words, Garp spread his hands innocently.

"Doesn't releasing Conqueror's Haki take a lot out of someone? How has this kid been blasting it for so long?" Thinking of the losses Marine Headquarters had suffered, Sengoku was nearly beside himself with anger.

Garp ignored him and instead shouted at Zhong Hao, "Brat, why haven't you stopped yet?"

"I... can't... stop." Zhong Hao answered with difficulty. He was in extreme pain. His soul felt as if it were being torn apart by two enormous hands, his mental strength was draining away madly, and even his control over his body had become sluggish, as though it no longer belonged to him.

Just as his Conqueror's Haki had been about to erupt, he had suddenly felt his mind connect to somewhere. Then he heard Zhong Yunxi's voice, telling him to follow that passage and connect his consciousness to endless time and space. He did not understand, but trusting her, he did as she said.

Who could have known that after connecting his consciousness to endless time and space, a constant stream of energy would pour into his soul? His Conqueror's Haki seemed to receive a buff, its range expanding as though inflated with air. At that moment, he knew it. I'm in trouble.

When he tried to withdraw his Haki, he discovered that he could not stop it at all. Helpless, he could only keep releasing it. If his soul had not been resilient enough, it would have suffered severe damage.

"Can you shrink the range first?" Sengoku shouted.

"I'll try." While cursing, That damned girl is going to get me killed, Zhong Hao tried to reduce the range. To his surprise, retracting the Haki was nowhere near as difficult as he had imagined.

The range of the pressure grew smaller and smaller until it only covered the training grounds. Sengoku and the others were just about to breathe a sigh of relief when they felt the ground begin to tremble. It was slight, but unmistakably real.

The Conqueror's Haki continued contracting, and the difficulty of controlling it increased as well. When it had shrunk to a radius of twenty meters, he finally lost control. Like a balloon filled with too much air, it erupted all at once.

Boom!

Within a twenty-meter radius, an invisible pillar of energy seemed to pierce the heavens and earth. A circular hole was blasted through the clouds overhead, while the stone slabs on the ground shattered and sank half a meter.

The Conqueror's Haki finally stopped, and the sky became clear again.

After releasing all that mental power at once, Zhong Hao felt an immense emptiness in his mind before losing consciousness. His body went limp and fell backward. Garp was startled and moved to catch him, but Zephyr was faster. He caught Zhong Hao, his gaze burning like two scorching beams.

"Garp, I want a detailed explanation for why this happened." Sengoku's face was as black as if it had been smeared with oil, and fire burned in his eyes.

"Well, Zhong Hao was sparring with Zephyr's disciple. Zephyr's disciple is a Logia, so Zhong Hao couldn't hit him. He could only use Conqueror's Haki to knock him out. I just didn't expect the range to be so large. But as expected of my disciple! Wahahahaha~" Garp showed no sign of having caused trouble and laughed heartlessly.

"Vice Admiral Garp, do you realize that all of Marine Headquarters has been brought to a standstill? A huge number of Marines have lost consciousness. If pirates invaded at a time like this, what would the consequences be?" Akainu was the most stubborn and serious by nature. He could not stand Garp's flippant attitude and stepped forward to question him.

"Aren't we here? If pirates really invade, I'll fight with my life." Garp picked his nose, looking utterly unconcerned.

"You..." Akainu was about to lose his temper when Sengoku cut him off.

Though Garp often angered him half to death whenever they were together, the two had been comrades and brothers for half their lives. Their relationship could not have been closer, and as long as it did not involve matters of principle, Sengoku often favored him.

"Zephyr, take this kid to the hospital and examine him thoroughly. Don't let him be left with any hidden injuries. Garp, this time you must tell me exactly what happened from beginning to end. Kuzan, Sakazuki, Borsalino, go make arrangements. Find a way to wake the unconscious people and get Headquarters running again. Also, Tsuru, issue a gag order to everyone who knows about Zhong Hao." Sengoku gave out orders rapidly.

"No wonder he didn't want to join the Marine ranks. Conqueror's Haki on such an enormous scale... it's astonishing." After giving the orders, Sengoku took another deep look at Zhong Hao, then dragged Garp away. The two bickered all the way out of the rookie camp.

"So this is Garp's newly accepted disciple? Hehe! Garp has an outstanding successor too." Tsuru smiled gently.

"Mm... Garp's disciple?" Aokiji gave Zhong Hao a long look, firmly engraving his appearance into his mind.

"Oh~~! What an incredible young man." Kizaru let out an exaggerated, insincere gasp with a lecherous expression.

"Hmph! The greater the potential, the greater the danger." Akainu snorted. He was taking out his dislike by association. Because of Dragon, he was prejudiced against Garp, and now Zhong Hao received the same treatment.

This incident had allowed the highest ranks of the Marines to learn of Zhong Hao, and the impression he left was extraordinarily deep.

However, compared to that, these were minor matters. At this moment, in the garden within his sea of consciousness, he was furiously cursing that damned girl, Zhong Yunxi.