The Blind

This journey was far more interesting than Leo had imagined.

Though it was merely the Calm Belt, it displayed the worldview of the One Piece World in all its splendor.

With two giant serpents towing the ship, fishing was out of the question. However, clueless giant Sea Kings would occasionally circle around from behind, hoping to swallow the ship before the serpents could react.

That was when the Amazon warrior women needed to fight.

What was even more noteworthy was that even giant Sea Kings hundreds of meters tall were insignificant before Haki.

Rindou, for example, was specifically responsible for clearing out Sea Kings. She constantly carried an enormous cannon and was an advanced Haki user capable of infusing cannonballs with Haki before firing them. One blast could devastate hundreds of miles; it blew away more than half the head of a giant Sea King dozens of meters wide. It was truly terrifying.

Such clueless giant Sea Kings were everywhere. Sometimes, if they spoiled the Empress's mood, she would simply turn them all to stone.

This was Leo's first time learning that the Empress's petrification worked on living creatures as well. However, she explained, "It only works on Sea Kings of this size. If we encountered those truly massive super Sea Kings, I wouldn't be able to petrify them."

That made sense.

Shirahoshi could hear and control those colossal Sea Kings, which could be considered an entire enormous fleet. Even Aokiji and Akainu might not be able to take down such Sea Kings easily, much less the Empress.

However, if the Empress continued to grow stronger, Love-Love Mellow might not necessarily lose to those Sea Kings. After all, the "Heavenly Yaksha," Doflamingo, could envelop an entire city within his Birdcage. Hancock, who was also a Paramecia user and possessed Conqueror's Haki, had no reason to be unable to turn everyone in a city to stone. She ought to have other abilities as well.

So Hancock had only developed her Devil Fruit ability to its first stage and had yet to awaken it?

If the Four Emperors and Three Admirals were above the Shichibukai, placing the Shichibukai in the third tier, then even among the third-tier Shichibukai, there were strong and weak members. Hawk Eyes, Kuma, and Doflamingo were certainly in the upper tier; the Empress and Jinbe were in the middle tier; while Gekko Moria and Crocodile occupied the bottom tier.

There was no need to mention Hawk Eyes. Kuma and Doflamingo were likely powerhouses who had already developed their Devil Fruit abilities to the second stage. They could probably trade blows with the core officers of the Four Emperors and were no pushovers. Jinbe could take a blow from Big Mom head-on without harm, so he might even be stronger than the Empress.

Hancock might be fine for now, but her future combat potential was rather worrying...

Leo smiled faintly, though he was not in a hurry. Crocodile might be a fraud, but Enel was not. If Leo could not find the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, then Hancock would likely have to fight Enel herself.

He knew the timing well. Luffy and the others would set sail in three years at the earliest, five years at the latest. No matter how strong Enel became after eating the fruit, he would still panic when he encountered someone like Luffy, who was immune to his attacks. Once his Mantra was broken, he would have no chance of defeating Hancock.

But Hancock would likely still have to endure a difficult battle against Enel and his Logia Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

By then, Hancock, who believed this trip was nothing more than an outing, would quickly realize that even in the first half of the New World, her strength was not absolutely invincible.

Once she understood that, getting her to develop the second-stage ability of her Devil Fruit would follow naturally.

At that thought, he sighed. Doflamingo really was an outstanding strategist.

Take a close look at what Doflamingo had done: he set up casinos and auction houses everywhere, then relied on Kaido of the Four Emperors and the World Government to conduct legitimate underground transactions. He bought and sold Devil Fruits, keeping powerful ones for his own people while selling off the trash. With powerful Devil Fruits enhancing his subordinates, the Donquixote Family naturally grew stronger and stronger.

By taking control of the Black Market, he gained not only connections, channels, and powerful Devil Fruits, but also vast amounts of money. Combined with the various secrets Doflamingo knew from once being a Celestial Dragon, he even had the time and funds to support Caesar in producing Artificial Devil Fruits. He had practically already touched upon the edge of creating Devil Fruits: by combining the SAD agent with the death of a Devil Fruit user, one could harvest that person's Devil Fruit from a fruit tree watered with the SAD agent.

That was no matter of luck. It was genuine technology.

And once that technology matured, just imagine how much the Donquixote Family's strength would expand.

Among the Four Emperors, everyone except Red-Haired was already over fifty years old. They were certainly powerful, but time was on Doflamingo's side. He only needed to wait patiently for a few more years. How far would both his influence and personal strength grow by then?

Unfortunately, he ran into Luffy and the protagonist group.

The thought of Artificial Devil Fruit technology made Leo drool with envy. If he were not so weak right now, he would have gone and seized Caesar first.

Without strength, he could do nothing...

Sighing inwardly, Leo resumed his daily continuous training.

He progressed gradually and never pushed his knees or body too hard. He knew he had crossed over with his physical body intact; its strength could never compare to the monstrous physiques of the One Piece World.

They had clearly been sailing through the Calm Belt for an entire month without encountering a single person. Their route had not gone astray, but Ran, the navigator, seemed to have kept the ship in the Calm Belt near the Grand Line. It was safe and stable here. Other than being cautious of giant Sea Kings every day, they did not need to deal with the strange weather and waves of the Grand Line. They only needed to sail onward in peace.

But today seemed a little different.

Purple Fan Flower, the lookout, suddenly began ringing a bell, and its crisp chimes echoed throughout the ship.

Leo had no idea what that meant, but when the Amazon warrior women emerged from the cabins in groups, Snake Bows in hand, and took up positions along both sides of the deck, even he should have understood that they had encountered enemies.

"Leo, please go to Sister's room." Sandersonia and Marigold came to Leo's side together, practically escorting him off the deck between them.

Any pirate capable of appearing on the Grand Line was no ordinary person. Considering that they were in the Calm Belt, the enemy's strength was already enough to surpass most pirates from the Four Seas.

No wonder they were nervous.