Time Flies

Early the next morning.

Colonel Whiteman sent someone to summon Xia Luo. Sitting behind his desk with a long face, he looked as though Xia Luo owed him millions. He was completely different from usual.

The moment Xia Luo entered, he sensed that something was wrong. There was killing intent!

So he cautiously asked, "Colonel, you wanted to see me?"

What was going on?

The colonel was looking at him like... he had bad intentions. It felt like he wanted to beat him up.

Xia Luo was utterly baffled. They had been perfectly fine when they met yesterday, yet today the man had suddenly become like a different person.

At the sight of the "culprit," Whiteman's anger flared up. But thinking it over carefully, it seemed Xia Luo did not have much to do with it... No, on further thought, he became even angrier. Wasn't Xia Luo exactly why he had ended up under suspicion?!

In the end,

Whiteman forcibly suppressed the urge to hit someone, pulled a booklet from his drawer, handed it to Xia Luo, and said,

"This booklet records the training methods for Rankyaku, Geppo, and Kami-e in detail. Take it and learn them yourself."

"Huh?"

Xia Luo accepted the booklet, somewhat confused. "Colonel, aren't you going to teach me?"

Though he learned quickly, that was entirely thanks to Colonel Whiteman's personal demonstrations.

Without someone to teach him, relying solely on himself would be much slower.

It was like being given the answer to a difficult math problem without being shown the steps to solve it.

"Teach you my ass! Your teacher's wife thinks I'm cheating on her!"

"Get the hell out of here! The sight of you pisses me off!"

Whiteman's eyes bulged as his temper exploded. Spittle flew everywhere as he roared like an enraged lion and booted Xia Luo out of the office.

Bang!

Outside the door.

Xia Luo stood disheveled in the wind, utterly dumbfounded. It took him a long while to recover.

No, what did your wife suspecting you of cheating have to do with me?!

I wasn't the one who reported you! Why were you taking your anger out on me?!

So you had the guts to cheat but not the guts to admit it, you old bastard!

Forget it. For the sake of this booklet, I won't hold it against you for now.

Once I got the chance, I had to report you to your wife!

You dared to cheat today; tomorrow, you'd dare bring her home!

Report him. I absolutely had to report him!

After leaving the office building.

Once beneath the shade of a tree, Xia Luo opened the booklet. After skimming through it, he focused on the training method for Kami-e.

For him, Kami-e would be the next focus of his training. It would greatly help him awaken Observation Haki, so he had to master it.

Rankyaku and Geppo, on the other hand, could wait.

Kami-e was extremely difficult to train in and was the hardest of the Six Powers to learn.

"I recognize every word here, but once they're put together, none of it makes any sense."

After reading for ages, Xia Luo still could not understand it. He tugged at his hair and scratched his ears, unable to sit still, looking exactly like a poor student taking an exam.

"Forget it. I shouldn't waste any more time. I'll slowly study it after finishing today's training tasks."

At last, Xia Luo gave up struggling.

Ever since he had wrecked the training grounds last time, Xia Luo had never returned there. He headed straight for the mountain behind the base.

The back mountain had practically become his personal training ground.

And so, Xia Luo threw himself into training and gradually lost track of time.

He now had many daily training routines. Besides basic conditioning, he trained in martial arts, practiced staff techniques, Soru, Shigan, Tekkai, and kept the Six Treasury Immortal Thief circulating at all times.

Sometimes, he would even sneak down to the seabed to develop his Devil Fruit abilities.

And just yesterday, he had assigned himself another task: punch his way through the stone forest on the back mountain.

Yes, the stone forest where the gorillas lived.

The entire stone forest stretched for several kilometers all the way to the edge of the island. It was made of hard granite and basalt, with countless strange peaks and bizarre rocks. For Xia Luo, it was an excellent place to practice punching.

Xia Luo had arranged every moment of his day. In the mornings, he exercised, trained in martial arts, and practiced staff techniques. In the afternoons, he practiced boxing. At night, he trained in the Six Powers, occasionally finding time to go underwater and develop his Devil Fruit abilities.

His schedule was packed, but Xia Luo felt that his life was fulfilling.

Of course, he could not skip three meals a day. Xia Luo was reluctant to give up the cafeteria's free food, and with training this intense, he naturally needed to replenish himself properly.

As the saying went,

Time raced like a whipped horse, while days and months flowed away like falling flowers and running water.

The days of bitter training passed swiftly. Xia Luo immersed himself completely and could not pull himself away.

As time passed, his body grew taller day by day.

During that time, Xia Luo returned to Ohara only for the New Year and Olvia's birthday, reuniting with Olvia and Oran. The rest of the time, he was either training or fighting.

In the blink of an eye,

The time had reached the autumn of Sea Circle Calendar 1489. Over four years, Xia Luo had fought dozens of battles of all sizes, and countless pirates had died at his hands.

Sometimes, he followed warships on missions. Other times, he secretly put out to sea alone.

Whenever he went out alone, he hid his identity. With his ability to soar through the skies and dive into the sea, his movements were always elusive and unpredictable.

As a result, news occasionally spread across the seas that one mafia group had been wiped out or another noble had been killed.

In just a few years, thanks to Xia Luo's "efforts," the West Blue had nearly become the weakest sea. Named pirate crews were pitifully few, and the number of pirate crews able to enter the Grand Line alive each year had dropped by eighty percent!

Now, legends about Xia Luo were being told everywhere in the West Blue. Although no one knew his name or had seen his true face, that did not stop people from worshipping him.

Moreover, every time Xia Luo appeared, thunder and storms invariably followed.

Thus, some said he was the Dragon King who punished evil, rewarded good, and commanded wind and rain. Others called him the god of wind and thunder who governed punishment.

Coincidentally, there was another person in this world whose appearances were likewise accompanied by thunder and storms.

Although that person was still lying low and feeling lost, Xia Luo believed that the World Government and the Marines would sooner or later pin this blame on him.

Whenever Xia Luo thought of the "Sweating King," he could not help but laugh. He had not intended to impersonate Monkey D. Dragon at first, but his abilities were simply too similar to Dragon's. If he did not impersonate him a little, it would feel like such a waste.

That day,

It was a clear and pleasant noon.

On the western shore of the Marine 15th Branch base in the West Blue, the coastline was packed with people. They faced the sea, craning their necks and constantly peering into the distance.

At the front of the crowd stood several cafeteria aunties in white chef uniforms.

"How long do you think he'll take this time?"

"He usually needs an hour. Today, it'll take at least three hours."

"What if he comes back empty-handed?"

"How could that happen? Even on his worst days, he could bring back a small Sea King. There's no way he'll return empty-handed."

"But this time, he's trying to catch a Large Sea King. There might not even be one around here. Those things are most common near the Calm Belt, but that's far too far away."

"Hey, is distance really the issue? The question is whether he can handle one at all! A Large Sea King, and in the ocean at that—there's no way it can be done! How could a human possibly defeat a giant beast in the sea?"