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 in the air!

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

What was going on?

The colonel's gaze seemed... hostile. It felt like he wanted to beat me up.

Xia Luo was utterly confused. Everything had been fine when they met yesterday. Why had he suddenly become like a different person today?

At the sight of the "culprit," Whiteman was furious. But upon thinking it over, it seemed Xia Luo did not have much to do with it... No, the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He had been suspected precisely because of Xia Luo!

In the end,

Whiteman forcibly suppressed the urge to hit someone. He took a booklet from his drawer and handed it to Xia Luo.

"This booklet contains detailed training methods for Rankyaku, Geppo, and Kami-e. Take it and learn them yourself."

"Huh?"

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

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

If no one taught him and he had to learn purely on his own, progress would be very slow.

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 suspects I've been fooling around outside!"

"Get the hell out of here! Just looking at you pisses me off!"

Whiteman's eyes bulged, his temper flared, and spittle flew everywhere. Like an enraged lion, he drove Xia Luo straight out of the office.

Bang!

Outside the door.

Xia Luo stood there in the wind, utterly dumbfounded. It took him a long while to come back to his senses.

No, what did my teacher's wife suspecting you of cheating have to do with me?!

It wasn't like I reported you. Why were you taking your temper out on me?!

You dared to cheat but didn't dare admit it, you old bastard!

Fine, for the booklet's sake, I'll let it slide for now.

When I have time someday, I'll make sure to report you to my teacher's wife!

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

I had to report him. Absolutely had to!

After leaving the office building,

Xia Luo walked beneath the shade of a tree and opened the booklet. After giving it a rough read, he focused on the training method for Kami-e.

For him, Kami-e would be the focus of his next stage of 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 put them together and none of it makes any sense."

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

"Forget it. I won't waste time on this for now. I'll finish today's training first, then study it slowly."

At last, Xia Luo gave up struggling.

Ever since he had wrecked the training grounds last time, Xia Luo had not returned there. Instead, he went straight to the base's back mountain.

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 had many training routines every day. Besides basic conditioning, he trained his martial arts, practiced his staff techniques, Soru, Shigan, Tekkai, and the Six Treasury Immortal Thief, which circulated without pause.

Sometimes, he would secretly head to the seafloor to develop his Devil Fruit abilities.

And just yesterday, he had assigned himself another task: punch straight 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 island's edge. It consisted of hard granite and basalt, with countless strange peaks and rocks. To Xia Luo, it was an excellent place to practice boxing.

Xia Luo had arranged every part of his day. In the mornings, he exercised, trained 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 to the seafloor and develop his Devil Fruit abilities.

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

Naturally, three meals a day were indispensable. Xia Luo could not bear to give up the cafeteria's free food. Besides, with such intense training, he needed to replenish himself properly.

Had you not heard,

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

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

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

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

In the blink of an eye,

Time reached the autumn of Sea Circle Calendar 1489. Over four years, Xia Luo experienced dozens of battles large and small, and countless pirates died by his hand.

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

Whenever he went to sea alone, he concealed his identity. With his ability to fly through the sky 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 some noble had been killed.

In just a few years, through Xia Luo's "efforts," the West Blue had nearly become the weakest sea. There were pitifully few pirate crews worth naming, and the number of crews that survived to enter the Grand Line each year had plummeted by eighty percent!

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

Moreover, whenever Xia Luo appeared, thunder and storms inevitably accompanied him.

Thus, some said he was a dragon king who punished evil, upheld justice, and commanded wind and rain. Others called him the god of wind and thunder who wielded judgment.

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

Though that person was still lying low and struggling in confusion, Xia Luo believed that the World Government and the Navy would sooner or later dump the blame on him.

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

That day,

At noon, beneath clear skies and a gentle breeze.

On the western shore of the 15th Branch base in the West Blue, the coast was packed with people. They faced the sea, craning their necks and looking around continuously.

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

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

"He usually needs an hour. Today, it'll have to be more than 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 catching a Large Sea King. There might not even be one nearby. Those things are most common in the Calm Belt, but that's too far away."

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