First Bounty

"Send word. Have Holmes investigate who killed Geno."

Once he had calmed down, Steel-Bone Kong regained the majesty of a Marine Admiral as he spoke.

"Yes, Admiral Kong!"

The nearby Marines immediately relayed Steel-Bone Kong's order.

"Damn Rocks Pirates! One day, I'll drag every last one of you back to Impel Down!"

Looking over the intelligence beside him, most of which concerned the Rocks Pirates, Steel-Bone Kong's freshly quelled rage nearly erupted again.

When they first set out across the Great Sea, everyone had been excited. The sea was beautiful, an endless blue expanse beneath the blazing sun. Lying beneath a parasol was relaxing and pleasant.

But as time passed, it became unbearably dull, and many of his junior brothers developed a kind of visual fatigue toward the sea.

Li Yuan, however, did not feel that way. After his initial excitement faded, he began considering what he had gained from his battle with Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral Geno.

His greatest gain had been awakening Armament Haki. With that awakening, his physique had improved as well. Physique and Armament Haki complemented one another.

With Armament Haki, both his offensive and defensive power had increased significantly.

"Now that I've awakened Armament Haki, I can begin cultivating the fourth layer of the Sword God Body Tempering Technique!"

This was what concerned Li Yuan most. In the Pirate World, Armament Haki could temper the body, but the methods for doing so were relatively crude—or rather, impossible to teach. It depended entirely on one's control over Haki and one's talent.

Some people specialized in using Haki to temper their bones. The current Marine Admiral Steel-Bone Kong was a typical example.

As for Garp, while using Haki to temper his body, he focused on tempering his fists. With a single punch, nothing could withstand him, earning him the name Iron Fist Garp.

Zephyr was similar to Garp. While tempering his body with Haki, he focused on tempering both wrists, eventually earning the title of Marine Admiral Black Wrist.

Li Yuan's Sword God Body Tempering Technique contained methods for tempering every part of the body, and its tempering efficiency was far greater than that of the Pirate World.

That was because his Haki Body Tempering connected numerous acupoints into special pathways. Like a body-refining art from martial arts novels, it was a method that tempered the entire body.

The fourth layer tempered the skin, the fifth tempered the muscles, the sixth tempered the meridians, the seventh tempered the bone marrow, the eighth tempered the internal organs, and the ninth tempered the blood.

As for what came after the ninth layer, he could not see it yet.

Compared to the Pirate World's methods of using Haki to temper the body, one involved a body-refining technique, while the other used the most primitive method imaginable. It was easy to see how much more efficient Li Yuan would be at tempering his physique than anyone else.

Even powerful martial artists like Garp and Steel-Bone Kong primarily tempered a certain part of their bodies, only secondarily tempering the rest to increase their overall physical strength.

This was mainly because using Haki to temper the body was an extremely slow process that required accumulated time.

Even physical monsters like Garp and Steel-Bone Kong could only abandon the idea of fully tempering their bodies with Haki and focus instead on one particular area.

They simply did not have that much time. Or rather, their lifespans were only around a hundred years, far from enough to support full-body tempering.

But Li Yuan possessed Blood Race bloodline. His body had far greater vitality and longevity than an ordinary person's.

Though he was not a pure-blooded Blood Race, mixed-blood Blood Race generally lived around one hundred and twenty years.

Pure-blooded Blood Race, meanwhile, generally lived between one hundred and fifty and two hundred years.

With the Blood Race's talent, combined with the Sword God Body Tempering Technique's Haki Body Tempering efficiency that surpassed the Pirate World's, he was qualified and had the means to use Haki to temper every part of his body.

"With the Sword God Body Tempering Technique's Haki Body Tempering, the higher the Haki Quality and the greater the quantity, the faster and better the tempering."

"According to Geno, the quality of my Haki is naturally higher than other people's, and I have more of it too. It's a bodily talent, like Bullet from the original story, who possessed an enormous amount of Haki."

Li Yuan could not help thinking of his own talent for Haki. He had unexpectedly gained something special from this as well.

"If I want to raise my Haki Quality, the fastest shortcut is to keep using Armament Haki in battle against enemies."

"Through battle after battle, the Haki I release will constantly be shattered and worn away, leaving behind a trace of refined Haki to return to my body."

"By repeating this cycle until all the Haki in my body is refined, my overall Haki Quality will become higher."

"I can also follow Garp's example and repeatedly strike mountains to continuously exhaust my Haki, achieving the effect of tempering it."

Li Yuan then thought of methods to improve Haki Quality. It could be said that he would be able to use both methods in the future.

"Senior Brother, these are the latest bounty posters from the Great Sea."

Seeing Li Yuan gazing out at the sea alone, Lazuli brought over a stack of bounty posters and handed them to him.

They had now been at sea for two days. They had not encountered any pirates, and their destination was still three days away.

"Oh? Bounty posters? And one of them is mine!"

When Li Yuan saw the stack of bounty posters, the one at the very top was his.

"Pirate Li Yuan, for the murder of Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral Geno and over a hundred Marines. His crimes are heinous. Bounty: 110 million Berry, dead or alive!"

"The Marines are really efficient. It looks like Geno left behind a Vivre Card within the Marines. Once they noticed it had disappeared, they investigated, which was why they could confirm my identity and issue a bounty so quickly?"

After seeing his bounty poster, Li Yuan more or less guessed what had happened behind the Marines' swift decision to place a bounty on him.

"These are all bounty posters for the Rocks Pirates!"

The stack beneath Li Yuan's own bounty poster was entirely made up of bounty posters for members of the Rocks Pirates.

In the New World's Great Sea today, the Rocks Pirates were the strongest, and this was known as the Rocks Era.

Thus, most of the Great Pirates in the New World had gathered under the Rocks Pirates.