Challenging Officer John

"Wahahahaha, kid, what's your name?"

After seeing Li Yuan's aura surge, Rocks withdrew his Conqueror's Haki as well, seemingly quite satisfied with the result.

"My name is Li Yuan, the future World's Greatest Swordsman!"

Li Yuan also withdrew his Conqueror's Haki and looked at Rocks without backing down.

"Wahahahaha, Li Yuan, future World's Greatest Swordsman, welcome to the Rocks Pirates."

Rocks spoke as though Li Yuan's behavior did not bother him in the slightest.

Even before Li Yuan had arrived on Hachinosu Island, Rocks had already investigated him.

He knew of Li Yuan's terrifying potential. Toward crew members with potential, he was generally quite lenient and offered them a certain degree of protection until they could grow strong.

It could be said that most of the Rocks Pirates officers had grown up this way. That was also one of the reasons the Rocks Pirates had become increasingly powerful.

"Captain, what must I do to become an officer of the Rocks Pirates?"

Once Rocks acknowledged him as a crew member, Li Yuan's lips curled slightly as he spoke bluntly.

Having joined the Rocks Pirates, he had no intention of becoming an apprentice like Kaido, following some officer around as a lackey.

It could be said that, aside from Rocks, he respected no one.

"Wahahahaha, you've got ambition. Very good!"

"If you want to become an officer of the Rocks Pirates, defeat one of the current officers, or fight them to a draw. Then you can earn an officer's position."

Rocks greatly appreciated Li Yuan's arrogance and directly stated the requirements for becoming an officer.

The Rocks Pirates members present were all dumbfounded by Li Yuan's actions.

They had not expected Li Yuan to possess Conqueror's Haki, much less that he would want to become an officer of the Rocks Pirates the moment he arrived.

The Rocks Pirates officers all stared at Li Yuan, wanting to see whom he would choose as his opponent.

Golden Lion Shiki looked at Li Yuan with blazing eyes and even challenged him with his gaze, only to be ignored.

Although Golden Lion Shiki had not yet eaten the Float-Float Fruit, he was already extremely powerful. Li Yuan knew that he was not his opponent yet.

After Li Yuan displayed his Conqueror's Haki, Whitebeard also became very interested in him.

However, Li Yuan would not foolishly choose Whitebeard as his opponent. Among all the officers, Whitebeard was undoubtedly the strongest at present.

After Li Yuan displayed his Conqueror's Haki, Charlotte Linlin's gaze toward him became incredibly heated, as though she wanted to devour him whole.

Seeing Charlotte Linlin's gaze, Li Yuan felt a chill run down his spine. He did not need to think to know that Charlotte Linlin had set her sights on his body.

More precisely, she had set her sights on his sperm and wanted to have children with him.

Li Yuan would never touch a woman like that. He did not want countless green hats to mysteriously appear on his head in the future, the kind he could never take off no matter how hard he tried.

He also ruled out the two Kurozumi men. Neither was a combatant, and Li Yuan had enough sense to know that even if he defeated them, it would not count.

In the end, his gaze settled on Ochoku, Silver Axe, and John. Compared to Whitebeard, Shiki, and Charlotte Linlin, the strength of those three...

...was roughly comparable, but they were more than a decade older than Whitebeard and the others, and their potential was nearly exhausted.

After all, Whitebeard, Shiki, and Charlotte Linlin were still young, while Ochoku, Silver Axe, and John were all already fifty.

And according to what he knew, John was the weakest of the three.

"I choose to challenge John!"

Li Yuan understood the importance of picking the softest target.

"Yohohoho, brat, I'll teach you that before you have sufficient strength in the Rocks Pirates, you need to know how to respect your elders."

John, who had been drinking fine wine and watching the show, immediately became angry when he heard that Li Yuan wanted to challenge him.

Li Yuan choosing him meant that, in the other man's eyes, he was the weakest among all the Rocks Pirates officers.

As John rose to his feet, Li Yuan knowingly left the area and headed for another open space. This place was too small to fight properly.

Geppo!!

"Senior John, the ground is too small to withstand our battle. Do you dare fight me in the sky?!"

Li Yuan shot into the air with Geppo and looked down at John below with a provocative expression.

He knew that he was not John's opponent. After all, John had gone to sea decades before him, and his Haki had reached at least the advanced level. Li Yuan's physique could not compare either.

So from the start, he had not considered how to defeat John, but how to fight him to a draw.

Without question, naval combat, aerial combat, and land combat were all things Li Yuan excelled at.

Naval combat was unrealistic on Hachinosu Island, so he could only choose aerial combat. He absolutely could not fight John on the ground, or he would lose horribly.

With Li Yuan's current strength, even running on land with weights was no longer suitable for him.

Thus, after learning Geppo, he wore weighted iron armor and carried massive boulders weighing hundreds of thousands of jin while running through the sky with Geppo, using it to train his Geppo, endurance, and aerial combat ability.

It could be said that he definitely held the advantage in aerial combat, and it could also restrain John's immense strength.

"Yohohoho, let this senior tell you that officers of the Rocks Pirates can crush their enemies in any combat environment."

Looking up at Li Yuan's smiling face as he looked down on him from the sky, John grew even angrier. A mere brat dared to look down on him—this was an insult!

It was only aerial combat. Having fought countless battles, he had participated in plenty of aerial battles as well.

John had not eaten a Devil Fruit. He had become an officer of the Rocks Pirates through his own Haki, swordsmanship, and martial arts.

Bang!!!!

He then drew the flintlock gun at his waist and fired at Li Yuan in the sky, his Armament Haki coating the weapon.

Li Yuan casually tilted his head and dodged the bullet's path.

Taking that opportunity, John also soared into the sky with Geppo. For powerful fighters like John, as long as they were willing to learn a martial arts technique like Geppo, they could master it quickly.

Limitless Collapsing Mountain Slash!!!

As John charged upward through the air, Li Yuan dove down from above even faster.

He raised the sword in his hand over his head. Invisible Sword Qi came crashing down like Mount Tai, and that single slash seemed capable of splitting apart even a great mountain.

Clang!!!!

Seeing this, John drew the rapier at his waist and steadily blocked Li Yuan's slash.

In John's eyes, the force of a mountain-collapsing strike was nothing special. For someone as strong as him, shattering a mountain was effortless.

Haki settings for Armament Haki, Observation Haki, and Conqueror's Haki: beginner, intermediate, advanced, top-tier.

Age and strength settings:

In this book, the physical peak was set at roughly half of one's normal lifespan. If a person's lifespan was one hundred years, they would reach their physical peak at around fifty.

Those skilled in martial arts and Haki could use special techniques to extend their physical peak to around sixty.

After sixty, physical strength and Haki might not decline, but stamina would still gradually weaken.

After reaching eighty, even fighters at the pinnacle of martial arts would see their physical strength and Haki decline.

This setting was based on characters such as Garp, Sengoku, Steel-Bone Kong, and Rayleigh in the original work. During the Summit War, Garp was already seventy-eight years old.

Special cases such as Whitebeard and Zephyr were excluded.