The Seventh Rokushiki Technique

Time slipped by like a galloping white horse, flowing away in silence. In the blink of an eye, a full year had passed.

Sea Circle Calendar 1519, April.

Night, deep within the dense forest at the edge of Ohara Island.

Dawn stood in a clearing. He had now reached an astonishing height of two and a half meters, his streamlined yet sharply defined muscles outlined beneath the moonlight in lines brimming with power.

His already dazzling golden hair seemed to have gained a life of its own. It suddenly extended like countless living golden snakes, tightly winding around and binding a massive tree that would have taken several people to encircle.

"Up!"

At Dawn's command, his long hair suddenly exerted force, wrenching the deeply rooted tree straight out of the ground and hurling it into the air.

The tree, carrying the earthy smell of soil, reached its highest point and began to fall. Dawn's gaze sharpened as he raised his right leg and kicked several times in an instant, too fast for the naked eye to follow.

"[Rankyaku: Ran]!"

Several incomparably fierce vacuum slashes tore through the air, slicing precisely through the falling trunk. Amid a dense series of cutting sounds, the enormous tree trunk was evenly carved into dozens of neat blocks of wood, which crashed to the ground and sent dust flying everywhere.

Dawn slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, regulating the energy surging through his body. With another thought, the will attached to his hair receded like the tide. The golden hair dancing through the air instantly lost its vitality and fell smoothly behind him, returning to normal.

The corners of his lips curled into a satisfied smile. After an entire year, he had finally mastered the profound art of Life Return completely.

What delighted him even more was that during his training in Life Return, the techniques of Rokushiki had come to him as naturally as water flowing into a channel, learned without instruction.

At first, he had been somewhat surprised by this. But when he recalled the claim he had seen online in his previous life that Life Return was actually Rokushiki's "seventh technique," he accepted it without much concern.

An ordinary person who trained directly in Life Return could never gain mastery of all Rokushiki techniques alongside it. The fundamental reason Dawn could do so was his already extraordinarily powerful physique, which had been further awakened and perfectly controlled through the tempering of Life Return.

The essence of Life Return was allowing its practitioner to achieve perfect control over every cell in their body and every shred of their strength.

Once that control reached its peak, combined with his already inhuman physical abilities, the so-called Rokushiki became an instinct he could use at will.

Simply put, ordinary people trained in Rokushiki to become "superhuman," while with Life Return's assistance, he had become "superhuman" first—and naturally learned the skills of a "superhuman" afterward.

Likewise, thanks to the extreme enhancement of her physical abilities granted by her Mythical Zoan fruit, Stella had also mastered Rokushiki over the past year.

Just as Dawn was immersed in the joy of successful training, he suddenly sensed that the prison constructed by his power had been lightly touched.

With a thought, he opened the prison's entrance. Stella walked in, her expression somewhat unnatural. Rarely, she was maintaining her human form.

"Dawn, something's happened."

"A giant drifted in from the sea. He seems to have lost consciousness."

Dawn's pupils suddenly contracted.

A giant? At this point in time, a giant drifting to Ohara... A name immediately surfaced in his mind—Jaguar D. Saul.

This meant that the cruel judgment upon Ohara was about to begin!

"Pack our things. We're leaving immediately."

Without any hesitation, Dawn gave Stella the order, his tone utterly decisive.

Stella did not understand Dawn's sudden and urgent decision. After hesitating, she revealed a trace of reluctance in her eyes.

"Aren't we going to say goodbye to Robin? If we leave without saying anything... she'll be heartbroken."

Over the past year, Robin had come to their cabin almost every day to talk with them, sharing knowledge and her thoughts.

Stella had long since grown fond of the little girl, who appeared calm on the surface but was incomparably strong and kind at heart. She had formed a deep bond with her.

Dawn shook his head.

"She shouldn't get too deeply involved with me. You know my identity."

Over the past year, he had found an opportunity to tell Stella that the David Clan had been deemed taboo by the World Government and was fated to suffer ruthless pursuit.

Stella's gaze dimmed. Remembering the dark past Dawn had told her about, she understood his concerns. She nodded somewhat dejectedly.

"All right, I understand. Then... at least let me leave Robin a note?"

"You can."

Dawn did not refuse such a trivial request.

The two quickly returned to the cabin where they had lived for a year. Its furnishings were simple. Most of its items had been "borrowed" by Dawn with his ability whenever merchant ships docked at Ohara during the past year.

In this world of typical ocean-based civilization, travel between islands was extremely inconvenient. Inter-island trade brought astonishing profits, but it also came with enormous risks from sea beasts, Sea Kings, and vicious pirates.

Stella efficiently gathered and packed her personal belongings. Dawn extended a hand, and that deep darkness emerged in his palm, forming a tiny vortex that swallowed the luggage piece by piece.

After completely mastering Life Return, he had unexpectedly discovered that the alternate space connected to the Yami Yami no Mi could, in a sense, be regarded as a special organ of the ability user.

The essence of Life Return was injecting one's consciousness into the body—even into organs normally beyond voluntary control—to achieve incredible effects such as rapid digestion and precise manipulation.

Based on this, Dawn tried injecting his consciousness into the alternate space as though it were an organ. He successfully canceled the compressive force in part of it, then separated that special region from the other areas filled with destructive compressive force, using it alone as a stable storage space.

Now, he could freely choose which space to draw a target into with a thought.

He also absorbed the items he needed into the storage space, including the map of the entire West Blue and maps marking the locations of islands containing major events or important treasures, which he had successfully obtained through Robin.

By then, Stella had finished writing her note to Robin and gently placed it on the table in the center of the cabin.

Everything was ready. Dawn and Stella exchanged a glance, no longer lingering. Under the cover of the deep night, they moved at once, stepping on the air with soft bangs as they used Geppo to soar into the sky. They became two shadows, swiftly vanishing into Ohara's night sky.