The Celestial Dragons' Way of Training

Miming watched the wall rush closer and crashed headfirst into it. He could not even scream, but then he saw his body turn into black smoke and pass straight through the wall.

Beyond the wall stood a pillar, followed by another wall.

Miming quickly calmed down. This was the world of One Piece; anything could happen. Grinning happily, he even struck the Titanic bow pose, spreading his arms to feel the wind. The entire world looked slightly faded within the black mist, while his body had become like a ghost, able to pass straight through walls. As long as he overcame his fear, this was more fun than a roller coaster.

"Saint Sanming truly possesses extraordinary potential." Anubis's golden wolf head emerged from the black mist. He praised, "To adapt so easily to my Wind of the Underworld... I greatly look forward to seeing just how astonishingly powerful you will become in the future."

"I am a descendant of the twenty kings who created this world!" Miming declared proudly, and Anubis looked impressed.

No matter how powerful you are, as long as you are not a Celestial Dragon, you have to play along when I am showing off.

A valley surrounded by hills and temples appeared before him. This was the training ground reserved for the Gorosei.

"This is..." Miming grew excited. "The Twelve Zodiac Palaces? You are Saints, right?"

Anubis's eye twitched. Even through his mask, it was obvious.

"The Twelve Gods," Anubis answered dully. "The Palaces of the Twelve Gods."

A group of Twelve Gods, all wearing masks as well, had already been waiting for Anubis on the steps. Upon seeing Miming, they all lowered their heads in salute. Though they did not kneel in the grand manner others did, their etiquette was still impeccable.

Miming's gaze swept across the Twelve Gods, and he suddenly felt as though a gale had swept him away and hurled him off a cliff. He took a step back and steadied himself. When he looked again, the figures before him seemed as tall as insurmountable mountains.

They varied in height, build, and weight, but every one of them wore a golden mask imbued with a sacred aura.

Gods?! They were not humans. They were gods?

Miming suddenly had that thought. His knees trembled, and he wanted to drop to his knees and worship them.

But he could not!

Miming desperately gathered his willpower and gritted his teeth as he held firm. I am a Celestial Dragon! I am the man who will rule the world and marry the Empress--!

The scars on the Boa Sisters and their tearful, broken expressions flashed before his eyes.

Even becoming a Celestial Dragon had not stopped it. He had not even recognized them right away. Only Miming himself understood how intense that regret was. He had talked about protecting them, yet he did not even possess the necessary strength. How was he supposed to save them?

Miming's face twisted. Clenching his teeth, he roared, "You! Enough--!"

The oppressive force vanished, and the world before him returned to normal. The Twelve Gods still appeared towering, but he no longer needed to look up at them.

"Please forgive us, Saint Sanming." A man over eight meters tall bowed. The mask on his face was a colorful flower larger than a tabletop. "The Gorosei ordered us Twelve Gods to make Saint Sanming an expert in Haki in the shortest time possible. Therefore, it is necessary for us to understand Saint Sanming's talent."

Anubis stepped among them and said expressionlessly, "After all, the best way to awaken Haki is also to experience Haki."

"Then let us begin with the most basic Six Powers," said one of the Twelve Gods, holding a sword in his arms.

"The Marine Six Styles?" Miming was no stranger to Six Powers. His only concern was whether he could endure such terrifying physical training. Based on his knowledge of the plot from his previous life, his scrawny body probably did not even meet the basic requirements to learn Six Powers.

"Of course not." Anubis's words left Miming stunned.

"How could the Marines possibly possess the true Six Powers?" The Twelve Gods all let out cold chuckles. "What we mean is--the Six Styles of the Gods!"

"Each of the twenty kings who created the world was the mightiest hero of their nation. Under the guidance of the gods, they united and exhausted every effort to create the Six Styles in order to defeat the enemies of the gods. It possesses the power to slay gods!"

"The Marine Six Styles are merely a crude imitation of the Six Styles of the Gods, simplified techniques that ordinary people can train in."

"Only the Gorosei and Celestial Dragons acknowledged by the Gorosei are qualified to train in the true Six Styles of the Gods. Its practitioners must be descendants of kings!"

"This is why Celestial Dragon bloodlines are so noble!"

Miming was utterly dumbfounded by those words. So the Marine Six Styles were a simplified, castrated version of the Six Styles of the Gods? Their training methods were so easy to obtain. In the Marines, one only needed to earn merit to exchange military achievements for the chance to learn Six Powers. Within Cipher Pol, the Marine Six Styles were mandatory training as well.

What shocked him even more came next. Thick black mist poured from Anubis's body. At the same time, the other Twelve Gods scattered and surrounded Miming, releasing dense mist from their bodies as well, each in a different color. Gold, red, green, purple, blue, white...

"We will reforge Saint Sanming's body so that it may suit the needs of training." The voices of the Twelve Gods rang out from every direction, merging into one as though their minds were linked.

The differently colored mists converged, forming a whirlwind that swept Miming's body into the air.

Miming immediately felt the agony of his soul and flesh being torn apart together, and he screamed hoarsely. But the sound lasted only a second before being swallowed by the wind. His body had already been shattered, broken down into individual cells and even finer particles, swept away like grains of sand. Within the vortex, they mixed with the mist of the Twelve Gods, yet his consciousness remained unextinguished!

The voices of the Twelve Gods echoed from all directions: "Life Bestowal! Only true Celestial Dragons, descendants of kings, can possess power bestowed by the gods!"

Miming felt his consciousness gradually fading, but with his experience resisting Haki, he stubbornly guarded the last shred of clarity in his heart.

Gradually, he began to sense all sorts of things.

That mist was actually pure qi. Spiritual energy, true qi, vital energy--whatever the hell it was, it was the origin of life. It looked like mist only because its concentration was too high. His body had been destroyed, forcibly ground into the origin of life and fused with the qi around him.

Every kind of qi was different. The black one was filled with the scent of death and endings. The golden one brimmed with vitality; it was the energy of the soul. The cyan qi was filled with the power of nature. The white qi represented purity and would cleanse all things...

Gods. If any one of those powers could be completely mastered, it would grant the power of a god!

The Twelve Gods--each of them possessed enough power to destroy every living thing in this world!