Would that straitlaced adjutant commit seppuku on the spot?
Lin Xuan seemed to have thought of that too.
Watching Garp's shifting expression, he suddenly blinked, crouched down, and lowered his voice as he spoke to Garp in the sea.
"Uh... Vice Admiral Garp, could we discuss something?"
"Uncle Bogard might always wear a stern face, but he's a decent guy. He really put his heart into teaching me sword-drawing techniques just now."
Lin Xuan lowered his voice even further and made a show of glancing back at the empty entrance to the pier before continuing toward the sea. "Just the Armament Haki Hardening alone made him look like he'd swallowed a dead fly. If he finds out that right after I learned hardening, you punched Observation Haki out of me... I'm afraid it'll shatter his faith in his training, and he'll take it too hard and jump into the sea."
Out on the water, the expression on Garp's old face froze for a second.
Then his soaking-wet head tipped sharply backward, and he burst into loud laughter.
"Bwahahaha! Shatter his faith? Jump into the sea? You really have thought of everything!"
Garp laughed so hard he nearly cried. One hand slapped the water forcefully, sending up waves of spray, while the other pointed unceremoniously past Lin Xuan's shoulder, directly behind him.
"But brat, next time, you'd better not say such 'thoughtful' things right in front of the person involved-wouldn't you agree, Bogard?"
Lin Xuan's back instantly went rigid.
The feeling of being caught red-handed talking behind someone's back made his scalp prickle.
Only then did his Observation Haki belatedly relay a piece of information-less than three meters behind him stood a presence that was almost imperceptible, yet harbored a surging force.
His attention had been entirely on Garp, and he had completely overlooked the adjutant, who had concealed his presence to the utmost.
Like a rusted machine, Lin Xuan turned around in jerky increments.
What greeted him was Bogard's face, more than half hidden beneath the shadow of his hat brim.
The normally composed Marine Headquarters officer's chest was heaving.
His usually placid eyes were now bloodshot and fixed on Lin Xuan. At his side, the hand gripping his sword hilt trembled slightly.
It was as though something had shattered his worldview.
"Uh... Uncle Bogard, I was actually just guessing..." Lin Xuan tugged at the corners of his mouth, trying to salvage the atmosphere.
Shing!
A clear ring of steel answered him.
Without a single unnecessary word, Bogard abruptly drew his standard-issue sword.
This was no slow-motion demonstration like before, but a genuine strike carrying a chilling edge.
The blade reflected a dazzling, cold gleam in the sunlight, moving so fast it left only an afterimage on the retina.
"One Sword Style: Starlight!"
The low shout seemed to have been squeezed through Bogard's teeth.
This was more than a test. It was as though he had staked the last of his dignity on it.
He refused to believe it!
He refused to believe anyone in this world could awaken Observation Haki without any guidance simply because danger was imminent-and then use it with precision.
The slash sealed off Lin Xuan's escape routes on both sides, its tip aimed straight at the fabric by his left shoulder-even if it went out of control, it would not cause a fatal injury, but its speed was pushed to the limit.
At that instant, the blade seemed to slice the air in half, its piercing whistle making their eardrums ache.
But in Lin Xuan's world, everything changed again.
The perception called Observation Haki seemed to have been forcibly activated at full capacity by that slash.
The lightning-fast blade slowed in the image projected within his mind.
He could even "see" the faint contraction of the muscles in Bogard's wrist, a sign that the blade's trajectory was about to shift.
The flow of the wind changed.
The path of the compressed air was clearly visible.
Lin Xuan did not think. His body made the judgment before his mind did.
His upper body bent backward at an unbelievable angle, forming an exaggerated backbend.
Immediately afterward, he drifted half a meter backward.
That streak of steel swept past almost against the tip of Lin Xuan's nose.
Even a stray lock of hair over his forehead was severed by the sharp sword energy and drifted slowly down.
But it was not over yet.
Bogard clearly had no intention of stopping there. With a flick of his wrist, he forcibly reversed the blade's course in midair, turning it into a net of steel that descended once more.
This time, it was an unbroken series of slashes.
An ordinary person's knees would already have buckled in terror at the dense flashes of steel.
Yet Lin Xuan's eyes only grew brighter.
A dodge left, a sidestep, a duck, a turn.
He strolled leisurely through the flashing blades, every movement pared down to the bare minimum, every dodge timed precisely to the instant before the blade fell.
Not a fraction of strength was wasted, nor a single millisecond.
This was more than "seeing."
This was "prediction."
The instant Bogard's intention to strike formed in his brain, before the nerve signals had fully reached his fingers, Lin Xuan already knew where the sword would land.
Ten moves.
For ten full moves, Bogard's sword failed to touch even the hem of Lin Xuan's clothes.
Clang.
Before he could deliver the eleventh move, the sword in Bogard's hand drooped weakly, its tip striking the wooden planks of the pier hard.
The normally meticulous adjutant looked as though all his strength had been drained away, his face pale.
He watched Lin Xuan, whose breathing had only quickened slightly. His lips moved a few times before he finally gave a bitter laugh. "Intermediate... Observation Haki..."
It was not the unreliable perception of an initial awakening.
It was intermediate Observation Haki, capable of clearly predicting an opponent's intentions and sensing the breath of all things.
Splash!
Water splashed as Garp braced one hand against the edge of the pier and climbed out of the sea.
Ignoring the seawater dripping from him, he strode between them.
His earlier carefree laughter had vanished, replaced by a rare seriousness, with even a hint of scrutiny.
"I was still wondering whether it was a coincidence."
Garp casually wrung some water from his coat, his sharp eyes locked on Lin Xuan. "But to come through Bogard's Starlight without a scratch... brat, tell me the truth. You really never trained before?"
"I really haven't." Lin Xuan spread his hands helplessly, his expression sincere. "That feeling just now... it was like someone switched on a full-map cheat in my head. All Uncle Bogard's movements looked like slow motion to me."
Garp and Bogard exchanged a glance, each seeing the shock in the other's eyes.
First encountering Haki in one's teens was nothing unusual.
But awakening both Armament Haki Hardening and intermediate Observation Haki within half a day of that first encounter was beyond what the word "genius" could describe.
He was a freak of nature.
"Vice Admiral Garp..."
Bogard drew a deep breath, forcibly calming the emotions surging in his chest, and spoke in a slightly strained voice.
His gaze remained on Lin Xuan, but his words were directed at Garp. "This kind of talent... this intuition for battle... and that instinct just now, growing more excited under pressure instead of backing down..."
Bogard paused, seemingly hesitating over whether to voice his suspicion.
In the end, he stared into Lin Xuan's dark eyes and slowly brought up the thing that could drive the entire sea into a frenzy.
"Do you think this kid... might have that too?"
Chapter 11: Garp: Get Back Here and Become an Admiral!
The moment those words were spoken, even the air grew heavy.
Conqueror's Haki.
On these seas, it was the threshold separating "kings" from "bandits," an innate gift found in only one among millions.
The water on Garp's face had not yet dried when his brows knitted tightly.
He glanced at the boy standing with his back to the setting sun, then lowered his voice. "Bogard, has this knocked you senseless? Conqueror's Haki is an innate force of spirit. This kid might be a freak, but..."
"I hope I've been knocked senseless too." Bogard stared at Lin Xuan's profile, trying to catch a trace of confusion or bewilderment on the boy's face.
As an instructor, he expected a student who heard a term beyond his understanding to show that look of utterly guileless ignorance.
It was one of the few sources of superiority available to a senior.
But Lin Xuan did not.
His expression was calm. In fact, when he heard Conqueror's Haki, the corners of his mouth even curved upward.
On the translucent panel at the lower right of his vision, the golden [Awakening Talisman] was flashing rapidly, as though sensing the restless wildness within its host.
The Kenpachi Zaraki template brought not only combat instincts, but also that wild arrogance that bowed to no one.
Just as the atmosphere reached a stalemate, the previously calm sea suddenly erupted.
Boom!
A rank wind struck their faces.
The scent of blood from the fish Lin Xuan had killed with pebbles earlier had drawn the ruler of these shallows.
A Lord of the Coast over fifteen meters long burst out of the water.
It had a slick, eel-like body and a lion's mane, with menacing fangs lining its gaping mouth.
Its enormous shadow engulfed the entire pier, its massive body swallowing even the last rays of the setting sun.
This was no creature like the one Luffy had encountered when he set sail, capable of nothing but biting off an arm. It was a predator that could run rampant across the East Blue.
"Watch out!" Bogard instinctively gripped his sword hilt, his body tensing.
Garp raised an eyebrow, but the fist he was about to swing stopped in midair.
Because he saw that the boy standing at the end of the pier had not even turned his head.
Lin Xuan merely glanced sideways, looking out of the corner of his eye at the enormous creature poised overhead, about to lunge down for the kill.
You think you can eat me?
Deep within his consciousness, the [Awakening Talisman] instantly burned.
A powerful energy washed through every part of Lin Xuan's body. It was not physical strength, but a roar from the soul.
This power needed no learning, only release.
"Scram."
A single, casually spoken word slipped between Lin Xuan's teeth.
Instantly, with Lin Xuan at its center, the flowing air seemed to be seized in a crushing grip before violently exploding outward!
Dark red arcs appeared out of nowhere, spreading through the air.
That was not lightning from the natural world, but willpower forcibly warping reality.
The savage slit pupils of the Lord of the Coast, still mid-lunge, suddenly contracted to pinpoints, then its eyes rolled back.
Its enormous body froze in midair.
Time seemed to stretch at that moment.
There was no wail, no struggle.
With nothing more than a glance, the sea beast's brain was utterly destroyed.
Before you continue