The Six Powers

Hearing that, Lu Ye felt a little guilty. Setting aside the fact that this guy had tried to attack someone in a tender spot at the start, he was actually pretty decent, just a somewhat tsundere little brat.

Lu Ye rubbed his nose and looked up at the sky. "Um... I was kidding earlier. I won't name a dog after you. Sorry."

The red-haired boy turned around, his little face serious. "Sorry, but you're so despicable that I can't trust you anymore."

Rosy and his younger brother Charlos covered their mouths and laughed together.

Lu Ye rolled his eyes. The locals are so rude. How can they just go around slapping nasty labels on people?

A little later, Sullivan brought a doctor and a nurse from the Donquixote family, who wrapped Lu Ye in bandages until he looked like a zongzi.

Lu Ye then asked Hoffman about the so-called Six Powers, and only now did he learn what they were:

The Soru and Shigan the red-haired boy had used.

The Tekkai the Mountain had used in the colosseum.

The Geppo the Hoffman Squad had used when they jumped down from the stands.

Flora also demonstrated Kami-e and Rankyaku for Lu Ye on the spot.

Lu Ye froze:

So this is high-level martial arts. I'm a bona fide Double-flower Red Pole who's never met his match in G City, and now I look like a country bumpkin...

Kami-e especially-that's just cheating!

Lu Ye was wondering how even Hoffman, a stone-faced, straightforward man with a leopard-like head and round eyes, had learned to hold things back.

Hoffman explained calmly:

Soru and Geppo were just movement techniques. Once a person's physical abilities met the requirements, they could learn them in a single glance.

Tekkai was the entry point to Armament Haki Hardening, and Kami-e was the entry point to Life Return.

Rankyaku and Shigan were more like ways of developing the body into a weapon, a transitional option for those without Haki.

With Armament Haki Infusion, even a blade of grass could cut through anything, let alone a finger.

Once Armament Haki Emission came into play, Rankyaku was a joke.

So in the eyes of Hoffman and the other two, Lu Ye, who possessed both Life Return and Armament Haki, was fully qualified to skip ahead.

All he had to do was keep strengthening his body as he mastered Armament Haki in the future, and he'd pick up Soru and Geppo along the way. It was a perfect plan!

But...

Lu Ye was a cheater!

The [Hangry] trait had given him both Armament Haki and Life Return.

They looked insanely cool and overpowered, but in reality, apart from the all-too-real side effects, both abilities were watered-down versions!

His Armament Haki was uncontrollable, and aside from its astonishing digestive power, he hadn't noticed Life Return making any obvious improvement to his control over his body.

Lu Ye and Jinbao, perched on his shoulder, looked at each other and cursed in unison:

"Fuck, that's pure garbage!"

Lu Ye took the initiative to ask to learn the Six Powers, and Hoffman and the other two gave him strange looks.

It was like seeing a university-level powerhouse wanting to relearn elementary-school arithmetic.

Lu Ye ground his teeth. What choice do I have? This cheat must have come straight from the underworld!

Wrapped up like a zongzi, Lu Ye didn't dare go straight back to Homing's residence for fear his adoptive parents would nag him. He had Sullivan go back and let them know, then went to Doffy's residence with Rosy.

That evening, the three brothers sat on the grass in the courtyard, grilling meat.

Orange flames flickered, firewood crackled and popped, and the leg of a Sea King gave off the tempting aroma of roasting meat.

Lu Ye looked at Doffy across from him, wearing sunglasses and acting like he was second only to heaven, and at Rosy, who was gnawing foolishly on his roast meat. For some reason, the evening felt especially warm.

Jinbao pulled out his phone, poked Lu Ye, and kept shooting him meaningful looks.

Holding up a meaty bone, Lu Ye mischievously hitched up his golden feather coat and imitated Doffy's deranged, brutal voice from the original story, speaking with the exaggerated flair of an opera singer:

"I'll destroy this world with my own hands. Fuffuffuffu!"

"I absolutely won't die. No matter what, I'll survive, and then I'll slaughter every last one of you! Not one will be spared! Fuffuffuffu!"

"Justice will prevail? Of course it will. Only the victors are just! Fuffuffuffu!"

"A new era is about to begin, so hurry up and get ready. A world where only true navigators can survive is coming. Anyone without the strength should run for their lives... Fuffuffuffu!"

At the baffled look on Doffy's face, Lu Ye and Jinbao rolled around on the grass laughing.

Doffy curled his lip. "Has Longinus gone crazy again? Looks like a bad case."

With his mouth full of meat, Rosy mumbled, "Doffy, don't you think Longinus is imitating you? Especially that fuffuffuffu laugh."

Doffy said disdainfully, "I'm already eight. You think I'd say something that chuunibyou?"

Rosy looked Doffy up and down and nodded seriously. "Doffy, I think it suits you pretty well..."

Veins bulged on Doffy's forehead in the shape of a cross.

That night, Lu Ye practiced Soru on his own in the bedroom.

He stamped the ground dozens of times in an instant. As a beginner, his movements were clumsy, like a duck learning to tread water.

Jinbao sat on Lu Ye's shoulder and asked, bored, "Little Lu Ye, was that Bagua Black Hand you used today Swimming Body Baguazhang?"

Lu Ye wiped off his sweat and grinned as he cursed, "You damn rat, is this your first day knowing me? I told you ages ago I was a martial artist."

1981.

G City in Huaguo was still a colony of the Sunset Empire.

With the foreigners turning a blind eye, gangs were everywhere: over a hundred organizations and more than a hundred thousand triad members.

"No, no! Bajiquan's Iron Mountain Lean is all about charging straight ahead. Even with a machine gun trained on you, you can't retreat. You have to smash through even a real mountain!"

Master Zheng from the martial arts school, a small, hunched man whose wrinkled face resembled a chrysanthemum, waved his cane and jabbed it hard into Lu Ye's muscular triceps.

"Little Liuzi, look at how hesitant you are. Are you doing that big frame of yours justice?"

Lu Ye grabbed the cane and grinned.

"Old Man Zheng, I never asked you to teach me. I told you, you don't have to repay me. Taking out the trash was nothing to me. Besides, I fought my way to Double-flower Red Pole with a blade in each hand. Keep your skills and take your time finding a successor..."

The old man's eyes were full of eagerness as he carefully felt Lu Ye's muscles and bones, as though examining a treasure.

"Tiger arms, a wasp waist, and mantis legs. Back in the Great Ming, you could've been an Embroidered Uniform Guard! I'm a respectable man. You helped me get my revenge, so I have to repay you!"

Lu Ye rolled his eyes. I'd say you just want Sixth Master's body.

"The main thing is, I don't think Bajiquan suits me. Don't take me for a brute just because I look fierce. I've got brains, you know?"

The old man said unhappily, "Pair Baji with Pigua, and even immortals will fear you! With your build, you'd be incredibly formidable using Bajiquan. Why won't you learn it?"

Lu Ye hastily begged off. "We're not compatible, boss. I can't throw punches that fierce. Do you know any boxing styles that hold back a little?"

The old man bristled and glared. "Hold back? That would be a waste of that physique, and it wouldn't suit you either!"

Lu Ye curled his lip. "Old man, we've only met a few times. Don't act like you know me so well."

The old man gave a couple of cold chuckles. "Then tell me, when you gangsters go out to fight, what tactics do you use?"

"Brains! Of course I use my brains!"

Lu Ye squatted on the head of a stone lion outside the martial arts school and said enthusiastically:

"If I can ambush them, I won't fight them head-on. If we can gang up on them, I'll never fight one-on-one. If they're barehanded, I'll bring a knife. If they have knives, I won't feel safe unless I've got at least a pistol on me...

"If you don't plan ahead, trouble will soon find you. I've always been good at that.

"I keep an M67 fragmentation grenade in my sister-in-law's Prada at all times, just in case."

The old man blinked. "You put a grenade in there and she doesn't know?"

Lu Ye laughed. "I painted it pink!"

The old man stroked his beard and looked regretfully at Lu Ye's fine muscles and bones. Only after a long while did he speak.

"Ever heard of Bagua Hand Black? It doesn't focus on forcing your way in. All it asks is that you exploit every opening. Most of its moves involve gouging eyes, striking throats, stabbing under ribs, and attacking the groin, defeating the enemy in one move. Want to learn that?"

Lu Ye's eyes lit up, and the old man's vision went dark.

When the hand strikes, the hand is unseen,

When the leg kicks, the leg is unseen.

The hand strikes like a steel file,

And withdraws like a hooked pole.

Let him strike me with all his might,

I turn and shift to the other side.

Before ever striking, probe his guard,

Draw out his hand, then change first.