pertwk Page 4
Page 4
Blake murmured something.
Two months have passed since Black and his party left Mary Geoise.
Over the past two months, Blake has frequently used the card space to improve his combat skills.
As his strength increased, Blake's snowball effect accelerated.
Now, both his physique and his imposing presence have improved compared to two months ago.
Especially Observation Haki.
After defeating a random nobody from the New World last month, Black has been able to occasionally glimpse fleeting glimpses of the future, meaning he is not far from mastering advanced Observation Haki—foreseeing the future.
Blake's increase in domineering aura is different from others.
For others, domineering skills and strength may not be proportional.
For example, Yamato is shrouded in Conqueror's Haki, but her attack power is clearly not at the level of other Conqueror's Haki users.
Douglas Barrett's Armament Haki, when unleashed at full power, was like a tsunami, but neither its hardness nor its internal damage reached its full potential.
This illustrates the mismatch between the strength of the domineering aura and the techniques used to wield it.
Blake's domineering ability, achieved through skill card upgrades, is more like a qualitative change resulting from quantitative accumulation.
When the intensity of one's domineering aura exceeds a certain threshold, one will naturally understand the application of advanced techniques.
Bringing his thoughts back, Blake looked at the port that was so close by, climbed onto the back of a slave, and sat down in a chair.
The port of the Kingdom of Taya was filled with tens of thousands of people, yet it was eerily silent, as if someone had choked them.
The ground in the port trembled, a sound of tens of thousands of knees hitting the earth.
The guards who had jumped off the ship a step ahead had already drawn a scarlet mark on the ground, precisely demarcating the "death by a glance" forbidden zone.
Dozens of children knelt and crawled on the ground, polishing the stone slabs with seashells and grass. This is a rule passed down by the World Government for eight hundred years: the land where the gods set foot must be spotless.
Blake, riding on a slave, disembarked from the ship and saw this scene, his feelings were somewhat complicated.
Honestly, he felt that this was too exaggerated.
But deep inside, an indescribable sense of pride was growing.
He hoped that the whole world could be like the Kingdom of Taya before him.
Kneel! Before me!
A dark red energy surge erupted from Blake's body.
Just as this energy was about to sweep across the entire Kingdom of Taya, it suddenly disappeared.
Blake breathed a sigh of relief:
"That was close, we almost got discovered. I must keep a low profile... keep a low profile..."
Behind him, Lieutenant General Gumir, who had just disembarked from the warship, looked around with some surprise and muttered to himself:
"Is it an illusion?"
In the crowd, a shirtless boy of similar age to Blake slightly raised his head and met Blake's gaze as he scanned his surroundings. He immediately looked surprised.
A sharp shout rang out, and the guard rushed to the boy, raised his sword, and thrust it towards the boy's body.
To confront a Celestial Dragon is a capital offense!
Blake gestured to the CP behind him, and one of them slightly raised his hand:
With a clang, the longsword in the guard's hand snapped in two.
Ignoring the kneeling king and nobles before him, Blake shook the rope in his hand, and the slaves, understanding, immediately crawled toward the boy.
Approaching the boy, Blake sat atop the tall slave, looking down at him with a haughty air.
High-set eyebrows, downturned eyelids, and slightly thick lips.
She had slightly messy, dark green curly hair and was shirtless.
Upon seeing the boy's appearance, Blake raised an eyebrow:
You have offended me.
The boy's body stiffened:
"I'm sorry, Your Highness, the Celestial Dragon."
Although his voice trembled slightly, his words were clear.
Blake changed the subject:
"After two months at sea, it feels good to have my feet on solid ground. I'm in a good mood today, so I'll pardon your offense. From this day forward, you are my retainer, Hilbert Black's retainer."
The boy was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed, and hurriedly knelt down:
“Supreme Saint Black, I am deeply honored to be your retainer.”
Blake nodded, pulled the rope again, and the slave beneath him headed straight for the palace.
The sound came from the wind:
"Stop kneeling there like an idiot, hurry up and follow me."
The boy hurriedly got up and followed Blake closely, taking three steps at a time.
Seeing this, several people in the crowd turned their eyes to Blake.
The guard first glanced at Blake discreetly, and seeing that he did not react, he rushed forward, dragged those self-righteous fellows out of the crowd, and plunged his longsword into their chests without hesitation.
Blake found it somewhat amusing.
They are truly a group of brilliant minds.
Chapter 6 This is exactly the kind of talent the Celestial Dragons need!
Inside the banquet hall, the graceful dancers had just finished their dance.
Blake sat in the head seat as the pastry chef, with trembling hands, presented him with a strawberry cake.
The strawberry cakes presented to the Celestial Dragons must be made so that every single strawberry seed is facing upwards, in order to satisfy the Celestial Dragons' appreciation of "the beauty of order".
The previous pastry chef had his finger cut off by the supervisor simply because the strawberry seeds were angled 15 degrees off.
Stella, standing next to Blake, cut it open with a silver knife inlaid with rubies and held it to his mouth.
Over the course of two months, Stella had gradually adapted to her role as a maid, and her initial anxiety was slowly dissipating.
As Blake ate his cake, he waved to the boy from before.
"What's your name?"
"Your Highness, my name is Huang Mu."
There are many powerful figures with names and identities on the high seas, but few can be recruited by Blake.
Rocks' crew members were all quite old, and each of them was unruly and had some grudges against the Celestial Dragons.
Rocks was able to easily command them back then because these people had joined the Rocks Pirates not long after they set sail. At that time, they were not very strong and had not seen much of the world.
By the time of the God Valley Massacre, the Rocks Pirates were far from united.
Nowadays, even if another powerful figure emerged who could subdue everyone at the same time, most of these emperors of the sea would not obediently submit.
Among those around Black's age, the majority later became Shichibukai.
These silver medalists, despite not being particularly strong, are even more difficult to communicate with than the Four Emperors, and often act as if they are invincible.
Even the Four Emperors usually have to weigh the pros and cons, but the Seven Warlords of the Sea prefer to draw their swords and fight.
Moreover, they are incredibly stubborn. Even when they are beaten down, they often act as if they are free to do whatever they want to them, making them impossible to communicate with.
The only one with any sense, Doflamingo, still has deep conflicts with the Celestial Dragons.
The only remaining powerful figures with names and identities in the original work are the crew members recruited by Shanks.
But the fact that these people can get along well with Shanks shows that they would have a hard time getting along with Black.
After much thought, the only future powerhouse that can be easily recruited right now is the future Navy Admiral Green Bull.
"Green Bull" Aramaki is the same age as Doflamingo, only one year older than Black, and is still a spirited young man who has not yet had the words "Shikawa Shinju" tattooed on his chest.
It is said that Aramaki's tattoos were related to a woman and his arrest and imprisonment, which happened more than 20 years later.
Judging from his hairstyle, Aramaki should have already eaten the Logia-type Forest Fruit.
What Blake admired even more was Wild Shepherd's character.
According to Huang Mu, humans have survived to this day by stepping on species that are inferior to themselves, and non-member states are equivalent to inferior ones. Only by trampling non-member states underfoot can people live in peace.
Therefore, he did his utmost to protect the World Government and the Celestial Dragons, and showed no mercy to his enemies.
Moreover, Blake has an additional benefit in recruiting wild herdsmen at this time.
The World Government and the Five Elders are extremely arrogant. Even if the potential and talent of people from the lower realms are obvious to the naked eye, they still do not take them seriously.
As long as Black recruits Wild Shepherd into his ranks beforehand, even if Wild Shepherd later demonstrates great strength, the Five Elders will only think that Black was lucky and found a "slave" of considerable strength while casually wandering the seas.
This will neither increase the level of attention given to Blake, nor will it lead to any attempt to incorporate Blake's private assets into the World Government's system.
"These are the kinds of talents I need to recruit if I were to transmigrate into a Celestial Dragon!"
Blake felt a sense of smug satisfaction:
"Those transmigrators who tried to recruit Zephyr, Moria, and Kuma, I don't know how they managed to talk their way out of it. Their personalities are inherently different from the Celestial Dragons."
"No matter how eloquently you speak or how wise you act, they will only think you have some ulterior motive. This is the impression that the Celestial Dragons have left on the world over the past eight hundred years."
"That's what we call reputation!"
Moreover, Blake wasn't the kind of transmigrator who wanted to save the world; he just wanted to give the world a new master.
Thinking of this, Blake stood up, walked over to the kneeling Wild Shepherd, and patted him on the shoulder:
"Get up. From now on, as my retainer, you won't need to kneel so often. By the way, are you a Devil Fruit user?"
Huang Mu hurriedly stood up, trembling with excitement:
"Your Highness, I am a Logia-type Devil Fruit user, specifically the Forest-Forest Fruit."
Blake nodded:
“Starting tomorrow, I will have these two CPs train you. I look forward to your growth.”
"Yes! Lord Black, I will certainly not let you down!"
Seeing Huang Mu's expression, which was as if he had been injected with chicken blood, Blake was quite satisfied.
In the original work, Zephyr once commented that Kizaru relied too much on the power of Devil Fruits.
In fact, Kizaru's swordsmanship and physical skills have reached world-class levels.
Even in Black's opinion, Kizaru has engaged in too many head-on confrontations, and his Devil Fruit could have been developed to be even more impressive.
Green Bull and Aramaki are probably the most reliant on Devil Fruits among all the admirals who have appeared, and also the weakest.
Whether in the battles of Mary Geoise or Onigashima, Aramaki primarily relied on the bizarre abilities of his Devil Fruit, rarely even using physical combat techniques.
He's basically a giant Smoker.
By having Aramaki train with CP and then forbidding him from using Devil Fruits, Black could improve his strength to some extent.
After spending three days in the Kingdom of Taya and enjoying the special queen and princess sent by the King of Taya, Blake decided to pack them up and take them with him before leaving.
It's true that they ate and took things.
The Temple continued to drift in the South China Sea. Thanks to Black's identity and the nearby naval warships, no foolish pirates came to cause trouble.
Blake lay under the parasol, while on the deck beside him, Aramu was sparring with two CPs.
He was physically strong, but the power of his Devil Fruit was so great that he neglected to hone his physical skills and Haki.
At only 17 years old, Aramu is currently in the process of increasing his strength. Under Blake's supervision, Aramu's achievements will definitely be even greater than those in the original work.
In recent days, Blake's improvement in strength has been somewhat slow.
Perhaps the process of finding Aramu went too smoothly, causing him to exhaust his luck and draw an unknown pirate who was defeated in one move. This left Black with no choice but to hone his Haki on his own.
However, such an improvement is better than nothing for Black. To upgrade his dual-color Haki to the second stage, he either needs to defeat a large number of random people with Haki, or wait for a stroke of luck to draw a powerful opponent.