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Chapter 120is out!!!! +40 advanced chapters monthly
Clang!
Smoker clashed with Fendy once more, the screech of grating metal echoing across the frozen wasteland. Smoker's attacks were being completely read, but Fendy was equally incapable of landing a decisive blow on him.
Out of the four Marine officers dispatched to this floor, Smoker was the only one who hadn't finished his fight yet. If he knew that, his ever-present scowl would have undoubtedly deepened.
Level 5 wasn't endlessly massive. Eventually, Momousagi, Chaton, and Baishui grouped back up.
Baishui shrugged helplessly at Chaton. "See, Vice Admiral? I told you I was the real deal. You didn't have to be on such high alert!"
Chaton rubbed the back of his head, flashing a goofy grin. "Haha, my bad, Major Baishui! You can never be too careful down here." He then pivoted smoothly, his demeanor shifting instantly. "Momousagi, I've had feelings for you for a long time now. Truly! Won't you accept my confession?"
Chaton was at it again. Pulling a freshly bloomed flower from seemingly nowhere, he thrust it toward Momousagi in yet another desperate attempt to woo her.
"Boring."
Momousagi merely shot him a frigid, sideways glance before turning her back on him indifferently.
The atmosphere grew thick with second-hand embarrassment. Chaton chuckled awkwardly, tucking the flower into his breast pocket.
"Well, looks like Smoker hasn't wrapped things up yet. Come on, let's go see who he's up against," Baishui suggested, mercifully breaking the awkward silence.
"Sure thing!" Chaton slung an arm around Baishui's shoulders, flashing a sleazy grin that made the Major instantly regret standing so close to him.
"Hmph. Boring," Momousagi scoffed again, this time lumping Baishui into her judgment.
Baishui was left a bit speechless, a metaphorical sweatdrop sliding down his forehead. As expected of Great Staff Officer Tsuru's little sister, he thought. She definitely has the attitude to back it up.
Over at Smoker's location, the battle between the Marine Captain and the prisoner Fendy was still blazing hot. Both were panting heavily, yet neither had managed to seize the upper hand. When Baishui's trio arrived, this was the stalemate they walked in on.
Seeing the three of them standing there looking completely relaxed and unbothered, Smoker's expression morphed into one of acute embarrassment. Everyone else had finished their fights. He was the only one lagging behind.
"Roel Baishui! I'll kill you!"
The moment Fendy spotted the Major, whatever composure she had left completely fractured. Eyes bloodshot, she abandoned Smoker and charged straight at Baishui.
"Iron Horn Slash!"
Like a desperate, cornered wolf, Fendy swung her blade, unleashing a terrifying, vicious wave of sword aura directly at him.
"I—!"
Smoker started to step in, but before he could even say "I've got this," Baishui vanished and reappeared right in front of him. His right arm was already dyed in the obsidian sheen of Busoshoku Haki.
"Photon Punch!"
Baishui drove his fist forward in a devastating haymaker, shattering Fendy's flying slash on impact. The resulting shockwave tore outward like a hurricane.
"Soru!"
With a sharp hum of displaced air, Baishui vanished again, materializing directly in front of Fendy.
"Photon Kick!" he muttered coldly, bringing his leg down in an earth-shattering stomp.
Clang!
Fendy brought her sword up to block, but the sheer force caused the very ground beneath her feet to crater. A muffled groan escaped her lips. This guy... how has he gotten even stronger?! she thought in terror.
But as she struggled to hold back the weight of his kick, a gun materialized in Baishui's right hand.
"Photon Cannon!"
A blinding beam of pure energy, roughly the width of a finger, erupted from the barrel.
Squelch!
There was no time to dodge. It was over in an instant. Fendy collapsed to the frozen earth, a blossoming stain of crimson spreading across her chest. In her final moments, a fleeting look of relief washed over her eyes.
Baishui turned, glancing down at her lifeless body. He let out a soft sigh, crouching down to gently close her eyes.
Life is hard enough, he thought. Nobody has it easy.
"Sorry about that. Stole your opponent," Baishui said, turning to Smoker with an easy smile.
"Hmph," Smoker grunted, crossing his arms, his demeanor icy.
So that's how his ability works... interesting, Chaton thought, having observed Baishui's brief skirmish closely.
"Alright, we've got three days until the next batch of prisoners is shipped down here," Baishui said, clapping his hands to draw everyone's attention. "What's the plan? Let's hear everyone's agenda."
"Heh, I think I'll just take a stroll around," Chaton replied, his tone dripping with his usual cynical playfulness. "Never been down here before. It's a novelty!" His carefree attitude would have been charming if not for the distinctly sleazy aura he projected.
"Hmph. Boring," Momousagi scoffed again, treating everyone with the same frosty disdain.
"Since no one is barking orders at me, I'm going to train," Smoker declared, two cigars clamped between his teeth as a thick plume of smoke drifted upward.
"Heh, looks like we're on the same page," Baishui chuckled. The Freezing Hell, with its bone-chilling, flesh-biting cold, was the perfect extreme environment for pushing one's physical limits.
"In that case, let's get moving, Captain Smoker!" Baishui smirked at the stoic Marine before dashing off into the blizzard like a hunting leopard.
"Tch." Smoker clicked his tongue, turning his lower body into a billow of white smoke and trailing right behind him.
Up in the Impel Down surveillance room, a monitor guard shook his head. "Roel Baishui... what a cold-blooded monster. Killing a woman without batting an eye. He just ended her like it was nothing." The guards eyed the screen with a potent mix of fear and intense curiosity.
Down in the Freezing Hell, it was a blinding expanse of white. Besides the falling snow, there were only the savage Snow Wolves roaming the wasteland. There was absolutely zero food to forage. Moreover, staying in this blinding environment for too long risked snow blindness, so Baishui had no choice but to keep his eyes shut and rely entirely on his Kenbunshoku Haki to perceive his surroundings.
His training regimen was brutally simple. He hoisted a massive, boulder-sized chunk of compacted snow onto his back and began doing push-ups. To keep his bare hands from freezing to the floor, he molded two sharp spikes out of solid ice to balance his palms on. He then coated these spikes in the pitch-black armor of Busoshoku Haki, reinforcing their durability so they wouldn't snap under the immense pressure.
He coated his palms and back in Busoshoku Haki as well. This wasn't just to protect against the ice; it was a dual-purpose method to actively drain and refine his Haki reserves. Without the Haki protecting his skin, the sheer cold of Level 5 would freeze his body stiff in minutes.
There were no shortcuts when it came to mastering hand-to-hand combat. It was all about grueling, agonizing repetition.
"Hah!"
"Hah!"
The block of snow on Baishui's back weighed well over a thousand pounds. Within minutes, sweat was pouring down his face, instantly steaming in the sub-zero air.
Simultaneously, eight glowing energy tentacles sprouted from Baishui's back. Each tentacle gripped a snow block of equal size and weight, lifting them up and down in unison. He was pushing his physical endurance to the brink while simultaneously refining his Devil Fruit mastery.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Sweat fell in steady drops. Baishui's entire body radiated intense heat. Beneath his skin, it felt like a herd of a million stampeding elephants was coursing through his veins, his life force burning like a furnace.
"Heh... true strength... definitely doesn't come cheap," Baishui grunted through gritted teeth, his face flushed and contorted with strain.
One hour later.
Completely drained, Baishui collapsed flat onto his back. Even through the thick Snow Wolf pelt he wore, he could feel the biting, deathly chill of the Freezing Hell seeping into his bones. Gritting his teeth, he intentionally accelerated his blood flow, using his elevated heart rate to stave off the lethal frost.
But soon, a gnawing hunger ripped through his stomach, prompting him to finally get up and head toward the level's entrance.
Even the strongest Marines needed to eat. Naturally, their meals weren't served out in the middle of the frozen wasteland. Once it was mealtime, the kitchen staff brought the food down, and they merely had to return to the entrance to collect it.
Level 5 wasn't endlessly expansive, so the trek didn't take long.
Level 5 Dining Hall.
"Bwahahaha! Well? How's the training feel?" Vice Admiral Garp boomed, clutching an obscenely large hunk of roasted meat in his massive hands.
"Not bad. Though it'd be a lot better if time moved just a little bit faster," Baishui replied, tearing off a massive chunk of meat and swallowing it almost whole.
"Bwahaha! What's the matter? Missing the wife that much already?" Garp asked, giving him a knowing, teasing grin.
"What, is that a crime?" Baishui rolled his eyes, putting on a slightly defensive, haughty front. "I'm pretty sure missing your significant other isn't a violation of Marine regulations."
"Alright, alright! Consider the question withdrawn!" Garp threw his hands up in mock surrender before downing his entire mug of booze in a single gulp.
In the entire dining hall, Momousagi was the only one who ate with any semblance of manners. The rest of them inhaled their food like starving ghosts—it was honestly a tragic sight.
"Kami-e."
Patting his heavily distended stomach, Baishui silently activated Kami-e, manipulating his bodily functions to drastically accelerate his stomach's digestion and his overall blood flow. In mere seconds, he felt the heavy fullness vanish, replaced by a surging tide of pure physical energy.
"I'm heading back out to train," Baishui announced, grabbing two more large slabs of meat before walking out of the hall.
"Sigh..." Garp could only let out a helpless sigh, shaking his head. He knew damn well Baishui wasn't heading straight back to training. The kid was going out to make a Den Den Mushi call to Aqi. Garp could read him like an open book.
Puru puru puru... kacha.
"Aqi? It's me."
Just as Garp had predicted, Baishui had used training as an excuse to step out and make a call.
"Baishui! How are you holding up? How's the environment down there?" Aqi's voice bubbled with excitement. "I heard it's freezing. You need to take care of yourself, okay? Don't catch a cold!"
"Haha, don't worry about me, I'm doing great here. You're the one who needs to stay safe." Baishui's tone shifted, growing serious. "Since I'm not by your side, you have to be careful. Try not to leave the base unless it's necessary. Marineford isn't as perfectly safe as people think, understand?"
The truth was, Marine Headquarters wasn't an impenetrable sanctuary. At least, not as safe as it was when he was there to watch her back.
"Mhm, I know. I'll be careful, I promise. Please don't worry about me," Aqi replied softly, her heart feeling as sweet as honey at his concern.
"Good. I'm going to cut this short and get back to training. Let's talk more tonight, babe." Baishui smoothly dropped a line that would make anyone blush.
"Okay."
The Den Den Mushi mimicked Aqi's warm smile before Baishui finally clicked the receiver down, ending the call.
Phew.
"The revolution is yet to succeed; comrades must still strive," Baishui muttered, quoting an old proverb as he stood up and shook his head. With renewed focus, he turned his sights back to the Freezing Hell.
If he was going to train, he needed to make every single second of this year and a half count. It was rare to get an environment this punishing to work with, complete with wild Snow Wolves for live sparring partners.
Baishui's strength wasn't handed to him on a silver platter. It was forged through sheer, unadulterated grit. If you didn't bleed for it, how could you ever become strong? In his eyes, there was no such thing as a genius who reached the pinnacle without backbreaking effort.
Time is a deeply abstract concept. Stay somewhere isolated long enough, and reality begins to blur. Over the course of more than five hundred days and nights, Baishui had grown completely numb to the passage of time.
His daily routine was reduced to four essential functions: train, fight, eat, and sleep.
A year and a half slipped by in silence.
Smoker had finally awakened his Haki—a milestone genuinely worth celebrating.
Thanks to the prolonged presence of Baishui and the other high-ranking Marines, the Sea Kings inhabiting the Calm Belt waters around Impel Down had been completely wiped out. The prison's internal population had also been severely culled, bringing the numbers down to a level that Magellan could easily manage on his own.
There was no longer any need for Smoker and the rest of the detachment to remain stationed there. It was time to leave.