Panz not only provided a lavish meal but also increased the portions, ensuring everyone could eat their fill.
This selfless dedication was admirable, reminding Xiao of the chivalrous spirit from his previous life.
Panz, without seeking wealth, fame, or reward, robbed the rich to aid the poor, simply to ensure the hungry were fed, daring to stand against the world.
Xiao quickly received his portion of the meal and contentedly returned to his seat.
He picked up his utensils, eagerly anticipating the unique delicacy.
With just one bite, Xiao was stunned by the incredibly rich texture. The flavors of each ingredient blended harmoniously, distinct in layers, dancing on his tongue and providing ultimate enjoyment.
At the same time, a powerful vitality instantly surged through his body, as if every cell had awakened, brimming with strength.
This was the explosive energy from the volcano, unique and intense, unforgettable.
"Delicious, truly a dish only giants can make!" Xiao couldn't help but exclaim.
He made no secret of his admiration, considering the dish a peerless masterpiece.
At that moment, a cute girl with green hair, only about thirty centimeters tall, approached, carrying an oversized plate.
She heard Xiao's praise and immediately stopped her frantic eating, looking up with a proud gleam in her eyes.
"Of course! My dad's cooking is the best in the entire world!" the girl said proudly, a happy smile spreading across her face.
She had absolute confidence in her father's cooking, openly adoring him, and was even happier when Xiao praised the food than when she herself was praised.
Xiao smiled, continuing to savor the delicious meal and feeling the happiness of the poor people around him as they ate.
Perhaps this warm atmosphere was what Panz had always sought without asking for anything in return.
…
…
Happy times are always short-lived. When all the ingredients Panz had plundered were consumed, the volcano feast came to an end.
With lingering reluctance, everyone boarded their ships to return home. The party was over, but this culinary feast would likely become an unforgettable memory for them for a lifetime.
Xiao finished his last bite of food and let out a satisfied burp, but he didn't leave. Instead, he quietly waited for Panz and Lili to finish cleaning up the cooking utensils.
"Sir, is there anything else? If it's about recruitment, forget it. I just want to feed more people in the world!"
Panz finished tidying up, slung the enormous cast-iron griddle onto his back, and then looked at Xiao, who was still sitting there, stating his position.
People like Xiao were not uncommon. Many butlers from royal palaces and noble families had tried his cooking and offered him a chef position.
However, he had refused them all. Some, enraged, even resorted to violence, but they quickly learned the strength of a giant's iron fist.
"I'm not here to recruit you, Mr. Panz. I have another purpose!" Xiao smiled, correcting Panz, and turned his gaze toward Lili.
"Devil Fruit hunter? Or one of the Blackbeard Pirates, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea?"
Panz's pupils suddenly constricted, his face changing drastically.
Following Xiao's gaze, an organization immediately sprang to his mind—the Blackbeard Pirates.
This pirate crew had recently gained notoriety in the New World, frantically searching for and hunting down various well-known Devil Fruit users.
They would extract the abilities from these users and then resell them at exorbitant prices to powerful organizations, thereby earning immense profits.
Throughout the Grand Line, they were infamous, striking fear into the hearts of ability users.
Even worse, every core member of this pirate crew possessed formidable strength, and many ability users had suffered severe injuries at their hands.
The emergence of the Blackbeard Pirates also completely changed the world's perception of ability users.
Now, people clearly knew that the Blackbeard Pirates had mastered the technique of extracting Devil Fruit abilities and even offered this service to others.
This had sparked an unprecedented wave of hunting across the entire world.
Countless powerful ability users began to become cautious, not daring to easily reveal their abilities,
because once they were discovered to possess a useful ability, they would immediately attract the attention of countless Devil Fruit hunters, becoming their targets.
And since Xiao had set his sights on Lili, his purpose was already clear: it was for the Devil Fruit ability she possessed.
The Mini-Mini Fruit was a considerably powerful Devil Fruit. It not only possessed astonishing power but also belonged to the ultimate assassination-type fruits.
For many royal palaces and nobles, this fruit had deadly lethality, and few could resist the Mini-Mini Fruit's infiltration and assassination capabilities.
Therefore, the price of this Devil Fruit on the black market had always remained high, now even reaching 3 billion Berries.
Whether it was to acquire this powerful ability or to sell it for immense wealth, it was enough to attract countless greedy fruit hunters to contend for it at all costs.
So, when Xiao unreservedly stated that his target was the Mini-Mini Fruit, Panz immediately unleashed a furious killing intent.
The cast-iron griddle on his back was thrown by Panz at an astonishing speed, a colossal object as heavy as a mountain hurtling directly toward Xiao.
However, facing Panz's enraged attack, Xiao's expression remained as calm as still water, showing no fear, not even changing his posture.
The next moment, a golden Destruction Emperor Ray appeared out of thin air, like a laser beam, piercing through the cast-iron griddle in the blink of an eye, shattering the massive, tens-of-thousands-of-ton iron pot into dust.
"For the sake of your cooking, I don't want to kill you two!"
Xiao crossed his hands, resting them against his mouth, his voice deep and elegant.
He said, "But you should also know what I want, right?"
Panz: "Never!"
Lili: "I'm willing!"
The two gave different answers in unison, then looked at each other again, and in their gazes, they both saw the emotions in the other's eyes.
Panz didn't want Lili to give up her ability because he had heard those whose powers were stripped describe the feeling as like cutting the soul with a knife—agonizingly painful.
Moreover, even after their abilities were stripped, they still had to endure the Devil Fruit's curse, unable to swim again, and even unable to eat a second Devil Fruit.
Their bodies were as if a large hole had been opened; no matter how much they cultivated, they couldn't grow stronger. Unless they regained their abilities, they were essentially crippled—their strength for this lifetime would not improve at all.
Lili gently shook her head. "Dad, as long as we're alive, there's still hope!"
She could feel the other party's firm attitude. If she didn't give up her ability, they would truly die here. They were no match for the other party at all.
Furthermore, the power released by the other party when he destroyed the cast-iron pot just now was even more terrifying than Admiral Kizaru of Marineford.
Panz seemed to sense Lili's intention and immediately shouted sternly, "Lili~ Don't do anything foolish!"
Lili was still young, she had a bright future, she was Elbaf's most outstanding genius, the future of the Giant race, and absolutely could not be buried here.
Panz had made up his mind that even if he died here, he would absolutely protect Lili and ensure her escape.
"You too, Dad, we can't escape!"
Lili said, then walked directly toward Xiao without any defense.
She could feel gazes from all directions, as if no matter where she went, she would be spied upon.
This feeling made her realize that even if she fled to the ends of the earth, the other party would surely catch her.
She knew that only by giving up her ability could she ensure her and her father's safety.
"Li..." Panz wanted to say more, but Xiao impatiently used Conqueror's Haki, directly knocking him unconscious.
"Such powerful Conqueror's Haki… how is it that I don't know of a figure like you on the seas?"
Lili naturally felt the intense pressure, her body trembling instinctively, and she questioned Xiao.
"I usually don't act in my true form. I usually operate under aliases," Xiao replied casually, while the inky darkness of the Dark-Dark Fruit slowly enveloped Lili.
"The Dark-Dark Fruit… you are..."
Lili found it hard to imagine that this handsome man in front of her was the same person as the obese, rotten-toothed, vulgar-looking Blackbeard.
"Shhh~"
Xiao smiled slightly, raising his index finger to his lips, signaling Lili not to speak.
He whispered in Lili's ear, "This is our secret. Don't worry, I'll be very gentle. You won't suffer even the slightest pain."
His deep voice carried a warm, moist sensation that made Lili blush.
She instinctively nodded, indicating her agreement.
After receiving Lili's permission, Xiao immediately began to use his ability to extract the fruit from Lili's body.
The reason why extracting Devil Fruits is excruciatingly painful is due to improper technique.
Those fruit hunters typically use Xiao's power crystals to roughly pull and drag the ability user's soul, which naturally causes them immense pain.
However, Xiao, being someone who cherishes and protects women, naturally wouldn't bring any pain to Lili.
But the extraction of the Devil Fruit still caused Lili an unprecedented sense of emptiness.
People who have had teeth pulled know that the resulting void is very uncomfortable and takes a long time to get used to the absence of the tooth.
And the emptiness caused by the removal of an ability is a hundred, a thousand times worse than a tooth extraction, as if a part of one's soul has been hollowed out.
Lili's tears began to flow uncontrollably. The hollow feeling of losing something important made her feel incredibly heartbroken and sad.
Seeing this, Xiao rubbed Lili's head and comforted her, "Don't worry, I'm just temporarily borrowing your ability. I'll return it to you very soon."
After speaking, he threw the extracted Mini-Mini Fruit into the Cyber Dimension for decomposition.
Soon, Xiao obtained all the fundamental abilities contained within the Mini-Mini Fruit. The Mini-Mini Fruit also turned into dust as its fundamental power was extracted.
However, the core of the Mini-Mini Fruit did not disappear. It was still absorbing power from the Cyber Dimension, re-condensing into a new form.
Only this time, the re-condensed Devil Fruit was clearly different. It not only absorbed the energy of the Cyber Dimension but also absorbed the shrinking ability from termites, and even the entire fruit underwent further changes.
Even its interior began to nurture the power belonging to the Cyber Dimension, forming a peculiar connection with Xiao.
He discovered that through his connection with the Cyber Dimension, he could control the Devil Fruit's power to a certain extent and adjust its manifestation according to his will.
Furthermore, he also saw all the abilities developed by previous users recorded within this Devil Fruit.
"Interesting… is it because the Cyber Dimension has been completely refined by my soul, turning into the Soul Core?" Xiao murmured to himself.
Xiao could roughly guess the reason for the Devil Fruit's change.
After all, everything in the Cyber Dimension bore Xiao's strong personal imprint.
The core of the Devil Fruit, having been reborn with Xiao's power, naturally absorbed Xiao's imprint and became a part of Xiao.
This change made Xiao feel very interesting, and at the same time, he gained a deeper understanding and mastery of his own abilities.
"In that case, that would be interesting."
Xiao stroked his chin, his eyes flickering, pondering silently.
If every time a Devil Fruit was reborn, it absorbed his power for completion and was continuously imprinted with his mark,
then he wouldn't even need to create mediums anymore to continuously fuse various fruits, making them his own power.
Thinking of this, Xiao's lips couldn't help but curl slightly upward, a hint of excitement flashing in his eyes.
Next, Xiao eagerly experimented with the rest of the powerful Devil Fruits he had collected.
As expected, every newly born Devil Fruit absorbed a part of an ability similar to his own and formed a peculiar connection with Xiao.
This connection was not a simple resonance, but a deeper level of compatibility, as if these Devil Fruits had become a part of his body.
With the establishment of this connection, Xiao also gained valuable experience accumulated over thousands of years from previous users.
Xiao looked at the mountain and sea of experience, feeling that each Devil Fruit was a huge library, containing endless knowledge and wisdom.
From their initial seed, through the research and exploration of successive ability users, they continuously refined their fundamental abilities, making their power increasingly diverse and powerful.
When the fundamental abilities accumulated within a Devil Fruit become sufficiently strong and diverse, the Devil Fruit enters a brand-new stage—Awakening.
This is probably why only a very small number of Devil Fruits can awaken.
Because only those fruits that have undergone countless cycles of reincarnation and inheritance possess enough foundation and potential to break through themselves and achieve awakening.
As for those Devil Fruits with insufficient accumulation, unless they encounter a true genius, there is simply no possibility of awakening in the short term.
Even for ability users with excellent talent, it is extremely difficult to awaken such a Devil Fruit.
For example, if Luffy were given a Whisper-Whisper Fruit that could only passively chat with animals,
it's debatable whether he could awaken it, and he certainly wouldn't be able to achieve his current accomplishments at sixteen years old.
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