In the West Blue, the whirlpool sea known as a forbidden zone had been completely frozen. Not a single wave stirred.
A straight path stretched across the ice, leading all the way into the depths of the forbidden zone, to the Jewel Ice Sheet.
The Oro Jackson was docked at the edge of the Jewel Ice Sheet. At this moment, Spencer and the others were constantly moving in and out of the glacier, carrying large amounts of jewels, gold, and artwork onto the ship.
Not far away, Chinjao looked like he wanted to cry. He shouted, "Leave me some! Leave me some!"
"Relax. For Tofu's sake, we are only taking part of it," Spencer said with a smile, carrying a sack over his shoulder with a cigarette in his mouth.
In truth, it was because they had made a very serious mistake.
They had only brought one ship.
There was no room for more, so they could only come again next time.
Fortunately, now that they knew the location of the Jewel Ice Sheet, they could simply bring a fleet next time and haul everything away.
As for whether Chinjao would take the chance to move his wealth?
There was no need to worry. Garp had already smashed his head crooked. After they were done, Valthior would freeze the Jewel Ice Sheet again. Chinjao would not be able to open it.
While Spencer and the others were busy helping Chinjao "move his property," Valthior stood on the Jewel Ice Sheet. Freezing air curled around his entire body, and ice crystals occasionally flashed across him.
"No, not right…" Valthior activated his power and covered the surface of his body with a thin layer of ice.
A moment later, he frowned slightly, then quickly withdrew his power and let the thin ice fade.
He repeated this dozens of times, each time making tiny adjustments to the structure of the ice crystals.
Gradually, under Buggy's surprised gaze, Valthior's body began to emit rippling light like an aurora.
"What is Big Bro Valthior doing?" Shanks asked curiously as he watched the change.
"He said he is studying the ice crystal structure of the Jewel Ice Sheet…" Buggy licked his lips and said.
Shanks, holding Ame no Habakiri in his hand, slowly drew the blade from its sheath.
Seeing this, Buggy chimed in "Do not forget. Tomorrow we switch swords again!"
Back in Wano, after Valthior killed Kozuki Oden, he took Oden's two swords, Ame no Habakiri and Enma. Later, those two blades were given to Shanks and Buggy.
Ame no Habakiri was fine. It was incredibly sharp and light as a feather, without any side effects.
Enma, however, was different. The moment someone drew it, it would forcibly draw out their Haki.
For the first two years, Shanks and Buggy did not dare touch Enma at all.
But now things were different. They had developed a new use for Enma.
It could speed up Haki training.
As everyone knew, Haki training required constant effort over a long time. Armament Haki in particular had to be tempered day after day before it could reach its peak.
Even now, Valthior had already broken several iron caps during training. Although he was more used to using Conqueror's Haki coating, he had still never relaxed his Armament Haki training.
Enma could greatly speed up the consumption of Armament Haki.
Through repeated consumption and recovery, it naturally allowed the Armament Haki of whoever used Enma to be tempered quickly.
Armament Haki that originally took three to five hours to exhaust could be drained by Enma in two or three minutes.
However, this thing was like intense physical training. You could not do it too many times in one day, or the body would not hold up.
Buggy and Shanks exchanged swords every three days.
One used Enma to temper Haki, while the other used Ame no Habakiri to train swordsmanship.
In terms of talent, Shanks was stronger. He had inherited Roger's will.
Although Buggy was slightly inferior, he was actually also a rare talent. It was just that in the original story, no one seriously pushed him. Later, he accidentally ate a Devil Fruit, causing his mentality to collapse. For a long time, he gave up on himself. After the Roger Pirates disbanded, he even ran to the East Blue and hid in that small pond for more than twenty years, wasting his talent completely.
Because of that, compared to Shanks, who became an Emperor through strength, Buggy was much weaker.
But now things were different.
Valthior liked and admired Buggy very much. In particular, he valued Buggy's spirit.
That line, "Don't your lives cry out?" had naturally made Valthior hold very high expectations for Buggy.
He believed that Buggy, who could shout such words, might also be a good seed with the potential for Conqueror's Haki.
So whenever he had time, he pushed Buggy. On top of that, with Bullet as a ruthless drill instructor, even if Buggy had no talent, it would be impossible for him to remain ordinary in this environment.
And in fact, he really was not bad.
Rayleigh also liked Buggy quite a lot. So back then, when Roger taught Shanks, Rayleigh had been in charge of teaching Buggy.
Looking at it that way, the three main figures of the Roger Pirates had all passed down their legacies.
Valthior learned from Gaban.
Shanks followed Roger.
Buggy studied under Rayleigh.
"Got it, got it. I'm waiting to use Enma too." Shanks answered, then took a deep breath. His previously lazy eyes sharpened in an instant.
As Ame no Habakiri fully left its sheath, Shanks shouted, "Divine Departure!!!"
A slash flew off the blade and smashed heavily into the Jewel Ice Sheet —yet left not even a scratch.
"What the hell are you shouting for? That's nothing like Captain Roger's Divine Departure, okay?" Buggy mocked.
Although Shanks had shouted passionately, and his stance looked similar, compared to the real Divine Departure in power and spirit, it was far too lacking.
"I only started practicing Divine Departure these past two days…" Shanks said stubbornly.
Then he stepped forward, crouched down, and touched the spot on the glacier he had just cut.
"What is this thing? Why is it so hard?"
"Give it here, give it here…" Buggy snatched Ame no Habakiri from Shanks, then said, "Let me show you my Explosive Sword Style…"
He pulled a packet of powder from his coat, casually smeared it across the blade, spun Ame no Habakiri in a flashy flourish, then raised it and shouted, "Netherfire Crescent Moon Break!!!"
The moment the slash left the blade, the powder ignited. High heat erupted along with crackling sounds. When the slash struck the ice pillar in front of him, the impact seemed to trigger an even stronger reaction. With a loud boom, the point of contact exploded!
The ice pillar formed from the Jewel Ice Sheet remained completely undamaged. Buggy's face, however, was now covered in black soot.
But the boy was not disappointed. Instead, he said excitedly, "How was that? This is a new idea I developed by combining Mr. Rayleigh's Red Spider Lily slash with my own special gunpowder. I plan to name it Explosive Sword Style!"
Clearly, Buggy was a quick-minded person with many strange ideas in his head.
Combined with his love for explosions and gunpowder, he had forcibly created a new trick for himself.
"Flashy. At most, it can work as a distraction, right? If you use a little more of that powder, you will blow yourself up too. Wouldn't that just be a suicide sword style? Who do you think you are, Bullet?" Shanks criticized without mercy.
"That is why I am also thinking about how to improve this flaw. Maybe by using throwing knives or daggers… But then I might as well just throw bombs…" Buggy scratched his cheek and said bitterly.
"Why do you insist on combining explosions with swordsmanship?" Shanks could not help asking.
Buggy froze for a moment. Then he looked at Shanks with a somewhat helpless gaze.
"My talent in swordsmanship is far below yours, and honestly, my interest in it is not that strong. If I do not combine swordsmanship with something I actually like, I think in a few years, I might really give up on it… But if I do that, I would feel too sorry toward Big Brother Valthior's expectations and Mr. Rayleigh's teaching."
Listening to those words and looking at his best friend's expression, Shanks felt touched.
Then he comforted him. "I cannot help you much. How about this? I will talk to Bullet and ask him, for my sake, to give you extra training every day!"
Buggy froze.
Damn it. Are you even human?
Does Bullet need to give you face to give me extra training?
Are you a Face-Face Fruit user or something?
That guy already wishes he could train me to death, all right?
"Check under your bed before you sleep tonight!" Buggy said viciously. "Be careful, or I will plant a bomb under it, bastard!"
"Hahahahaha…" Seeing Buggy's mood improve, Shanks also laughed loudly.
After laughing for a while, Buggy touched his chin again and said, "Have you heard of Ganzui?"
"Is that not obvious?" Shanks rolled his eyes at Buggy. "He was one of the top officers of the Rocks Pirates and a famous strong fighter in the New World. But did they not say the Red Count cut him down two years ago? Unlucky guy."
With the Red Count's temper, personality, and terrifying strength, anyone who ran into him really was unlucky.
"He was also the user of the Bomb-Bomb Fruit. Lately, I have been thinking about whether I can find that fruit somewhere…" Buggy said with some hesitation.
"Huh?" Shanks exclaimed. "Weren't you the one who hated the idea of becoming a Devil Fruit user the most?"
Buggy was good at swimming. Even Sunbell had said it was rare to see a human with Buggy's talent for it.
That was also one of the reasons Rayleigh favored Buggy so much.
Because Rayleigh himself was also especially good at swimming.
The two of them were alike in that way.
"I might swim fast, but I still can't compare to Sunbell and the others.. Besides, the best swimmers are often the ones who drown. Big Brother Valthior even said Mr. Rayleigh will probably suffer for it someday… But if I can become the user of the Bomb-Bomb Fruit, then with my talent and mind in that area, I think I can definitely become a strong fighter no weaker than Ganzui!" Buggy said with a complicated expression.
He really did like swimming, and he had indeed said before that he did not want to become a Devil Fruit user.
But people were always changing, and their thoughts were always shifting.
As the gap between him and Shanks gradually widened, Buggy began to develop new ideas.
He did not ask to truly stand equal to Shanks.
For example, Shanks might become someone as strong as Shiki or Newgate.
As for Buggy, he would be satisfied if he could reach Ganzui's level.
After all, that would already be enough to stand beside Shanks, wouldn't it?
"What are you two brats talking about?" Valthior's voice came from behind them.
Buggy and Shanks turned around and almost had their eyes blinded.
Good grief.
Valthior's body was giving off the same glow as the Jewel Ice Sheet.
No, it was even more brilliant than the Jewel Ice Sheet.
"Big Bro Valthior, did you succeed?" Shanks asked in surprise.
"Mm. I analyzed and figured out the ice crystal structure of the Jewel Ice Sheet. As long as I freeze the crystals according to that structure, I can form this extremely hard layer of ice," Valthior said with a smile.
Just this alone made the trip worth it.
From now on, unless someone had strength on Chinjao's level, they would not be able to break through his defense.
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