Starting with Kengan beating up the Pirate King

Chapter 21 Ace Sets Sail
Gods do not generate Armament Haki.

However, when Guan Yi activated the Divine Attachment state, his basic qualities were greatly enhanced, and his perception became several times sharper, allowing him to capture the power hidden within his body.

It's like a key that helped Guan Yi unlock the treasure chest of Armament Haki!

Guan Yi was pleasantly surprised to find this treasure. Armament Haki can be said to be the core ability in the world of One Piece. Whether it is to fight against Logia-type Devil Fruit users or to enhance attack and defense, it is a necessary condition.

He naturally wouldn't let this opportunity slip by, so he immediately put aside his other attempts and training, focusing on sensing and controlling Armament Haki.

Before long, the exhaustion of his physical strength caused Guan Yi to withdraw from his divine state, but he smiled despite being covered in sweat.

An invisible energy was firmly enveloping his raised right arm. The current level of Armament Haki was not enough to turn his arm purple or black, but without using the Bear Form, ordinary swords and blades could not harm him, and his attack power was also amplified.

"Next, I need to properly digest the infrastructure development of the past two years and the lessons learned from the two practical sparring sessions, and also thoroughly master Armament Haki!"

Time flies like an arrow, and years pass like a shuttle.

In the blink of an eye, half a year passed.

……

It was March of 1516 in the Sea Calendar. Less than a month had passed since the explorers entered the pirate's secret realm. A year was enough time to accomplish a lot, and the explorers with even a little skill had already established themselves in the pirate world.

House number 407, Loguetown.

Long Qi squatted on the chair, organizing all the explorers' information, pausing from time to time to think or scribbling on paper.

In the past year, 58 of the 96 explorers, excluding the three team leaders, have established stable communication channels with him and provided dozens of pieces of valuable intelligence, so the progress has been relatively smooth.

But this is far from enough.

Each round of exploration in a secret realm has its own objective. When a secret realm is first discovered, the initial exploration only needs to determine its operating cycle and the difficulty of exploration.

The goal of the second exploration is to gather as much information as possible about the local customs and culture of the secret realm, understand the intelligence of the various islands that have been transported there, and learn about the methods to enhance one's power and the power system of the secret realm, so that later explorers can adapt to life in the secret realm more quickly.

This third expedition was also undertaken with a mission—to obtain detailed information about the Grand Line and the Four Emperors, laying a solid foundation for conquering the Navy's pirate strongholds!

"It's time to enter the Grand Line."

Before that, there are two things to do.

Raise funds and assemble the elite!
He placed the information about Jiang Xue on his desk, thought for a moment, then placed a few more sheets next to him and picked up the Den Den Mushi.

The sound of the door opening interrupted his actions. Zhou Yingxiong walked in, looking travel-worn, and said irritably, "Damn, new broom sweeps clean. Ever since Colonel Smoker took over as the commanding officer of the Loguetown naval branch, the intensity of training and the frequency of voyages have at least doubled!"

Long Qi looked at him and said, "So? Is it easy to get the information we need?"

“There’s no need to ask.” Zhou Yingxiong waved his hand and said, “Although Colonel Smoker has only been in Loguetown for two months, his style and personality have already spread throughout the Loguetown Naval Branch.”

It's said that within the Navy Headquarters, he was known for his tough and unruly style, and had nearly been discharged from the Navy several times. He was definitely a maverick; someone like that, if he felt it was right, would probably act without any restraint!

He looked at the Den Den Mushi in Long Qi's hand and said, "What, is it starting?"

Long Qi nodded solemnly, and while dialing the Den Den Mushi, he said, "Since Smoker isn't a two-faced guy and can be used by us, then... Operation Rat Extermination can officially begin!"

Brub brub bru—

The Den Den Mushi rang a few times before being answered. Mimicking the voice on the other end, a somewhat irritable female voice came through: "Who is it? Who are you looking for?!"

Seeing the fierce expression on the Den Den Mushi, Ryuki paused for a moment: "Where's Ian?"

"Looking for our boss? He's out!" "Out? Where to? When?"

"How should I know?! When... it's been almost two months! He ran away not long after the New Year, who knows where he went!" Alvida's tone was a little irritated: "The gang's sixth cargo ship has already set sail, I'm busy all day long. Which island are you from? If you want to cooperate, just tell me."

“…When he gets back, have him call me back,” Long Qi said. “Just say I’m an old friend from Rogge Town; he knows that.”

"Oh! Got it!"

After hanging up the Den Den Mushi, Long Qi rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. Zhou Yingxiong said with some dissatisfaction, "That kid Guan Yi, he didn't even tell me he was going on a long trip."

“He’s not a soldier, so we can’t be too strict with him.” Long Qi thought for a moment. “We don’t know when he’ll be back, so we’ll have to find someone else for now. It’s not a big problem; we have enough manpower.”

……

a few days later.

[Hit Value +3]

In the Windmill Village of the East China Sea, Guan Yi, who was practicing the Hawk Form while traversing the mountains and forests, suddenly received a notification that his life points had increased, and stopped in his tracks in surprise.

Which side is it?
Over the past six months, Guan Yi has been gradually sharing information about the laborers' gang he established in the town of Sicikono with the team leaders, and also providing them with some hearsay.

For example, there's a nice swordsmanship dojo in Seymour Village, a floating restaurant in the Sabas Sea, and some treasure legends.

This intelligence can help Guan Yi gain merit points and occasionally give him some life points.

But in the last two months, he came to Windmill Village alone and stopped contacting the team leaders. Now that he has suddenly received life points, he doesn't know which piece of information has been followed up.

"Never mind, it's only 3 o'clock, it shouldn't be anything important." Guan Yi leaped onto a tree, looking out at the sea from the highest mountain in the windmill village.

"After waiting for two months, we finally got it!"

A group of people walked onto the beach.

The boy in the lead had black hair, normal skin tone, many freckles on his cheeks, and a tattoo of 'ASCE' on his left arm, with the 'S' crossed out.

Portgas D. Ace!

Following behind were some villagers from Windmill Village, including the village chief Up, the tavern owner Makino, the bandit companions, and most importantly, Luffy!

At this time, Luffy was still very young, only 13 years old. He wore a dark blue short-sleeved shirt with the number '56' printed on it and light blue shorts, but his straw hat remained unchanged for years.

They arrived at the beach and watched Ace board a small boat, reluctant to part.

"Ace! We made a promise!" Luffy suddenly shouted.

"Ah." Ace waved to Luffy with a bright smile, "I'll set sail first, and I'll be waiting for your news at sea in four years! It's a promise, Luffy, we'll be the freest people on the sea together, and we'll fulfill our dreams together!"

"Yeah! I'm going to be the Pirate King!" Little Luffy said with his hands on his hips and a grin, "Even if it's Ace, I won't lose!"

"Hahaha..." Ace laughed heartily, waving to Luffy and everyone on the shore: "Goodbye, Luffy! Goodbye, everyone!"

Set sail and set sail!
Ace, set sail!

Guan Yi watched this scene from afar the whole time, but he certainly didn't come here to witness history.

Ace's departure to become a pirate signifies the imminent appearance of an important treasure.

Logia-type Devil Fruit: Flame-Flame Fruit!
(End of this chapter)