Chapter 183: Devil Fruit Will
“It’s said to not taste good.” Meng Huaifeng reminded hesitantly, though it probably wouldn’t help.
“How bad can it taste? No one’s eaten it before, so let’s at least try it.” March 7th said nonchalantly.
“Huai Feng, not having eaten it means you have no say, people’s tastes vary, so don’t just believe what others say.” Himeko said.
“Whether it tastes good or not isn’t important, what’s important is that after leaving this world, we probably won’t get to eat it again.” Dan Heng said.
“So, even if it doesn’t taste good, it doesn’t matter, at least we’ll know its real taste.” Zhu Zhuqing said.
Meng Huaifeng shrugged, alright, he knew it would be like this.
Because even he himself wanted to try it.
You can’t just say it’s bad and call it bad, he needed to know exactly how bad it was.
Su Xiaoli took out a fruit knife, received the Devil Fruit from Xing, cut it into small pieces, then thoughtfully skewered them with toothpicks and placed them on a plate.
“A Xing, you eat first.” Meng Huaifeng said.
Xing was the one who wanted to gain the Devil Fruit Ability, so the first bite had to be hers.
Xing picked a large piece and stuffed it into her mouth with an ‘ah woo’.
“Chew~”
Xing’s mouth moved once and then stopped, her eye corner and eyebrows starting to twitch continuously.
“Yo, looks like it tastes great, look at A Xing’s eyebrows dancing from how delicious it is.” Meng Huaifeng said sarcastically with a laugh.
Everyone couldn’t help but chuckle, this clearly didn’t taste good at all.
“Gulp.”
Xing stopped chewing and swallowed it in one gulp, choking to the point of slightly rolling her eyes.
At the same time, Xing clearly felt a special energy attaching to her soul.
It felt a bit uncomfortable, like something had landed on her body, making her want to brush it off casually.
Xing held back, easy to wipe off, but then the Devil Fruit Ability would be gone too.
“My evaluation is, average, not as good as Sister Himeko’s coffee.” Xing said with furrowed brows.
Himeko smiled satisfiedly, the others understood, meaning it wasn’t as bad as Himeko’s coffee.
That made it no problem, they could all stomach the coffee.
“So did you gain the ability?” March 7th asked.
“I did.” Xing nodded.
Only then did March 7th confidently fork a piece of fruit into her mouth.
The others also started tasting, Meng Huaifeng picking the smallest piece.
Himeko’s coffee had greatly improved the Train Crew’s tolerance.
The supposedly extremely bad-tasting Devil Fruit only made Meng Huaifeng furrow his brows for a moment.
“Urp~”
Su Xiaoli couldn’t help but dry heave, diagnosed as not having drunk enough of Himeko’s coffee, needs more training.
“The taste is pretty good, very unique, but indeed not as good as my coffee.” Himeko said after savoring it carefully.
Meng Huaifeng looked at Himeko with a complicated expression, as expected, Sister Himeko’s taste buds were different from theirs.
“Roar!”
Xing had already activated the Cerberus Fruit’s half-beast form, her entire body turning nearly three meters tall, her build several times bulkier.
A circle of tall collar like a formal suit grew from the back of her neck, and a single horn sprouted from her forehead.
“So ugly!” March 7th looked at Xing with a face full of disgust.
Xing didn’t care at all about March 7th’s evaluation, curiously moving her body, touching her horn and collar.
“How much did your power improve?” Dan Heng asked.
Xing scratched her head, puzzled: “Seems like, no improvement, uh, wait, a little bit, kinda hard to feel.”
“So, aside from turning into an ugly dragon, it’s actually not that useful?” Meng Huaifeng said.
“Wait, the Devil Fruit Will has awakened, wants to merge with me.” Xing slightly closed her eyes.
Powerful soul power instantly shattered this will into pieces, the broken fragmented soul gradually dissipating into the air, leaving only pure Devil Fruit Ability.
Without that chaotic will, Xing felt much more at ease, like the difference between a drop of sewage landing on her versus a drop of pure water.
After all, it was an external power directly bestowed, ordinary people wouldn’t feel it, but at a certain strength level, it could be clearly sensed.
No way around this, could only slowly fuse and get used to it.
“Fun.” Xing opened her eyes again and answered.
“If it were a functional Devil Fruit, it might be somewhat useful to us.” Dan Heng said.
“Right, is there a Mobile Phone Devil Fruit?” Xing’s eyes lit up, she’d been coveting Meng Huaifeng’s Mobile Phone Martial Spirit for a long time, if she could have one too…
“Don’t know, even if there is, where to find it in the vast sea?” Meng Huaifeng said.
“Don’t you have the Art of Heavenly Inquiry? Search quick, okay?” Xing grabbed Meng Huaifeng’s arm expectantly.
Meng Huaifeng pushed Xing away in disgust: “Don’t make that expression in this form, it’s a bit hard to look at.”
“Hehe.” Xing grinned foolishly.
Meng Huaifeng used the replica Art of Heavenly Inquiry, searching the entire Pirate World.
“None.” In less than a minute, Meng Huaifeng shook his head.
Xing was a bit disappointed.
“Change back quick, you’re ugly as hell.” March 7th said to Xing.
“Wait, seems like there’s also a full transformation form, let me try it.” Xing said.
“Not on the ship.” Meng Huaifeng hurriedly said.
But Meng Huaifeng had spoken too late, Xing had already turned into a massive Cerberus.
Dan Heng was quick, before Xing fully transformed, he kicked her into the sea.
Xing completed the transformation mid-air, becoming a true Cerberus.
The Cerberus, normally dozens of meters in size, due to Xing’s powerful strength, grew to thousands of meters!
This completely exceeded the limits of Devil Fruit Ability!
“Boom!”
Xing’s massive body crashed into the sea, stirring up hundreds of meters of waves.
Meng Huaifeng deployed a Firewall to protect Justice from the Sky.
Dan Heng flicked his sleeve, the massive waves slowly calming without damaging the nearby small islands in the sea domain.
“A Xing! You guy, be more steady for this lady!” March 7th jumped in anger, shouting at Xing in the sea.
Himeko glanced sideways, vaguely remembering at the space station, worrying if Little March had caused trouble for everyone.
“Sorry, I didn’t expect it to get so big.” Xing said standing in the sea.
“How does it feel in the sea?” Meng Huaifeng asked.
“Feels a bit annoying, otherwise nothing.” Xing said, about the same degree as a cat hating baths.
“Looks like the so-called Seastone Factor in the sea has too weak a restraint on A Xing, almost negligible.” Himeko said.
Walking on two legs was normal, now crawling on four was a novel experience that excited Xing greatly.
The seabed in this sea domain wasn’t deep, for the thousands-of-meters-tall Xing, it only came up to her four legs.
Xing ran back and forth in the sea like frolicking, like an off-leash husky.
Occasionally stepping into a sea trench, stumbling into a faceplant, then getting up to run again.
Waves dozens of meters high spread outward with Xing’s antics, but were calmed by Dan Heng not far out.
After more than half an hour, Xing finally had enough fun and changed back to human form.
Then Xing expelled the fruit ability attached to her soul.
Xing bound it with Pioneer Power, slapped it into a fruit, and the Cerberus form Devil Fruit reappeared.
It had clearly become the most unremarkable Devil Fruit among countless in the Pirate World.
“Had enough fun?” March 7th rolled her eyes at Xing.
“Hehe.” Xing smiled embarrassedly and put the Devil Fruit back on the table.
“Everyone has already cleaned up the ship, and you’ve had your fun too?” Himeko said kindly.
Xing stiffened, oh no, forgot about that.
“Replacing everyone’s one day of deck cleaning work, no problem, right?” Himeko asked.
“No problem, Sister Himeko.” Xing said obediently.
“Congrats, promoted to intern.” Meng Huaifeng said.
Xing adjusted her Captain’s Hat, what intern? Who says a captain can’t clean the deck personally?
“Huai Feng, go back to Windmill Village.” Himeko said to Meng Huaifeng again.
“Mm.” Meng Huaifeng nodded.
Currently in the Train Crew, he was the most skilled with mental souls.
“What to do back at Windmill Village?” March 7th asked.
“Little Luffy ate a Devil Fruit too, the soul will inside might affect him.” Himeko said, that was a rare seedling of a Pioneer Destiny pathfinder.
If Luffy’s own personality changed and he didn’t step onto the Pioneer path, Himeko wouldn’t force it.
But if external reasons forcibly influenced his personality and deviated him from Pioneer, Himeko couldn’t tolerate that.
“Right.” March 7th suddenly remembered.
Meng Huaifeng activated Windmill Village’s Realm Anchor and returned to Windmill Village.
Didn’t find Luffy in Windmill Village, so probably thrown to Dadan the bandit by Garp.
Because of the Train Crew, Luffy, Ace, and Sabo met a few days early.
And they underwent Garp’s devil training together.
Seeing the younger Luffy endure such brutal training.
Ace developed some camaraderie with Luffy from shared hardship.
This counted as having been through the trenches together, their trio’s relationship was temporarily decent.
“Rules are meant to be broken!”
Ace’s steel pipe smashed hard onto Garp, but Garp didn’t budge, instead punching Ace flying.
“Rubber, rubber!” Luffy wound up his arm using the bounce to smash heavily toward Garp’s head.
“Smack!”
Garp caught Luffy’s fist, spun him a few times in the air and threw him out, not looking at all like his own grandson.
Luckily Luffy’s rubber physique could resist most blunt damage, or he’d be dead or crippled.
Luffy crashed hard into a tree, his body stretching and wrapping around it several times, then bouncing back.
“Luffy.”
Just as he got up to charge again, a familiar voice sounded behind, Luffy turned excitedly.
“Big Brother Huai Feng! You’re back? Where are the other brothers and sisters?”
“Came back to check on you, just me.” Meng Huaifeng said.
Xing had taught her ultimate move to the other two kids, should he teach Luffy something too?
But what to teach?
Luffy was the type whose brain missed a few screws, action always before thought.
But most of what he knew required brains and energy.
This world’s Haki had poor malleability, might not be usable…
Ace and Sabo watched quietly from the side, they were closer to Xing, hadn’t spoken much with Meng Huaifeng.
“Meng kid, wanna spar?” Garp said overconfidently.
A few days without a beating, even knowing he wasn’t a match, Garp couldn’t resist the itch.
“Later, how has Luffy been these days?” Meng Huaifeng asked.
“Beaten by the stinky old man every day, hurts so much, and he torments us non-stop, Big Brother Huai Feng, help us teach this Great Demon King a lesson!” Luffy whined pitifully.
“Hey, brat, Grandpa’s doing this to make you stronger.” Garp said displeased, even the Navy elite training camp wanted his training and he wasn’t willing, yet they complained.
Meng Huaifeng gauged Garp’s training process these days from the surroundings: cliff bungee, beast fights, weighted runs, beaten by Armament Haki-wrapped fists, then gorging meat after… his brows twitched wildly.
“Uncle Garp, isn’t that a bit harsh?”
“Harsh? Look at the progress, as expected of my grandson.” Garp laughed heartily.
Meng Huaifeng ignored the old guy and checked Luffy’s soul.
Rubber-Rubber Fruit, actually the Nika Fruit, legend says it consciously evades the World Government’s search, seeking its own suitable host.
Sure enough, the Devil Fruit Will attached to Luffy’s soul was overly active, even without fruit awakening, it was in a half-revived state.
If it truly awakened and fused, strength would definitely surge.
But then, would it be Luffy himself, or Sun God Nika or Joy Boy? Hard to say.
Just as Meng Huaifeng was about to shatter the Nika Fruit’s will, inspiration struck, and he copied the fruit ability development experience contained in the will.
Then, instead of crudely shattering the will, he erased it, retaining the fragmented soul that carried the will.
He then copied the pure fruit ability development experience into the pure fragmented soul.
This created a piece of experience soul without special will.
This way, awakening wouldn’t be influenced by the Devil Fruit’s contained will, and strength could still greatly improve.
Meng Huaifeng’s operations went unnoticed by Luffy, who was still complaining about Garp’s brutality.
Meng Huaifeng also decided what to teach Luffy, transmitting the Xing version of Heaven and Earth Manifestation into Luffy’s mind.
Nika Fruit could inflate into a giant itself, Heaven and Earth Manifestation should be quite compatible.
Really, his other abilities weren’t suitable for Luffy either.
Even if Haki couldn’t meet Heaven and Earth Manifestation’s requirements, it should help Luffy develop Gear One and Gear Two.
Should… right?
Meng Huaifeng grew concerned about Luffy’s intelligence.
At Garp’s strong insistence, Meng Huaifeng sparred with Garp again.
Ace, Sabo, Luffy cheered wildly for Meng Huaifeng, infuriating Garp.
After Meng Huaifeng won, the three looked at him with adoration, completely unaware.
Tomorrow awaited even harsher training.
Still young, can’t see reality.
Having resolved Luffy’s hidden worry, Meng Huaifeng teleported back to the ship.
Justice from the Sky accelerated its voyage, passing several islands in a few days.
East Blue lived up to being the weakest sea, especially islands near Windmill Village.
With Garp’s back-and-forth sweeps, the Train Crew had been at sea so long without encountering a single pirate.
Another island appeared ahead, the name making Meng Huaifeng look up slightly.
“Ahead is Shells Town, unlike the previous islands, Shells Town is a Naval Base, we can see what this world’s Navy is like. Those interested can go ashore.” Himeko said.
