Chapter 261: Blood Servant Lucci

Uchiha Feiyu casually reached out his hand, and the yellow sand on the ground was immediately drawn toward him; he snapped his fingers with ease, and a flame as crimson as blood suddenly ignited.

This was the Malevolent Flame that Uchiha Feiyu had always pursued—in its initial larval state, it could be called Blood Flame or Red Flame; although it did not improve Uchiha Feiyu's strength, its temperature already exceeded that of ordinary flames.

Under the burning of the red flame, the quartz particles in the yellow sand instantly melted into pure glass, quickly forming a red glass wine goblet.

Uchiha Feiyu beckoned with his hand again, and Lucci let out a muffled groan as blood flowed from the wound on his chest, surging into the red goblet; Uchiha Feiyu opened his mouth, revealing the sharp, incomparable canine teeth of a vampire, and a drop of blood as crimson as a gemstone dripped into the goblet.

In an instant, the blood in the goblet seemed to boil, constantly churning and rolling; it only calmed down after a moment, and then Uchiha Feiyu handed the goblet to Lucci:

"Drink it, Lucci, this is your destiny!"

Lucci gave Uchiha Feiyu a strange look, feeling that this guy's actions were overly dramatic, as if he were a bit unhinged.

However, he did not care about that; there were plenty of people on the sea with problems in their heads or weird quirks—whether they were Marines, Pirates, the World Government, or even his fellow Agents, were there not many who acted like lunatics?

As long as the blood before him could effectively increase his power, that was all that mattered; he took the goblet, smelled the fragrant scent of the blood within, felt a sense of intoxication, and then, without hesitation, drank it all in one gulp.

The blood entered his throat, carrying a violent chill that suddenly surged into his stomach before spreading to his limbs and bones; Lucci trembled slightly twice, then regained his senses.

It was different; it was indeed completely different; Lucci could feel his physical strength increasing once again, just as it had when he first ate that Zoan Devil Fruit, the Cat-Cat Fruit, Model: Leopard; his physical constitution and nervous reflexes had both improved tremendously.

However, along with the increase in physical strength, a strange sense of emptiness arose in Lucci's heart, as if a hunger of void-burning was entwined within his Soul.

"From now on, you are my Blood Servant! The vampire's blood has changed you forever; you will have a series of symptoms like light-aversion and blood-thirst, but at the same time, you have also gained power close to that of a vampire."

"Turning into a bat, growing bat wings in a semi-human state, inflicting a Blood Curse on others' wounds, and absorbing blood to restore stamina and heal injuries—these are all your special abilities."

"As for the enhanced nervous reflexes, increased physical constitution, and powerful self-healing ability, those can only be considered the most basic passives."

Feeling the sunlight shining on his body, Lucci could indeed feel that sense of aversion, and as time passed, his skin also began to produce a burning pain under the sun.

However, as a Zoan Devil Fruit user, Lucci's physical constitution alone was currently much stronger than the Straw Hat Pirates' trio—Luffy's ability to win relied on explosive skills like Gear Second, while Lucci's pure physical constitution was still higher.

Relying on his powerful physical constitution, he could accurately estimate how long he could stay in the sun; at least ten-plus minutes of exposure would not cause him any adverse reactions, and exceeding this timeline would make him feel unbearable skin pain, though it would not cause any major damage to his body.

Of course, this did not mean he could never walk in the daytime again; at most, he would just need to wear a cloak or apply some special sunscreen to resist the power of the sun.

If that failed, once he learned Armament Haki, blocking the sunlight would be no problem at all.

At least in Lucci's eyes, these flaws were completely insignificant compared to the power he had gained.

"One more thing: as my subordinate, to a certain extent, you will be under my control, and at the same time, I can use your eyes to observe the outside world and initiate telepathic conversations with you."

"I had anticipated this, Lord Feiyu; from now on, I am your subordinate."

Lucci nodded, not surprised; Uchiha Feiyu's title in the World Government's intelligence was Blood Demon, and the intelligence system even analyzed that he was very likely to gain power through slaughter and blood.

Such a murderous, cold-blooded guy suddenly changing his attitude to strengthen his own power could not possibly be for the sake of doing good deeds; there must be his own interests involved.

It was just that Uchiha Feiyu had been very upfront from the beginning, and Lucci, for the sake of his own power, had chosen this path.

"Then let's return to the World Government first! With your current strength, even if you enter CP0, you won't have to start from the bottom anymore."

"While there is still time, I will teach you some Two-Color Haki; with your constitution and willpower, you should be able to awaken it in about a few days."

By then, with Two-Color Haki awakened, the Six Powers perfected, plus a Zoan Cat-Cat Fruit, this level of strength would be at least that of a Marine Vice Admiral, and with the Blood Servant ability bonus, he could mix into the upper echelons anywhere.

Lucci nodded; through the battle just now, he also understood Uchiha Feiyu's strength, and teaching him was absolutely more than enough.

In fact, with Lucci's talent, he should have come into contact with Two-Color Haki long ago; in the manga, it was a disadvantage of appearing too early with incomplete settings, but now in this real world, if Lucci still did not know Two-Color Haki, it could only be blamed on his idiot superior Spandam, who was jealous of talent.

In just two days, Lucci had already awakened Two-Color Haki, and even the other CP9 Agents had successively possessed the power of Haki within a week.

Those who could become CP9 Agents, even if many were there through connections, certainly did not lack talent; coupled with their existing foundation, such results were not surprising.

In fact, having connections did not mean being weak; bloodlines in the One Piece World indeed held power, and children born to strong people generally did not lack talent; although there were extreme cases like Charlotte Linlin, where ordinary people gave birth to monsters, it was more common for the descendants of the strong to become strong more easily.

After everyone awakened Two-Color Haki, the CP9 Agents' strength undoubtedly reached a higher level, and afterward, these Agents returned to the World Government, and Uchiha Feiyu also gained some eyes and ears within the World Government.

However, the most important thing was that through these Agents, he could exert some influence on the World Government—for example, for the upcoming Summit War, Uchiha Feiyu managed to secure a spot.

Although these Agents were not the ones making decisions, it was not troublesome to influence the World Government to make such a decision from the sidelines; after all, the World Government had already dragged the Seven Warlords of the Sea to participate in the Summit War, so dragging over a Blood Demon with astonishing Power Level was not a normal thing?

As for the reward, it was that Alabasta would not need to pay the Heavenly Tribute next year; it had to be said that the World Government's calculations were quite shrewd; if their plan worked, being able to win over a combat force as powerful as Uchiha Feiyu with just money was definitely a bargain.

In the palace of Alabasta, Uchiha Feiyu looked at the news brought by the News Coo today, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

What was published in the newspaper was not the news that Ace was about to be executed, but that the Straw Hat Pirates had beaten up a Celestial Dragon, and then a group of Pirates on the Sabaody Archipelago had been plowed by Marine Admiral Kizaru.

However, although the newspaper wrote that the Pirates were easily defeated by the Marine Admiral and sent to Impel Down, and the culprits, the Straw Hat Pirates, were "missing" and "highly likely dead" under the pursuit of the Marine Admiral.

But Uchiha Feiyu knew very well that Kizaru's whole operation, apart from killing a bunch of small fry, did not solve a single main target, perfectly embodying the self-cultivation of a slacker.

Although he contributed the classic scenes of saying "How scary" while kicking a Supernova, it was a pity that all the Supernovas eventually escaped; the water-releasing was so insane that it made one wonder if this guy was an undercover actor.

It was thanks to Kizaru releasing water; otherwise, if it had been Akainu, he would not have said any nonsense at all, and with one Great Eruption, let alone the Straw Hat Pirates, it was estimated that except for a certain Marine undercover, all the other Supernovas would have died.

"After the Sabaody Archipelago incident, it should be the Summit War! With the help of Lucci and those Agents, I should have no problem participating in the Summit War now, but if I want to go to Impel Down... perhaps I should find a way to hitch a ride on Blackbeard's ship?"

Whether it was Impel Down or Marine Headquarters, they were not only heavily guarded but also had a certain level of aerial defense capability, so even Uchiha Feiyu's Blood Escape would be difficult to infiltrate, which was why he had to find a way to join this war.

Only by having the status of a Marine ally could Uchiha Feiyu be guaranteed to arrive at Marine Headquarters and Impel Down safely, and with his current strength, he did not have the possibility of steamrolling the entire Marine force.

"Huh, it's actually news about Straw Hat! Those guys actually dared to hit a Celestial Dragon!"

Nami's crisp voice rang out, her face full of surprise:

"These thieves who stole the Going Merry are really quite capable!"

Uchiha Feiyu: "..."

Speaking of which, the Going Merry should have been stolen by us first, when did the Straw Hat crew become the thieves?

Although Uchiha Feiyu's bottom line was unfathomable, when it came to confusing right and wrong, Nami, you really are far superior to me!

"Truly worthy of being Garp's grandson, he didn't lose face for us East Blue people!"

Watching Nami's look of sharing the honor, Uchiha Feiyu rolled his eyes:

"I don't see anything glorious about this."

"Daring to beat a Celestial Dragon, don't you think Straw Hat is very courageous?"

"Uh... that guy's various actions have already exceeded the scope of courage, right?"

Uchiha Feiyu recalled Luffy's great achievements and had to admit that this Straw Hat basically did not know what fear was.

In the original work, when this guy was taken to the guillotine by Buggy, after he realized it, he just smiled without any gloom, facing death calmly; from this point alone, this guy's courage was already overflowing, exceeding the sky.

It's just that they don't have much of a brain... of course, it is also very difficult for a truly intelligent person to do something so "courageous."

"With the Sabaody Archipelago being stirred up by that Straw Hat kid, there probably won't be any Celestial Dragons there for a while. Since I'm heading to Marine Headquarters soon, I might as well do some harvesting there."

As for those people in the lawless zone of the Sabaody Archipelago, aside from the slaves who were captured, killing everyone else might be a bit unjust, but killing ninety percent of them would definitely leave some who slipped through the net; it is also a good place for harvesting.

Originally, Uchiha Feiyu was wary of those idiot Celestial Dragons and that old guy Rayleigh, so he never made a move there, but now that Luffy has caused such a scene, neither the Celestial Dragons nor Rayleigh can possibly stay on the Sabaody Archipelago anymore, so Uchiha Feiyu cannot be blamed for being impolite.

Two days later, a fleet of merchant ships from Alabasta arrived at the Sabaody Archipelago, and Uchiha Feiyu slowly walked off the deck.

Only after Uchiha Feiyu got off the ship did the group of people on the merchant ships breathe a sigh of relief, even though Uchiha Feiyu hadn't done anything along the way, having merely followed this group of merchant ships that were heading the same way to the Sabaody Archipelago.

However, his reputation in Alabasta is now such that it is almost enough to stop children from crying at night; during the voyage these past few days, many crew members dreamed at night that they had been slashed into a Dried Corpse.

Feeling the awe and relief coming from the crew members behind him, Uchiha Feiyu didn't care much; the more his terrifying reputation spread, the faster his Devil Fruit would progress, and he actually wished that everyone on the sea would be in awe of him!

His Observation Haki swept across the Sabaody Archipelago; already at the level of the world's top-tier, in an instant, he felt the "wailing" sounds from the countless darknesses on this island.

The Vampire Fruit allowed Uchiha Feiyu's Observation Haki to develop more toward the spiritual aspect; if it were an ordinary person, under the feedback of such Observation Haki, they might turn into a compassionate saint, or perhaps an extreme Uchiha who does not trust humanity.

However, Uchiha Feiyu was different; hearing the negative will emitted by those souls, a smile instead appeared at the corners of his mouth.

"Tsk tsk tsk, what a terrifying den of iniquity! It is simply—a paradise on earth for someone like me!"

"It seems coming to the Sabaody Archipelago this time was the right choice; I estimate I can harvest tens of thousands of leeks!"

"But I must be quick, otherwise the impact caused will be too great, and if it affects my future plans, that would be terrible."

Walking slowly through the port, without attracting anyone's attention, Uchiha Feiyu's figure gradually disappeared, turning into a flock of bats that flew into the sky.

Subsequently, as if this flock of bats had sensed something, they each chose a direction and scattered; a moment later, sounds of terror and chaos erupted from the lawless zone of the Sabaody Archipelago.

(End of this chapter)