Chapter 11

The plates they had been holding in their hands dropped to the ground and shattered into pieces.

Food flew everywhere,

shards of cracked plates,

scattered about in complete disorder.

The house, which had been noisy and lively a moment ago, fell deathly silent in an instant.

Not a single sound!

Looking in every direction,

one after another, every single member of the Dadan family had collapsed to the ground without exception, their eyes rolled back, as if struck by some terrifying mental shock that had robbed their bodies of consciousness and thought.

At the scene,

only one person remained capable of keeping a clear mind.

That was…

Dadan!

"Th-this is…"

Dadan's throat went dry; the beast thigh meat gripped in her right hand froze mid-air.

Her eyes bulged wide, and she stared dumbstruck at this sudden, astonishing turn of events.

She never could have imagined…

that when everything had been perfectly fine,

all of a sudden, such an earth-shattering upheaval would descend upon this place!

Gululu!

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva without thinking, an utterly terrifying guess rose in Dadan's mind.

It was something she had, many years ago…

once happened to overhear—a piece of information she had kept buried deep in her mind ever since.

Never expected.

On this day,

the memory buried in her mind had been stirred.

"N-no way?"

"That terrifyingly powerful force just now…"

"Is this Conqueror's Haki?!"

Dadan's lips trembled slightly, her face filled with shock.

"How could it be?!"

"How could this be Conqueror's Haki?"

"Who is it?!"

"Said to appear in only one out of a million people—the potential of a king. How could it appear here?"

"Just who is He Fangshensheng?"

Dadan forcibly suppressed the terror welling inside her, braced both hands on the wooden table beside her, and hauled her stout, bulky frame upright; her eyes, brimming with dread, stared toward a certain direction.

She could feel it.

That world-shaking, terrifying aura had erupted from that direction.

"Is it Ace?"

The thought had barely surfaced in her mind before she crushed it at once.

Then,

dragging a heavy load, she stepped forward one pace at a time.

After a short while,

leaping over the fallen members of the Dadan family strewn across the ground, Dadan arrived at the narrow corridor and saw Ace, who was lying on the floor unconscious.

Besides the fainted Ace, there were also countless scattered meals around him, and plates shattered into countless fragments.

Obviously.

Ace had also been knocked out.

Stunned into a dead faint by that terrifying aura.

"It's not Ace!"

"In other words…"

Seeing the unconscious Ace, Dadan's throat went dry; in her heart she could already determine the final truth.

Shifting her gaze from the unconscious Ace, she looked toward the room door just ahead and to her side.

Gululu!

Unable to stop herself from swallowing a mouthful of saliva, at this moment, the truth was on the verge of bursting out of her heart.

"I-it's him!"

"Besides him, there isn't a second person here who possesses such potential and talent."

"And he, who carries the bloodline of the Navy hero Captain Kapu…"

"Sure enough, he was born with the potential of a king—one that appears in only one out of a million!"

"It's just that I never could have imagined."

"At such a tender age… he actually awakened Conqueror's Haki!"

Dadan's mind was shaken to its core.

GLOSSARY: 【"Dadan", "Dadan family", "Ace", "Captain Kapu", "He Fangshensheng", "Conqueror's Haki"】

The more she thought, the more confused her heart became.

Huh!

Huh!

Constantly adjusting her breath, Dadan forced down her shock and fear, spun around swiftly, and hurried out of the narrow corridor.

She dragged her bulky body quickly to the telephone worm beside the corner of the hall.

Her footsteps came to a sudden halt.

She raised her right hand,

With her trembling right hand, she slowly picked up the telephone worm on the table.

Then,

Dialed!

……

Booroo booroo~

The telephone worm's distinctive cry echoed through the large house.

This was a very simple and clean house, located in Windmill Village, Captain Kapu's residence.

It was deep into the night.

The house remained brightly lit.

Golden flames flickered, illuminating the surroundings and dispelling the deathly silence and darkness of night.

Captain Kapu, just out of the bath, still had droplets in his hair; gray-white mist rose from his entire body, steaming hot, as if he were in a sauna.

Bare-chested, his muscular contours were sharply defined.

He radiated an overwhelming sense of brute strength.

Even as he neared old age, Captain Kapu's bulging muscles had never receded an inch, appearing as unbreakable as Jin Gangshi.

Every muscle on his body seemed to contain terrifying power.

When he heard the telephone worm's cry outside,

Captain Kapu raised an eyebrow, his expression slightly puzzled.

"So late…"

"Who could be looking for me?"

"Could it be that old fool, Zhan Guo?"