Chapter 424

Two days later.

Angel Island, harbor shore.

One kilometer away.

A colossal naval warship was slowly sailing in from the distant sea, parting the waves and stirring up ripples that rippled across the calm surface.

Splash!

The seawater was clear, the current melodious.

Soon after,

the warship arrived smoothly at Angel Island's harbor.

It docked,

dropped anchor,

and came to a stop.

The flag was lowered.

Thus,

the naval flag that had been hoisted high was now completely retracted.

On deck,

over seventy naval elite trainees were now eagerly excited, faces full of anticipation.

Among them,

including Smoker and Tina.

After spending a full week, they had finally reached their graduation trial destination—Angel Island!

Although the journey had encountered some setbacks, they had met the top pirate, Bai Huzi II.

But he had only delayed them for a short while.

He had caused no impact or damage to the entire warship.

"Is this where we complete our graduation trial?"

"The area where the Three-Headed Dog Pirates have recently appeared?"

"Will we find the Three-Headed Dog Pirates?"

"…"

Each trainee, brimming with curiosity and anticipation, clenched their fists, seemingly unable to wait to disembark and capture the Three-Headed Dog Pirates to complete this graduation trial.

Beside them,

Lu En stood quietly at the edge of the deck railing, observing the excited trainees with a wry expression.

The vast majority of these trainees had never killed a person.

Later,

when they encounter those ruthless pirates, he only hoped they wouldn't be so terrified they'd piss their pants.

Undeniably,

anyone who had spent a full year and a half in Zefa's training camp, no matter how weak, had inevitably been molded into a qualified naval elite warrior.

Therefore,

each of these trainees was a top-tier elite warrior.

But what they lacked was combat experience.

Experience in life-or-death battles!

Once they faced a group of ruthless pirates, they might not be able to unleash their full combat power.

Lu En felt he could already foresee this.

"In the end…"

"Not everyone carries the violent genes I do."

"Killing someone for the first time brought me no discomfort—only intense excitement and exhilaration."

Lu En shook his head and chuckled.

In comparison,

he himself seemed like a monster!

"Lu En, how's your injury?"

Zefa asked as he approached Lu En.

"Fully healed."

Lu En answered honestly.

Since handing over Bai Huzi II to Admiral Gilmi and sending him to Impel Down, two more full days had passed.

Two days ago, Lu En's injuries had already recovered about seventy to eighty percent, leaving only minor wounds.

After another two days of treatment,

his bodily injuries were essentially fully healed!

Restored to his original state,

returned to peak period condition.

In addition,

over these past few days, besides treatment, Lu En had also spent every day performing tedious, monotonous training to strengthen his power.

Although his power increase over these few days was not substantial, it had still raised his strength to a certain degree.

At the very least…

Compared to a few days ago when he fought Whitebeard's son, Weevil, his current strength was clearly several degrees stronger.

If he were to encounter Weevil again, he wouldn't end up bearing serious injuries from the fight, only managing to defeat and capture the opponent through sheer stubborn willpower in the end.

"Since your injuries have already healed, then from here on out, the personal safety of these cadets—I'll leave it to you to keep an eye on for me."

"I'll be protecting you all from the shadows."

"However…"

"I can't possibly cover every single thing, so when the time comes I'll still need you to keep an eye out."

"They are all the elite geniuses of our Marines in this era! Losing a single one would be an immeasurable loss for our Marines."

Master Zefa lowered his voice, giving Lu En earnest and weighty instructions.

Given Lu En's powerful combat strength, he naturally had no need to worry about Lu En's personal safety.

Rather, it was…

Although these cadets were quite strong, none of them had ever seen real bloodshed. Once they ran into a group of murderous, life-despising pirate scoundrels, they likely wouldn't be able to fully bring out their own strength, and would end up suffering harm at the pirates' hands.

In order to prevent this kind of situation from occurring,

Zefa naturally had to find Lu En, to protect these cadets together with him, and at the moment they faced life-and-death crises, to step in and rescue them all.

Lu En's strength was beyond doubt.

Solid, genuine Vice Admiral-level combat power!

He had even captured Whitebeard's son, that top-tier Great Pirate!

With this,

having Lu En protect these cadets didn't really pose any major problems.

"Don't worry, Teacher Zefa. I understand."

Lu En nodded.

His coming to participate in this graduation trial this time was naturally not truly for the sake of dealing with that pirate crew.

If he personally stepped in, then there'd be nothing left for Smoker and the others to do.

Those people could just freeload their way to victory!

And that would deviate from the original intent of the graduation trial, and also wouldn't be the outcome Zefa wanted.

"With you there, and with me protecting them from the shadows on top of that."

"Like this, they basically won't run into any accidents."

Zefa relaxed his tense mood.

Every single cadet here had consumed a massive amount of Marine resources to be trained.

Losing any one of them…

would be an immeasurable blow to the Marines!

Therefore.

Zefa strove to protect the personal safety of every cadet.

They could be injured,

but they absolutely could not perish in this graduation trial.

This was Zefa's bare minimum requirement.

After a long while,

Zefa's gaze swept over this group of cadets who were in high spirits. His face darkened, and he snorted coldly and bellowed: "All of you, be quiet! What kind of behavior is all this noise and chatter?"

"Are you sure you're the Marines' elite? And not some vegetable sellers at the market?"

"This graduation trial is the final assessment aimed at you!"

"It will involve whether you can successfully graduate in the end, and also involve what kind of work position you'll be assigned to within the Marines after graduation."

"Look at the way you all were just now—anyone who didn't know would think you came here specifically to sightsee. Where's even a shred of looking like you're carrying out a mission!"

"You all have truly disappointed me."

Seeing that these cadets showed not the slightest hint of tension, and instead still looked all giggly and playful, Zefa was instantly enraged.

Although it was just a graduation trial…