Chapter 303: Welcome to the Hell of the Weak!

Everyone looked at the Cavendish before them and felt he was utterly unfamiliar.

The man who once regarded elegance as everything would absolutely never engage in cultivation, a practice having nothing whatsoever to do with grace and beauty.

Yet the current Cavendish had not only begun to cultivate diligently but was becoming increasingly obsessed with it.

"Captain!"

"Have you not realized?!"

"You..."

Cavendish's second-in-command, Gao, had intended to use words to awaken Cavendish's reason, but unexpectedly, the latter directly interrupted him.

"Of course I have realized!"

"Gao!"

"My former self was truly too childish!"

Cavendish lowered his gaze to look at his own palms; those fingers, once as soft and tender as a young girl's, were now not only covered in blisters but had become much rougher.

Had it been his former self, he would certainly have immediately applied skincare products, carefully maintaining them to ensure every inch of his skin remained flawless.

Recalling his former self, Cavendish smiled with disdain.

Fortunately, he had boarded Gao Wen's ship.

Here, he had encountered Jin, Zoro, Chopper, Law, and a host of other ascetics challenging the limits of the self, finding truth within them.

Festering blisters on the palms, large patches of bruising across the body, pain akin to torn muscles...

"Is this ugly?!"

"Of course not!"

"This is proof of the strong!"

"Power is truth; strength is elegance!"

"When you defeat your opponent on the arena with an overwhelming force that crushes all before it and claim the laurel crown,"

"all the spectators will rise to cheer for you, and the front-page headlines of every newspaper and magazine will feature your majestic figure."

"And the foundation of all this is your extremely powerful strength!"

Ignoring the pain, Cavendish clenched his fists tight; upon his delicate face appeared a ferocity and madness unfamiliar to everyone, with bulging blue veins even visible at the corners of his eyes:

"I have already set foot on the path leading to truth, while you all..."

Cavendish scanned the circle, seeing only faces filled with weakness, pitifulness, and helplessness, which made him even more furious.

"Weak! Weak! Weak!"

"To establish a foothold on this sea, to gain status on Knight Gao Wen's ship, only by wagering one's life on cultivation is there even a sliver of possibility to achieve it."

"Therefore..."

"Starting tomorrow, you will all cultivate alongside me!"

"I shall personally supervise!"

As his voice landed,

Cavendish turned and departed.

Recalling the day's cultivation, he felt there were several places on his body that had not been trained thoroughly enough.

He prepared to return to the beach to add a few more hours to his regimen.

Creak~!

The cabin door was pushed open.

Chopper, Bepo, Zoro, Law, and others, who had already begun warming up, turned their heads; seeing it was Cavendish, they all exchanged knowing smiles.

Everything was understood without words.

Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night...

Whether Cavendish could sleep tonight was still uncertain, but the group of pirates currently standing guard outside his door, still looking completely bewildered, were definitely destined not to sleep.

"The Captain has gone mad!"

"My lord Gao, what should we do now?!"

Recalling Cavendish's nearly manic appearance just moments ago, everyone shivered and turned their gazes toward Cavendish's former second-in-command, Gao.

With Cavendish now clearly seriously ill, Gao, as the second-in-command of the Beautiful Pirates, naturally became the mainstay for everyone.

However, he could not immediately find a solution.

He could only remain silent.

Gradually,

someone, pressured by the situation, began to harbor thoughts of retreat:

"Should we just abandon the Captain?!"

"Anyway, with his strength, he can still get by quite well on this ship."

"But for us, that kind of training, comparable to hard labor—no, a hundred or a thousand times worse than hard labor—will be fatal!"

"I don't want to die!"

Upon these words, everyone immediately distanced themselves from him, casting contemptuous glances, ashamed to be associated with him.

"Do you really think that with our strength, we could escape from under the noses of those monsters in the Gao Wen Pirates?!"

"Even the Captain possesses no power of resistance against those few monsters!"

"The reason I asked that was merely because..."

Gao did not continue speaking.

In truth, he held no hope for escape; originally, he had also prepared to use himself as bait in exchange for Cavendish's freedom.

But this maneuver would be impossible without Cavendish's cooperation.

He scanned the circle, facing the panicked face of that pirate, and reminded them:

"Don't forget."

"We are all criminals of the Brucia Kingdom; it was Lord Cavendish who gave us a second life."

"For now, we can only take it one step at a time; when the right moment arrives, we will restore Lord Cavendish's sanity."

A bald pirate paced uneasily, his heart still filled with apprehension:

"Then what about our cultivation afterward?!"

"I don't want to die, nor do I want to become like Lord Cavendish is now."

"That is too terrifying; it's as if the very soul has been polluted!"

The others nodded repeatedly; they could not imagine what had happened to Cavendish to cause such a drastic change in personality, as if even his very soul had been twisted!

"Captain Cavendish... is he really still the captain we knew?!"

"Becoming a cultivation maniac, that kind of thing really... really cannot happen..."

Mentioning Cavendish's sudden transformation, even Gao couldn't help but swallow hard, feeling an overwhelming sense of eeriness.

But he knew even more clearly that, at this moment, the only path before him was this one.

A sleepless night passed.

Blinding sunlight gradually streamed through the portholes, striking the faces of the crowd in the corridor.

Gao, groggy and half-asleep, opened his eyes to see Cavendish wearing a look of disappointment.

"Captain..."

Cavendish frowned and said:

"You should call me Lord Cavendish now; the captain of this pirate crew is, and will only ever be, the Knight Gao Wen, and you are too lax, Gao."

"If the enemy just now had wanted to take your lives, they would only have needed to throw a single bomb into the crowd to accomplish it."

Having said this, Cavendish woke everyone up.

Looking at the faces filled with fear, it was obvious they hadn't taken his words from yesterday to heart.

Cavendish shook his head in disappointment, yet unwilling to give up on these former companions, he spoke:

"Rest assured."

"People are different from one another; your constitutions cannot compare to mine, let alone to the elites within the Gao Wen Pirate Crew."

"Therefore, your cultivation regimen will consist solely of the most basic long-distance running."

The crowd immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Sailing at sea is a physical endeavor; everyone present had once been Cavendish's subordinates,

and even if their physical fitness did not match those top-tier monsters of the New World, it still far surpassed that of ordinary people—mere long-distance running...

"Just this kind of long-distance running?!"

A few minutes later.

On the beach.

Gao and the others were bound with nearly a hundred jin of sandbags, standing on completely wet sand that formed a deep pit with every step.

Not to mention the constant battering of the waves; getting their clothes wet was the least of it, what was truly life-threatening was that once the sandbags became soaked, their weight would instantly skyrocket!

Feeling the burden on their bodies and looking at the endless stretch of beach, everyone momentarily wore expressions as grief-stricken as if attending a funeral.

With no other choice, they ran!

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

On the beach.

A chaotic chorus of running footsteps rang out everywhere.

The pirates who had once served under Cavendish began running toward the rising sun, squeezing every ounce of their body's potential.

Seeing this, Cavendish also began jogging alongside them.

Yet with every step he took, the weighted blocks on his body clanked loudly, and the footprints he left in the sand sank deep to his ankles.

Clearly, the weights Cavendish bore were far heavier than those of anyone else!

On the deck.

Rayleigh's coating work had not yet begun; he sat nearby, leisurely sipping a small drink.

Watching Gao and the others on the beach, then glancing at Beipo and the rest nearby whose faces were filled with fanaticism, their spirits seemingly gone awry, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

"Indeed, even within the Gao Wen Pirate Crew, there are quite a few normal people."

"Not everyone is a fitness maniac with muscles on the brain!"

Just as he was speaking,

Rayleigh felt a strange gaze fall upon him; turning his head, he saw Gao Wen wearing an expressionless face.

Talking behind someone's back only to be caught by the person themselves—even with Rayleigh's thick skin, he momentarily found it hard to maintain his composure.

He offered an awkward smile, raised his hand to shake the wine flask, and then, with absolutely no sense of shame, began drinking again.

As for this, Gao Wen couldn't be bothered to pay it any mind.

The coating work was nearing its end; at most two or three more days would be needed to finish it, so this little bit of time made no difference.

After all, Rayleigh was not his subordinate, so it wouldn't do to exploit him too harshly; if he wanted to slack off, then let him slack off.

Very soon.

The group's stamina began to run dry, and their footsteps slowed.

Some with slightly poorer endurance were already gasping heavily, falling behind the main contingent.

Seeing this, Cavendish couldn't help but speak up to encourage them:

"Once you surpass your own limits and experience that unimaginable sensation, once you realize the wonder of cultivation, you will thank yourselves for working so hard right now!"

Yet Cavendish's words produced the exact opposite effect.

Looking at the twisted expression on his face, everyone felt a chill run through their bodies, thinking inwardly:

That kind of thing is absolutely, absolutely not allowed!

Time passed.

The group's stamina neared its limit, and their footsteps gradually slowed again.

Gao, leading the way, seeing the situation, finally could not bear it:

"Captain, if they keep running like this, their bodies won't be able to hold out..."

Cavendish remained unshaken:

"Believe in yourselves; you can do it!"

"Take one more step beyond your limits, and you will experience that feeling of standing atop the clouds!"

Gao sighed inwardly.

He assumed Cavendish had lost his reason due to recent cultivation, mistakenly believing everyone possessed a superhuman physique just like him.

But unexpectedly,

in the next instant, the bald pirate's steps suddenly halted; his eyes glazed over as he was about to collapse, yet he steadied himself at the very last moment.

Boom!

He stomped a large pit into the beach, feeling an indescribable power surge forth from within his body once more!

"What's happening? My body feels so light; am I dying?!"

Instinctively thinking he was dying from exhaustion, he looked back only to find everyone staring at him in astonishment.

So what the Captain said is true? He didn't lie to me?!

He tried to move his legs; the sandbags on his body remained heavy, yet power seemed to well up endlessly from within, supporting this body that had long neared its limit, taking one step... and another!

Until finally,

the bald pirate completely ran out of strength and collapsed onto the beach.

Struggling to his feet, he raised his eyes to meet Cavendish's approving gaze:

"Welcome to the hell of the weak!"

"Rookie!"

"Yes, Cap... no, my lord Cavendish!"

The bald pirate licked his lips.

Although it lasted only an instant, he had thoroughly experienced the feeling of standing atop the clouds that Cavendish had described.

His body became as light as a feather, with new power surging from every pore, pushing him to surpass his own limits!

One more time!

Just once!

Silently repeating this in his heart, the bald pirate needed no urging from Cavendish; he voluntarily broke into a run along the beach, instantly leaving the others far behind.

At this very moment,

an expression identical to Cavendish's appeared on his face as well...

Manic, obsessed!

As if possessed by an evil spirit!

"Damn it, that fellow Arnold was so afraid yesterday of dying in this cultivation that rivals corvée labor, yet today he..."

Gao could not understand the scene before him, but he could perceive that something extraordinary must have happened to the bald pirate, Arnold!

The same kind of change that happened to Cavendish back then!

The cultivation continued.

With Cavendish driving them from behind, even as they neared their limits, no one dared slack off in the slightest!

Very soon,

a second, a third, a fourth...

more and more pirates who surpassed their own limits and squeezed out new power emerged.

The expressions on everyone's faces shifted from initial shock to numbness, and finally, when the change befell them, instantly turned fanatic...

"To think there is so much power hidden within this frail body!"

"This feeling; even if a hundred naked women were laid out before me, they couldn't compare!"

"Do it again! Just once!"

Gradually,

the crowd began to grow chaotic, though differently from before when they had faltered due to exhaustion.

They scrambled over one another, sprinting across the beach solely to feel that sensation of surpassing their limits once more, and more and more people entered that state.

Until finally, even Gao felt it: the extreme pleasure brought by surpassing his body's limits and the frantic secretion of dopamine in his brain!

"So thrilling!"

By the time the group completed their first lap around Forest No. 013, it was already past noon.

Standing on the deck, leisurely applying plating to the Lionheart Knight Ship, Lei Li was drawn by the commotion in the distance and couldn't help but look up.

All at once, a huge mob of pirates with frenzied expressions came sprinting wildly from the distant beach!

Their footsteps were scattered and chaotic, their bodies trembling from exhaustion, yet their eyes showed such utter delight!

"Hm?!"

"Aren't all the officers of Gao Wen's crew cultivating near the Lionheart Knight Ship?!"

Lei Li instinctively mistook the people running over from afar for the already mad Xiang Keluo and the others, but when he looked closely, he spotted Cavendish along with a crowd of unfamiliar faces.

Clang!

The hammer in Lei Li's hand dropped to the ground.

"Wait a minute, aren't these the newcomers who were still somewhat sane this morning? How did they go this crazy in just one morning?!"

Realizing this, Lei Li raised a hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, and his movements suddenly became much more brisk and efficient.

The wind here is a bit strong; I'd better finish this job early, or else I'll end up looking like that mess...

I mean, it would be bad to delay Gao Wen's crew from setting sail, after all, I'm not someone without professional ethics.

(End of Chapter)