Chapter 40: Five Months Later

Time flew by during this period of arduous cultivation, and before anyone realized it, five months had passed.

Cocoyasi Village endured several cold snaps and witnessed a few heavy snowfalls, but eventually weathered the harsh winter, arriving once again at the season of spring warmth and blooming flowers.

The breeze carried a touch of warmth, grass sprouts pushed through the frozen earth, and the expansion work on the tangerine grove was gradually nearing completion.

New saplings were being planted in batches, while tasks like loosening the soil, watering, fertilizing, and pruning branches kept Manba and the others so busy their feet hardly touched the ground, yet they found great joy in it.

Over these past few months, they had gradually integrated into the local atmosphere, and the villagers had slowly begun to accept this group of outsiders.

Compared to the days of living in constant fear and fighting for survival in the Kolbo Mountain Range, their current life felt simply like paradise.

If only...

—a certain little mischief-maker weren't quite so troublesome, it would be even better.

"Hey!"

Suddenly, a small figure with orange hair flashed out from behind a coconut tree, startling Fat Ox, who was just lifting a bundle of tangerine saplings from the ground, causing him to nearly throw out his back.

"Doing that again, Nami! Scaring people everywhere!" Fat Ox huffed, hands on his hips. "Keep this up and I'll go report you to Lord Siano; let's see how he deals with you!"

A ten-year-old brat is truly annoying!

"Nyah-nyah-nyah~"

Nami made a face, turned around, and ran off. "My brother doesn't have time for that; why don't you try catching me yourself, you big dumb ox!"

Passing the village entrance, the postman uncle, who was delivering mail, spotted her, his eyes lighting up; he hurriedly stopped his bicycle and waved to call her over.

"Wait! Nami, a package has arrived for you, but it's very heavy; you probably can't carry it back alone, so how about I deliver it to your house for you?"

"A package?"

Nami's face lit up with surprise; she immediately squatted down and opened it right there, revealing a thick stack of books inside.

The postman lowered his head to look along with her.

Titles like "Atlas of the Four Seas," "Treatise on the Craftsmanship of Log Pointers," "Advanced Techniques for Drawing Complex Bathymetric Lines," and "To Vegapunk: Applications of Sea Prism Stone and Navigation in the Calm Belts"...

They were all massive tomes; just reading the titles made his head spin.

"Are all these books for you?" the postman asked in astonishment. "Or are they for the adults in your household?"

"They're mine; well, more accurately, my brother bought them all for me!"

Nami giggled, patting the stack of books with satisfaction. "The bookstore in the village has too few books; I finished reading them all long ago, so my brother often buys new ones for me from other nearby towns. This batch is of very high quality; it'll keep me busy researching for quite a while!"

"You're truly remarkable, Nami."

The postman uncle gave a thumbs-up in admiration. "To be able to delve into such books at such a young age... My daughter only runs around playing wildly all day; if only she could be as sensible as you!"

Sensible?

"Y-yes, indeed..." Nami kicked a pebble somewhat guiltily. "Oh, right, the books are quite heavy, so please do help me carry them home, Uncle."

"Of course; it's my duty, after all."

The postman nodded with a smile.

He had visited Cocoyasi Village many times before and was quite familiar with its layout.

Pushing his bicycle ahead, he turned left and right, and before long, a cozy wooden house appeared before their eyes.

"We're home! Bell-mère and Nojiko aren't here; they've probably gone to the tangerine grove."

Nami pointed to the coffee table in the living room. "Uncle, please just leave the books here."

"Alright!"

After setting down the books, the postman suddenly noticed a pile of hand-drawn nautical charts scattered on the nearby sofa.

Picking one up to examine it, he saw the first one depicted the entire island surrounding Cocoyasi Village; it was exquisite and detailed, far superior in quality to anything available on the market.

"Nami, did you draw all of these?"

The postman was now filled with sheer amazement. "How incredible! Your talent is too strong; you might just become an outstanding cartographer in the future!"

"That's a certainty, Uncle!"

Nami proudly swept her beautiful hair back behind her ear in a fluid, carefree motion, alas, having been lazy about washing her hair for a few days, her hand got stuck in it and she struggled for quite a while before pulling it out...

"Ahem... Anyway, my dreams don't stop there; my goal is to rely on my own navigation skills to traverse this entire ocean, and then create a map of the world based on what I have seen with my own eyes!"

"A world map, you say?" The postman laughed heartily. "That is truly an extraordinary dream. However, Nami, the outside world is very dangerous; there are many powerful pirates out there whom you wouldn't be able to handle!"

"I may not be able to defeat them, but following behind my brother is enough."

Nami snorted. "He is the most famous great swordsman in the East Blue! Whether it's this pirate crew or that one, with a single sword strike, he splits their ships right in half!"

That young man named Siano?

The postman paused slightly.

He recalled that about half a year ago, that name had indeed caused quite a sensation, but afterward, no further news had emerged, and he had gradually faded from public view.

The postman couldn't help but feel curious: "Where is your brother? Now that you mention it, I've come to Cocoyasi Village so many times, yet I don't think I've ever actually seen him in the village."

"He's a cultivation maniac; that's what everyone calls him. It would be strange to see him during the day. As for this time..."

Nami leaned out the window, pointing to the tallest mountain among the hills to the north. "Hey, can you hear the sounds coming from the mountains?"

The postman pricked up his ears to listen.

Only then did he realize that a muffled roar, like distant thunder, was faintly emanating from within the mountains; gazing carefully into the distance, he could even see plumes of dust and smoke rising from the peak.

He was instantly bewildered. "You mean..."

"It's my brother; he's inside that mountain."

Nami said with a grin. "All those noises are caused by his antics. Luckily the village is further south, so we can't hear them too clearly; otherwise, we would have been reported for disturbing the peace long ago."

Your brother?

The postman stared wide-eyed. Is this something a human being can create?

Boom!

A massive boulder, fully five or six meters tall, was suddenly smashed into powder by a single punch.

Amid the swirling dust and smoke, the tall, mighty figure of a black-haired youth emerged.

Siano stepped over the still-rolling rubble; quartz grains crushed beneath his soles sparked with blue fire as he quickly passed the spot where the boulder had stood.

He lifted his head, gazing at the scarred mountainside before him.

It was hard to even tell this was a mountain.

As far as the eye could see, the entire mountainside looked as though it had been bombarded by a meteor shower; pockmarked everywhere, countless rock cross-sections lay exposed.

A tunnel pierced diagonally through the mountain to the summit, wide enough for several people to walk through side by side; were it not for the many fist and knuckle marks lingering on the fractured surfaces, it would have looked as if a giant drill had bored straight through.

"The hardness is still too low."

Siano's expression remained blank as he regarded the tunnel's twin rock walls. "The metal content is the highest of all the mountains on the island, and the deep rocks are the hardest, but for me now..."

He shook his head slightly; they were gradually becoming insufficient.

Withdrawing his gaze, he walked forward a few steps, stepping out of the shadow cast by the mountainside.

Afternoon sunlight spilled onto his shoulders.

His height had now soared to one meter eighty-seven; his muscles were knotted and twisted like thick tree roots, extremely dense and gleaming with an iron-like cold luster. His shoulders were terrifyingly broad; to ordinary eyes, he resembled a towering small mountain.

With every step he took, the rock beneath trembled slightly; passing beside a large tree, he happened to tread on a few mushrooms.

Siano did not notice, but when he lifted his foot again, those mushrooms had already merged with the ground, reduced to two dimensions.

The reason was simple.

His own body weight was now barely two hundred and fifty jin, yet his black training suit had been weighted to one point six tons.

Considering the sharp increase in pressure caused by the small surface area of his soles, the crushing force of his footfalls surpassed even that of an adult elephant.

(End of Chapter)