Chapter 145

For example, the Navy gave them a codename for the ship: "The Void's Wandering Horde," along with bounties on the crew members.

Luo En found the codename slightly annoying, thinking it sounded overly dramatic, but Konis and Boni thought it was really cool.

Boni and Konis were delighted to have been bountied, while the martial arts sea cow Xiao Qi was deeply depressed for not being bountied.

As for this, Luo Bin felt a pang of guilt.

After all, it was because of her that everyone on the ship had become criminals despised by the World Government and the Navy.

But she quickly came to terms with it.

What's done is done; dwelling on it now served no purpose.

Better to grow stronger herself, so that in the future she could better support these companions when danger arose!

After realizing this, she no longer wavered or hesitated, devoting herself entirely to developing the abilities of the Hana Hana Fruit.

If her offensive capabilities were weak, then she would focus on support abilities instead.

Soon, after gathering some intelligence in the North Blue, Luo En used his ability to make the ship float once more into the sky.

That day.

After assessing the current strength of Boni, Luo Bin, Konis, and Xiao Qi, Luo En announced something to everyone on board, including Guina.

"Starting today, I will formally teach you the Breathing Method."

"Breathing… method?"

Everyone except Guina looked bewildered.

Guina, who had some understanding, explained to them: "It's a unique breathing technique that helps circulate blood and qi, increases physical strength, and restores stamina."

Luo Bin and the others showed expressions of surprise and sudden understanding.

But then Luo En's voice spoke again.

"It's not just those effects."

Luo En glanced at Guina and said: "When I first taught you the Breathing Method, I hadn't mastered it fully myself—what I gave you was merely a crude, simplified version."

"Huh?"

Guina was stunned. The Breathing Method that had helped her so much was just a crude version?!

"The true, complete Breathing Method is far stronger."

As the others watched, Luo En clenched his right fist and swung it through the air toward the side cloud sea.

A violent punch wind instantly scattered a large patch of cloud sea, forming a fan-shaped zone of clear air about tens of meters in radius.

"This is the power of my punch without the Breathing Method. Now I'll demonstrate the power with the Breathing Method—watch carefully."

As Guina and the others focused intently, Luo En took a light breath and activated the Sun Breathing Method.

His blood and qi surged, his black hair stirred without wind, and a spiral of invisible qi coiled around his fist.

He punched again toward the same side cloud sea, now restored, with the same force.

Accompanied by a thunderous crack as the air exploded.

The gale swept outward, visible waves of air pushing apart on both sides.

Everyone's hair whipped wildly.

The clouds around the ship were completely scattered by the punch; a strip two hundred meters long and several meters wide of clear air appeared directly in front of Luo En's fist.

Luo En retracted his fist and turned to face the stunned group, smiling: "This is the difference between using the Breathing Method and not using it—with the same punch force. The Breathing Method greatly enhances the ability to condense and control power, allowing the same strength to produce far greater impact."

"Of course, I've reached the peak of my mastery of the Breathing Method now—you won't be able to reach this level at the start."

"After mastering the Breathing Method to circulate your blood and qi, you'll also greatly improve your ability to sense and strengthen Armament Haki."

Luo En smiled at Guina: "You've probably felt this already, haven't you, Guina?"

She gave a slight nod.

"Master, Master, I want to learn—teach me!"

Xiao Qi had been holding back no longer; he rushed toward Luo En, eyes shining with excitement and boundless anticipation.

"Don't rush—the Breathing Method has many variations. I'll teach each of you according to your individual traits."

"Since we've become thorns in the eyes of the World Government and the Navy, unless we stay in the sky forever, the moment we return to the sea, we'll face naval pursuit—even possibly a Marine Admiral. The danger is real, so I need you all to increase your combat strength as much as possible over the coming period."

Luo En crossed his arms and spoke to the group.

"Six months from now, we enter the Grand Line."

Six months was Luo En's estimated time to master and become familiar with the Pao Pao Fruit's abilities.

Six months should also be enough for them to reach proficiency in the Breathing Method.

"I'm ready."

Konis said seriously.

Luo Bin and the others also wore solemn expressions.

Luo En smiled at them: "Even so, there's no need to be so tense and serious—relax a bit."

The group exchanged glances, then spotted Xiao Qi—the martial arts sea cow—standing rigidly upright, hands placed beside his tail, wearing a green headband, face utterly serious. They couldn't help but laugh, their laughter like wind chimes, instantly dissolving the tension and restoring the usual warm, easy atmosphere.

Hearing their laughter, Xiao Qi turned his head, scratched his head, and looked confusedly at Luo En: "Master? What's going on?"

Luo En, watching his silly, dazed expression, couldn't help but smile.

"Nothing."

130, Concepts for the Pao Pao Fruit's Abilities

Teach each person a Breathing Method suited to their individual traits.

Guina will train the Thunder Breathing Method, which maximizes explosive power.

Konis will train the Water Breathing Method, which is calm and gentle.

Boni relies primarily on her Fruit's ability, which requires direct contact with opponents, so the Insect Breathing Method, which enhances agility and speed, is most suitable.

Like her, Luo Bin also cultivated the Insect Breathing Style to enhance speed and agility.

The hot-blooded, battle-loving martial-arts sea lion Xiao Qi cultivated the Flame Breathing Style.

Luo En also taught Kuina, who was likewise a swordsman, the companion sword art that came with Thunder Breathing.

It had only one form.

But when cultivated to its utmost extreme, this was also the strongest single form within the Thunder Breathing sword art.

Gathered into a single point — the pinnacle of perfection!

Thunder Flash!

For a long stretch of days after Kuina learned the Thunder Breathing Style, the Voyager would be accompanied by the roar of air being torn apart, a bolt of golden lightning flashing from the bow of the ship to the stern, leaving behind in the air a slash-like sword Qi that lingered long like an electric arc.

While the crew members on board were studying and cultivating the Breathing Styles to improve themselves,

Luo En wasn't idle either.

Through daily attempts, his understanding of the Float-Float Fruit's abilities grew ever clearer, and his mastery drew ever closer to that of Golden Lion Shiki back in the day.

This included directly pulling a small island into the sky, flipping up a certain range of land, condensing seawater, controlling the sea of clouds, and so on.

Using this ability to launch wide-area attacks was almost absurdly easy.

Moreover, while developing this ability,

Luo En thought of Fujitora's Heavy-Heavy Fruit, which could manipulate gravity.

Since Fujitora could rely on gravity to form gravity waves and create a repulsive force that repelled everything, what about the Float-Float Fruit, which could likewise control gravitational pull?

Could it, like the Heavy-Heavy Fruit that manipulates gravity, be extended further in the direction of the four fundamental forces?

But after actual experimentation, Luo En found it couldn't be done.

The Float-Float Fruit couldn't manipulate gravitational pull — it could only free all non-living objects from gravity and let the user control them. Its strength lay in that control, not in freely adjusting the magnitude of gravity.

The Heavy-Heavy Fruit, on the other hand, was powerful in being able to adjust the strength and direction of gravity, but couldn't directly control objects.

The two had some similarities, but there were still major differences.

Speaking purely in terms of Devil Fruit ability,

it was obvious that the Heavy-Heavy Fruit — which could directly manipulate gravity, achieving lateral gravity, zero gravity, anti-gravity, pressure, pulling force, repulsive force, and even gravitational pull — was somewhat stronger.

On closer thought, the Heavy-Heavy Fruit's ability and the Float-Float Fruit could each counter the other's.

As for which was actually stronger, it probably still depended on the user themselves.

Luo En was also looking forward to the day he'd meet Fujitora.

Would it be his gravity that pulled Luo En down, or would the Float-Float Fruit be able to ignore the pull of his gravity?

Since he'd learned that the Float-Float Fruit couldn't manipulate gravitational pull, and could only free all non-living objects from the shackles of Earth's gravity, thereby achieving the state of 'floating,'

the direction in which Luo En developed the Float-Float Fruit's abilities accordingly shifted.