-----
-----
"So he's known as the Pirate Hunter, huh?"
After hearing Coby talk about Zoro's exploits, Luffy felt a little stirred inside.
"Sounds like a cool guy!"
He rubbed his chin with his right hand, made up his mind, and declared:
"Alright then! Next stop—we find this Pirate Hunter. If he turns out to be a good guy, we'll make him our crewmate!"
"Well, since the Captain's decided, we'll set sail tomorrow," Bai Ye said with a nod.
Zoro was once seen by fans in his previous life as the unofficial vice-captain of the Straw Hat crew, which said a lot about his role on the team.
Of course, Bai Ye wasn't about to mess with the timing of bringing Zoro in. In fact, if anything, he wanted to preserve the main events as much as possible—only fixing regrets here and there. That way, he could make the best use of his knowledge of the future.
And so, the night passed peacefully~
The next morning, Bai Ye looked at the pirates in front of him and flashed a smile that could make half the girls on the Grand Line swoon.
But to these pirates, that smile was more terrifying than any devil's grin.
After all, the day before, he wore that exact same smile when he beat the crap out of them until they were crying for their moms.
Painful and humiliating. Brutal combo.
"Alright~ No need to be nervous. I just called you guys over 'cause I need a little favor," Bai Ye said casually, not even bothering to add pressure.
"My captain wants to head to the nearest Navy base. Mind helping us steer the ship there?"
With his eyes squinting in that blindingly cheerful smile, the pirates felt like they'd fallen straight into an ice-cold abyss.
They all started nodding like bobbleheads, bowing like their lives depended on it. Despite still being tied up, they scrambled to show how obedient and pitiful they were:
"Y-Yes, Lord Bai Ye! We promise to get you gentlemen to your destination as fast as possible!"
"Please trust us, Lord Bai Ye! Leave everything on this ship to us!"
"...Me too!"
Hearing everyone's promise, Bai Ye nodded in satisfaction. A flash of golden light passed through his hand, and the ropes binding the pirates instantly loosened. Then, without another word, he turned and walked away.
But just as the pirates were about to breathe a sigh of relief, Bai Ye's voice floated back casually.
"Oh right, one more thing. Do me a favor and turn yourselves in at the Navy base with Koby later, yeah?"
Pirates: ???
Bai Ye... this guy's gotta be a devil in disguise!!!
"Eh? Bai Ye, you're going to sleep again?"Luffy turned his head with a confused look. Just now, Bai Ye had approached him, once again offering to protect him like before.
"Actually, I'm not sleeping... it's more like training," Bai Ye said, a bit helplessly, trying to explain his reasoning.
"It only looks like I'm sleeping. But in reality, my spirit enters another place where I can train and get stronger much faster. That golden light you saw on me before? That's the result of me coming back from that place."
"Whoa! There's actually a place like that?"Luffy didn't seem to care at all that this kind of training method was completely different from what existed in their world. What got him hyped was this whole 'spirit going to another world' thing.
"Hey, Bai Ye, can I go to that place too?"
"Hmm... not right now. But maybe someday, who knows?"
"What's it like there? Is it big???"
"Hmm... if I had to describe it, that place changes depending on what I imagine."
"WHOA!!! Sugoi! Now I really wanna go!!!"Luffy's eyes turned into two sparkling golden stars. He didn't doubt Bai Ye's crazy-sounding explanation one bit.
In Luffy's mind, if Bai Ye said it's real, then it must be real.
"Bai Ye!!! I wanna go too!!!"
"Whoa whoa whoa! Don't just hug me outta nowhere!"
"Got it! Next time it's possible, I'll make sure you're the first one to go in!"
"Get off me already, you idiot!"
After the chaos settled down, Bai Ye finally managed to calm Luffy down.
Then, after giving Koby a few instructions and having a "friendly" chat with the pirates on board again, Bai Ye returned to his room and entered the inner world of the Daoist Manual for the second time.
This "inner world" is something Daoists talk about—a separate space that's still connected to the real world.
Anyone who learns certain mystical techniques might be able to enter their own inner world.
In this kind of space, the better you understand Daoist magic, the more control you have over the space itself.
Though Bai Ye hadn't entered his own inner world, he still had a certain level of authority in this one.
First, the time difference. Based on his last visit, he estimated the time flowed at a 10:1 ratio.
Simply put, if Bai Ye trained here for 10 days, only one day would pass in the real world.
That was a game-changer for him.
Unlike regular physical training, Daoist techniques required deep insight and understanding.
It's not something you can brute force—more like grinding it out patiently.
Kinda like a math problem in his past life—if you didn't get it, you just didn't get it, no matter how frustrated you were.
Next was the spatial function.
Bai Ye had a vague sense that he could store non-living things inside a certain area of the inner world.
Rough guess? He could probably fit an entire Navy warship in there with no problem.
Not that he was particularly impressed by that.
After all, what kind of self-respecting transmigrator doesn't have some kind of inventory space? You'd be embarrassed to show up without one.
Then there were the training conditions.
Once you've formed your Innate Qi, the next step is increasing your Qi reserves by absorbing the spiritual energy of the world.
And the inner world? The density of spiritual energy here was more than ten times that of the outside world.
This place was practically a cultivation paradise, seriously.
But what Bai Ye appreciated most...
Was the bonus that almost made him feel like the main character.
In this inner world, his ability to understand and grasp techniques was cranked to the max.
Think of it this way: in here, Bai Ye had a full-on "Maxed-Out Enlightenment" buff.
Which meant he could break through bottlenecks in his Daoist training at lightning speed.
A place like this, with its time acceleration and OP bonuses—if this had shown up in one of those xianxia (cultivation) novels from his past life...
It'd probably spark a war between powerful beings, tearing the world apart over it.
Thinking about it, Bai Ye couldn't help but feel a rare bit of pride in being a transmigrator.
If he couldn't beat the game with this kind of advantage, he might as well find a block of tofu and smash his head into it.
With that thought, Bai Ye calmed his mind and started picking out which techniques to train in next.
Right now, he'd just barely stepped through the doorway into being a true Qi Practitioner. If he wanted to really master it, he still had a long road ahead.
So, he took a moment to reflect on what he lacked.
First: Qi reserves.
The Innate Qi was the foundation of a practitioner's strength. Every technique required Qi to fuel it.
"....."