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After hearing Bai Ye's explanations, all three—Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji—were hyped.
I mean, what guy hasn't dreamed of a weapon that grows stronger the more you train with it?
The whole Straw Hat crew was buzzing with excitement after receiving Bai Ye's gifts.
Well, everyone except Vivi.
Even though she understood her position, watching the others celebrate still made her feel a little left out.
But that feeling didn't last long.
She had more important things to focus on now.
What she didn't know, though, was that Bai Ye had noticed her change in expression.
He was about to say something, but…
He had to deal with something else first.
——
"Hey, hey, Nami! Quit playing with that stick and focus on the route!"
"Luffy! Usopp! No fighting! Those are weapons, not toys!"
"Zoro! Are you a moron too?! Sanji's wearing metal shoes—if you swing at his shin, you're the one who's gonna break!"
"All of you—GET SERIOUS!"
[Golden Light Spell – Vice Captain's Discipline!!!]
"We're sorry! We won't do it again!" x5
Watching the crew shuffle off with swollen faces, Bai Ye sighed.
The others he could maybe excuse. But even Nami?
sigh This is all Luffy's fault!!!
"Hahahaha—!"
Watching the Straw Hats' chaotic antics, Princess Vivi couldn't help laughing.
Her anxiety about Alabasta eased a little.
"You guys really don't look like big-time pirates," she said with a smile.
"But they're still solid crewmates, aren't they?"
Bai Ye smiled back at her, his gaze soft as he looked at everyone.
It was moments like this that made him choose to join this crew in the first place.
Traveling on the Grand Line was no joke.
In just a few days of sailing, the Straw Hats had already seen stuff like dolphins bigger than the Going Merry, sudden downpours, and random whirlpools.
Of course, stuff like that didn't happen all the time.
Most of the time, sailing was just… boring.
Luffy asked Bai Ye if he had some kind of treasure that could hook fish instantly.
Bai Ye turned him down with:
"Don't assume I have everything," and"If you catch the fish instantly, where's the fun in fishing?"
Later, Psyduck (not really) a.k.a. RunFast put on a performance for everyone: chugged soda so fast it passed out cold.
Even Zoro couldn't help but call it an idiot—only to get bitten in return.
Meanwhile, Bai Ye used this down time to review his own fighting techniques.
Mainly his two go-to skills:
Golden Light Spell for close combat, and Qimen Techniques for long-range.
As for the Golden Light Spell, Bai Ye had already progressed from the beginner stage to the level of shaping qi into form.
From here, the Golden Light Spell would develop in two directions:
One was the refinement level.
As the amount of qi increased, the golden light would become more and more concentrated.
Eventually, it would reach a point where it could pierce through anything—unbreakable and unstoppable.
The other direction was precision control.
When Bai Ye fought Smoker, the only shape he could form the golden light into was a stick.
It wasn't because he had a thing for sticks—it was just that his control over the light wasn't good enough to mold it into anything else.
So as his precision improved, the Golden Light Spell would naturally become much more versatile.
For example, he could eventually form it into a thin rope to directly bind his opponent.
But of course, all this was just laying the foundation for the final stage of the Golden Light Spell—
Withdrawing the light inward to strengthen the self.
That was the spell's true purpose.
You see, Mount Longhu was always known as a top-tier sect that cultivated both body and spirit.
The ultimate goal of the Golden Light Spell was never just about external defense—it was about refining the light to enhance one's life essence and spiritual cultivation.
Of course, Bai Ye still had a long road ahead before reaching that level.
As for Qimen Dunjia techniques—those were hands down the hardest Taoist arts to master.
Even with his maxed-out talent buff, Bai Ye still hadn't fully mastered the entire Fenghou Qimen system.
To this day, he still hadn't grasped the essence of the Qimen techniques representing the Heaven and Earth trigrams—Qian and Kun.
But after studying Qimen for so long, Bai Ye had at least developed the patience to not rush things.
He had once used Qimen to divine his own future and saw that the key to unlocking the Qian and Kun trigrams lay somewhere along the Grand Line.
And it wasn't going to be one of those desperate life-or-death breakthroughs either.
That gave Bai Ye some peace of mind.
Other than the Golden Light Spell and Qimen techniques, the rest of Bai Ye's combat style relied on his own Wudang martial arts.
There were many Wudang techniques, but the two Bai Ye used most often were:
First, the top-tier movement technique "Wudang: Sky-Leaping Step" (Wudang·Tiyunzong).
To put it simply, if you compare it to the Marine's Rokushiki, Sky-Leaping Step could achieve similar effects as Soru, Geppo, and Kami-e.
Basically, it let you move fast, jump high, and dodge like crazy.
This was something he could definitely teach Sanji. Since Sanji's fighting style was all about his legs, he should be able to pick it up pretty quickly—and it'd boost his strength a lot.
The second technique was more about internal cultivation: Taichi.
Compared to the Rokushiki again, Taichi didn't have flashy effects like Tekkai, Rankyaku, or Shigan.
But come on, we're talking about Taichi here!
Rokushiki was just a widely-used physical technique in this world—Taichi was the distilled essence of Grandmaster Zhang's entire martial legacy.
Bai Ye was even thinking about teaching Luffy Taichi boxing—just the techniques, though, not the internal cultivation methods.
After all, Luffy hadn't trained in Pure Yang Wuji Kung Fu.
Still, Bai Ye was curious: could Luffy, that seemingly goofy but quick-learning guy, actually master Grandmaster's Taichi boxing?
If he did, that'd be insanely cool.
Imagine him fighting Kaido or Big Mom later—stepping up with a move like "Taichi Push Hands: Borrow Strength to Strike"—maybe it'd catch those two tanky sea emperors off guard.
As for Zoro, Bai Ye had no plans to teach him the Taichi sword. At most, they'd spar a bit to compare notes.
But that was all in the future. For now, what they all really needed to focus on was improving their Haki.
And the best way to find out how far they'd come?
Fight someone strong.
And as luck would have it, Bai Ye knew that their next destination just so happened to have two possible Haki users.
The two captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates who set sail a hundred years ago:
Blue Ogre Dorry and Red Ogre Brogy.
In the anime, it was never explicitly said whether they could use Armament Haki.
But during their attack using Elbaf Spear: Hakoku Sovereignty, their weapons glowed red and blue.
Plus, Dorry managed to injure Luffy with just his fist.
So Bai Ye guessed—these two pirates, who had bounties of 100 million right from the start, probably knew at least basic Armament Haki.
Next step? Head to Little Garden and see for himself.
"....."