Ornn had discovered something peculiar about his enhanced cognitive processing back on the ship while sparring with Rhea.
The infusion of technical knowledge from the Creation Index hadn't just granted him blacksmithing intuition—it had fundamentally optimized his neurological pathways, granting him hyper-acute sensory observation and memory retention.
It wasn't like the Sharingan, which slowed the perception of incoming motion, nor the Byakugan, which pierced through physical matter.
Instead, his mind functioned like an ultra-high-speed recording camera.
As long as a physical movement fell within a speed tier he could visually track, his brain captured and stored it frame-by-frame. He could immediately run a mental diagnostic, reverse-engineering the exact muscle contractions and leverage points the opponent used to execute the technique.
While this hyper-observation was useless against invisible telepathic forces or advanced swordsmen techniques honed through lifelong spiritual discipline, it was devastatingly effective against structured martial arts and kinetic mechanics like the Happo Punch.
Take the breathing technique of the Happo Punch. To Chinjao and Sai, it was a closely guarded family secret passed down exclusively through oral tradition. But to Ornn, the mechanics were transparent.
During his bout with Sai, Ornn had latched onto the keyword "breathing method," immediately shifting his focus to observe the expansion and contraction of Sai's upper torso.
Breathing dictates muscular performance.
Whether through thoracic expansion, diaphragmatic abdominal breathing, or a hybrid of both, every movement of the breath leaves a visible ripple across the body's musculature. By memorizing those exact physical fluctuations and synchronizing his own respiratory rhythm to match, Ornn could instantly reverse-engineer the biological prerequisites of the Happo Punch.
As for why he hadn't replicated Soru during his fights with Rhea?
The reason was simple: Rhea wore shorts and heavy gear that obscured her lower leg muscles, preventing Ornn from clearly observing the micro-contractions in her calves and thighs when she initiated her explosive steps.
"Ornn... exactly when did you pull this off?"
Sai stared at Ornn in blank disbelief, still trying to process how Ornn—having spent the entire afternoon resting or eating dim sum—had somehow effortlessly mastered the core breathing rhythm of the Happo Punch.
"Oh, I just replayed the match details in my head while eating lunch," Ornn replied casually.
It was the ultimate Versailles flex. Sai and Boo were left speechless, while Yamato and Rhea looked at him with sheer, unfiltered adoration.
So while we were just eating, the Captain was reviewing combat data... no wonder his strength grows so fast! He truly is a visionary leader!
While everyone else marveled at Ornn's monstrous talent, there was one person present who found the reality completely unacceptable—Don Chinjao.
How could he possibly stomach it?
The martial art he had spent his entire life refining, sweating, and bleeding over had just been picked up like a parlor trick by a random punk off the street!
And judging by the destructive force of Ornn's test strike, it was entirely possible that in a few short years, this kid would fully master the ultimate secret technique of the Happo Punch: the Awl Nail.
Once he mastered the Awl Nail, the frozen Jade Iceberg—which Chinjao had battered his head against in vain for decades—would be shattered at will, and the generational family treasure hidden beneath would be looted bare by this outsider!
No! Absolutely not!
The mere thought sent a suffocating spike of panic through Chinjao's chest, pushing him to the brink of a myocardial infarction. Guarding a vault without the key for decades had already broken his sanity; the thought of a stranger waltzing in and walking away with his life's savings was the final straw.
The squinted eyes of the old legend flashed with a furious, crimson rage.
Those treasures belong to the Kano Kingdom! No one touches them except me and Sai!
BUZZ—!
A suffocating wave of heavy, oppressive Conqueror's Haki suddenly erupted from Chinjao's body.
The invisible spiritual shockwave swept across the courtyard indiscriminately. In the blink of an eye, the exhausted Sai, the battered Boo, and even Rhea—who had pushed her body past its limits—collapsed, their eyes rolling back as they lost consciousness.
Only Ornn and Yamato remained standing. Yamato anchored herself through sheer willpower and her own royal lineage, while Ornn gritted his teeth, relying on his massive Heartsteel health pool and physical fortitude to withstand the mental pressure.
Noticing Ornn struggling against the crushing weight of the Conqueror's Haki, Yamato let out a sharp, indignant huff.
"Trying to bully our captain?"
Yamato stepped forward, her own berserk Conqueror's Haki bursting outward to form an invisible barrier that completely neutralized Chinjao's mental suppression.
Chinjao's towering five-meter frame glared down at Yamato, his expression twisting in shock. "A little girl playing at being a king... yet she willingly bows to that brat? Is your head cracked too, girl?!"
"Whether I'm a king or not doesn't matter to me!" Yamato hoisted her heavy iron mace onto her shoulder, glaring back at the old legend with unyielding fury. "I woke this power to protect the people I care about! You, on the other hand... sitting on a mountain of wealth and acting this petty? You're just a miserable old geezer!"
Being openly dressed down as a "petty, miserable old geezer" made Chinjao's face contort with righteous wrath.
"Little girl, don't assume a bit of Conqueror's Haki lets you run wild in front of me! In the New World, brats with petty king's dispositions are a dime a dozen!"
With a roar, Chinjao coated his massive fists in deep, jet-black Armament Haki and lunged straight toward Ornn.
Despite being distracted by Yamato's display, Chinjao's primary objective remained crystal clear: Ornn was the sole existential threat to the Jade Iceberg. He had to be eliminated here and now.
Seeing the furious old man charging down on him, Ornn didn't flinch. He immediately triggered his Hybrid Form, dark-purple metallic muscle shifting across his frame as he raised his magma-coated fist to meet the charge, shouting back to Yamato:
"His target is me! I'll lock him down—you take the offensive!"
"Got it!"
Yamato grinned, black-and-red lightning crackling violently along the iron spikes of her mace.
BOOM!
The magma-wrapped fist and Chinjao's armored punch collided dead-center, generating a concussive shockwave that leveled the surrounding stone paving stones.
The sheer violence of the impact threw Ornn backward across the courtyard, his boots skidding through the dirt as a dull, tearing pain radiated through his arm bones.
As expected of the monster who forced Garp to level eight mountain ranges...
Even if Garp had ultimately flattened him with a single punch in their prime, Chinjao's raw physical power, amplified by lethal Armament Haki, was an absolute freight train of destruction.
Yet, that was as far as the old man's momentum would carry him.
As Chinjao's punch pushed Ornn back, Yamato materialized directly above the old man, her eyes blazing with fierce resolve.
[Thunder Bagua!]
With a deafening roar, the iron mace wrapped in crackling black-and-red lightning slammed downward with devastating force directly onto Chinjao's head.
For the first time that day, a genuine expression of terror crossed Don Chinjao's face.
Damn it... since when did monsters wielding this caliber of power start roaming the West Blue?!
#NOTE - Will be uploading bonus chapters in celebration of my new member - Nikolai
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Advance chapters on- p@treon . com/ Snooze_01
use 'a' instead of @
Starts at minimum of 5$.
Enjoy.
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