Chapter Sixty-Six: The Mysterious Swordmaster

“Quitting smoking?”
“You?”
Even though Smoker had made up his mind and was now tossing the cigars he had hidden on his person into the sea, Lucci had no faith in him, given Smoker’s notorious history of failed attempts to quit. Sitting there in silence, Lucci pondered his own future alongside Smoker’s.
To defeat Chu Yi… how could that be easy? Especially for someone like Lucci, who had witnessed Chu Yi’s meteoric rise with his own eyes, it felt utterly despairing to even think of surpassing him.
And surely, the Navy must have learned by now of his and Smoker’s capture…
At this thought, Lucci let out a heavy sigh. He knew well that, as prisoners, even if they managed to escape, he and Smoker would be the laughingstock of others—unless they could recapture Chu Yi and bring him to justice. Otherwise, the shame of their capture would follow them for the rest of their lives.
“Smoker really has it better,” Lucci thought to himself. “A simple-minded fool, always carefree, isn’t he?”
Glancing at Smoker, who had just thrown away his cigars and begun his bitter training, Lucci felt no desire to train or to defeat Chu Yi. Instead, he simply sat there, lost in thought.
Meanwhile, as Smoker began his training, Chu Yi watched him intently, his gaze then drifting to Lucci, who remained dazed and silent. A faint, knowing smile played at the corners of Chu Yi’s lips.
“Smoker and Lucci truly are two completely different characters. In adversity, Smoker’s growth is swifter, whereas Lucci… Despite his remarkable potential, equal to Smoker’s, when faced with true despair, his temperament pales in comparison. Perhaps that’s why, in the original pirate story, Smoker could hold command in his own right, while Lucci remained in the shadows of CP9.”
“Lucci, if only you had realized your own flaws sooner in that original tale…”
“Maybe then you wouldn’t have needed to be thrashed by Luffy, crushed beneath the protagonist’s halo!”
As this thought ran through Chu Yi’s mind, his gaze flickered to the cigars floating in the sea. The smile on his lips deepened.
Provocation—this was Chu Yi’s open strategy.
How could someone as proud as Smoker easily accept defeat? Moreover, as long as Chu Yi, having beaten Smoker, merely hinted at anything, the shadow of failure would gnaw at Smoker’s heart, and he could never again smoke without shame. Thus, with just a casual mention of quitting smoking after defeating him, Smoker, humiliated by his loss, would naturally set aside his cigars, easily fulfilling Chu Yi’s awakening material mission.
As for not having received a prompt confirming the mission’s completion, Chu Yi gave it no mind. Quitting smoking is a process, after all. The system likely required Smoker to maintain abstinence for a certain period before declaring him truly smoke-free.
Besides, with Chu Yi keeping a close eye on him, there was no way Smoker would get his hands on another cigar.
Since the mission’s completion was now all but assured, it was time to focus on training.
Taking a deep breath, Chu Yi rose to his feet and, without another word, performed the “Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As the smoke cleared, Chu Yi expertly gauged his body’s limits, controlling the number of clones so that both his true self and each shadow clone maintained only an ordinary human’s level of physical ability.
Thus, with his main body at ordinary strength, he kept a constant watch on Smoker and Lucci, prepared to prevent any trouble. Meanwhile, the clones began their training in earnest. Nearly eighty percent of them focused on the way of the sword, while the remainder practiced either Observation Haki or the mastery of their Devil Fruit powers.
Chu Yi’s reason for assigning so many clones to sword training was twofold.
The first was self-evident: swordsmanship was the fastest route to advancing his strength. He had already completed the first step in the transformation from swordsman to great swordsman. If he could master the remaining two steps, entering the ranks of true great swordsmen, Chu Yi was confident he could stand toe-to-toe with opponents like Aokiji, Kizaru, or Akainu.
After all, swordsmanship was far from his only advantage.
The second reason lay in the awe-inspiring skills Rayleigh had displayed. Witnessing Rayleigh split the sea with a single stroke left Chu Yi deeply shaken. It was the same amazement others felt when they watched Chu Yi use “Almighty Push” to obliterate the Navy’s Buster Call in an instant.
Inspired by Rayleigh’s feat, Chu Yi was captivated by the allure of the sword and longed to immerse himself in its study. The desire to achieve such mastery—enough to cleave the sea in twain—became his obsession and his motivation to train. Whether that obsession and drive would truly hasten his progress remained to be seen.
As for Chu Yi’s sword training itself, it was actually exceedingly simple, and even more monotonous.
In his view, his ability to split the waves with a single stroke was due to his peak physical prowess. Thus, during training, he deliberately suppressed his clones’ strength to ordinary human levels, striving for each one, even with such a body, to master the art of cleaving the waves.
When he eventually regained his peak form, even if his swordsmanship could not yet shatter ships in a single blow, he would be very close. And if he could split the waves as an ordinary man, his foundation would be truly solid, paving the way for even greater achievements.
Yet the tedium of such training was more than most could bear—a unique drawback to his regimen. But with shadow clones, the worst consequence was the fatigue returning to him when they vanished—an annoyance more than a real problem.
Otherwise, while the clones trained, Chu Yi was free to do as he pleased—one of the greatest benefits of the technique.
Soon after, Tiger returned with supplies. To Chu Yi’s great dismay, Tiger had not bought any new clothes, meaning he would have to travel to Fishman Island in his tattered garments. Still, the provisions were plentiful, and the thought of finally enjoying a proper pirate world feast that night made Chu Yi forget all about the exhaustion from his clones’ training.
Sitting quietly by the campfire, he drooled in anticipation, eagerly awaiting the moment Tiger announced dinner.
But just as the fish roasting over the fire was nearly done, Chu Yi’s brow furrowed. He turned, and saw a man in a black cloak, brimming with a cold, cutting aura, had approached without anyone noticing.
At the same time, Tiger’s unfriendly gaze fell upon the black-cloaked man an instant before Chu Yi’s own.
Chu Yi was sure that, faced with such rudeness—a stranger approaching uninvited—Tiger would clench his fists and drive the man away.
But to his surprise, Tiger fixed his gaze on the black-cloaked man and then, in a low voice, said to Chu Yi:
“Kid, though he hides it well, my Observation Haki tells me…”
“He’s one of the top-tier great swordsmen in these seas!”