The improvement in his swordsmanship realm brought a slight increase in his Doriki.
Ian’s Doriki had now reached 20 points.
Besides that, what Ian cared about most was that he could finally use the True Issen skill from the Akechi Samanosuke Hidemitsu card.
Thinking back to the cool scenes of instantly killing opponents with Issen while playing the Onimusha game, Ian was itching to try it.
Could he finally show off a little this time?
‘I need to find someone to test it on,’ Ian thought.
The first candidate was naturally Kuina, but when he thought of her, Ian hesitated.
Over this short period, he had discovered that personal strength could indeed be judged by Doriki.
Before his swordsmanship realm improved, Ian had 14 Doriki points.
By going all out, he could fight Kuina to a draw.
Calculating from that, Kuina’s Doriki at that time was likely around 15 to 17 points, which matched the impression that she could defeat the adults in the dojo.
And recently, Ian had also noticed that Kuina was continuing to work hard to become stronger.
In terms of Doriki, Ian estimated he was still roughly on par with her.
However, Ian could now use the secret technique, True Issen.
According to the skill description, its power was likely immense.
If he accidentally hit Kuina during a spar, he could very well injure her!
In this village, the only person Ian absolutely did not want to hurt was Kuina, so he wouldn’t use her to test his sword technique.
‘Maybe I should go find Instructor Sasuke, or even Master Koushirou,’ he mused.
With that in mind, Ian stopped his practice and spoke to Zoro, who was still grimacing with a rock in his mouth for muscle training.
“Keep practicing hard.
I’m heading back to the dojo for a bit.”
Hearing Ian’s words, Zoro naturally wanted to respond.
But the moment he opened his mouth to agree, the rock fell out and smashed right onto his foot!
“Ouch!!” With a miserable shriek, Zoro instantly met a tragic fate.
‘What an idiot!’ Ian shook his head speechlessly.
Ignoring Zoro, who was hopping up and down clutching his foot, he walked toward the village.
Upon arriving at the dojo, Ian found that the junior disciples who were supposed to be training had gathered outside, discussing something amongst themselves.
“Did you guys see?
That person was so tall and big!”
“If you ask me, his face was the biggest part!”
“Yeah, yeah!
That’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone with such a huge face!”
Curious, Ian couldn’t help but ask, “Why aren’t you practicing?
What are you all gathered around here for?”
Hearing his voice, the group of junior disciples quickly turned their heads.
A kid with a bowl cut ran over, snot hanging from his nose, and said eagerly as if claiming credit, “Senior Brother Ian, some outsiders came to the village!
We saw them at the beach today.
Among those people, there was one with a super huge face!
It was amazing!”
The other junior disciples nodded in agreement, crowding around Ian and chattering away as they described the person.
Ian’s heart skipped a beat as he suddenly remembered something.
He asked, “Are there any newspapers?
Who picked up the recent newspapers?”
Since he had started training with Zoro, Ian hadn’t been buying newspapers for Master Koushirou lately.
That task had been handed over to the other junior disciples.
Hearing his question, a bald junior disciple quickly ran into the dojo, brought out a newspaper, and handed it to Ian.
Ian opened the newspaper and saw a massive headline on the front page: *World Noble Saint Jalmack is about to arrive in the Goa Kingdom for a visit!*
Being in the East Blue, even a small place like Shimotsuki Village knew of the Goa Kingdom, which was hailed as the most beautiful country in the East Blue.
The fact that it could attract a visit from the World Nobles, the Celestial Dragons, was proof enough.
However, Ian knew that this so-called most beautiful country merely hid away all its filth and eliminated anything deemed unsightly.
It was the epitome of a segregated society!
The moment he saw the name Goa Kingdom in the newspaper, Ian immediately thought of one thing: Sabo setting sail early.
To maintain the cleanliness and beauty of its city, this sick country swept all its garbage out of the city and piled it up outside.
Furthermore, they drove all the unsightly homeless and unemployed people into the garbage mountain to survive.
Then, they built a high wall to isolate the garbage mountain from the city, creating two entirely different worlds.
They called this place the Gray Terminal.
Normally, they ignored the world of the garbage mountain, acting as if their country didn’t even have such a place.
Yet, when the Celestial Dragons confirmed their visit, they chose to burn the garbage mountain to the ground to prevent its stench from polluting the air!
They knew full well that many people lived there, but they still chose to do it anyway.
They didn’t spare a single thought for what would happen to those vagrants once they lost the land they relied on to survive.
Their apathy was suffocating, their cruelty appalling.
Although Sabo was a noble of this country, his nature yearned for freedom.
He had always wanted to escape this place that made him feel suffocated.
After learning that the garbage mountain was going to be burned, Sabo desperately tried to find a way to warn his two sworn brothers, Luffy and Ace, but he was imprisoned at home by his own parents.
With his brothers’ fates unknown, the people of the Goa Kingdom he encountered only wore cold, uncaring expressions.
Sabo finally saw the ugliness and hypocrisy of this world.
Unable to endure it any longer, he chose to run away.
He knocked out the guards, left a letter for Luffy and Ace, and set sail early on a small boat.
Unfortunately, the day he set sail happened to be the exact time the World Noble, the Celestial Dragon, arrived.
Facing the massive approaching ship, Sabo politely steered clear, even fantasizing that one day he too could become the captain of such a grand vessel and roam freely across the seas.
However, he never expected that his politeness would not earn the understanding of the arrogant Celestial Dragon.
Unable to tolerate a commoner sailing past him, the Celestial Dragon directly launched an attack on Sabo’s boat.
In the world of One Piece, the World Government had always viewed pirates as a cancer, but in Ian’s eyes, these so-called World Nobles, the Celestial Dragons, were the true cancer!
These self-proclaimed noble Celestial Dragons were arguably the most hideous amalgamation of human nature.
Thinking of this, Ian couldn’t help but sigh.
If he remembered correctly, the man with a huge face that the junior disciples mentioned should be the Okama King, Ivankov, right?
The appearance of Ivankov, an executive of the Revolutionary Army, meant that Luffy’s father, the Revolutionary Monkey D.
Dragon, had also arrived in the East Blue and should currently be on his way to the Goa Kingdom.
Putting down the newspaper, Ian stood up and told the junior disciples, “You guys practice hard here.
I’m going to go take a look.”
“Ah, Senior Brother Ian, you’re so sneaky!
You’re not even taking us with you!” the bowl-cut kid couldn’t help but complain.
Amused, Ian patted the kid’s head and walked out of the dojo.
Ivankov coming to Shimotsuki Village was likely because he had separated from Dragon.
Dragon’s trip to the Goa Kingdom was a covert operation, so naturally, he couldn’t bring Ivankov along.
That massive face of his was simply too eye-catching and would blow their cover.
Ian chose to go see Ivankov partly out of curiosity, wanting to meet this legendary Okama King in person, and partly to see if he could bump into Dragon while he was at it.
In the world of One Piece, there were quite a few mysterious figures, and Luffy’s father, Dragon, was one of them.
No one knew his origins, nor did anyone know his true strength.
The role he played was that of an absolute, behind-the-scenes final boss.