When the setting sun rose once more, on the blue sea level, an old man and a young girl used the freestyle stroke to pull the sailboat behind them.
Domino gained a personal realization: [Uttering grand words might not necessarily kill you, but the trials you are meant to suffer definitely cannot be escaped.]
“Well done, Domino.
Youth is meant to be recklessly poured out.” Having said that, he began to exert force to speed up pulling the boat once more…
Seeing this scenario, Domino thought: [I am here to work hard at cultivation, not to die from cultivation.
Besides, do you actually know that rolling a circle underneath a sailboat can really kill someone?]
“Ah, the passion of youth makes me surge once again!”
When Zephyr’s passion burned, how could he care about his beloved disciple’s physical strength?
He forcefully dragged the sailboat behind him to chase after Domino.
She wasn’t cultivating; she was running for her life…
Yet Teacher Zephyr, who was pulling the boat in front, completely lacked any chivalry or tenderness toward women, leaving his beloved disciple to struggle bitterly for survival between him and the sailboat.
The teacher was chosen by her own kowtow, and the cultivation was sought by her own request…
As the saying goes, even if it’s a contract you made yourself, you must finish it while swallowing your tears.
“The Marine is about to usher in the era of maidens!
Let us burn ourselves to illuminate this world!”
Yet from behind came the voice: “Teacher, I have burned out…”
When Domino woke up once again, she was already on the deck, and Ain was patiently feeding her thin soup.
Domino felt too weak to swallow, but she heard her teacher’s unique expectations as well as his meticulous care.
“My cute student has finally woken up?
Justice truly will not perish!”
[Please stop urging me, old man; I am already on the path to perishing.]
“Teacher Zephyr, can’t we start with things like sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups?”
“Domino, you must trust me.
Between life and death lies great terror!
Only by doing so can you win the future.”
Once, because of a “future”, she had grinded through three years of the gaokao, and again because of a “future”, she had traveled alone to a foreign land.
When she heard the word “future” once more, the instinct deep within her soul was awakened!
“With neither power nor wealth, if I want to defy the heavens and change my fate, I can only try my absolute best!
If I don’t work hard in my prime years, am I supposed to ask to be kept?” Forcibly unleashing her ultimate skill—self-hypnosis plus PUA…
She was seen gorging herself wildly after getting up, and then slinging the cable diagonally across her shoulder, jumping resolutely into the sea to pull the boat.
“Hmm!
As expected of a young girl with the Will of Steel, it seems this old man must also step up my effort!” Having said that, he also jumped down after her.
Binz saw this and said: “Are the two of them really going to burn this intensely?”
Ain sighed deeply: “Let them do as they please.
I’ll go prepare the meals.
Keep a close eye on Domino—I feel like she won’t last much longer!”
Domino Dodo just kept on like this, lingering between wakefulness and unconsciousness, until near dusk…
The four of them sat around eating together.
Feeling that chopsticks and spoons were in the way, Domino switched to eating with her hands in the Indian style.
Even though her hands scooping the food trembled nonstop, her mouth still kept going: “How can I waste my wonderful youth on eating!
Teacher Zephyr, what shall we practice next?”
Feeling her student’s burning gaze, Zephyr immediately solemnly announced: “Next, of course, I will personally teach you physical combat.
Young girl, are you mentally prepared?”
“Bring it on, and please, Teacher, enlighten me without reservation!”
Watching the master and apprentice walk toward the cabin one after the other, Binz’s facial features almost scrunched together, and he turned to point at his head toward Ain.
Ain shrugged indifferently and turned to walk toward the medical room, firmly believing that Domino would need it next.
Inside the cabin, with her entire body wrapped in bandages, Domino swiped open her phone with her tongue to constantly review the plot of One Piece.
As a typical person without a system or any halo, she deeply knew that only through continuous struggle could she win the pity of the Goddess of Fate.
But the pain in her body made her couldn’t help but cry out: “System?
Daddy System, Mommy System…
Cheat?
Lucky draw, check-in…
Golden finger, distribute rewards…
Alpaca 1, Alpaca 2, Alpaca 3…”
Her murmuring curses echoed in the cabin, carrying the young girl’s silent tears like a shooting star sliding across the skyline.
A heart falling…
falling…
until it shattered!
At early dawn came the call: “Young girl, what are you waiting for?”
“Coming, coming!
Another day full of vigor—let the passion of youth burn up this ocean!”
With two sounds of “splash, splash!”, the sailboat entered another day of accelerated sailing.
[Suffering the hardest of hardships may not necessarily make you a master above others.
But for common folks who want to defy the heavens and change their fate, they must be willing to sacrifice their all…]
“Youth—Youth!
You are the person with the strongest willpower I have ever seen.
Born mediocre, you will surely carve out a different life.”
“Mayflies shaking a giant tree, fancying oneself extraordinary, human will conquering the heavens, and reaching the other shore beyond life and death—that is solely my belief.”
Zephyr felt a buzzing in his brain, and a thought flashed through his heart: [To be honest, this girl is truly ruthless.
Without even needing me to voice encouragement, she comes with her own continuous uplifting effect.]
At this moment, Domino, trying her absolute best, had only this in her mind: [A mortal’s self-discipline is comparable to a deity’s.
We should be the first in the world to relieve the worries of all matters and untangle the sufferings of all people.]
For the ultimate grind-king of the current era to be reborn in another world, it must be terrifyingly monstrous!
During the first month of getting along with Domino, only Binz’s facial features were distorted on the ship.
“Domino, why don’t you take a proper rest!”
“Rest?
How could someone with a dream in their heart rest?
I want to be a charming young girl who contributes to the world.”
“But seeing you cry while working hard like this makes my heart ache!”
“You only see my sweat and tears along the way, but you don’t catch a glimpse of the joy when I reach the peak!”
…
During the second month of getting along with Domino, both Binz and Ain put on masks of agony on the ship.
“Domino, how about slowing down your cultivation appropriately for now?”
“Teacher Zephyr, how can that be!
Self-discipline is the ladder toward success; let us savor the unique joy of cultivation!”
“But your strength is improving slowly.
Why don’t we change methods?”
“As long as I improve step by step, that’s fine.
I deeply know that many littles make a mickle, and eventually, dripping water wears through stone.”
…
During the third month of getting along with Domino, everyone on the ship automatically put on masks of agony upon seeing her.
“I don’t even dare to open my mouth to persuade her now!”
“I’m afraid that if she stops grinding Sea Kings, one day she’ll switch to grinding in another direction…”
Thinking of this, the three people on the deck shivered in unison and had no choice but to let Domino go crazy at the bow of the ship.
“Who would have thought that trying too hard turns out to be poison!”
“I’m worried whether she might drop dead from overwork!”
“Let’s just hold on until Marineford first!”
From the bow came the chant: “A young man doesn’t work hard, an old man grieves in vain.
With my ordinary strength, I forge a king’s crown.
Behold my tender hands achieving its supremacy…”
The Marine officers and soldiers on the entire warship had listened with soaring inspiration for the past two months, but now they were all rejecting the “grind-king quotes”!
Marineford
Seagulls were crying out “ah ah” in the sky, yet Sengoku faintly felt that something wasn’t quite right.
“Garp, this weather doesn’t look like there’s going to be a storm!”
Hearing this, Garp, holding a large bag of rice crackers, replied in an indifferent tone: “Maybe it has a premonition that the end is near?”
“Can’t your stinking mouth ever say something nice?”
Garp picked up the bag of rice crackers in his hand, forcefully poured out the last one, and triumphantly put it into his mouth to chew.
“Hmm, nah!
Or perhaps Kaido is coming?”
Sengoku heard this and veins popped on his forehead: “You can leave now.
Don’t break my door!”
Garp was very obedient and left on his own initiative, except with a loud “crack” sound as he went out the door!
“Sorry, I broke it again!
This door is just too flimsy.”
“The door is pulled inward, not pushed outward.”
“But I just pushed the door open to come in!”
Sengoku felt it was too tiring to explain to him, and said weakly: “Deduct it from your salary this month!”
“Sorry!
It has already been advanced by me and spent.”
“Then deduct it from next month’s!”
Garp shrugged indifferently, tossed the wooden door in his hand to the side, and conveniently smashed the lounge chair outside the door.
Before Sengoku could even speak…
“Deduct it together from next month’s!” Garp was quite tactful.
Sengoku…
Yet at this moment, Sengoku did not know that Marineford was about to usher in the strictest “young lady” in the history of the Marine.
The Marineford officers and soldiers at the dock saw for the first time Zephyr accompanying a young girl pulling a warship with her physical body tied by a cable.
“How incredible!
What kind of trial is this!”
“A young, beautiful girl is actually cultivating in this manner?”
“It seems we are truly ignorant and ill-informed; we need to step it up!”
Domino, swimming into the dock with her teacher, generously cast a seductive wink and took the initiative to greet the Marines at the dock.
“Private Second Class Domino Dodo, reporting to you!”
The commissioned officer in charge of registration on the shore was utterly infatuated by the drenched young girl, completing the registration in a daze.
Before leaving, he didn’t forget to steal a peek at Domino’s slender back.
After being caught red-handed by the young girl in his eyes, he couldn’t help but offer an awkward smile in return.
Walking behind Zephyr, she said: “Men are born pigs!”
“I say Domino, why do you always love to use pigs to describe men?” Ain was somewhat puzzled by this.
“Because only castrated pigs are good males.”
Zephyr…
Binz…