In the blink of an eye, Li Xiaohu had been living in Water 7 for two years. Within these two years, Xiaohu had gone from knowing nothing about shipwright work to achieving considerable mastery. He had also made many acquaintances here and become friends with the five foremen of Dock One.
Paulie was the rigging and mast foreman, who loved smoking cigars, enjoyed gambling, and was frequently chased by debt collectors.
Lucci, the sawing and assembly foreman, had a pigeon perched on his left shoulder and liked using ventriloquism to pretend the pigeon was talking.
Kaku, the ship inspection and repair foreman, had a square, long nose and, despite being only in his early twenties, always liked to refer to himself as an old man or an elder.
Peeply Lulu, the pitch, forging, and pulley foreman, always had hair that stuck up wildly in all directions.
Tilestone, the flag, cork, and sail-sewing foreman, possessed boundless strength but a simple mind.
Over these past two years, Xiaohu's cultivation had also reached the realm of Three Flowers - Stage 9, which the System designated as Level 27. He was just one opportunity away from entering the Four Images Realm. It was thanks to the Wooden Bird that he was able to cultivate normally.
The Wooden Bird was a reward given by the System when he completed his first collection task. It could absorb and filter violent spiritual energy for his cultivation, while the remaining violent energy transformed into power to run the Wooden Bird.
The Wooden Bird possessed spiritual intelligence, so it would go out on its own to expend energy. Li Xiaohu rarely left the shipyard, so whenever he needed anything, he would send the Wooden Bird out to trade. As time passed, the people of Water 7 came to realize that the Wooden Bird's owner was Li Xiaohu, and that he was extremely generous with his spending.
For the past two years, the System had been issuing tasks to collect Gale Winds, which Li Xiaohu guessed were related to the tsunami that struck Water 7 every year. The Gale Wind tasks were always issued right around the time the tsunami arrived. When Xiaohu's Gale Wind collection progress reached 30%, the System rewarded him with a spellbook called *Source of Wind*, allowing him to learn his very first immortal spell, Wind Control. When he reached 60%, he obtained *Qionghua Swordsmanship*. Furthermore, the skills bestowed by the System only required the consumption of specified vital energy and spirit to cast, without draining his own True Qi.
On this day, Li Xiaohu was working at Dock One as usual when he received another task to collect Gale Winds. He found an open space and let the System gather the invisible Gale Winds. Just as the collection was underway, a commotion broke out not far away. Xiaohu looked up and saw what appeared to be a group of pirate customers from earlier.
The leader of the pirates called out, "I've thought about it carefully, very carefully. Although the ship is repaired, the price is simply too high. Therefore, I've decided not to pay a single Berry, hahaha..."
Surrounded by the laughing pirates, Paulie looked displeased. "Customers, causing trouble here will bring you big trouble."
Before Paulie could even stand up, however, he spotted a yellow figure appearing behind the pirates. He thought about it for a moment, then sat back down to continue his work. The pirates, assuming Paulie had lost his nerve, laughed even louder, completely oblivious to the sympathetic looks being cast by the surrounding craftsmen.
"Pirates... then have you ever killed anyone?" The voice from behind made the pirates freeze. The pirate captain turned his head to look and saw a youth of seventeen or eighteen, dressed in yellow clothing adorned with Bagua symbols, looking at him with an expression of pure curiosity.
The pirates burst into laughter. "Listen up, our boss is the great pirate Crescent Moon with a bounty of 36 million! Killing people is an everyday occurrence! Can kids even be shipwrights? Don't be too curious, go play with your wood somewhere else!"
Hearing this, Li Xiaohu smiled. "Is that so? Then I can make a move without any burdens."
The pirates roared with laughter. "Make a move? Did you hear that? That kid said he wants to make a move... huh?" To their horror, the youth before them began to rapidly expand in size, his expression turning ferocious. Within moments, a ten-meter-tall monster with horns on its head stood towering before them.
"Help! A ghost, that's a ghost!" The pirates scrambled in all directions, only to find that no matter how they ran, they could never escape.
The pirate captain mustered his courage and roared, "Don't be afraid! This has got to be fake! Watch this!" With that, the pirate captain took the lead, brandishing a large saber as he slashed at the Ghost King's foot, instantly cutting open a wound. Yet before he could even feel pleased, dozens of "people" spurted out from the split wound. Looking closer, weren't those "people" the exact ones he had murdered? The less courageous pirates immediately wet themselves with fright, weeping and begging for mercy.
Yet to the shipwrights watching from the outside, all they saw was a group of pirates running around in circles, then collapsing onto the ground in tears. Paulie cast a pitying glance at the pirates who had just been spouting such big words. Though he didn't know what the pirates were seeing, judging by their behavior, even if they survived, they would be left with a lifelong psychological shadow.
And it wasn't over yet. Standing to the side, Li Xiaohu closed his eyes tight, chanting incantations under his breath while forming hand seals. Suddenly, a mass of dark clouds gathered directly above the pirates' heads, with faint flashes of lightning crackling within—dense and oppressive, sending waves of heavy dread through the air.
"Th-This is a thundercloud? Is Xiaohu a Devil Fruit user too?" The craftsmen watching the spectacle were stunned, as this was their first time seeing Xiaohu summon thunderclouds.
As for Xiaohu, upon finishing the final verse of the chant, he opened his eyes, pulled a talisman from his robes, and shouted, "Earth Spirit Talisman, go!"
Then, at the youth's command, fist-sized stones rained down from the sky, slamming relentlessly into the pirates' bodies.
"So it wasn't lightning after all!" The onlookers made expressions of shock so profound that their eyeballs popped right out of their sockets—something Xiaohu still found hard to comprehend.
The first time he saw someone's eyeballs suddenly bulge out like that, Xiaohu had thought the person's eyes were falling out and wanted to rush over to heal them. But the person quickly returned to normal. Xiaohu checked and found that their eyes were indeed undamaged. Moreover, the person had no idea their eyeballs had just popped out, insisting that such a thing was impossible for a human and that Xiaohu must have seen things. With no other options, and later seeing everyone around turn a blind eye to such behavior, Xiaohu had no choice but to pretend he couldn't see it either.
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As for those pirates, they stood there blankly at that moment, muttering incessantly about ghosts, there are ghosts, letting the stones smash against their heads without moving an inch until they were completely buried under the rocks.
Paulie stood up, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and shouted at Xiaohu, "Xiaohu, take it easy. Don't smash all their brains to pieces."
Li Xiaohu replied, "It's fine, I already recited the Rebirth Mantra just now."
"I mean cleaning this up afterwards is too much of a hassle! Who cares what crappy incantation you recited!" Paulie roared.
"How can there be ghosts and gods in this world? They're just scaring themselves, how pathetic," Kaku muttered, shaking his head.
Meanwhile, Xiaohu took out a small notebook and wrote: *Year x, Month x, Day x, dealt with troublemaking pirates... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 of them. Cost: one Evil-Repelling Talisman, one Illusion Talisman, one Earth Spirit Talisman. Pirate leader's bounty 36 million, the rest... unknown, probably worthless, consider them freebies. So how much should a single talisman be worth here...*
Curious, Paulie leaned in close, looked at the heavenly scripture-like writing in the notebook, and asked, "What are you writing this garbage down for?"
"Ah, I'm calculating how much these talismans are worth converted into Berries. Look, I used 3 talismans to take care of this 36-million pirate, so a single talisman of mine must be worth 12 million."
Paulie curled his lip. "A pirate like that is worth thirty million? I could take him out with my eyes closed. Does that mean my abilities are worth thirty million too?"
"But my talismans can be used by ordinary people too. Maybe someone will need to buy them for self-defense?"
"Can an average person casually pull out ten million? Anyone who can afford to spend ten million on a talisman, why wouldn't they just hire a bodyguard? They're just a few scraps of paper, they're not worth that much money."
"You've gone too far. These are spiritual talismans, not scraps of paper. You don't believe I can sell one for ten million?"
"Of course I don't! Care to make a bet? If you can sell one for ten million, I'll do whatever you want."
"Then you're bound to lose. You've never won a gamble in your life."
"Nonsense! Who's spreading rumors?"
"I've seen it several times, you being chased by people from the casino."
"Debt collection... doesn't count as losing. Debt collection is the creditors' business, how can you call that losing a gamble? I just had bad luck those days. But I have a feeling my luck today is definitely going to be great—I walked out and saw money!"
"It's still broad daylight and you're already starting to dream?"
"Nagging! Do you want to bet or not?"
"Fine, then I won't make you climb mountains of swords or plunge into seas of fire. If I really manage to sell it, you have to quit gambling for good."
"No way! A... at most a year—no, a month."
"What, lacking confidence? Scared? You must think my talismans can sell for ten million too. In that case, just admit it, I won't laugh at you."
"I'm not scared at all! I'm just afraid you'll pull some tricks. We have to make it clear beforehand: you're not allowed to ask Mr. Iceburg for help."
"Fine, I won't ask Mr. Iceburg, nor will I ask any shipwrights from Galley-La Company."
"You said it yourself. Kaku, you'll be our witness. If Xiaohu's talisman really sells for ten million, Paulie loses and quits gambling forever; if it doesn't sell for ten million, then all of Paulie's future cigars will be bought by Li Xiaohu."
"Deal." Xiaohu and Paulie exchanged glances, both seeing absolute certainty in each other's eyes.
"Hey, is that fellow over there trying to cross the railing and enter the shipyard?" Kaku seemed to have noticed something and bolted away at high speed.
Xiaohu looked in the direction Kaku had sprinted and saw a man wearing a Straw Hat seemingly trying to barge straight into the shipyard. Following right behind him were a girl with orange hair and... a man with a nose just as long as Kaku's?
"Pirates? They surely aren't here to stir up trouble. But that guy wearing the Straw Hat looks kind of slow..." Xiaohu glanced at them once and then withdrew his gaze. "Who should I find to buy this talisman..."