Pirates: Martial Arts Masters on the Straw Hat Ship

The night was as dark as ink, torn apart by the towering flames.

In the shadows not far from the massive pile of wood, a huge fern leaf trembled slightly.

A middle-aged man with a distinctive "3"-shaped topknot and wearing brown-tinted glasses is lurking here.

He wore a blue and white striped shirt, and his purplish-red bow tie looked particularly comical in the firelight. His beige trousers were covered in jungle dirt.

Baroque Works senior agent, Mr. 3.

He pushed up his glasses, looked at the unbelievable scene before him, and a mocking sneer curled at the corner of his mouth.

"What kind of performance art are these pirates doing? Cooking themselves?"

Mr. 3 toyed with a drop of white wax in his hand, his eyes full of disdain:

"Looks like they've been driven mad by the island's pristine environment, actually coming up with this way to...keep warm? Or is it a sacrifice?"

A wave of heat rolled in, and even from dozens of meters away, Mr. 3 still felt his cheeks burning.

He wasn't in a hurry to take action; in fact, he thought it was a rare and exciting show.

"Hmph, whatever tricks they're up to. The temperature in that pot should soften even an iron block."

"I'll go out and clean up the mess when they're half-dead and their skin is torn apart in that pot."

Mr. 3 whispered ominously, "This is the victory of cunning. We can pocket this 50 million Berry bounty without lifting a finger."

However, he was unaware that within that boiling stone pot, a "deification movement" that defied the laws of biology was taking place.

……

Inside the stone pot, a red glow filled the air.

Ronan, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji are in the heart of Purgatory.

This is not ordinary boiling water, but a "high-energy furnace" formed by mixing the most essential blood and spinal cord of two ancient dinosaur overlords with several thousand-year-old medicinal herbs.

Each drop of the medicine contained a violent life energy, like a miniature bomb with consciousness, frantically drilling into the pores of the four people, tearing apart cells and recombining genes.

"It's so hot!! It hurts so much!!!"

Luffy roared to the sky, his voice as mournful as that of a wounded beast.

As someone who is made of rubber, he doesn't have a high tolerance for high temperatures.

At this moment, the heat no longer acts on the epidermis, but directly penetrates to the cellular level.

Under the scorching heat, his rubber body began to undergo strange changes—his skin turned bright red like a branding iron, and even emitted sizzling white smoke.

His torso and limbs sometimes swelled to their limit like a balloon, and sometimes contracted rapidly like a deflated rubber.

It was as if an invisible giant hand was frantically kneading this lump of "rubber clay".

"Are you trying to boil me to death... Damn it!!" Luffy gripped the edge of the stone pot tightly, his finger marks deeply embedded in the hard granite.

Zoro's situation was equally dire.

He sat cross-legged in the medicinal liquid, his whole body turning red from being boiled.

His teeth were clenched so hard they were grinding together, and blood even spurted out.

The veins all over his body bulged out, like writhing, ferocious earthworms, thrashing wildly under his skin, as if they were about to burst open at any moment.

"I can't faint... I absolutely can't..."

Zoro roared furiously in his mind, forcing himself to stay conscious.

In the midst of endless pain, he seemed to see sharp swords cutting through his bones, as if the medicine was removing impurities from his bone marrow.

He tried to suppress the agonizing cries of his collapsing body with his unwavering swordsmanship.

Sanji's face turned deathly pale, and the cold sweat that had just appeared evaporated instantly.

His legs trembled violently in the liquid, and his skeletal structure, which was originally human, seemed to be undergoing some kind of restructuring.

That was a sign that the "bloodline factor" buried deep in his blood was being forcibly awakened by this violent medicinal energy.

"Is my leg... going to break...?" Sanji's mind was hazy, but he still held on desperately.

Ronan stood in the center of the stone pot. Although he had the system's assistance, he was still enduring unimaginable pain.

But he knew that at this moment he was the anchor point for Luffy and his two companions, and he absolutely could not fall.

Seeing the three people on the verge of their limits, Ronan suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils bursting with golden light.

"Don't resist the pain! Accept it! Guide it!!"

Ronan's voice boomed like a great bell in their minds, instantly bringing them back to their senses.

"Focus your energy in your dantian! Don't treat this energy as an enemy!"

Ronan roared, "Imagine your bodies are bottomless black holes, swallowing all this raging energy!"

"Don't let them linger on the surface, that's a waste! Press them into the bones, press them into the internal organs!"

"The Thirteen Protectors' External Training, Third Stage—Internal Breathing!!"

"Open up my Ren and Du meridians! Establish the Great Circulation within my body!!"

Upon hearing Ronan's command, the three, driven by their instinct for survival, reacted instantly.

They began to unconsciously practice the breathing techniques that Ronan had taught them.

breathe--

His previously rapid and disordered breathing gradually became deep and long.

Time passed by, second by second.

The flames beneath the woodpile burned ever brighter, as if they were about to set the night sky ablaze.

But the scene inside the stone pot took an astonishing turn.

The pot of medicine, which was originally full and boiling, began to decrease at a visible rate.

The water level is continuously dropping.

It wasn't evaporated; rather, it was forcibly "drunk" into these four monstrous bodies through their countless open pores!

Their bodies seemed to transform into four enormous vortexes, greedily plundering all the essence from the stone pot.

Crimson blood energy began to swirl around them, forming small energy storms.

Ronan closed his eyes and looked inward at himself.

He could clearly feel that the energy flow called "Qi" was like a golden dragon, forcefully breaking through the blocked barriers in his body.

The coccyx, the spine, and the occipital bone... all three barriers have been breached!

[Ding! Congratulations, host! Your physique has broken through the critical point! Indestructible Body (Beginner Level) achieved!]

The system notification sounded like heavenly music.

[Ding! Congratulations, host! Your Ren and Du meridians are now open! The Grand Circulation has been established!]