Both time-traveled characters ended up as villainous henchmen.

Jesper glanced at He Nian, then looked down at the floor, and finally said tremblingly, "I... my dream used to be to be an architect and build a beautiful big house for my mother."

After some hesitation, Jesper finally decided to tell the truth.

Just after Jesper spoke, He Nian saw the ball of light representing Jesper's "dream" gradually brighten in his Observational Aura.

It stood out brightly amidst the vast, chaotic smoke of "desire" surrounding it.

But soon, as Jesper changed the subject, the faint light quickly dimmed again.

"Brother He Nian, I know I was wrong! I swear I will never be a pirate again. I only hope to return to my hometown and take care of my mother until her death. I beg you, Brother He Nian, to grant this sinner's small wish."

After saying this, tears streamed down his face, making him look like a prodigal son who had returned home in repentance.

However, Jesper's true thoughts were fully reflected in He Nian's perception through his increasingly strong will to survive and his smug emotions.

Clearly, Jesper was not truly repentant; he had simply sensed an opportunity to escape.

He Nian turned and left, no longer paying attention to Jesper's performance.

Perhaps Jesper's dream once shone like gold, but now, his little "dream" has long been drowned out by all sorts of complicated and surging "desires".

It will never be the same again.

"Dreams and desires..."

He Nian murmured to herself as she walked back onto the deck and looked out at the boundless sea.

It seems... these two words fit the theme of the One Piece world very well.

As the waves crashed, He Nian felt the sea breeze caressing her face and slowly closed her eyes.

The word "dream" is something that Luffy, the protagonist of the One Piece world, always has on his lips. At the same time, every member of the main crew has their own dream.

Desire, on the other hand, encompasses an even wider range.

If we combine the two, it’s easy to recall Vegapunk’s speculation about the origin of Devil Fruits, which is a personification of human dreams and desires.

Users of Devil Fruits are generally considered to be among the strongest on the sea, possessing an overwhelming advantage in strength over ordinary people.

Especially for Logia-type Devil Fruit users, their elemental transformation ability is virtually unbeatable for ordinary people. Even among Devil Fruit users, Logia users have a huge advantage over users of other types.

To stand on the same level as Logia-type Devil Fruit users, one needs the support of Haki.

After being imbued with Armament Haki, ordinary physical attacks can also hit Logia-type Devil Fruit users.

In short, Haki has a certain restraining effect on Devil Fruit users.

Thinking of this, He Nian suddenly opened his eyes, and he had a bold guess.

Devil Fruits are the embodiment of human dreams and desires.

A domineering presence, a fusion of personal will and physical strength.

Haki can suppress the power of Devil Fruits, meaning that an individual's will can suppress the desires of all beings.

With one's own will, resist the onslaught of the sea of ​​desires of all living beings.

In this process, the "dream," which is highly condensed from one's own will, will provide great assistance.

When one's own dreams suppress the desires inherent in a Devil Fruit, then one can completely control the fruit's power, which means...

"Fruit Awakening!"

He Nian subconsciously exclaimed, as if he had come to a very interesting conclusion.

If his hypothesis is correct, then the awakening of Devil Fruits can be roughly divided into three types.

The first type involves the self suppressing the desires of all beings through its own dreams, absorbing and strengthening them, and ultimately achieving the fruit of enlightenment.

The second scenario is that the individual's dream and the desires of all beings within the fruit find a balance and achieve coexistence, merging together, allowing the fruit to successfully awaken.

The third type is where one's own dreams are devoured and assimilated by the desires of all beings within the fruit, leading to complete ruin and failure to awaken the fruit.

Of course, in order to reach the stage of fruit awakening, one's personal will also need to be strong to a certain extent.

Otherwise, one cannot "meet" the desires of all beings within the fruit on an equal footing, and the subsequent awakening process is out of the question.

Now, He Nian can "see" other people's dreams and desires by using his special Observation Haki.

Therefore, he is very likely to be able to "see" the desires of Devil Fruits, as well as the dreams and desires of Devil Fruit users.

Now that he can "see" clearly, he might be able to try some fancy tricks when he encounters a Devil Fruit user in the future.

He Nian smiled slightly; he was already eager to fight a Devil Fruit user.

……

A day later, He Nian boarded the Blind Eyes, a ship hijacked by the Blind Eyes Pirates, and successfully arrived at the nearest naval base.

After some wrangling, the Navy seized the Blind Eye and the dozen or so pirate heads on board. As for Jesper, he was also taken by the Navy and imprisoned.

In contrast, He Nian acquired a large sum of money, more than 1.48 million Berries. Adding what he had previously plundered from the Blind Eye and what he already had on him, he had nearly two million Berries.

In addition, the navy provided a small-sized sea vessel as requested by He Nian.

It's too much trouble for him to drive the blind man's car alone; he'd be much more comfortable driving a smaller one.

Before leaving, He Nian also checked the exact location of Drum Island, the small island where the naval base is located. If he wasn't in a hurry, it would take him more than half a month to reach it from his current location.

At this point, He Nian left the naval base and embarked on his journey to Drum Island.

He Nian's original motivation for going to Drum Island was to use Chopper, a member of the original protagonist group, to help him create Haki Refining Technique more quickly by leveraging Chopper's medical skills and understanding of the human body.

But now, after this period of practice and reflection, his current thoughts have deviated from what they used to be.

He no longer pursued domineering cultivation techniques that focused on the circulation of qi through the meridians, but instead embarked on the path of cultivating both body and spirit.

He has already successfully created the spiritual cultivation technique "The Vast Ocean Reflects the Sky," and it seems that he no longer needs Chopper, the medical expert.

However, he still had no idea about specific methods for physical training.

He Nian remembers that Chopper in the original work also had an important medical achievement—the Rumble Ball.

Rumble Balls can disrupt the transformation wavelengths of Zoan-type Devil Fruits, thereby granting more transformation enhancements.

Devil Fruit, transformation wavelength, enhanced transformation.

Combining these keywords, let's revisit He Nian's previously stated direction of spiritual and physical unity in cultivation.

He Nian was certain that Chopper played an extremely important role in his research into a body-building technique that could simultaneously train both the body and the mind.

Incidentally, it will also allow him to further explore the secrets of Devil Fruits.

"Coincidentally, there is a very suitable Devil Fruit user on Drum Island right now to be my opponent."

He Nian stood on the small boat, a smile of excitement on her face as she faced the sea breeze.

Wapol, the user of the Gluttony Fruit and the king of Drum Kingdom.