Starting with the Uchiha clan, they began cultivating demonic arts.

Chapter 248 Arrival in Drum Country

Uchiha Touyu only mentioned the matter of promoting faith briefly. In the real world, promoting a new faith would likely face numerous difficulties and obstacles.

However, the average intelligence level in the One Piece world is not high, and most royal families belong to the same group of stars, which greatly lowers the psychological threshold of ordinary people, so it is not difficult to promote.

Not to mention that Uchiha Touyu had already left behind a terrifying reputation in Alabasta. Now everyone knows that this guy is the kind of cruel god. It has been a common practice since ancient times to worship such a cruel and evil god in order to avoid being harmed.

So when Uchiha Tou set sail again three days later, he already felt that the power of faith received by the Future Life Sutra had increased significantly, and the original speed of developing the Vampire Fruit also began to increase.

This is only three days, and the faith has not yet been fully spread. If it were three or four months later, Uchiha Touyu would be confident that he could evolve the power of the Vampire Fruit to its limit.

On the high seas, Nami, with a smile on her face, placed her hand on the ship. As her ability was activated, the surface of the medium-sized sailboat quickly became extremely smooth, and it began to slide on the sea.

"Wow, that's fast... It's like surfing and skiing! At this speed, it should only take a day to get to Drum Country! It's several times faster than normal!"

"I never imagined that the power of a Devil Fruit could be developed so easily. Is this what it feels like to awaken a Devil Fruit?"

Yes, Nami's Devil Fruit ability has now been developed to the awakened stage. When spreading faith in Alabasta, Uchiha Tou naturally did not forget Nami and gave her a title so that she could also share some of the power of faith. In addition, the power of faith required to develop the Smooth-Smooth Fruit to the awakened stage is not much, so Nami quickly developed the fruit to the awakened stage.

If the Smooth-Smooth Fruit could be developed to the microscopic or conceptual level, it could be considered a god-level fruit. However, it is clear that this amount of faith power is not enough to achieve that. Even so, just developing the Smooth-Smooth Fruit to the point of awakening would make its power extremely abnormal.

At least opponents who can't fly would probably be killed by the power of this Devil Fruit. Even if someone has the ability to fly, if their Haki isn't up to par, Nami can make their surface have zero friction by touching them, so that they can't even fly and can only slide endlessly on the ground.

However, after the boat had been gliding at high speed for an hour or two, sweat began to bead on Nami's forehead. Uchiha Touyu, hovering in mid-air, glanced at Nami and said:

"If you're not feeling strong enough, take a break! Your Devil Fruit awakened too early; your body can't keep up at all."

"I see!"

Nami wiped the sweat from her forehead and breathlessly withdrew her power. As a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit, the Smooth-Smooth Fruit does not increase stamina, and the skin smoothness she gained immediately after eating it is a passive ability that does not consume stamina at all, so there is no effect of training to improve stamina.

Nami isn't some weak little girl; in fact, compared to the average person, she's quite strong and agile. However, she's far from properly developing her Devil Fruit abilities to awaken them, which is why using her Devil Fruit powers is so difficult for her.

"You should practice the Immortal Martial Arts I taught you more in the future. That stuff is much stronger than the Navy's Six Styles. If you had just mastered it, your stamina wouldn't be so poor."

"It's too much trouble... Studying nautical charts and navigational knowledge every day is already troublesome enough, I don't have much time to spare for cultivation!"

"Heh, stop making excuses. Back in Alabasta, Robin, who helped with government affairs, and Vivi, who was busy calming the people, were much busier than you, yet they've both mastered the basics of the Human Immortal Martial Arts."

Uchiha Touyu rolled his eyes and said, "Because Uchiha Touyu is much more reliable than the Straw Hat crew, Nami has indeed become much more lax with this support."

In comparison, Robin, who still lacks a sense of security, and Princess Vivi, who shoulders the responsibilities of Alabasta, are much more hardworking than Nami.

"Okay, I understand... I'll try my best to cultivate. But my talent isn't very good, and I feel like my cultivation speed is so slow."

Nami sighed and nodded. She also felt that she had been a bit lax lately. After all, this girl was no ordinary person and understood the importance of strength.

Uchiha Touyu shook his head:

"Your cultivation speed is actually not slow. In terms of talent, you are at least much stronger than ordinary people. It's just that the people you are comparing yourself to have even higher talent."

"While I'm on my way to Drum Kingdom to chase Blackbeard, I can also visit a certain doctor to see if I can find a prescription to enhance the effects of my cultivation."

In fact, Uchiha Touyu wasn't quite sure whether Blackbeard had actually gone to Drum Country. He only remembered that in the original story, Blackbeard did indeed make a trip to that country in order to devour the Mushroom Fruit.

Who knew that King Wapol was such a coward? As soon as he heard that pirates were coming, he vanished without a trace, leaving Blackbeard, that old schemer, empty-handed—this was probably the only time Blackbeard's plan failed after he betrayed the Whitebeard Pirates.

Anyway, Uchiha Touya isn't in a hurry. It would be best if he could find Blackbeard. If he couldn't find Blackbeard, he could also look for Wapol. The Gluttony Fruit is also a heaven-defying fruit, and its effects are in no way inferior to the Dark-Dark Fruit.

Even if neither of them is there, Uchiha Touyu can go find a certain deer and a certain old woman. The medical skills in the One Piece world are quite useful for Uchiha Touyu.

For example, in the cultivation of the Human Immortal Martial Arts, there are many prescriptions to accelerate cultivation. However, all of those prescriptions come from the Yang God World, and many of the medicinal materials are not available in the One Piece World. Therefore, we can only find doctors from the One Piece World to exchange them.

Fortunately, those were all prescriptions for cultivation for those below the level of human immortals, and the medicinal materials used were still within the scope of animals, plants and minerals. Theoretically, there must be substitutes in the pirate world.

After resting for an hour or two and having a big meal, Nami had almost recovered her strength. Then she used her ability again to control the sailboat to speed up, which reduced the sailing time and also served as a form of training.

Thanks to Nami's speed boost, the ship arrived at the port of Drum Kingdom in less than a day.

"It's so cold... Alabasta and Drum Kingdom are such close islands, how come the weather is so different?"

"The climate on the Grand Line is just that unpredictable; you should be used to it by now."

Seeing Nami trembling all over while still wearing only a thin shirt, Uchiha Tobi shook his head helplessly and simply took off his cloak and draped it over her.

"Damn it, why can't I turn on the air conditioner? I thought I was immune to the weather!"

Nami pulled her cloak tighter around herself and made a comment, to which Uchiha Touya rolled his eyes.

"Slide the air conditioner... You're overthinking it. Unless you develop the Smooth-Smooth Fruit to the point of having conceptual abilities, the temperature won't be affected."

"Okay, I got it, but at least I can glide the wind away!"

Nami muttered to herself and activated her Devil Fruit ability. Sure enough, the cold wind blew towards her and slid to both sides, making her feel much warmer.

"Let's go investigate the situation in Drum Kingdom first. Those lions over there, get over here right now!"

Princess Vivi and Robin stayed in Alabasta. Alabasta is currently in a state of disarray and has many things to do, so this time, apart from Uchiha Tou and Nami, only a lion named Riki was brought along.

With a series of whooshing sounds, Riki, with a vulture's head and wings and a lion's body, with a cloud of flames wrapped around its head, slowly descended from the sky.

This lion also benefited from the power of faith. Although it had mastered the Unborn Sutra terribly, the Vulture Fruit wasn't particularly powerful to begin with, so it still managed to develop it to the point of awakening. Lion mane grew out, and there was a cloud of flame behind it. Now it really looked like a majestic griffin.

The awakening of a Zoan-type Devil Fruit greatly enhances a person's strength, speed, physique, and other aspects. Coincidentally, this lion also follows a simple and brutal approach, which directly endowed it with considerable power.

At least in the first half of the Grand Line, this lion was already considered very strong, no less than those great pirates with hundreds of millions of taels of silver.

Seeing the lion land on the deck, Nami's eyes lit up, and she pounced on it, hugging its furry neck and smiling.

"It's definitely warmest here, unlike in Alabasta, where sitting on you was unbearably hot."

Lion Liki's face clearly showed a black line. He really wanted to slap the bald monkey lying on him away, but after thinking about Uchiha Tou's brutality and terror, he obediently let Nami ride on his back and become her mount.

With a mount as conspicuous as a griffin, it was clear that one could not keep a low profile. As soon as Uchiha Touyu disembarked, he saw a group of people at the port staring in disbelief at the lion Riki flying down from the ship.

"W-what is this?! Could it be the legendary griffin?!"

"A monster!! A huge monster!!"

"Wait, there's someone on that griffin... So beautiful~~, is it the legendary griffin rider?"

After awakening its Devil Fruit power, Richie's size nearly doubled, now reaching about five meters long and over two meters tall, making it incredibly conspicuous. Hearing the praises from the crowd below, a mixture of surprise and fear, it immediately revealed a smug expression, opened its beak, and let out a lion's roar.

"Hey, hey, feed... this monster won't eat people, will it?!"

"This feels so dangerous, shouldn't we move away from here?"

The ordinary people at the port broke out in a cold sweat, their legs trembling, looking as if they were about to flee, which immediately aroused Nami's dissatisfaction.

Nami took out her Clima-Tact and smashed it hard on Leigh's head, creating a large bump.

"Stop scaring people, just lower it already!"

The unlucky lion landed with a displeased expression, and seeing this, the people on the port who were preparing to escape finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"This is the Drum Kingdom. May I ask what brings you two here? If you're looking for a doctor... you've come too late."

An elderly man, who seemed to be quite respected in the area, stepped forward and spoke to Uchiha Touyu with a wry smile.

Seeing that Uchiha Tou and Nami were dressed in fine clothes and that there was a strange beast like Lion Riki, the old man immediately suspected that they had come here to see a doctor.

Drum Kingdom was once a renowned medical power throughout the Grand Line, earning a considerable amount of foreign exchange through its medical industry, making it famous far and wide. It's perfectly normal for them to have such thoughts.

Uchiha Touyu wasn't looking for a doctor, but he was intrigued by the old man's words and wanted to use the opportunity to confirm the current time period.

"Oh? Why is it so late?"

The old man sighed and began to recount his story:

"Our country was indeed once the most famous medical nation on the Grand Line, but since the old king passed away, the new king Wapol has driven away all the doctors in the country, leaving only 20 of the most famous doctors."

"He also stipulated a law that if you are sick, you cannot see any other doctor; you can only see one of those 20 doctors."

"However, those 20 doctors had already been taken into the palace by Valpo and became his private physicians, so it would cost a lot of money to see one of the 20 doctors."

"Nowadays, even our own citizens can't find a doctor when they get sick. Those with some savings can grit their teeth and go to a doctor, but most poor people can only wait to die when they get sick."

"Tsk... I don't think that doctor's skill level is very high, otherwise how come he didn't cure your king who is obviously mentally ill?"

Uchiha Touyu couldn't help but complain. Even in a world like One Piece where everyone is more ruthless than the worst, Wapol's actions were far too human-like. Didn't he realize that if the country were to fall, he wouldn't be any better off?

Drum Country isn't a large country; its entire population is only a few tens of thousands. Instead of developing its own unique industries, this small country with a small population is exploiting its own people to the bone—frankly, Uchiha Touyu couldn't understand what was going on in his mind.

Upon hearing Uchiha Touyu's words, the old man gave a wry smile:

"Perhaps he's just hopelessly stupid! Anyway, our king is notoriously stupid and wicked. Nobles like you could have gone to see a doctor for treatment; it would have just cost a little more money..."

"However, not long ago, a pirate crew suddenly appeared in our country, and then the king abandoned all his people and fled overseas with his subordinates and doctor 20."

"So now there are no doctors left in our entire country."

(End of this chapter)