I am the Bandit King of the East Sea.

“These are turbulent times, and I have many important matters to attend to. Xiu Zuo, please keep an eye on things for me for the time being.”

After saying that, Zefa turned and walked back, preparing to leave.

Xiu Zuo stood there, pondering Zefa's words, a hint of excitement suddenly appearing on his face.

"Professor Zephyr... is the important matter you mentioned the one that happened recently?"

Zefa stopped in his tracks.

"Professor Zephyr, I mean, if you really have the desire to compete for the position of Fleet Admiral, not only me, but many of your colleagues will support you." Xiu Zuo forced himself to suppress his excitement.

Some time ago, the current Commander-in-Chief of the World Government's Armed Forces officially submitted his resignation.

His successor is undoubtedly the Fleet Admiral, Steelbone Sky.

Kong's promotion will leave a vacancy for the position of Fleet Admiral.

Within the navy, there are three people whose seniority, prestige, and strength are sufficient to compete for the position of marshal.

First, we can rule out Garp. The remaining two current admirals, Zephyr and Sengoku, are both strong contenders for the Fleet Admiral position.

However... due to recent busy schedules, Kong's promotion has been temporarily postponed.

In Xiu Zuo's view, Zephyr's refusal to personally train Sieg, whom he valued highly, was to free up his resources to gain more leverage in the competition for the position of Fleet Admiral.

"Xiusuo."

Zefa turned around, still wearing that calm and serious expression.

"Forget about all that. Training the new recruits and key officers is our most important mission."

At this point, his expression turned slightly melancholy:

"To be honest, if it weren't for the Air Marshal's persuasion, I would have resigned from my position as Admiral. How could I possibly compete for the position of Navy Marshal now?"

After leaving those words behind, Zefa ignored them and boarded the warship to leave.

However, he wasn't as indifferent as he appeared. Xiu Zuo's words still echoed in his heart.

A contest for the position of Admiral of the Navy?

In the past, he would have really looked down on it.

But after experiencing some recent events, his passion for justice has been rekindled.

If... he were to succeed him as Fleet Admiral, what would the Navy become?

Can he, Zephyr, unleash his full potential, change the entire navy's atmosphere from top to bottom, and create the righteous and heroic force he envisions?

The thought inevitably surfaced in Zefa's mind.

Even he couldn't help but feel a little tempted.

"If I can perfectly resolve the Angel-Angel Fruit transaction between the merchant Tesoro and the Beast Pirates this time, it will definitely be a great achievement."

"After all, this is a major event involving one of the Four Emperors."

"This can be one of my bargaining chips in the competition for marshal."

.........

Inside the training camp.

All the naval officer cadets, including Sieg, lined up in front of their instructor, Shuzo, to receive his instructions.

Sieg, however, looked around listlessly.

Apart from him, the trainees were all junior or mid-level officers from headquarters.

Among the group, Sieg even spotted a few familiar figures.

A man with a pair of heart-shaped red glasses perched on his nose, looking somewhat comical.

Hypnotist Zango, former vice-captain of the Black Cat Pirates and Kuro's former subordinate, now seems to have become a Marine?

Back when Sig was in Xiluobu Village in the East Sea, he had met him before.

Chapter 368 The Power of the Dao, Three Stages!

Sig's gaze fell on Zango's chin, where he had a columnar "beard".

Actually, it wasn't a beard, but a kind of mushroom growing on his chin... Zango used to be a wandering dancer. One day, he slept on the grass for too long, and this mushroom grew on his chin.

After he ate the columnar mushroom on his chin, he gained a strange hypnotic ability.

Sig continued to look around.

These navy men were all quite different in appearance, a real mixed bag. There was a boy with a red mohawk, and another with silver hair and a cigar in his mouth... Smoker?

Sig paused for a moment.

Smoker, the Smoker, is a Logia-type Devil Fruit user with the Smoke-Smoke Fruit. He and the current Marine officer Tina are likely from the same class and are close in age.

Sig had already been hunted by Tina back in the East Blue, but Smoker, who is about the same age, has appeared in this training camp.

"Higuma, step forward!"

As Sig looked around, he heard Xiu Zuo shout coldly and call out his name.

Shuzo's expression was cold. He had been secretly observing Higuma, the new student whom Zephyr valued. But it was clear that the other was not listening to his instructions at all, but was looking around.

"Higuma, I heard that before you re-enlisted, you worked as a bounty hunter for a while, and not long ago you even captured a criminal with a bounty of fifty million..."

Xiu Zuo paused deliberately at this point, allowing the students to whisper among themselves.

A bounty of 50 million is among the highest bounties for pirates in the world, so it's no small feat.

Aside from Logia-type Devil Fruit users like Smoker, even these lower-ranking officers might not be able to handle a criminal with a 50 million bounty, which made many people remember the name Higuma immediately.

“Higuma, your performance is quite good. So, you can start this power test.” Xiu Zuo waved his hand and pointed to a device next to him.

"Shoot your full power at this device, and your Dao power value will be displayed on the screen," Xiu Zuo explained.

Daoli is a numerical value used to measure strength in the Navy. The most ordinary Navy personnel have a Daoli of 10, and those with a Daoli of over 500 are considered superhuman.

In the original work, even the weakest of the CP9 elites who were proficient in the Six Styles had a power level of over 600.

"A device for testing Dao power levels? How amazing..."

"What's so special about that? I've heard that some martial arts masters who are proficient in the Six Forms can judge the level of Dao power of an opponent simply by their own body after being struck..."

"This guy's name is Higuma, such a majestic and powerful name, he must have the strength of a bear, right?"

Amid the discussion, Sieg also walked up to the testing machine.

Instead of throwing a punch immediately, he first opened the system panel.

The current compatibility of the Fat Tiger card is 15%.

"One bear's strength? I'm probably only 0.15 times the strength of Gian right now?"

A 100% Gian has a punching force of at least six tons, equivalent to the full stomp of two elephants.

But based on the current compatibility, plus the strength that Sig's body already possesses... Sig estimates that his punching power is probably around a ton?

He raised his hand and punched the testing machine.

Daoli, 240.

"Is my current Dao power 240? If the compatibility of Fat Tiger's card is full, then my Dao power should be over 1200, surpassing CP9 Bruno ten years from now."

Sieg was fairly satisfied with the number.

In Sigurd's previous life, an average person's punching power was about 50 kg. In other words, the strength of one fat tiger is equal to the strength of two elephants, or the strength of 120 ordinary people.

Converted to so-called Dao power, six tons of punching force is roughly equivalent to 1200 Dao power.

However, discussions gradually arose around them, clearly indicating that the number had not met their expectations.

"240 Dao power? That's all?"

"Didn't he defeat a pirate with a bounty of 5000 million?"

Instructor Xiu Zuo looked at Sig with a hint of surprise.

This number is indeed not very high, but what surprised him was that... Sig's power generation technique was quite rudimentary... or rather, practically non-existent; he was simply using the strength of his arms.

Generally speaking, all martial arts teach people to mobilize the strength of their whole body and unleash it as a single force.

"For an ordinary human, achieving this level is quite impressive. This number is about twice as strong as that of the fish-men, but far inferior to races like the giants... However, has he not studied physical techniques much? He only used the strength of his arms."

Xiu Zuo secretly remembered this.

In fact, Shuzo himself is not an ordinary human, but belongs to the Long-Armed Tribe, a race of demi-humans. His hands are just past his knees, and he has two elbow joints on his arms.

Seeing the reactions of the other naval personnel around him, he gestured with his hands to quiet the murmurs:

"Dao power is just a number that measures strength. It does not represent true combat power. It only has reference value when your strength is relatively weak."

"The fact that Captain Higuma was able to capture a criminal with a bounty of fifty million with such power precisely demonstrates that he is no ordinary man."

"Next, Grant."

This time, the one who stepped forward was a red-haired boy with a mohawk, who was probably only a little over ten years old.

His left arm was more noticeable than his mohawk; it looked like a mechanical arm with many holes.

Glenn walked to the equipment, clenched his left fist, and his entire arm began to tremble and swell...

"Wait, use your right hand," Xiu Zuo reminded him.

Gurant had no choice but to switch to his right hand and throw a punch.

Daoli, 210.

"He's about the same age as this child?"

I didn't realize it until now, but this red-haired mohawk kid is a Navy supernova from more than ten years into the story.

When he was just five or six years old, his left arm went berserk and completely destroyed the entire city...

Sieg didn't really care.

If we're really talking about strength, then there are almost no people in the world who can compare to the giants.

.............