The Star Train's Journey Through the Heavens

Chapter 182 Catching a Star, Devil Fruit
(There's a monthly pass anime coming out in early November. If I put it later, some people might miss it. Don't rush to vote for your monthly pass. Unlock the side stories first, and then vote for the rest.)
"So, all those random things I've been catching before were Ah Xing's doing?" March 7 said through gritted teeth.

"It's very likely Sister Xing, but she definitely won't admit it," Zhu Zhuqing said with a squinty smile.

"What good will it do if she doesn't admit it?" March 7th waved her little fist.

"What if, I mean what if, it wasn't actually Xing who made it?" Dawn asked.

"Of course we need to catch them red-handed, you brat. You need to be punished." Himeko walked over, her smile carrying a hint of danger.

Meng Huaifeng noticed that Ji Zi's white dress had some coffee stains on it.

The ship tilted unexpectedly when it was pulling the sea king, and then it was hit by the sea king again. Although it was protected by shields, a lot of things on the ship still fell to the ground.

Himeko's coffee wasn't spared either; it was spilled everywhere, and some even splashed onto Himeko's clothes.

"Then how can we catch them red-handed?" March 7th asked.

“Let me try, let’s switch places,” Meng Huaifeng said to March 7.

Meng Huaifeng handed his fishing rod to March 7th, then took out his phantom gun and edited it into the shape of a fishing rod and line.

For Meng Huaifeng, who has become stronger, there is no need to edit special attack effects; it's just a simple change in appearance. This way, the imaginary energy consumption after the Phantom Gun materializes is very small.

Even if it continues like this, it won't be a big problem.

The four continued fishing as if nothing had happened.

Po Xiao and Zhu Zhuqing each caught two more fish, but Meng Huaifeng still hadn't caught anything.

"That rascal Ah Xing, did he know we'd backed out of our plan?" March 7th whispered, barely able to contain himself.

"Don't rush, don't rush, fishing requires patience," Meng Huaifeng reassured him.

Even if we can't catch her red-handed, and Ah Xing refuses to admit it, I'll still get my hands on her later!
March 7th, I thought bitterly.

Xing was overjoyed after doing something bad, but also afraid of being discovered, so she plunged into the sea.

A shipwreck appeared before Xing, whose eyes lit up. He began to dismantle the shipwreck section by section in search of treasure.

Most of the items were ordinary objects, and they were rotten and worthless.

Finally, Star found a small locked treasure chest in the captain's cabin.

Xing, holding the treasure chest, floated upwards contentedly. As she approached the surface, she could vaguely see through the water that the four people on the boat were fishing as nonchalantly as before.

They didn't realize they had found themselves.

Xing was pleased with himself and couldn't resist finding the four people's fishing hooks underwater.

One, two, three, four, the third one from the left is March 7th.

I've already given March so much junk, this time I'll give her the treasure chest I found.

She must be very happy.

I love March so much!
Xing thought for a moment, then reached out and grabbed the fishhook, intending to hook it onto the keyhole of the treasure chest.

After waiting so long without a bite, everyone on the boat was almost ready to give up.

“They’ve taken the bait, caught red-handed,” Meng Huaifeng suddenly said.

Everyone tensed up and stared intently at the sea.

The fishhook that Xing had grabbed suddenly grew longer and wrapped around her arm twice.

"Ugh?"

Xing was stunned and hadn't reacted yet when she was pulled out of the sea by a tremendous force. Even after being pulled out of the sea, Xing was still tightly holding onto the treasure chest.

"Snapshot!"

On March 7th, I took ten consecutive photos with my camera, capturing the entire scene of the star emerging from the sea, from its first appearance to its full form.

Xing landed on the boat, and besides the four fishermen, Ji Zi, Su Xiaoli, Yan, and Hong Kou were also watching her with their arms crossed and eyes fixed on her.

"Hi."

Xing shrank back and greeted him guiltily.

"Hey you, you dare to mess with me by hanging trash on the fishing hook? You're going to die!" March 7th reached out its claws to Xing's ticklish spot.

"I... haha... didn't I hang a super big haha ​​fish for you?" Xing laughed as she explained.

Xing was still bound by Meng Huaifeng's phantom gun, powerless to resist. Under March 7's torment, she collapsed to the ground and transformed into a pupa, rolling around incessantly.

"You still dare to say that! That huge fish almost capsized the boat, and broke so many cups." Xing was fine until she mentioned the big fish, then March 7th got even more excited and straddled Xing, making his move on her.

The juice that Su Xiaoli brought her hadn't been finished yet; it was all spilled, and the glass was broken.

Moreover, given the size of the fishhooks they used, they could only catch a large fish that was at most ten meters long, which wouldn't have much impact on the boat.

Suddenly, a sea monster bigger than a ship appeared.

"No, no, hahaha~ I was wrong, March, haha~ let me go," Xing begged for mercy.

"Are you trying to hang trash on my fishing hook again?" March 7th paused for a moment, then asked with her hands on her hips.

"Now that you know you were wrong, you can clean up the mess on the ship later, right?" Himeko squatted down and tapped Hoshino's forehead with her finger.

“No problem.” Xing said obediently, “Huaifeng, let me go first.”

Meng Huaifeng deactivated the Ether Edit and then put away the Phantom Gun.

“This isn’t trash. This is a treasure chest I found on a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea. I was thinking of hanging it up for you.” Xing presented the treasure chest as if it were a precious treasure.

"What is it?" March 7th took the treasure chest and got off the star.

Amidst everyone's curious gazes, March 7th used the Six-Phase Ice to protect the contents inside before violently opening the treasure chest.

A blue fruit with spiral patterns appeared before them.

"Just one fruit?" March 7th tilted the opened treasure chest with some disappointment.

"What kind of fruit is this?" Su Xiaoli asked, looking at the strangely shaped fruit.

“This might be a Devil Fruit,” Meng Huaifeng said.

"Devil Fruit? The one that turns Luffy into a rubber man?" Xing's eyes lit up.

"The abilities granted by Devil Fruits are incredibly diverse, but none seem to be the same. It's definitely not like Luffy's, which turns him into a rubber man," Meng Huaifeng said.

Meng Huaifeng directly dialed Dan Heng's number. Since arriving in this world, Dan Heng was like a dragon entering the sea, spending most of his time wandering off somewhere unknown.

"What's wrong, Huaifeng?" Danheng answered quickly and asked.

“We’ve found a Devil Fruit. Would you be interested in coming back and studying it together?” Meng Huaifeng asked.

"Go back immediately," Dan Heng replied.

"Then what kind of ability is this?" Xing nudged Meng Huaifeng with his elbow and asked.

"Let me see..." Meng Huaifeng tried to read the information about the Devil Fruit.

Meng Huaifeng discovered the existence of a soul consciousness within the Devil Fruit, but it was completely still, clearly in a deep sleep, offering no resistance as Meng Huaifeng read through all its information. Himeko used her own methods to analyze the Devil Fruit as well.

Meng Huaifeng's brows slowly furrowed.

"What's wrong, Huaifeng?" March 7th asked.

"This Devil Fruit truly lives up to its name as a devil. It contains a soul's will. Once eaten, this will attaches itself to a person's soul. When the user develops the Devil Fruit's power to a certain extent, this will will revive and merge with the user's soul, greatly enhancing the user's fruit's power."

"However, the user will also be affected by this will, and their temperament will change without them realizing it. The stronger the will contained in the Devil Fruit, the greater the influence on the user."

"As for where this will comes from, it may have been formed after the death of the first person who developed the Devil Fruit to a certain extent, and then it was integrated with the will of other awakened beings, relying on the Devil Fruit's ability to continuously regenerate into a Devil Fruit," Meng Huaifeng guessed.

Dan Heng glanced at Meng Huaifeng. He could also sense the existence of the Devil Fruit's soul will, but he couldn't read the information inside.

"Ugh~" March 7th rubbed his arms, looking at the Devil Fruit with disdain.

Isn't this equivalent to being possessed? It's really evil.

“If that’s the case, then we should be able to easily erase the soul consciousness within this fruit,” Yan said.

“That’s true, but in that case, without the experience of previous users in developing the fruit’s abilities, the improvement in awakening the fruit’s abilities will likely be minimal or even nonexistent, and you’ll have to develop them slowly on your own,” Meng Huaifeng said.

"Even if everyone who has eaten this fruit were combined, could they defeat me? What use would their experience be? Besides, I have no intention of eating it; it wouldn't improve my strength, it would just give me another means of attack," Yan shrugged.

"You haven't said what ability it is yet?" Xing reminded him.

“Oh, it’s an Ancient Zoan-type Devil Fruit, the Horned Dragon Fruit,” Meng Huaifeng said.

Ji Zi's preliminary analysis was also finished. Compared to Meng Huaifeng's reading of information, Ji Zi's analysis was much more essential.

"That soul force is merely a byproduct of the Devil Fruit. The true power of the fruit originates from a pseudo-rule entity, similar to a meme, containing all the genetic information of the horned dragon, and... the power of faith? Further research is needed to determine the specifics," Himeko said.

Faith is also a kind of power. Some indigenous gods on certain planets were born from faith in response to people's calls, which is not uncommon in the universe.

Not only faith, but also people's fantasies, desires, and perceptions are a kind of power that can give rise to life forms similar to those who believe in a god.

However, the people of this planet did not develop gods through their beliefs, but instead gave birth to Devil Fruits? Himeko wondered.

“There is indeed a saying on the high seas that Devil Fruits were born in response to people’s fantasies and desires,” Meng Huaifeng said.

The origins of Devil Fruits in the original works of their own world are still undetermined, with many different opinions. This has confirmed some of the facts.

Himeko seemed to be deep in thought, perhaps the different types of Devil Fruits have different sources of power.

We can only study it after finding more Devil Fruits. As for this one...

"Will you eat in March?" Xing asked.

March 7 shook her head like a rattle-drum: "No, this young lady doesn't want to have some unknown fragmented soul possess her soul. What's the difference between that and being possessed by a ghost?"

"Besides, who knows how long it's been in the sea? Is it really still edible?" March 7th asked doubtfully.

"As long as it's not rotten, it's edible!" Xing then looked at the others: "What about you?"

"Ah Xing, don't try to eat just anything. I remember Huai Feng saying that eating a Devil Fruit will make you rejected by the sea, and you'll feel weak all over when you come into contact with seawater," Himeko reminded him.

Meng Huaifeng scratched his head. He had only mentioned it briefly in the car and hadn't gone into details. He added, "That's because the oceans of this world contain something called Seastone Factor. I don't know exactly what it is, whether it's a substance that's common in all oceans or a special product of this world."

"Himeko-nee, it's okay. Even if there's a problem, we can just flush it out," Hoshi said nonchalantly.

"What if it can't be expelled, or its effects on the body are permanent?" Himeko asked, frowning.

Himeko prefers to thoroughly research things with side effects before considering whether or not to consume them.

“Uh…” Xing scratched his head, speechless.

"Why don't we just try it out?" Meng Huaifeng said, pointing to the large sailfish he had caught.

"Yes, that's fine." Himeko nodded.

Xing ran over with the Devil Fruit and stuffed it into the fish's mouth.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, in no time at all, four legs suddenly grew out of the belly of the sailfish, and its head became somewhat like a horned dinosaur, a bizarre and incongruous sight.

"I feel like my eyes have been polluted." March 7th's little face was furrowed, but she still took a picture and put it away.

Xing flew to the surface of the sea, holding the sailfish by its tail, and put the sailfish back into the sea.

Logically, a great sailfish should become lively and energetic after entering the sea, but it seems to be dead now, limp and without any movement. Its limbs have also disappeared, and it has returned to its original form.

"That's amazing." Xing clicked her tongue in amazement and brought the giant marlin back.

Because it had just come out of the sea, the sailfish was still covered in seawater and looked listless, and it didn't revert to its strange appearance.

"Next, try to eliminate the soul and will of the Devil Fruit," Meng Huaifeng said.

Manipulating soul memories is not just a method used by those who are destined to remember; it's just that they are more adept at it.

Meng Huaifeng invaded the sailfish's weak soul, and the soul will of the Devil Fruit and the sailfish's soul were clearly distinct.

Meng Huaifeng cut it out, and the moment it separated from the Great Banner Fish's soul, the Devil Fruit's soul will wanted to fly away, but was blocked by Meng Huaifeng's data stream.

"Alright," Meng Huaifeng nodded to Xing.

Xing understood and took the sailfish back into the sea.

This time, the giant marlin returned to normal and struggled frantically as soon as it entered the sea, trying to escape the clutches of the star.

"It's healed. It seems it wasn't a permanent side effect." Himeko was relieved.

If Devil Fruits are discovered again in the future, as long as people don't mind the issue of the Devil Fruit's will, they can eat them if they want.

Xing threw the giant marlin onto the deck, pouting slightly, and said, "It's a pity we don't have any Devil Fruits anymore."

"Who said that?" Meng Huaifeng took out an apple and slapped the Devil Fruit's will into it.

With everyone present as witnesses, the apple quickly transformed into the Devil Fruit they had seen before.

"So, does anyone want to eat it?" Meng Huaifeng asked, holding the Devil Fruit.

Remembering the strange appearance of the giant marlin after eating the Devil Fruit, all the girls except Hoshino showed disgust on their faces.

Dan Heng shook his head. He was a descendant of the Vidyadhara Dragon, a true dragon. Wouldn't eating the Horned Dragon Fruit be pure degeneration?

Dawn is a mecha pilot; how can he pilot a mecha after consuming this and transforming? He shook his head in refusal.

Xing blinked her golden eyes, looking at Meng Huaifeng expectantly. "If you don't want it either, then I can eat it and play with it."

"You can eat it, no one's going to take it from you," Meng Huaifeng said with a laugh.

"Great!" Xing cheered.

Just as Xing was about to take a bite, she suddenly stopped and asked Meng Huaifeng, "To gain the fruit's power, do I have to eat it all?"

"No need. Once you take the first bite, the Devil Fruit power will attach itself to your soul. Whether you eat the rest or not won't matter," Meng Huaifeng said.

"Then let's all try the taste of the Devil Fruit!" Hoshi generously decided.

(End of this chapter)