After retiring from the Navy, I became a doting husband.

.

The next day, just as dawn broke.

Martin appeared in a secluded cave outside the town.

Kro and Zango were bound hand and foot to the cross, their mouths gagged with smelly socks.

Martin approached the two men, took off his smelly socks, and Crowe was the first to cough and speak.

"What...what do you want to ask? I absolutely will not tell you. Please hand us over to the Navy."

"Hand it over to the navy?"

Martin laughed: "Your Black Cat Pirates have a partnership with the Treasure Weapon Shop. You're really well-connected. It would be very easy for you to bribe a few Marines and release you. I have no intention of handing you over to the Marines right now."

"I'm asking you, where is the Black Cat Pirates' ship hiding? I need to know their location."

"I won't tell you."

As soon as Kro finished speaking, a knife pierced his heart.

Even on his deathbed, Kro looked at the ruthless swordsmith in disbelief. His carefully prepared plans and words had no room to be put into action.

"Don't look at me like that. I just don't like people who are stubborn."

Martin pointed his blood-stained knife at Django, his voice as cold as ice: "I'll only ask you once, where is the Black Cat Pirates hiding?"

Yellow liquid was seeping from Zango's pants: "I...I know."

"Very well, why would your pirate crew come to a small town in the East Blue like Orange Town?"

Martin asked again.

"It was Crocodile who issued the bounty. He wants to find Nico Robin. All the pirates in the East Blue have received a map. Yes, I have a map here."

Zango looked down at his chest.

Martin quickly pulled a crumpled map of the East China Sea from the other man's pocket, and his pupils constricted after just one glance.

Good heavens, seven or eight towns in the East Blue, including Orange Town, have been marked. This accurately tracks Robin's activities over the past few years.

The pirates' frenzied attack on the town was clearly not without purpose; they wanted to force Robin out.

This happened a few years earlier than I remember.

Is Lao Sha in such a hurry?

Chapter 79 Famous Craftsman

Twenty minutes later, in Black Bay outside Orange Town.

The Black Cat Pirates' pirate ship, "Hundred Plans Braku".

The pirate ship is temporarily anchored in Black Bay, with about twenty crew members awaiting the captain's orders. If necessary, they will attack Orange Town immediately.

Buzz and Sam ate their breakfast listlessly, waiting for their boss, Crowe's, orders.

They are pirates, not merchants, and will not stay here for long. According to the plan, their leader, Kuro, will make a move on Orange Town in the next few days.

"Look, what's that?"

"It looks like something like flower petals."

The two of them simultaneously noticed strange pink petals falling down.

In an instant, they were attacked by countless cherry blossoms and sank to the bottom of the sea. None of the crew survived, including the two executives with a bounty of 700 million Berries.

"B-Big brother, you're amazing! This knife can actually turn into flower petals. Are you a Devil Fruit user?"

Zang Gao nodded and bowed as he inquired.

"Stop talking nonsense and tell me where you hid the treasure?"

Martin asked the question.

"The Black Cat Pirates' treasure is all in the vault beneath the shop. Please follow me."

Before long, Martin found what he wanted in the underground vault of the Treasure Weapon Shop, but he only took the two remaining bottles of golden oil and the small box filled with treasure coins from the Black Cat Pirates.

"Brother Martin, you don't want anything else?"

Zang Gao smiled obsequiously, "Brother Martin, my hypnosis works on any strong person. Can I work for you?"

Martin turned around: "Zango, your hypnotic abilities weren't learned, were they? How did you acquire your hypnotic skills?"

Zango nodded and began to recount his experiences before becoming a pirate.

Before becoming a pirate, he was a wandering dancer who often slept because he couldn't become famous. One day, he slept for too long on the grass and a striped mold grew on his chin. When he was hungry, he ate the mold mushroom head. Although it tasted terrible, he gained hypnosis as a result and started using it to cheat and swindle people.

After hearing this, Martin asked, "That stuff tastes terrible, doesn't it?"

Zango nodded: "It's an indescribably bad taste, so I only ate half of it. The other half is this weird thing on my chin."

He pointed to a strange, elongated object with patterns on his chin.

"Zango, how many people did you help Kro kill?"

Martin suddenly asked.

"Not many, not many. I've hardly ever killed anyone myself. Most of the killings were done by Kro after I hypnotized him."

Zan Gao gave a smug answer.

"Very well, you can die now."

Martin threw a punch, striking Zango's heart and shattering it completely.

Once the other party was completely dead, Martin saw a strange sight.

Then, a fancy mushroom suddenly sprouted from Zang Gao's chin!

Yes, that's something that looks like a mushroom, thick at one end, covered with eye-shaped patterns.

"Devil Fruit?"

Martin seemed to be deep in thought.

Every ability in the world of One Piece has an origin.

Zango gained his hypnotic abilities after eating the mushroom head, so it makes sense if this special mushroom is a special kind of Devil Fruit.

Although it's unclear how this strange Devil Fruit ended up on the other person's chin.

In any case, the mushroom growing on the other person's chin is a Devil Fruit, it just looks a bit strange.

Without hesitation, Martin cut off the Devil Fruit from the other man's chin and put it into his pocket.

Then he found Django, who was practicing the Blackwater Sword diligently, and handed him a small map: "Young man, the bounty of the Black Cat Pirates is mine. The pressure is on you. Be careful to keep it a secret."

Ten minutes later, seeing the pressure left on him by the unfathomable swordsmith, Django burst into tears, as excited as if he had discovered a treasure.

.

Half an hour later, Martin, having finished cooking, pushed open the door to the outdoor workshop.

He stretched and looked out over the courtyard wall. He could see a clear blue sky and distant green mountains and clear waters, and he cleared his mind for a while.

The furnace and bellows were turned on, and charcoal and tamahagane ingots were fed into the furnace. The forging furnace emitted a roaring fire and began to melt the iron.

He silently repeated the word "breakthrough"!

As Martin silently recited the mantra, a cool sensation suddenly washed over him, as if he had instantly gained a clear understanding of something.

Martin could feel a surge of knowledge about forging in his mind, including much about the techniques for making fine knives.

Now I'm a master swordsmith.

Martin took a deep breath, closed his eyes, focused his mind, and recalled the new knowledge he had gained about forging fine swords.

After gathering his thoughts, he suddenly opened his eyes, used pliers in his left hand to pull out a red-hot iron bar, and had an iron hammer in his right hand.

Ding Ding Ding!

As the hammer continued to strike, Martin could clearly feel that he had significantly more control over the hammer in his hand than before, and his accuracy had also improved significantly. Every strike was effortless, and the speed and power had been qualitatively enhanced.

This is the effect after upgrading the forging level.

Martin swung his hammer with all his might, and with an incredibly dense series of blows, a blade quickly took shape. After repeated hammering and quenching, it was hammered again and again until it finally took shape.

At dusk, a fine and sharp sword was finally successfully forged.

It may not look much different from an ordinary blade, but the blade is like a mirror, very beautiful, and exudes the noble air that a famous knife should have.

"The fine, sharp blade is complete!"

"Finally, I have entered the ranks of master craftsmen."

Martin was overjoyed, clenching his fists so tightly that his body trembled.

I reckon this is the highest quality blade Martin has ever forged in his life.

After all these years of forging knives, I've finally made progress.

Martin picked up the blade and tried swinging it in front of the wooden stake where he was testing the knife.

brush!

The wooden stake, thicker than a person, was cut in half as if it were tofu.

The blade is extremely sharp, and its cutting power is significantly stronger than that of a top-grade fast knife. It cuts wood without any noticeable difficulty, making it a genuinely good fast knife.

Come again!

Martin took a few steps back and swung the blade again, this time aiming at a hard stone post as thick as a thigh.

rub!

With a whoosh of the blade, the hard stone pillar was easily cleaved in two, leaving not even a fragment of stone.

Upon closer inspection, the cut was very smooth and felt good to the touch, similar to the force used to cut mud.

"That cutting power!!!"

Seeing the immense power of the strike, Martin took a deep breath.

The fact that it can so easily cut through a hard stone pillar shows that the craftsmanship is definitely up to the standard of a good-quality knife in fifty cuts, even better than an ordinary good-quality knife.