"Your Highness, please have some tea."
In the training ground, just as Blake retracted the wings on his back, Hancock handed him a cup of hot tea, gazing at him with eyes full of adoration.
Blake smiled and ruffled her hair, and Hancock's eyes were already narrowed, looking utterly content.
This was the result of Blake's efforts over these four years.
Besides these individuals, two years ago, after Rob Lucci's Russian-style rescue, Blake showed great curiosity about CP members.
"You can kill hundreds of people at thirteen? Are your CP reserve talents that high?"
He, in typical Celestial Dragons fashion, went to the CP training base, stating that he wanted to personally train a few CP prodigies.
CP, as the organization with the most contact with the Celestial Dragons, knew very well that these guys could come up with any idea once their brains got heated.
They didn't hesitate, directly bringing the reserve agents from the training camp before Blake and letting him choose.
Thus, Blake easily brought Kalifa and Alpha back to the manor.
Two years ago, Kalifa was only ten, and Alpha was only eight. Neither had been in the CP training camp for long, and they hadn't even completed the most basic brainwashing education.
But that was precisely what he wanted.
If they had completed the brainwashing, Blake would have to worry about them leaning towards the World Government in the future.
It would be ridiculous if he forcibly created two spies right by his side.
He also conveniently took a Devil Fruit from CP's warehouse—the Paramecia-type Door-Door Fruit.
This was clearly a rare space-type Devil Fruit, yet it hadn't received attention from the World Government. It was simply left in CP's warehouse, intended as a reward for agents who performed meritorious service.
But it wasn't surprising; the Love-Love Fruit is clearly a rule-based Devil Fruit, and isn't it still in that idiot Grothius's hands?
Blake gave the Door-Door Fruit to Stella.
Stella, who was not good at and disliked combat, could develop in a support direction, and she wouldn't have to carry her small satchel every time she went out anymore.
In addition, Blake's unintelligent system also provided him with considerable help during these four years.
In one card draw, Blake finally drew the long-desired Patrick Redfield (elderly).
He also drew the most coveted Zoan-type Bat-Bat Fruit, Mythical Beast form, Vampire.
After several more experiments, confirming that ability cards could help ability users awaken, Blake decisively ate the Vampire Fruit.
After using the ability card, the Vampire Fruit entered its awakened state.
It must be said, the awakening of a Devil Fruit is indeed a tremendous boost.
In addition to the super-regeneration and four-dimensional enhancement that all awakened Zoan types possess, there were also huge changes in its abilities.
Sonic attacks and greatly increased flight speed were expected.
What slightly surprised Blake was that his sonic attacks could not only cause mental damage but also induce hallucinations in enemies and even interfere with their use of Observation Haki.
And the original Vampire Fruit user, to maintain peak condition, needed to continuously absorb the blood, lifespan, and stamina of others.
After awakening, the Vampire Fruit's reliance on others was greatly reduced. He could maintain peak condition for a long time with very little blood absorption, achieving a different kind of immortality.
Furthermore, within the blood mist domain formed after awakening, he could directly absorb the life force of creatures within the range, forcibly aging them, without needing physical contact.
Since the Vampire Fruit itself is a very complex Devil Fruit, Blake might still have many abilities to continue developing.
In four years, the card drawing system couldn't possibly have only drawn one elderly Red Earl.
Therefore, Blake's improvements over these four years were naturally more than just these.
With the improvement of Armament Haki, his Armament Haki had completely merged with his body.
After experiments on Koala, Blake discovered that after his body merged with Armament Haki, even without actively activating Armament Haki, he could still cause effective damage to Logia-type ability users.
It could be said that for Blake, Armament Haki had now become a passive skill.
The improvement of Observation Haki was equally significant.
Blake's Observation Haki not only had the characteristics of predicting the future and long-distance perception but could also enter a state similar to bullet time.
In this state, Blake, like the Flash or Quicksilver, perceived time differently from ordinary people.
Using this ability in combat could effectively dodge attacks or exploit weaknesses.
Conqueror's Haki also saw some improvement.
However, because Conqueror's Haki users are inherently few, ability cards might not necessarily drop after battles.
So, over four years, Blake only mastered all the Conqueror's Haki abilities that appeared in the original work—
Air shockwaves, Observation Haki killing, and interference with Devil Fruit abilities.
Beyond that, Blake did not master any additional special abilities.
According to Blake's estimation, his current Conqueror's Haki intensity already surpassed Joy Boy's, but he might still be inferior in technique.
Joy Boy, as Imu's nemesis, could certainly cause effective damage to him.
If this ability was an effect of Conqueror's Haki, then Blake still had at least one high-level application of Conqueror's Haki that he hadn't mastered.
He wasn't in a hurry either.
If he hadn't mastered it, it meant he hadn't accumulated enough, so he would continue to accumulate!
In terms of swordsmanship, after stacking several Great Swordsmen, Blake's current strength had almost reached an unprecedented height.
Now, he only needed to refine his long scroll into a Blake blade, and Blake could reach the level of the greatest Great Swordsman in history.
It could be said that Blake's strength had completely surpassed the Admiral/Four Emperors level in the original work.
According to the saying in his previous life, no Four Emperors could withstand the siege of two Admirals.
Blake estimated that he should be fine now.
But regarding whether he could defeat Imu, he still reserved judgment.
Blake was a cautious person. Before truly seeing Imu's power, no matter how much he improved, he would not be confident enough to challenge Imu.
Unless the mute system drew him one sometime, so he could try it first.
The card space not only drew an elderly Red Earl but also an adult stage Kizaru and an adult stage Aokiji.
The latter was very cooperative and dropped another Ice-Ice Fruit ability card, so Mandy's Ice-Ice Fruit was also developed to the awakened level.
But Kizaru was very uncooperative, only dropping his Armament Haki.
Compared to Observation Haki, swordsmanship, and Devil Fruit abilities, Armament Haki might be Kizaru's weakest aspect.
However, it was still Admiral-level Armament Haki, so Blake could only use it on himself with tears in his eyes; Koala's Devil Fruit awakening would have to wait a while longer.
For this, Blake made another note against Kizaru.
Besides these already used ability cards, Blake also accumulated many low-level ability cards during these four years—
Swordsman-level Swordsmanship * 7
Zoan-type Ox-Ox Fruit, Bison Form
Zoan-type Ancient Species, Lizard-Lizard Fruit, Titan Monitor Lizard Form
Zoan-type Ancient Species, Bird-Bird Fruit, Moa Form
Zoan-type Ancient Species, Bug-Bug Fruit, Meganeura Form
Paramecia-type Chain-Chain Fruit
Paramecia-type Phase-Phase Fruit
Because the high-level abilities drawn in the card space, such as physical fitness and Haki, had already been used.
Even ordinary Zoan-type ability cards, because similar ability users were easily found on the sea, had already been used by Blake for experiments.
So the remaining ability cards in the card space now seemed somewhat shabby.
Among them were even troublesome fruits like the Chain-Chain Fruit, which required chains to break out of the user's body when used, first injuring oneself and not necessarily injuring others.
Drinking the hot tea Hancock brought in one gulp, Blake stretched his body and looked towards Pangea Castle:
"It's time to let the cannon fodder test Imu's true abilities..."