Chương 16: Mistaken for a Devil Fruit User

When the azure flames appeared on Ah Long's chest along with the knife wound, he felt as if his body had instantly fallen into an abyss of extreme cold.

It was clearly a flame, yet it emitted an icy chill, freezing almost instantly the blood and nerves in one's body!

When Ah Long collapsed to the ground and Yang Cheng dissipated the blue flames on his sword, everyone present was stunned.

Bellemere, in particular, looked astonished when she saw the power Yang Cheng had just used.

If Yang Cheng's previous combat skills and physical abilities could be explained by training...

Those blue flames, no matter how you look at it, don't seem to be a power that normal humans could possess, right?

Compared to the honest and simple villagers of Cocoyasi Village, Bellemere was at least a woman who had once been a naval officer.

Although she wasn't particularly strong, she still had a broad perspective.

Just like what Arlong said before he collapsed, Bellemere looked at Yang Cheng in astonishment and asked, "Yang Cheng, when did you become a Devil Fruit user?"

Devil Fruits are known as the treasures of the sea, and some even refer to them as the embodiment of demons.

Those who eat Devil Fruits can gain various abilities, but they will become beings rejected by the sea, becoming landlubbers who cannot swim.

Moreover, this side effect is rule-based. No matter if you were a swimming champion or even a fish-man before, once you become a power user, you will inevitably be rejected by the sea.

Despite these side effects, many people on the high seas still flock to this fruit that is cursed by the sea.

The reason is simple: as long as you can swallow your disgust and eat a Devil Fruit, you can gain all sorts of incredible abilities.

If you're lucky enough to eat a Logia-type food, a weakling can instantly become a powerful sea creature overnight—this isn't entirely impossible.

Compared to strength, becoming a landlubber is a negligible side effect.

However, Devil Fruits are very rare in the first half of the Grand Line, and in the Four Seas region, many people are unaware of their existence.

Moreover, such cursed items that can grant immense power overnight have a market price of up to 100 million Berries, and they are never available.

Bellemere adopted Yang Cheng when he was a child, and even bathed him when he was a child.

Therefore, before adopting Yang Cheng, she knew that Yang Cheng was not a power user.

"Devil Fruit?"

Seeing that Bellemere had mistaken the power of the Crimson World Freedom Technique for the power of a Devil Fruit, Yang Cheng did not offer much explanation, but instead tried to go along with the misunderstanding.

Seeing the puzzled look on Yang Cheng's face, Bellemere also looked enlightened.

In Bellemere's view, it was normal for Yang Cheng not to recognize Devil Fruits, since the child had never left Cocoyasi Village since he was adopted by her.

The other adults in the village were unaware of the existence of Devil Fruits, so how could Yang Cheng, a child, know about them?

"Yang Cheng, have you ever eaten a brightly colored fruit with patterns on it before?"

Considering that Yang Cheng didn't recognize what Devil Fruits looked like, Bellemere could only describe them as best she could.

"I seem to recall eating this kind of fruit before; I found it in the mountains and forests on the island."

I was a bit hungry at the time, so I tried a bite, and it was really awful.

Upon hearing Yang Cheng's words, Bellemere also let out a deep sigh.

Based on Yang Cheng's description, he must have eaten a Devil Fruit.

Bellemere didn't know whether Yang Cheng becoming a power user was a good thing or a bad thing for him.

But one thing she was quite clear about was that if it weren't for Yang Cheng today, her family, including the people of Cocoyasi Village, might have faced the ravages of the Arlong Pirates.

After all the defeated fishman pirates were tied up, Yang Cheng was tossed high into the air by the villagers of Cocoyasi Village.

Bellemere and Nami, who witnessed this scene, also wore extremely bright smiles.

"Yang Cheng, what should we do with these fish-man pirates?"

Unlike the original storyline, Cocoyasi Village had already suffered from the "Arlong Pirates" for many years.

Since Ah Long and his gang only came to the village today to collect protection money, and no one died at their hands, the people of Cocoa West Village did not hate them as deeply as in the original story.

As honest and simple villagers, they found it difficult to bring themselves to kill these fish-men, which is why they turned to Yang Cheng for advice.

"Let's hand them all over to the Navy, but we can't just hand them over for nothing, because many of them are bounty pirates, so we should be able to get a large sum of money from the Navy."

Yang Cheng doesn't know if Arlong's current bounty is 2000 million Berries, but he is certain that as a former member of the "Sun Pirates," he must have a bounty on him.

Furthermore, in order to prevent the people of Cocoyasi Village from being scammed, Yang Cheng plans to personally visit the local naval branch.

The naval branch captain in charge of this area, also known as the "Rat Captain," was no good either.

If given the chance, Yang Cheng wanted to take him down with him!

Yang Cheng's family owns a boat, although it's just a rather dilapidated little cargo ship.

But every year, Bellemere relied on this small, dilapidated boat to transport the bountiful oranges from her family's orange grove to earn income to support Yang Cheng and his three children.

Considering that Yang Cheng was already very strong but had never been to sea before, Bellemere accompanied him on this mission to escort the "Arlong Pirates".

When Nami learned that the villains who came to the island could actually get a lot of money from the Navy, the money-grubbing Nami insisted on going with them.

Unfortunately, while Yang Cheng would fall for Nami's tantrums, whining, and cuteness, it was completely ineffective against Bellemere.

It's worth mentioning that Bellemere confiscated all of Nami and Nojiko's savings.

The reason is that it's unsafe for children to have too much money on them, so as their mother, she will temporarily keep it for them.

After learning the reason why Nami and Nojiko were so rich, Yang Cheng, who was capable of protecting his own property, had his Berries taken away by Bellemere under various pretexts.

However, compared to Nami who burst into tears on the spot, Yang Cheng gave her the money quite readily.

In fact, if he weren't afraid of Bellemere's reprimand for taking such a risk, he would have already given all his savings to Bellemere.

Raising three children is a huge challenge.

Sometimes, when oranges were in short supply, Bellemere would even eat only oranges to satisfy his hunger so that Yang Cheng and the other two could have more to eat.

Furthermore, to avoid worrying Yang Cheng and the others, she would claim that she was on a diet.

Although she wasn't their biological mother, Bellemere was undoubtedly a great mother, which is why he has been so determined to become stronger all these years.