Chapter 134: Dumbfounded

An eerie, blood-red sea.

Like a sea of blood…

The sea breeze blew gently.

A sharp, thick stench of blood drifted in every direction.

Led by the Navy's Head Chef, some thirty-odd Navy elites had already completely surrounded the entire Sea King's corpse.

However,

at this moment,

facing this enormously massive Sea King corpse, they were at a loss.

"Old John, how the hell are we supposed to handle this?"

"The weapons we have on hand can't even break through this Sea King's defenses."

"How are we supposed to carve up the Sea King?"

One after another, the Navy soldiers looked toward the Navy's Head Chef, Old John, utterly bewildered.

All of this had caught every single one of them completely off guard.

They hadn't expected…

that the Sea King Lu En had beaten to death with his bare hands would actually possess such terrifying defenses!

Even straining with every ounce of strength they had, they couldn't use the weapons in their hands to break through the Sea King's defenses.

Because of this,

how were they supposed to dismember and divide up the Sea King?

No plan to fall back on.

Utterly helpless.

"This!"

Old John himself was dumbfounded.

In all his many years as a chef, he had never seen a Sea King with such terrifying defenses!

Thinking of this,

he couldn't help but turn his gaze toward the warship behind them.

"Even the weapons we have on hand can't break through this Sea King's defenses. Yet this terrifying Sea King was beaten to death by Mr. Lu En with his bare hands!"

"Good grief…"

"Mr. Lu En really is one terrifying monster!"

Old John felt waves of dread and horror wash over him.

Next,

Old John had no choice but to take out his most prized treasured blade!

A treasured blade he had kept for many years!

Sharp enough to slice through iron like mud,

incomparably keen.

Even compared to the famous, renowned blades of the Great Sea, it was in no way inferior.

"Everyone stand back! Let me handle this myself!"

Old John, gripping his treasured blade, walked up to the Sea King's corpse, first raised the blade, and brought it down on the Sea King's forelimb.

This time,

the keen treasured blade finally did not disappoint Old John.

Pshhh!

Blood spurted into the air.

The Sea King's forelimb was successfully dismembered by Old John.

"Finally succeeded."

"If even the treasured blade I've kept for all these years couldn't dismember this Sea King, then I'd truly be at a loss."

"It's truly unimaginable…"

"Such a terrifying Sea King, one day actually being beaten to death by someone with their bare hands!"

Old John was overcome with emotion.

Seeing Old John's successful dismemberment, the Navy soldiers present one by one revealed excited expressions.

"It worked!"

"Old John finally lived up to everyone's expectations…"

"If we couldn't dismember this Sea King, then we could only watch helplessly as it sank into the sea and became nourishment for other Sea Kings."

"Good thing Old John's treasured blade, kept for all these years, showed its might!"

The group of Navy soldiers were in high spirits.

Watching Old John continuously dismember and divide up the Sea King's corpse…

they began chatting, marveling again and again.

"Come to think of it, before I learned of this Sea King's terrifying defenses, I really couldn't imagine it being this fearsome!"

"Just now, I watched Mr. Lu En toy with this Sea King the whole time, crushing it completely! I thought this Sea King wasn't as terrifying as people made it out to be."

"Who would have thought, in the end, I was the one with the narrow view."

"Only now did I suddenly realize. In fact, it wasn't that this Sea King was too weak — it was purely that Mr. Lu En was just too strong!"

"Strong like a terrifying monster!"

"……"

A moment later,

Old John had the dismembered Sea Kings handed over to the group of marines, who transported them to the warship's cold storage.

A group of marines busied themselves nonstop.

Busy as could be,

every marine's face wore a joyful smile.

At the same time.

Elsewhere,

roughly three kilometers away from this stretch of sea.

At some unknown point,

an incomparably massive pirate ship had appeared here!

A gentle breeze stirred, fluttering the skull flag hoisted high aloft, proclaiming the identity of this pirate ship.

This was a pirate crew of extremely massive scale.

No fewer than eight hundred members!

They had come from the West Sea!

Having just sailed their pirate ship from the West Sea to Reverse Mountain, and after passing through Reverse Mountain's up-current, they had finally achieved their heart's desire and arrived at the Grand Line.

This stretch of sea was known as…

the Pirate Paradise!

The Grand Line, passed down by word of mouth among countless pirates, was considered by them to be a pirate's heaven!

Therefore,

countless pirates from all four seas nearly dreamed of making their way to this stretch of sea, the Grand Line.

Finally—

today,

the pirates of this ship had succeeded.

Having endured countless hardships…

having survived countless life-and-death crises.

Yet they had, in the end, smoothly arrived at the Grand Line!

At this moment.

On the pirate ship's deck.

The entire pirate ship should have been filled with joy and ecstasy.

After all.

Having just endured countless trials and at last reached the Grand Line that countless pirates dreamed of, by all rights their mood at this moment should have been incomparably exhilarated and stirred.

·· ·········Request flowers··· ····

However,

at this moment,

the entire pirate ship had fallen into an extremely eerie atmosphere.

Not a trace of joy,

nor any excitement, exhilaration, or the like.

A deathly stillness!

Fully several hundred pirates stood on the deck, their eyes filled with terror, shock, stupor, disbelief, and other such emotions, staring dumbfounded at the stretch of sea a few kilometers away.

Including this pirate ship's captain, likewise gape-mouthed and dumb as a wooden chicken, his heart already gradually being wholly dominated by thick fear.

After a long while,

Gululu!

The pirate crew's captain couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva, breaking the eerie silence here.