Chapter 179

Beneath Dongdao.

By a muddy, filthy underground river, several figures shuffled forward.

Under the dual assault of dampness and cold, even Mshuru, standing at the front of the line, couldn't help sneezing—his snot froze into ice as it dripped.

The pirates shivered violently, their teeth chattering so badly they could barely speak.

"Captain, I… we've walked for so long—are you absolutely, absolutely, absolutely sure we haven't taken a wrong turn?!"

Mshuru's wrinkled face flushed red as he dodged the question:

"Believe me this time—I won't be wrong!"

"Once we reach that place, I'll unleash all the toxic spores I've cultivated inside me at once—everything in this country will cease to exist!"

Mshuru picked up the map beside him, studied it again and again, then confirmed he hadn't lost his way:

"Just a few hundred meters more—we'll be there once we finish!"

The pirates had heard this countless times, but under Mshuru's tyranny, they could only grit their teeth and follow him to the end.

Yet this time, it seemed heaven itself pitied them—light appeared in the distance very soon.

"It's an exit!"

Mshuru let out a cry of relief, forced himself past the increasingly pungent stench, and hurried forward to climb up the pipe ahead.

The others followed quickly, but they didn't realize the difficulty ahead was only the beginning.

Even with Mshuru's physique, climbing the pipe to the peak of Drum City took nearly two hours; most of his followers collapsed halfway, falling to their unknown fates from exhaustion.

"Huff!"

Inside Drum City.

A sewage pipe was shattered from within—Mshuru crawled out, trembling all over.

He scanned the area, then sprinted toward the top of Wang Cheng according to his memory, a smug grin spreading across his lips:

"That old man loved this place so much—so much he exiled me to that bird-shit land of fire just to protect those worthless trash!"

"I'll destroy everything he cherishes!"

"Knight Gao Wen and the others never imagined I'd enter Dongdao through underground pipes and slip into Drum City."

Soon.

He reached the top floor of Drum City—his heartbeat quickened…

Creak!

The door swung open.

In the next instant, Mshuru's face turned deathly pale.

For the massive cannon he'd counted on, placed atop Drum City, now lay severed into pieces on the rooftop.

And even more chilling was the slender figure standing on the battlement, looking down at him.

"Oh~"

"Little rat?!"

Xiang Keluo's lips curled into a cruel smile as he raised a hand and pushed his glasses up with his palm.

The blade-tips of his fingers gleamed with icy frost, making his murderous intent unmistakable.

"Surprised? Shocked?!"

Mshuru's face twisted with terror as he secretly gathered a clump of spores in his hand and hurled them at Xiang Keluo—they exploded midair before reaching him.

Boom!

Countless spores instantly spread—but not the familiar purple. Black.

"This is only a portion of the spores I've cultivated inside me—more than a hundred times more toxic than ordinary ones!"

"Die with regret—!"

Hiss!

Five grotesque claw marks tore from Mshuru's lower abdomen up to his chest, nearly splitting him open—and silenced his next words.

Mshuru spat out a gush of blood, only then realizing his opponent had already appeared before him.

He never got a chance to beg—he was impaled through the body by Xiang Keluo's claw-blade.

"I've been… dying to kill you."

Xiang Keluo gritted his teeth, feeling immense satisfaction.

Mshuru had hidden well—neither Gao Wen nor he had ever considered the underground waterways as a possible route.

After all, in Dongdao's climate, eight out of ten who dared invade through there would freeze to death inside.

"Damn it!"

"The captain's body's been pierced!"

Several panicked voices shattered the silence.

Xiang Keluo looked up.

He saw several pirates who had just crawled out of the pipe now scrambling back in at greater speed, as if fleeing some monstrous flood.

Some even threw away their weapons just to run faster.

"Huh?!"

Xiang Keluo sensed something was wrong, his brow furrowing slightly.

He instinctively tried to pull his blade free—but found his arm gripped tightly by Mshuru, whose face was deathly pale, yet his grin twisted into something monstrous.

"You made it here—meaning Lord Jin hasn't arrived yet… or he's already fought Knight Gao Wen… and lost."

Xiang Keluo's eyes turned icy as he slashed off Mshuru's arm and hurled it aside in disgust, freeing himself—his gaze settled on Mshuru like that of a man staring at a corpse:

"Fuzfu is dead. Jin the Flame Disaster is defeated. You have no hope left."

"Is that so?"

Mushuru gave a bitter smile, opened his mouth, and coughed up a large mouthful of blood:

"But regardless of which outcome occurs, for the me of now, there is no difference."

"Do you know?"

"For the spores inside my body to erupt completely, there are two methods."

"One is for me to release them voluntarily; the other is for me to die!"

"Otherwise, do you think that old bastard would have merely exiled me back then?!"

As he spoke, he lowered his head to look at his wounds, the vitality in his eyes gradually fading, leaving behind nothing but unspeakable hatred and venom.

"I don't understand!"

"Why, to him, were the lives of those bastards more important than mine!"

"Since that is the case, then I will destroy everything!"

The moment his voice landed.

Mushuru exhaled his final breath.

In the next instant, his body began to swell rapidly; within mere seconds, it formed a massive sphere exceeding fifty meters in size, nearly occupying the entire top floor of the castle.

His size continued to expand incessantly, like a balloon.

Xiang Keluo retreated again and again; when his gaze fell upon that sphere, he still felt a trace of unease.

"Damn it!"

In his mind, he suddenly recalled information he had inadvertently seen while consulting the Devil Fruit encyclopedia.

The effects caused by certain fruit abilities are permanent.

Just as people petrified by the Mero Mero no Mi do not vanish even if the ability user dies, Mushuru's ability follows the same principle.

Those spores born from him were already real existences in themselves and would not disappear just because the ability user vanished.

"This is the highest point in the Drum Kingdom; if we let that guy self-destruct here, everything will be destroyed!"

"Agin, Zoro, and the others..."

"But..."

Xiang Keluo looked at the increasingly swelling massive sphere before him, a sense of powerlessness gradually emerging in his eyes.

What he regretted most at this moment was that he had struck to kill directly before clarifying the intelligence.

But aside from the fact that Devil Fruits are as numerous as ox hairs, with many abilities not recorded in the encyclopedia—such as Gao Wen's Red Dragon Fruit—even some that are recorded are incomplete.

Furthermore, some abilities themselves manifest different characteristics depending on the ability user!

"This is big trouble!"

Without a shred of hesitation, Xiang Keluo took a Den Den Mushi from his bosom and immediately notified Gao Wen of the situation here.

"Captain!"

"That guy Mushuru is willing to self-destruct just to spread the spores inside his body across the entire Dongdao; we..."

"I... see it!"

In the distance.

Gao Wen came roaring through the mid-air.

Even though he was still dozens of kilometers away, he saw that evil, increasingly swelling massive sphere in Drum Castle, which had already approached a hundred meters.

"If we let that thing spread here, not a single person in this country will survive!"

"We... should retreat!"

Xiang Keluo's voice trembled; the massive sphere behind him, however, exploded with a boom in the next instant...

Bang—!

Pitch-black spores gushed forth; in an instant, they became like a black cloud, filling the Shanfeng where Drum Castle was located, and then, aided by the sea breeze, spread across the entire island.

Unfortunately.

This time, the weather did not stand on the side of the Drum Kingdom.

At the same time.

Everyone in the entire kingdom who was fleeing noticed this scene.

For a moment, everyone was stunned; only a few children who had not experienced the nightmare of twenty years ago pointed curiously at the black mist within the Shanfeng and asked:

"What is that... something is spreading in the city!"

An old man turned his head at the sound, but his face turned deathly pale in the next instant; he opened and closed his lips, tried several times, and finally squeezed a sound out from his throat:

"Mu... Mushuru's poisonous spores!"

"Has the nightmare of this kingdom started playing out again?"

"It's spreading so fast; it has already swallowed several villages; does even the celestial phenomena stand on his side this time?!"

A guard, filled with despair, could not even hold his spear steady; his legs went soft, and he collapsed on the ground.

It was simply because the scene before him had awakened his past nightmare.

Dalton also noticed this scene, yet all that surged in his heart was a profound sense of powerlessness:

"Doctor Chopper cured the disease, the Gao Wen Pirates helped us repel powerful pirates, I even did everything possible to save this kingdom, yet still..."

"Was it all meaningless?"

"If the people of this kingdom were destined to be destroyed from birth, then what is the meaning of our existence?!"

"To bring a grand fireworks display to this world?!"

"Stop joking!"

Dalton let out a roar.

Turning his head, he only then noticed countless bewildered people fixing their gazes upon him.

"Lord Dalton, what do we do next?!"

"Do we evacuate Drum Island directly, or stay here?"

"I can die, but please save my child~"

……

The sounds of everyone's pleas and weeping reached Dalton's ears, and only then did he realize that, at some point, he had become everyone's hope.

If even I fall at a time like this, who will lead them to be reborn?!

He raised his hand to grip the violin-shaped strange blade on his back, a blazing fire reigniting in his eyes as he said:

"We... move out!"

"The Drum Kingdom's territory is vast; even if we lose this place, we can still be reborn!"

These words drew rounds of agreement from the surrounding crowd.

Yet Dalton's eyes still carried a trace of unwillingness.

There were some things he did not speak aloud.

That was, if they lost this place, the Heavenly Gold to be handed over to the World Government this year would crush everyone.

But compared to death, that seemed to amount to nothing.

"Move out!"

……

On the other side.

In Keste Town.

Kureha stood on the deck of the evacuation ship, looking back at the center of Drum Island where the pitch-black spores were gradually spreading, lost in a daze.

"We still couldn't stop it?!"

"Mother Kureha, what is that thing? Why does it make people feel so uneasy?!"

Chopper frowned tightly.

Even out of instinct, he realized that within the black smoke spreading in the distance lay waves of unsettling malice.

As if it intended to devour every life it touched until nothing remained.

A rare trace of fear surfaced in Kureha's eyes:

"Those are the most ferocious and dangerous spores from inside that fellow Mushuru."

"At this rate, the Drum Kingdom will truly face national destruction."

"We must leave."

Chopper froze, then hurriedly said:

"Then what about the patients on Drum Island?"

"The residents in those inland towns simply don't have enough time to escape!"

"I..."

Saying this.

Chopper lowered his head to look at his two small hooves, his eyes filled with deep unwillingness:

"I've done so much, yet in the end, can I save nothing?!"

"Doctor Hiriluk's dream of saving the kingdom was, from start to finish... just a delusion?!"

"Waaah—!"

Chopper opened his mouth and burst into loud wails.

It was because the scene before him made him feel, for the first time, the most desperate thing a doctor can face.

That is time.

Many illnesses can actually be cured, but often the patients no longer have enough time.

Either their bodies collapse before a cure can be achieved, or they die with regrets due to a lack of timely treatment.

And isn't everything happening now in the Drum Kingdom exactly the same?

"I..."

Kureha looked at the wailing Chopper, reached out to pat his head, yet her own eyes were also filled with unwillingness.

Is there any doctor who does not dream of healing the sick and saving lives?!

"Damn it!"

……

On the other side.

Amidst the sky-full of spores, Xiang Keluo withdrew rapidly, his speed far exceeding the rate at which the spores spread.

He lifted his head.

There, he saw a giant dragon, entirely crimson, plunge headfirst into the sky-full of black spores.

Realizing Gao Wen's intention, Xiang Keluo hurriedly grabbed the microphone and said:

"Gao Wen, don't be foolish at a time like this; even you have no way to deal with this stuff!"

"If you die, how will you become the Pirate King?!"

The only response was Gao Wen's indifferent voice:

"I have an idea; perhaps it will work."

"And if it doesn't?!"

"Then blow this island to smithereens. Anyway, for those infected by the spores, death is inevitable; might as well give them a quick end."

Xiang Keluo froze, his pupils contracting sharply:

"You're going to use that move here?"

"Exactly."

"Madman, a thoroughgoing madman!"

With that said.

Xiang Keluo hung up the phone immediately, his footsteps beneath him suddenly accelerating, kicking up a trail of dust and smoke behind him like a dragon.

All because he knew that if his actions were even a step slower, he would be caught in the aftermath of Gao Wen's upcoming attack.

At the same time, he used the Den Den Mushi in his hand to transmit the message to Ah Jin, Nami, and the others remaining aboard the Raven.

"Go, get out now!"

"That fellow Gao Wen has gone mad; he's going to blow this entire island up!"

(End of Chapter)