Chapter 21: A World Where Only Xiang Keluo Gets Hurt

The port fell silent in an instant.

Everyone stared expressionlessly at Rat; for a moment, no one knew what to say, and even Xiang Keluo and Ah Jin, who had been facing off, exchanged a glance and tacitly sheathed their weapons.

Damn it, this is truly fucking painful.

Gaza glanced at Xiang Gaowen, then at Ah Jin, before asking with a strange expression:

"Um... is your opponent also the Hundred-Plans Xiang Keluo?"

Rat froze slightly.

Thinking of the small fry on his ship with a bounty under five million, he then looked toward the terrifyingly powerful Xiang Keluo and Ah Jin in the distance.

Upholding the spirit of never losing face even if losing the fight, and refusing to be looked down upon, Rat stiffened his neck and declared:

"That's right, it is the East Blue pirate with a 16 million bounty, Hundred-Plans Xiang Keluo; I fought him fiercely, defeating him so thoroughly that he dropped his armor and fled at the mere sight of me."

Beside Xiang Gaowen.

Xiang Keluo, who was slowly sheathing his claw blades, suddenly jerked his hands, nearly crushing his own teeth on the spot.

If not for the greater good, he would have really rushed up and chopped these three...

... these two bastards into mincemeat to feed the dogs.

So anyone can just come over and bully me, huh?

Xiang Gaowen noticed Xiang Keluo's resentful gaze and exerted tremendous effort to keep from laughing aloud.

Behind him, his subordinates' bodies visibly trembled; judging by their reactions, if there were no outsiders present, a few of them would have laughed until they passed out.

"Cap... Commander... next time, please use your own name."

Xiang Keluo gritted out through clenched teeth.

Gaza looked at Rat, whose expression was arrogant and commanding, and his face grew cold.

If Ah Jin's appearance merely suggested a sickly man heavy with killing intent, looking every bit a cold-blooded assassin, then Rat had treachery and baseness written all over his face.

"In that case, my lords of the Navy, please recognize who is on your side and who is not."

"Otherwise, I cannot allow you to enter directly; after all, I am responsible for the civilians living in this port, and no one can guarantee that you aren't pirates in disguise."

Rat froze slightly, then flew into a rage, shouting:

"I am the commander of the Navy's 16th Branch Base! Do you know the price of offending me?"

"Damn bitch!"

Gaza's expression grew even colder.

Rat's demeanor only reinforced Gaza's conviction that the man was no good; even if he truly was Navy, he was the type who colluded with pirates and oppressed civilians.

Moreover, he had never held any good feelings toward the East Blue Navy to begin with.

For over a decade, the Navy had been collecting taxes from people near Raven Port, claiming it was to build a branch base, maintain surrounding commercial shipping lanes, and protect the locals.

Yet to this day, not even a shadow of the base had appeared.

Realizing this belatedly, Gaza understood it was nothing more than a scheme for those people to extort wealth.

Thinking thus, Gaza looked coldly at Rat:

"Please hurry, my lord."

Rat roared in anger:

"Do you dare defy the Navy?!"

The moment Rat's voice landed, a swishing sound rang out as a row of dark gun muzzles simultaneously pointed at him.

Instantly, cold sweat broke out all over his body.

Unlike other Navy officers who rose through military merit, Rat had reached his current position solely by writing good reports and knowing how to lick his superiors' boots.

Even those under his command were mostly cut from the same cloth, so no one dared to act rashly.

After all, if they truly fought against these guards who clearly looked like trouble, they would likely lose more than they would win.

"Don't be impulsive!"

Seeing that battle was about to erupt, Rat immediately panicked; he raised his hand to signal his men to lower their guns, then turned to look at Ah Jin and Xiang Gaowen standing opposite each other in the distance.

Resentment surged in his heart, and his tone became much stricter:

"Which branch do you belong to?"

Ah Jin swept a glance at him and said:

"I belong to Colonel Boodie of the 18th Branch, my lord; you should be very familiar with him. As for them, they claim to be from the GL-5 Branch, saying they belong to Vice Admiral Vergo."

"Are you kidding me?"

"The GL-5 Branch is located in the Grand Line, even in the latter half, the Phase of the New World; how could people from there possibly..."

As he spoke, Rat's voice gradually faded, for upon clearly seeing Xiang Gaowen's face, his entire body went cold.

Not long ago, he had seen this very face at an East Blue Navy meeting discussing the man's bounty.

In the end, Major Brannew from Headquarters had provided an exaggerated figure:

48 million Berries.

This directly shattered the upper limit for East Blue pirate bounties, and in most cases, a pirate's bounty is linked to their strength.

A pirate with a bounty nearing 50 million, even alone, could kill everyone present without leaving a single survivor.

For a moment.

Rat was so frightened that he became incoherent, his tongue stumbling:

"Y-y-you—!"

"You're the one disguised as a pirate!"

Palu spoke up first:

"I was saying, how could there possibly be a Navy branch starting with 'GL' in the East Blue, and why would those big shots from the Grand Line ever be willing to come to the East Blue?"

"So the cat's out of the bag now, huh?"

As Palu's voice landed, Gaza also turned to look at Xiang Gaowen, a hint of wariness faintly revealing itself in her eyes.

She might be a fool for handsome men, but she wasn't stupid; in fact, one could say she was very clever, otherwise she wouldn't have obtained such a vast territory at this age.

The crowd's gun muzzles instantly pointed toward Xiang Gaowen and the others.

Ah Jin, who had been on the verge of exposure, had just had his palm soaked through with sweat; fortunately, once this hurdle was passed, the arrangements ahead would be much easier.

However.

Another kind of worry surged up in his heart as well.

If the other party really became desperate and reckless, relying solely on their own combat strength, even adding the guards in the port and the soldiers under Mouse's command, whether they could survive under the assault of these two individuals was itself a question.

Indeed, as the situation on the scene took a sharp turn for the worse, Xiang Keluo once again drew his claw blades from their sheaths, unleashing a killing intent that seemed both present and absent throughout his entire body.

He bowed slightly, already assuming the opening stance of Spoon Death, ready to launch an attack the moment Xiang Gaowen gave the order.

This time, however, Xiang Gaowen did not stop him, merely looking at the crowd with an indifferent expression.

If he had a choice, of course he would not want to make a move here.

After all, given the developed state of Raven Port, as long as stable channels were established within it, one could say that for a very long time to come, the pirate crew would lack neither weapons, food, nor medical supplies.

"Sigh..."

A sigh entered everyone's ears; Xiang Gaowen quietly tightened his grip on the knight's sword in his hand, instantly radiating a powerful sense of oppression.

At this moment.

Even Xiang Keluo, who stood behind him and whose presence had previously pressed Ah Jin breathless and filled Palu with fear, lost all sense of existence.

Within the sight of the crowd, there was only Xiang Gaowen alone.

"Hey, hey, hey~"

"For real?"

Ah Jin swallowed hard, gripping the iron crutch in his hand, feeling that the Xiang Gaowen before him was like a ferocious beast awakening.

His entire body radiated the aura of a predator, while he himself was the prey in those eyes!

"Even a gap in strength has to have some limit!"

Yet at this moment, a grating voice shattered the atmosphere of the scene...

(End of Chapter)