Chapter 261: Mighty Nation!

The surging crowd instantly submerged Gao Wen.

From Reiju's vantage point, she could even see the constantly flashing artillery fire, and for a moment, his heart also harbored doubts:

"Can such recklessness possibly work?!"

"Even clad in Germa's battle suits, facing such dense assaults mixed with blades and cannon fire, damage is only a matter of time."

Facing Reiju's doubt, Zoro didn't even turn his head, uttering only a single word:

"Run!"

Had these people's trust in that man truly reached such a level?!

Reiju followed closely behind Zoro, yet frequently glanced back, and in the next instant, she witnessed a scene that shook her to her core.

Gulp—!

A gray-white shockwave expanded outward from within the pirate mob, sweeping across the entire harbor like a curtain of light.

Nor did it stop there; even the numerous pirate ships anchored on the sea at this moment were affected by the impact, swaying continuously.

Boom!

A burst of explosive sound hit the ground.

In the distant harbor, only a handful of people remained standing, yet they all watched in terror the man standing in the center of the encirclement, with wings sprouting from his back, resembling a ghostly deity.

"What happened?! No, what did that fellow do?!"

Some were bewildered, feeling nothing but a blankness in their minds, as if even their consciousness were about to fade.

"It's Conqueror's Haki!"

"One in a million possesses Conqueror's Haki, a qualification symbolizing a king!"

"This fellow is absolutely no nameless nobody; who exactly is he? His face is excessively young—is he a newcomer of the Marines?!"

"Unclear, never dealt with this fellow before, but without taking him down, it's impossible to obtain the Ancient Weapon Pluton!"

After the initial fear, the rationality of the pirates was once again shattered by their greed for Pluton.

They were confident that even by piling up human lives, they could bury the man currently standing in the harbor to death.

"Kill!"

"He is ultimately human; he will tire, he will exhaust, and in the end, the victors will inevitably be us!"

The crowd surged, and countless pirate ships rapidly approached the harbor at this moment.

More pirates leaped down from the decks.

Their faces were flushed red, their expressions manic; they brandished swords and blades, surging toward Gao Wen from within the harbor.

Yet Reiju, standing dumbfounded in the distance, finally understood why Zoro could be so confident in Gao Wen.

There is no king willing to remain beneath another.

The fact that Gao Wen could become the leader of a monster like Xiang Keluo only proved that Gao Wen was an even more powerful monster.

Compared to him, whether it was Vinsmoke Judge or the three Vinsmoke brothers, they all appeared as immature as toddlers learning to speak.

Too weak!

So weak that even the motion of Judge wielding his battle spear appeared somewhat comical.

At this moment, the pirates surging toward the harbor, who were far inferior to Judge, were even more so.

In this moment, Reiju realized.

Although she still did not know Gao Wen's limits, relying solely on the pirates present, there was absolutely no possibility of defeating him.

This was truly the power of one man capable of opposing thousands of troops; pure strength capable of crushing all opponents.

Reiju remained silent, caught up to Zoro's pace, and the two of them soon moved far away from the central battlefield.

Beneath a building.

Zoro and Reiju paused here; after setting Sanji down and injecting him with the antidote, they both let out a long breath.

Reiju couldn't help but turn back, gazing toward the distant battlefield.

This place was already more than three kilometers from the battlefield, with numerous obstacles in between; even with Reiju's eyesight, she could not make out Gao Wen's figure.

She could only barely see faint blue laser beams sweeping across the sea and silver-white slashes tearing through the sky; such a scene was nearly indistinguishable from doomsday.

Reiju couldn't help but ask:

"That fellow... just how strong is he?!"

Reiju looked at the blurred scene in the distance, her eyes somewhat dazed, yet Zoro's reply consisted of only three words:

"I don't know."

Reiju was stunned:

"You don't know?!"

Zoro nodded, recalling Gao Wen who had broken his cognitive limits time and time again, slowly closed his eyes, and said lightly:

"I have never seen the Captain's full power."

"..."

Reiju fell silent, her gaze falling upon Sanji beside her, yet a slight smile curved the corners of her lips.

She was not foolish.

From the words Zoro inadvertently revealed, she had already deduced that Sanji's current identity was perhaps not that of a marine soldier.

But what their true identities were did not matter to Reiju.

What mattered was that standing under Gao Wen's flag, Sanji lived far happier than he ever did in Germa.

That was enough.

……

In the distance.

Above the sea.

Gatz also halted his retreating fleet.

He stood on the deck, holding a telescope and gazing back at the battle in the harbor.

Unlike Reiju, he had fought for years upon the sea and had witnessed countless battles between powerful warriors.

Just now, Gao Wen's Haoshoku had been extraordinarily powerful; among all the strong ones he knew, only a handful could achieve such a level.

And those beings were none other than the supreme elites of this sea.

Either legendary figures like Wang Zhi, who had once clashed with kings, or current Four Emperors like Big Mom.

"My lord, should we intervene? Now is the best chance to rescue Lady Reiju and the others."

An aide stepped before Gatz, wearing a fawning smile.

Although the vast majority of Jirama's soldiers were mass-produced cyborgs, the decision-making layer still included many normal humans besides the Vinsmoke family.

This aide was one of them.

His name was Mo Ke.

He had once been captain of a pirate crew in the North Blue.

A few years ago, he barely escaped death at the hands of the Marines, and after meeting Gatz, he immediately clung to this thickest leg in the North Blue.

"Even if that guy is strong, he can't possibly stand against so many pirates—we…"

"Fine."

Gatz glanced at him sidelong, his tone dripping with chilling coldness:

"You go."

"Huh?!"

Mo Ke raised a finger to point at himself, then swallowed the rest of his words.

He knew his own worth, and Gatz beside him knew it too.

His card—the World Government member state—had been crushed by the opponent, and he was deeply wary of the Marines.

After all, even if you didn't mention the stronger Gao Wen, Xiang Keluo could easily wipe out Jirama 66.

Therefore, after confirming Wang Zhi had not lied to him, he had already abandoned the idea of forcibly rescuing Reiju and the others by force.

Now, his reason for staying here was merely a lingering sense of resentment.

He wanted to see with his own eyes just how strong the man who had repelled Wang Zhi truly was.

Boom!

Another explosion echoed from the distant harbor.

Countless shells struck Gao Wen, yet not a single one inflicted even the slightest wound.

The BUG of the Doukai was displayed to its fullest in this battle.

Not only ordinary shells, but even霸气-infused attacks could not pierce Gao Wen's defense, let alone that Chi Long could随时 absorb geothermal energy to replenish his stamina.

As long as Gao Wen wished, he could fight this kind of battle indefinitely.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

……

Several bullets struck Gao Wen, yet they couldn't even make his body tremble—only sparks flew off as they ricocheted away.

Hss!

Gao Wen raised his hand and slashed, cutting a pirate attempting to ambush him in half at the waist.

"Boring."

"Utterly boring, not even stirring a spark of interest."

Gao Wen sighed; his aura surged like a tangible force, flipping the attacking pirates backward.

But in the very next instant, more surged forward—a dark, endless tide; by now, these men were nearly numb, having forgotten the very existence of fear.

Yet to Gao Wen, they were still far too weak—weak enough to make him unable to muster even a shred of interest.

Swish!

His wings flared.

Gao Wen leapt upward, glancing back at Franky and the others leading their troops to retreat in the distance.

Seeing they had reached safety, Gao Wen no longer held back.

Jing!

Guanshi Zhengzong sheathed itself; Gao Wen's aura now began to churn violently:

"I've had enough of this boring fight."

"If you don't want to die… run now!"

Streams of crimson lightning coalesced around Gao Wen, finally converging entirely into the sheath of Guanshi Zhengzong.

Simultaneously, the geothermal energy he had absorbed earlier gathered toward his arm, until his hand appeared wrapped in pale blue flame.

Thus, an invisible pressure began spreading outward—a power of extreme danger was coalescing, and when unleashed, it would surely overturn everything!

The wind blowing from the sea toward the harbor halted at this moment.

"What's happening?!"

One pirate stared at Gao Wen, motionless in midair, his face blank with confusion; his perception system had overloaded and grown sluggish, yet his body still instinctively sensed terror.

"Who pissed in my crotch?! Wait... I... I..."

He realized what had happened to his body, but did not know what was about to happen.

Only when his gaze turned again to Gao Wen, seeing the billowing cape on Gao Wen's body, did he belatedly realize that his legs could no longer move.

"I don't want to die!"

"I..."

He looked around in panic and saw the pirates who had just besieged Gao Wen with him now fleeing toward the distant sea as if their lives depended on it.

Many, in their rush to run faster, even threw away the weapons in their hands.

"It's coming!"

"What exactly is coming?!"

"I don't know, but my body, my mind, keeps repeating this phrase: Run, run, run, run and you'll survive!"

"But... can we run away?!"

The man paused slightly, instinctively turning his head. Gao Wen, suspended in mid-air, had now drawn his long blade just a sliver from its sheath.

Click!

The crisp sound, at this moment, even drowned out all surrounding noises: the pirates' shouts, the howling wind, the surging sea...

Everything seemed to stand still.

In everyone's ears, there was only Gao Wen's low whisper:

"Although I only saw that old woman use it once, I think I've grasped a bit of its essence, so..."

"Elbaph's Spear - Sovereign of Nations!"

Boom!

Gao Wen drew his blade with a reverse motion; the Conqueror's Haki condensed in the scabbard and the earth-pulse energy in his hand intertwined and merged.

The two, representing will and energy respectively, were roughly blended by Gao Wen in a brutal manner, forming a silver-white shockwave that spread in an arc, cutting down everything within sight.

Countless pirates had not even come to their senses before the world before their eyes turned silver-white, and their bodies were completely torn apart in the next instant.

The pirate ships near the coast were also struck, instantly disintegrating into wreckage raining down from the sky.

A wave tens of meters high rolled back from the harbor, rising higher and becoming more exaggerated as it followed the depth changes of the coastline.

Countless pirate ships that failed to react in time were swallowed on the spot.

With just this single slash.

The pirate forces stationed before Water Seven were destroyed by more than half.

The harbor, once packed tightly, became completely empty, with only countless pirate ship wrecks drifting on the water, pushed onto the beach by the waves.

Piled up like mountains.

"Mon... monster!"

On the open sea.

Someone shouted, and the survivors, previously nearly stunned, instantly reacted, frantically setting their pirate ships in motion to retreat far to the rear.

The dark clouds in the sky were dispersed by Gao Wen's unleashed Conqueror's Haki; the cold moonlight shone upon the harbor, where the water surface was scattered with broken silver.

Silence reigned everywhere.

Only Gao Wen, with wings sprouting from his back and clad in crimson soft armor, stood in the harbor like a demon or ghost, calmly gazing at everything on the open sea.

At this moment, the pirates who had originally regarded Water Seven as their prey clearly realized.

The question of who was the hunter remained debatable; at least, before that man fell, no one could take Water Seven from his grasp.

Farther away.

A row of snail ships, linked together and resembling an island, floated on the water, not swaying even slightly despite the rolling waves.

Yet Judge, standing on the deck of a snail ship and looking at Gao Wen in the distance, held his broken spear with hands that trembled uncontrollably.

"This guy... this guy definitely has the qualification to contend with the Four Emperors! When did such a figure appear in the Marines?!"

"Impossible!"

"Even if a Marine Admiral personally intervened, it would be at most this level. Such a person is absolutely no unknown..."

"No!"

Judge's breath suddenly hitched; the face of Xiang Keluo appeared once more before his eyes.

That undisguised mockery toward World Government member nations, and the ferocious killing intent in Xiang Keluo's eyes, both pointed to the same fact.

"He cannot be a Marine!"

"A young, handsome face, combat power comparable to a Marine Admiral..."

A title slowly emerged in Judge's mind:

"Knight Gao Wen!"

"Retreat!"

"Quick!"

This time, Judge truly issued the order to retreat.

Pirates and Marines are different.

The Marines would respect his status as a king of a World Government member nation, but pirates would not at all, not even the Seven Warlords of the Sea who had been co-opted by the World Government.

The relationship between these great pirates enjoying Seven Warlords privileges and the World Government was one of mutual exploitation.

As long as the profit was large enough, breaking the agreement was as simple as eating and drinking for them.

This was also why the matter of the Pluton blueprint in Water Seven had caused such a huge uproar, yet the World Government chose not to deploy the powerful combat strength of the Seven Warlords.

After all, these people acted solely in their own interests; no one could predict whether they had come to seize the Pluton blueprint or to provide support.

"That good-for-nothing actually managed to latch onto a powerful leg."

Cold sweat poured down Gaji's face, especially as he recalled how he had treated Sanji.

Although Xiang Keluo had not stated it explicitly, his regard for Sanji was in no way inferior to Gaji's own regard for Ichiji and the others.

Once they remembered...

Wait!

This might well be my opportunity—the chance for Germa to reconquer the North Blue!

(End of Chapter)