Chapter 364: Prelude! Red-Hair and Beckman vs. The Twin Emperors!

"Hee—!"

Luffy heard their conversation, grinned, and flashed them a bright smile, looking for all the world like a simpleton missing a screw.

Garp felt no aversion to this.

After all, the more he resembled some bastard in the Marines, the more satisfying it would be when he laid into him later.

If I can't deal with you, can't I at least deal with your grandson?!

Seeing this, Lei Li knew his playful mood had surged, yet he did not stop him.

Through decades of voyaging, they had long become the people who understood each other best.

Though unwilling to admit it aloud, the moment things turned critical, they would without hesitation entrust their backs to one another.

"You're still so twisted in your humor."

Lei Li shook his head, gazing at Luffy in the center of the bar, his mind drifting to the figure of Shanks:

"Speaking of which."

"Shanks has already received the news; knowing his nature, he surely wouldn't just sit idly by and let this happen."

"After all, that is the only bloodline Luo Jie left behind, perhaps also one of the people Luo Jie was waiting for."

"Well~ well~"

Garp shook his head, unconcerned by this, and even when Lei Li mentioned Shanks, he sighed with emotion:

"That brat Shanks is now already recognized by the world as one of the Emperors of the Sea; he might have even surpassed you and me from back in the day."

"The one surpassed is you; I haven't been."

Garp instantly flew into a rage, veins throbbing on his forehead:

"Perhaps, I said perhaps!"

"Hahahahahaha~~~"

Seeing Garp flustered, Lei Li felt his mood relax somewhat; he took out his personal flask from his robe and took a small sip.

The scent of alcohol stung the nose.

Lei Li's heart gradually calmed:

"That's true."

"Shanks has his own adventures, his own things to do; otherwise, he wouldn't have left Luo Jie's hat to this boy."

"Luffy may not be the person Luo Jie was waiting for, but he is certainly the future Shanks has wagered everything on."

"That look in his eyes, that hidden aura of dominance..."

Lei Li paused slightly, then stated with conviction:

"In the more than twenty years I've guarded the Sabaody Archipelago, I've encountered someone comparable only once."

"Knight Gao Wen?!"

"Knight Gao Wen!"

Garp's expression suddenly darkened considerably; he snatched the flask from Lei Li's hand, tilted his head back, and drained the strong liquor within, saying:

"No matter what, once he reaches Elbaf, everything will be revealed!"

"No!"

Lei Li shook his head:

"That fellow might not turn out exactly as Luo Jie predicted; he has his own choices, his own path, his own way."

"In these past two years, I've heard many rumors about Gao Wen and even went to Britannias myself to see; that place..."

"It is not any of the futures we guessed, but it must be the future closest to perfection!"

Garp paused:

"It seems we really have grown old."

"Ah, this era belongs to the young."

The New World.

The sea churned, towering waves surged, and a tsunami was brewing.

Lightning flashed within the clouds, illuminating the crimson ship cutting through the wind and waves on the sea surface.

If any pirate from the New World were here, they would instantly recognize this vessel as the flagship of one of the three Emperors of the Sea, Red-Haired Shanks.

This ship had set sail in haste half a month ago, after Red-Hair learned from the Neo-Marines that the Marines were about to publicly execute someone; he had evaded Marine surveillance all the way, speeding toward Marine Headquarters.

Crash—!

Fierce winds accompanied the pouring rain, making the sea even more restless at this moment.

Red-Hair sat on the deck, ignoring the rain falling from the sky, staring intently at the newspaper in his hand, or more precisely, at the headline news printed on the front page.

"So that young man is actually Captain Luo Jie's... bloodline?!"

Before Red-Hair's eyes floated the memory of when Ace had first broken into the New World and specifically come to pay respects for Luffy's sake.

Back then, Red-Hair had felt a strange sense of affinity from this young man; he had assumed it was merely because of Luffy, but now it seemed there was more to it.

Rip—!

Red-Hair crumpled the newspaper in his hand into a ball, casually tossed it into the sea, and lifted his gaze to look at the distant ocean.

"Have you decided, Shanks!"

Leaning against the mast, Beckman lowered his eyes to look at Red-Hair:

"You should be able to see that executing Portgas D. Ace is no longer simply about eliminating Luo Jie's bloodline."

"What the Navy truly wants is the Whitebeard Pirates, or rather, Whitebeard's head!"

"If a supreme powerhouse who once stood shoulder to shoulder with Luo Jie is slain by the Navy, the resulting deterrent effect will sweep away the Navy's previous decline, allowing them to regain the initiative, and perhaps even extend their reach into the New World."

"Moreover, it is now obvious that veterans of the Luo Jie Pirates are interfering in this matter; everything is heading toward the unknown."

Beckman paused:

"In the end, this affair may well head in a direction no one anticipated!"

Red-Haired nodded, yet his tone held not a shred of hesitation:

"I have no reason to shrink back because of this."

"Is that so~"

Beckman closed his eyes, a stick of tobacco dangling from his lips, yet a distinct smile appeared on his face:

"True enough."

"Beneath your easygoing exterior lies a resolve that, once made, cannot be shaken by anything."

Red-Haired paid him no heed, simply picking up a bounty poster in silence: Blackbeard—Marshall D. Teach, former bounty...

As he gazed at the photograph, the scar over his right eye throbbed with a faint pain.

"I have a premonition that this fellow's goal is far from being as simple as merely becoming one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea."

"Blackbeard, huh..."

Beckman's brows knitted tightly.

He had long known the history between Red-Haired and Blackbeard, and he understood even more clearly that Blackbeard's strength was far from that of a mere Whitebeard crewman.

To be able to leave a scar of this magnitude on Red-Haired's face...

"He has practically written his ambition all over his face!"

"It seems this journey is one I must undertake."

Beckman opened his eyes, the languidness in his gaze vanishing in an instant.

Yet in the next moment, the two figures on the deck shuddered simultaneously, lifting their eyes to the sky.

Lei Guang flickered within the clouds; azure Lei Ting seemed poised to tear heaven and earth asunder.

A winding figure a thousand meters long soared through the cloud layer, an invisible aura gradually spreading out, so potent that it even suppressed the storm that was about to brew!