Chapter 71

It was the Monkey Mountain Allied Force's "Ape Pirates" and "Gorilla Pirates," who, because they worshipped Montblanc... (the text is corrupted/garbled here)

"Are they enemies?"

"Be careful!"

The Straw Hat Pirates all watched warily as two pirate ships rapidly approached, with a gorilla and an ape standing at each ship's prow.

It was none other than Explorer King Gorilla and Salvage King Ape.

"What are you doing here?" the ape asked warily.

"They must be after the gold too!" the gorilla said with certainty.

"What?" The ape was startled: "Then put the competition aside for now—deal with the enemy first!"

"Got it!"

The next moment,

The gorilla pulled out a microphone, and immediately the ship's loudspeaker blared with a wailing, howling sound, indiscriminately attacking everything within range!

Although his own ship was the first to suffer, he didn't care at all.

However......

Watching the Going Merry's deck creak and groan, with a faint tendency to be flipped over by the sound waves.

Sima Di was furious!

【Shut your mouth, you bastard!】

The next moment,

The gorilla's mouth was fitted with a zipper and locked shut, and his entire body uncontrollably shrank into a ball, looking just like an egg.

"Damn you! What did you do to the gorilla!" the ape roared in rage.

He immediately leaped from the ship's rail toward the Going Merry, raising his heavy fist capable of knocking out a Sea King, his target—

Was still the Going Merry!

Why do these people love attacking the ship so much?

【Get lost!】

The ape, mid-air, was instantly launched like a cannonball toward the horizon, landing in the distant sea.

Now the members of both pirate crews exploded with fury!

—Not sure if it was because they were confident enough in the ape, but not a single person went to look for him.

They furiously took out their salvage tools and launched a siege on the Going Merry—are these people sick in the head?

Are they professional salvagers, so they all go for the ship?

"Don't damage the Merry, you bastards!" Sanji kicked a giant capture device flying.

"Don't touch the Merry!" Zoro slashed through a flying shuttle.

"Defend the Merry!" Usopp fired an Exploding Star and blasted the lasso away.

Sima Di didn't want to tangle with these small fries, so he simply glared!

An invisible Conqueror's Haki swept over all the enemies, followed by a series of thuds as bodies hit the ground.

Only the gorilla, whose mouth had been sealed, stared in terror at his subordinates lying scattered across the ground, finally realizing that his group had provoked people they shouldn't have.

And just then,

A figure rose from the sea bottom, with a body of burly muscles and chestnut-shaped blond hair.

The gorilla's eyes widened at the sight—this man was their Monkey Mountain Allied Force's boss, "Montblanc... (the text is corrupted/garbled here)

Presumably he had been diving at the sea bottom searching for clues to the Golden City, and had been knocked unconscious by Sima Di's Conqueror's Haki.

Without a word, the gorilla jumped straight into the sea, preparing to fish Kureike out.

But Sima Di was quick—his telekinesis swept him up and deposited him directly onto the deck.

Chopper, as the ship's doctor, stepped forward on his own to examine him.

"He was knocked out by Conqueror's Haki."

"But he also has an illness—it's the bends. Long-term underwater pressure has thrown his body's regulation out of balance, causing embolisms that block his blood vessels."

"Can I save him?"

Looking at Chopper's pitiful expression, everyone couldn't help but turn to Sima Di.

With Luffy temporarily out of commission, Sima Di had become everyone's pillar of support.

"He should be the target of our trip this time—save him first, then we'll talk," Sima Di said.

"Got it!"

Sima Di looked at the chestnut-headed man on the floor, and honestly felt quite a bit of admiration.

As a descendant of "Great Liar Noland," separated by 400 years.

Even though Kureike himself didn't completely believe his ancestor, in order to prove the existence of the Golden City and wash away the "family's disgrace," he still rushed headlong from the North Sea to the Grand Line, staking his whole life to search for the elusive "Golden City."

The bends were caused by his speculation that the Golden City had sunk into the sea, leading him to often risk long-duration dives to search for it.

Very quickly,

Kureike awoke under Chopper's profound Medical Arts.

As the boss of the "Monkey Mountain Allied Force," with him there, the misunderstanding was quickly cleared up.

Everyone sat facing each other after going ashore.

"You came for the Golden City too, didn't you?" Kureike said: "As payment for saving my life, I can tell you the intelligence I know."

"What!" The gorilla was startled: "Boss! That's..."

A single look from Kureike shut the gorilla up.

"The Golden City really exists?" Nami's eyes gleamed with golden light.

That was the light of Berries!

"I'm not entirely sure either..." Kulukai said hesitantly. "But I do know there was a man who firmly believed in the existence of Gold Country, yet he was the legendary world-famous Liar King, so notorious that his descendants couldn't even hold their heads up."

"Huh?"

Chopper and the others instinctively looked at Usopp.

Usopp: (▼へ▼メ)

"Use your brain, it's obviously not me, you bastards!" Usopp snarled.

Although he loved to brag, he hadn't yet reached the point of being world-famous!

Then he began his exposition.

"It all starts with the North Blue fairy tale 'Liar King Rolando'..."

400-something years ago, the Provincial Military Commander and botanist Mont Blanc...

Not long after,

Rolando was ordered by the king to return to Jiayadao to search for gold, but by then Jiayadao had already been blasted into the sky by the Knock Up Stream. Failing to find Gold Country, he was convicted of deceiving the king and executed, and was even branded with the title "Liar King."

"Big Liar Rolando" thus became a household fairy tale in the North Blue, used to teach children honesty.

After hearing the story,

Sima Di couldn't help feeling a bit sentimental.

A man who had entered the Grand Line four times and emerged unscathed, had his lifelong reputation destroyed because of a single Knock Up Stream.

It was also a wrongful death.

"I believe him!" Luffy, having recovered, said firmly. "He insisted on the existence of Gold Country even at the moment of his death. I don't think he would lie to people!"

"A man who could travel the Grand Line four times back and forth and emerge unscathed — I don't think that country had the qualifications to put him to death. He probably surrendered willingly to prove the existence of Gold Country." Sima Di analyzed.

This drew nods of agreement from the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Along the way,

The dangers of the Grand Line they had all experienced firsthand — to make four round trips, one's strength would at least have to be at Luffy's level, right?

An ordinary army wouldn't be able to trap Luffy.

"Wen Bula?? Liao?..... Wen Bula??? Qian???? Chà? Liao?? Tóng?????? Nòu????? Chú??

Kulukai didn't hide it either, directly nodding and admitting it....

"Just because I have a bit of blood relation with him, people slap the label of a liar's clan on me regardless of my own merits or faults, pointing fingers and cursing me as a stranger they don't know. I grew up in this kind of environment — is that funny?"

Everyone fell silent.

Only Sima Di said quietly: "The prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain; sometimes no matter how hard you try, you can't move it... but if you could slap them in the face, that would definitely feel great!"

Kulukai's eyes lit up at those words!

Looking at Sima Di, it was as if he had found a soulmate.