Chapter 603: Mere Four Emperors, Not Worth Mentioning

…

……

Late at night.

Madara and Hashirama lay on the cold cliff top of the Valley of the End, looking at the stars in the night sky, recalling the past.

The two had different expressions, but at this moment, they were at their most gentle; there were no conflicts of villages, no hatred of clans, only the mutual appreciation between two people.

"Madara, are you happy these years?" Hashirama asked casually.

Madara faced the starry sky and said calmly:

"Not happy, only loneliness. It is as if I have been abandoned by the whole world, and our era has come to an end."

"Indeed, those who survived from our era basically no longer exist," Hashirama sighed.

"But today, I am happy."

Madara suddenly smiled; this was a very novel experience, unprecedented.

"We are good brothers, right."

Hashirama also laughed, after being resurrected. Anyway, since he had already become a woman, he did not care about those things anymore.

Madara did not answer, because he was not yet prepared to face this kind of emotion.

Everything was just so sudden!

"Ahem." Hashirama coughed lightly twice; everything was like a dream, and he was truly afraid that if he woke up, everything would be gone.

Or that he had not been resurrected, had not become a girl, feeling anxious about gains and losses.

At this moment, he was no longer that world-renowned God of Shinobi, but a legendary figure who had long since passed away.

Madara's eyes flickered, and a string of numbers appeared before his eyes; that number represented the countdown for the time limit of the Gender-Changing Crystal, about an hour left?

"Ding, do you wish to spend points to renew? If you do not renew, the function of this item will disappear," a mechanical voice sounded.

"Uh..."

Madara could not help but fall into deep thought; he clutched his conscience, should he renew it or not?

If he renewed it, it would only cost one thousand points.

But one thousand points could only maintain it for about a day; in the long run, it would be difficult to maintain.

The points he had on him could only last for about half a month?

"Ding, if the group member chooses to renew, extra time can be gifted," the mechanical voice sounded again.

"..." Madara.

In the end, Madara still glanced at his close friend Hashirama beside him and chose to renew.

After all, he felt that this world did not need that man called the God of Shinobi; since that was the case, there was no need to return to his original appearance, changing his gender was also quite good, and Hashirama was so generous.

"Renew..."

……

Pirate World, Impel Down.

"Do you wish to use the Three-Color Haki Mastery Card?"

A voice reached Ace's ears, and he immediately said firmly:

"Yes!"

The next second, the Three-Color Haki Mastery Card turned into a stream of light and merged into the center of Ace's brows.

Countless experiences and insights regarding Haki cultivation were instilled into him, and he understood it all in his heart.

This experience was too vast, like the sea without boundaries.

At this moment, he finally understood just how profound the Taoism of Haki was.

Just cultivating Haki to the extreme granted extraordinary power; that was the true peak of humanity.

As for the Devil Fruit, it was merely icing on the cake.

Only then did Ace recall his grandfather, Lieutenant General Iron Fist Garp, and why he made pirates tremble with fear.

The reason was simple: Garp was the only legend in this world who had cultivated Armament Haki to the extreme, and he would not suffer a decline in combat power or physical strength due to age, maintaining his peak at all times.

In front of that level of Armament Haki, whatever Devil Fruit or natural elements there were, a single punch would blast them into nothingness.

"If I had known Haki back then, even if I couldn't kill Blackbeard, I wouldn't have been captured," Ace thought to himself.

Subsequently, he began to absorb the Haki experience, cultivating the Three-Color Haki over and over again in his mental world.

First was Armament Haki, attaching the invisible power of Haki to the surface of his body, followed by Haki coating, Ryou, and various Haki skills converting into one another.

In reality, the jet-black color belonging to Haki appeared on the surface of Ace's body.

Armament Haki appeared on his arms, feet, chest, and even his face; the black Armament Haki wrapped around his entire body like patterns.

Fortunately, there was no one in the underwater prison, and the light was dim, so no one would see.

Otherwise, who knows what kind of commotion it would cause!

After dozens of breaths, Ace opened his cold eyes; at this time, he could be said to have been reborn, having completely mastered the Three-Color Haki, and in terms of his proficiency, he was no longer a novice, but at a master level.

Even if he could not compare to a peak-level powerhouse like Garp, he was not far off.

Not to mention that he had mastered all three colors of Haki simultaneously; this was terrifying.

Whether it was the Four Emperors of the sea or the Admirals of the Navy, there were only a few who truly mastered the Three-Color Haki, and now there was one more.

That was Ace, who flowed with the blood of the devil!

"Haki is mastered, but the power is still not enough. Now I must increase the potential of the Mera Mera no Mi and fuse it with the Green Lotus Core Flame," Ace thought to himself.

He had read the Script; the reason he was killed by Admiral Akainu was mainly because the Magma-Magma Fruit countered his flames.

His flames were only ordinary flames, not as strong as the power of magma, and their destructive power was weak.

According to the information on the Green Lotus Core Flame, this flame could burn mountains and boil seas; although it was not the top flame among the Heavenly Flames, placed in this world, its destructive power was definitely above the Magma-Magma Fruit.

With the power of the Green Lotus Core Flame, it is even enough to completely burn the Magma-Magma Fruit of Akainu to nothingness.

"Fuse!"

Accompanied by a firm will, the Green Lotus Core Flame and the Devil Fruit fused.

A wisp of green flame sank into the center of Ace's brows, appearing extremely eerie and ghostly.

Because it is an exotic flame produced by the Chat Group, there are not so many restrictions, and a direct fusion will not burn the host to death; at most, one will feel a little pain during the fusion.

However, this bit of pain is nothing to Ace; as long as he can reverse the outcome of the Summit War, everything is worth it.

At the same time, Akainu, who was attending a meeting at Marine Headquarters, inexplicably felt a chill, his eyelids twitched non-stop, and he even choked while drinking water, coughing incessantly.

"Ooh-ooh-ooh, Akainu. Is your temper so fiery?" Kizaru, who was slacking off to the side, teased.

Seeing Akainu spitting out water vapor from his mouth, his face was incomparably dark.

"Hmph." Akainu snorted coldly.

"A dignified Admiral, choked by water, tsk tsk tsk."

The reticent Aokiji rarely said a word, which made Akainu's face look even uglier.

"Instead of focusing your attention on this, it would be better to pay more attention to that descendant of a devil. The execution of Roger's son is in one month; what preparations do we need?" Akainu said.

"Actually, I don't suggest the execution; just keeping him locked up like this is fine, after all, who could rescue someone from Impel Down?"

"Moreover, once the execution takes place, the Four Emperors Whitebeard will definitely come, and once a war starts, it will be disadvantageous for us," Kizaru said casually.

"Kizaru is right, we need to consider this from multiple aspects," said Fleet Admiral Sengoku, who was sitting in the main seat.

"What is there to fear? Let me kill Whitebeard, and you all control the situation for me."

"You are afraid of Whitebeard, but I am not. He is already an old man with half a foot in the grave, while I am in my prime, at the peak of my combat power," Akainu said confidently.

"Heh heh, guess why Whitebeard is the head of the Four Emperors?" Kizaru said.

Akainu said extremely conceitedly: "Heh heh, it is nothing but an empty reputation. If it weren't for the stability of the world, these pirates would have long been wiped out by our righteous Navy."