Chapter 125

Tashigi cried with red eyes:

"He's too hateful! He was teaching me swordsmanship so well last night, but in the blink of an eye..."

Ain is a few years older than Tashigi and has seen more of the world.

She already understands Luo Xing's character a bit.

She sighed faintly:

"The good that man does to women is all marked with chips."

First half of the Grand Line.

An island near Alabasta.

Blackbeard Marshall D. Teach, who had already found four powerful crew members, Burgess, Laffitte, Van Augur, and Doc Q, was now laughing arrogantly.

"Zehahahaha! Whitebeard's era is about to end, and the future is the era of Blackbeard!"

"Ace, why don't you join Laozi's team too!"

Standing opposite the Blackbeard Pirates, the sturdy young man wearing a hat and with the Whitebeard flag pattern tattooed on his back was none other than Fire Fist Ace.

Ace is the 2nd Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, and Blackbeard was once his subordinate.

But Blackbeard killed 4th Division Commander Thatch for a mere Devil Fruit. How could Ace tolerate it?

He ignored the persuasion of other Whitebeard Pirates' commanders and insisted on chasing Blackbeard alone.

Finally, in this first half of the Grand Line, he caught up with Blackbeard.

Hearing Blackbeard actually invite him to join the other party's team, Ace couldn't help but show a disdainful sneer.

"Teach, you are really arrogant enough."

"The future is your era? Heh, ridiculous, you will die here today!"

Bang!

A gunshot rang out, and the sniper Van Augur fired.

The bullet passed through Ace's body, bringing up wisps of flames.

"Van Augur, it's useless, don't waste bullets."

Blackbeard laughed gloomily:

"Ace is a Logia Flame-Flame Fruit ability user. Even in my former Whitebeard Pirates, his strength was ranked high."

Fire Fist Ace twisted his neck and stretched his muscles.

"Teach, since you know my strength, don't resist. I might be able to let you die quickly."

"Zehahaha!"

Blackbeard laughed arrogantly.

"Ace, your Flame-Flame Fruit is indeed very powerful, but the Devil Fruit I snatched from Thatch is the strongest Logia, the Dark-Dark Fruit!"

"Your flames are just a negligible little spark in front of absolute darkness!"

"Understand, Ace!"

117. Blackbeard's plan, Imu's importance to Luo Xing, whereabouts of Pluton

Fire Fist Ace's eyes shot out cold killing intent.

Scorching flames burned on his body.

"Teach, you are really a hopeless bastard!"

"Fire Fist!"

Ace suddenly made a move and threw a punch.

Monstrous flames erupted from his fist.

Blackbeard widened his eyes.

His crew members Laffitte, Burgess, and others didn't react at all.

The flames permeated through them.

"Ah!"

Blackbeard screamed and rolled on the ground.

His physique is very special; he can eat two Devil Fruits, but the pain his body bears is also twice that of an ordinary person.

As everyone knows, the Flame-Flame Fruit cannot burn people to death.

Blackbeard and his crew soon climbed up.

Except for being a bit gray, they were unharmed.

Blackbeard panted, staring at Ace:

"Ace, you are still as impatient as ever. Whitebeard never told you, right? You can't do big things with a personality like yours!"

"Whitebeard even wanted to push you to the position of Pirate King. Laozi thinks he is old and confused. You..."

Before Blackbeard finished speaking, Ace let out a roar:

"You bastard, you don't deserve to mention Old Man's name!"

He threw another Fire Fist.

Laffitte, Burgess, and others hurriedly dodged.

Although this flame cannot burn people to death, it is still very painful.

Blackbeard didn't dodge, but stretched out a pitch-black palm.

"Ace, today Laozi will teach you a lesson!"

"Black Hole!"

The pitch-black palm aimed at the flames, actually absorbing all the monstrous flames.

Immediately after, Blackbeard aimed his other palm at Ace.

Ace's expression changed suddenly.

He found that his body was out of control, automatically flying towards Blackbeard.

Bang!

Blackbeard's fist smashed fiercely into Ace's stomach.

Boom!

Ace was smashed into a wooden house more than ten meters away, looking extremely embarrassed.

"Did you see clearly, Ace!"

Blackbeard held two pitch-black palms, his whole body emitting black smoke, laughing wildly:

"This is the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit, which can invalidate the abilities of all Devil Fruit ability users and attack the main body of Logia ability users directly! Your flames have no meaning in front of Laozi!"

The Dark-Dark Fruit is called the most vicious Devil Fruit in history and is extremely special.

It can invalidate other Devil Fruit abilities and attack the main body of Logia ability users directly.

In this regard, it is a bit like Armament Haki.

Fire Fist Ace wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth, his face looking ugly.

The strange ability of the Dark-Dark Fruit was truly beyond his expectations.

"Little ones, go together, catch Ace!"

Blackbeard is a person who doesn't talk about martial arts at all.

Although he might be able to take down Ace alone, it would take a lot of effort. Why not gang up if you can?

Do whatever it takes to achieve your goal; this is Blackbeard's life creed!

With the five members of the Blackbeard Pirates attacking together, even though Ace was very strong, the Flame-Flame Fruit was restrained by the Dark-Dark Fruit, so he was quickly defeated.

He was handcuffed with Seastone handcuffs by Blackbeard.

Burgess looked at the unconscious Fire Fist Ace and asked:

"Captain, aren't you going to kill this guy? If you keep him, Whitebeard will definitely come to save him, which will be troublesome."

Although the Blackbeard Pirates' ambition is to conquer the whole world, the team was newly created and is still in the development stage.

Facing the reputation of Whitebeard, the strongest man in the world, they were still extremely wary.

Blackbeard laughed gloomily:

"No, Whitebeard won't come to find us; he will only go to the Marines. I want to hand Ace over to the Marines in exchange for the position of Warlord of the Sea!"

Laffitte said:

"There is currently no shortage of Warlords of the Sea. The vacancy left by Doflamingo has already been filled by that guy who claims to be Whitebeard's son."

Mentioning this, Blackbeard was still quite irritated.

Originally, he had been extremely happy upon hearing the news of Doflamingo's death.

Because he had finally waited for an opportunity to join the Warlords of the Sea.

But Blackbeard hadn't expected that before he could even act, that Warlord position would be snatched away by someone else.

Frustrated and desperate, Blackbeard had no choice but to think of another plan.

And this was the reason he had come to this island, not far from Alabasta.

Blackbeard said in an arrogant voice:

"If there's no position, then create one!"

"Laozi has already inquired clearly; that Sand Crocodile has harmed Alabasta terribly. We go, take him down, and then offer Ace to the Navy. Will the Navy really not give Laozi a Warlord title then?"

Hearing Blackbeard's plan, Burgess and the others clapped and cheered:

"Captain, great idea! I heard that Sand Crocodile even ate a Monster Cell; I've long wanted to see it for myself!"

……

At the same moment, in the Holy Land of Mary Geoise.

After meeting with Sengoku, the Five Elders went to pay their respects to Lord Imu.

Lord Imu sat on that giant throne which should have been empty.

This person was extremely mysterious.

Except for the Five Elders, not even the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Army, and Air Force, Kong, the Fleet Admiral Sengoku, or the various allied nations of the World Government knew of his existence.

The Five Elders, who claimed to hold the highest power in the world, had to perform the kowtow ritual upon seeing this person.

The Five Elders knelt and reported all the major events that had occurred recently to Lord Imu.

This included the meeting between Red-Haired and Whitebeard, the battle between the Cybertronians and the Pacifistas on Punk Hazard, and the recently learned news of Vergo annihilating Zephyr's Neo-Navy.

Of the three major events, for an existence like Imu, only one mattered: the Cybertronians.

To be precise, it was the inventor behind the Cybertronians, Luo Xing.

"Has that guy been caught?"

Imu spoke, his voice sounding very hollow and ethereal.

The Five Elders knew who Lord Imu was referring to, and they lowered their heads even further.

"Apologies, Lord Imu, that person has been hiding in Wano Country, and with the protection of Kaido of the Beasts, we are unable to capture him."

Luo Xing had not been hiding in Wano Country the whole time; on the contrary, he had been to many places during this period.

Sky Island, the East Blue, Loguetown, Thriller Bark, and so on.

It was just that the Five Elders could not track Luo Xing's movements, and to this day, they did not even know Luo Xing's true face.

Although Imu did not respond, the oppressive feeling spreading through the air made the Five Elders break out in a cold sweat instantly.

Why would Imu, the high and mighty old monster who had lived for who knows how many years, place such importance on Luo Xing?

Was the level of importance even above that of Red-Haired, Whitebeard, and Zephyr?

The fundamental reason was that Luo Xing's heaven-defying inventions made even this mysterious Lord Imu feel a great threat!

The magnitude of this threat was something that neither Rocks nor the Pirate King Roger of the past could compare to!

In fact, at this very moment, Luo Xing's bounty poster was placed on his desk.

Imu plunged a small knife into the center of Luo Xing's photo and said in a tone containing supreme majesty:

"Kill this man at all costs!"

"Also, you must speed up the plan to find the Ancient Weapons!"

The Cybertronians had crushed the Pacifistas, which the World Government had spent years researching; in terms of weaponry and equipment, the World Government had already fallen far behind the Beasts Pirates.

How could Imu tolerate this?

And to make up for this gap, besides having Vegapunk research more advanced weapons, the only way was to find the legendary Ancient Weapons!

"Yes, Lord Imu!"

The Five Elders knelt and accepted the order.

After returning, the Five Elders immediately issued a death order to the CP0 and CP9 organizations.

They were to use their greatest efforts and the fastest speed to find the Ancient Weapon, Pluton!

118. Cyrus eats a Monster Cell, Luo Xing heads to Alabasta

After leaving the villa of Tashigi and Ain, Luo Xing took Jack and stopped by Dressrosa on the way.

The distance between Punk Hazard and Dressrosa was not far, and the two places had a relationship of mutual support.

If the Navy were to attack one place, the other could provide support from the rear.

If the Navy attacked both places at once, the Beasts Pirates in Wano Country, including Luo Xing's father-in-law Kaido, would take action.

At that time, it would evolve into a massive war that no one could control!

It was precisely because Sengoku and the Five Elders knew this that they had not yet made up their minds to deploy large-scale forces against Punk Hazard and Dressrosa.

After all.

The Navy's enemies were far more than just the Beasts Pirates.

Whether other Four Emperors' crews would take advantage of the Navy fighting the Beasts Pirates to sneak attack the empty Marineford was something that had to be guarded against.

In short.

The current situation was in a strange state of balance.

As long as the Beasts Pirates were no longer aggressive, the Navy would not easily start a war.

As for the order Imu gave to kill Luo Xing at all costs.

The Five Elders could only spread their hands, helpless.

They hadn't even seen Luo Xing's true face yet, so how were they supposed to kill him?

Should they send all the spies from CP0 and CP9 to Wano Country to assassinate him?

How would that be any different from sending them to their deaths!

Therefore, the Five Elders' main action was to find the Ancient Weapon, Pluton.

And this was something the Five Elders had planned many years ago.

They had long ago sent Rob Lucci and others from CP9 to infiltrate Water 7, waiting for an opportunity to steal the Pluton blueprints.

The Five Elders had already called Rob Lucci, demanding that CP9 must get the blueprints within half a month.

Luo Xing did not know about these things for the time being.

He was at the SMILE factory, inspecting the manufacturing progress of the artificial Devil Fruits.

Currently, the daily production volume was ten, and the success rate for people to gain abilities was about four-fifths.

In other words, the Beasts Pirates could gain seven or eight new artificial Devil Fruit users every day.

If these people then ate Monster Cells and practiced in the gravity room, their strength could instantly reach the level of the former Flying Six, which was shocking!

Right now,

The number of Gifters in the Beasts Pirates with such strength had already reached two thousand!

With the combat power of these two thousand people, it was enough to sweep away all hostile forces in the New World, including other Four Emperors' crews.

But to attack the Navy Headquarters and the World Government, it was still far from enough.

The main reason was that the Navy and the World Government had too many high-end combatants.

A top-tier powerhouse could at least equal one thousand Gifters.

And the Navy had such top-tier powerhouses, roughly counting, there were Sengoku, Garp, and the three Admirals, totaling five.

Furthermore.

On the World Government side, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Army, and Air Force, Kong, and the five old immortals of the Five Elders were estimated to possess considerable strength as well.

Finally, that mysterious Lord Imu was even harder to gauge.

This was the reason Luo Xing gave Marco Senzu Beans at the Senzu Bean auction.

Luo Xing wanted Whitebeard to recover a few percent of his peak combat power to test the depth of the World Government for him first.

If he could kill one or two top-tier powerhouses, that would be even better.

Without further ado.

After Luo Xing finished inspecting the SMILE factory, he went to the royal palace of Dressrosa.

The royal palace was located on the King's Plateau.

The King's Plateau was a very high mountain peak with several levels.