Chapter 152: Points Skyrocketing, A New Surprise [51K]

"Borsalino——!!!"

Witnessing this scene, Kaido flew into a rage, his roar exploding like thunder:

"You bastard, when exactly did you follow me, and who gave you the guts to interfere in Laozi's fight?!"

"You're angry now, how scary."

Kizaru raised both hands in a gesture of surrender, smiling brightly as he said:

"Don't be so excited, Mr. Kaido~; old man is merely acting on orders. When an Emperor of the Sea barges into the first half of the Grand Line, someone must naturally be responsible for monitoring him."

Kaido's face turned gloomy: "Are you saying you've been following Laozi from the very beginning?"

"Of course; keeping up with you while doing my utmost to avoid detection by your Observation Haki is an extremely difficult task."

Kizaru scratched his head with a troubled expression, "Although I didn't want to do such tiring work, there was no help for it; in Marineford, only old man is capable of this."

Kaido stared at him blankly.

Suddenly, his eyes turned red, tears shimmering within them.

"Waaahhhhh!!!"

He collapsed onto the ground, wailing loudly, "Little brat Siano, it's my fault! It's me who ruined you, waah!!!"

Thinking that Kizaru had found Siano by following him, and that he himself had been too focused just now to help intercept that sneak attack.

The more he cried, the sadder he became, the more he blamed himself; tears and snot flowed freely as his massive fists hammered the ground, shaking the entire Enies Lobby island.

His appearance of utter grief was just like a child whose favorite toy had been stolen.

"Hasn't he sobered up from the alcohol yet?"

Kizaru raised an eyebrow, watching this scene without much surprise.

Over these years, he and Kaido had dealt with each other several times, so he naturally knew about the other's habit of losing composure after drinking.

However.

This guy is actually this heartbroken over Siano being killed; it seems my guess wasn't wrong after all.

Over at Headquarters, they initially misjudged Kaido's intentions, thinking he was there to assassinate Siano, which is why they turned a blind eye to his intrusion into the first half of the Grand Line.

Kizaru had originally thought the same.

But after following him all this way, he gradually sensed something was off.

Kaido seemed to harbor little killing intent toward that boy; instead, he clearly wanted to recruit and persuade him to join.

Such a thing cannot be allowed to happen.

The current scale of the Beasts Pirates is already giving the Marines enough headaches.

If they were to gain another executive with the strength of a 'Top Commander' at merely eighteen years old, the future balance of power in the New World might even risk becoming unstable.

Therefore, he had tried to conceal his aura as he closed in, launching a full-power sneak attack.

As the highest combat power of Marine Headquarters, doing this to a mere junior is indeed very ungraceful.

But if doing so can strangle a dangerous figure who could shake the balance of the seas within the cradle...

Even if he had to do it again, he would still act this way...

"Hmm?"

Kizaru's expression suddenly changed slightly.

Because Kaido had abruptly stopped crying, slowly rising to his feet, grabbing the spiked club beside him, and staring deathly at him, his pupils filled with violent, murderous light.

"Hey, you're joking, right?"

Kizaru gave a dry laugh and took a few steps back, "Has the opponent become me? Old man has no such intention; how about we meet another day..."

"Run then!"

Two streams of white vapor erupted from Kaido's nostrils, his face twisted ferociously, "Of course you can run! Who can outrun you? Laozi is too lazy to chase; I'll just tear this Enies Lobby apart completely and see if the World Government will take you to Mary Geoise to answer for your crimes!"

Kizaru's footsteps halted.

And Kaido gave him not a moment to react, suddenly stomping the ground and roaring as he charged into the high sky!

"Downfall of the Third Generation: Dragging into Naraka!!!"

The spiked club flipped violently in his hand, carrying a world-destroying momentum as it smashed down with a boom!

Kizaru's face changed drastically; his body instantly elementalized, intending to scatter into countless points of light to evade.

But this strike from Kaido was launched in fury; the shockwaves wrapped in Conqueror's Haki spread out over an extremely wide area, forcibly interrupting Kizaru's light-speed movement.

"Oh no..."

Kizaru only had time to raise his arms in defense before his entire body was smashed into the ground.

The foundation layers of Enies Lobby collapsed one after another; the residual force of the shockwave pierced through the entire island without diminishing, even splitting the distant sea surface into a vacuum trench over a thousand meters long.

"Cough!"

Kizaru crawled out from the ruins, wiping away the fresh blood overflowing from the corner of his mouth.

Looking at Kaido, who was approaching step by step with overwhelming momentum, he finally dropped his lazy expression and rubbed his temples with some headache:

"Really, I don't want to risk my life fighting a monster like you..."

Kizaru sighed, spread his arms wide, and countless rays of Jin Guang converged into the shape of a sword, his face becoming expressionless:

"However, since you insist on fighting, then old man can only accompany you to the end."

————

Gulu-lu...

Beneath Enies Lobby, seven thousand meters deep in the seabed.

This was a place sunlight could never reach, pitch black, where one could not see their own fingers even with an outstretched hand.

Siano's body lay quietly sinking in the icy seawater, drifting toward the outer perimeter with the ocean currents.

His entire body was covered in wounds, and the blood-filled hole in his chest was particularly horrifying to behold.

However, if anyone had been nearby, they would likely have been shocked to discover that all the wounds on his body were rapidly repairing and regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Before long, his body returned to its original state.

"Hoo..."

Siano suddenly opened his eyes and looked upward.

"That old thing Kizaru actually seems to think that a mere attack of that caliber could kill me..."

He sneered coldly.

Too naive.

He simply moved his wrists a bit, gauged his condition, and found he was largely unaffected, with plenty of stamina remaining.

Moreover, having achieved minor success in cultivating the Sea Breathing Method, staying continuously in these deep seas for several days posed little problem.

What a pity; he had only just begun fighting Kaido, had barely entered the zone to fight to his heart's content, when this sudden incident occurred.

Originally, he could have learned even more from this battle.

Now, however, he was forced to feign death to escape.

There was no help for it.

Being confronted face-to-face by that scoundrel who ate the Glint-Glint Fruit... that Flash Man, made escape impossible; that was no joke.

If Kizaru hadn't shown up, even fighting Kaido to the bitter end would have been fine, after all, he hadn't sensed any killing intent from Kaido.

The worst outcome would merely have been him fainting and being taken by the other party to Wano Country.

The vast ocean is boundless; even in his Azure Dragon form, Kaido would have to fly for several days, leaving ample opportunities and methods to escape along the way.

But Kizaru was different.

That old schemer truly intended to send him straight to the afterlife; he sneaked up silently and stealthily, then went all-out with his firepower the moment he struck, not caring about saving face at all.

Both were teenage juniors, so why, when facing Nika, did he just go 'biu biu biu' painting the outline and slacking off?

Damn it, so unfair!

Although, the result was good.

Kizaru's interference actually came at just the right time; it neither delayed his learning of Armament Haki infusion nor gave him a chance to withdraw safely and escape...

But he held grudges very deeply!

Never underestimate a youth in poverty; just wait, Second Uncle, when we meet again, we'll have a heart-to-heart chat about old times!

Muttering resentfully, Siano suddenly remembered something.

Revenge was for later; as for the present, the wool still needed to be sheared, and he couldn't forget that.

He immediately swam toward the periphery, and to be on the safe side, kept his position pressed against the deepest part of the seabed, trying his best to conceal his aura.

Only after swimming dozens of kilometers did he surface, looking toward the horizon's end at the two figures that were already blurring into tiny black dots.

Were they still fighting?

Kaido was truly quite loyal...

It almost made him feel too ashamed to shear this guy's wool.

—That was, of course, impossible.

The "Convenient Sheep Shearing" card deck appeared in his hand; he had used one card against Aokiji last time in Food Capital, leaving four remaining; gazing at those two figures, Siano directly activated two in succession.

Snap!

Two flashes of Jin Guang vanished in an instant, and in the next moment, each of Siano's hands held a different item.

One was a pair of pinstriped suit trousers ironed perfectly straight.

The other was a pair of oversized padded trousers in pale cyan.

"What is this!"

The youth, furious and desperate, smashed the two pairs of trousers onto the sea surface: "Where are my Supreme Sunglasses! Where is my Supreme Spiked Club!"

His luck this time was truly too poor!

He did not notice.

When these two pairs of trousers appeared in his hands, the two figures fighting high in the sky in the distance clearly both paused for a moment.

The next second, Kaido's aura suddenly became far more violent...

————

Five days later.

Two major news stories, through consecutive days of newspaper reports, rapidly fermented and shocked the entire world.

The first.

Was the sinking of Enies Lobby.

One of the iron triangles symbolizing the absolute authority of the World Government, it was completely destroyed in a earth-shaking battle.

The two combatants were the Yonko Kaido and the Navy Admiral Kizaru; the two engaged in an unprecedented great battle on the island.

This ultimately caused the entire island to collapse and sink beneath the sea!

The World Government lost all face; Kizaru was also beaten into a disadvantage by the enraged Kaido and suffered heavy injuries; finally, only because the Gates of Justice opened and Fleet Admiral Akainu from Headquarters arrived via the swirling marine current was Kaido forced to retreat.

As for why Kaido appeared in the first half of the Grand Line, and why he fought a life-or-death battle with Kizaru...

That involved the second major news story.

In June of the Sea Circle Calendar 1516, Siano, the strongest rookie in history and a swordsman with a bounty of one billion Berries, died!

The World Government publicly declared that both Kaido and Kizaru had gathered at Enies Lobby to hunt down Siano, and that Admiral Kizaru, beating Kaido to the punch, successfully upheld justice by completely eliminating Siano.

Kaido had only turned his spearhead toward Kizaru because his spoils of war were snatched away.

Whatever the truth might be, in any case—

Siano's wanted poster was hereby revoked, and the Loser Pirates were declared annihilated by the World Government!

The impact of this news was almost no less than that of the first.

That great pirate Siano, who had once slain two of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and whom even a Marine Admiral personally deploying failed to capture...

... had just... died?

It sounded as if there were nothing wrong with that.

Facing a pincer attack from both an Emperor and a Marine Admiral, how many people in the world could possibly survive?

Regarding this.

Some secretly rejoiced in his misfortune, while others sighed with regret, feeling it was such a pity that such a rapidly rising newcomer had met his end in the first half of the Grand Line;

others believed it was too rash to draw such a conclusion without even seeing Siano's corpse, remaining half-believing and half-doubting...

For a time, opinions were varied, and the storm of public opinion failed to subside for a long while.

————

At the same time.

On the vast, boundless sea, the Curtain Fall continued to move forward leisurely against the morning sunlight, just as it always did.

"Pah! What shamelessness; they clearly failed in their sneak attack, yet they speak so righteously!"

Nami threw down the newspaper in a huff, turned her head to look at Siano beside her, and said, "Brother! The newspapers these past few days have all been saying you're dead; aren't you going to come out and clarify things?"

"How should I clarify?"

Siano was lying under a sun umbrella, leisurely drinking orange soda, and upon hearing this, he glanced at her:

"Send a selfie to Morgans, holding a slip of paper that says 'I'm not dead, okay'?"

"Eh?"

Nami froze for a moment, then her eyes lit up; she struck her fist into her palm and exclaimed, "How did I not think of that? As expected of my big brother, what a great idea!"

"Great my foot!"

Siano snapped irritably as he tugged her ear, "Don't you think your big brother has been fighting a bit too hard these past days? It's rare to have a period of low profile, so just let me properly enjoy this quiet time."

Ever since entering the first half of the Grand Line, he had run into all three of the Marine Admirals, not to mention Kaido and Garp...

It was all high-stakes battles, wave after wave; only because he possessed a heap of life-saving methods could he barely survive to this day; if anyone else came, they truly wouldn't be able to handle it.

And now, with the World Government declaring him dead, he was effectively removed from the list of key targets until he caused another major disturbance.

This rare period of calm was precisely a good opportunity to sort through his gains and comprehensively improve his strength.

Speaking of which.

He had returned to Water Seven four days ago to quietly reunite with his companions.

He held deep gratitude in his heart for Mayor Bingshan's life-saving grace, as well as for the accidental help in exposing the true identities of the CP9 spies.

As Tom's eldest disciple, with Franky not yet returned, he was actually the most outstanding shipwright on the island.

Thus, he changed into work clothes and personally took action to help overhaul the Curtain Fall; leading several excellent foremen, he repaired all damage sustained by the hull in just one day and one night.

He also, according to Siano's requirements, significantly increased the sturdiness of the training room.

The flame thruster that had troubled Smoker for a long time was also successfully improved and crafted by him in just a few moves, then installed at the stern of the Curtain Fall.

As long as Nami injected flames, it could unleash powerful thrust, increasing the Curtain Fall's speed by more than double; it could be said to be quite practical.

With such comprehensive technical talent, Siano even wanted to kidnap him onto the ship.

Unfortunately, that was impossible.

Water Seven's recovery of prosperity relied not only on the Sea Train but also depended on Bingshan's prestige.

Several years ago, it was he who, by his own strength, completed the integration of the seven shipyards; only with him serving as president could the shipwrights of the company twist into a single rope, with their hearts set on one goal.

Bingshan could not leave Water Seven, just as Water Seven could not leave him.

However, this senior brother of Franky, after two days of getting along, had hit it off with Smoker; quite generously, he gave Smoker all the notes and knowledge regarding ships and machinery that he had accumulated over the years.

The latter happened to be extremely interested in these things, and for the following few days, he spent all day long holding them, studying and pondering over them.

Siano figured that if Smoke Ghost fully digested these things, he might truly evolve into a qualified shipwright, so he simply gave up on the plan to linger in Water Seven for a few more days to recruit shipwrights.

The Curtain Fall, having completed its overhaul and upgrade, thus departed from Water Seven, continuing its voyage toward the end of the first half.

As for those two CP9 agents, they had already been ruthlessly dealt with by Sister Sister Guyina before Siano even returned.

Regarding this.

The young sword master gave the reason that since Lucci and Blueno had already been killed, the two sides had henceforth formed a deadly feud, so naturally they could not be easily let go; one must pull up weeds by the roots.

This was completely consistent with Siano's own thoughts.

It had to be said that as the vice-captain, Sister Sister Guyina was becoming more and more reliable; in his absence, she was gradually developing the bearing of someone capable of standing on her own.

Snapping back from his memories.

Siano lazily drained the orange soda in one gulp, then opened the system panel and looked at the refreshed information flow.

Over these past few days, he had been focusing on consolidating his practice of Conqueror's Haki coating, raising his mastery progress by a small margin.

He had somewhat forgotten that the trading market seemed to have refreshed; it was time to go enjoy a good stroll.

However.

Before that, he needed to confirm his points first—

【You sacrificed Kizaru's pinstripe suit trousers, gaining 3600 points】

【You sacrificed Kaido's cotton trousers, gaining 4000 points】

【You sacrificed Jack's ivory tusk, gaining 1800 points】

【You sacrificed Lucci's pigeon, gaining 1500 points】

In addition, the remaining members of CP9 and Bingshan combined had contributed another 1100 points; adding it all up, it amounted to a full 12000 points!

After such a massive surge, Siano's remaining point total also shattered the forty-thousand mark in one go, reaching 44,500.

"That feels good."

Siano nodded with satisfaction; with ample points in hand, he felt confident enough to shop, so he wasted no more time and directly opened the trading market.

Sure enough, new items had refreshed.

And the very first listing that appeared made Siano pause, his eyes bursting with delighted surprise—

【Flesh and Blood Furnace Method: Core Chapter】

【Type: Cultivation Manual】

【Price: 4,800 Points】

【Description: The most core chapter of the Flesh and Blood Furnace Method. Through extreme internal and external tempering, it achieves perfect unity of flesh, blood, bones, organs, and even cellular activity. Before cultivating this manual, the other four incomplete chapters must all be raised to the Great Completion Realm.】

【After reaching Great Completion, the strength of your five viscera and six bowels will increase dramatically. Furthermore, because all five chapters are now complete, your physique and physical strength will likewise receive an overall boost.】

【Seller's Note: The Dark Archmage has collected them all!】

Has it finally arrived!

The final core chapter!

If I recall correctly, the first time the Flesh and Blood Furnace Method appeared was before I defeated Arlong, wasn't it?

Do you have any idea how many years I've waited!

Siano's mood instantly became incredibly pleasant; the grin on his lips wouldn't stop, and without the slightest hesitation, he added it to his shopping cart.

It seems my luck this time is quite good.

Next!

【Old Lady Tose's Kuchikamizake】

【Type: Consumable】

【Price: 400 Points】

【Description: In the world of Gintama, this is Kuchikamizake brewed by Old Lady Tose when she temporarily served as a shrine maiden at a mountain shrine in her youth. After drinking it, the consumer will swap bodies with Old Lady Tose for one month; effective only on the host.】

【Seller's Note: Couldn't find anyone else's, so just make do and drink it.】

Make do my ass!

Who would be bored out of their mind enough to buy this thing!

Black lines appeared on Siano's forehead, and he skipped it directly.

Next!

(End of Chapter)