Chapter 232

Luffy shook his head, his face blank with confusion: "Grandpa and Luo En can use this kind of... Haki too?"

"Of course. Your grandpa is a top-tier Haki master on this sea, and as for Luo En... from what I know, that guy learned Armament Haki when he was eleven."

Lei Li said with a smile.

The Straw Hat crew and Enel were unclear on the meaning behind this.

But not far off, Kid and Killer were listening, cold sweat pouring down.

"Eleven years old... learned Haki... terrifying...!"

"That traveler Luo En really is a genuine monster!"

"Armament Haki, Observation Haki..."

Enel muttered to himself, unusually showing a hint of interest.

"Mm... explaining Haki properly would take quite a while, so just come with me for now. Someone's already here, and I think you'll be very glad to see him." Lei Li said with a smile to Luffy.

"Someone's here..."

Luffy tilted his head, a little puzzled.

……

After the Straw Hat crew followed Lei Li to 'Xia Qi's Bamboo Bar,' Luffy saw someone inside the bar he never could have imagined.

"It's been a long time, Luffy."

A youth wearing a hat and a black trench coat, his bearing tall and dashing, looked at Luffy before him and smiled: "You've grown up."

Luffy stared at the youth before him, listening to that familiar voice, his eyes wide, somewhat in disbelief: "You're... could it be..."

The youth reached up and took off his hat, revealing a head of blond hair and that face full of a confident smile.

"Don't remember me? Luffy."

…………

After Luffy saw Sabo, and the two brothers' excitement at their reunion after so long.

He told Sabo about Ace's situation.

"I already know about this, and Luo En knows too."

Sabo, who had sat down at the counter, said something that shocked Luffy and the others: "He's the one who told me to come here."

"Luo En, he..."

Luffy was a little dumbfounded.

"What exactly is that guy planning to do?"

Zoro said, frowning.

"Planning to do... hahaha."

Lei Li took a sip of alcohol, and facing the gazes of the others, grinned: "What he wants to do is a truly big event—the kind that'll shock the entire world."

"!!"

The entire Straw Hat crew showed looks of shock.

"Shock the world..."

Chopper swallowed hard.

"What exactly is he still planning to do?"

A cold sweat rolled down Nami's forehead.

"Could it be something even more than killing the Celestial Dragons..."

Usopp gave a shudder, not daring to think further.

202, The Shinigami Who Descended Upon Impel Down

"Lei Li, you don't have to tell them all this."

Xia Qi behind the counter blew out a smoke ring, looked at Luffy's group and said: "Anyway, Luo En will handle this matter, you don't need to worry about it. Of course, with your current strength you couldn't do much either."

"But that's Ace! How could I..."

Luffy couldn't help but say.

"Luffy."

Sabo cut him off.

He looked at Luffy and said seriously: "Ace is your brother, but he isn't your crew's brother. You can't drag them into danger too."

"I understand how you feel, wanting to save Ace—I feel the same. When that day comes, I'll take you with me to Marineford, so calm down for now, don't rush."

Luffy looked at Sabo, listening to his words, his anxious heart gradually settling down.

"I understand."

……

Time passed quickly.

In the blink of an eye, six days had gone by, and there were three days left until the public execution of 'Fire Fist' Ace.

Navy Vice Admirals and Rear Admirals boarded warships and headed to the various locations of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.

The current Seven Warlords of the Sea are: Sea Knight, Jinbe.

Blackbeard, Marshall D. Teach.

The Death Surgeon, Trafalgar Law.

The Pirate Empress, Boa Hancock.

Gecko Moria.

The Tyrant, Bartholomew Kuma.

The Hawk-Eyes, Dracule Mihawk.

Apart from Jinbe, who refused the summons and was captured by the Marines and taken to Impel Down, the remaining six of the Seven Warlords of the Sea all agreed to join the battle and followed the warships toward Marineford.

Warships shuttled back and forth around Marineford, with troops being redeployed constantly, and Impel Down was also under tight guard.

That oppressive sense of a storm about to break grew thicker and thicker as the day of the public execution drew near.

On this day.

The great undersea prison, Impel Down.

The sixth level, Infinite Hell.

Outside a cell, space suddenly began to twist, forming a vortex portal.

A slender figure dressed in black, with a blood-red blade hanging at his waist, materialized from within it.

He was a young man nearly 2.1 meters tall, with long black hair flowing loose down his back and a flawless, handsome face.

His eyes shimmered with an eerie azure halo, his expression calm and unhurried.

"So this is Infinite Hell, the sixth level of Impel Down…"

Inside the cell, a vicious-looking criminal locked down by seastone shackles grabbed the iron door in front of him and shouted at the young man: "Hey! Kid, who are you? How did you get here?"

His shout instantly startled the other prisoners in Infinite Hell, including Ace and Jinbe, who had just been brought in.

One by one, murderous fiends opened their eyes in the darkness.

"What's going on?"

This was Infinite Hell, the sixth level of Impel Down. The criminals held here were either monstrous pirates too vicious to be erased from history, or those who had committed such extreme atrocities that the Marines had covered them up, deliberately keeping them out of the papers. The inmates on this level were all near-legendary criminals, whose fates were either death or life imprisonment.

But without question, anyone who could be locked in here, good or evil, was no weakling.

"Kid! Answer me!"

That criminal stared at the young man outside the cell and shouted.

Luo En glanced at him.

In an instant.

A terrifyingly immense force bore down on that criminal's body!

Under his horrified gaze, it slammed him flat onto the ground, pressing him hard against the steel floor.

"Aaaargh!"

He could feel every bone in his body being crushed bit by bit beneath that pressure, his blood vessels bursting one after another, blood streaming from all seven orifices. It felt as though he was being pressed inch by inch toward death — the sensation was painfully clear.

An indescribable terror welled up in that vicious criminal's heart.

"No, no, spare me, please spare me!"

Crack!

That criminal's body, like a squashed mosquito or ant, was directly crushed and flattened under that unreasonable, terrifying gravity, his flesh and blood reduced to paste.