Chapter 233

The splattered fresh blood was blocked by an invisible force as it approached Luo En — a distance of one chi, yet it seemed like worlds apart.

The criminal in the opposite cage witnessed this scene with his own eyes, terrified pale, his whole body trembling and shaking.

"The smell of blood — who got killed?"

"What happened?"

That criminal's death thoroughly alarmed the Infinite Hell of this dark sixth level.

Including the surveillance Den Den Mushi on this level — the alarm buzzer in the monitoring room immediately went off.

Magellan immediately noticed something.

"What's happening on the sixth level?!"

And when he tried to check through the surveillance Den Den Mushi, he found the screen completely blank, utterly unable to see what was happening over there.

At this moment, the sixth level — Infinite Hell.

After destroying the surveillance Den Den Mushi with his pupil technique, Luo En strolled leisurely through this darkness.

Wherever he passed.

The heinous criminals in the cages on both sides let out agonized screams one by one, then were crushed and pulverized by that enormous, terrifying pressure, compressed into blood pancakes.

The entire sixth level was permeated with a thick smell of blood.

Ace and Jinbe stared in the direction the bloody smell came from, cold sweat involuntarily streaming down their foreheads.

"What on earth happened?"

They could feel a terrifying aura gradually approaching them.

Wherever it passed, those viciously evil criminals screamed and died.

As if a god of death wielding dominion over death were reaping the lives of sinners.

Very soon.

The entire sixth level fell utterly silent.

Deathly still.

Only that overwhelmingly thick smell of blood kept spreading.

Footsteps gradually drew closer to Ace and Jinbe's side. Under the two men's heart-pounding gaze, a slender, spotlessly clean figure stepped out from the darkness, walked up to the cage at the very deepest end, and appeared before them.

That person looked at Ace locked inside the cage by sea-prism stone and smiled:

"Yo, Ace."

Ace stared at Luo En standing before him, his eyes suddenly going wide, as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Luo En?!!"

Jinbe was also greatly shocked, staring in astonishment at Luo En standing outside Ace's cage.

This person is that traveler Luo En?!

"Why are you here?!"

Ace couldn't help asking Luo En.

"Don't mind it — I just came to see you."

Luo En smiled at him, "You haven't lost much weight, looks like you've been doing alright lately."

"Has that old man Garp come by?"

Ace nodded, his expression somewhat complicated.

"Is that so… Did he tell you about the current situation outside?"

Ace nodded, then suddenly came to his senses and hurriedly said to Luo En:

"Right, since you're here, hurry and help me open the cell and these damned sea-prism stone shackles — I need to get out of here quickly and go back to stop old man and the others!"

Jinbe's eyes also lit up, looking at Luo En hopefully: "If we rescue little brother Ace now, there's still a chance to stop this war."

"Stop this war?"

Luo En laughed upon hearing this, "I didn't come here to stop this war."

Ace and Jinbe were stunned upon hearing this.

"You… what?"

Luo En's azure, bewitching eyes gazed at Ace and Jinbe, his tone flat as he said: "This war is necessary for me, so I won't stop it. Ace, I will save you — but not now."

Ace stared blankly at Luo En before him.

"I came this time for you." Luo En looked at Jinbe and smiled: "Sea Knight, Jinbe, right? As one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, you're quite a fighter yourself — I hope you'll stand on my side."

Jinbe frowned, looking at him in confusion:

"What do you mean?"

Ace couldn't help asking him either: "Luo En, what exactly are you trying to do?"

Luo En gripped the steel cell door binding Jinbe and Ace with both hands, gave it a casual tug, and ripped it completely open — then stepped inside.

"I'll explain the specifics later at Marineford — someone's coming now."

His Observation Haki had already detected Magellan and the others arriving at the sixth level,

Right in front of Ace.

Luo En reached out and grabbed the bound Jinbe, smiling at him as he said:

"See you at Marineford."

Then a brilliant gleam flashed through Luo En's azure eyes, the space around the two of them warped, and they vanished.

Leaving Ace standing alone in place, dumbfounded and at a loss.

Jinbe missing; all other criminals died gruesome deaths.

Magellan had locked down the entire Impel Down, yet still couldn't find a single trace, not even who was responsible.

Ace offered not a single word in response to their questioning.

When what happened in Impel Down was reported, it likewise shocked the upper echelons of the Marines.

"It's possible it was done by a user of a space-type Devil Fruit."

Vice Admiral Tsuru offered her preliminary assessment.

But it was rather puzzling why that person had taken away the inconsequential Sea Knight Jinbe, yet had not taken Ace, the Fire Fist, the key figure at the center of this incident.

"No matter what that person is planning, in short we can't keep Ace alone in Impel Down anymore. Garp, until the day of execution, you stay in Impel Down and guard Ace."

Sengoku said to Garp.

Garp didn't refuse either, and headed to Impel Down that very day.

Raindunder Shiryu led him to Ace's cell, then took his leave.

In the empty, deathly silent Level Six: Infinite Hell, only a grandfather and grandson pair remained, separated by the iron cell door.

"Didn't expect someone would actually break into this place."

Garp, draped in his Justice coat, sat cross-legged before the cell, holding a bottle of liquor, and poured himself a bowl.

"Plenty of formidable and troublesome fellows in here were all caught by this old man — the Tyrant Avalo Pizarro, San Juan Wolf, Barolick Redfield, Bucks Jot, and that Bandy Waldo — these guys were all quasi-legendary figures who shook the world back in the day, and who would've thought they'd all be wiped out in a single day…"

"Just who has that kind of ability? I really can't imagine."

Garp drained the bowl of liquor in one gulp, looked at Ace and laughed: "Ace, you must know who did it, right? Tell your old man."

"Sure."

Ace grinned at him: "Let me out of here and I'll tell you."

The smile vanished from Garp's face. He lowered his head, his expression somewhat heavy.

"This matter… as a Marine, this old man can't do it."

"Is that so…"

Ace closed his eyes, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth: "Then tell me about Luffy's recent business — you didn't finish last time."

"Wahahaha, that I can do."

…………

One day before Ace's public execution.

Sabaody Archipelago, Grove 13.

Evening time, in Xia Qi's bar.

Sabo, Luffy, and a group of others stared fixedly at the Den Den Mushi on the counter.

After Sabo contacted Luo En last time, they had arranged to make contact again on this day.