Silver Axe did not take the matter too seriously.
He had fought Golden Lion for so long. If that guy were so easy to kill, he would have died countless times already.
Golden Lion soon landed not far from Silver Axe. Then he turned his head, looked at him, and spoke slowly. "Silver Axe, next time you want to pit me, you had better come up with a flawless method, not some brain-full-of-shit trick. Understand?"
Silver Axe coldly laughed and spread his hands indifferently. "I'll return those exact words to you."
Golden Lion looked at that indifferent expression, and the anger in his chest felt blocked by something. It could neither rise nor fall. "What? Are you a dog? You only know how to repeat what others say?"
Silver Axe: "@*#￥..." It was a long encrypted sentence with an extremely high mother-content ratio.
Golden Lion: "#￥@￥%*..." He also sent back a classified message greeting someone's relatives.
As the two continued exchanging greetings, their expressions suddenly changed at the same time.
Whoosh!
A figure flashed between them at extreme speed, leaving only a blurred afterimage in their vision. Even the wind was torn into a sharp whistle.
When that afterimage passed through the gap between them, a light sentence drifted into their ears.
"Borrowing the road, you two low-class pirates."
Silver Axe and Golden Lion froze at the same time.
Those two words were like a slap to the face. It was not heavy, but it landed exactly on the pride they had just gambled on. Whoever ran would be a low-class pirate for life.
The two turned their heads almost simultaneously, their gazes chasing after that figure. Golden Lion's face first turned blue, then quickly flushed red.
He turned to Silver Axe in disbelief. "Did you hear that? That bastard Kaido called us low-class pirates."
Silver Axe glanced at him, expression calm. "That's a fact."
The corner of Golden Lion's mouth twitched. He suspected he had heard wrong. Were you not my mortal enemy, Silver Axe, you pretentious bastard? Even facing that kind of provocation, you felt nothing?
"But..." Golden Lion withdrew his gaze, the anger in his tone pressing down a little. "That Taijutsu Ron taught him, is it really that strong? That brat Kaido is completely different from before."
Silver Axe did not answer, but his expression was a little ugly. He had not expected Golden Lion to know this much too.
"Scheme less, Shiki." Silver Axe threw down those words, then shot forward like an arrow toward Harald.
"Tch." Golden Lion watched Silver Axe's back and casually added, "I'm not asking you for hardship pay. Why are you meddling so much?"
After saying that, he also rose into the air, drawing an arc as he flew toward the same direction.
Meanwhile, Kaido had already approached Harald.
The green steam of the Sixth Gate of the Eight Gates rolled over his body like a flowing layer of light.
His speed was extremely fast. Wherever his feet stepped, the ground shattered, and stones flew to both sides. Behind him, his path dragged a long tail of dust.
The moment he entered attack range, he leaped up. His body was like a compressed projectile released at its limit, shooting straight above Harald.
Harald did not retreat. He did not even think much. The giant sword in his hand had already risen, wrapped in dark-red Haki lightning and carrying a force that could crush everything as it struck head-on toward Kaido.
"Die!"
The blade tore through the air with a low explosion, as if the entire space groaned under the pressure of that strike.
Kaido's pupils shrank slightly the instant the sword fell. He did not take it head-on. The moment the giant sword descended, his body flashed to the other side.
Kaido stabilized himself without stopping, rapidly alternating punches.
Swish, swish, swish!
With every punch, a flame-wrapped shockwave shot from his fists like a burning meteor, densely covering Harald's direction.
Harald's gaze sank. His free left hand suddenly clenched, Haki covering his fist before he punched out.
The powerful shockwave struck the flame clusters head-on, blasting them apart into scattered sparks.
Firelight burst between the two, like a short, dazzling display of fireworks.
Immediately after, Harald gave Kaido no chance to breathe.
After withdrawing his right hand and sword, he barely paused. The blade flipped half a circle through the air and immediately slashed backhanded.
Kaido did not try to attack again. From that brief exchange, he had already seen very clearly that with his current strength, he could not shake Harald at all.
That guy's strength, Haki, and battle experience were all above his.
The Eight Gates had greatly increased his strength, but he was still far from Harald.
"Fine, you're tough. I won't shorten your lifespan this time. We'll talk next time."
In the New World, on a certain island town, sunlight slanted across the stone road, stretching pedestrians' shadows long and thin.
Beside a temporary fruit and vegetable stall on the roadside, three men stood around a fruit placed in the corner, quietly discussing it as if they had seen something they should not have seen.
"Hey, Roger, you see it, right? It's exactly the same!" Rayleigh kept his voice low, but he could not hide his disbelief.
"Mm." Roger nodded, surprise unconcealed in his eyes. "I'm not blind."
"This is too strange. It's like it deliberately followed us," Scopper Gaban added.
The stall owner was an old man with white hair and dry, thin skin. The wrinkles on his face were as deep as plowed furrows.
He sat behind the stall on a small stool, looking at the three men whispering around his stall with a kind smile. "Want to buy tomatoes? They're freshly picked. If you buy a lot, I can make them cheaper."
Roger did not answer. Instead, he reached out and pointed at the lone fruit in the corner, the one completely out of place among all the tomatoes.
The fruit was round overall and deep purple from top to bottom. Its surface was covered in dense spiral patterns, and the ends of its vines curled into small whorls.
"Old man, where did you get this rather special 'tomato'?" Roger asked.
At the mention of this, the old man's eyes immediately lit up like a struck match.