Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 209 The Evil Dragon Is Not Enough to Prove Xia Zuo's Strength

The dragon felt like it was suffocating.

He opened his mouth wide and gasped silently, but he couldn't breathe at all.

He felt a pang of heartache and wanted to scream, but no sound came out.

In the blink of an eye, Arlong's main crew members were all dead. The sight of so many of his comrades dying tragically before his eyes overwhelmed Arlong with immense grief, making him feel as if he were living in a nightmare.

The noble fish-men should have crushed humans, so how could they be killed so easily by humans?

That naval commodore is clearly trash, so why is a lieutenant colonel, who is two ranks lower in rank, so terrifying?

This doesn't make sense!

Wait, could this be a trap?

Yes, this must be a trap, it's Jinbe!

Jinbe accepted the Navy's invitation and became their henchman. So it was he who set a trap in the East Blue, having a vice admiral ambush the Arlong Pirates in his own sea lane.

The more the dragon thought about it, the more convinced he was that he had guessed correctly.

Only Jinbe could guess his own location, and only Jinbe could get the Navy to take action for him, so it could only be Jinbe!

The dragon gritted its teeth, sending sparks flying as it bit its newly grown teeth: "Damn Jinbe! You betrayed the great Fish-Man race! I will kill you!"

Xia Zuo ignored what the evil dragon was thinking, jumped into the air, drew the standard long sword from his waist, raised it high above his head, and then swung it down suddenly.

The blade sliced ​​through the air, and the distorted, hot afterimage slowly dissipated in the air.

Before the blazing afterimage of the sword mark, a chilling sword aura expanded dramatically, finally erupting with a deafening roar in the direction of the blade. A pale blue arc of sword aura, hundreds of meters long, cleaved through the sea and air, whistling as it hurtled toward the Shark.

With a hissing sound, like tearing a piece of cotton cloth, the Shark was cleaved in two by the sword energy.

The bow of the Shark was nailed to the Musketeer, and after a creaking sound, it stabilized.

But the helpless stern emitted a whistling sound as water began to take in, and with a roar, it capsized on the sea, sinking rapidly with half a ship of fish-men sailors.

At this point, the Arlong Pirates had been completely defeated.

Xia Zuo used Moonwalk to walk back to the naval warship step by step, and said to his dumbfounded subordinates, "Alright, my battle is over, and I've demonstrated my strength. Are you all satisfied?"

Lieutenant Borg, Xia Zuo's direct adjutant, exclaimed incredulously and tremblingly, "Commander Xia Zuo, your strength is truly astounding."

Major Faye, holding a longsword, exclaimed in admiration, "Commander Xia Zuo is able to unleash such a massive sword aura; his swordsmanship is at least at the level of a sword master."

Faye's words sparked the soldiers' enthusiasm for gossip.

"Ah, isn't the level of skill required for a swordsman to be a major admiral in headquarters?"

"How could a major general from headquarters have such strength? Commander Xia Zuo is so powerful, he should at least be a lieutenant general from headquarters. Why would he be a lieutenant colonel in a small branch like ours?"

"What's so strange about that? It's because there's no one above us."

"Damn it, the navy has become so bureaucratic."

"Idiot, it's best for us if Commander Xia Zuo doesn't get promoted."

"Hey, yeah, it would be great if our superior could never get promoted."

"From now on, I will pray to God every night before I go to sleep, wishing that Commander Xia Zuo will always be a lieutenant colonel."

"Good idea, I'll do that too."

The navy's conversation went further and further astray, and they even started wishing that Xia Zuo wouldn't get promoted, which almost made Xia Zuo furious.

He sheathed his longsword in annoyance and shouted, "Everyone, board the pirate ship and clean up the mess!"

The navy cheered as they charged toward the enemy ships, skillfully severing the heads of the fish-men and capturing the surviving members of the Musketeer Pirates.

Faced with the surviving fishman pirate, the marines quickly formed a five-man combat team, swiftly immobilizing the fishman before shooting it to death.

As the Murloc leaders, such as Rockburn, Xiaowu, and Pisaro, were killed one by one, the remaining Murlocs finally became afraid.

They no longer cared about the fish-man supremacy ideology; they dropped their weapons, knelt on the deck, raised their hands, and shouted, "We surrender! We surrender! Don't kill us!"

Arlong, the captain of the pirate crew, sat in the seawater, watching blankly as the fish-men were easily slaughtered by the Navy, watching their morale crumble, and watching them choose to surrender.

He finally broke down in tears.

The evil dragon howled and cried, pulled out a shark-tooth brace from its mouth, and launched a desperate charge at Xia Zuo.

He cried out in despair, "You damned humans! You are a lowly, inferior race, yet you dare to slaughter noble fish-men! I will kill you!"

Xia Zuo shook his head and said with a laugh, "You fishman are ridiculous."

"You clearly can't beat me, yet you dare to say you're going to kill me."

"They have clearly fallen to the level of a rare species, yet they still fantasize that they are a superior and noble race."

"Truly befitting the fish-men whose brains are filled with nothing but water."

Considering that Arlong was, after all, a pirate captain, Xia Zuo decided to make an exception and give him a more dignified death, using advanced power to send him off.

But when he put his hand on the scabbard, he suddenly realized that the sword was no longer working.

The sword energy that had just cleaved the pirate ship had left the Navy's standard longsword riddled with cracks, rendering it unusable.

Xia Zuo thought for a moment, then raised his right hand, which was stained black and had a metallic sheen.

He transformed into a blur, his right hand swung with a startling sonic boom, slashing the dragon's waist and cleaving it in two.

The pain of being cut in half was so intense that the dragon spat blood from its mouth and nose, flailing its arms wildly as if trying to snatch its severed lower body back.

But the next moment, Xia Zuo stepped on the dragon's head and said with a smile, "Being able to enjoy the attack of Armament Haki, your life as a fish has not many regrets."

With a slight push of his foot, the ugly, ferocious watermelon burst open, scattering red and white pieces all over the ground.

Thus, the Arlong Pirates were completely wiped out.

"Gulp"

Brigadier General Pudding swallowed hard, trying his best to keep his legs from trembling.

These merfolk are so brutal that they attacked me, a brigadier general, without saying a word.

When the dragon hurled its spear at him, Brigadier General Pudding knew he had underestimated the strength and ferocity of these fishmen.

The Commodore's confidence collapsed instantly, realizing that his 77th Marine Division was no match for these powerful fish-man pirates.

But Lieutenant Colonel Natsu, one of his subordinates who had undergone special training at headquarters, stepped forward and easily blocked the spear, saving his life.

Next, Xia Zuo left Pudding at the back of the crowd. Apart from the base commander's adjutant and one of his two confidants, no other navy personnel cared about their base commander.

After Commodore Pudding was safe, he wanted to order everyone to retreat and stay away from the fishman pirates.

But after being pushed by Xia Zuo, he felt a tightness in his chest and could not shout no matter what he tried. The words he managed to utter were as soft as the flapping of a fly's wings.

He then discovered that the fish-men had climbed up the hull of the ship and even squeezed into the gun pod through the large hole made by the cannon.

Just when the Commodore thought it was all over, he was surprised to find that the naval soldiers of the 77th Branch were not flustered at all.

Under the organization of the sergeant or lieutenant, the soldiers quickly formed five-man combat teams. They used shields and long-handled tools to hold off the fishman pirates, while the sergeant or lieutenant used the huge musket that the brigadier general despised to kill the fishmen.

In just a few minutes of fighting, the 53-man merman raiding party was reduced to rubble, while the navy soldiers suffered no losses.

On the deck, in front of the naval officers and men, Lieutenant Commander Xia Zuo launched an even more brutal massacre, crushing the powerful Fishman Pirates in just a dozen seconds and easily wiping out their captain and officers.

A powerful pirate crew from the Grand Line, the Sun Pirates of Fisher Tiger, were wiped out by Shazo.

He even sliced ​​open the fishman pirate ship with a single sword strike, cutting the massive vessel in two with his sword energy.

Lieutenant Colonel Xia Zuo's impressive personal abilities far exceeded the scope of a colonel-level officer.

Brigadier General Pudding Pudding felt like he was dreaming. Wasn't this the legendary swordsman?

With such strength, how can Xia Zuo stay in the East Blue? Shouldn't he go to the headquarters and show his strength on the Grand Line?

Brigadier General Pudding thought that Major General Onigumo's task was too difficult, as he was asked to suppress Lieutenant Colonel Natsuzo.

This is simply an impossible task.

The brigadier general wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and secretly made up his mind that from now on he must outwardly obey orders from his superiors while inwardly disobeying them.

Otherwise, he really doesn't know when he might have an accident, such as "falling into the water" at the port, or being "shot in the back" while fighting pirates.

A few days later, the report from the 77th branch was delivered to headquarters.

Through Major General Onigumo, the report was delivered to General Sakazuki, and together with a report from a secret channel, it eventually ended up in the hands of Fleet Admiral Sengoku.

Sakazuki frowned and asked, "Shazo annihilated the Musketeer Pirates and the Sun Pirates, who were roaming around as fish-men, and also demonstrated his swordsmanship and ability to manipulate water—"

"Sigh, his rank has to be promoted."

Fleet Admiral Sengoku looked at the report and said, "He must be promoted. He has wiped out two pirate crews in succession, and the Musketeer Pirates are particularly notorious in the East Blue. If he is not promoted, it will ruin the Navy's promotion rules, which would be a huge loss."

"Fortunately, the Arlong Pirates are not well-known, so they are not enough to prove how strong Xia Zuo really is. We can just promote him one level."

Sakassky still felt there was a problem: "But if that happens, Xia Zuo will become a colonel, and with just a first-rank military officer, an incompetent officer like Pudding Pudding won't be able to suppress him."

"Marshal Sengoku, should we dispatch a colonel or major general from our headquarters to the East Sea?"

The strategist, Zhan Guo, read the battle report three times before finally letting out a long sigh of relief: "The situation is not bad."

Sakazuki and Onigumo exclaimed in surprise at the same time, "Huh?"

Sakazuki trusted Sengoku completely and began to recall the contents of the report, trying to find reasons why things were going well from the text.

He aspired to be the next naval commander, so he always tried to understand Sengoku's way of thinking and learn his working methods.

Compared to Sakazuki, Onigumo's thoughts were much simpler, so he directly asked, "Marshal, is the situation alright?"

Sengoku laughed heartily; he was in a good mood and happily answered Onigumo's question.

"The situation is certainly very good."

"This report doesn't sound like Pudding Pudding at all. I'm judging that Xia Zuo has completely taken control of the 77th Branch."

"But in addition to requesting a promotion for himself, he emphasized the promotion of Brigadier General Pudding Pudding."

He asked with a smile, "Onigumo, do you think Brigadier General Pudding Pudding can still be promoted?"

Onigumo immediately replied, "Of course not. His strength is already barely enough to be promoted to brigadier general. We absolutely cannot allow him to be promoted to major general."

At this point, Sakazuki had figured it out and chimed in, "Right, Pudding can't be promoted, but the achievement of eliminating members of the Sun Pirates can't go unrewarded, so the only option is to transfer her to a better branch or give her a sinecure at headquarters."

"As a result, the position of commander of the 77th Branch Base is now vacant, and Xia Zuo naturally becomes the first candidate to be made an exception."

"Xia Zuo is subtly requesting a promotion, expressing to the Navy Headquarters that he does not want to leave the East China Sea for the time being."

"Phew." Sakazuki breathed a sigh of relief. "Things are indeed going well."

Zhan Guo laughed and said, "Xia Zuo, that troublesome fellow, has given us face, so we should give him a way to save face."

"I will sign the promotion and appointment orders, promoting Xia Zuo to branch colonel and appointing him as the commander of the 77th branch base. In addition, I will increase the branch's funding and staffing."

"Well, we won't add any more warships. Neither the East China Sea nor the Xiazuo base commander really needs too many warships."

Sengoku handed the report to his pet goat on the table and told it to destroy the document.

At some point, Sengoku's face was covered by shadows, and his voice became somber.

He said, "But no matter when, no matter how submissive the other party may appear, Navy Headquarters must be prepared to take control of everything."

"Sakazuki, have the intelligence department arrange for someone to join the 77th branch during the recruitment drive, and report on everything that happens to Colonel Shazo at any time."

Sakazuki's eyes flashed: "Yes, Your Excellency Marshal, I will arrange it."

Sengoku then ordered, "Onigumo, maintain good communication with the branches surrounding the 77th Branch and report on the 77th Branch's situation regularly, especially the whereabouts of Chief Xiazuo."

Onigumo stood at attention and accepted the order: "Yes, Marshal."

Xia Zuo was unaware that his declaration of justice, issued at headquarters, had earned him such a high standing in the eyes of the Fleet Admiral and the Admiral.

The Navy high command even considered him the most dangerous guy, fearing that his ideas would influence Chief Instructor Zephyr.

Sakazuki harbored the deepest hostility towards Shazor, because according to "simple justice," many of Shazor's past actions were nothing short of "evil," or even completely opposed to justice.

Unfortunately, "simple justice" is too simple, so simple that it is irrefutable.

This made Sakazuki extremely uncomfortable.