Both start in hell: but their talents are multiplied a hundredfold.

Shen Jue approached with steady steps, his military boots making a dull, rhythmic sound on the old wooden floor.

He sat down directly next to Rayleigh, his justice cloak billowing behind him without any wind.

This is a special effect that Shen Jue added to the cloak of justice by wrapping his domineering aura around the fabric.

"Buzz!"

In an instant, a tangible aura of domineering power swept through the entire tavern like a tsunami!

The air froze instantly. Then, except for Rayleigh and Shakky, everyone in the tavern rolled their eyes back, foamed at the mouth, and collapsed to the ground, without even a chance to struggle.

Rayleigh's pupils contracted sharply, and the wine in his hand stopped in mid-air.

After sensing the unfathomable intensity of Shen Jue's Conqueror's Haki, a complex bitter smile appeared on the face of the Hades King.

"I think I'm hallucinating," Rayleigh sighed. "I suspect I saw Garp from God Valley that year."

"Young admiral, have you come here specifically to arrest this old man?"

"That depends on whether you, sir, are willing to cooperate," Shen Jue said gently.

When Chopper saw Shen Jue use Conqueror's Haki to knock out the bar's customers, his eyes widened, and even the juice in his mouth didn't taste so sweet anymore.

Chopper nudged his hat with his hoof, pretending he hadn't heard anything.

Shen Jue's voice was as calm as water, without the slightest emotional fluctuation, as he said, "Dark King Rayleigh, the right-hand man of the Pirate King, a living legend."

"I never expected that someone as famous as you would choose to stay in the Sabaody Archipelago and coat pirate ships."

"A choice?" Rayleigh laughed, tilting his head back and shaking the remaining liquid at the bottom of the bottle.

"Young people, this is never a choice."

"People have to eat. If I don't help those greenhorns learn something and earn some money for my retirement, my old bones can't afford such expensive wine."

Xia Qi paused slightly while wiping the bar, then casually poured Shen Jue a glass of water, tapping the glass lightly with her fingertips as she said, "The guest is a Marine, receiving a respectable salary from the World Government."

"Unlike us old folks who have been abandoned by the times, we can't survive without working hard."

Shen Jue picked up the water glass, but didn't drink it. Instead, he quietly looked at the shimmering water and said, "I came here precisely to change this absurd situation."

Rayleigh narrowed his eyes, intrigued by Shen Jue's words, but he didn't respond, simply waiting quietly for what was to come.

"Please tell me," Shen Jue said, raising her head and looking intently into Rayleigh's eyes.

"What exactly is the One Piece you saw in Laugh Tale?"

This question struck like a thunderbolt in the cramped tavern.

This is the ultimate mystery that has puzzled the world for decades, the answer that countless pirates have dreamed of, yet it is now being asked calmly by Shen Jue.

This was a problem that had troubled Shen Jue for more than ten years in his previous life, but now he did not feel the same urgent desire for an answer as before.

After all, it's best to avoid anything that can make a bunch of strong members of Roger's crew laugh like crazy.

Shen Jue asked Hades Rayleigh out of curiosity.

"Hahaha!"

Rayleigh, the King of the Underworld, threw his head back and laughed loudly, as if he were about to lift the roof off the tavern.

"Navy buddy! That's a question only pirates would ask!"

Rayleigh said with a hint of amusement in his eyes, "If you're so eager to know the answer, why don't you go find it yourself?"

"That's a joke, waiting to be discovered by truly free people at the end of the sea."

As expected, Shen Jue had long anticipated that Hades Rayleigh would be a riddle-like figure.

Shen Jue did not get angry or make a move. He simply calmly offered up a long-held guess, his tone tinged with a hint of probing.

"The great war 800 years ago." Shen Jue paused, his gaze sharp as he looked at Rayleigh.

"Could it be that Queen Lily rejected Im's advances and chose Joy Boy instead, which led to the war between the Twenty Nations Alliance and the Great Kingdom?"

Shen Jue paused, as if he were weaving an absurd story: "The so-called truth of the Poneglyphs is actually Joy Boy's love diary about Queen Lily, which details the pitiful state of Im, the simp, as he pursued Queen Lily but was unsuccessful?"

"puff!"

Rayleigh, the King of Hades, spat out a mouthful of wine.

Roger's right arm, the legendary pirate, coughed violently after hearing Shen Jue's words, choked by the wine.

Immediately, Rayleigh burst into laughter loud enough to shatter all the glasses in Shakky's Tavern.

The laughter was filled with shock, absurdity, and a complex emotion that was hard to describe.

The laughter seemed to overlap with the laughter he had let out when he saw the One Piece in Laugh Tale, filled with the same shock and disbelief.

"Cough, cough cough." Rayleigh finally managed to stop laughing, and a few tears even welled up in the corners of his eyes.

While wiping his mouth, Rayleigh looked at Shen Jue with the eyes of someone looking at a monster.

"Navy buddy," Rayleigh said, panting.

"Your imagination is even richer than Captain Roger's."

Rayleigh did not answer "yes" or "no" directly, but Shen Jue seemed to catch a hint of unusual information from his exaggerated reaction.

Shen Jue didn't press further; the guess had already taken hold in his mind.

Think about it, back in the God Valley battle, Roger's crew went to great lengths to break in, just to retrieve Shakky, who was being treated as a special prize.

Even the Roger Pirates went head-to-head with the World Government and the Navy for a woman.

Eight hundred years ago, Im was dumped by Queen Lily, and in a fit of rage, he overturned the table and launched a war against his rival Joy Boy's vast kingdom. Logically, this makes perfect sense.

These people are too oppressive, Shen Jue thought to himself.

Shen Jue pressed Bailey under the water glass and tapped the wooden bar counter twice with his fingertips, as if it were a silent farewell.

He then stood up, scooped Chopper up, and placed him on his shoulder.

"Hades." Shen Jue turned to look at Rayleigh, her tone no longer questioning as before.

"Don't try to stop me."

Rayleigh leaned against the bar, still clutching the half-finished bottle of rum in his hand.

Roger's right arm raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, but said nothing. He simply tilted his head back and gulped down the rest of the liquor in the bottle.

Shen Jue didn't say anything more, turned around and pushed open the tavern door, leaving behind a bunch of unconscious customers, which made Rayleigh feel a little helpless.

The Sabaody Archipelago outside the door was bathed in twilight, with glazed boats slicing through the water with shimmering light.

Shen Jue paused, turned around and glanced at the tavern's sign.

"Let's go," Shen Jue said softly to Chopper, as if speaking to himself.

"Chopper, let's go to Fishman Island and meet the Ancient Weapon Poseidon."

On the high seas, Xiaotian, wearing a straw hat, a white and gold robe, and a fiery red gourd of wine at his waist, was reclining on the bow of the ship, watching Enel and Nico Robin develop their Devil Fruit abilities.

"Let's go! Sabaody Archipelago! Your Grandpa Xiaotian is here!"