One Piece: Blue Scale Admiral

Sometimes, being kept in the dark is a good thing.

He reached out and patted the lark's head, asking with a smile, "How are you feeling now?"

The lark tilted its head, puzzled, and asked, "How does it feel?"

“I’m talking about what happened before. Don’t you have any recollection of it?” Luo Xia raised an eyebrow.

"What happened before?" Hibari scratched his head, blinked, and recalled, "Hmm, I think I had a dream, a dream about my mother."

After receiving Hibari's answer, Rorschach asked the other naval soldiers, and their answers were basically the same as Hibari's: they all felt like they had a vague dream.

I don't have much of an impression of what happened in the dream.

Luo Xia wasn't sure if this situation was good or bad, but anyway, he decided to contact headquarters first; Sengoku and the others there were probably getting impatient.

In a distant courtyard, Zefa sat forlornly on the cracked steps in front of the house, holding a baby bottle in his hand. His eyes were vacant as he stared at two large and small clumps of melting white spider silk on the ground not far away, and the strange woman and baby wrapped in them.

After a long, long time, he sighed deeply, bent down, and picked up the sleeping baby from the ground.

What's lost can never be regained...

.

.

Somewhere along the Grand Line.

Five or six islands of varying sizes float in mid-air more than 10,000 meters above the sea.

The islands are not supported by white clouds, and some are even surrounded by large amounts of seawater.

The seawater and the islands floating in the air form a unified whole, without falling from below the islands. If you get close, you can even see fish swimming in the seawater.

Everything seemed incredibly magical.

The central floating island appears particularly enormous, with a diameter exceeding ten kilometers, casting a vast shadow covering hundreds of kilometers across the sea below under the moonlight.

Bathed in the silvery light of the sky, one could see the enormous shadows of beasts that appeared and disappeared on the island from time to time, roaming the mountains, valleys, and lakesides, exuding a ferocious and savage aura.

Surrounded by these ferocious beasts lurking in the darkness, a mountain peak thousands of meters high rose abruptly from the ground, standing in the very center of the island. Its top was dotted with lights, revealing a vast palace complex. From within, faint sounds of noise and commotion could be heard from afar, attracting the enormous creatures in the darkness to crane their necks and peer out, but not a single beast dared to approach.

Clang!

Clang!

A crisp metallic clanging sound echoed in the dimly lit corridor.

With a heavy creak, the heavy iron door at the end of the corridor was pushed open, revealing a huge space behind it.

This is a laboratory filled with countless glass test tubes of all sizes, and various colorful liquids reflect a mesmerizing luster under the lights.

In the center of the laboratory, a man in a white lab coat was busy at a huge workbench, completely unaware that the iron door behind him had been pushed open, nor that the ground was clattering under his feet.

"Brother Indigo! How much longer are you going to do this experiment? I'm getting impatient!"

The sudden loud voice startled Indigo, who was engrossed in his experiment.

His body shuddered, and the bundle of test tubes he was holding fell to the ground with a thud, splashing liquid and broken glass all over him.

Indigo let out a strange cry, turned around with a face full of annoyance, and pointed at the newcomer's nose to curse.

"Are you crazy?! Why aren't you at your banquet with your guests tonight? What are you doing bothering me? You scared me to death! Look what you've done! You've ruined the latest IQ serum I just mixed!"

"Uh, I'm so sorry, it's my fault."

The burly man being pointed at by Indigo smirked, quickly stuffed the cigar he was holding into his mouth, and waved his hand toward the liquid that had spilled on the ground.

The liquid on the ground was immediately drawn up by an invisible force and fell into the empty glass test tube behind Indigo.

The man had long, flowing blond hair that cascaded down his back, and a thick cigar in his mouth was emitting wisps of smoke. A half-wheel-shaped ship's wheel was stuck on his head, making him look like a strangely styled rooster's comb.

Strangely, his feet were actually two broadswords with their tips pointing downwards.

The metallic clanging sound from the impact with the ground earlier was caused by these two broadswords.

This blond old man with a smirking, somewhat lewd smile was the first person in history to successfully escape from the world's most secure prison, Impel Down.

Known as the Flying Admiral, Shiki the Golden Lion is the captain of the Flying Pirates, a legendary pirate who rivaled Roger and Whitebeard in the old era.

Golden Lion casually picked up a glass test tube from the cabinet next to him, shook it, looked at the flowing purple liquid inside, and said in a low voice, "Brother Indi, how many years has it been?"

"Huh? What do you mean, how many years?" Indigo, who had turned around to work on the test tubes and medicines, paused for a moment, his hands stopping.

"call."

A long plume of smoke billowed from the golden lion's mouth.

"How many years has it been since I left the sea?"

"You mean you escaped from Impel Down? Seventeen years, I remember it very clearly. Back then, I thought you were like Roger, finished and ready to pack your bags and leave."

Indigo said without even looking up.

"Seventeen years." The Golden Lion put down the test tube, touched the ship's wheel above his head, looked at the two legs made up of long swords, and grinned, revealing a complicated expression. "I didn't expect that I've been away from the sea for so long. Damn it, I've been on this damn island of Vermeer for so long that I've almost forgotten how old I am."

“When did you become so sentimental? This doesn’t seem like the famous Golden Lion of the sea.” Indigo held up the test tube in front of him and shook it a few times, then chuckled, “Were you provoked by the guests outside? Well, that big guy who used to be just a half-baked expert in front of you has now become a sea overlord who dominates the region.”

"Stimulate?"

The golden lion grinned and couldn't help but throw his head back and laugh.

"Hehehehe, hehehehe!"

"Who do you think I am? I'm the Golden Lion! Do you think I'd be provoked by an intern?"

He turned and left, stepping on his twin swords, leaving behind a single sentence.

"Hurry up, Indy. I just think that if you keep dragging this out, forget about the plan to destroy the East China Sea. Before the IQ serum is even ready, I'll probably be meeting that bastard Roger first."

The golden lion, having left the laboratory, was about to head towards the bustling palace in the distance when he suddenly stopped, his brow furrowing. He reached into his robes and pulled out a white, square piece of paper.

A red light appeared at one corner of the paper, like the tail of a firefly, flickering in the dim passage and gradually expanding, spreading across the entire white paper.

A clearly visible flame ignited, and the white paper quickly burned, turning into specks of ash that drifted into the air with a wisp of smoke.

In just a few seconds, the white piece of paper, about half the size of a palm, held in the hand of the golden lion, burned out as quickly as a candle thrown into a fire.

The golden lion clenched its index finger and thumb, trying to hold onto the last remaining piece of white paper, preventing the rapidly spreading red light from engulfing it.

As a result, a wisp of high-level Armament Haki even appeared on his fingers, covering the paper.

However, that tiny red light completely ignored his actions, burning itself to the end, turning the last corner he was holding between his fingers into a wisp of black ash.

In the center of the dark passage, the golden lion looked down at the black ash in his hand, completely stunned and motionless, like a statue.

Amidst the wisps of smoke, the Golden Lion saw a pretty face and a graceful figure standing at the bow of the airship, turning back to look at him with a charming smile.

Her skirt fluttered, her red lips were like fire, and the third eye between her brows could see through people's hearts, but it always seemed to linger on her unexpectedly.

The golden lion seemed to hear a long-lost call.

“Shiki…”

Chapter 365 The Lion's Tears

37 years ago, in 1480, in the waters off Rocky Harbor.

On a small wooden boat on the boundless sea, a man and a woman, both disheveled and dressed in rags, were panting heavily as they rowed desperately, trying to evade the cannon fire of a large ship pursuing them from behind.

"Hahahaha! Fire! Don't stop! These two disgusting three-eyed monsters have no sense of being slaves. They dared to sneak away while Francis Saint was visiting his friend Grimm Saint. Do they even know that being a slave to a great world noble is a blessing they earned in their past lives? Trash who don't know how to cherish it."

On the bow of the large ship pursuing them from behind, several arrogant CP personnel, holding guns, repeatedly fired at the small boats that were frantically trying to escape.

Amidst the bangs of gunfire, several waves splashed up on the sea.

Although the shot missed, it terrified the man and woman with collars around their necks, leaving them looking utterly hopeless.

As the large ship behind them drew closer, the slightly smaller man finally succumbed to the immense psychological pressure, broke down in tears, abandoned the oars he was holding, and turned around with a thud to kowtow repeatedly towards the approaching ship.

"Spare me, please, spare me! I'll never run away again! Please, great Saint Francis, forgive me this once! It's all my sister's fault! She's the one who told me to run away! I wouldn't have dared to do it otherwise... Waaah..."

"Leo!"

With one oarsman gone, the small boat, which was sailing forward, immediately veered off course and circled on the sea, much to the dismay of the other three-eyed girl.

"What are you doing? We're already here, it's too late to beg for mercy! Don't give up, just a little further ahead is the waters controlled by the Rocks Pirates. Even the World Government's ships can't enter without permission. Just a little further ahead and we'll be free!"

The three-eyed girl opened her mouth and screamed, trying to calm her younger brother down.

But it didn't work.

Her brother, terrified by the ever-approaching death, had completely broken down and was left only with the thought of begging for mercy.

"Spare you?"

On the approaching large ship, a portly CP member held a flintlock pistol in one hand and a button in the other, looking at the man kowtowing.

"Don't joke around. We never intended to kill you easily. If we were just thinking about getting rid of you, we could have simply pressed this button, and the explosive collars around your necks would have blown your heads off into the air."

The only reason I've kept you alive until now is to complete Saint Francis's mission. The master said that slaves who dare to run away should be killed in their most desperate moments; this is a mercy bestowed upon you by the great God.

"That's right! Hurry up and keep rowing. It won't do if only one person is in despair. If this continues, we won't be able to explain ourselves to the adults."

Another person is holding a video Den Den Mushi (snail phone) and recording a video.

"If you don't row now, you won't even have the last chance to escape, you last monsters of the Three-Eyed Clan." CP Fatty grinned and raised his gun, aiming it at the small wooden boat that was so close at hand.

As the large ship drew ever closer, the three-eyed girl gritted her teeth, pushed aside her distraught companion, grabbed an oar in each hand, and rowed forward with all her might.

The long run and her already weakened body had left the girl with very little strength. Now, rowing alone, she was drenched in sweat from exhaustion.

The roar of gunfire exploded in her ears, and the splashing waves slapped against her frail body, but she still gritted her teeth and refused to give up.

boom!

A gunshot rang out, the girl groaned, a spray of blood erupted from her left shoulder, her body lurched forward, and she let out a painful moan.

Behind him, a group of people burst into cheerful laughter.

"Hurry up, or I'm going to shoot the other arm, hehehe."

The girl gritted her teeth, dragging her bloodied left arm, and desperately rowed the boat with her only remaining right arm.

"Too slow, too slow. Forget it, that's enough for today. Let's bombard them and sink them!"

Hearing the sounds coming from behind her, a look of despair appeared in the girl's eyes. She gritted her teeth and turned around to look at the black muzzles of the cannons that had adjusted their trajectories.