One Piece: Blue Scale Admiral

Hawkins reached into his robes and pulled out a stack of tarot cards stained with blood.

"Let's start from the top and go down to the twelfth one. I like the number twelve."

Splash.

Hawkins calmly shuffled and cut the cards, then pulled out one card, held it between his index and middle fingers, and showed it to Rorschach.

The card depicts a red man hanging upside down on a pillar.

"This is... the Hanged Man?" Rorschach was a little unsure.

Hawkins nodded. "It's the Hanged Man."

What does this card mean?

Rorschach was still somewhat curious about divination and prophecy, which were more Western in nature.

There are also a few charlatans in the One Piece world who share this kind of knowledge.

Hawkins is undoubtedly a top-notch expert.

Even though he doesn't seem to have obtained the Devil Fruit power yet.

"The Hanged Man has many meanings, but in the context of the current predicament, I generally understand it as a sacrifice and a turning point."

"Sacrifice and a turning point?"

Luo Xia nodded thoughtfully, without pressing further.

Divination is usually a psychological phenomenon that is neither entirely true nor entirely false.

If you believe, it will work; if you don't believe, it won't.

For example, you might consult a fortune teller to ask for lottery numbers.

Even if you keep asking until you get to the bottom of it, the fortune teller will at most just recite a poem for you.

Instead of telling you directly what numbers will be drawn in tomorrow's lottery.

"Great, very useful. Here, have an apple."

Luo Xia smiled and handed him the apple.

"Give me one."

Drake's large hand reached out.

Click, click.

The three of them were biting into their apples, their expressions completely calm.

I said…

Why have you all become so relaxed?

Luo, who was running on the far left, had a black line on his face and his cheeks twitched as he looked at the three of them.

Drake scratched his head, just then noticing a stick-shaped bread falling from the sky. He grabbed it and handed it to Luo.

"Here, have some bread to replenish your energy."

"Get lost! I hate bread the most!"

Luo roared in despair, his lips trembling, a deep sense of powerlessness washing over him.

He raised his hand to cover his face. "Why did I listen to that kid's nonsense and cooperate with them?"

Drake sighed and patted him on the shoulder sympathetically. "I understand how you feel, Law. He once told me there was a way to sneak into the city discreetly."

Rumble!

The earth trembled violently, and long cracks appeared in the ground as a terrifying white shadow moved underground, drawing ever closer.

Not far behind, a vast, seemingly endless mass of royal city citizens, their faces contorted, waved various objects, rushing in like a surging black tide.

The four of them, pursued by a giant worm and thousands of people, ran wildly toward the palace.

Suddenly, a mushroom cloud hundreds of meters high rose up from the direction of the palace.

Thick flames and black smoke shot into the sky from the explosion.

What followed was a massive impact that swept across all directions!

boom!

Within the royal city, it was as if a world-ending storm had suddenly swept through, the surging air waves instantly slapping the faces of the four running people, making it impossible for them to open their eyes.

If Luo Xia and his group were in such a state, one can only imagine the thousands of ordinary people chasing behind them.

Besides the giant worms that keep approaching from underground.

The vast horde of citizens of the royal city were swept away by this surging shockwave and fell down like wheat being harvested.

Many people were knocked unconscious by the blast wave.

Even those who didn't faint suffered serious injuries from the blast wave.

Fortunately, this location was far from the explosion's epicenter, which prevented large-scale casualties.

"What a terrifying explosion! What happened over there?"

Luo shaded his eyes with his hand and squinted in that direction.

But the city was shrouded in sand and dust, with extremely low visibility, so he couldn't see anything.

"The peacocks are fighting! With such a terrifying explosion, I hope the peacocks won't get hurt."

Drake swallowed the apple, a look of worry in his eyes.

"Look! They're flying over here!"

Just then, Rorschach suddenly pointed at several small black dots in the sky and shouted.

Upon closer inspection, the group saw a dozen or so figures dancing and leaping through the air in the distance, resembling leaves in the wind amidst the violent shockwaves.

It was Peacock, Bepo, and the others!

Sudden.

The ground beneath their feet suddenly exploded, and a gaping maw, as large as an abyss, lunged at the four of them.

"Bepo! Pekin!"

Concerned for his companion's safety, Luo disregarded his physical exhaustion and unleashed a wide range of surgical techniques.

"ROOM!"

A hemispherical transparent dome, hundreds of meters in diameter, fell down, carrying the four figures away abruptly. The giant insects that pounced out from beneath it missed their target, creating a large crater in the ground.

Swish!

The four appeared dozens of meters in the air. Luo Xia reacted quickly, leaping more than ten meters away with a single step of his Moon Step, and grabbed the peacock whose eyes were closed and whose mouth was bleeding.

With his other hand, he grabbed Bepo's furry ear and pulled them both down, landing on the roof of a building.

A beastly roar echoed in mid-air. Drake's body swelled up, transforming into a giant dinosaur. He opened his mouth and grabbed three or four lieutenants, while his two front claws gripped Pekin and Shaki.

boom!

The dinosaur's back slammed into the ground, creating a huge crater.

In Luo's hands, the surgical space expanded again, covering the remaining people, and they were about to be transferred.

"Luo! You traitor! We've finally found you!"

Amidst the rising flames not far away, a man and a woman flew out one after the other, their faces filled with murderous intent, and pounced towards Luo's position.

The man's full head of silver hair bulged out, resembling a cluster of blooming gladiolus.

His feet kept expanding and exploding, propelling his body like a rocket taking off, with his speed increasing steadily.

The woman transformed into a cannonball trailing a fiery tail, hurtling towards Luo Fei.

"Gradius, baby 5!"

Luo waved his hand, moving the remaining people from the air to the rooftop next to Luo Xia, while he himself wanted to change direction and move away.

But he overlooked his physical exertion.

The two consecutive surgeries in extremely large areas took a heavy toll on his physical strength.

He is no longer a supernova, and his development of the Op-Op Fruit and his physical strength are not as strong as they will be four years later.

“ROO......”

The air current that had just formed between the five fingers of his right hand vanished as an invisible gust of wind.

Luo, who was in mid-air, turned pale, clutched his chest, and suddenly plummeted downwards.

"not good!"

Rorschach, Drake, and Hawkins were all shocked.

Luo Xia immediately activated Life Return, causing the floor beneath his feet to tremble as he used Moon Step to rush forward at top speed.

"Hahaha, did you overexert yourself, Luo!"

Gladius grinned maliciously as he approached, extending his swollen right hand to grab directly at Law's neck.

"I'll beat you half to death first, then hand you over to the young master!"

"Damn it!" Luo Xia's eyes were bloodshot as he stomped his feet, making the air rumble.

However, it's still quite a distance from Luo's position!

Cold sweat beaded on Luo's forehead as he watched Baby5 transform into a cannonball and fly closely behind Gladius. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and he shouted in that direction:

"Baby5! I need you! Help me take down Gladius!"

"I...I feel needed?"

A human face appeared on the shell, and a blush appeared on Baby5's face.

"It feels so wonderful, I feel needed again."

"Oh no! Luo! You despicable brat! Baby5! Wake up! He's the enemy now!"

Gladius roared in surprise and anger.