One Piece: Blue Scale Admiral

He took a deep breath, then exhaled sharply and shouted towards Zoro, "Zoro! Live! No matter what! Live!"

After shouting this, he turned to look at the four people, Wald and his companions, who were attacking and tearing at him like wolves and tigers. A bloodstained smile appeared on his wrinkled old face.

"Only through suffering can one become a demon!"

He spread his left and right hands, each holding a long sword. Behind him, boundless ghostly energy surged forth, transforming into a gigantic black ghostly shadow, which instantly unleashed a powerful slash at the four Valds who were rushing towards him.

"Aoki Dual-Sword Style! Musou Rengoku Slash!"

Wald's pupils contracted sharply. Seeing the body rushing towards Jonathan, he suddenly slammed on the brakes and unhesitatingly used the maximum speed boost of the Multiply Fruit, causing himself to retreat explosively backward.

He retreated, but three other great pirates, who were once famous throughout the seas and had bounties of no less than 500 million Berries, had already rushed in front of Jonathan.

By the time they felt the terrifying slashes erupting from Jonathan, it was already too late.

The endless slashes of ghostly energy instantly cleaved the three charging bodies into thousands of fragments, and the exploding blood turned Jonathan into a blood-soaked figure.

Even as Wald was forced to retreat, several bloody gashes appeared on his body, spurting out crimson blood.

"That old devil Jonathan, he actually has this kind of power?" Looking at Jonathan, who was covered in blood but still standing upright in the same spot, Wald's eyes showed a look of fear.

But soon, he stared in astonishment at the motionless Jonathan, "Dead...dead?"

In his perception, Jonathan's life force had already disappeared.

"Are you kidding me? He just died like that?"

Wald's expression was priceless.

Fearing that Jonathan was bluffing, he raised his flintlock pistol and fired a shot at Jonathan.

With a loud bang, the bullet fired from the flintlock pistol magnified a hundredfold in mid-air and struck Jonathan, sending him flying and crashing to the ground with a thud, where he remained motionless.

"Really dead?"

Now Wald believed that Jonathan was truly dead.

He lunged forward with a contorted face, stomped on Jonathan's face several times, and only stopped when Jonathan's face was a bloody mess.

"Damn it, what bad luck! I didn't get anything, and I even lost a few good guys to you, you old devil."

Wald grew angrier and angrier, still not satisfied. He took his flintlock pistol and pointed it at Jonathan's corpse, wanting to fire a few more shots and smash Jonathan's body to pieces.

But at that moment, Ryder, who had been standing motionless at a distance, appeared in front of him like a ghost, causing Wald to instinctively dodge away, frowning and shouting, "Ryder! What are you doing?"

Ryder ignored him, instead taking the spine-like demonic sword Dragon Spine from Jonathan's hand, walking over to Zoro who was being beaten bloody by more than a dozen prisoners, raising the demonic sword in his hand, and saying something indifferently.

"I'm taking this knife with me. If you're still alive, come find me in the New World and take it back."

After saying that, he vanished from the prisoners' sight like a ghost, and when he reappeared, he was already chasing after the direction Barrett had left in.

"Pah! What are you pretending for, you old ghost with one foot in the coffin?"

A prisoner spat in the direction Ryder had left, then looked at Zoro who was falling and reached out to grab the two swords in Zoro's hand.

"These two swords seem to be famous swords as well. Hiss... This one is the Black Sword Autumn Water, right? Very good, I've already made a profit right after I came out..."

Before he could finish speaking, he noticed that the other prisoners surrounding him had already started running away at breakneck speed into the distance.

Even Wald used the speed boost from the Multiplying Fruit to quickly get away from there.

"Hey, Wald, what are you guys doing?"

The prisoner, clutching the two great swords he had stolen from Zoro, paused for a moment, then slowly turned around.

Then he saw golden beams of light raining down from the sky.

"The Eight-Span Curved Jewel!!"

Chapter 687 The Disappearance of Teach

"What did you say? What do you mean we didn't find Blackbeard's body?"

Outside the makeshift tent on Marineford Island, Rorschach listened to Brannew's report with a furrowed brow.

"It means exactly what it says. Marshall D. Teach's body was not found. We searched all over Marineford, and even hired some fishmen to search the nearby sea, but we still couldn't find his body. I guess either his body was shattered by the aftershocks of your fight with Whitebeard, or he fell into the sea and was eaten by some big fish."

Brannew’s voice trembled slightly as he spoke.

The aura that Luo Xia unintentionally exuded made him feel like a sheep exposed to the jaws of an ancient Tyrannosaurus Rex, so weak that he didn't even have the right to resist.

"Shattered by the aftershocks of the battle, eaten by a big fish? Pshaw, don't be ridiculous."

Rorschach's face was ashen as he thought of Blackbeard's bloodline and race, which Sengoku had always avoided mentioning.

While Blackbeard's physical strength is not comparable to that of Kaido and others, it is far superior to that of an ordinary person. It is impossible for him to be shattered by the aftershocks of his fight with Whitebeard.

As for being eaten by fish in the sea off Marineford, that's utter nonsense.

The Conqueror's Haki that he and Whitebeard unleashed that day nearly shattered the island. Within a radius of fifty or sixty kilometers, not to mention large fish, even super-sized sea kings dared not approach.

Therefore, after much thought, Rorschach realized there was only one possibility.

That is, Blackbeard ran away!

But is that possible?

Rorschach clearly remembered that Blackbeard's life force was extinguished by the lightning he unleashed.

Faced with his powerful Observation Haki, Blackbeard would never be able to fake his death to fool him.

So, where does the problem lie?

Luo Xia couldn't figure it out, so he stopped worrying about it and went directly to another tent.

Since he doesn't know the reason, he might as well ask someone who might know.

The tent was lit, and when Rorschach walked in, he happened to see Akainu shirtless, slowly brewing tea on the table in front of him.

A chubby, fat cook with an apron around his waist was skillfully tattooing Akainu's body with a tattoo pen.

The moment Rorschach walked in, he saw that a blooming rose had appeared on the newly added hideous scars on Akainu's body.

Luo Xia was stunned when he saw the chubby cook with his nimble hands.

"Uncle Denuo? You...so you're that tattoo artist?"

Upon hearing this, Denor turned and glanced at Luo Xia, chuckling, "What? Surprised?"

"A little." Rorschach said honestly. He was indeed a little surprised. Last time when he was covered in scars after being beaten by Kaido, he even thought about asking Akainu who his tattoo artist was.

"It's always good to have more skills. If I learn another trade, I won't starve even if I stop being a chef." Denor took a break, picked up a cup of hot tea that Akainu had poured for him, and took a big gulp without any hesitation. He then put a cigar in his mouth and lit it. His practiced manner left Rorschach speechless.

Who exactly is the general in this tent?

Denor's hands moved with lightning speed, and in the blink of an eye, he had tattooed a few more roses on Akainu. Then, with a cigar in his mouth, he glanced at Rorschach and teased, "Rorschach, do you want to get something tattooed? I'm very skilled; whatever I tattoo will look lifelike, just like the real thing. How about getting a picture of a lark tattooed on your body?"

"puff!"

Rorschach, who had just picked up a cup of hot tea from the table in front of Akainu and was about to drink it, was choked by Denor's sudden words and almost spat the tea out of his nostrils.

Akainu seemed not to hear anything and continued to slowly brew his tea.

His movements were practiced, as if he often brewed tea this way.

"Is something wrong?"

He didn't even look up, his deep voice ringing in Luo Xia's ears.

Luo Xia glared angrily at Deno, who had a sly smile on his face, coughed, and voiced his doubts.

Upon hearing this, Akainu paused in his tea-making motion.

"black beard?"

“Hmm, I remember he was supposed to be dead, but Brannew said they couldn’t find his body. I’m wondering if it’s possible he died and came back to life? Are there such races in the world? I asked Sengoku before, but he stammered and wouldn’t say anything.” Rorschach nodded.

Akainu pondered for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "Many years ago, this world was home to all sorts of strange races. Oni, Giants, Fish-Men, Three-Eyeds, Lunaria, Bakania, and all sorts of strange racial talents. Aside from the Yomi Yomi no Mi (Revive-Revive Fruit), perhaps only that extinct race from history could come back to life after dying."

"Hmm? A special race that has been extinct? What race?" Rorschach's eyes lit up.

There is a play!

It seems I made the right decision to ask Akainu about this; Akainu knows something.

"I don't know the specific name of the race either. A lot of information has been erased to avoid affecting... just like the blank hundred-year history." Akainu said somewhat vaguely for the first time, "However, that race's talent seems to be similar to the three lives of Cerberus. It is said that three souls live in one body, and it takes three kills to completely kill them. You've been to Enies Lobby, right? Those three idiotic judges liked to pretend to be three-headed. It is said that the reason that race was wiped out was because they had three different bloodline factors in their bodies, which could be compatible with three different Devil Fruit abilities, that is, eating three Devil Fruits."

"Huh? So you knew all along, Uncle Sakazuki? Then why didn't you tell me sooner?" Rorschach was shocked and looked at Akainu with some resentment.

To his surprise, Akainu merely glanced at him and said calmly, "You didn't tell me that Blackbeard might have such talent."

"Didn't I... say that?"

Luo Xia thought about it carefully, and it seemed to be true.

He only told Sengoku and Garp about the secrets Blackbeard might be hiding, but he didn't mention these things to Akainu.

but……

It seems that Sengoku and the others didn't take what Rorschach said to heart, otherwise they wouldn't have failed to confess that they needed to kill Blackbeard three times to completely kill him.

Was it a momentary oversight, or some other reason?

Rorschach suddenly remembered that in the manga, after Aokiji left the Navy, he specifically sought out Blackbeard and joined the Blackbeard Pirates.

Why did Aokiji insist on joining the Blackbeard Pirates?

Logically speaking, given his personality, even if he felt confused about the Navy's justice and wanted to become a pirate, he wouldn't join a group of vicious pirates. The most likely scenario would be that he would join the Straw Hat Pirates.

Could there be some hidden reason behind this, like the information Akainu just mentioned?

Rorschach was still pondering the intricacies of the situation when his Den Den Mushi suddenly rang.

The Den Den Mushi was calling from Law. After he took it out to answer, he heard bad news.

Jonathan is dead.

Because of his advanced age and the fact that he drank the life-consuming water, he overdrawn his lifespan and died in battle under the siege of Wald and others.

Listening to Rorschach's story on the Den Den Mushi, Rorschach's mood instantly turned extremely bad.

He had a pretty good impression of that old guy Jonathan.

Although he claimed that he chose to leave because he couldn't stand the Navy's hypocritical justice.

But in fact, the bounty hunter guild he founded, and what he has done over the decades, have genuinely maintained a certain degree of stability in this sea.