One Piece Gunslinger

However, as if all the unexpected events had been arranged to happen at the same time, just as Li Ang accelerated towards the Celestial Dragons' ship, he discovered that Hancock's hands, which were holding him, were gradually losing strength and loosening.

Chapter 290 Two Lieutenant Generals

For Li Ang, who was constantly focused on it for some reason, this subtle change was indeed noticed by him.

Li Ang reacted quickly. As soon as he felt Hancock's hand loosen, he reacted immediately, quickly turned to the side, and wrapped his left arm around her to catch her before she could break free.

Seeing Hancock's dazed and confused state, Li Ang immediately understood that due to the previous incidents, Hancock was now severely oxygen-deprived and unable to exert any strength. The fact that she hadn't fainted and had persisted this long was a testament to her strong will.

My heart is beating so fast!

Li Ang, holding Hancock with only his left arm, could already feel her heart pounding rapidly and forcefully to deliver oxygen. However, there was no oxygen left to be delivered to her lungs. Li Ang knew that Hancock could go into shock at any moment.

Although he wouldn't die immediately even if he went into shock, Li Ang wouldn't have a chance to rescue him under these special circumstances, and even sneaking in would be a problem.

Therefore, the only option is...

Without hesitation, Li Ang silently apologized and hugged Hancock, pressing his head against hers.

"Uh...uh!"

Perhaps sensing something, or perhaps Li Ang's method worked, Hancock also regained consciousness and quickly realized her current situation.

For Hancock, this was like a sudden storm, catching her completely off guard. At this moment, she should break free and turn the man in front of her into stone.

However, she couldn't do that. She felt her body become soft, and her heart was beating very fast. When their lips touched, it felt like soft candy, and the intense scent was intoxicating.

"Could this be...?"

Leon noticed that Hancock had regained consciousness, but he didn't stop. Instead, he continued to send another wave of air to her, because he didn't want Hancock to suffer from oxygen deprivation again, and he had to repeat the same action.

In his view, this was tantamount to risking his life, and Li Ang had no intention of recklessly flirting with death. Who knew if he might be turned to stone by Hancock the next time, and then both of them would sink into the sea?

Of course, Li Ang himself does not rule out the possibility that he might have been unable to resist Hancock's charm.

But if Leon knew what Hancock was thinking, he'd probably say, "You're overthinking it, girl!"

Then he began to explain to Hancock: "This is not a big deal, it's not what you think."

"Your body feels weak and powerless because you're lacking oxygen, which is why you can't move. Similarly, your heart is beating fast for the same reason. It's pretty much the same principle as a suspension bridge. Everything else is just a psychological effect caused by this. Wake up!"

Yes, Li Ang is just that rational, and just that clueless about romance. Well done.

After absorbing about half of his own air, Li Ang finally raised his head and swam towards their destination, still holding Hancock. It was only a short distance, and he wasn't bothered to change positions. However, he didn't notice that Hancock had also buried her head in his chest.

Before long, Li Ang arrived at the bottom of the Celestial Dragons' ship. He didn't act rashly; having come this far, Li Ang didn't want to ruin everything because of a small mistake.

First, he used his Observation Haki to check the people inside the ship. After confirming that there were not many people on the Celestial Dragons' ship and that they were all on the deck protecting the Celestial Dragons, he took out a knife with his right hand and slid a square opening in the bottom of the ship that was large enough for one person to pass through. He pushed Hancock in first, and then crawled in himself.

"Quick, plug this hole first," Li Ang said before he could even take a breath after coming out.

Hancock understood what Leon meant and quickly picked up the plank that had been washed in by the water. She used her ability to "weld" the plank back together, but instead of welding rods, she used stones to join the edges.

Li Ang then began to breathe deeply, and the two of them rested against the bottom of the boat.

This is also why Li Ang wanted to sneak in before the gunfire ended. The noise of Li Ang tearing through the bottom of the ship was quite loud, and it was possible to be detected without cover.

Fortunately, Li Ang managed his time well, and nothing unexpected happened in this final step.

What surprised Li Ang was that Hancock didn't do anything to him. He had thought that after coming out and receiving sufficient oxygen, Hancock's weakness and paralysis caused by oxygen deprivation had eased, and she should now show some appreciation.

Hancock was in a state of turmoil, and it took her a full two minutes to calm her racing heart and the flush on her face. Luckily, she had applied the disguise mud, otherwise Li Ang would probably have noticed the blush.

But speaking of these disguise props, soaking them in seawater for a few minutes before taking them out is simply incredible.

Hancock's face was truly a sight to behold. The colors were divided into distinct areas, patch by patch, with clear color differences and no discernible pattern. It looked like some kind of map, and Li Ang almost couldn't help but laugh when he first saw it. Even the most beautiful empress in the world had come to this.

However, the Empress did not react, but Li Ang became suspicious: "Is this going to be the last thing they do to settle scores with me? Is it possible that after I deal with the Celestial Dragons, Hancock will finally unleash all the resentment she has been holding onto along the way, and then say, 'You are no longer of any use to me,' and turn me to stone? Thinking about it, it's actually quite possible."

Thinking of this, Li Ang also became wary, fearing that the Empress might later use him as a tool to kill him.

If Hancock knew what Leon was thinking right now, she'd probably kill the donkey before it even got off the millstone.

……

Shortly after the two successfully boarded the Celestial Dragon's vehicle, the rabble had already been dealt with by the Marines. The entire battle lasted only about five minutes.

"Report, Vice Admiral Strawberry! The battlefield has been cleared, and several pirates have been captured alive. They claim to be from the One-Eyed Pirates."

The vice admiral, named Strawberry, had a long beard that hung straight down to his abdomen. His eyes were half-closed, and it was unclear whether they were open or not. Since the start of the war, he hadn't moved from his position, standing calmly on the deck as the navy wiped out the pirates.

"What's the background of this one-eyed pirate crew?" This was the first thing he said after "annihilating them." It seems he didn't take this small-time pirate group seriously at all, and hadn't even heard of them before.

Obviously, this problem was a bit complicated for many Marines from Marine Headquarters, but soon a subordinate contacted the nearby Marine branch via Den Den Mushi and got the answer: "This One-Eyed Pirate Crew was the largest pirate crew in the West Blue before, and the captain, One-Eyed Tyr, has a bounty of fifty million."

"Hmph, a bounty of fifty million? The largest pirate crew in the West Blue? Is this all they've got? Are you sure you're not mistaken?" Strawberry asked doubtfully.

"Yes, not only are these descriptions of pirates' ways of doing things completely consistent, but their pirate flags and the style of their pirate ships are also exactly the same."

Just then, a casually dressed middle-aged man with a cigarette dangling from his lips walked up to them, his hands in his pockets, his gait almost as swaying as Kizaru's. If it weren't for the navy cloak draped over his back, no one would mistake him for a member of the navy.

"It seems that these pirate crews outside the Grand Line are nothing special. Their high bounties are only because they have committed many evil deeds. There are quite a few such pirate crews on the high seas."

When Storoberry saw the newcomer, he asked curiously, "Chaton, where did you go just now?" It turned out that this person was another escorting vice admiral, Chaton.

"I suspected these pirate crews had some tricks up their sleeves, so I ran to the lookout tower of that warship behind us, thinking you could handle them. Turns out I waited for nothing. These pirates are just hot-headed idiots at sea. I don't know if they've gotten too cocky or what, but they even dared to attack a Navy ship," Chaton said helplessly. It seemed he hadn't let his guard down during this escort mission.

“However, I still feel something is unusual. Even if they have committed many evil deeds, they should still have some skill. In the end, we defeated this group of pirates without losing a single soldier. Moreover, I didn’t even see the captain of this pirate crew. I’ve been standing here without moving, waiting for him to make his move so I can meet him head-on.” Strawberry stroked his long beard and said.

“Now that you mention it, it does make some sense. It seems there’s something strange about this. I’ve seen similar situations before. In reality, the captain faked his death to get rid of his pirate identity. However, we are in a critical period of escorting the Celestial Dragons, so I can’t make any hasty conclusions. We should eliminate all possible hidden dangers and not be careless.”

“Indeed, we should be careful before we get them to their destination,” Strawberry suggested. “I think to avoid any accidents, we should leave this place as soon as possible, get them to their destination quickly, and interrogate the captured pirates along the way.”

Cha-tun nodded and said, "You're right, let's do it your way."

Then the two ordered the fleet to set sail again and personally interrogated the pirates they had just captured.

Unfortunately, Leon, who had already infiltrated the Celestial Dragons' ship, was unaware that the two people escorting them were Strawberry and Chaton.

Otherwise, Li Ang might have had a headache over this for a while, but now he doesn't even have the chance to have a headache.

Chapter 291 Locking onto the Blue Target

Stromberry and Chaton are no ordinary vice admirals. Among the vice admirals in the Navy, their strength is among the top, and they have been in the Navy for many years and are very experienced.

However, none of this is the main point. It only shows that they are just two excellent naval vice admirals, not enough to give Li Ang a headache. In fact, if Li Ang knew it was these two, he might have chosen to change the location of the crime and wait until he entered the Golden City before making his move.

First of all, this Storoberry is the mastermind behind the attack on the fish-man hero Fisher Tiger, who severely injured and ultimately killed him. In other words, he's Hancock's enemy. If Hancock were to accidentally encounter him, it could very well detonate a powder keg right there in her.

Li Ang certainly couldn't expect Hancock to hold back. Fisher Tiger and Granny Za were like second parents to Hancock. If someone like her father's killer were to be in front of her, she wouldn't be able to resist either.

Once things develop to that point, Li Ang will have no choice but to risk his life to accompany Hancock, or rather, to fight his way out with her, then call for reinforcements from the Revolutionary Army, and incidentally provoke the World Government once again.

This means Hancock's title of Shichibukai is over, and Leon's next plan is to recruit new Shichibukai.

This is something Li Ang absolutely does not want to happen.

If Strawberry was the one who could ruin Leon's plans, worsen the situation, and cause Leon heavy losses, then the second Lieutenant General Chaton was the one who, in that situation, blocked Leon and Hancock here, leaving no room for any attempt to fight their way out.

Chaton appears to be a vice admiral, well, he is indeed a vice admiral. But he's not an ordinary vice admiral; in fact, he could be considered somewhere between a vice admiral and an admiral, with strength approaching that of an admiral. He was groomed to be an admiral candidate. It's said that when the Navy replaced the admirals after the Marineford War, Chaton was not selected due to his personality and low reputation, even though he possessed the strength of an admiral.

In short, if a direct confrontation were to occur, Leon and Hancock would essentially be out of this world. Even if they joined forces, they would be no match for Chaton. Not to mention the presence of another vice admiral and four ships in the navy.

One of these two provoked Hancock, causing them to be exposed, while the other could deal with the exposed pair—they were practically a set. It was even specifically designed to counter Hancock and Leon.

It's safe to say that you couldn't find a more troublesome vice admiral combination than this one in the entire navy.

However, Leon didn't need to worry about these things for the time being, nor could he. The bomb wasn't ready to explode yet, and they still needed to spend some time on the investigation. Perhaps if Leon and Hancock acted quickly enough, they could resolve everything before these terrible things happened.

The two made their way up from the bottom of the ship. Unable to avoid the slaves working in the cabins, they knocked them unconscious and dragged them into rooms to hide. This infiltration felt like playing a stealth game to Li Ang; it was incredibly exciting.

With Li Ang's Observation Haki detecting their movements and the combined agility of the two, they arrived safely and quickly below the room where the Celestial Dragons were located.

After all, Observation Haki is essentially a cheat code for seeing through objects, and the two of them are also exceptionally skilled, so dealing with these ordinary people is a piece of cake.

How did Li Ang know that it was a Celestial Dragon below him, and not someone else? Li Ang's Observation Haki can only penetrate walls to know if there is someone there, but it cannot tell what the person looks like or what clothes they are wearing. How did he determine that the person above him was a Celestial Dragon?

This is naturally because, according to Li Ang's Observation Haki, the two appeared as two blobs of idiotic blue. This technique was learned by Li Ang from Fujitora; it involves using Observation Haki to sense a person's inner feelings and "see" the color of their emotions. Moreover, this color fills the entire body, allowing one to roughly "see" the person's physique.

Everyone else Li Ang encountered along the way was dressed in somber gray, but these two were dressed in a sallow blue. It would be strange if these two weren't his targets.

Huh? You're asking why mental retardation is blue? Isn't that obvious? There's no reason why. If mental retardation had a color, it would definitely be blue.

Saint Cedric and Saint Griffith. They both belong to the Bancroft family, a Celestial Dragon family. The Celestial Dragons' names are always ending with either "Saint" or "Holy," depending on whether they are male or female. This added character is a special addition by the Celestial Dragons to emphasize their nobility and greatness.

However, in Li Ang's opinion, this setting serves no purpose other than making him seem even more idiotic.

Having found their target, the Celestial Dragons' fighting strength was essentially no different from that of ordinary people, posing no threat to the two. However, when the two arrived at the location of the father and son, they discovered that things were not so simple.

The reason is that the two were not alone; they were protected by two burly slaves, who were clearly not the kind of people who could be easily dealt with.

In truth, Li Ang had always held these slaves with some power in contempt. These slaves valued life more than freedom; what kind of life was it if they wanted to live like slaves? These slaves never even considered rebelling.

The Celestial Dragons' control over slaves is limited to the collar around their necks. If a slave makes any unusual move, the Celestial Dragons will use that collar to kill them. They have no other means of control.

In Li Ang's view, this was undoubtedly a manifestation of the servility deeply ingrained in the hearts of most people. As long as they could survive, what did it matter if they were slaves? This kind of thinking might be understandable for ordinary weaklings, since their deaths would be meaningless. But it didn't bother the Celestial Dragons at all.

But for those with considerable strength, this was simply incomprehensible. If it were Li Ang who had been captured and enslaved, he would have seized the opportunity to suddenly attack and kill a Celestial Dragon before they could react. Then, well, he would be dead.

Although he eventually died, it wasn't a wasted death. Life is precious, but freedom is even more valuable. If you lose your freedom and have to serve these Celestial Dragons all day, you might lose your life if they're displeased. Why not take the risk?

Slave revolts are always the most direct way to overthrow slave owners. If everyone thought like Li Ang, and slaves believed that even if a whole cartload of them died, it would be worth it to kill just one Celestial Dragon—after all, there are only so many Celestial Dragons, and each one is one less—then the Celestial Dragons would have long since perished, or the slave system itself would have collapsed.

Some might argue that these slaves aren't just individuals; their entire families might be in the hands of the Celestial Dragons. If they risked their lives to fight the Celestial Dragons, it wouldn't just be one person dying, but the whole family perishing. Therefore, for the sake of their families, these people willingly became the Celestial Dragons' dogs.

This explanation seems plausible, but the problem is that not all slaves are in this situation. In fact, very few slaves are like this; the vast majority of slaves are completely alone.

Therefore, after much thought, Li Ang could only attribute it all to the fact that people are not simply numbers. Each person is a thinking individual, and from a holistic perspective, exchanging a cartload of slaves for a Celestial Dragon is indeed not a loss. However, if one were to be one of those slaves, the vast majority would be unwilling to give it up. And in situations where awareness is not high enough, this is the case. Li Ang was an exception, having embraced the advanced ideas of the 21st century, while the prevailing mindset in the One Piece world remained stuck in the feudal era; no one would sacrifice themselves for others.

So, while Li Ang may despise them, he still has to face these two bodyguards. He can't expect them to suddenly realize their mistake and side with him.

Therefore, Li Ang had to figure out how to take down these two big men and two Celestial Dragons without making too much of a commotion. He couldn't just launch a direct attack, otherwise, even if the two of them killed the Celestial Dragons, they wouldn't be able to escape.

However, this did not stump Li Ang. If they couldn't attack head-on, they would outsmart them. In any case, the two of them had basically relied on Li Ang's brains to get to this point, so there was no rush.

After quietly informing Hancock of the situation, Li Ang asked, "Can your Conqueror's Haki accurately lock onto those two Celestial Dragons?"

After all, his Conqueror's Haki was only at level two, and he couldn't precisely control its range, making him easily detectable by the two people nearby. He had no choice but to ask Hancock for help.

"How did you know I possess Conqueror's Haki?" Hancock found it a bit strange, as she had never shown it before. It should only be her grandmother and two sisters who knew.

“Um… I have a method of physiognomy that allows me to see a lot from a person’s face.” Of course, Li Ang couldn’t tell the truth, so he could only make things up. “From your appearance, I can see that you have the face of an emperor. With such imperial qualities, you must have mastered Conqueror’s Haki.”

Hey, how could that not be the look of an emperor? Those patches on his face practically imprint a map (of the world) on it. That's definitely the look of an emperor. This is just taking advantage of Hancock not having a mirror to see what she looks like now.