Hachinosu Three Days Later!
The scorching midday sun baked the red earth until it was piping hot, and the salty, fishy sea breeze swept across clusters of low-lying houses carrying waves of heat.
Rector was lying lazily on a rattan recliner sunbathing, with a glass of iced fruit juice close at hand.
In a clearing not far away stood a thick wooden pole, where a Celestial Dragon was bound with his hands behind his back and hung high in mid-air.
“Morgans is truly worthy of being the future News King!”
Rector looked at the unfolded newspaper in his hand, the front page printed with an exceptionally eye-catching bold headline.
[“Giant King Harald reveals his true nature, his friendliness with the government is a disguise!
Sinking innocent warships!”]
The content of the report was completely opposite to the truth, and anyone with a discerning eye could tell that the World Government must be pulling strings behind this article.
“Big Bro!
He seems a bit dead!”
Holding a juice cup, Perospero raised a hand to point at the Celestial Dragon hanging in mid-air, his face turning somewhat pale.
The Celestial Dragon, who had lived in the lap of luxury since childhood with delicate, fair skin, had never suffered such hardship before.
The space suit he usually took pride in, used to isolate himself from the air of the lower realm, had now become a torture instrument inflicting agony upon him.
Rector had even purposely stuffed several iron plates into his space suit.
Baked by the midday sun, the entire space suit felt as stuffy and hot as a red-hot frying pan.
“Go!
Bring a bucket of saltwater over!” Rector turned his head and instructed Perospero beside him.
“Saltwater?
I’ll go right away!” Perospero quickly put down his juice cup and turned to run towards the back of the house.
Three days ago, Big Bro had asked him to carry back a large bag of coarse salt; he hadn’t figured out its use back then, but now he understood.
A few minutes later, Perospero came back carrying a full bucket of extra-strength saltwater.
He had specially drawn it from the sea and poured several more packets of salt into it, just to give this Celestial Dragon a “grand gift”.
Rector took the wooden bucket, raised his hand, and splashed it directly at the Celestial Dragon in mid-air.
“Ah——!!!”
“Damn commoners!
I order you to let me go right now!”
“If you kill me, you will die too!”
“If you release me now, I will reluctantly take you in as my slave!”
…
Stimulated by the saltwater, his originally dry and burning skin instantly split open into numerous cracks, and large patches of epidermis peeled off and fell to the ground.
His entire face rapidly swelled up, swelling into the shape of a bloated pig’s head.
The miserable, shrill screams of the Celestial Dragon drifted out of the courtyard, just in time to attract Rocks and the others who had just returned to the port.
Carrying the treasures looted from Putcolony, they had just stepped into Charlotte Linlin’s residence when they saw the figure hanging from the wooden pole.
“Yo!
You’re all back!”
Rector put down the juice cup in his hand and looked at the executives carrying large and small bags one by one.
These were all treasures looted from the charity monastery.
“Brat!
Where is the treasure you mentioned?”
Rocks stepped forward, his tall figure blocking the scorching sunlight, his profile appearing exceptionally ferocious in the boundary between light and shadow.
“This is it!” Rector raised a hand and pointed at the Celestial Dragon on the pole.
In an instant, everyone present fell silent.
“Rocks!
He’s playing you for a fool!”
“How could a single person compare to treasure!!!”
Streusen wore a look of waiting to watch a joke play out, his eyes hiding irrepressible excitement as he kept glancing towards Rocks.
In his heart, he was hoping that Rocks would strike on the spot and kill Rector, so he wouldn’t have to dirty his own hands.
“Bang!!!”
“Wah Ah!!!”
Rector lifted his foot and kicked Streusen right in the chest, the immense force directly shattering his sternum.
Streusen’s body flew out, crashing through three stone houses along the way before finally burying itself in the broken bricks and rubble of a fourth building, motionless for a long while.
“Don’t think that just because you’re hoping for my death in your heart, I wouldn’t know.”
Rector’s expression darkened; three strikes and you’re out, tonight he would deal with this useless thing.
“This guy is a Celestial Dragon!
A World Noble!” Perospero hurriedly stepped forward to smooth things over, revealing the identity of the person hanging on the pole.
“A Celestial Dragon?
What use do I have for this pig?” Rocks scoffed with a face full of disdain.
“A Celestial Dragon can be exchanged for a massive amount of wealth!” Rector spread his hands, a smile appearing on his face.
“We’ll issue conditions to the World Government; if they don’t pay up, we’ll publicly execute the Celestial Dragon.”
“Do you think the World Government would rather obediently pay the money, or watch us publicly execute him with their own eyes?”
Rector’s words echoed in their ears.
What they looted were concrete, tangible treasures, but everyone knew that the World Government valued status and face more than anything else.
Back then, when Rocks killed an Admiral in Mary Geoise, the World Government desperately tried to downplay the incident’s impact on the world in their reports in order to minimize the fallout.
They only claimed that Rocks had kidnapped the king of a World-affiliated nation in Mary Geoise, and that the Admiral was severely injured by Rocks during the rescue operation, ultimately dying of their wounds.
The newspapers repeated this narrative over and over, immediately followed by the urgent issuance of Rocks’s bounty poster.
To this day, none of them knew what the name of that Admiral who died back then was.
“Kid!
Your idea isn’t bad!
Who do you think is most suitable to deliver this news to Mary Geoise?”
Rocks looked at Rector, his gaze carefully scrutinizing his expression.
Ever since Rector displayed his ability to foresee the future last time, doubts had lingered in his mind.
God Valley was located in the sea area of West Blue near the Calm Belt, so remote that even merchant ships rarely passed by; even with a thorough search, it might not be found.
Furthermore, family secrets were always passed down orally and had never been recorded in writing—how on earth did this kid know about them?
Those who knew these things were either of the same clan or people from the World Government.
He suspected whether Rector had defected to the World Government.
“I think Ochoku is very suitable.” Rector narrowed his eyes and looked at Ochoku standing in the crowd.
That traitor Ochoku was the one who had originally betrayed Shakky’s information to the World Government, leading to Shakky being captured and Malong being killed.
Traitors were detested everywhere they went; sending him to deliver this provocative intelligence couldn’t be more appropriate.
If he died in Mary Geoise, that would be for the best; even if he didn’t die, the Five Elders would still pin this debt on his head.
Only Rocks had the backbone to provoke the Five Elders to their faces; with Ochoku’s strength, once he was targeted by the Five Elders, he would definitely not have an easy time.
“Then Ochoku will go deliver it!” Without waiting for Ochoku to speak, Rocks directly hammered down the decision.
“Once the deed is done, Ochoku will take thirty percent of the acquired treasure.”
“How nice!
Ochoku gets thirty percent!
I’m even a little envious!” Shiki floated in mid-air, putting on an expression full of envy.
Rector secretly gave Shiki a thumbs-up; when it came to stoking flames and stirring up trouble, Shiki was truly a master hand, which made it no wonder that Silver Axe always wanted to hack him to death.
“What?
Why make me go!”
“Shiki can fly!
Newgate is strong!
Why on earth should I go?”
Ochoku roared out, his body trembling uncontrollably out of fear.
Are you kidding me?!
That was the stronghold of the World Government, and he didn’t have the strength of Rocks; what difference was there between going to Mary Geoise and courting death?
Mary Geoise was so close to Marineford; if he really went up against an Admiral, he would undoubtedly die.
“My choice of Ochoku is, firstly, because his Swamp Fruit allows him to burrow underground, making it very suitable for concealing his whereabouts and avoiding detection.”
“The second reason is that this matter also involves Harald.”
“What does this have to do with Harald?” The moment Harald was mentioned, Rocks’s expression became somewhat unnatural.
Harald was an important link in his plan.
Among the two legendary Devil Fruits he had racked his brains to find, one of them was the national treasure of Elbaf.
That fruit could only unleash its strongest power if eaten by someone of the Giant Race.
“Take a look at this.” Rector casually tossed the newspaper reporting on Harald killing the World Government agents to Rocks.
“Right now, Harald has his heart set on having Elbaf join the World Government.”
“If the World Government uses rescuing the Celestial Dragon as a condition—as long as the Celestial Dragon is rescued, they will agree to let Elbaf become a World-affiliated nation, how do you think he will choose?”
“Ochoku!
Choose one for yourself: either stay behind to fight Harald, or go to Mary Geoise to deliver the intelligence.”
Rector crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze locked tightly onto Ochoku, and the other surrounding executives also turned their gazes over in unison.
Pressured by everyone’s gazes, Ochoku finally gritted his teeth and compromised: “I’ll go deliver the intelligence!”
Compared to facing Harald, he would rather charge into Mary Geoise.
Engaging Harald in head-on combat carried a high probability of death, but delivering intelligence didn’t necessarily.
His Swamp Fruit had already developed a clone ability; even if his clone was destroyed, his main body would only be injured and wouldn’t lose its life, allowing him to at least return alive.