chapter 166 part 1
Chapter 166: The Great Pirate of the Sabaody Archipelago! Fire Fist Ace!
Chapter 166: The Great Pirate of the Sabaody Archipelago! Fire Fist Ace!
Dark King Rayleigh, Luffy's Haki teacher, and the Pirate King's right-hand man.
Pirate Ren Arakawa even felt that Rayleigh wasn't as gifted at teaching as the two skeleton masters he had in Impel Down.
This old man had long had his edges smoothed by time; he no longer had the imposing presence of the Dark King.
If he still had a shred of passion, he wouldn't have stood by idly while Ace was about to be executed.
Rayleigh glanced at the faces of Lightning and Ivankov, paused briefly on Ren Arakawa, then shifted his gaze.
Lightning said, "Eat, eat."
Lightning raised his red wine glass. "Thank you for the hospitality."
After taking a few bites, Pirate Ren Arakawa looked at the street outside the bar and said, "I'll go wander around for a bit?"
Lightning specifically warned, "There are too many Marines in the Sabaody Archipelago. Be a little careful."
"Understood."
The Sabaody Archipelago is located right next to Marineford, the Marine Headquarters.
Its origin lies in a giant tree known as the world's largest, the "Yarukiman Mangrove."
The tree's roots intertwine and spread, forming a landmass that created the current Sabaody Archipelago.
As a crucial choke point leading to the New World, the Sabaody Archipelago is a mandatory stop for every pirate who yearns to make a name for themselves on the high seas.
Among them are pirates who traverse the Four Seas, renowned far and wide, with the treasure left by the Pirate King Gol D. Roger as their ultimate goal.
There are also merchants with sharp minds, cunning as foxes in their dealings.
And even Bounty Hunters with cold, keen eyes, like hungry wolves!
They hold wanted posters, weaving through crowds, constantly hoping to encounter notorious scoundrels on the wanted list to exchange for considerable rewards.
As the saying goes, cats have their ways, dogs have theirs.
The Bounty Hunter community is quite numerous.
They hold "justice" in their hands through wanted posters, yet what they do is essentially not much different from pirates. However, relying on the World Government as their backing, they live quite comfortably.
In front of Ren Arakawa, several Bounty Hunters held a stack of wanted posters, their eyes wide like copper bells, comparing them one by one to a middle-aged man they had beaten to the ground.
Their demeanor was as if they were terrified of missing any opportunity to get rich.
After a long while, the one-eyed Bounty Hunter leading them roared impatiently, spitting fiercely: "Damn it! You're really not a pirate, are you?!"
The middle-aged man lying on the ground shook like a rattle-drum. "Really, really not! You, why did you suddenly hit me..."
"Why did we hit you? Who told you to avoid our gaze just now?! Only pirates would avoid the gaze of us Bounty Hunters!" His tone was full of arrogance and dominance, as if he were the master of the Sabaody Archipelago, and everyone else had to obey him.
When the one-eyed man said this, the passersby nearby started to look displeased.
Who would dare to look you in the eye?
With red hair and green hair dye, covered in tattoos and knife scars, their sabers and scabbards clanging as they walked, how many people would dare to brush past them head-on?!
"Damn it!"
"Slap!"
The one-eyed man slapped the middle-aged man heavily. The middle-aged man instantly saw stars from the blow, his body rolled a few times on the ground, groaning in pain.
"Heh heh, it doesn't matter if you're a pirate or not, just send him to the slave traders!" The one-eyed Bounty Hunter revealed a sinister smile.
"Ah! No, don't! I, I came out to buy food for my son! He's only three years old, I can't go back! What will happen to him?!" The middle-aged man cried out in despair, his voice filled with a father's deep concern for his son, making listeners feel a pang of heartache.
"Oh? You have a son? Where's your home?"
Although it was adjacent to Marine Headquarters, the order here was extremely chaotic.
Slave traders and Bounty Hunters, like sewer rats, spread rampantly, utterly vicious.
Here, human trafficking had become a commonplace occurrence. Humans, fish-men, merfolk—as long as there was profit to be gained, they would be ruthlessly plundered and reduced to "merchandise" for trade.
Such heartless and crazy acts, under various dark currents, were implicitly tolerated, truly making normal people feel heartbroken, furious beyond measure.
The Marines, turning a blind eye to this, had a "justice" that truly couldn't stand up to scrutiny.
Just as the one-eyed Bounty Hunter bent down and brutally hauled up the crying, pleading middle-aged man from the ground, intending to follow his words and go to his home, to take that three-year-old, babbling child and sell him to the slave traders as well—
An unexpected turn of events occurred!
In an instant, a powerful pressure, as if from the deepest depths of the netherworld, swept over without warning like a surging tide, tightly enveloping these few Bounty Hunters!
That pressure, like substantial, terrifying waves, crashed down heavily on them. For a moment, these fellows, who were usually fierce, notorious, and overbearing, were as if struck by a paralysis spell, unable to move an inch. The arrogance and greed in their eyes were instantly replaced by expressions of terror!
It was a deep fear of an unknown, powerful force!
And to bystanders, this scene was utterly bizarre.
From their perspective, those few Bounty Hunters seemed to have instantly hit a pause button, their bodies rigid.
But through the yellow liquid that suddenly drenched and dripped from their trousers, and the pungent smell rapidly spreading in the air, bystanders could easily deduce that they must have suffered some extremely severe, soul-piercing mental attack!
Such methods had already exceeded everyone's imagination!
After a short while, only a few dull thuds of "thump, thump" were heard. The Bounty Hunters, like stringless puppets, fell straight to the ground, completely motionless.