"Let's equip it for now and see."
Withdrawing his gaze from the equipment slot, Merlin glanced at the corpse, then looked around at the cabin where water was already seeping in.
He leaped up, Boom!, kicking through the wooden planks with an upward kick. In a blink, he was outside. Snap! Kicking off the atmosphere with both feet, Merlin leaped towards his own ship.
Taking a moment to glance at the battle below, it could be said to be one-sided. Monet had already frozen her opponent into an ice sculpture.
And Pink was sending pirates flying, vomiting blood with every punch and kick. The purity of this group of pirates was the same as their captain.
Just for show.
Before long, Merlin's ship left the place.
Leaving behind only this scene of wreckage.
Half a day later, a pirate ship arrived at this wreckage site from a distance.
A woman in the lead, dressed gorgeously but with a vicious appearance, looked at the state of the wreckage here, a thoughtful look in her eyes.
"Murunfuffuffu~" Catarina Devon looked at the various corpses on the surrounding ice and chuckled lightly. "That trash Shot, was he taken out? It seems that White Demon Merlin is really quite capable!"
"Lady Devon, should we still chase?"
Her pirate deputy, a handsome and tall blond man, spoke flatteringly.
Excitement appeared in Devon's eyes. "Why not? I'm not a useless drunkard like Shot. This kind of prey is worthy of me, the Crescent Moon Hunter, personally chasing down.
"Heard there are three beautiful little cuties on his ship. Their heads are my favorite!"
"Chase! I can smell that unique scent still lingering here."
Saying this, she ordered her subordinates to turn the ship to the left. The Mythical Zoan fruit ability endowed her with extraordinary olfactory characteristics.
However, two days later.
In a certain sea area, Catarina Devon ground her teeth, her eyes bloodshot. She could smell the scent in the air but couldn't catch up to the opponent no matter what. It was like being a wild dog led by a meat bone, driving her incredibly crazy. But at the same time, the hunting desire in her heart was completely stimulated.
"This lady doesn't believe it. You can't keep running on the sea forever. I don't believe you won't go ashore to resupply."
Meanwhile, on an uninhabited island twenty nautical miles away from Catarina Devon.
In the forest on the island, Merlin looked at a small earthen mound in front of him. Oars was buried here.
Merlin wasn't Moria and didn't like doing tasteless things like playing with corpses to make zombies.
"Merlin, lunch is ready!"
At this time, Monet's voice came from the shore not far away. Merlin took a last look at the grave of the demon that gave him the "Ancient Giant" specialty and left without looking back.
On the shore.
The meat on the barbecue rack was cooked through.
Looking at the fragrant barbecue, Merlin sat on a shadow stool rising from under his feet, taking the fruit wine from Pink and a whole roasted rabbit from Monet.
The roasted rabbit skin was golden yellow, sizzling with oil, looking very delicious.
Taking a big bite of the chewy roasted rabbit meat, his eyes lit up. "This roast meat tastes amazing."
"Try my grilled fish?" Perona giggled, handing over her grilled fish. Merlin's face was difficult to control. Looking at the fish burnt black on one side, he couldn't help but complain, "I have a bad stomach; can't eat this dark cuisine."
Perona puffed out her cheeks and huffed. "Don't eat it then, this lady will eat it herself. I grilled it into this unique burnt flavor on purpose."
"Merlin, eat grilled mushrooms."
Baby 5 handed over grilled mushrooms. Merlin smiled and took them, biting off a ripe mushroom. The mushroom tasted very fresh too.
Perona narrowed her eyes and made a bitter face, unhappily taking big bites of her grilled fish.
Eating until the area around her mouth was black.
Monet's eyes held a smile, the corners of her mouth lifting unconsciously. Beside her, Pink also curled his lips and buried his head in eating.
An hour later, lunch was finished.
Looking at the environment here, Merlin asked them, "Want to rest here for a day?"
Monet blinked, thought for a moment, and nodded. "Sure!"
"Alright! Staying at sea for a long time, playing on land for a while is also good. Pity it's not summer, otherwise we could wear swimsuits and play in the water."
Perona said with a smile. But speaking of this, her eyes lit up. "How about we find an island where we can soak in hot springs for a few days?"
Speaking of hot springs, Merlin thought of the hot springs on Swallow Mountain on Swallow Island. That place was nice, but not very suitable.
At this time, Pink suddenly said, "I know a place that works. An island relatively close to Reverse Mountain has hot springs. It's called the City of Rain."
"Because of the abundant water vapor on the island, it often rains there, but the hot spring industry there is also famous. It belongs to the Cassandra Kingdom, a good place to rest.
"With your ship's speed, you can arrive in just two days."
Listening to Pink's description, the corner of Merlin's mouth lifted. "Then let's not rest here, go directly to the City of Rain!"
"Hollow hollow! Yay!"
Perona cheered instantly.
Before long.
The ship wrapped in shadows quickly left the place.
One day later.
When Merlin sailed the ship through a sea area, his eyebrows raised slightly. In front was an iceberg wall with no visible ends on both sides, hundreds of meters thick, and a full twenty meters above sea level.
Looking towards both sides, the whole thing was like the curved wall of a coliseum.
"What is going on?"
Baby 5 looked incredulous. "Are there such icebergs in this sea area?"
If not a natural disaster, then the one who could do such a thing, currently...
Marine Admiral Candidate Aokiji.
Strands of thought flashed in Merlin's eyes. Aokiji came here, and there was this kind of wall. Was he going to besiege the pirates here?
Merlin didn't think much more. At this moment, he looked at Baby 5. "Go get the Den Den Mushi."
Baby 5 acted immediately. Before long, Merlin dialed the Den Den Mushi and concisely stated what he saw and his conjecture.
On the other end of the Den Den Mushi, Doflamingo's face sank. "Good, I know. Thanks this time. I'll start withdrawing from this sea area immediately."
Kacha!
The Den Den Mushi hung up.
Merlin narrowed his eyes at this moment, then looked at Monet and pointed to the ice wall in front. "Monet, go freeze a slope fifty meters wide."
Monet nodded. Immediately leaping into mid-air, stepping on Moonwalk to charge power in the air, her arms turned into ice snow wings flying towards the ice wall.
Landing on the sea surface under the ice wall, freezing sounds of crack crack appeared on the sea surface instantly.
In a blink, an ice slope appeared at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At this moment, watching Monet's work, Merlin smiled. Controlling the shadow to wrap the hull, he turned the ship around, drove two hundred meters back, then turned around again to aim at the slope Monet made.
Merlin controlled the rudder. Immediately after, the shadow propellers on the hull and stern spun rapidly, humming loudly. The sailing ship sprinted towards the ice surface at high speed.
十几 seconds later, with a swish! of the ship's bottom scraping on the ice slope, the hull tilted upward, climbed up the slope in a blink, and rushed into the sky.
At the moment of climbing over the top of the slope, a shadow tentacle shot out quickly and wrapped around Monet's waist in mid-air.
Instantly, a strong inertia carried Monet flying into the sky.
"Ahhhhhhh!!!"
"Wahyaaaaaa!!!" ×2
Three girlish screams rang out instantly.
The shadow retracted quickly. Monet screamed and slammed heavily into Merlin.
Splat!
Monet shattered all over the floor.
Boom! The ship flew over the hundred-meter-long ice layer and smashed heavily onto the sea surface on the outside.
Instantly splashing a wave dozens of meters high.
A shadow umbrella rose above Merlin's head, blocking the falling seawater. A happy smile appeared on his lips.
A few seconds later, Monet gathered her form from the ice and snow on the ground with a helpless face.
Looking at Merlin with some resentment in her eyes, she whispered, "You could have caught me?"
Merlin looked at her and grinned. "Sorry, I had to balance the ship."
Monet was speechless. "Liar! You can balance it with shadows."
Merlin pretended not to hear. At this moment, looking at the endless sea on both sides, there were no ship shadows like Marine warships in sight. "It seems those Marines are also inside this ice wall."
Saying this, Merlin looked at Monet and patted her shoulder. "You guys drive a thousand meters away and wait for me there. I'll go up and take a look. See if it's really him here."
Monet nodded, but there was also some worry in her eyes. "Be safe."
"Good!" Squeezing her shoulder, Merlin turned around. Shadows rose from the ground turning into shadow armor wrapping his whole body. Then a pair of shadow wings grew from his back. Merlin looked at the distant ice wall and leaped into mid-air.
Controlling the shadow bat wings to flap, Merlin flew out instantly.
Pink looked at Merlin's departing figure, envy flashing in his eyes. Perona beside him rolled her eyes, whispered a few words to Baby 5, then went limp on her body. In a blink, her spirit body flew out and quickly caught up with Merlin.
Looking at this girl appearing beside him, Merlin said, "What are you doing here?"
Perona acted coquettishly. "I want to go with you; I can help you."
"How far and how long can your spirit body leave the main body?" Merlin asked.
Perona blinked and shook her head. "Haven't calculated, but I have an instinct. As long as the main body is fine, I can leave the body indefinitely.
"And my spirit body has a wonderful connection with the main body, so no need to worry about not being able to return after getting lost."
High in the sky.
Merlin's body shape was spread out, and a wingsuit was formed by shadows between his arms and legs. While flapping, he used the air currents in the high altitude to chase the Great Wall of Ice below.
Two hours later, it was still an endless ice wall. Merlin's eyes held some depression. "Did I run in the wrong direction?"
Not knowing from which side that guy started, nor how many days he had been working, Merlin helplessly turned around in the air and returned the way he came.
Two hours passed in a flash.
At this time, surprise flashed in Merlin's eyes. At the top of the slope of the ice wall below, a two-masted fox-head pirate ship was being pulled up the slope by dozens of people shouting slogans and using ropes.
Among this group of people, there was a long-nosed woman wearing a pink pirate captain hat, dressed gorgeously with heavy makeup.
She wasn't pulling the rope.
Instead, she was watching with interest from the side with her arms crossed.
At this moment, Merlin recognized this highly identifiable woman at a glance: Crescent Moon Hunter, Catarina Devon.
"Why is she here?"
Two hundred meters in the air, Merlin narrowed his eyes and watched. At this time, he turned his head to look at Perona beside him. "Later, use Negative Hollows to deal with the minions below. You don't need to worry about Catarina Devon. After you're done, go back if you want. If you want to wait for me, go to her ship and see if there are any good things."
"Mmh mmh! I'll go find treasure on her ship."
Perona said happily.
Merlin smiled, brought his arms and legs together, and plummeted from the sky at high speed.
At the fourth second of the fall, Catarina Devon suddenly looked up... Instantly, her eyes went blank, but she reacted quickly, rolling violently to the side. With a boom, Merlin's feet slammed heavily into the ice, and an air wave spread out from the landing point.
Instantly, as the shockwave sent the surrounding pirates flying, screams rang out one after another.
At the same time, Perona's Negative Hollows flew out in a blink, piercing two with one shot. In a few breaths, only Merlin and Catarina Devon were left standing around.
The rest were all kneeling on the ground.
"White Demon... Merlin."
Catarina Devon squeezed this sentence out of her throat through gritted teeth.
Merlin calmly drew Zanye from his waist and said lightly, "You were chasing me from behind?"
Catarina Devon's eye corner twitched. Merlin saw it, and the guess in his heart was confirmed. He couldn't help but be a little curious. "Chased for how many days?"
Catarina Devon: "..."
"..."
The next moment.
Merlin moved. As cracks appeared on the ice under his feet, he appeared in front of her at extreme speed.
Catarina Devon only felt a black lightning appear before her eyes. Her pupils contracted suddenly, and reflexively she leaned back violently and rolled to the side.
Merlin's eyes moved, looking at her wretched figure, and then slashed out again. A humming sound came from the atmosphere, and a dark red slash flew out instantly.
Bang!
Catarina Devon only had time to draw her rapier half out of its sheath before she was sent flying by this slash.
The blade shattered the slash. After sliding back a dozen meters, Catarina Devon steadied herself. Her eyes looked at Merlin very solemnly. "Can we discuss this?"
"Admitting defeat?"
Merlin smiled. Catarina Devon's eye corner twitched, nodding. "I'm not easy to mess with either. If we fight to the death, even if I die, I guarantee you won't have an easy time either."
Merlin nodded and said, "Then let me try."
Immediately after, he walked towards her. In a blink, his figure appeared before her eyes, Zanye held horizontally in his hand. Catarina Devon was shocked and just wanted to move, but she was horrified to find that her figure could no longer move at this moment.
Merlin's right foot stepped on her shadow, having already controlled her shadow.
Binding the shadow, subsequently binding her form. In this moment, Merlin with indifferent eyes stabbed out.
Splurt!
A blade tip appeared from her back heart. Catarina Devon's eyes widened, blood spilling from her mouth and nose, looking at Merlin blankly.
But in an instant, the blankness in her eyes turned into fury, and violent struggling began.
However, at this moment.
Black shadow spikes with sharp tips thrust out from the ground. Splurt splurt splurt...
Shadow spikes pierced her into a hedgehog. At the same time, the calamity of paralysis and electric shock burst from the spikes piercing her body.
In an instant, blue-white electric arcs jumped from her body. The struggling force accumulated in her body became difficult to sustain.
The luster in her wide, furious eyes gradually dimmed.
In this moment, black flames erupted from Merlin's body, completely obscuring the surroundings.
With a thought, Catarina Devon disappeared. A moment later, she appeared outside. Merlin had already stripped the Mythical Zoan fruit origin from her body.
A slash, a flash of cold light, and a head flew up.
Merlin looked at the mist-like energy in the shape of a nine-tailed fox in the third slot.
Gaze calm, heart moved. "Transformation ability?"
And with the boost of his "Awakening Specialty," Merlin's eyes lit up instantly. "This ability becomes interesting this way!"
At this time, the black flames on Merlin's body dissipated. Looking at those pirates kneeling on the ground not far away, shadows spread out, and shadow spikes pierced through them from the ground.
Then, coming to the edge of the ice wall and looking at the pirate ship that had slid down the slope to the sea surface below, Merlin's eyes flashed.
Shadows turned into a curtain, rising from the ground, packing the corpses above and throwing them into the sea. Then, with a leap, he landed on the pirate ship below.
Before long, arriving in the captain's cabin inside, he saw Perona with most of her body drilled into a large treasure chest, her perky bottom sticking out and legs kicking. Merlin's mouth twitched involuntarily. "What are you doing?"
Perona instantly raised her head, looking at Merlin with somewhat blank eyes. "The things in here are a bit strange; I don't know what they are?"
Merlin came over and opened it, his face falling silent. Looking at Perona, he said, "You are still young. When you grow up, you'll know."
Saying this, Merlin looked at the wine rack on the side.
Then he searched around again. Didn't find anything valuable, but saw a lot of rotten clothes and cosmetics.
Before long, he left here with Perona. Flames raged from this ship.
Destroying corpses and erasing traces.
And Merlin didn't plan to tell Doflamingo about this matter.
Not long after, Merlin and Perona returned to the ship.
One day later.
An island appeared in sight.
On the mountain behind the island, clouds and mist rose. The architectural layout at the island port was orderly.
This was the City of Hot Springs.
Also, the City of Rain.