One Piece: The Legend of Beasts

"Ha ha......"

In the endless darkness, the boy kept running, chasing the figure right in front of him.

The man was wearing a long jacket and had black hair tied in a ponytail. His whole body was wrapped in a layer of faint light. The boy ran towards him with all his strength, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not shorten the distance between them.

"Wait! Where are you going? Don't go!"

"Why did you abandon me then?! Kubota!"

The man suddenly stopped and turned his head slowly, revealing a face with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes. There were a few long wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. He was obviously a bit old, but it still couldn't hide his heroic temperament.

At this moment, he smiled faintly at the boy who was running towards him.

The boy was immediately overjoyed, with a hint of longing in his little eyes, and was about to throw himself into his arms.

Suddenly, he stopped abruptly, the smile on his face gradually disappeared, replaced by a look of horror.

Kubota's face was seen melting rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye, and a hideous skull emerged from it, with two huge eyeballs in the eye sockets that kept turning.

Finally, he stared at the boy.

The boy covered his mouth in shock, feeling a wave of nausea rising from his throat, and subconsciously took two steps back. The skeleton, which had melted into a skeleton, twisted its body and kept moving forward, opening its mouth wide and pouncing on the boy.

Ah ah ah ah ah!

With a hysterical scream, Kaido suddenly jumped up from the bed, gasping for air and sweating profusely. He calmed down a little and looked around. Seeing that it was the bedroom he was familiar with, he realized that it was a nightmare and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Damn it, it's been so long, but I still think of that guy..."

Kaido wiped the sweat from his forehead, threw back the quilt, climbed out of bed, and quickly put on his clothes.

He was already eighteen years old now, and his physique was stronger than before, so his original clothes did not fit him well. However, he did not care about it at all. He grabbed the mace hanging on the wall and pushed the door open. Today was his turn to patrol.

Kaido stopped after taking a few steps in the corridor. A tall young man came towards him and stood in front of him. He was wearing a green casual sweatshirt and a helmet that didn't fit him well. There was still a bit of childishness on his handsome face.

"Hey, good morning, Mr. Kaido. I was just about to come look for you."

"It's Uno."

Kaido's tone softened when he saw the newcomer. "Could it be that Lingling wants to go hunting with us again?"

"Do not."

Uno shook his head, "Miss Lingling was called over an hour ago. I heard that a guest came to the island and claimed that she had a fortune to give to Mr. Rocks. Currently, all cadre-level people have been summoned to the castle."

Kaido scratched his head in confusion: "But what does this have to do with us trainee crew members? Are you going to join in the fun?"

"Anyway, there's no rule that trainee sailors can't participate, so there's no harm in going and taking a look."

When Uno said this, a meaningful smile appeared on his handsome face. "Maybe this is another opportunity to show off your skills. We have been staying on the island for the past three years. I guess you must be a little tired of it, right?"

Gray clouds enveloped the entire Honeycomb Island, immersing it in a vast gray.

At this moment, the skull-shaped building located in the center of the island emitted a deafening laugh, making the ears of the pirates walking on the street buzz. They all looked towards the skull with horror on their faces, wondering what exciting thing the unfathomable pirate leader had encountered.

"Hahahahaha! A pirate group and the government are going to execute a deal? I've never heard anything more ridiculous than this!"

In the spacious hall, Rocks sat on the throne, laughing so hard that his eyes were filled with tears. Right below him stood an old woman in ragged clothes with white hair.

"Mr. Rocks, everything I said was what I saw with my own eyes."

The old woman had a hawk nose and hawk eyes, her face was covered with wrinkles, and she held a long imperial coin in her withered right hand. Under the gaze of rows of giant pirates, she showed no fear at all, and grinned, "At that time, the pirates looted the town, and I was the only one who escaped by luck! I hid in the dark and observed that they captured all the residents of the town and planned to sell them to the holy land of Mary Jo as slaves. What surprised me even more was that there were several devil fruits in a basket next to the group of people!"

As soon as these words came out, the crowd was in an uproar. Devil Fruits were the most precious secret treasures in the sea. One Devil Fruit alone was worth 100 million berries in the market. Depending on the rarity of the fruit, its selling value would be even higher. The government would naturally accept such a deal with no disadvantages.

A flash of surprise flashed across Rocks' eyes for just a few seconds, and then the corners of his mouth curled up intentionally or unintentionally: "Such conditions are indeed very tempting! Do you know their specific transaction location?"

"Yo-yo-yo! I heard it clearly!"

The old woman grinned triumphantly, "The other day they said that they would trade at Shirakko Island in the first half of the Grand Line in a month, and now there are only seventeen days left!"

Rocks clapped his hands and laughed, "Hahaha! We should definitely have enough time to leave from here in two or three days! What's the name of that pirate group?"

"Those pirates are just one of the fleets. I didn't meet their admiral directly."

The old woman said word by word, "But I will never mistake that flag with the ship's rudder pattern. They are pirates under the Feikong Pirates!"

When everyone heard this, they were all shocked.

During the three years when the Rocks Pirates kept a low profile, countless pirates emerged on the sea to cause trouble. The most active of them was the "Flying Pirates", a huge pirate group with a hundred warships, and they left no grass wherever they went.

The most feared one is their admiral "Golden Lion" Shiki, who is rumored to have the ability to make islands fly up, has attacked countless countries, and has ruthlessly destroyed naval warships that came to pursue him. He is truly a man known for being dangerous, and is wanted by the government for his threatening nature with a bounty of 23 billion.

Thanks to his reputation, the Flying Pirates have now become a powerful force second only to the Rocks Pirates and the Roger Pirates. People are terrified when they hear this name.

Rocks looked thoughtful and silent. After a while, he said calmly, "I see. You go down first. I'll find you if I need you."

The old woman said sinisterly: "Then I will respectfully obey your command..."

Newgate watched her hunched back leave the room, with some displeasure on his face, and asked the man on the throne: "Hey, Locke, what are you going to do?"

"Well, well, well! Isn't this very simple?"

Lingling at the side continued his words, smiling greedily, "Of course, all the valuable things will be snatched away!"

"I agree too! Gulu!"

Captain John took a sip of wine and said drunkenly, "What pirates need most is treasure!"

"You guys, don't always think things are so simple!"

Stussy frowned and said unhappily that she had recently been promoted to a cadre due to her many contributions to scientific research. "The enemy is the Golden Lion. So far, I have never heard of him being defeated. If we want to disrupt his deal, we must make a careful plan in advance! Don't you agree, Newgate~"

"Everyone knows this kind of thing. You don't need to remind me, little girl!"

As they were talking, a young woman walked out of the crowd. She had long, smooth white hair, a beautiful face, and thick, sexy lips. A thin snake was wrapped around her waist, and she looked around. She pointed at Stussy and said with contempt, "You should think about it carefully and think about how to do something that won't hinder us!"

"Ah, isn't this the famous vase Guroliosa?"

Stussy pursed her lips and said with a forced smile, "I haven't forgotten the time when you were frightened out of your wits by a giant sea king and Wang Zhi came to your rescue~"

Guroliosa's forehead was bulging with a vein, and he sneered, "I can still clearly remember how you failed in the cloning experiment that day and were blown up onto the top of the skull and fell headfirst. It was like a mouse stuck in the doorway, haha!"

Upon hearing the other party reveal his shortcomings in public, Stussy was immediately furious and blushed. He cursed without caring about his own image: "Don't be so proud! You traitor who sneaked out of Amazon Lily!"

"What are you talking about?! You have connections without any real power!"

"A snake girl who's playing tricks on you!"

"A vampire bat with a facelift!"

"Just calm down for now."

The voice was not very loud and the tone was calm, but it shocked the two girls. They did not dare to continue bickering and looked towards the source of the voice on the throne.

Lockes knew that the two of them were fighting overtly and covertly for Newgate, so he sighed helplessly and turned to his most trusted subordinate and asked, "Newgate, have you investigated the origins of that old woman?"

"As she said, Kurozumi Higurashi is indeed her real name."

Newgate took out a piece of paper from his bosom and said slowly, "She was born in Wano Country, but she has been living overseas in recent decades and has been wandering around. The island of Caripora where she lived was indeed attacked by pirates some time ago, and the name of the pirate group was deliberately hidden in the newspaper. I'm afraid there is indeed collusion between Shiki and the government."

"That country that is closed to the outside world... I understand."

Rocks stood up suddenly from his seat, threw his cloak behind him, and solemnly announced to everyone: "Now that things have come to this, let me go there in person."