One Piece: The Legend of Beasts

The white-capped mountains stand majestically in the center of the island. The mountains are as smooth as a mirror, spotless and without any signs of wear and tear. The soft white light emanating from the surface adds a layer of mystery to them.

At the foot of the mountain, a huge pirate ship was parked next to the rock wall, with a dense crowd of people gathered below. The golden lion statue on the bow stared forward with its fangs bared and claws bared, looking ferocious and terrifying. The huge sail was high on the mast, with a skull with a golden beard painted in the middle and a rudder behind the head, which was naturally a symbol that the crew of the Sky Pirates were proud of.

A burly pirate ran over and shouted to the ship: "Report to the admiral, the fleet has been hiding in the sky under your instructions. If another pirate ship passes by, it will be sunk immediately!"

"Hahahaha, well done! With my ability, it won't be a problem for those ships to fly for any amount of time!"

A man was sitting cross-legged on a lion statue, laughing triumphantly. He had long, thick golden hair, just like a lion's mane, and a pipe in his mouth with wisps of white smoke. There was no doubt that he was the admiral of the Hiku Pirates, Shiki, known to the world as the "Golden Lion".

He turned his head slightly, glanced at a man with an afro wearing a white coat on the deck and asked, "How is the investigation of the recent actions of those big shots going, Indigo?"

The man named Indigo is the ship's doctor of the Hiku Pirates and also Shiki's most trusted subordinate. He pushed up his sunglasses and said with a flattering smile, "Ka-ka-ka! The Roger Pirates were still in the West Sea two days ago. I heard that they were looking for something called the original text of history. Even if they knew about our deal, it would take at least half a month to get here!"

"Humph, that kid is still so naive. That kind of thing is not worth much!"

Shiki twisted his mouth and sneered, "Where are the other pirates?"

"Redfield is still wandering around the New World alone. He has never been interested in trading. As for the other one..."

Indigo paused, the smile on his face faded a little, "Their main force left Beehive Island about half a month ago. They probably got the news in advance and came here."

"Is it?"

Shiqi took off his pipe and blew out a bunch of smoke rings, with the corners of his mouth raised inadvertently, "Those bees really won't miss this opportunity. Is Rocks here too?"

"Of course, according to the intelligence I have investigated, their operation this time is led by Rocks himself!"

"hey-hey."

Shiqi stood up suddenly as if he had heard some good news. He licked his lips with his tongue, and his eyes flashed with excitement. "That's great! I've always wanted to fight that guy, and now's my chance!"

At this moment, a pirate in shabby clothes staggered over and shouted to the two people on the boat: "Admiral, Mr. Indigo, there is a call from the government. They will arrive behind Baihe Island in five minutes!"

"Is it finally here?"

Shiki jumped down from the statue and landed heavily on the ground. He shouted to the pirates who were resting, "Guys! The guests are coming soon! Hurry up and prepare to welcome them!"

The pirates were already tired of the long wait, and after hearing what the captain said, they immediately became more energetic and rushed to move the cargo boxes placed beside the ship. Shiki saw his subordinates working so hard, stroked his beard, and a proud smile appeared on his face.

"What makes you so happy?"

A strange and cold voice sounded in their ears. Shiki and Indigo's faces changed. They looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man standing on the high mountainside. Strictly speaking, his feet were firmly attached to the rock wall, and his whole body was suspended straight in the air, with his hands around his chest, looking down. Because the distance was too far, they couldn't see his appearance clearly.

"Who are you, kid?! Depending on your answer, I will consider different countermeasures!" Indigo asked vigilantly, and took out a flask full of liquid from his body. Bubbles kept coming out of the surface of the liquid, which was obviously dangerous.

"Oh my, pirates are a bit thick-skinned. They don't even recognize their most important customer."

As the man was speaking, he pushed off the rock wall with his feet, spread his arms and dived down, turned a beautiful front flip, and landed steadily on the ground. At this time, everyone saw his appearance clearly. He was wearing a white uniform, a corsage on his chest, a cloak on his back, and a white round hat on his head, as if he was integrated with the surrounding environment.

He was wearing a mask that almost covered his entire face. The surface of the mask was bare without any pattern, which made people feel creepy at first glance.

The man glanced at the pirates who were surrounding him aggressively, shook his head, took out a medal from his pocket, and said calmly: "Don't be so hostile. If I say that I am the contact person this time, you should understand, right?"

When the pirates saw the World Government logo on the medal, they were sure of his identity and put down their swords. Shiki was also a little afraid of this man's sneaking in, but he still put on the airs of an admiral and said loudly: "It's different from what we agreed. My conditions don't allow you to land on the island without permission, Mr. CP9."

"Please spare me. The higher-ups don't trust pirates and are worried that you might cheat, so they ordered me to check your goods first."

The masked man spread his hands and sighed helplessly, "Also, I would like you to correct a mistake. I am CP0."

As soon as this sentence was spoken, there was an uproar in the crowd. It turned out that CP was a secret spy agency under the government. There were nine organizations in total, CP1-CP9. Among them, there was a more hidden CP0, which was the highest level among the CPs and was directly under the control of the world's nobles. It was also called the "Shield of the Celestial Dragons."

They are usually responsible for carrying out those shady missions, unknown to the world. Rumor has it that whenever CP0 is deployed, it indicates that something big is about to happen.

Since the government sent CP0, it shows how much they value this transaction. After all, the contact between pirates and the government will have a bad impact on the world if it is spread out.

Shiqi was secretly shocked, but his face did not change color. He said slowly: "It doesn't matter whether it is 0 or 9. Anyway, you guys are all doing things sneakily... Hey! Dust, go and bring out those trading goods!" The last sentence was directed at his subordinates.

"Yes!"

The slovenly pirate responded and ran towards the bottom of the ship with his three companions. After a while, the secret door at the bottom of the ship slowly opened, and with a series of clanging sounds, a pirate walked out, pulling one end of the chain, followed by a long line of people, each with a look of despair on their face, their hands were wearing heavy iron shackles, and they were chained together.

"Go! Stop taking your time!"

As the pirate scolded them viciously, the slaves were forced to walk forward crying. One old man could not hold on any longer and stopped to catch his breath. The pirate saw him and whipped him in the face with a whip, cursing, "Old man, I told you not to be lazy!"

"It's my fault! I won't dare to do it again next time!" The old man closed his eyes and pleaded while holding his bloody head.

"How can you get a good price when you look like this? Cheer up!"

The pirate swung the whip again, and it was about to hit the back of the old man's head. Suddenly, there was a flash of white light, and the whip broke into several pieces and fell to the ground.

"asshole......"

In the moment just now, the pirate felt as if his wrist was hit by a hammer, and his hand bones were about to break. He touched his left hand which was slightly painful, looked around in horror, and shouted, "Who is it?! Get out here! How can you hide in the dark and hurt people?!"

He kept yelling at the crowd, trying to find out who had hurt him, but no one responded.

"Okay, okay, I did it."

CP0 lowered his raised right arm and sighed softly, "If you beat him to death, we will lose a deposit, so we must stop you. Please spare us."

"whispering sound!"

The pirate rubbed his injured wrist and suppressed his anger, but there was still an aggrieved look on his face.

Shiqi, who witnessed the scene just now, was staring ahead in amazement.

He saw clearly that when his subordinate swung the whip in the air, CP0 was still standing far away from him, and his subordinate had his back to CP0. If it was CP0 who attacked, then his back must have been injured.

However, the subordinate suffered serious injuries to his left hand.

—That is to say, the agent took the blame on him to prevent a riot, but he probably doesn’t know the real murderer. Even I haven’t figured out who did it…

"Forget it, bugs can be swatted to death at any time."

CP0 turned around and looked at Shiqi, his tone remained calm, "My ship will arrive in three minutes, and the weapons and gold you want are all on it. You won't lose a penny."

"But you have to keep your word."

Shiki's face reappeared a sinister smile, "I went through a lot of trouble to make this deal."

"Then bring out your most important merchandise."

The man's tone became serious, "I need to verify whether those things are true."

"So suspicious..."

Shiki couldn't help but complain, turning to his subordinates and ordering, "Bring that here."

"Yes!"

A moment later, two burly pirates carried a heavy iron box and walked to the front of the crowd. They let go of their hands and the iron box fell to the ground with a bang, leaving a large dent on the ground. One of the pirates took out the key and opened it, revealing a thick wooden box. After opening it, a treasure chest of medium size appeared.

The pirate took out the treasure chest, placed it on the ground, took out a small key and inserted it into the keyhole. As the treasure chest opened, the treasure hidden inside appeared in everyone's sight.

There are three fruits in the treasure chest, and the spiral patterns on the surface are the common symbols of devil fruits. Each fruit has a label, from left to right, they are "Paradox Barrier Fruit", "Paradox Ink Ink Fruit", "Animal Snake Snake Fruit Mythical Beast Yamata no Orochi Form".

Given the rarity of these fruits, each one could undoubtedly be sold for more than 500 million Baileys in the market, and they are undoubtedly priceless treasures.

However, everyone present stared at the treasure chest in a daze, their faces ashen, unable to speak for a long time, and the scene instantly fell into dead silence.

“What… is going on…?” the pirate who opened the box was stunned and said in a trembling voice.

On the right side of the three fruits, there was a label that read "Animal System? Dog-Dog Fruit? Mythical Beast? Big Mouth True God Form." However, this position was now empty, and the fruits that were originally placed here had disappeared.

The CP0 stared at the treasure chest for a while before he said, "Mr. Shiqi, could you please give me an explanation right now and tell me what's going on?"

"..."

Shiki did not respond, his face clouded over, he strode forward, grabbed the collar of the pirate who opened the box, lifted him up high, and shouted, "Didn't I tell you to keep it safe? How come one is missing all of a sudden?!"

The pirate was so scared that his face turned pale and he began to stutter: "Admiral, it's none of my business! It was fine when I checked it this morning! And the only key is in my hand. No matter how bad the others are, they can't steal the fruit!"

"big eater!"

Shiqi cursed and threw him heavily to the ground, feeling shocked and angry. His subordinates knew very well his bad temper and would never take the risk to ruin this important deal. The slaves were usually kept in iron cages and most of them were civilians, so it was impossible for them to steal the fruit.

Besides, even if the thief is found, he has most likely eaten the fruit. It would take a lot of effort to kill him and then find a reborn devil fruit.

Dust, who was standing by, kept his eyes fixed on the treasure chest. His expression became slightly complicated, but it disappeared in an instant. He walked up to the man who was at a loss and whispered, "Admiral, this is not a solution right now. Why not negotiate with him and sell it to him at the price of three devil fruits and see if he can accept it."

Shiki listened to his advice and thought it made sense. He calmed down a little and shouted to the masked man, "Mr. CP0, there was an accident. We can't find any fruit for the time being. I will sell the remaining fruits to you first."

CP0 was silent for a while, then he sighed slightly, shook his head and said, "That's very difficult to do. The reason why the higher-ups asked me to take this order was because of the two rare mythical beast species, but now one is missing. How can I explain this when I go back?"

Shiqi couldn't hold his temper and asked loudly, "What do you want?"

"It's very simple. Hand over the mythical beast immediately."

The man put his hands behind his back and said calmly, "Otherwise we will regard you as violating the agreement, and from now on the government will take corresponding actions to hunt down the Hiku Pirates."

"Damn it! Do you want to force me to do it?!"

Shiki could no longer hold back, he stretched out his hands and pulled out the two long swords from his back, readying himself for battle. The other pirates saw that their boss was about to turn hostile, so they drew their weapons one after another, sprinted quickly, and surrounded CP0 in the blink of an eye.

Looking at the murderous pirates around him, CP0 still stood there calmly, and said calmly: "It is not difficult for you to kill me here, but if I die here, my companions will regard it as a signal of your hostility, and the result will be the same."

"You're quite smart, idiot..."

Shiki forced a bitter smile, his facial muscles trembling slightly. He knew very well that with the current combat power of the Hiku Pirates, it was still too early to start a full-scale war with the government.

"Admiral, we've spotted Rocks' ship! Do you want our fleet to attack it?"

Indigo's voice came from far away on the deck, making Shiqi's already restless mood even more agitated. He shouted angrily: "Do I need to say something about this? Just do what needs to be done!"

"As ordered!"

CP0 seemed a little moved when he heard the word "Rocks" and asked calmly, "Has our deal been leaked? They are a group of tough opponents."

"No matter how powerful they are, they are barely able to withstand a single blow in front of my fleet!"

Shi Ji put one knife on his shoulder and pointed the other knife at the man, and said coldly, "Let's not talk about this for now. Do you want to accept this deal or not?"

CP0 pulled the brim of his hat with some embarrassment: "It's no use asking me about this. As I said before, hand over the fruit and everything will be fine."

"That's a shame, I don't want to do that."

Shiki said with a serious face, raising his right hand, and when he gave the order, the pirates would rush forward. The CP0 sneered slightly and slowly took off the glove on his right hand.

Just as the two sides were about to engage in a large-scale fighting, at this moment, a huge explosion suddenly sounded, echoing in everyone's ears like thunder.

Then, a loud laugh came from a distance: "Oh ha ha ha! I will take your head! Golden Lion!"