The Way Ahead Is Clear, Fly, Merry

The southern waters of Jaya Island

"Darkness has been detected in the southwest!"

"Deep-sea divers are deployed to locate the 'Sky-Piercing Current'!"

With two specialized vessels performing their respective duties—the survey vessel listening to ocean currents and the salvage vessel observing weather and navigation— the Golden Merry was able to meet the demanding conditions for 'flying' at the right time and place.

"Reflection confirms a large ocean current at the 12 o'clock position!"

"A giant creature appeared at the 8 o'clock position; it must be Sea King!"

"Waves appearing at the 10 o'clock position, moving in the opposite direction to the ocean current, have been confirmed as a whirlpool!"

As the reconnaissance crew members who had dived into the water transmitted information, all three ships quickly began to move.

"It's at the 10 o'clock position! Turn the rudder—"

"A whirlpool is a sign of Sky-Piercing Current erupting. Keep up!"

That's insane.

Normal ships would absolutely avoid ocean whirlpools, right? Who could... or rather, who would dare to deliberately sail a ship into the center of a whirlpool?

"Hold on! Let our two ships shield you from the storm!"

"We've hit the jackpot! A massive, Sky-Piercing Current!"

The entire ocean is filled with roaring giant waves. If you look down at the ocean from the sky, a giant whirlpool with a diameter of several hundred meters or even thousands of meters appears on the surface of the sea, with surging seawater spinning and rushing rapidly towards the center.

As far as the eye can see, there are only waves, and even higher waves! The roaring sea connects with the sky, as if it wants to fill everything! In the face of this great power of nature, the Golden Merry is as insignificant as a withered leaf in a torrent, as if it will disappear into the surging current at any moment.

"Brother! This is the best we can do for you!" X2

As the whirlpool grew increasingly turbulent, both the massive salvage and exploration ships had to change course and desperately try to escape the ocean currents! Otherwise, it wouldn't have been just the Golden Merry soaring into the sky as one ship, but rather three.

"Haha~~ Thanks!"

"Roman, full speed ahead into the vortex!!"

Facing Luffy, who was laughing and giving orders, Roman gripped the rudder and sped along with the swirling currents!

"Yes, Captain."

"Aaaaaahhhhhh~~~ Stop, stop!! I want to go back~~~"

As the ocean current carried the Golden Merry at breakneck speed, Usopp burst into tears! Forget about Sky-Piercing Current; this giant whirlpool alone could easily bury a hundred Golden Merry ...

"Give up, Usopp."

Zoro, arms crossed, glanced at the long-nosed sniper next to him.

"We've been caught in this vortex; there's no escaping it."

"Hahaha, that's it!"

Roman was intrigued by the power of nature.

"It's too late to turn back now, my friends! Let's keep going—head straight for hell!"

"Aaaaaah, I don't want to!!!"

While Chopper and Usopp were embracing and crying, Nami, observing the Log Pose pointing to the sky, rubbed her forehead.

"You two... have you panicked so much that you've even forgotten that Roman can fly?"

?!

"Yes, Mr. Roman can fly away with us all..."

"But what about 'Merry'?"

Facing the recovered Chopper and Usopp, Roman steadied the rudder and glided along the swirling current.

"So we have to succeed the first time—?"

Whoosh!

Suddenly, the massive whirlpool on the sea surface vanished! The entire sea returned to calm, but beneath the ship, a terrifying impact was brewing! But before that:

"Thief, hahaha!!!"

"Finally caught up with you, Straw Hat Luffy!"

"With your head, worth a hundred million, as a gift, I can do something big!"

The massive raft sped closer to the Golden Merry, leaving the people on the already departing ape and Masira ships puzzled. "Are those their friends?"

"They actually came all the way to Sky-Piercing Current to see me off; what a steadfast friendship!"

Blackbeard Pirates: ·······

"Hey, hey, hey, it really is Bounty Poster for Luffy and Zoro."

Holding binoculars, Usopp stared in shock at the portrait being held up in the other person's hand. "One hundred million and sixty million..."

"What about mine?" Sanji patted Usopp's shoulder nervously. "Where's my Bounty Poster? How much is it—?"

"I didn't see it."

·······

That's about it.

If they let the enemy get any closer, with the strength of these powerful Blackbeard Pirates, they could easily use a ship-jumping and decapitation tactic... While everyone was still concerned about the bounty, Roman had already reached out and aimed at Blackbeard's raft from afar! The surging killing intent immediately attracted the attention of the four experts from the Blackbeard Pirates.

"Who is that guy?"

"Bye now,"

As Roman tightened his grip, a burst of light and heat instantly erupted from the raft beneath the Blackbeard Pirates!

Rumble!!!

This is not only due to the Explosion Ability of Mr. 5, but also the secondary explosion of the ammunition depot detonated by Roman.

"Art is—"

Before Roman could finish his boastful words after blasting the Blackbeard Pirates's ship into a ball of flames, the ocean beneath his feet suddenly spewed forth a giant column of water hundreds of meters in diameter, shooting straight into the sky! The Golden Merry was immediately swept up by the massive amount of seawater and sped upwards at a ninety-degree angle.

The massive amount of seawater is like a 'spear' in the hand of Poseidon, the god of the sea, capable of piercing the sky—unruly and wild!

The Golden Merry is the dream ship that Luffy along this spear! If it were an ordinary water column, the ship would not be able to fly close to the water column, but this is a 'Sky-Piercing Current', and the navigator on board is Nami.

"Set sail immediately!"

Faced with various creatures and wrecked ships thrown out by the Sky-Piercing Current, Nami fearlessly began to take command.

"Our boat is sailing on an ocean current!"

"Behind us is an updraft caused by an underwater eruption!"

"As long as there's wind and sea, I'll always find a way—"

"Then, I'll help too."

As Roman crouched down and placed his hands on the deck, sheets of white paper flew out and enveloped the Golden Merry, allowing him to endure the towering spectacle. Nami, meanwhile, opened her copy of "The Art of the Thief."

"Wind and sand, heed my command!"

Whoosh whoosh—

Crocodile's Sandstorm ability appeared beneath the Golden Merry, steadily lifting the sailboat upwards, upwards, and upwards!

We pierced through the clouds, through the inky black Thick Clouds, through the sea of clouds that seemed like an underwater world! Finally—

Pfft!

The flying ship broke through all obstacles and appeared above a sea of clouds. As Roman's Golden Merry slowed the Going Merry down, the ship landed on the cotton candy-like clouds, yet came to a steady stop like the surface of the sea, leaving the Straw Hat crew stunned for a moment:

Hahaha~~~~

"We are sailing above the clouds!"

"Fantastic! We did it! Sky Island exist!!"

"Roman, why are you laughing so smugly?"

Roman shrugged in response to Nami's question.

"Because I never imagined I would end up like this—"

"Crazy."

But it's not bad either.

"Hahaha, it hasn't fallen down after all this time."

On a whole log in the ocean below, Blackbeard sat Pang Lei, slapping his thigh and laughing loudly.

"This is really troublesome. Looks like they got away! Hahaha~~~"

"I see,"

Vajirus, who was leading the horse, nodded. "No wonder I kept feeling a lot of other 'auras' on the ship. It turns out they weren't left behind by the pirates the captain killed, but rather the other side tampered with our ship."

Those present were all masters of Two-Color Haki; normally, they could clearly detect even the slightest disturbance, let alone tampering with the ship. However, the residual aura of the numerous corpses masked their abilities...

"It seems I underestimated these younger generation."

Blackbeard readily admitted his defeat, "Looking back now, that 'Dellinger' was very suspicious. Maybe it was a creation of his Devil Fruit ability —we were fooled. Hehehehe~~~"

"You still have time to make sarcastic remarks? The prey that was almost in your mouth has escaped!"

The physically strong Gizzas Burgess didn't care about these complicated details.

"Captain, we must find a way to catch up!"

"Hahaha, what's the rush, Burgess? They're not just going to disappear."

Blackbeard, on the other hand, was quite magnanimous.

"As long as we're on this 'Grand Line,' we'll meet again someday!"

"That's right,"

The composed Van Augur nodded.

"In this world, you'll meet someone if you want to."

"Fate is like the turning of gears..."

"Haha, I told you so..."

"Hmph, really!"

"Cough cough cough..."

P. S.: Thank you to reader 'My True Form is a Panda' for the 100 RMB reward and monthly pass, and thank you to all the other readers for your support. One extra chapter! And finally, please vote!