Time passed quickly. During this period, Golden Lion no longer trained with Minos every day. He had devoted all his attention to the newly developed medicine.
Minos felt that after Golden Lion had a ship's wheel stuck in his head, he had become completely single-minded. All his thoughts had turned into a straight line. During this time, aside from the medicine, the guy did not care about anything else.
Under the threat of Golden Lion's two Great Grade Swords, Withered Tree and Cherry Blossom Ten, Judge's research speed had been pushed to the limit. There was still about a week left before the three-month deadline, yet the medicine was nearly complete.
At the same time, Minos could sense that his cause-and-effect points were gradually nearing the critical threshold. He dared guarantee that by the time the medicine was finished, his cause-and-effect points would likely have reached the target as well.
To avoid any problems when that happened, Minos decided to treat Golden Lion's injuries after observing him for some time.
Although Golden Lion was easier to coax with a ship's wheel stuck in his head, his combat power had also fallen far too much. Considering that the enemies he encountered during the world's backlash were basically all among the strongest, if a Kaido really fell from the sky, the current Golden Lion definitely would not be his match.
It could even be said that Golden Lion could not defeat any powerhouse at the level of the Four Emperors, the Three Admirals, the Marine Hero, or the Fleet Admiral. Even Zephyr, the weakest among them at present, had not yet lost an arm. As long as his asthma did not act up, Golden Lion definitely could not beat him.
As for Golden Lion's subordinates, they were all a bunch of misfits. Germa 66 had some fighting ability, but if they truly encountered an enemy, no one knew which side they would join.
No, if the ones who came were Marines, Germa 66 would definitely side with the Marines, right?
Thus, at the banquet Golden Lion held today while he was in high spirits, Minos took out the Holy Grail in his hand and poured in some grape wine.
In an instant, an intoxicating fragrance filled the entire banquet hall. Everyone stared fixedly at the cup in Minos's hand—or, more precisely, at the grape wine emitting a gorgeous radiance from within the plain silver cup.
"Th-that... what is that?" Judge swallowed and asked.
"This is the Holy Grail," Minos said directly. "I am a Holy Grail Fruit user. Every month, the Holy Grail can turn ordinary grape wine into a miraculous medicine capable of curing all illnesses and every injury."
Naturally, Minos did not say that the Holy Grail was an external object. Although he could retrieve it at any time and did not fear it being stolen, there was no guarantee that someone would not think that killing him might make the equipment drop.
When his strength was insufficient, blaming it on a Devil Fruit was undoubtedly an excellent excuse. As for the timing, Minos had also left himself plenty of leeway.
After hearing Minos's words, everyone looked toward Golden Lion. At that moment, Golden Lion's eyes had turned somewhat red.
The more severely injured or ill a person was, the less they could resist the temptation of Holy Grail Wine. It was humanity's instinctive pursuit of perfection.
Golden Lion's Willpower should have been as hard as steel, but the ship's wheel lodged in his head had seriously affected his judgment. Thus, he now performed even worse than Kyros had after losing a leg. Seeing Minos pass over the wine cup, Golden Lion almost impatiently used his Float-Float Fruit ability to lift the wine into the air and suck it into his mouth.
A series of creaking sounds suddenly rang out. The ship's wheel atop Golden Lion's head rose section by section, carrying chunks of black blood with it, before finally being completely forced out of his skull.
At the same time, repeated cracking sounds came from his legs. They were the sounds of the two Great Grade Swords, Withered Tree and Cherry Blossom Ten, being forcibly squeezed out by the bones in his legs.
A moment later, the ship's wheel from Golden Lion's head and the Great Grade Swords from his legs fell to the floor. At the same time, the wound on his head and both legs had fully regenerated.
With his eyes closed, Golden Lion did not speak, seemingly savoring the feeling of being healthy again. Yet the volcano-like aura around him continued to churn before finally erupting completely.
Black lightning instantly filled the sky. Many weaker pirates fainted on the spot, while even Dr. Indigo trembled all over and nearly rolled his eyes back.
Judge's face turned faintly pale, and he nearly failed to hold onto the dining knife in his hand. His children, however, performed far better than he did. Having been stripped of fear, their resistance to Conqueror's Haki had clearly increased considerably.
Faced with the intimidation of Conqueror's Haki, Minos's body merely stiffened slightly before quickly recovering. At his level of strength, it was already difficult for Conqueror's Haki to affect him. At least against Conqueror's Haki like Katakuri's, even its most basic intimidating effect would not work.
Golden Lion truly deserved to be one of the old-generation overlords. His Conqueror's Haki had basically reached its absolute peak and was certainly no weaker than Kaido, Big Mom, or Whitebeard.
"Zehahahahahaha!" Golden Lion threw back his head and let out a wild laugh as he opened his eyes. His entire body gradually floated into the air, while his two swords slowly rose and flew into his hands.
"This feeling... I haven't felt it in so long!" Faint black lightning crawled across both swords. Golden Lion raised his head and swung his blades, and two terrifying streaks of sword light swept across the sky. Sword Qi hundreds of meters long carved an X-shaped mark into the clouds, like a scar across the entire sky.
"I, Golden Lion, have finally returned!"
His domineering gaze swept across the hall. This time, Golden Lion had not even used Haki to pressure anyone, yet Judge nearly dropped to his knees.
The complete Golden Lion truly deserved to be the bold hero whose lion's roar shook the Four Seas and whose ambition sought to devour the world. Moreover, after being treated by Holy Grail Wine, Golden Lion had not merely recovered his peak strength—he had surpassed his former self.
Golden Lion was now in his late fifties, nearly sixty. Although the strength curves of powerful figures at sea remained remarkably high, once they reached sixty, they would more or less begin declining.
However, under Holy Grail Wine's life-extending and youth-restoring effects, Golden Lion's appearance had not returned to his youthful state, but his body's actual age had more or less recovered to that of a forty-year-old.
He could now feel that not only had his strength returned to its peak, but rather than entering a decline, it even showed signs of continuing to grow.
Of course, the most important thing was that Golden Lion had cured his "brain infarction." His originally sharp intellect had returned to his brain. As a top Great Pirate, the former Golden Lion had supported a Pirate Crew capable of driving Roger into a desperate situation. Naturally, he had been far smarter than the average idiot pirate on the seas.
Looking back on the things he had done while suffering from brain infarction, Golden Lion felt his face burn. Just how idiotic did he have to be to come up with such a grand plan that was no different from a fool's?
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