To Repay the Trust Bestowed Upon the Golden Terrace, I Draw My Jade Dragon to Die for You!

Jesse pulled his younger brother Jieming to kneel before Luo Tian, the two of them bowing their heads heavily until they hit the ground with a dull thud.

"Thank you, my lord, for saving our lives!"

Jesse's voice was hoarse and trembling.

Just a moment ago, he had let out the most desperate cry of his life.

He had held no hope.

In these waters ruled by the Celestial Dragons, who would risk offending the World Nobles for the sake of two slaves?

Yet he had still shouted, using the very last of his strength.

A god had truly answered his call.

Kneeling before Luo Tian now, looking at this man in black with a cold, stern expression, Jesse's heart hammered against his ribs.

He had never seen anyone like this—a man who didn't blink when killing, whose expression remained completely calm even after severing the head of a Celestial Dragon.

Luo Tian finally turned his gaze toward the two brothers.

His eyes first landed on Jieming's lower leg, where there was a bloody, mangled gunshot wound.

Moving upward, he saw the bloody mark on the boy's face left by the crushing heel of a boot.

Then, he looked at Jesse.

Beneath his tattered clothes, dense whip marks crisscrossed, some scabbed over, others still oozing blood.

"Young man, do you wish to hold your fate in your own hands?" Luo Tian suddenly spoke.

The brothers looked up, dazed.

Fate? Had they ever had a fate?

From the moment their parents were brutally killed and they were kidnapped by traffickers to be sold to the Celestial Dragons.

Their fate had been nothing but whips, chains, and endless humiliation.

They were kept like livestock, tortured like toys, and discarded like trash.

The space rippled, and two Devil Fruits appeared out of thin air in Luo Tian's hands.

The fruit on the left was dark gold, its patterns resembling the bristling fur of an ape.

The fruit on the right was silver and black, its patterns resembling the fangs of a saber-toothed tiger.

"Zoan-Ancient-Ape Fruit-King Kong Ape Form."

"Zoan-Ancient-Tiger Tiger Fruit-Saber-toothed Tiger Form."

Luo Tian calmly announced the names of the fruits.

The brothers shook violently.

They recognized these things—no, they had seen them before.

Three years ago, Shaman Gong had purchased a Zoan fruit at an auction and, in front of all the slaves, forced a gladiator slave to eat it.

That man had turned into a half-man, half-lion monster, his strength surging as he tore three opponents to shreds.

Then, Shaman Gong had laughed and ordered the guards to shoot him to death.

"Do you see? Even if a lowly commoner gains power, they are still just a commoner!" Shaman Gong had declared at the time.

Later, Jesse learned from the guards' idle chatter that the fruit was worth 100 million Beli, a Zoan-Common-Lion Lion Fruit!

(Alright, that was a joke; I know there is no such thing as a "Common" classification.)

"Eat them, strive to become stronger, and I hope you will be of use to me in the future. From now on, call me 'Boss'!"

Luo Tian's voice pulled them back to reality.

The brothers looked at each other, seeing the same resolve in each other's eyes.

They nodded solemnly, reaching out their hands to accept the fruits with a gesture bordering on religious devotion.

"We cannot repay the Boss for saving our lives, so we will follow you even unto death!"

With that, the two no longer hesitated and bit into the fruits.

An indescribably strange taste exploded in their mouths, but they forced themselves to swallow.

To repay the lord's kindness on the golden platform, one would carry a jade dragon and die for him.

This sentiment was the true reflection of their hearts at this moment.

The instant the fruit flesh entered their stomachs—

Hum!

Violent power erupted from their abdomens, rushing into their limbs and bones like a flood!

Jesse let out a suppressed low growl as his body expanded uncontrollably.

His muscles bulged, his bones popped like firecrackers, and dark golden fur sprouted across his skin.

The phantom of an ancient King Kong Ape flashed behind him and vanished.

Jieming was changing as well.

His fingers extended into sharp claws, and a tiger tail burst through his clothes at the base of his spine.

The ferocious aura of a saber-toothed tiger permeated the air.

What was even more astonishing was that all the wounds on their bodies—gunshot wounds, whip marks, bone fractures, and bruises—

All healed within just a few breaths.

Their new skin was smooth and tough, and their muscles contained explosive power.

Jieming looked at his hands in disbelief. With a light clench, the air actually let out a sonic boom.

He tentatively threw a punch, and the wind from the blow caused an iron barrel three meters away to cave in and deform!

"Is... is this power?"

The youth muttered to himself, tears welling up in his eyes.

It was not sadness, but a kind of wild ecstasy after having something long deprived finally returned.

Jesse felt the surging power within his body, a ferocity that seemed capable of tearing mountains apart, making his whole body tremble.

He looked at his younger brother, saw the same shock in his eyes, and then both of them turned toward Luo Tian—

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Three loud kowtows; the sound of their foreheads striking the deck grew heavier each time.

With the final kowtow, the wooden planks cracked into spiderweb-like fissures under their newly acquired strength.

"Boss!"

This shout no longer held the previous fear and subservience, but was instead filled with newfound strength and a death-defying loyalty.

Luo Tian looked at the two kneeling before him, a flash of satisfaction in his eyes.

He did not just need thugs, but combatants capable of standing on their own in the future.

And the fire in the eyes of these brothers showed him their potential.

"Jieming, Jesse."

He spoke calmly, pointing toward Saint Donahue, who lay unconscious on the other side of the deck:

"Go and slap that pig awake. Control your strength; don't kill him."

"Yes, Boss!"

The two stood up in response, moving as swiftly as cheetahs. In just a few strides, they crossed twenty meters of deck, and Jesse kicked away the head of Saint Roz that was in Saint Donahue's arms.

The head rolled a few times, its eyes wide open in death, staring straight at the sky.

Then, they raised their hands.

Smack!

The first slap. Saint Donahue's fat left cheek instantly swelled red, but he did not wake up.

Smack!

The second slap. The right cheek swelled symmetrically, and teeth mixed with blood foam flew from the corner of his mouth.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

What followed was a torrential storm of slaps.

The brothers said nothing, simply alternating their strikes, left and right.

Every blow was controlled to be just painful enough to cause agony without being fatal.

Saint Donahue finally woke up in excruciating pain.

His swollen eyelids barely managed to open a slit, and in his blurred vision, he saw two faces he never expected to see standing there.

Those two lowly slaves were looking down at him with icy gazes, their palms raised, ready to fall again.

"You... you..."

He spoke incoherently, only to be interrupted by another slap.

"Shut up, pig."

Jesse's voice was bone-chillingly cold.

He remembered too much—how this fat pig had branded his brother's back with a red-hot iron just because "the way he cried was interesting."

He had even forced him to eat food mixed with glass shards, then laughed while watching his mouth fill with blood.

Every slap was an echo of a memory.

On the other side, Luo Tian had already walked to the side of Shaman Gong.

The woman was pale as paper due to excessive blood loss from her severed hands and feet.

"Spatial Imprisonment."

An invisible force field enveloped the wounds, the blood instantly stopped flowing, and the severed ends were sealed by a thin barrier of space.

Having already killed one Celestial Dragon, he would leave these two for Rocks to settle the score.