Aokiji!

Although Lu Zhuo and Robin had grown closer over the past few months, and Robin had come to tolerate some of his little advances, being held together with Nami was still terribly embarrassing. What was more, Conis was right there watching them while she played the harp.

After a bit of fooling around, the Holy Sword finally settled down. In the end, Lu Zhuo hadn't managed to hold both beauties in his arms. Robin's emotional knot still hadn't been untied.

Lu Zhuo had already decided on their route. This time, after leaving Skypiea, it was time to settle the score with the Buster Call.

He hadn't reached the High-Level Swordsman level in the past three months, but he had honed his swordsmanship to an extremely powerful level, reaching the peak of an Intermediate Swordsman. Combined with first-level Armament Haki and his fully mastered Observation Haki, his strength had increased by leaps and bounds.

If he ran into Kuma again, they'd at least be evenly matched. If they fought to the death, Lu Zhuo was even certain that Kuma would be the first to die!

In the seventeenth year of the Great Pirate Era, a little over two years before Luffy set sail, the Holy Sword drifted down from Skypiea and began a new voyage that would shake the world!

A giant octopus floated slowly down through the sky. If you looked closely, you could see a ship nestled among its tentacles.

There were four people on board, one man and three women. They stood on deck, gazing at the distant scenery.

Conis's eyes were dreamy as she murmured, "So this is the Blue Sea. It's completely different from the White-White Sea."

"Of course." Lu Zhuo chuckled. "The Vearth that's so precious where you come from is just the ground beneath your feet in the Blue Sea."

Just then, the Holy Sword suddenly jolted. Conis staggered and nearly fell, but Lu Zhuo was quick to catch her in his arms.

Robin and Nami, however, stood firm as if rooted to the deck, completely unaffected. Their strength had long since far surpassed what it was in the original story. Nami in particular was now on par with a Vice Admiral, and even stronger than Robin.

This couldn't help but make Robin marvel at the power of the Logia Devil Fruit, as well as Lu Zhuo's sharp eye and the precision of his guidance.

Nestled in Lu Zhuo's arms, Conis blushed. Her wings were a little in the way, but they still couldn't stop Lu Zhuo from taking advantage of her... Ahem, that sounded a little shameless.

Lu Zhuo quickly let go of Conis and asked, "What happened?"

Robin closed her eyes, then suddenly opened them and said in surprise, "The Octopus Balloon is shrinking. We're drifting off course."

At Robin's words, a trace of surprise appeared in Lu Zhuo's eyes.

So it was happening just like in the original story? Still... Lu Zhuo showed no concern as he ordered, "Nami, slow us down."

"Sure!"

Nami answered at once, then turned into a cloud and drifted beneath the ship. She struggled to form a huge cloud, wrapping it around the entire Holy Sword and slowing its descent.

Looking at the situation around them, Lu Zhuo sighed softly and thought, Nami's strength has improved at an incredible pace, but holding up the whole ship is still a little too much for her.

Fortunately, the Octopus Balloon wasn't vanishing all at once. It was disappearing gradually.

With Nami's support, they could just about manage. And even if they couldn't, Robin was there too.

If Robin joined her hands to form wings, she could probably lift about half the ship. In other words, Nami and Robin working together could keep the entire Holy Sword airborne!

They landed without incident. They were a little off course, but not by much. They were still quite close to the Marine Base where Luffy and the others had fallen in the original story.

Lu Zhuo had no intention of causing a scene at the Marine Base to raise his bounty.

He wasn't the strongest yet. Keeping a low profile was the way to go!

If he truly showed his full strength now, he'd get a bounty of at least four hundred million. For a pirate who hadn't entered the New World, and hadn't even made it halfway through the first half of the Grand Line, that would be nothing short of a legend!

"Let's get out of here."

Lu Zhuo gave the order calmly, then took out a piece of parchment and handed it to Nami.

"While you're at it, find this island on the map. That's our next target. We don't need to follow the Log Pose for now. With your ability to control clouds, there's no need to worry about running into any crazy weather."

"Sure!"

Nami had just changed back to her normal form and returned to Lu Zhuo's side when she received her assignment. But sailing was her passion, so it didn't really feel like a chore. It was more like a chance to have fun.

But just then, Lu Zhuo's eyes narrowed and his expression changed.

Damn it! What's he doing here?

Robin was the first to notice Lu Zhuo's expression. She swept her gaze across their surroundings, then her face changed too. Her legs gave way, and she sank to the deck.

Lu Zhuo stared grimly at the man riding a bicycle and placed his hand on his sword.

There was only one man who could make Lu Zhuo this tense and ride a bicycle across the sea... Aokiji, Admiral of Marine Headquarters!

"Arara, what do we have here? What a coincidence!"

Wearing sunglasses, Aokiji suddenly laughed and rode his bicycle toward the Holy Sword.

"Admiral Aokiji, greeting a pirate like me isn't exactly the Navy's style!" Lu Zhuo said with a cold laugh, gripping his sword hilt tightly.

The Admirals could roughly be divided into three levels: ordinary Admirals, elite Admirals, and top-tier Admirals.

Fujitora, who hadn't become an Admiral yet, and several of the senior division commanders aboard Whitebeard's ship were all at the ordinary Admiral level. Lu Zhuo was in that tier as well.

The elite Admirals included Doflamingo and the later Fujitora, who would eventually become an Admiral.

As for the top-tier Admirals, they included Akainu, Aokiji, Kizaru, and Hawk-Eye, whose strength could only be estimated from his few appearances, as well as Shanks, whose strength had declined after losing an arm and had yet to recover.

There were also small differences in strength between those in each tier.

For example, Kizaru was a little weaker than Aokiji, while Aokiji was a little weaker than Akainu, who would defeat him later.

During the Paramount War in the original story, Marco, the First Division Commander, could hold off Kizaru, but it took a whole group of division commanders to hold off a single Akainu.

In other words, running into Aokiji now was extremely dangerous, especially out at sea!

Lu Zhuo watched Aokiji grimly as the man acted as though he didn't exist. Aokiji chuckled and greeted Robin, who was slumped on the deck.

"Well, well. Isn't this Nico Robin? It's been a long time."

Robin trembled, fear in her eyes.

With Lu Zhuo's guidance, Robin was now more or less on par with a Vice Admiral. She shouldn't have been this helpless in front of Aokiji. The reason she was acting this way was the emotional knot from her childhood.

As it happened, Lu Zhuo had a great deal of respect for Aokiji.

Although he had killed his friend at Ohara, that friend had made him promise to spare Robin. Aokiji had kept that promise countless times, and might even have secretly protected her.

But even if Aokiji might not want to kill Robin, that didn't mean he wouldn't kill Lu Zhuo.

Lu Zhuo knew there was something mysterious about him. He'd concealed a great deal, but the bits of information he'd occasionally let slip to the Navy had still drawn more of their attention.

There was no doubt that Lu Zhuo was now one of the Navy's highest-priority targets for elimination.

As for the others, rookies like Ace and Blackbeard had probably already reached the Sabaody Archipelago by now, and might even have made it to the New World.