Preparations

As the battle went on, the fight between Chen Qiang and Toby grew increasingly fierce.

By then, all kinds of brightly colored gems floated around Toby. Red ones exploded, blue ones froze, dark green ones were poisonous, purple ones caused hallucinations, black ones swallowed things whole, cyan ones whipped up whirlwinds, and yellow ones flashed with light.

The gems kept shooting toward Chen Qiang and detonating right in front of him, attacking him without pause. Whenever a dark green, poisonous gem came his way, he dodged it. He simply endured the rest of the gems head-on and charged toward Toby.

But whenever Chen Qiang was about to reach him, Toby used the yellow gems embedded in the cave ceiling to change position in an instant, then launched another volley at Chen Qiang.

Their battle looked fierce, but they rarely clashed at close range. Aside from the occasional blow Chen Qiang managed to land by using the Seastone chains on his body, he was usually the one taking hits.

Still, Chen Qiang's golden finger was truly powerful. Even after fighting nonstop until he was covered in blood, he had no wounds. Every injury healed the instant it appeared.

As the battle went on, Chen Qiang's side gradually gained the upper hand. After all, the timid feared the fierce, and the fierce feared the fearless—and Chen Qiang's people were almost all the kind who didn't fear death. So, after an hour of fighting, some of the slave traders began to flee.

Once the first man ran, more slave traders followed. They wanted to escape the city and live, but a group of fearless people stood in their way.

Even when badly wounded, Chen Qiang's people would still bite off a chunk of flesh. No matter how powerful the slave traders were, even if they took down one enemy, more would charge at them.

Imagine stabbing someone through the heart, only for him to grab your hand with all his strength, knock you down, and bite into you.

The pressure on them grew until, terrified, the remaining thousand or so slave traders fled back into the city.

Chen Qiang's side had won, but they had paid a heavy price. More than five thousand slaves had come here earlier, but fewer than three thousand were still standing. Their losses had been substantial.

Yet the surviving slaves showed no fear. After the battle, the light in their eyes had only grown more resolute.

Earlier, Chen Qiang had told them not to let fear take over their hearts. As long as they stood firm inside, no matter how powerful the enemy was, they couldn't be defeated. They only had to believe that everyone was the same: whoever you were, a sword wound would make you bleed, and losing your head would kill you.

As long as they didn't fall or give up, victory would ultimately belong to them. They were already slaves, but did they want their descendants to live as they did—always fearing an attack, being captured and enslaved, or being killed by pirates? Was that the life they wanted?

So even if they had no one behind them now, the reason they fought had never been for themselves. It was for the people standing behind them—for those they wanted to protect.

Chen Qiang had given this speech after the slaves were rescued and brought here. They thought he was right. If they ran away now, perhaps they could escape—but what then? What if they were captured and enslaved again? Would they meet someone who could save them next time?

That seemed impossible. So they weren't just fighting for revenge. They wanted to carve a path to the future with the swords in their hands.

That was why almost everyone on Chen Qiang's side fought without fear of death. In just an hour, they had fought until the enemy was terrified and fled back into the city, too afraid to show their faces.

When Toby saw his side retreat and several powerful slaves head over to support Chen Qiang, he knew the situation had turned against him.

Chen Qiang's bizarre ability to recover from injuries already made him impossible for Toby to defeat. Toby had joined the slave traders only to hold Chen Qiang off while they seized a ship. Then he planned to use the gems to board quickly and escape.

But now it was clear that plan had been unrealistic. The slave traders were a bunch of hopeless fools. They had fought for only an hour, and only half of them had died, yet they had already retreated. They had completely disappointed him.

Still, since they had already withdrawn, there was no point in complaining. Toby couldn't stand against a group of enemies alone. He wasn't Chen Qiang; he didn't have Chen Qiang's powerful healing ability. If he kept fighting, he would die.

So, without hesitation, Toby used the gems in the cave ceiling to leave and return to the city.

After the enemy retreated, Chen Qiang had the survivors gather all the corpses in one place, then arranged for the surviving slaves to board ships and leave.

At first, the slaves were unwilling to go. They wanted to stay with Chen Qiang and help build the world of equality he had spoken of—a world without oppression or war.

But Chen Qiang explained that only if they left and spread out across the world, sharing his ideals with more people, could the world they longed for arrive sooner.

They were seeds. Once they spread across the world and carried those ideals with them, the seeds would sprout and grow into towering trees, toppling this rotten world and building that perfect world amid its ruins.

"Lin! You should leave too!"

Only after all the slaves had boarded the ships, saluted Chen Qiang with resolute expressions, and slowly sailed away from the harbor did Chen Qiang turn to Lin, who had stood beside him ever since the battle ended.

Lin looked at Chen Qiang in confusion. She didn't understand why he was saying this. Hadn't he agreed earlier to let her stay with him? Why was he asking her to leave now?

"You're carrying one of my fingers, aren't you? Leave without worrying. What I'm going to do next is destroy this place completely. I might get buried here, so take my finger with you. Once I destroy this place, I'll be reborn by your side!"

"All right!" Now that she had joined Chen Qiang, Lin trusted his words completely. She also longed for the world he had described earlier. Whenever he spoke about it, his eyes shone with hope. She believed he wouldn't throw his life away before he got to see that world.

After only a moment's hesitation, Lin nodded in agreement.

"Remember to sail far away. I don't want to appear later and find the World Government all around me!"

Seeing that she agreed, Chen Qiang escorted her aboard a ship. As she left, he smiled and called after her.

"Mm! I will!"

Lin nodded her adorable head.