The Beasts Pirates' Edge: Second Golden Lion

Several days later, a head, still bearing traces of blood, was nailed to the most conspicuous wooden stake at the border port of Wano Country.

The sea breeze swept by, the bloodstains turning slightly black, gruesome and terrifying, silently foreshadowing the invaders' fate.

Below the head was a notice with cold, sharp handwriting; the ink was forceful, and the few words were all concealed.

The Beasts Pirates still exist.

Those who violate our borders will be dealt with as an example.

This news was like a sudden downpour in winter, instantly extinguishing the restless ambitions of the entire New World.

Previously, countless pirate crews that had been waiting for an opportunity to seize the Beasts Pirates' territory all sheathed their fangs and quietly suppressed all their restless thoughts.

Everyone finally regained consciousness. Kaido injured and unconscious, but the Beasts Pirates never collapsed.

Jhin is still here, Queen is still here, and the elite forces that have been lying dormant on Onigashima for many years still guard their homeland.

Everyone knows that even a starved camel is bigger than a horse, but no one expected that this heavily damaged maritime overlord was far from being finished.

A veteran pirate with a bounty of 1.7 billion, commanding a fleet of 2,000 ships and dozens of warships, was completely wiped out by one man, a pair of fiery wings, and a massive fire.

This is no longer a simple matter of overwhelming combat power; it is a naked act of deterrence.

It was as if the ashes were telling the entire ocean: the threshold of the Beasts Pirates has never been one that anyone can trespass upon at will.

The news traveled across the sea to Whole Cake Island, where Katakuri quietly handed the border battle report to Linlin.

Linlin looked down at the contents of the paper and remained silent for a long time.

There was no usual furious roar, no harsh sarcasm; after a long while, she finally uttered a complex and poignant remark.

"That kid, King, is more like a real captain than Kaido."

She shook her head slightly, a hint of regret in her voice. "It's a pity that he wasted half his life following that brute Kaido. I'm afraid he'll never be able to sit in the position that should have been his again."

Katakuri stood silently, without saying a word.

He discreetly placed another updated assessment of Madara Uchiha's combat strength under the battle report, waiting for his mother to inquire about it later.

The truly terrifying force in the ocean today is not the petty villains who take advantage of the chaos, but the peerless powerhouse who overthrows the old era with a single sword.

The lights in the infirmary on Onigashima were on as usual.

King stood quietly before Kaido's sickbed, his wings still bearing faint traces of gunpowder smoke and dried blood, unwashed. He gently placed the pirate flag emblem he had brought back from the battlefield, belonging to Barossa, on the small wooden table.

"Boss, the border is safe."

The cold, hard aura that had just quelled the chaos vanished completely. His voice softened, carrying a hint of weariness and expectation that no one else could detect, and fell softly into the quiet room.

"Wake up quickly."

Kaido on the hospital bed, his breathing still steady and weak, showing no signs of waking. But this time, King clearly caught a movement—the fingertips wrapped in layers of bandages twitched slightly.

It's very light, yet it's undeniably real.

Jin stared intently at the slightly twitching finger, standing there for a long time, his eyes churning with complex emotions. The tension that had been building for days finally eased slightly. He slowly pulled over a chair and sat down, leaning back against it, and gently closed his eyes.

Outside the window, the sea breeze on Onigashima still howled fiercely, but it no longer brought any news of an emergency at the border.

Onigashima was unusually quiet that night.

In this turbulent New World, countless forces rise and fall, collapsing and crumbling.

But the Beasts Pirates still stood strong.

Smoke still curls from the ruins of the Navy's G2 Branch.

The entire naval fortress, which had stood for many years, was uprooted and suspended hundreds of meters in the air. The broken walls and exposed steel bars swirled slowly among the clouds, and a huge shadow pressed heavily on the sea, blotting out the sun.

After the battle, four Headquarters Vice Admiral were seriously wounded, and more than half of the two thousand elite naval troops stationed at the branch were lost, leaving the area in ruins.

The moment the urgent report reached Marineford, Sengoku sat silently at his desk for the length of an incense stick's time.

Everyone knows that in the past twenty years, only Golden Lion Shiki has been able to completely wipe a regular Marine Branch off the map.

This time, the one who made the move was a strange young man who called himself "Second Golden Lion".

No one knows his real name, no one knows his origins; he is like a mystery that appeared out of nowhere.

A private information broker in the New World managed to photograph the pirate flag of a certain unfortunate pirate crew on the eve of its demise using Den Den Mushi. The flag's design replicated the flying crest of the Golden Lion, except that below the lion's head, there was an additional pair of sharp, intersecting sword patterns.

He commanded a Flying Fleet consisting of more than ten warships, each ship's hull surrounded by a faint golden halo—the most distinctive power fluctuation of the Float-Float Fruit, allowing it to manipulate objects through the Float-Float Fruit.

The last video footage transmitted by the G2 Branch before its destruction sent a huge shock to the naval leadership.

In the scene, the boy stands directly below the floating fortress, one hand casually in his pocket, his posture relaxed and carefree.

The next instant, he lightly snapped his fingers, and with a simple snap, the entire impregnable naval fortress seemed to be gripped tightly by an invisible, towering hand, rising from the ground and hanging upside down in the sky.

The Marine Intelligence Department worked through the night to sift through the database and unearthed all the old files related to the Float-Float Fruit.

Ever since Golden Lion Shiki wreaked havoc in Impel Down and escaped, this top-tier Paramecia Devil Fruit has completely disappeared from the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia for a full twenty years.

Everyone assumed that it would be randomly reborn somewhere in the ocean and fall into the hands of some nobody.

But who could have predicted that it would return to the world in such an extremely domineering manner?

Even more unexpectedly, the one who inherited this legendary power would be a complete newcomer, detached from the naval intelligence network and without any prior record.

Ever since the G2 match report was delivered to his office, Sengoku's brow had never relaxed in the slightest.

The Marine Headquarters directly set the bounty at 1.9 billion Beli. This figure was by no means arbitrary; it was the final conclusion reached by the Intelligence Department based on a review of the entire battle.

With genuine Float-Float Fruit abilities, a fully formed Flying Fleet, four Vice Admiral suffered a crushing defeat and serious injuries, two thousand elite troops were almost completely wiped out, and the entire military fortress rose into the air and was completely destroyed.

This isn't some inexperienced rookie pirate; this is clearly a terrifying monster who, from his very first appearance, is already on par with the Four Emperors.

Rumors quickly spread among the World Government's high command that many suggested taking advantage of the enemy's unstable foundation and weak power base to directly dispatch Admiral to the sea for a siege and nip the threat in the bud.

Only the Sengoku forcefully suppressed this proposal.

Where does the navy have any spare combat power to deploy these days?