The King of the Sea

In an instant, Arlong shot toward Li Mingyuan like an arrow, piercing straight at him.

Seeing this, Li Mingyuan immediately dropped the teasing expression he had worn to deliberately provoke Arlong. His gaze sharpened, and the Sharingan's powerful insight instantly caught every one of his opponent's movements.

Before the flying drill called Arlong could pierce through his body, Li Mingyuan had already lightly shifted aside, gracefully dodging Arlong's strike.

Having failed to hit Li Mingyuan, Arlong flew straight through the large hole, soared outside the main building, and finally slammed hard into the ground.

"Ugh!"

Arlong let out a muffled groan.

Normally, there would have been nothing unusual about Shark Darts, but now it aggravated the injuries inside his body, making it feel as though his organs were being twisted in agony.

Arlong climbed out of the crater he had smashed into the ground and instinctively glanced around.

Nami and that other human whose background he did not know had disappeared somewhere, but he could clearly see that his brethren, who had been enjoying the banquet with him just moments ago, had all fallen within Arlong Park. The blood flowing from them had even dyed the main gate at Arlong Park's sea entrance red.

Arlong stared at the scene with bloodshot eyes. The overwhelming grief and fury left him nearly unable to control himself.

"My brethren! Before Brother Fisher Tiger died, I told you that Fish-Men were the superior race and humans were merely inferior creatures! You left the Sun Pirates with me and became the Arlong Pirates of today. We truly achieved our original dream, successfully taking revenge on those humans and establishing the Arlong Empire."

"But now, what is this scene supposed to mean?"

Killing intent.

All of Arlong's emotions transformed into the purest killing intent, directed at the man standing at the edge of the hole in the main building, looking down at him from above.

"Shark!!"

Arlong stomped the ground again, turning into an arrow loosed from its bow as he charged toward Li Mingyuan.

Unfortunately, the same move could not work against the Sharingan a second time.

This time, as Arlong charged at him, Li Mingyuan not only dodged Arlong's Sawtooth Nose Blade again, but also swiftly raised his knee and, in that single instant as they passed each other, drove it viciously into Arlong's abdomen.

"Puh!"

Arlong spat out a huge mouthful of blood. At the same time, his trajectory veered far off course as he kept tumbling through several rooms of the main building, smashing them apart before crashing through the wall on the other side of Arlong Park's main building and falling into the stone bricks below.

As several dark rooms collapsed with a roar, sunlight and fierce winds suddenly poured in, sweeping countless blueprints away like snowflakes and scattering them across the skies of the Arlong Empire.

Li Mingyuan stood quietly where he was and reached out to catch one of the papers.

Just like in the original story, an exquisite chart of the sea now appeared before him.

"So these are the sea charts Nami drew while she was being abused in the manga."

"What a pity. I can't really understand this stuff. In the hands of someone who knew its worth, it should be quite valuable."

Li Mingyuan muttered to himself.

With a hint of regret, he loosened his grip, and the blueprint in his hand was immediately carried into the sky by the breeze.

Originally, after Straw Hat Luffy defeated Arlong and destroyed Arlong Park, Luffy's destruction of these charts had been one of the key events that deeply moved Nami.

However, with Li Mingyuan here, such events from the original story were destined not to happen.

Not to mention that Nami, who was taking shelter outside with Carina, could not witness this scene. Even if he destroyed the charts now, it would be meaningless.

The greatest difference between Li Mingyuan and Straw Hat Luffy was that he could not sincerely destroy these charts. Like Arlong and Golden Lion, he deeply recognized the value of Nami's crystallized talent. Even if he pretended to destroy them in an attempt to move Nami, the Cat Burglar would probably see through him.

So, although it was somewhat regrettable, Li Mingyuan gave up on doing something that did not suit him merely to recreate the original plot.

He turned his head toward the spot where Arlong had smashed through the wall and fallen.

"Hm?"

Li Mingyuan suddenly let out a soft sound of surprise.

He walked to the hole in the wall and looked down. Arlong, who should have been severely injured by him just now, was nowhere to be seen. Only a trail of blood extended from the crater he had smashed open.

At the end of the blood trail was the sea entrance at Arlong Park's main gate.

"Could Arlong be planning to jump into the sea and run away?"

"Or is he waiting for me to go check on him so he can ambush me?"

Li Mingyuan pondered for a moment.

After being struck fiercely once his weakness had been exposed by the Sharingan, the blow's power was probably no weaker than a combination of Chakra Taijutsu and Fish-Man Karate. If the same attack had landed on him, he would have been dead long ago. Yet after taking such a heavy hit, Arlong had actually been able to get up and move immediately.

But no matter what Arlong was thinking, he seemed a little naive.

The sea entrance at Arlong Park's main gate was still closed. If Arlong wanted to open it and escape, he would immediately become a target for a heavy blow. Even if Arlong wanted to hide and launch a sneak attack, Li Mingyuan could simply stay here and test endurance with him. On land, Nami and Carina could bring him supplies, so there was no way he could lose.

Of course, there was no way Li Mingyuan would dive into the sea now and fight Arlong to the death.

"In naval battles, Fish-Men are nearly invincible. Even on land, a casual wave of their hands can send droplets of water piercing through enemies like bullets. Fish-Men are even more unstoppable underwater. If you really fought beneath the sea, a Fish-Man's actual combat strength being several times higher than their bounty would not be an exaggeration."

"If someone said that, in a battle within seawater, Jinbe the Fish-Man, one of the current Shichibukai known as the 'Knight of the Sea,' could fight the combined forces of Kaido the 'Beast' and Big Mom, I would not be too surprised."

"In a sense, Arlong's belief that Fish-Men were superior was not entirely wrong. After all, on the stage of One Piece, which was set against the sea, it was only because Oda had not given them that position or plotline. Otherwise, Fish-Men absolutely had the potential to dominate."

"Especially against ability users. In seawater, ability users cannot even use some of their abilities and become weak all over."

Just as Li Mingyuan was thinking this over,

An idea suddenly flashed through his mind.

"Wait, could that be it?"

Li Mingyuan touched his eyes, his expression strange. "Suddenly fleeing into the sea in the middle of battle..."

"Could Arlong, like Dick the bandit, have mistaken me for an ability user?"