A Smile

"Is this the Marine branch?" Li Ziming looked at the Marine branch before him. "Tsk, it's pretty luxurious."

Li Ziming's first impression of the Marine branch had been that it was run-down. So why did he think it was luxurious? Because even the soldiers standing guard outside the Marine branch wore extremely extravagant clothes, and they chatted about how much they had extorted from this village or that one, and how much tribute they had collected.

"Hey, kid, what are you doing here?" One soldier noticed Li Ziming approaching. That alone would not have been unusual, but it was rare to see someone carrying another person along with him.

"Hey, hey..." The other soldier, who had been chatting with him, poked the first one. "Isn't that Nidru?"

"How could that be? Although Nidru isn't a Devil Fruit user, he's still pretty strong. He also knows to show us some respect. Of course, it's only because we've kept his affairs under wraps all this time. Otherwise, someone would have targeted that guy long ago." The soldier laughed. "Still, this fellow really does look a lot like Nidru..."

"Just looks like him?" Li Ziming tugged at the corner of his mouth and held the Nidru in his hand out in front of the two soldiers.

The two soldiers realized that the person in his grasp really was Nidru, and their expressions immediately turned ugly.

"Hey, take a closer look." Li Ziming spoke mockingly and tossed Nidru straight at them.

"You..." The two Marines instinctively raised their rifles and aimed them at Li Ziming.

"Looks like the Marines really have fallen into ruin." Li Ziming frowned. He already knew that the Marineford War would send the Marines into a decline. To keep Whitebeard's words from having too much impact, he had also delayed