Golden Lion looked proud and utterly composed. To others, Impel Down was an impregnable fortress, a terrifying human hell, but in Golden Lion's eyes, it was nothing at all. He could come and go as he pleased.
Before long, Shiryu of the Rain arrived at the Sixth Level, Infinite Level, with a group of men. Shiryu was tall, dressed in a black Chief Warden's uniform, and carried an extraordinarily large famed blade. He walked with wild arrogance and brutality; every step made the ground beneath his feet crackle. Ye Chen looked down curiously and saw that the hard bluestone floor had been crushed into countless Spider Web-like cracks. He had never seen this man before, but the terrified expressions on the prisoners' faces made it clear that he was immensely strong.
"It's Shiryu of the Rain!" Pizarro's eyes widened, his expression changing drastically as he instinctively backed away two steps.
Many people could not help sucking in a cold breath when they saw Shiryu. Some stood dumbfounded, while others' legs began to tremble. Shiryu of the Rain had always been ruthless and merciless. Not only was his swordsmanship superb, but he was also a vicious man who liked to attack prisoners on a whim.
He never needed a reason to kill. The famed blade in his hand was also a notorious cursed sword—Nidai Kitetsu.
The reason Impel Down was known as an impenetrable fortress was because two powerful figures guarded it. One was Magellan, wielder of the Venom-Venom Fruit, and the other was Shiryu of the Rain. It was said that the two were evenly matched, neither capable of overcoming the other.
Even those legendary monsters found it difficult to remain calm in Shiryu's presence. Yet when Ye Chen turned to look at Golden Lion, Golden Lion's expression remained tranquil, as though he had not even seen Shiryu. Facing the menacing guards, Golden Lion stood tall and unmoving, like a god standing quietly in place. He glanced at Shiryu just as Shiryu pulled a cigar from his pocket and was about to put it to his lips. Golden Lion burst into laughter and casually waved his hand. A fierce wind immediately sprang up before Shiryu. The next instant, Shiryu discovered in surprise that the cigar had flown from his hand and, as if guided by some unseen force, landed in Golden Lion's hand.
Golden Lion put the cigar between his lips, then realized he had no fire. He beckoned to a nearby guard, and with a whoosh, the lighter in the guard's pocket flew out on its own. Golden Lion caught it, nodded at the guard, then smugly lit the cigar and took a deep drag, looking immensely satisfied.
Ye Chen stared in astonishment. Golden Lion was incredible. That alone—that Haki of looking down on everything—was enough to make people worship him. To be a man like that, even death would be worth it.
Basan was so strong, yet the moment prison escape was mentioned, he wilted like an eggplant struck by frost. His face was full of terror, without the slightest confidence. In Basan's eyes, no matter who was locked inside Impel Down, there was no chance of ever leaving. But as Ye Chen watched Golden Lion's calm, disdainful bearing, he understood that Basan and Golden Lion were worlds apart. What Basan considered impossible was not even worth mentioning to Golden Lion.
Whoosh.
After hesitating briefly, the guards still raised their muskets in unison. Ye Chen hurriedly backed away several steps and was about to hide in a corner when Golden Lion waved at him. "Relax. These people can't hurt you, because I'll be sending them to hell very soon."
Slash Wave.
Golden Lion took a hard drag on his cigar and suddenly raised Oto in his hand. Before Ye Chen could see clearly, a thunderous boom rang out. A roar like that of a raging lion erupted from Golden Lion's body, followed by a violent sword aura that slashed swiftly forward. With another boom, the enormous blade of light, carrying shocking killing intent, cleaved toward the guards in the corridor. Wherever the sword light passed, blood sprayed. Amid endless miserable screams, the musket-wielding guards were thrown into chaos, falling one after another into pools of blood.
The flying slash did not stop. It continued extending down the corridor until it smashed a distant stone wall to the ground. Smoke and dust filled the entire passage as gravel scattered everywhere. The formerly flat, sturdy corridor had been split open by Golden Lion in an instant, leaving behind a massive fissure. Even within that fissure, scorching flames continued to burst forth with sizzling crackles.
Ye Chen understood that Golden Lion's attack had simply been too fast and too powerful. The rapid slash had ignited the surrounding air in an instant. A casual strike possessed such terrifying destructive force. Ye Chen's mouth hung wide open as he stared at Golden Lion's back, his heart churning for a long time without settling. He was too strong. This was a hundred times more destructive than a hundred cannonballs. Compared to Golden Lion, every person Ye Chen had encountered before was trash.
Shiryu had just taken out another cigar and placed it between his lips. Before he could light it, in the blink of an eye, more than a hundred guards were already howling like ghosts and wolves in pools of blood. Shiryu was startled, and the cigar fell from his mouth to the ground.
"Golden Lion, I'll be your opponent." With a cold snort, Shiryu strode toward Golden Lion. After only a few steps, his right hand swiftly drew the Nidai Kitetsu he always carried at his side.
A bizarre crimson light suddenly flashed before Ye Chen's eyes. When he looked closely, he was startled—not because he was timid, but because the sight before him was too unbelievable. Shiryu's blade was blood-red, with rippling light flowing across it as though a crimson river were continuously coursing over it. It was not a motionless red; rather, like a river of blood, the blood upon the blade kept moving as though it were alive. When the dazzling red light flashed, a suffocating stench of blood instantly drifted through the surrounding air.
"Hmph, Ghost, do you think you can stop me? Garp and Sengoku had to join hands and fight me for several days and nights before they barely managed to suppress me. And you?" Golden Lion glanced disdainfully at Shiryu and sneered coldly.
"If we don't try, who knows what the outcome will be? Rainstorm Slash!"
Shiryu suddenly shouted, accelerating beneath his feet as he charged toward Golden Lion like a Tiger unleashed from its cage. At the same time, the Nidai Kitetsu in his hand unleashed more than a dozen crimson slashes in rapid succession, like a violent storm.
Every slash was like a fanged, clawing evil ghost, carrying a choking bloodlust as it cleaved toward Golden Lion with unstoppable force.
Shiryu's slashes arrived in an instant, their power astonishing and their momentum as fierce as a Tiger's. But just as Golden Lion was about to be swallowed by Shiryu's sword aura, Golden Lion suddenly moved. The two swords in his hands also slashed out at once.
A massive vortex immediately formed around Golden Lion's body. Ye Chen held his breath, his eyes wide, but all he saw was a black, gleaming luster suddenly flashing over the blades of Golden Lion's two swords.
Ye Chen knew what that was. It was Haki—only when Armament Haki was trained to its peak would it produce a tangible black gleam!
That black was purple-black, dazzlingly black, suffocatingly black, terrifyingly black!
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