Gorosei and Marines: Able to Hurt Shanks? Go and Investigate Blackbeard!

Shanks said with utmost seriousness, "Beneath your illustrious name, there has always been a person hiding himself, keeping a low profile and waiting for the right moment! And now, he has made his move!"

Whitebeard did not speak, instead silently gazing at Red-Haired.

Red-Haired Shanks pointed at the three claw marks over his eye and continued, "I have been through battles big and small along the way, sustaining countless injuries, but only this one still throbs faintly. I am not being careless; this is the scar he left me."

On the surface, Whitebeard kept his expression neutral, but deep down, his heart grew heavy.

"Marshall D. Teach! Make Ace stop pursuing him!"

In the end, Shanks stated the purpose of this visit.

Why couldn'Golden Divine Punishment they pursue him? Ace was strong, but he certainly was no match for someone as scheming as Teach. If any accident occurred, the resulting chain reaction would stir up massive waves.

Watching Whitebeard and Red-Haired meet and speak, Lynn couldn'Golden Divine Punishment help feeling a sense of emotion. The wheels of history still hadn'Golden Divine Punishment deviated too far; what was meant to happen was still happening. Even with the existence of Sophon, the two of them had still brought up this matter.

The situation that followed was also one Lynn already knew.

Whitebeard sneered, drawing his blade to clash with Red-Haired Shanks.

Yet unlike in history, this time their weapon clash failed to split the clouds in the sky. Their back-and-forth fighting appeared remarkably subdued in scale.

Both of their Haki had been suppressed!

This exploratory skirmish left neither Whitebeard nor Red-Haired Shanks with any desire to continue. After their collision, both men furrowed their brows, harboring deep bewilderment.

Not just Conqueror's Haki, even Observation and Armament have been interfered with.

Only then did the two realize it with a start, tacitly pulling back their hands.

Meanwhile, Marco, Vista, Beckman, and the others all assumed the two were merely testing the waters, yet strangely, they failed to sense that their Haki was being interfered with.

Over on Lynn's side, the Gorosei, Sengoku, the Three Admirals, and the others watched with beaming smiles.

"This combat state—their Haki is suppressed, and neither of them can exert their strength."

Sengoku said quite cheerfully.

Disabling Haki within a region had profound implications. Not to mention how powerful Logia Admirals would be, it would also fill Marine weaponry with immense threat.

This was an instance where even two Four Emperors were subjected to such severe suppression.

Yet the pirates were no fools either. Realizing clearly that something was amiss, Red-Haired Shanks and Whitebeard halted, their expressions strange.

"Pops, what's wrong?"

Marco and the others were the first to notice Pops's abnormal expression, hurrying over.

Red-Haired Shanks likewise stepped back, signaling the Red Force to draw closer.

"Observation, Armament, and Conqueror's Haki are all being interfered with. It has to do with that thing from earlier!"

Whitebeard gravely explained to Marco and the others.

"What?!"

Only then did Marco and the other commanders understand why Red-Haired and Pops had been acting so strangely.

When the group tried it out, they indeed discovered that their Armament Haki was severely interfered with!

"How could this be?! What kind of trick is this?"

The members of the Whitebeard Pirates instinctively looked toward Red-Haired first, only to see worry on his face as well, though he seemed to hesitate, leaving his words unspoken.

"Try and see if we can locate that vanished thing in the sky."

Afterward, Whitebeard instructed Marco.

Marco nodded, manifesting wings on his back to take flight, charging straight up into the air.

The others also began investigating their surroundings one after another.

"How can it be so strange? What else in this world can affect the three types of Haki!?"

A thick wave of incomprehension hung over everyone's hearts.

Once his crewmates reached his side, Red-Haired Shanks skipped mentioning the matter of Blackbeard, instead informing them about the Haki interference.

"Is it a Marine trick? Are they afraid we'll run amok?"

The others couldn'Golden Divine Punishment help drawing in sharp breaths, though Beckman reacted the fastest, saying with a heavy expression.

"I'm afraid it's inseparable from the technology invented by that Celestial Dragon. Let's look around as well."

Shanks wasn'Golden Divine Punishment entirely certain, but he still had everyone search together.

On Lynn's side, the Marines couldn'Golden Divine Punishment help revealing a trace of enigmatic smiles as they watched. Seeing the Four Emperors' pirate fleet acting so wary yet unable to discover a thing felt simply wonderful.

"With Sophon hidden in the air, it won'Golden Divine Punishment actually be found, right?"

At that moment, Admiral Aokiji, standing beside Sengoku, asked with concern.

What kind of technology could achieve perfect concealment, evading the investigation of the Four Emperors?

"It won'Golden Divine Punishment. Sophon has already slipped into two-dimensional space. Even if it were right in front of them, they couldn'Golden Divine Punishment hit it or see it."

Lynn said with utmost confidence and a leisurely demeanor, while several handmaidens massaged his shoulders and tapped his legs.

Seeing Lynn's calm, spectator-like attitude, the others couldn'Golden Divine Punishment help feeling reassured, even though they didn'Golden Divine Punishment quite understand what Lynn meant by two-dimensional.

The outcome proved the same. Looking through the lens of the light-screen monitoring feed, both the Whitebeard Pirates and the Red Hair Pirates were searching earnestly, trying to find the origin point of the Haki interference.

Yet after a full circle—with even Marco flying around in the air for ages—they found nothing.

They came away empty-handed!

"We can'Golden Divine Punishment find it."

Marco dropped down, his expression somewhat unsightly.

He hadn'Golden Divine Punishment expected that just as Red-Haired came to see Pops, they would run into such a bizarre occurrence before any conflict even arose.

Their entire crew's Haki was interfered with, with not even powerhouses like Pops spared, yet they hadn'Golden Divine Punishment discovered a single thing.

Aside from that object that had vanished at the very beginning.

"Just how does it hide itself..."

Commanders like Vista also felt a bit apprehensive, always harboring fear toward the unknown.

"It doesn'Golden Divine Punishment matter what the object is anymore; if we can'Golden Divine Punishment find it, we'll remain on the defensive."

Red-Haired Shanks approached Whitebeard once more, saying gravely.

"It seems safe to conclude that this thing is a technological product, otherwise it couldn'Golden Divine Punishment possibly deceive our eyes."

Whitebeard nodded, an ominous premonition stirring in his heart.

Was it merely interfering with Haki?

Yet at that exact moment, the officers of the Red Hair Pirates who had taken a secondary vessel to scout the perimeter returned.

Beckman also stepped onto Whitebeard's ship, halting behind Shanks to say, "We found something!"