First Display of Brilliance

Cultivation time always passed quickly.

Three days later, Ryan slowly opened his eyes, and everyone around him looked at Ryan with expectant expressions, asking for the result of his cultivation.

Seeing that everyone was looking forward to his cultivation results, Ryan smiled slightly.

Beli looked at the smile on Ryan's face, his heart stirred slightly, and he probed, "Did you succeed?"

"Mm."

Hearing Ryan's answer, Kid and Killer jumped up with joy. The captain had already told them these past few days that they needed to comprehend a powerful swordsmanship, and once successfully comprehended, it would provide no small enhancement to their battle prowess.

Especially Killer, who couldn't wait to witness it right now. Knowing that an increase in strength reaching Ryan's level was generally not a small margin.

Ryan looked at the sky outside and asked, "What time is it now?"

"The Peak Challenge is starting in an hour," Beli replied.

"Then get ready, we'll set off in half an hour!" Ryan suddenly thought of something and asked busily, "Right, the clothes I asked you to custom-make before, are they done?"

Beli had a quirky expression and said, "Yours are too... Are we really going to wear these?"

"Yeah, hurry up and go take Kid and Killer to change their clothes!"

Kid and Killer were both quite excited; hearing the captain say this, they actually had special custom-made clothes prepared for today to wear.

Before long, Kid came out wearing a red outfit, looking very celebratory, which made Ryan involuntarily think of his own passing youth.

"Mm! Not bad, you look very charismatic," Ryan commented.

Killer ran out wearing a yellow outfit, looking at Ryan with eager little eyes as he said, "Master Ryan, how is mine?!"

Ryan smiled and nodded, saying, "You look very handsome, halfway to my level."

Having won Ryan's approval, Killer and Kid looked in the mirror while praising each other's outfits as looking better.

Watching the two of them being praised by Ryan until they lost their bearings, Beli sighed inwardly: Everything you two are experiencing, I've already been through!

Ryan turned his head and saw Beli wearing all green, just about to open his mouth to offer praise, when unexpectedly Beli hastily said, "Mine looks great too." After saying that, he even spun around in a circle.

Ryan: I didn't expect Beli to even steal the answers!

Seeing that everyone was ready, Ryan gave a big wave of his hand: "Let's move out!"

At this moment, the venue for the Peak Challenge outside the royal capital was already packed to capacity, truly a sea of people with beating drums and gongs.

Some people at the scene were already waiting impatiently: "Crocodile, hurry up and bring out the Supreme Grade Sword Yoru for this lord to take a look at."

"That's right, if you dare to deceive us, hum!"

Some people at the scene had already been whipped into a frenzy; the world was never short of troublemaking idiots.

Crocodile said in a loud voice, "Who was it that just said they wanted to see it first?" After saying that, he signaled Mr. 1 with his eyes to get ready to make a move.

"It was this lord here!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he was cleaved into two halves by Mr. 1 with a hand-blade.

Everyone was shocked and angry; of course, there were also some people who hoped the trouble would continue so that their subsequent competitors would be fewer. After all, they were hardly ignorant people.

A few years ago, Crocodile had fought to a draw with Douglas Bullet, who was known as the "Heir of the Devil," and later went on to challenge Whitebeard—although he suffered a crushing defeat, he came back alive.

That was the man who was currently faintly hailed as the strongest in the world; being able to escape alive from his hands showed Crocodile's strength.

"Crocodile, do you want to make an enemy of all of us?!"

"Shut up! Since you've come to participate, you must follow the rules."

Inside, Crocodile was also anxious; the person he was waiting for hadn't even shown up yet.

This Peak Challenge itself was a trap specifically designed for Ryan, and it was an open conspiracy.

If Ryan got injured during this Peak Challenge, then he would have a chance to take revenge; even if Ryan achieved final victory, the whole world would know that the secret of Pluton was in Ryan's hands, and the World Government would not let him go.

As for death—having witnessed Ryan's strength, Crocodile hadn't gone so far as to think in that direction.

This was Crocodile's open conspiracy: as long as you had ambitions, you had no choice but to step into it.

Seeing that the Peak Challenge was about to begin, but the figures of Ryan and his group still hadn't appeared in the distance, Crocodile grew more and more irritable.

Never before had there been a moment when Crocodile would so desperately want to see Ryan.

Whether it was heaven responding to Crocodile's pious heart or not, just as Crocodile was about to announce that the Peak Challenge was starting, the figures of Ryan's party emerged from the sky-filling yellow sand.

Crocodile's overflowing excitement was beyond words: "They're finally here!"

Hawkeye Mihawk: "Hum! Still as unorthodox as ever."

Flower Sword Vista: "Such an arrogant fellow, making so many of us wait for him."

Someone in the crowd spotted Ryan's group and let out a sudden exclamation: "It's the Bloody Swordsman!"

A man with three swords slung at his waist said, "Is that the man who claims the Supreme Grade Sword is already within his grasp?"

"It's him, the most talked-about Supernova recently," said a young man nearby, leaning on his sword with one hand.

Ryan whispered to Beli and the others, "Are you ready?"

"Do we really have to do this?!" Killer looked extremely reluctant.

"Yeah, you memorized your lines, right?"

"Yeah, no problem, Captain." This was the first time displaying their might in front of so many people, and Kid was very excited.

This was a sudden flash of inspiration Ryan had on the way; an opportunity to make a name for themselves this good could not be missed.

"Beli."

"You can rest easy when I do things."

Ryan suddenly released a burst of Conqueror's Haki, targeting the crowd ahead. Ryan even deliberately controlled the intensity so that it merely served to deter everyone.

Even so, a few useless pieces of trash fainted—it seemed they were precisely those individuals who had been mouthing off at Crocodile just moments ago.

This trick of Ryan's was not very damaging, but it was intensely insulting, instantly gathering all eyes squarely onto Ryan's group.

Knowing that missing the moment meant losing the chance, Beli stepped forward with a single leap and shouted loudly to the crowd, "Since you asked with such earnestness!"

Kid: "Then we shall graciously answer you!"

Killer: "We are the Traffic Light Combination, defenders of world peace!"

The crowd: "?????"

Ignoring their expressions, Kid continued, "Red light, Kid!"

"Green light, Beli!"

"Yellow light, Killer!"

The three of them in unison: "We are the enforcers of the world!"

Then the three of them struck a pose together. This was the Traffic Light Combination's very first appearance before the world, and their story began from this moment on.

No one could have guessed that a casual piece of banter today would actually become reality in the days to come.

Everyone stared in dumbstruck amazement at Beli and the trio; some were mocking, some were disdainful, and some were full of regret.

"Damn it, how come I didn't think of such a great way to get famous?" a Red Nose lingering among the crowd of swordsmen said with annoyance.

No matter what, everyone present firmly remembered the Traffic Light Combination from the Ryan Pirates.

With a dark face, Crocodile said, "The time has arrived, the Peak Challenge now begins!" As the words fell, everyone saw seven identically sized sand-formed arenas appear beneath their feet, each arena capable of holding around a thousand people.

"If you please, everyone!"

"Wait a moment, I want to inspect the authenticity of the Supreme Grade Sword Yoru."

Saying nothing else, Crocodile produced a box and took out the sword from inside.

Flower Sword Vista said, "It is indeed the Supreme Grade Sword Yoru."

The crowd was largely put at ease; after all, this was someone from the Whitebeard Pirates, and their credibility was guaranteed.

Ryan looked at Vista with a strange expression. With this matching double act, he felt Vista looked exactly like a shill from his past life.

Ryan made the first move, kicking off with both feet and soaring directly into the air to land right in the exact center of one of the arenas.

Dressed entirely in white with his hands behind his back, Ryan called out to the crowd below the arena, "Anyone not afraid to die, come on up."

Those with hot tempers couldn't hold back and charged straight up, while others observed the disparity in strength across the various arenas.

Before long, Ryan's arena was packed to the brim with people. Without wasting any breath, Ryan simply snapped his fingers and used Conqueror's Haki to clear the field. A few breaths later, only a few dozen people remained standing on the arena.

Those who had just been preparing to step onto the ring froze in their tracks, not daring to take another step forward.

Still, a few had expressions of eagerness flashing in their eyes.

Looking at the remaining few dozen people, Ryan said contemptuously, "All of you, come at me together!"

Hearing those words, the crowd swarmed forward in a killing charge, and someone even yelled, "Brat, you're too arrogant!"

Watching the crowd close in to kill him, Ryan slowly drew the sword at his waist and spoke softly, "Let me see your power."

"Two-Sleeved Green Snake!"

A forty-meter-long cyan sword qi burst forth from the Mubanniu in Ryan's hand, instantly arriving before the crowd.

Bang!

The newly constructed arena was instantly demolished, and the bodies of those dozens of people were all sliced into halves as if by spatial cutting, tumbling down into the churning yellow sand.

"He's improved again!" For the first time, Hawkeye felt a sense of helplessness. How long had it been, and the opponent seemed to have grown even stronger? How was anyone supposed to claim the title of World's Strongest Swordsman with this around?

Sharing the exact same feeling as Hawkeye was Crocodile.

Flower Sword Vista sighed, "Let's set a small target first—just secure a spot in the finals."

"Vice Admiral Garp, when are we making our move?" asked Aokiji, who was lying in the distance observing the situation here.

Garp said irritably, "Don't bother me, I just saw a familiar fellow over there—looks like one of Roger's old crewmates."

"Then I'll rest for a bit; call me when it's time to move." With that, Aokiji shifted the eye mask on his forehead down over his eyes and began to rest.

Garp: "..."

Seeing that no one else was coming up to the stage, Ryan smiled at Crocodile and said, "Count it as my win."

"Mm." After a nod, Crocodile stopped looking at Ryan.

Ryan felt depressed: Weren't you quite excited when I first got here? Why are you giving me the cold shoulder now—such a tsundere.

Ryan also began to observe the carnage in the other arenas, and indeed he spotted two interesting individuals.

One was a man using three swords just like Zoro, and the other was a young man whose moves seemed to be quick-draw slashes; Ryan watched with his own eyes as this youth cleaved a dozen people in two with a single blade.

Though several others were quite strong, Ryan's focus was merely on the entertaining ones, because none of them were stronger than himself.

Finding the spectacle utterly boring, Ryan sauntered over to take a nap alongside Aokiji. By now, the range of Ryan's Observation Haki had already reached over five thousand meters.

Aokiji pulled off his eye mask to see Ryan running over to sleep right beside him, a huge question mark popping up in his head.

"What are you doing?"

"Sleeping."

"Oh."

After over an hour of slaughter, the seven finalist spots were finally locked down.

Garp woke Ryan up from his slumber: "Kid, they're looking for you!"

"Huh?" Ryan raised his head to look and found Crocodile glaring at him with a gloomy face.

"Sorry, you guys fought too slowly, so I couldn't help but go take a nap," Ryan said while rubbing the back of his head.

This remark dealt a direct AOE wave to the other six people over there who were still rejoicing over securing their final spots; apart from Hawkeye's expression remaining calm, everyone else wore dark faces.

A massive arena slowly rose up from the ground.

Crocodile said in a loud voice, "The finals of the Peak Challenge start now!"

As his voice fell, the atmosphere at the scene grew heavy once more.

----------------------------------Old Wang here asks the respected reader lords for the free gifts and five-star reviews in your hands. Don't ask me if it looks shabby—making a living, you know...