Battling the Strong; Jozu's Cunning

As Hawkeye gradually found his footing during the fight, the battle among the three reached a fever pitch, while the middle-aged swordsman who used the Three-Sword Style and the youth who used the Iai Slash had already defeated their opponents and stood aside to watch Ryan and the other three fight.

The youth skilled in the Iai Slash was the first who could not help but join the fight between Ryan and the others, entirely disregarding the injuries he had sustained from the previous battle.

The youth laughed heartily. "This is what a fight between swordsmen should be!" With that, he seized Kong's opening in Ryan's defense and slashed toward Ryan's head.

Ryan was already finding it extremely strenuous to fight two people alone, and now another person had been added. Narrowly dodging the slash, Ryan touched the bloody gash on his face.

"Young people are certainly hot-blooded!" I'll join in and shake things up too.

The moment the middle-aged man moved, the situation shifted instantly. The four of them tacitly took up positions that surrounded Ryan in the center.

The people watching below the ring were all thrilled, shouting one after another, "Take down that arrogant brat!"

Kid looked at everyone's reactions and asked in bewilderment, "Is the captain really that popular?!"

"Ryan has been popular since he was a child," Beli sighed after a moment of silence.

Kid looked at Ryan on the stage, his eyes seemingly filled with little stars.

Meanwhile, Fujitora was deep in thought on the side. Could it be that I have a misunderstanding of the word popular?

On the stage, Ryan looked at them and said with frustration, "Why are you all staring at me alone? Am I really this handsome?!"

The four of them remained silent, only increasing the force behind their attacks. After exchanging a few blows, Ryan was sent flying by their combined strength, gaining a few more injuries on his body.

Ryan glared resentfully at the youth who excelled at the Iai Slash. Other people's Iaijutsu techniques were either horizontal cuts or vertical chops, but this fellow—no, every single time he attacked from the bottom up.

This caused Ryan's attention to be constantly distracted.

Ryan also knew a thing or two about Iaijutsu. Originally, Iaijutsu belonged to a branch of Iai Swordsmanship and was merely a technique to increase attack speed and power, but this youth's Iaijutsu had already broken away to become a powerful swordsmanship in its own right.

"You forced me to do this!" Ryan stood up and shouted aloud.

Looking at the four people before him, fighting them all together was definitely a dead end; he had to break through them one by one. Who's the most appropriate to deal with first? Ryan sized up the four of them.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "You'll do, Mihawk."

Ryan yelled at the top of his lungs, "Hundred-Step Flying Sword!"

Hearing this, Hawkeye hurriedly and cautiously watched the sword in Ryan's hand. Last time, he had almost been killed by this exact move of Ryan's, and the wound on his chest still made him ache faintly.

Only to see Ryan brandishing Mubanniu and unleashing a forty-meter-long cyan sword Qi, which was none other than Two-Sleeved Green Snake.

"You... shameless!" Hit by the sword Qi, Hawkeye was sent flying backward, knocked straight off the stage and down into the crowd.

"Let's go save Mihawk," Killer said, looking at Beli.

Back on the ship, Hawkeye had basically instructed Killer in his swordsmanship practice every single day, so seeing Hawkeye heavily injured now made him anxious as well.

"Go!"

Then Killer forcefully dragged Kid into the crowd to carry back the injured Hawkeye, who was lying on the ground. Seeing that it was the actions of the yellow light and red light, the onlookers did not step forward to stop them; after all, the main event was still up above.

Hawkeye stubbornly said, "Let me go, I still have to fight!"

"Give it a rest, aren't you just asking for a death wish going up in your current state?!" Kid pointed at the injuries on Hawkeye's body and mocked.

"Shameless!" After uttering his final bit of defiance, Hawkeye finally quieted down and watched the battle on the ring.

Without Hawkeye, Ryan was indeed much more relaxed. Although Hawkeye's strength was not the greatest among the four, Hawkeye was simply too familiar with Ryan.

Under his current circumstances, Ryan definitely could not deal with four people simultaneously, so he had no choice but to use trickery to eliminate Hawkeye first.

The youth suddenly initiated his stance, the blade in its scabbard constantly vibrating, and the moment he finally drew his sword, his momentum reached its peak.

"Iai Slash!"

The youth appeared before Ryan in a flash, instantly striking Ryan six times in succession.

The sounds of swords clashing rang out incessantly.

Caught off guard, the webbing between the thumb and forefinger of Ryan's sword-wielding hand was ruptured straight through by the shock.

Ryan was extremely thankful that his physique had already reached the advanced peak; otherwise, having sustained so many injuries, he would have collapsed long ago.

Seizing the moment of stiffness after the youth executed the Iai Slash, Ryan stubbornly endured Vista's ensuing attack and repaid the youth with a move of his own.

"One-Sword Immortal Kneels!"

The sword in the youth's hand was directly knocked away, and struck in the waist by Ryan's sword, he was sent flying backward.

"Did his kidney get knocked out?!" Kid muttered, looking at the exposed area around the waist of the flying youth.

Meanwhile, Ryan on the stage also stood leaning on his sword, a trace of blood overflowing from the corner of his mouth.

The crowd beneath the ring looked at Ryan, who had eliminated yet another opponent. Although he looked quite disheveled now, no one questioned Ryan's strength anymore.

Previously, many people still questioned the validity of Ryan's bounty of two hundred million, but those who had truly witnessed Ryan's battles all felt that two hundred million was far too little.

The only ones still standing in the ring besides Ryan were Flower Sword Vista and the middle-aged Three-Sword Style practitioner.

Vista and the middle-aged man exchanged a glance, tacitly adopting a pincer strategy from front and rear. We can't fight individually anymore, or we really will be picked off one by one. This thought appeared in both of their minds simultaneously.

Although the four of them had previously swarmed one person, there had been no coordination. After all, the four individuals present were all masters who cared about their pride.

Yet the current situation left them no choice.

Leaning on his sword, Ryan looked at the two of them and smiled. "Both of them have gone down—aren't you going to go keep them company?"

"Young people are too hot-headed!" the middle-aged man said while attacking Ryan.

"If you aren't hot-headed, can you even be called a young person?!" Ryan deflected the attacks of the two and shouted loudly, a Sword Intent even stronger than before radiating from his body.

"Let me show you what it really means to have Two-Sleeved Green Snakes!" Ryan swept his sword horizontally through Kong.

The two of them saw two streams of forty-meter-long cyan sword Qi heading toward them, resembling two agile snakes flying through Kong. In the blink of an eye, they were right in front of them.

"Dancing Roses!" Instantly, a sky full of rose petals formed from sword Qi appeared all around them.

Faced with this powerful move from Ryan, the middle-aged man also drew the final sword at his waist and clenched it in his teeth.

"Three-Sword Style. Secret Technique. Infinite Circle Slash!"

"Bang..."

The ring, which had already endured much torment, could no longer hold out, and the entire platform collapsed over a large area from the aftershocks of the three people's clash.

A sky full of yellow sand obstructed everyone's line of sight, making it impossible to see the situation inside.

"Who won?" someone asked.

"I reckon it's Flower Sword Vista. After all, he's a captain of the Whitebeard Pirates!"

"I think that Three-Sword Style swordsman is also very formidable," someone retorted.

At this moment, Kid stepped forward and let out a cold snort. "It's obviously our captain, you idiots!"

Kid's remark immediately won the agreement of quite a few people, for Ryan's strength had already left a deep impression on everyone's hearts.

"Look! Someone seems to be standing."

Everyone immediately focused their full attention on the yellow sand, spotting a hazy figure standing upright while leaning on a sword.

As the yellow sand dispersed, the crowd finally saw the person's features, and immediately someone cried out in alarm.

"It's the captain!"

"Bloody Swordsman—Ryan!"

Although his figure swayed slightly, Ryan still stood firmly there, his pristine white garments having transformed into a bloody crimson hue after the battle.

Someone could not help but sigh, "There are only wrong names, never wrong epithets!"

Ryan looked at Crocodile and said coldly, "Hand it over!"

Crocodile stared back at Ryan for a moment before finally tossing the box containing the Supreme Grade Sword Yoru toward Ryan, and then shouted aloud, "News of the Ancient Weapons Pluton is also inside the box!"

Having done all this, Crocodile departed directly with Mr. 1.

Some people saw that the Supreme Grade Sword Yoru already had an owner and left as well, but the vast majority of people were staring at the box in Ryan's hand with greedy gazes.

"He's heavily injured, there's a chance!"

"That's right, with so many of us, are we really going to be afraid of just one guy?!"

"Kill him!" Someone began taking the lead in the charge.

Beli and the rest hurriedly protected the heavily injured Ryan in the center.

"Where is Vista?!" A roar echoed out, and Jozu was seen running toward Ryan with his entire body covered in hard diamond. Everyone blocking Jozu's path was torn in half by him, and the scene was extremely bloody.

Ryan's eyes rolled as he instantly formed a plan, offering a gentle smile. "Vista didn't die; I held back. Help me deal with this bunch of people first." Ryan pointed at the crowd rushing toward them.

Jozu truly lived up to his appearance—quite honest and simple-minded—and upon hearing Ryan say he had held back, he didn't think much of it, standing before Ryan like a massive wall to block the incoming mob ahead.

Looking at that broad back, Ryan could not help but sigh. This sense of security is truly more than enough!

Beli asked in a low voice, "Did you really hold back?"

Ryan didn't speak, merely blinking at Beli, who caught on and silently moved to the front of Ryan.

Seeing that the chaotic battle had already broken out below, Garp and Aokiji brought a thousand marines who had just rushed over to surround the pirates on the scene.

"Ice Saber!" Aokiji unleashed a large-scale AOE the moment he made his move, seeing a chill gather on his right arm before he released an ice bird. Wherever the ice bird passed, everything was frozen solid.

"Aokiji and Garp!" some pirates cried out in terror.

"Run away!" Immediately, people began to scatter and flee.

"It seems Garp and Aokiji's deterrent power over pirates is still strong!" Seeing that the mere appearance of Aokiji and Garp had cowed many pirates, Ryan could not help sighing.

"Let's get out of here too! Let's tend to our injuries first!"

Seeing Ryan preparing to leave, Jozu anxiously asked, "Where is Vista?"

Recalling the state of the battle at that time, Ryan pointed toward a spot and said, "Go dig over there!" Jozu's speed was indeed truly fast, and after running over and digging for just a brief moment, he unearthed Vista, who had been buried beneath the yellow sand.

During his retreat, Ryan discovered that someone was following behind their group, and looking closely, it turned out to be Jozu carrying Vista as he ran toward them.

Kid turned to look at Jozu and said with displeasure, "Big dummy, why are you following us?!"

"Because Garp and Aokiji are over there," Jozu said honestly.

Ryan and the others: "..."

Seeing that Ryan and the rest didn't say anything, Jozu couldn't help but marvel inwardly, I am truly resourceful.

Just like that, the Ryan entourage of seven when they arrived had swelled to ten upon departure.

Aokiji gazed deeply as Ryan's group departed without stopping them. It wasn't that Aokiji was showing leniency, but rather that if he tried to stop them, leaving aside whether he could actually do so, even if he did manage to intercept them, he might not necessarily win.

Aokiji had just seen Fujitora easily resolve dozens of people with a single move, which, coupled with Diamond Jozu and Ryan—who still retained combat capability—convinced Aokiji that there was no need to take that gamble; it was better to capture the pirates on the scene first.

Aokiji watched Ryan's receding figure and sighed, "If Sakazuki were here, he'd definitely capture him no matter the cost, wouldn't he?"