Ugly as Hell

"Because only by walking slowly can you properly enjoy the scenery around you!" Saint Sanming shouted.

"Come down, Sandersonia." Hancock jumped onto Sandersonia's back and quietly told her the truth.

"People are pushing it from underneath?" Sandersonia was horrified. Along this road that stretched for dozens of miles, beneath the countless moving walkways in the Holy Land, slaves were desperately pushing with all their might—and they could not make the slightest sound.

It was not that Mary Geoise lacked advanced technology, nor that machinery could not be used to accomplish it. They simply enjoyed that lofty feeling of standing on other people's heads.

Several Celestial Dragon children were hopping forcefully on the moving walkway, laughing happily. The adults, meanwhile, pinched their noses and looked at Saint Sanming's passing entourage. They snorted disdainfully, then turned their heads toward the sky to show that they refused to exchange greetings with him.

Yet Saint Sanming brazenly pointed at their towering hairstyles. "Tell me honestly, aren't those buns incredibly ugly? Hahahaha! And everyone wears them so high, all looking exactly the same. Ugly as hell! Hahahaha!"

Cairns gave an awkward laugh. Every agent's face twitched, but none dared answer the question.

"Shut up!" A Celestial Dragon child rushed over. "You've got some nerve, you—"

"What about me?" Saint Sanming picked his nose, then flicked the booger onto the child's hair bun. "Hit me, then?"

"Ah!" The booger struck the bun like a bullet. The child let out a shriek as the bun came undone, and his hair was yanked so hard that his scalp hurt. Most importantly, there was a booger in his hair!

The Celestial Dragon who had been holding his head high and ignoring them immediately ran over and pulled his child away. "Saint Sanming! Don't go too far! You freak!"

"I just think that hairstyle is ugly. What, you unhappy? Think I'm dirty? Then should you cut off that bun with my booger on it?" Saint Sanming said obnoxiously as he dug into his nostril again.

The Celestial Dragon child immediately burst into loud tears. The other party had wanted to fly into a rage, but the moment he saw Saint Sanming picking his nose again, he instantly took his child and fled several yards away.

"I flicked a booger, so why did you come so close? You're running? Can you get away?" Saint Sanming flicked his finger, and a chunk of dried snot shot several yards away with a whoosh, smacking the Celestial Dragon in the face with a crisp sound. The man nearly fainted on the spot, while the agents who had failed to protect him were kicked again and again.

Watching the other man jump around in rage yet remain helpless, Saint Sanming felt unbelievably satisfied. As a Celestial Dragon, he might not be able to beat the Gorosei or that group from CP0, but as long as he could beat stinking pigs like them, he could run rampant through Mary Geoise.

After dealing with them, Saint Sanming had already understood. Although the Gorosei represented the interests of the Celestial Dragons and were their leaders, they did not like those good-for-nothing disasters. Every time those fools got into trouble, the Gorosei had to clean up their messes. Aside from spending money, they only knew how to cause trouble.

The fact that Saint Sanming had not received any punishment this time already revealed something. Though the matter of several slaves was too trivial to be more trivial, it showed that the Gorosei were willing to indulge Saint Sanming in putting pressure on those descendants who caused trouble all day long.

Especially since Saint Sanming's training progress had pleased them so greatly. There might not be another child so hardworking and talented for the next several hundred years.

After arriving at the new residence, a CP0 agent directly under the intelligence agency walked around with a Camera Den Den Mushi, taking pictures to report Saint Sanming's living conditions to the Gorosei.

"The necessary daily supplies will be delivered immediately." Cairns asked, "Would you like to apply for a moving walkway to be built?"

Originally, this had merely been a formality. Based on Cairns's understanding of Saint Sanming, his master did not like products that abused slaves like this and should have refused.

"Yes. Why wouldn't I?" Saint Sanming said. "A moving walkway is a symbol of status. Of course my residence, Saint Sanming's residence, needs a direct walkway! Build it for me. Not only should it be built, it should extend all the way into the courtyard, just like at the main family residence. Wahahaha!"

This moving walkway was actually a tunnel. Perhaps it would have some unexpected use.

Though Cairns was somewhat surprised, he was much more reassured.

"Yes. The application will be approved tomorrow."

Naturally, this was also recorded by the Visual Den Den Mushi and smoothly entered CP0's archives. Although Saint Sanming liked slaves and even treated slaves he favored especially well, he clearly did not like all slaves, much less sympathize with them. Everything was merely Saint Sanming's personal preference and his willful stubbornness.

Celestial Dragons could do whatever they wanted in the first place. Saint Sanming's personal tastes simply did not follow the mainstream.

What happened next further dispelled the doubts of the CP0 agents investigating him in secret.

"Saint Sanming is beating his three female slaves?" The Gorosei received such a report during afternoon tea.

"Yes. They were being used as punching bags for training. They weren't beaten to death, but... they were beaten badly." The agent reported, "Therefore, among the supplies Saint Sanming requested, he applied for many restricted medicines."

"I always feel that this kid is plotting something interesting again." Saint Ichi raised his teacup and took a sip.

"This is how high-quality slaves should be used." One of the Gorosei expressed support. "Good slaves need to be properly trained before they can become truly useful. Those idiots nowadays do not even know what they are pursuing."

"It's not like he lacks money." Another Gorosei said. "If he pays for it, give it to him. The rules cannot be broken."

The rules could not be broken. To the agents, that clearly carried another meaning: as long as he followed the rules, Saint Sanming could do anything.

The Celestial Dragons also had a hierarchy. Especially after the Donquixote Family left the Holy Land out of sympathy for slaves, even stricter regulations had been imposed on the purchase of slaves, Devil Fruits, potent healing agents, weapons, and other restricted supplies. Only the heads of families who were direct descendants of the Twenty Kings were qualified to purchase powerful criminals as slaves. Every other Celestial Dragon had a purchase limit on slaves, preventing another Saint Homing from taking in over a hundred escaped slaves out of sympathy.

And the strictest rule was this: slaves could be killed, but never released.

Once branded with the slave mark known as the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon, they would be slaves forever. Outside the Holy Land, once someone bearing the mark of a slave was discovered, they had to be killed or captured and sent back to Mary Geoise.

"Fight." Before Saint Sanming lay the Boa Sisters, sprawled in all directions.

"As long as you awaken Life Return, you can remove the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon. Only then can you completely forget these painful days and stop waking from nightmares."

Hancock, Marigold, and Sandersonia's faces were all filled with hope. No matter how battered and bruised they were, they had to struggle back to their feet.

"Master, Sandersonia's face can be restored too, right?" Marigold asked.