One Piece: Starting as a Celestial Dragon, Building Amazon Lily

The cycle continued, and through everyone's combined efforts, they finally weathered the giant hailstorm without disaster. The pirate ship rocked across the ice-strewn sea and sailed onward.

Chapter 66: Developing the Stamp-Stamp Fruit, the Tongue-Cutting Curse, and Arriving at Wano Country

Fortunately, after that ordeal with the giant hailstones, they encountered no more major extreme weather for the rest of the voyage.

There were occasional winds and waves, but compared with the truly terrifying disasters of the New World, they were fairly mild.

Saint Dio had not been idle during their half month at sea.

He used that time to focus on developing the powers of the Stamp-Stamp Fruit in his possession.

At present, the vessels for his Devil Fruit powers included not only his two swords, Jörmungandr and Kraken, but also a ring embedded with the Stamp-Stamp Fruit.

As its name suggested, this fruit's power allowed him to conjure and engrave various marks on any object.

The marks he used to control slaves were engraved using this fruit's power.

Now, Saint Dio was attempting to further develop the Stamp-Stamp Fruit's potential.

The simplest and most direct approach was to imitate and improve upon related powers from other works.

The first idea that came to mind was a "succubus mark": a special mark engraved on a woman's lower abdomen that could send her into heat when activated.

On second thought, however, this ability seemed rather superfluous to him.

The women around him already obeyed his every wish. He had no need for such methods to spice things up; at most, it would be a dispensable little trick.

So he set that idea aside for the time being.

Instead, he turned his attention in another direction: the sealing techniques from Naruto.

Aside from the large-scale techniques used to seal tailed beasts, Saint Dio paid particular attention to Danzō Shimura's various curse mark techniques.

Methods that used curse marks to control others, seal memories, or even detonate at critical moments were highly compatible with the Stamp-Stamp Fruit's properties.

"Stussy, go bring me a pirate," Saint Dio ordered.

Stussy left to carry out his order. Before long, she returned to the cabin carrying a tightly bound pirate.

The pirate was thrown onto the floor, trussed up with a strip of cloth stuffed into his mouth. He could only make muffled noises as he wriggled on the floor like a worm, his eyes filled with fear.

Saint Dio raised his chin. "Remove the gag."

Stussy lightly flicked a finger. An invisible blade of air swept past, slicing the cloth apart.

As the cloth fell from the pirate's mouth, he immediately began pleading loudly. "Spare me! Please spare me, my lord! I'll do anything! Please don't kill me-"

"Shut up," Saint Dio said flatly. The pirate immediately fell silent, leaving only his rapid breathing.

"It's just an experiment. Cooperate, and I'll spare your life."

He extended his right hand, spread his fingers, and pressed it against the top of the pirate's head. Black patterns emerged on his palm, slowly writhing like living things. They spread along his fingers onto the pirate's scalp, then traveled down his forehead, past the corners of his eyes and across his cheeks, before finally slipping into his mouth.

"Stick out your tongue."

Not daring to disobey, the pirate shakily stuck out his tongue.

Saint Dio glanced down. A distinct pattern had appeared on its surface.

Two broken yin lines below and three solid yang lines above-it was precisely the signature pattern of the sealing technique he remembered.

The corners of Saint Dio's lips lifted slightly.

It worked.

The Tongue-Cutting Curse Seal.

"Now, tell me about my experiences. Explain how I came aboard this ship."

The pirate opened his mouth, trying to answer.

But the instant he attempted to speak, an intense wave of paralysis swept through his entire body.

His tongue instantly stiffened, and his throat felt as though something had blocked it. He could not make a sound, and even his body was completely immobilized. He could only remain frozen in place, his eyes wide with terror and confusion.

Saint Dio watched the suddenly immobilized pirate for a few seconds, then snapped his fingers and lifted the curse mark's effect.

The pirate abruptly went limp and collapsed onto the floor, gasping for breath. He hurriedly explained, "My lord! It's not that I didn't want to tell you! I really couldn't! The moment I tried to speak, my whole body stopped moving!"

"Now, describe what you felt," Saint Dio continued.

The pirate swallowed and answered cautiously, "It... it was just that, when I tried to speak, my whole body suddenly went numb. I couldn't open my mouth or move my arms and legs. It was like someone had cast a binding spell on me..."

Saint Dio nodded in satisfaction.

The Tongue-Cutting Curse Seal had clearly worked.

The effect of this curse mark was that whenever its target attempted to reveal information concerning specified matters, their entire body would instantly become paralyzed, preventing them from speaking, moving, or giving any hints.

This completely eliminated the possibility of leaking secrets.

"All right, you can go." Saint Dio waved a hand.

As though granted a pardon, the pirate scrambled out of the cabin, as if some ferocious beast were chasing him.

Next, Saint Dio had Stussy bring in the remaining pirates one by one and engraved the Tongue-Cutting Curse Seal on each of their tongues.

From then on, these pirates would be unable to disclose any information about him to anyone.

His identity, his itinerary, his abilities-everything would remain sealed deep within their throats.

After finishing all this, Saint Dio leaned back in his chair and began reviewing the results of the experiment.

The facts proved that the Stamp-Stamp Fruit could indeed reproduce the various sealing techniques from Naruto.

This discovery set his mind racing.

If the Tongue-Cutting Curse Seal worked, did that mean other sealing techniques might also be possible? Such as Reverse Four Symbols Sealing, or the formula for the Flying Thunder God Technique, or even... a sealing technique on the level of Planetary Devastation?

He indulged in these possibilities for a while, but soon came back to his senses.

He knew very well that those excessively powerful abilities most likely could not be achieved through the Stamp-Stamp Fruit.

After all, the essence of this fruit was "engraving."

Still, he had never placed particularly high expectations on the Stamp-Stamp Fruit.

He had intended to use this fruit as a supporting tool from the start. Being able to apply it at the level of the Tongue-Cutting Curse Seal had already exceeded his expectations.

After days of nonstop sailing, a hazy outline finally appeared on the horizon.

As the ship drew closer, that outline gradually became clearer.

It was an island surrounded by steep cliffs. Several silvery-white waterfalls hung from the rock faces, roaring down into the sea below and throwing up billowing white mist.

The entire island resembled a massive fortress standing in the sea, without a single shoal or harbor where a ship could dock.

Stussy came to the cabin door and reported to Saint Dio, "Master, Wano Country is just ahead."

Chapter 67: King's Entrance, "Loyal and Righteous" Pirates Who Would Die Before Yielding

Saint Dio left the cabin, walked to the bow, and gazed at the island encircled by cliffs.

Mumei and Shyarly also hurried to the ship's side upon hearing the news. Gripping the railing with both hands, they stood on tiptoe and peered ahead.

"Is that where we're going this time?" Shyarly's eyes sparkled, her face brimming with excitement.

This was her first time seeing a complete island above water with her own eyes. Unlike Fish-Man Island, an underwater kingdom enclosed in a bubble membrane, the island rising above the sea before her was full of novelty.

The ship soon reached the base of the cliffs.

The pirate crewmen looked up at the towering cliffs that pierced the clouds, then down at the surging waves pounding the rock walls beneath their ship. They exchanged helpless looks.

With terrain like this, there was simply nowhere to land. They had no idea what to do next.

They were just about to turn and ask Saint Dio for instructions when they saw him leap into the air, stepping on empty space. His figure rose between the cliffs with successive steps, as light and nimble as a swallow.

Geppo!

Hancock and her two sisters followed close behind, likewise using Geppo to rise into the air and trail after him.

Since Mumei and Shyarly had not yet learned Geppo, Stussy held one in each arm.

A pair of broad bat wings spread from Stussy's back. With a gentle flap, she carried the two into the air and followed Saint Dio up the cliffs.

The pirates left aboard stared upward blankly, watching the group grow smaller and smaller. It took them a long moment to recover before they shouted up, "What about me?! What are we supposed to do?!"

However, no one answered them.

Saint Dio did not even turn his head.

These pirates had only ever been tools for sailing his ship. Now that he had safely reached Wano Country, their usefulness had come to an end.

Not killing them on the spot was already merciful of him.

Besides, each of their tongues had already been engraved with the Tongue-Cutting Curse Seal, so there was no need to worry about them leaking any information.

Let them fend for themselves at sea.

The pirates stood blankly on the deck, looking up as Saint Dio's group vanished over the cliff's edge, then exchanged looks for a long while.

"They... just left?"

"What about us? What are we supposed to do?"

"Maybe... we could climb up too?"

Someone offered the tentative suggestion. But after looking up at the nearly vertical cliffs towering into the clouds, then considering their ordinary physiques, without even Haki, they wisely abandoned the idea.

"But where can we go if we don't head up there?" another pirate asked miserably. "We're in the middle of nowhere. We don't even know where the next island is..."

"And you've seen the New World's weather. That hailstorm a few days ago nearly smashed us all into meat patties..."

The more they talked, the more dejected they became, and the more they thought about it, the more hopeless they felt.

They were trapped in these unfamiliar waters, without a navigation chart or an Eternal Pose. They could not even find someone to ask for directions.

Just then, a shrill screech suddenly rang out overhead.

An enormous pteranodon swooped down from the clouds and circled twice at low altitude. Its sharp eyes had clearly locked onto the lone pirate ship drifting on the sea below.

"Wh-what is that?!"

The pirates looked up in terror as the pteranodon traced an arc through the air, then rapidly shrank and transformed into a human figure that landed lightly on their deck.

He was an extremely tall man.

His entire body was clad in black leather, with a pair of broad, black-feathered wings spread behind him. A black mask covered his face, leaving only a pair of sharp, icy eyes exposed.

A katana hung at his waist, and a suffocating pressure radiated from him.

He slowly surveyed the trembling pirates on the deck, then let his gaze linger for a moment on the skull emblem on their sail.

He had no recollection of this skull design. It was not the emblem of any pirate crew he knew.

Then he looked at the number of people on deck. Just a handful of small fry-hardly the complement of a normal pirate crew.

Anyone who could cross the New World's treacherous seas and reach the waters surrounding Wano Country could not possibly have drifted here by chance.

There had to be something behind this ship's appearance.

The expression of King, one of the Beasts Pirates' All-Stars, slowly darkened.

"This is Beasts Pirates territory. Who are you?"

The pirates opened their mouths to explain, but the instant they tried to reveal the truth, an intense wave of paralysis swept through their bodies.

Their tongues stiffened, and their throats felt blocked. Unable to utter a single word, they could only stare wide-eyed and make garbled "uh, ah" sounds.

King frowned slightly.

As he watched the pirates struggle to speak, their faces filled with terror, his gaze grew even colder.

"You refuse to tell me who your captain is?" His right hand slowly closed around the hilt of the katana at his waist. "It seems I'll have to use a few methods to make you talk."

The katana slowly slid from its sheath, its cold blade reflecting a dazzling glint in the sunlight.

Wails instantly filled the deck.

Steel flashed, and blood sprayed. The pirates were utterly helpless before King. They could not even beg for mercy.

They wanted to talk, but the Tongue-Cutting Curse Seal reduced even their screams to garbled sounds, let alone any information about Saint Dio.

King's methods were ruthless and cold. Slash after slash fell at an unhurried pace, stripping away their will layer by layer, as though peeling an onion.