"Black Axe's people?" Lin Xuan's low voice rang out above their heads, carrying a hint of mockery. "Perfect. I have something I'd like you to identify."
Chapter 17: Please Spare Us, Mr. Marine! This Sword Counts as Interest?
Clang.
Something cold and heavy was tossed onto the floor with a dull thud.
In the dim light, Nami and Carina saw it clearly: a black double-bladed axe broken in two.
The break was as smooth as a mirror, as though something sharp had sliced through it in an instant.
Buck's signature red bandanna was tangled in the groove of the axe blade, warm blood dripping from it.
That was Black Axe Buck's weapon.
In the East Blue, that axe was the symbol of his fearsome reputation.
"Boss... Buck?"
The money pouch in Nami's hand dropped to the floor with a smack, sending gold coins rolling everywhere.
Her large orange eyes lost focus, and her lips trembled, unable to form a complete sentence.
With his weapon cut in half, its owner's fate went without saying.
"Shh-"
Lin Xuan raised a finger to his lips, a trace of languor in his dark golden eyes. "Not so loud. My hearing is very good."
Thud!
Both girls dropped to their knees at the same time, pressing their foreheads firmly against the moldy wooden floor.
"We're sorry! We were only forced to do odd jobs! All the money is here. Please spare us!" Carina's voice was thick with tears, and her entire body shook.
"We didn't see anything! Really!" Nami bowed her head extremely low and raised both hands above it in surrender.
Watching the scene before him, Lin Xuan scratched his head, a smile curling his lips.
These were the future Cat Burglar and phantom thief?
Their professional skills still needed work, but they certainly dropped to their knees and begged quickly enough.
"Spare you?"
Lin Xuan plopped down on the large iron chest, rested his wooden sword casually across his knees, and pulled a seawater-wrinkled identification booklet from inside his clothes, giving it a casual wave.
"Get your facts straight. I haven't become a full-fledged soldier yet, but I'm still a Marine recruit. Faced with pirate accomplices, shouldn't I arrest you first to boost my record, according to regulations?"
"A... Marine?!"
Nami and Carina jerked their heads up, their little faces pale and their eyes full of disbelief.
Was this a joke?!
This monster, who had split a cannonball with one slash and had an aura fiercer than a pirate's, was actually a Marine?
Was there any law left on these seas?
"What? Don't I look like one?" Lin Xuan raised his eyebrows and leaned forward slightly. The oppressive presence belonging to Kenpachi instantly enveloped the cramped cabin.
Just then, Carina suddenly struck from her knees. Her right hand whipped out from beneath her sleeve, sending a flash of steel straight at Lin Xuan's throat.
"Nami! Run!"
Carina shouted desperately, "I'll hold him off! Go through the window!"
She was gambling that even he couldn't dodge a surprise attack at this distance.
If she could buy just a few seconds, Nami could escape through the window.
But her plan fell through.
Clink!
A crisp sound rang out.
Carina felt as though her dagger had struck something immovable.
The violent recoil numbed the web of her hand. Her steel self-defense dagger snapped in the middle, and half the blade spun away and embedded itself in a nearby plank.
Only a faint white mark remained on Lin Xuan's neck.
Ordinary steel like this still couldn't pierce the defenses of his system-enhanced body.
"Interesting."
Lin Xuan hadn't even blinked. He merely lowered his gaze to the purple-haired girl, who had frozen after her failed ambush, and said evenly, "Is this honor among thieves? You dared to raise a blade against me to cover your companion?"
"Don't... don't kill her!"
Nami, who had already reached the window, suddenly stopped.
She spun around and lunged back, spreading her arms to shield Carina.
Tear tracks streaked her little face, and her body shook with fear, yet she still gritted her teeth and shouted:
"If you're going to arrest someone, arrest me! It was all my idea! Carina had nothing to do with it!"
"You idiot, Nami! Why did you come back?!" Carina's shout trembled slightly as she clutched Nami's clothes.
Watching this display of sisterly devotion, Lin Xuan yawned.
He had no interest in tormenting and killing the weak, nor could he be bothered to watch such a tearjerker.
"You're too loud."
Lin Xuan picked at his ear impatiently.
The cold indifference radiating from him instantly silenced the two arguing girls.
"I never said I was going to kill you. As it happens, my ship needs a few people to do odd jobs. Since you're so energetic, you're temporarily requisitioned."
Lin Xuan stood, his tall figure completely overshadowing them both. Deliberately giving them a nasty smile, he swept his gaze over them. "Since you're Marine prisoners, act like prisoners. Besides doing laundry, cooking, steering, and navigating... if it gets cold at night, occasionally warming my bed would count as reasonable reform through labor, wouldn't it?"
"W-warming your bed?!"
The two underage girls first flushed red, then turned deathly pale, their eyes quivering incessantly. Clearly, they had already imagined certain horrifying futures.
This Marine really was a demon in human skin!
"What? Any objections?" Lin Xuan lightly tapped his wooden sword against the floor.
"N-no objections!" They instantly huddled together, trembling, afraid that a second's hesitation would get them dragged away by this demon.
Having achieved the desired intimidation, Lin Xuan withdrew his gaze.
Scaring little girls got pretty boring if he did it too much.
Lin Xuan's attention returned to the large iron chest.
"Stop playing dead and open the chest. If it's just scrap metal, I'll throw you overboard to feed the sharks."
Carina didn't dare delay and hurriedly fumbled through the pile of gold coins.
"N-no, not these gold coins... The most valuable thing aboard this ship is what Buck stole just yesterday..."
With trembling hands, she lifted a long rosewood box from the very bottom of the iron chest.
The moment the wooden box appeared, Lin Xuan's languid gaze abruptly sharpened.
Lin Xuan could feel a faint chill seeping through the wooden box and into his bones.
He could sense a vicious aura within it that thirsted for blood.
"Open it." Lin Xuan's voice deepened.
Carina swallowed, carefully undid the clasp, and lifted the lid.
Humm-
The temperature inside the cabin seemed to drop several degrees out of nowhere.
A sword lay quietly on black velvet.
Its scabbard was an ominous dark red. Its guard was a strange cross shape.
Though it had yet to be drawn, a vicious aura that made their scalps prickle was already washing over them.
Nami and Carina instinctively shrank back. Even though they knew nothing about swordsmanship, they could sense that this sword was deeply inauspicious.
"A fine sword."
Lin Xuan's eyes lit up.
He could feel Kenpachi's soul stirring within him, an instinctive craving for a weapon.
Though Lin Xuan's wooden sword handled well, it couldn't withstand too much spiritual pressure, while the sword before him seemed durable.
Lin Xuan reached out and grasped the hilt.
Sizzle-
A stinging pain came from his palm. The resentment contained within the sword was rejecting him.
"Quite a temper."
Lin Xuan sneered and abruptly tightened his grip, pouring violent spiritual pressure into the blade to forcibly suppress that resentment.
Shing!
The long blade slid half an inch from its sheath. An eerie purple gleam flashed through the dim cabin, its cold light illuminating Lin Xuan's somewhat savage grin.
The blade was covered in an irregular, flame-shaped temper pattern, proof of a famous sword.
"An eerie aura. Interesting. Looks like this is a demon sword." Lin Xuan repeatedly stroked the cold spine of the blade. This was far more lovable than that gold.
Seeing that Lin Xuan had truly suppressed the legendary sinister blade, Carina grew even more afraid. Then, as though remembering something, she hesitantly pulled a yellowed sheet of parchment from a hidden compartment in the wooden box.
"Um... Mr. Marine..."
Carina steeled herself and handed over the parchment, her voice as quiet as a mosquito's buzz.
"This was originally beside the sword. It seems to have something to do with it..."
Chapter 18: A Demon Sword? Hand It Over!
"Um... Mr. Marine, this was originally lying beside the sword."
It was a rough sheet of parchment, its edges blackened and curled with age. A diagram of a pitch-black long sword was drawn on it, with dense annotations beside it in an ancient common tongue.
Lin Xuan took the musty diagram and quickly scanned it.
"One of the twenty-four Great Grade Swords, Demon Sword Murakumo."
He read the bold lettering aloud, his fingertip passing over a warning beside the diagram: "This sword is ill-omened and thirsts for blood. Anyone lacking a steadfast mind or sufficient spiritual pressure who touches it will suffer a backlash and die as their flesh and blood wither away."
"Flesh and blood withering away..." The amusement in Lin Xuan's eyes deepened, as though he had discovered an entertaining toy. "Sounds much more interesting than those scraps of metal that only compete over sharpness."
While Lin Xuan studied the illustrated instructions, stumbling footsteps broke the silence in the cabin.
The Moss Head, who should have been sprawled on the deck questioning his life, had somehow staggered inside, bracing himself against the doorframe.
Zoro was deathly pale, and blood still seeped from his chest, but his eyes were fixed on the demon sword in the wooden box as though he had found his only hope.
"What a powerful... aura..." Dazed, Zoro walked uncontrollably toward the wooden box. "This pressure... If it's this sword..."
"Hey! You with the green hair! Don't touch it!" Carina screamed in fright. She had only just read the warning on the diagram.
But it was already too late.
Zoro's callused right hand had already settled on Murakumo's hilt.
Sizzle-!
A searing sound rang out, like raw meat dropped into boiling oil.
"Aaargh!"
Zoro's eyes flew wide, and he let out a roar.
Before their very eyes, the muscles of his right arm instantly shriveled. His bronze skin rapidly turned gray and dry, and his veins bulged like dead, desiccated earthworms.
The sword was feeding.
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