"When he spoke just now, there was this coldness to him, as if he were keeping everyone a thousand miles away. His eyes were utterly indifferent too."
"And he looked completely different from before: blood-red hair and blood-red eyes, flowing black clothes, and black flames swirling behind him!"
Nami described the way Xia Chen had looked to everyone.
Hearing her words only strengthened Zoro's conviction. Something had definitely happened to Xia Chen.
So he told everyone straight away, "Let's hurry over and take a look!"
"Right!"
As Arlong Park drew closer, the killing intent in Xia Chen's eyes grew increasingly obvious.
Although slaughtering all those sea beasts in the ocean had slightly reduced his bloodlust and temporarily restored his clarity, it still wasn't enough!
He needed to kill more living creatures!
Otherwise, he wasn't sure whether the killing intent would take control of him again.
And on this island, there was no better choice than the Fish-Men under Arlong's command!
So... he could only go on a killing spree.
None of these Fish-Men were any good anyway. As for whether that little octopus who would later have some connection to Rayleigh was among them?
That wasn't something he was going to consider!
He had already said it during his conversation with Hawk-Eyes: he wanted to be a pirate without restraints.
Nothing could bind him, so he only needed to follow his own heart.
Before long, Xia Chen arrived at the entrance to Arlong Park.
He also spotted the villagers of Cocoyasi Village there. Without hesitation, he sent out a burst of Conqueror's Haki and put them straight to sleep.
Otherwise, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to hold himself back once the fighting started!
Xia Chen slowly descended into Arlong Park. Every Fish-Man watched this man dropping out of the sky with curiosity.
One of the underlings slowly approached and asked Xia Chen:
"Hey, human, what are you here for?"
Xia Chen didn't answer or even look at him. He immediately felt insulted.
He raised his palm and swung it down at Xia Chen.
"Didn't you hear me talking to you?"
Squelch!
The sound of tearing flesh rang out. Before the Fish-Man could make another move, Xia Chen's hand emerged from his back, piercing straight through his entire body.
The Fish-Man instantly lost consciousness and fell to the ground.
!!!
The sudden sight stunned every Fish-Man present for a moment. Once he recovered, Arlong roared at Xia Chen:
"Bastard, what have you done to my brethren?!"
"Hurry up and tear this human apart! I'll throw him into the sea to feed the fish!"
All the Fish-Men swarmed him, but Xia Chen merely gave a sinister smile before darting through the crowd.
Wherever he passed, it was as though the god of death had swept through, reaping the lives of one Fish-Man after another.
At the sight, Arlong's eyes nearly burst from their sockets, fury filling them.
The next second, he charged straight at Xia Chen.
He would tear this human who dared kill his brethren into pieces!
But before his attack could land on Xia Chen, Xia Chen's arm shot out like a phantom and seized his neck.
Although Xia Chen was clearly the smaller of the two, he now held Arlong up like a dead dog.
Arlong struggled wildly, pounding Xia Chen's arm over and over. But that arm was like reinforced steel; however hard he tried, it made no difference.
After a while, Xia Chen narrowed his eyes and crushed Arlong's neck.
Then Arlong's struggling body went limp, his hands fell to his sides, and Xia Chen casually tossed him away.
"B-Big Brother Arlong!!!"
The surviving Fish-Men were utterly enraged by the sight, and every one of them continued attacking Xia Chen without fear of death.
And as a good person, Xia Chen naturally had to send them to hell!
Every second, untold numbers of Fish-Men died at Xia Chen's hands.
For a time, Arlong Park became a bloody hell.
Some time later, when Luffy and the others reached the entrance to Arlong Park, they saw villagers lying collapsed everywhere.
Nami's pupils instantly widened, and she hurried over, tears streaming down her face.
"Everyone..."
"Huh???"
Something... didn't seem right!
When Nami lifted Genzo up, she found no injuries on his body. He didn't seem to be dead either, but rather... asleep?
Unable to believe it, Nami checked him again.
He really was sleeping. Which meant...
Nami then checked all the villagers nearby and found that they were simply asleep. She couldn't help letting out a long sigh of relief.
Thank goodness everyone was all right!
Now she needed to think about why everyone was sleeping here together.
As far as she knew, only one person she knew could do something like this.
Nami turned toward Arlong Park, then hurried to its entrance.
The instant she opened the door, her pupils contracted sharply. As though she had seen something unbelievable, she froze blankly on the spot.
"Nami, what are you looking at?"
Luffy slowly walked up from behind and asked her.
But when he saw the scene inside Arlong Park, the same expression appeared on his face, and he called out in a trembling voice.
"X-Xia Chen?"
That cry drew the attention of Zoro and the others. They slowly approached, only to wear the very same expression.
It wasn't that they were overreacting. The sight before them was simply too much of a visual shock.
Blood ran in rivers through Arlong Park. Fallen Fish-Men lay everywhere, and their blood had even stained the pool inside red.
Yet in the middle of this hellish scene stood a man wreathed in black flames, with blood-red hair and blood-red eyes, like a king who had walked out of hell.
That man was Xia Chen. After killing every Fish-Man, his killing intent had finally eased, and he was now doing everything he could to suppress it.
The black flames around his body flickered erratically.
"Xia Chen!" Nami was about to go over when Zoro caught her arm. Then, watching Xia Chen with a grave expression, he said:
"There's something very strange about his condition right now. Let's stay back and watch for a while. It might be dangerous to approach him rashly!"
Zoro knew almost as much about Xia Chen as Luffy did. And because Zoro was more inclined to observe, in certain respects, he understood Xia Chen better than anyone.
Based on his past impression of Xia Chen, he was definitely not someone who loved killing. Yet today, he had killed every Fish-Man here without leaving a single survivor.
That was clearly abnormal. Recalling how Xia Chen had run around clutching his head earlier, Zoro guessed that something they knew nothing about must have happened to him.
But they currently had no way to deal with this situation. They could only watch helplessly and wait for Xia Chen to resolve it himself.
If they were strong enough, they could all go knock Xia Chen unconscious first.
Before seeing Xia Chen's battle with Hawk-Eyes, he might have considered that idea.
But now...
Feeding kills was a bad move!