Inside the Royal Palace Baths...
Several men and a reindeer surrounded a man, their faces showing unpleasant expressions.
Looking at the group of people staring at him, Xia Chen couldn't help but feel a little helpless.
What are you doing?
"Why? You have such a large sum of money?" Sanji said with a grim expression.
Everyone else shared the same thought as Sanji. Looking at Xia Chen's and comparing it to their own, a sense of disparity arose.
After a long silence, Cobra looked at Xia Chen and said quietly, "I actually feel... you're more suited to be king!"
Xia Chen:...
After the initial shock, everyone jumped into the bathtub and splashed around vigorously.
After a moment, Sanji suddenly asked Igaram, "Do you know where the women's bathhouse is?"
"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you, you bastard!" Igaram roared.
To everyone's surprise, Cobra, that lecherous old man, shouted at the crowd.
"It's right behind this wall!"
Upon hearing this, Sanji immediately stood up with delight and said to Cobra, "You're so kind!"
They then prepared to go to the women's bathhouse to investigate, and Luffy and the others followed out of curiosity.
Seeing this, Xia Chen shook his head slightly and sighed.
"These people are hopeless!"
Then he uttered a single word softly.
"Certainly!"
The moment the words left his mouth, everyone around him was frozen in place, unable to move.
"Ugh, these idiots!" Zoro sighed, but the next second, he noticed that Luffy and the others were all frozen in place, unable to move. He immediately became alert.
He then turned to Xia Chen beside him and said, " Xia Chen, have you noticed that Luffy and the others seem unable to move?"
"Hmm! I've found it!" Xia Chen said calmly.
"I did it!"
This sentence forced Zoro to swallow the words "enemy attack" that were stuck in his throat.
"You did this?" Zoro asked suspiciously.
"That's right! I've frozen them all in place. This is a fruit ability I just developed!"
That's right, Xia Chen is currently using the same Body Immobilization Technique that Brother Monkey used. During his time on the Aokiji ship recently, he has been studying Devil Fruit when he has nothing to do, and unexpectedly, he has actually come up with some results.
One of them is this Body Immobilization Technique, which can freeze the target. The duration of the freeze depends on the strength of both the caster and the opponent.
If he wanted to deal with someone like Luffy, Luffy would be stuck here indefinitely.
The other one is the Water Avoidance Art, which directly solved his problem of not being able to breathe underwater. Moreover, the version of this technique that he comprehended is even more powerful than the original version by the Brother Monkey.
In the original version, Brother Monkey always made excuses whenever he encountered situations requiring underwater combat. Brother Monkey himself admitted that his underwater skills were not very good when he was in the Flowing Sand River.
The reason for this is that when Brother Monkey goes into the water, he needs to constantly recite the Water Avoidance Art, which consumes his energy.
This prevented him from fighting at full strength, affecting his overall ability. (Content found online; please correct any inaccuracies!)
Xia Chen's current Water Avoidance Art doesn't have this problem. He only needs to cast the Water Avoidance Art on himself when he goes into the water, and then he doesn't have to worry about it anymore.
It's like paying once and getting it for free for life!
Both skills are quite useful to him, especially the Body Immobilization Technique.
When fighting a strong opponent, suddenly making them pause for a moment can decide the outcome of the battle; it's a truly amazing skill!
Then Xia Chen stood up, looked at the frozen crowd, and said, "This time I'll teach you a little lesson for thinking about peeping at girls taking a shower!"
"You will remain in this immobile position for three hours. After three hours, the position will be automatically released. During this time, you cannot move or speak."
"Alright, I'm leaving now. You all can stay here and reflect on your mistakes!"
After saying that, Xia Chen wrapped himself in a bath towel and walked outside.
Zoro then stood up, circled around everyone, and stopped next to Sanji. He sneered mercilessly:
" Perverted Cook, how dare you be so audacious! Didn't you see Nami and Xia Chen hugging yesterday? And you still wanted to peek?"
" Xia Chen, detaining you for three hours is already being lenient!"
" Perverted Cook, you can just stand there all you want. I'm leaving now, hahaha..."
Watching Zoro's departing figure, Sanji couldn't speak, but his eyes were filled with rage.
It wasn't directed at Xia Chen, but at Zoro.
"That Moss Head, once I'm freed from this immobilization, I'm definitely going to turn you into sashimi!"
As time passed, news of Crocodile's defeat spread throughout the world.
Somewhere in the New World, aboard the Moby Dick...
"Here you go, this is today's newspaper Beli!" A man with a pineapple-shaped haircut handed a Beli to the newspaper delivery bird.
Then he slowly opened the newspaper and began to read it, a look of surprise appearing on his face after a while.
Then he approached a huge man with a white, crescent-shaped beard and said, " Pops, Crocodile was defeated by that brother Ace mentioned last time!"
"Hmm?" The man with the Whitebeard looked curious and took the newspaper from Marco's hand to read it.
After a long while, he suddenly burst into laughter.
"That Crocodile guy is really a disgrace, getting defeated by a newbie who's only been at sea for a short time!"
"But he's got some nerve, daring to steal a country!"
"Yeah, these newcomers are getting stronger and stronger! I wonder if any of the Four Emperors will be dethroned?" Marco remarked.
"Gurararara... What a joke, Marco! He only defeated a stray dog; they're still a long way off!"
"And even if one of the Four Emperors falls, it won't be me. You know, I'm Whitebeard!"
"I'm so happy today, let's have a feast!"
"Oh!!"
--
On another stretch of sea, a one-armed, red-haired man was also reading a newspaper, a slight smile on his face.
Luffy, you've gotten stronger!
Meanwhile, people all over the world basically knew about this news, Straw Hat Pirates truly became famous throughout the world this time.
Meanwhile, in a conference room at Marineford, the Marine Headquarters...
A group of high-ranking naval officers sat here, including the Fleet Admiral, the Three Admirals, and most of the Vice Admiral.
At this moment, everyone remained silent, not uttering a single word.
Finally, Fleet Admiral Sengoku looked at everyone and said calmly, "I'm sure you all have some idea why I've called you all here today!"
"Regarding Crocodile, one of the Shichibukai, stealing the country!"
"However, this decision is primarily made by the Holy Land; what our navy needs to do is..."
At this point, Sengoku took out the portraits of the Straw Hat Pirates one by one and placed them on the table, then slowly said:
"Regarding the question of this pirate crew's bounty!"