Bottom of the deep pit.
Luffy was lying at the deepest part of the pit, his body embedded in the broken stone slabs, with a pool of dark red blood slowly spreading beneath him.
But in this deathly silent pit, an extremely faint throbbing sound came from the deepest part of Luffy's chest.
Thump.
A faint heartbeat came from the bottom of the pit.
Thump. Thump.
The heartbeat gradually grew louder.
Then my heart started racing.
Thump, thump, thump--
The rhythm grew faster and more powerful, like the beating of ancient war drums.
Each heartbeat caused the pebbles at the bottom of the pit to tremble slightly. The tiny stones seemed to be pulled by some force, bouncing gently on the ground in rhythm with the heartbeat.
At the edge of the deep pit, Kaido and Garp, who were engaged in fierce combat, noticed the abnormality and stopped fighting.
Kaido's vertical pupils suddenly contracted, the Hassaikai in his hand stopped in mid-air, and the black and red Inazuma wrapped around the spiked club slowly dissipated.
He lowered his head, his gaze piercing through the ruins beneath his feet, locking onto the nascent life force emanating from the bottom of the pit.
"This brat..." Kaido's voice carried a hint of anticipation that he himself was unaware of.
Garp sensed it too.
He was about to punch Kaido in the face, but the heartbeat coming from the bottom of the pit made his fist stop in mid-air.
He abruptly turned his head to look in the direction of the deep pit, a very complex expression appearing on his wrinkled face.
Shock, doubt, anticipation, and worry—all these emotions were swirling together on his face.
" Luffy..." Garp murmured, calling out his grandson's name, his voice trembling slightly.
At the edge of the platform, the Straw Hat Pirates also noticed.
Zoro was the first to spring up from the ground, still holding his three swords, the bloodstains on the blades already dried.
He stared intently at the direction of the pit, his right hand, cracked from gripping the knife, trembling slightly.
"This aura..." Zoro's pupils contracted sharply.
Sanji spat the cigarette butt, now burned to the bottom, onto the ground, stomped it out, and said in a hoarse voice:
"Is that Luffy?"
Chopper still had tears on his face, but his round eyes lit up again.
It shook off Robin's hand and shouted hoarsely towards the deep pit:
" Luffy --!!!"
Yamato also stopped fighting with the Straw Hat Pirates.
She carried Genzo, who had a spiked club on her shoulder, panting heavily, her gaze involuntarily falling towards the deep pit.
Her Observation Haki also sensed an aura rising from the bottom of the pit that did not belong to Luffy.
Everyone on the battlefield stopped moving.
The crowd in the square who were confronting the navy also fell silent.
Jhin lowered his Flame Blade, Queen's Gatling gun stopped spinning, and Jack's Mammoth Form froze in place.
Everyone felt it.
That heartbeat was like a seed planted in everyone's heart, throbbing along with it.
Thump, thump, thump, thump--
The heartbeats grew faster and more intense, each one striking the hearts of everyone present.
At the bottom of the deep pit, Luffy's body transformed once again.
Thin white smoke rose from his skin, swirling around him as if it were alive, glowing faintly in the darkness.
The black short hair started to turn white from the roots, and in just a few breaths, the iconic black short hair turned into a head of messy silver-white hair.
Immediately afterwards, his body began to become even more bizarre.
The muscle lines of the rubber body became softer, and the bulging and hard muscles that were originally in Gear Fourth mode disappeared, replaced by a highly elastic and fluid feel.
His skin had a very faint sheen, as soft as seawater under moonlight.
Garp stood at the edge of the pit and witnessed everything.
His Observation Haki was activated frantically, capturing every slight change in the body at the bottom of the pit.
The aura rising from the bottom of the pit was unfamiliar even to this battle-hardened naval hero.
It's like some kind of being that traveled from ancient times.
"Who is this...?"
Garp's voice was forced out of his throat, trembling without him even realizing it.
At the edge of the platform, Yamato finally put down her spiked club. She looked towards the deep pit, a complex emotion flashing in her eyes.
" Roy is right."
She muttered to herself.
"This guy... is definitely not an ordinary person."
Just then, a heartbeat suddenly erupted from the bottom of the pit.
The final thud was like a heavenly drum breaking, so loud that the entire Skull Palace trembled.
The cracks in the pit wall collapsed completely with that heartbeat, and rubble crashed down to the bottom of the pit.
Luffy suddenly opened his eyes.
His body sprang up as if propelled by a spring, and his newly opened eyes glowed with an eerie red light in the darkness.
He was panting heavily with his mouth open, and the depression in his chest was visibly recovering.
The broken ribs automatically returned to their original positions, the ruptured internal organs healed, and the shocking wounds on the body surface disappeared without a trace in the white smoke.
Luffy looked down at his hands.
His expression shifted from blank to confused, and then from confused to some extremely complex emotion.
He clenched his fist, then released it, repeating this several times, as if to confirm whether his body was truly still there.
"What's wrong with me?" Luffy muttered to himself.
He remembered being hit by Kaido's Thunder Bagua, remembered the feeling of his consciousness fading away in excruciating pain, and remembered everything going black.
He had even prepared himself for death.
But he is still alive.
Moreover, he felt a power surging within him that he had never experienced before.
He raised his hand and pressed it onto the ground beneath him.
The hard ground caved in under his hands.
It sank in like rubber, but bounced back the moment he let go.
Luffy's eyes widened.
He looked down at the ground, then at his own hands, and then, as if realizing something interesting, slapped the ground again.
The ground dented again, then bounced back.
"Amazing!!!"
Luffy's eyes suddenly lit up.
An inexplicable and uncontrollable sense of joy rose from the bottom of my heart, gushing out like a spring.
That joy had no reason whatsoever; it wasn't the relief of surviving a catastrophe, nor the satisfaction of revenge, but simply a pure, soul-deep delight.
It seemed to surge out from some corner of his body, instantly filling his entire being.
Luffy his head back and laughed loudly.
"Hehehe--hehehehe--hahahahaha--!!!"
Luffy's laughter was unrestrained and joyful, echoing in the deep pit, rising from a low crescendo to a high crescendo.
From suppression to explosion, it was like laughter that had been held back for eight hundred years finally finding an outlet.
He bounced and leaped around at the bottom of the pit like a monkey, each jump sending him soaring higher on the springy ground.
Each bounce made his laughter even louder.