When Luffy fought Rob Lucci before, he hadn't used this move.
Now, Rob Lucci could feel Luffy's aura instantly grow significantly stronger!
Rob Lucci didn't dare be careless. His body rapidly transformed, directly entering his Leopard Man state.
Soon, an intense battle erupted directly on the execution platform.
On the high platform, Lin Xuan happened to snap back to attention at that moment and noticed the situation at the execution platform. A look of amusement crossed his face. "Luffy's already learned Second Gear? Looks like the changes because of me really are significant!"
According to the original storyline, Luffy learned it during his fight with CP9's Blueno after failing to defeat him multiple times. Now, because of Lin Xuan's influence, Luffy had encountered Sabo earlier and broken into Impel Down. He'd probably mastered Second Gear during that time. The constant factor was that he was still using it to fight Rob Lucci!
Originally, in the main story, this was a thrilling showdown. But for the current Lin Xuan, it was merely small-scale skirmishing. His main focus remained on the battle between宇智波斑 (Uchiha Madara) and the others against the Five Elders.
His primary purpose for joining this war, under the pretense of Whitebeard's invitation, was to earn prestige points. His main goals were largely achieved now, and the prestige points were still steadily increasing, leaving him quite satisfied. Whether "Fire Fist" Ace was successfully rescued or not seemed less important now.
As he turned his gaze back to the silver barrier, he saw that Uchiha Madara, his team, and the Five Elders were still locked in combat.
"These old fellows are quite durable!" Lin Xuan couldn't help but mutter.
Upon closer inspection, he identified the issue. While his team of five—Uchiha Madara, Hashirama Senju, Uchiha Obito, Gol D. Roger, and Whitebeard—individually possessed average attack power and combat ability surpassing the Five Elders, they were predominantly offense-oriented with little support capability, and their coordination was clumsy. In contrast, the Five Elders fought with seamless, almost telepathic synergy, as if they were a single entity, resulting in this prolonged stalemate.
In fact, among his team, Whitebeard, being the only living member, had already sustained injuries. If not for the fact that Madara, Hashirama, Obito, and Roger were all reanimated through the Edo Tensei, making them nearly unkillable, everyone would likely be wounded by now.
Looking at the Five Elders, while they had also suffered injuries, the healing ability of the long-bearded Elder was unnaturally potent. Even damage from Truth-Seeking Orbs, considered nearly irreversible in the ninja world, could be treated by him. Thanks to the long-bearded Elder's powerful healing, none of the Elders were in life-threatening danger.
Seeing the situation, Lin Xuan felt that even given a full day, let alone an hour, this battle might never conclude.
"Do I need to buy more Time Deceleration Barrier extensions?" Lin Xuan's mouth twitched.
He noticed the rate of his prestige point gains was beginning to slow down, clearly entering a plateau. Checking his account, the balance now stood at a staggering 3.2 billion points. He estimated he might only gain another 300 million or so before returns diminished significantly.
In other words, continuing this war held little value for him now. Maintaining it came with costs—both the Time Deceleration Barrier and sustaining the Edo Tensei bodies of his subordinates consumed prestige points constantly!
Moreover, his goal in joining this war wasn't to kill the Five Elders, but purely to earn prestige points and gauge the strength of the Five Elders. Having largely achieved that, Lin Xuan wanted to end the war to maximize his profits from this venture.
However, he had promised not to interfere in the fight between the Five Elders and his team, allowing a fair duel. Intervening now seemed improper.
"Maybe I can use the old trick again? Send someone to raid Holy Land Mariejois, forcing the Five Elders to retreat proactively?" Lin Xuan pondered, stroking his chin.
The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a solid plan. But who should he send?
After some deliberation, Lin Xuan realized he might not even need to actually attack Mariejois. Simply scaring the Five Elders might be enough to make them withdraw.
A sly smile touched his lips. He pretended to have a sudden realization and exclaimed with feigned excitement, "Huh? Wait a minute! If all the Five Elders are here... doesn't that mean Holy Land Mariejois is completely undefended right now?"
His voice wasn't particularly loud, but it instantly reached the ears of those closely monitoring him, striking like a thunderclap.
The long-bearded Elder among the Five Elders had been keeping a portion of his attention on Lin Xuan, especially after discovering the Time Deceleration Barrier, wary of any surprise moves. With his powerful Observation Haki, he heard Lin Xuan's words perfectly clearly, his face instantly paling.
His panic intensified when he saw Lin Xuan, looking excited, lean over and whisper something to Kaguya Ōtsutsuki beside him. Kaguya nodded, raised her hand to tear open a spatial rift, and stepped through, disappearing.
"Disaster!" The long-bearded Elder's expression changed drastically.
He was certain Lin Xuan had just sent that woman to attack Holy Land Mariejois! The mere thought of the power Kaguya had previously displayed filled him with frantic urgency.
Just then, a cold chuckle sounded in his ear. "Getting distracted in the middle of a fight... that's very unwise."
It was Uchiha Obito! He had used Kamui to instantly appear beside the distracted Elder.
The long-bearded Elder's heart lurched. He tried to evade, while the other four Elders moved to intercept. But—
"Sage Art: Wood Style — Hell Emergence!"
With Hashirama Senju's low shout, several giant, thorn-covered trees erupted around the long-bearded Elder, blocking the other four Elders. The trees spiraled violently upwards, their intertwining, rotating thorns like monstrous meat grinders, instantly engulfing the long-bearded Elder.
A piercing, agonized scream immediately tore through the air!
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T/N:
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