"Where did that guy come from?"
Seeing Absalom appear out of thin air, Carina and the other girls were startled.
"Wait a minute..."
Then, before Link could explain, Carina, as if she already knew, said excitedly, "That guy, he's not the user of the Clear-Clear Fruit, is he?!"
Link asked curiously, "Carina, do you know about the Clear-Clear Fruit?"
"Of course!"
Carina nodded repeatedly, her face full of longing, "The Clear-Clear Fruit! I heard that this ability not only allows the user to become invisible but can also make objects they touch invisible. It's the ability every thief dreams of."
"I see."
Link feigned realization and smiled. "That guy is indeed the user of the Clear-Clear Fruit."
Carina immediately looked envious. "That guy is so lucky!"
Nami, on the other hand, shivered. "The Clear-Clear Fruit... to think such a disgusting ability exists in this world."
"Mhm..." Vivi nodded in agreement.
Robin analyzed, "This person probably snuck up on us and was going to use the bazooka in his hand to ambush Link."
"..."
The corner of Link's mouth twitched slightly. He suddenly realized that Robin had a cute side too.
That guy was indeed ambushing them, but not me, them.
But he didn't say it out loud, to avoid disgusting the girls.
After finishing off Absalom, Link led the girls and continued towards the castle.
After entering a forest, the second obstacle quickly appeared.
"Negative... Negative..."
A child-like voice with an echo reached the girls' ears.
Then, under the girls' constricted pupils and pale, horrified gazes, several ghosts slowly floated down from the sky.
Seeing the three girls' bodies tremble uncontrollably, the still-composed Robin quickly reminded them, "Don't be afraid. It's just the Paramecia-type Hollow-Hollow Fruit."
"Phew..."
Hearing this, Carina's mood instantly recovered.
Letting out a heavy, turbid breath, Carina's voice trembled slightly as she complained, "They even have this kind of Devil Fruit. Don't tell me there's a Vampire Fruit ability too."
Link: "..."
Good grief, she got it right again.
"These ghosts are not lethal, but if you get touched by them, your will will become negative," Link first reminded them, then instructed, "These ghosts can ignore all attacks. Their only weakness is the user's main body."
"You all play with these ghosts here for a while. I'll go catch the user—Wood Style: Wood Clone Jutsu."
After speaking, Link formed hand seals to create a Wood Clone, and then his main body vanished with a whoosh.
The one who disappeared with the main body was the Wood Clone.
This was just a Wood Clone, and he didn't want to be hit by a Negative Hollow and lose face in front of the girls.
Its mission was only to protect the girls and prevent any other zombies from coming to them.
As for the embarrassing scene of the girls, he unceremoniously live-streamed it to his main body.
——————
"Hahaha..."
Just as he vanished from the forest and was running through the cemetery, Link suddenly couldn't help but laugh out loud.
The girls, without his reminder, had fallen for it so quickly.
What was even funnier was that the first person to fall for it wasn't the reckless Nami, nor Carina or Vivi, but the strongest of the four, Robin.
Through the real-time information sent by the Wood Clone, Link saw Robin kneeling on the ground, negatively saying, 'I'm sorry. If there's a next life, I want to become seaweed.' He instantly lost his composure.
He hadn't seen the icy beauty get hit by a Negative Hollow in the original story, but his wish came true after he transmigrated.
It was a pity the Wood Clone didn't have a Skypiea Tone Dial; otherwise, if he recorded this scene, Link could watch it a hundred times without getting tired.
To have Robin lose so much face in front of her younger sisters and Link... If Perona fell into the hands of the black-bellied Robin, he believed the Ghost Princess would definitely not have a good time.
At this time, Link had also passed through the cemetery and arrived at the gate of the castle wall.
He was so fast that the zombies responsible for intercepting outsiders in the cemetery couldn't react at all.
Looking at the dilapidated castle, full of the traces of history, Link did not break down the door.
He clapped his hands together and used his signature Wood Style:
"Wood Style... Deep Forest Emergence!"
A violent tremor immediately spread across all the land in front of Link.
Countless cracks appeared on the ground, and huge, thick branches broke through the earth. Like giant pythons, as large as Sea Kings, they smashed a corner of the castle with a single swipe of their tails.
When countless pythons converged from inside and out, attacking the castle together, the huge castle was reduced to ruins in just a few seconds, turning into a forest full of towering trees.
Under the treetops, huge white rice dumplings hung.
These were the zombies and humans inside the castle.
Among them were one of the Mysterious Three, "Ghost Princess" Perona, and "Genius Surgeon" Hogback.
"Screech, screech, screech..."
The cries of bats reached Link's ears from far and near.
From within the forest, a large number of black shadow bats flew out.
When the swarm of bats escaped the forest, they suddenly vanished into thin air, replaced by a nearly seven-meter-tall, obese, and strangely shaped modified human.
This person was none other than Gecko Moria, the "Master of Shadows," who had been one of the most dazzling rising stars at the beginning of the Great Pirate Era, who had once competed with Kaido for territory and was known as the "Hero of the West Blue." After his defeat, his spirit was shattered, and he fled the New World in a sorry state, holing up in the Florian Triangle ever since.
"Damn you, brat! You destroyed my castle!"
The moment Moria appeared, he shouted at Link, his defenses shattered.
This loss of composure made Link look down on the current Gecko Moria even more.
Also a loser, also relying on external objects... When Crocodile was searching for the Ancient Weapons, although his strength didn't increase, it didn't decline severely either.
But after Gecko Moria left the New World, his strength had declined severely. Not only had he lost his Haki, but he had also lost his slender figure.
He created a large number of weak zombies that feared salt and seawater, deluding himself into thinking he could take revenge on Kaido, the World's Strongest Creature.
Little did he know, the current him could be dealt with by the other party with a single club strike.
At this, Link, unlike how he faced Crocodile, did not give the self-degrading Moria the respect a senior deserved. He formed hand seals and said, "Wood Style: Adamantine Wood!"
A large number of rectangular branches immediately grew from the ground, binding towards Moria.
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