"Big sister, where are we going next?" Sandersonia asked, feeling a bit lost. This freedom had come too easily.
"Get stronger, then take back our freedom from him," Hancock decided.
"But aren't we already free?" Marigold asked, confused.
"I don't want to run away. I want to hear from him that you are truly free, not just escaping him. Otherwise, I'll never become stronger," Hancock shook her head.
Her pride wouldn't allow her to think like that. If she had, she wouldn't have resisted Ren's Conqueror's Haki so stubbornly before.
"Big sister, we'll follow you," Sandersonia and Marigold said together after exchanging a glance.
"Thank you. From now on, our journey will be about challenging the strong. We'll call ourselves the Ren Pirates," Hancock decided their next course.
…
This time, Ren didn't go to the Navy Headquarters for eye drops. Instead, he came straight to the Sabaody Archipelago. After asking Rayleigh for a coating, he prepared to wander nearby.
As soon as Ren appeared, he drew everyone's attention. Besides his Celestial Dragon identity, he was the man who defeated Pirate King's first mate, Dark King Rayleigh.
Many civilians and ordinary pirates instinctively kneeled. Some strong fighters watched from the shadows.
"Is that the Celestial Dragon who beat Dark King Rayleigh?" A man doubted. At this time, many knew of Rayleigh's existence.
"He doesn't look that impressive. If fighting him didn't attract Navy admirals, I'd want to test his strength," another said.
"Ha ha ha, weak excuses," one mocked.
"You wanna fight? I'm a 40 million bounty pirate," a fierce man attacked immediately.
Several sand holes appeared on the man's body, but he quickly healed.
"What's going on?
"Even with DF abilities, you shouldn't be able to beat that monster."
The man looked terrified.
Crocodile touched the man and drained him dry. He looked at Celestial Dragon Ren.
After seeing the news, Crocodile came to this island. The other had beaten the Pirate King's first mate. If he could beat him, maybe he had the power to become Pirate King.
As for the consequences of attacking a Celestial Dragon? He didn't care.
If he was afraid of a Navy Admiral, then his dream would be nothing but a joke.
So after defeating this unknown pirate, he directly came close to Ren.
"What's that idiot doing? Does he want to bring death upon himself?"
"He's hopeless. He's definitely dead."
Whispers spread around quietly.
"Hey, Celestial Dragon, are you the one who defeated the Pirate King's vice captain, Rayleigh the Dark King?" Crocodile smoked calmly, already ready to attack.
"Damn, what is that guy trying to do? Attack a Celestial Dragon? Doesn't he know that'll bring a Navy Admiral down on him?"
"It is over for him."
"Run now!"
Crocodile's words ignited the whole scene.
Ren just shook his head and looked at him: "You're no match for me. Move aside, don't waste my time."
"Guhahaha," Crocodile laughed, though his face darkened.
He had never been so underestimated before.
Immediately, he used his power.
Being a Logia-fruit user, it was like a natural disaster.
Soon, the once green grass turned into yellow sand, and the sandstorm spread widely.
"Damn, what kind of power is this?"
"Get out of here!"
The crowd that had gathered quickly scattered.
To them, kneeling anymore was pointless.
The opponent had attacked a Celestial Dragon.
Next, they would face a Navy Admiral.
"Sandstorm."
Ren ignored the chaos around him.
Using Observation Haki, he locked onto Crocodile's position.
Then he swung his sword once and sheathed it.
A flying slash cut through the ground, splitting it apart.
It cut off Crocodile's arm before the slash vanished near a giant tree.
Ren restrained his strength.
He didn't want to destroy the islands, but he also didn't hold back.
Since Crocodile attacked in desperation, Ren didn't cut him in half, only crippled one arm.
"Let's go, Reisa."
Ren didn't plan to finish Crocodile off.
As for letting a tiger live among sheep? Crocodile wasn't a tiger yet.
"Alright, Lord Ren."
The blue-haired mermaid whispered softly, drawing closer to Ren for safety.
After Ren and his group left, the others gathered around where Crocodile had fainted.
"Hey, is he dead?"
After a long moment, there was no response.
They had seen the fall of many pirates before, but they had never seen a powerful Celestial Dragon like this.
At the same time, on the other side.
"Is that a mermaid?"
"A mermaid on land? She's worth at least a hundred million." A man's eyes sparkled with greed.
"Should we make a move?"
"Could she be a slave of that Celestial Dragon?" Another man was worried. Even with all the courage in the world, no one dared touch a Celestial Dragon's slave.
"She's not wearing a collar, so probably not. Shall we attack?"
The group quickly decided and prepared to act.
...
"Reisa, there's trouble."
"What kind of trouble?" Reisa was confused.
"Someone's targeting Lia and the others." Ren's Observation Haki covered the whole island group, and he could clearly sense hostility. This seemed to be his special form of Observation Haki.
"Then let's go quickly." Reisa grew anxious. She had seen how the Celestial Dragons treated their slaves.
To test if mermaids were the fastest swimmers, they would let any sea creature chase them until death.
All of this was just to satisfy their curiosity. That's why, deep inside, Reisa was very grateful to Ren. He had helped her escape hell and see the sunlight.
Now, facing the people who wanted to drag her back to hell, she felt both anger and fear.
"I don't want anything bad to happen to my people here," Ren glanced at the guards not far away.
"They've already captured everyone." The guards reported simply.
"Good."
"Thank you, Lord Ren." Reisa felt even more grateful toward Ren.
After this incident, everyone naturally lost the mood to keep wandering and quickly came over to Lia's side.
They were surrounded by a group of slave catchers.
"Why are they targeting us?" Reisa's voice trembled slightly.
The slave catchers, who originally planned to answer casually, saw Ren and hurriedly said, "We were blinded by greed. Please forgive us this once."
"Why are they targeting us?" Reisa did not hear the answer she wanted.
Seeing Ren's increasingly cold expression, the slave catchers felt a chill in their hearts. They did have the backing of the underground world's king, but they didn't dare to touch the Celestial Dragons.
Besides, the Celestial Dragons were all extremely wealthy, never bargaining when buying, and even paid premium prices.
Such rich and powerful clients would never be abandoned by the underground world for them because new slave catchers were easy to find.
After some inner struggle, one of them revealed the truth: "Because mermaids can be sold for a hundred million. If the buyer has a noble status, they can fetch three to five hundred million."
The mermaids looked pale. The reason they were caught was that they wanted to come to land, not stay in the deep sea. But there were many people on the sea targeting them for money.
"That CP0, I know where you are. Give me all the intelligence on the slave trade in the underworld." Ren said softly.
"Lord Ren, this…"
"Hmph, can't act because the interests are too big? You just ask your superiors. See if they want to offend me or part of the underground world." Ren's tone was calm.
CP0 said no more and quickly left. He naturally had intelligence on the underground world, but since the slave market involved huge interests, he needed to report it.
**********
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