Ron turned his head slightly and glanced at Kaido standing on his shoulder. His gaze lingered on that bloodstained face for two seconds before he teased, "Kaido, you're too hostile. Young people like us should cultivate ourselves, nurture our character, and speak with civility. Shouting 'kill him' all day is hardly proper."
Kaido's motion with the club paused slightly, and he looked at Ron suspiciously. "Wait... did someone possess you?"
Ron did not answer that. His gaze fell on the trail of blood running all the way down Kaido's back.
Blood had already dripped along the hem of his clothes, leaving a pool of red on the surface of the nine-tailed fox demon's golden chakra cloak.
"Hey, Kaido," Ron's voice suddenly grew more serious. "Is your back leaking ketchup? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Kaido answered casually, even managing to grin. "Just a little dizzy."
"Take deep breaths. Dizziness is normal," Ron complained.
Wasn't that obvious? He had only been standing on Ron's shoulder for a short while, and blood was already all over the place. Forget dizziness; it would not be strange if he collapsed in a moment.
"I've got good news for you, Ron," Kaido suddenly changed the subject, as if he had remembered something worth bragging about.
"Oh? You found the legendary Devil Fruit?" Ron guessed.
At the mention of that, Kaido's stomach filled with fire. His brows tightened as he complained, "Not that. It was a trap. That bastard Sengoku made an incredibly realistic one out of plastic. I was too anxious and didn't look carefully, so I bit right into it. He even asked me if it tasted good."
"That was considerate of him," Ron said, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. "Honestly, you should thank him. If it had been real but had a trash ability, you'd have nowhere to cry."
"From the sound of it, I should thank him?" Kaido glared.
"Up to you."
"No, wait... I was telling you the good news." Kaido cleared his throat hard, trying to drag the conversation back. "With your power, I successfully opened the Sixth Gate. Doesn't that mean my talent is incredible?"
After a pause, Kaido seemed to remember something. His expression grew a little more serious. "Right. See that woman in Sengoku's palm? She's creepy. I smashed her head flat, and she still recovered."
Ron did not panic. As a transmigrator, he knew a little about the abilities of the God's Knights.
"That woman has an immortal body?"
"What?" Kaido was startled. "An immortal body? Then how the hell are we supposed to fight her? Hurry up and take me away."
"They say it's an immortal body, but Haki can suppress it," Ron explained.
"Nonsense," Kaido immediately retorted. "I used Haki earlier, and she still bounced right back."
"Sorry, I retract what I just said. More accurately, powerful Haki can suppress it."
"..."
At the same time, above the golden Buddha's palm, the blond woman had fully recovered.
She slowly raised her head, her displeased gaze falling on Sengoku's Buddha face. She asked coldly, "What are you doing? Why haven't you attacked? Don't tell me you're afraid of that fox."
Sengoku lowered his gaze to her. "He isn't Kaido. This guy... is strong."
"So," the blond woman's lips curled into a mocking arc, "you're afraid?"
Sengoku frowned slightly. He did not answer right away, falling silent for a moment before looking away. His tone was flat. "I'm only warning you. Whether you listen is your business."
With that, he crouched slightly and gently placed the blond woman from his palm onto the ground.
Then he straightened up, his gaze locking once more onto the golden nine-tailed fox demon ahead.
"Ron." Sengoku's voice sank, losing all of its previous composure. "We've been waiting for you for a long time."
He wasted no more words. After speaking, he pulled one palm back and thrust it forward.
Boom!
An invisible shock wave tore through the air, carrying a sharp shriek as it roared toward Ron.
"Come inside, Kaido."
Considering that Kaido was badly wounded, Ron decided to pull him in.
As Ron's words fell, Kaido's body seemed to be drawn by an invisible force and merged directly into the golden fox demon.
By the time Kaido reacted, he was already standing beside Ron.
"It can do this too?" Kaido immediately looked around, excitement in his voice. "Why didn't you let me in earlier? Can I control it? I'm inside now, so I should be able to control it, right?"
"Stop making noise. What do you think this is, a robot? Do you think getting inside means you can control it?" Ron's voice echoed within the fox demon.
The golden nine-tailed fox demon suddenly leapt up, its huge body stretching through the air as it easily dodged Sengoku's shock wave.
Then Ron clenched both hands in the void, and the golden fox demon made the same motion.
Crack!
Two enormous ice spikes instantly formed in the golden fox demon's hands. Their sharp tips flashed coldly beneath the sunlight, white mist curling over their surfaces.
At the same time, dozens of chakra arms extended from behind the nine-tailed fox demon. They paired up, palms facing each other, and began condensing Tailed Beast Bombs.
"Let's go, Kaido. I'll take you to shorten their lifespans."
As Ron's voice fell, the golden nine-tailed fox demon gripped the two huge ice spikes in its claws and dove toward the golden Buddha below.
Sengoku moved extremely quickly, pushing out palm after palm. Shock waves met the fox demon one after another, but Ron's body moved like a fish in water, twisting nimbly through the air and dodging every attack. The tips of the ice spikes dragged white trails beneath the sun.
Seeing that he could not stop the golden fox demon from approaching, a thought appeared in Sengoku's mind: create distance.
But the instant that thought rose, his Observation Haki screamed an alarm. Something was approaching from below.
His body instinctively dodged, and the golden Buddha leapt sharply to the side.
The next second, a loud boom erupted from where he had just stood.
A gigantic ice hand burst through the ground, five fingers spread like the mouth of a predator, closing exactly where the golden Buddha had stood a moment earlier.
"What the hell?!" Kaido stood beside Ron, eyes wide. "Ron... is that ice hand your ability too?"
Ron did not answer, but the ice hand did not disperse after missing. It adjusted direction in midair, fingers closing again as if alive, tracking Sengoku's movement.
Above, the golden nine-tailed fox demon had already descended. Behind him, the ice hand pursued. For a moment, the golden Buddha fell into a dilemma.
Whoosh.
"Damn it. No choice." Sengoku frowned.
The golden Buddha suddenly braked in midair, both palms shooting out to grab the two ice spikes stabbing toward him.
The instant the ice spikes met the Buddha's palms, the impact traveled down the golden Buddha's arms into the ground. The earth shook violently. The ground centered on the golden Buddha collapsed, cracks spreading outward like a spiderweb.
Crack.
The ice hand chasing from behind also grabbed the golden Buddha's body at that same moment.
In the instant Sengoku was locked down, thick white cold air erupted from the golden nine-tailed fox demon and wrapped half of the golden Buddha's body in heavy frost.
Then the ice layer spread downward at a visible speed, producing a series of freezing cracks.
The temperature across the surrounding earth plunged. The ground froze over and spread outward, forming a white ice field.
"Here's another familiar flavor." As Ron's voice fell, the dozens of chakra arms behind the golden fox demon spread open at the same time. All the prepared Tailed Beast Bombs were flung forward, and the fox demon immediately pulled back.
"What?" The frozen golden Buddha had just been about to use Haki to shatter the ice, but before he could act, his pupils reflected one Tailed Beast Bomb after another crashing toward him.
The moment the Tailed Beast Bombs fell, the ground first bulged upward, then collapsed with a roar.
A swelling white core of light bloomed from the cracks in the earth like a sun rising from underground. Then the shock wave raced along the surface, crushing everything in its path.
The entire island began to shake violently. Even the distant sea was affected, raising enormous waves.
Boom, boom, boom!
Continuous explosions rolled across the sky like muffled thunder, lingering for a long time.
On Rocks's side, when the violent tremor passed through the earth, Rocks was stepping on Saint Garling's abdomen. He tilted his head slightly, first looking toward the source of the shaking, then glancing at Whitebeard beside him.
"Don't look at me," Whitebeard said with a shrug. "That wasn't my Tremor-Tremor Fruit. It came from over there. A massive explosion."
"Wahahahaha." Rocks suddenly laughed, but said nothing more.
He lowered his head and looked at Saint Garling beneath him.
At that moment, Saint Garling was covered in horrifying sword wounds. Even the side of his head had been split open, long trails of black smoke rising from it.
His breathing was weak and broken, like a candle in the wind that could go out at any moment.
"You really are... unbelievably weak."
When Saint Garling heard that, his face, covered in blood and dirt, strained into a faintly vicious expression. He wanted to rage, to roar, to once again shout "insect" in that superior tone.
But when the words reached his throat, he realized he no longer had the strength to curse.
Rocks's strength had exceeded his imagination. It was not merely the crushing difference in power. More importantly, that man's Conqueror's Haki was like a poison specifically targeting their "immortal bodies," firmly suppressing the recovery ability inside them.
"What do we do with them?" Whitebeard walked over and swept his gaze across the two piles of twitching remains. "Even if Haki can suppress their immortal bodies, they can still revive. Do you know any sealing techniques?"
Rocks tilted his head, thought seriously for two seconds, then spread his hands. "How would I know something like that? Why don't we chop them up and throw them into the sea?"
Crackle!
While Rocks and Whitebeard were discussing how to deal with Saint Garling and the others, a piercing crack suddenly came from the direction of the stone temple on the mountain.
Dark-red lightning exploded from the summit like an ignited fuse, then spread outward at extreme speed. Like a giant electric net unfurling, it covered the entire island in the blink of an eye.
"Conqueror's Haki?" Whitebeard spoke first, brows tightly furrowed as he looked toward the mountain.
"Strong Conqueror's Haki," Rocks agreed, his expression rarely turning serious. "It started from the mountain. Looks like there's a powerful guy up there."
Whitebeard said nothing. His gaze remained fixed on that area of the mountain wrapped in dark-red lightning.
On Ron's side, that powerful Conqueror's Haki spreading across the entire island naturally entered his perception as well.
Ron's brows moved slightly. He glanced toward the mountain and murmured, "Don't tell me that person has arrived..."
From what he knew about the God's Knights, they seemed to possess something similar to a "vessel" ability.
The ruler behind the World Government could descend directly into them through certain special mediums.
"That person? Who?" Kaido immediately asked curiously.
"The ruler behind the World Government," Ron said honestly.
"The ruler behind the World Government? Who's that?" Kaido asked again.
Ron did not answer. Even if he explained, Kaido would not know. He was like a curious child, asking this and that.
Ron withdrew his gaze and looked down at the smoke-filled surroundings. After failing to find the golden Buddha, he withdrew the golden nine-tailed fox demon form.
The golden chakra cloak receded like the tide, and the two of them landed once more on the smoke-shrouded ground.
"Hm?" Ron drew the long blade at his waist and casually rested it on his shoulder, sweeping his gaze around. "Where's that blond woman?"
"I... I don't know. I wasn't paying attention." Kaido also looked around, his expression carrying a bit of blankness that said, 'I was too busy watching you fight.'
At that moment, the earth suddenly trembled.
Ron and Kaido both froze slightly.
Then, not far away, a golden light pierced through the layers of dust like a golden spear thrusting out from underground.
The gigantic golden Buddha rose from the ground once again.
"Uh..." Ron lifted his head slightly and looked at the golden Buddha standing once more. He sighed. "He's really something. He still isn't dead after all that."