Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Inside the ruin's trial space.
Explosive battle sounds rang out repeatedly.
In less than a moment, the seven or eight Land King–type creatures in front of Zhao Xuan had all collapsed to the ground.
Immediately after—
A flash of white light.
The next second, Zhao Xuan left this stage's trial space and entered the next one.
Yes.
You read that right.
Trial space.
The ruin Zhao Xuan was currently challenging—
The ruin located within the White Emperor Pirates' lair—
Its ruin trials were still intact!
Moreover!
Before entering the trial space, Zhao Xuan had carefully observed the ruin itself.
There were no signs of prior development anywhere inside.
What did that mean?
It meant—
This ruin, hidden within the White Emperor Pirates' base, had never been discovered by them.
Before Zhao Xuan arrived, no one had ever found it!
Although the ruin only produced a relatively ordinary spiritual medicine—and only at the fifth tier at that—
Zhao Xuan didn't care.
What he cared about was the ruin's cleansing reward after completing the trials.
For Zhao Xuan, these ruin trials were laughably easy.
He didn't even enter Dragonman form!
No—no, no.
He didn't even activate partial dragon transformation.
Without using the Azure Dragon Fruit's abilities at all, he cleared stage after stage effortlessly.
From the moment he entered the trial space to the completion of the trials—
The entire process took less than two minutes.
No—no!
It didn't even take a full minute.
Because—
Aside from the first stage, where Zhao Xuan actually attacked—
After that—
He didn't even need to lift a finger.
Under his master-level Conqueror's Haki—
Under that terrifying pressure capable of affecting even seventh- and eighth-tier high-level ability users—
These fifth- and sixth-tier Land King creatures were directly overwhelmed and stunned.
The next moment—
A massive spiritual energy vortex appeared above Zhao Xuan's head.
At the same time—
Outside the ruin—
A colossal spiritual energy vortex formed in the sky.
On the island.
Within the White Emperor Pirates' base.
A low-ranking pirate left behind to guard the lair yawned, casually glanced upward, and noticed the enormous vortex in the sky.
At first, he froze.
Then—
His expression changed dramatically.
"Th-th-th-th-that… that is!!!!"
Immediately after—
His incredulous shout echoed across the island.
"Xiao San, what's going on? Why are you making such a fuss?"
Hearing the scream, a muscular man at the peak of sixth tier strode out of a nearby building.
At the same time, he kept lecturing:
"How many times have I told you? Don't be so jumpy. No matter what happens, stay calm. Keep your mind steady!"
"B-b-b-b-but… Captain, b-but…"
The pirate named Xiao San stammered, trembling.
"What exactly happened?"
The White Emperor Pirates' squad captain was just about to look up—
At that exact moment!
Wooooo—!
A fierce wind swept over.
This wasn't an ordinary gust.
It was a spiritual wind infused with dense spiritual energy.
The instant it hit him—
The squad captain suddenly realized something.
He jerked his head up toward the sky.
And then—
He saw the massive spiritual energy vortex overhead.
And the center of that vortex was aligned perfectly with the White Emperor Pirates' base.
What did that mean?
"W-w-w-w-wha—holy hell!!!!"
After a second of stunned silence, the squad captain's face changed drastically.
"A r-ruin! It's a ruin! There's actually a ruin—and it's on our White Emperor Island!"
Screaming, he hurriedly pulled out an emergency communication device and smashed the red button on top.
"S-something terrible has happened! Something terrible! A ruin has appeared on the island—and someone has already taken it without us even knowing! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
As he muttered, a thick fury gradually surfaced on his face.
Meanwhile—
Inside the ruin's trial space.
Zhao Xuan was enjoying the ruin's cleansing.
Each ruin cleansing lasted roughly the same amount of time—about one minute.
After a single cleansing, Zhao Xuan's physique and mental strength both increased by around ten points.
"Only this much?"
Zhao Xuan muttered in slight dissatisfaction.
Then he shook his head.
"Fine, twenty points is twenty points. To raise both mental strength and physique by ten points at the same time would require eating several hundred million worth of spiritual herbs, right? And not like my earlier gulping method—you'd have to eat slowly and spend a huge amount of time digesting them."
Thinking this, Zhao Xuan bent down and picked up the ruin core from the ground.
With a thought—
The next instant!
He left the trial space and appeared outside the ruin on White Emperor Island.
Using the ruin core, he concealed the ruin entrance back into folded space.
Then he casually tossed the core into the spatial ruin he used like a storage ring—the one he had obtained from the Li family's old patriarch.
"Since this ruin isn't where the White Emperor Pirates store their resources, then they must have another storage location!"
"Could it be that they hid their resources directly beneath their base?"
Thinking this—
Tap! Tap!
Zhao Xuan's figure flickered.
Using Shave, he vanished from the spot in an instant, racing straight toward the White Emperor Pirates' base.
Halfway there—
Zhao Xuan ran straight into a group of White Emperor Pirates rushing over, guided by the massive spiritual energy vortex still lingering in the sky.
One squad captain at the peak of sixth tier.
Six sixth-tier grunts.
They had the numbers—
But they were utterly no match for Zhao Xuan.
After just a few punches—
The entire squad collapsed.
Zhao Xuan deliberately left three alive to interrogate about the location of the White Emperor Pirates' treasury.
The result?
Very successful.
And it confirmed Zhao Xuan's suspicion.
Unlike the Black Shark Pirates!!!
The White Emperor Pirates' treasury was not built inside a ruin—
But underground beneath their base.
Why didn't the White Emperor Pirates follow the Black Shark Pirates' example and place their treasury inside a ruin for better security?
Because they never found a ruin on their island in the first place!
In truth—
It wasn't that the White Emperor Pirates didn't want a ruin-bearing island as their base.
As mentioned before—
The Endless Sea was a chaotic world where seventh-tier were nothing special and eighth-tier were everywhere.
Throw a brick, and you'd hit a pile of seventh-tier.
Seventh-tier weren't worth much at all.
A faction like theirs—
A faction without an eighth-tier king overseeing it—
Was actually very weak in the Endless Sea.
So—
How could they possibly have the power or qualification to compete for an island with a ruin?
That was why—
They went to war directly with the Black Shark Pirates over the newly discovered ruin.
After getting the information he wanted, Zhao Xuan gave the three captives a quick and merciful death.
Then—
He charged straight toward the White Emperor Pirates' base.
Inside the base, there were three squad captains at the peak of sixth tier.
If those three had teamed up immediately—
They might have given Zhao Xuan a tiny bit of pressure.
But unfortunately—
Zhao Xuan didn't give them that chance.
He burst out from the nearby forest.
Boom!
With a single punch—
Right in front of thirty to forty White Emperor Pirates—
He smashed one squad captain's head into pieces.
Instantly!
Blood and pulp sprayed everywhere.
Everyone froze.
They were stunned.
Completely stunned.
And at that moment—
Zhao Xuan struck again.
He lunged straight toward the next peak sixth-tier squad captain.
Pop!
Another punch.
Just one punch!
Under the horrified gazes of the White Emperor Pirates—
Another squad captain had his head blown apart.
"D-damn it!!!!"
"Kill him! Kill him!"
"Quick! Kill him!"
"…"
Only then did the White Emperor Pirates finally snap out of their shock.
Under the panicked command of the last remaining squad captain, they charged toward Zhao Xuan.
However—
Don't let Zhao Xuan's fifth-tier cultivation fool you.
His strength was enough to fight seventh-tier head-on!
These pirates posed absolutely no threat to him.
In fact!!!!
To familiarize himself with the five Six Powers techniques that had just advanced to the supreme grandmaster realm—
Zhao Xuan voluntarily exited Dragonman form.
Relying only on partial dragon transformation, he fought them.
One! One! One! One! Another one!
Even so—
This entire group of White Emperor Pirates was still no match for him.
It was a complete slaughter.
Before long—
Every White Emperor Pirate left on the island had become a corpse.
Zhao Xuan swiftly removed three keys from the bodies of the squad captains.
Then—
He hurried to a building behind the base.
Using the three keys, he opened the White Emperor Pirates' treasury door—
A security door forged from eighth-tier adamantine, purchased at enormous cost after tremendous effort.
He entered the underground vault.
Looking at the vault packed to the brim with spiritual herbs and medicines—
Zhao Xuan grinned.
A brilliant grin.
"As expected—robbery really is the fastest way to make money!"
With a sigh, Zhao Xuan began making trip after trip, efficiently moving all the spiritual herbs and medicines the White Emperor Pirates had stockpiled over several years into his spatial ruin.
Back and forth!
He made twenty to thirty trips before finally emptying the underground treasury completely.
"Whew…"
After exhaling, Zhao Xuan estimated the value of what he had taken.
"Should be around two billion. Enough to support three or four intense fights!"
At that thought, a bright smile appeared on his face.
He strode out of the vault.
Standing at the entrance—
He looked at the adamantine security door forged from eighth-tier materials, his eyes gleaming.
"Eighth-tier adamantine isn't cheap. A door like this should sell for two to three hundred million, right?"
Thinking this—
An extremely shameless idea suddenly surfaced in his mind.
"Since I'm already here, I might as well take everything. Even if I sell it cheap, it should still fetch at least a hundred million."
Do it!
Without hesitation—
Zhao Xuan turned back into the vault.
The door was locked from the inside.
So—
Removing it from the outside was nearly impossible unless you had eighth-tier strength to forcibly break the internal locks.
But—
From the inside?
Easy.
Zhao Xuan barely used any effort to dismantle the entire door.
Then—
With a roar, he re-entered Dragonman form.
And then—
Using brute force.
All of it.
With enormous effort—
He finally hauled the massive door into the Desert Ruins.
Boom!!!
When Zhao Xuan dropped the huge adamantine door onto the ground—
The entire ground trembled.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
He leaned against the towering door embedded in the sand, breathing heavily.
It was clear just how heavy that door was.
"Okay, done!"
After resting for a while, Zhao Xuan gradually recovered.
"Next, it's time to head back."
Clapping his hands, he muttered:
"If I remember correctly, the ruin the Black Shark Pirates and White Emperor Pirates were fighting over produces sixth-tier spiritual medicine that promotes the growth of Armament Haki, right? That's good stuff!"
At that thought, Zhao Xuan's eyes lit up.
Yes!
Someone as frugal—cough—thrifty—cough—disciplined—cough—crazy—as Zhao Xuan would never just leave.
That was sixth-tier medicine that boosted Armament Haki!
How could he possibly miss that?
From the very beginning—
From the moment he learned what that ruin produced—
He had already been planning to take it.
"Oh, right. If I'm not mistaken, neither side has passed that ruin's trials yet, right? If that's the case, then if I go now…"
The more he thought—
The more excited he became.
Tap! Tap!
After taking one last look at the completely emptied White Emperor Pirates' treasury—
A treasury stripped so thoroughly that even the door was gone—
Zhao Xuan turned and left swiftly.
Back on his ship—
He immediately lowered the sails.
Adjusted the heading.
And headed back the way he came.
…
Meanwhile—
Somewhere in the Endless Sea, on a barren island.
Inside the White Emperor Pirates' temporary camp.
"Did something happen back home?"
The White Emperor Pirates' leader frowned as he stared at the blinking emergency communicator.
After thinking for a moment, he suddenly called out:
"Someone!"
Tap tap tap tap!
A squad captain strode in.
"Boss," he greeted.
"Have the second and third leaders returned?" the leader asked.
"Not yet," the captain shook his head.
"What about the ruin on the island? How far have our people progressed in the trials?" the leader pressed.
"They've reached the fifth stage. Same as the Black Shark Pirates—both sides are stuck at the sixth stage with those five sixth-tier Land King creatures."
"I see. You may leave."
"Yes!"
After the squad captain left, the tent fell silent.
The White Emperor Pirates' leader frowned deeply.
For some reason—
Looking at the blinking communicator and thinking of the delayed return of the second and third leaders—
A sense of unease welled up inside him.
"Pfft."
In the silence, he suddenly laughed.
"What am I even thinking? The home treasury uses an eighth-tier adamantine security door. Unless an eighth-tier king personally shows up, how could anyone open it?"
"And eighth-tier kings don't have the leisure to wander into this barren sea."
"If a seventh-tier showed up, there are four squad captains guarding the base. Together, they're more than enough to repel an ordinary seventh-tier. Even if they couldn't win, they could still escape. Opening the treasury requires four keys—if even one escapes, the door can't be opened."
"As for the second and third leaders—though they're slightly weaker than the Black Shark Pirates' second leader, those twins fighting together are no joke. Even if they can't kill him, escaping safely is absolutely possible."
As he reassured himself—
The unease in his heart gradually dissipated.
Elsewhere—
At the Black Shark Pirates' camp.
Tap tap tap tap!
The Black Shark Pirates' leader paced back and forth.
"Someone!"
He suddenly called out.
"What are your orders, Boss?" a grunt rushed in.
"Has the second leader returned yet?" he asked.
"Not yet."
"Second does things carefully, and his strength is only slightly below mine. Unless the White Emperor Pirates' leader personally intervenes, those twins shouldn't be his match."
After thinking, he asked again:
"What about the ruin? Have our people passed the mechanisms?"
"Reporting, Boss—we're still stuck at the sixth stage with those five sixth-tier Land King creatures."
"And the White Emperor Pirates?"
"Same situation."
"I understand. You may go."
"Yes!"
The tent fell silent once more.
Neither the Black Shark Pirates—
Nor the White Emperor Pirates—
Had any idea—
That the leaders they sent out—
Would never be coming back.
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Read Chapters ahead: [email protected] / KaiOynx