One Piece: From Picking Up Red Hair's Broken Arm

Chapter 164 Your era, I will bring it to a close!
boom!
Rayleigh's body slammed into the ground like a cannonball, sliding dozens of meters and carving a deep trench in the ground.

In the midst of torrential rain.

He struggled for a long time but still couldn't get up.

He could only support himself on his elbows, kneeling on the ground. His strength had weakened to the extreme, and his breathing was labored and heavy, like a bellows.

Xia Nuo landed gracefully, stopping right next to Rayleigh's sword. He glanced at the sword and casually flicked his toe.

Zheng!
The longsword spun through the air, piercing the rain curtain, and landed precisely in front of Rayleigh.

"Here's your sword back." Rayleigh heard the boy's voice coming from the heavy rain. "Stand up and continue."

continue?

Rayleigh's trembling hand tried to grasp the hilt of the sword, but he didn't even have the strength to pull it out.

He gave a bitter laugh, finally gave up, and slowly closed his eyes.

By now, the difference in their combat strength has become clear.

If they were to fight in a short period of time, their overall strength would be evenly matched, and it would be difficult to determine a winner. However, due to his advanced age, the longer the fight goes on, the more unfavorable the situation becomes for him.

They've held on until now; that's already their limit.

"Let's fight. I'm outmatched. I've lost."

Rayleigh's silver hair, soaked by the rain, clung to his forehead. He took a deep breath, his voice hoarse yet calm:
"However, a guy like you is destined to stir up a new wave and make the Great Pirate Era even more exciting. To die at the hands of a junior like you is not a disgrace to my life."

"The Great Pirate Era?"

Xia Nuo chuckled, a hint of mockery flashing in his eyes. "It seems you're not that concerned about me, your so-called enemy who killed Hachi. Even now, you still think I'm a pirate? The kind of promising newcomer you're looking for, the kind of junior who can fuel Roger's dream?"

Rayleigh paused, looking up at the rain curtain before him.

Rumble!
High in the sky, lightning streaked across the heavens, illuminating the handsome face of the black-haired boy who walked out of the rain, his face soaked by the downpour.

He had already arrived in front of Rayleigh.

"Do you know why I went to sea, Rayleigh?"

Shano's voice sounded particularly cold amidst the thunder, and rain dripped down his angular jawline, pattering against Rayleigh's face.

"Ok?"

A large, bony hand reached out and grabbed Rayleigh by the neck. "I'm asking you a question, Rayleigh. You should know why I went to sea, right?"

"Cough, cough..."

Rayleigh's face turned pale, and the suffocating feeling of being choked made him instinctively want to struggle, but his severely injured body could not muster any strength.

“I am a fruit farmer from the countryside. I could have stayed in the countryside, growing oranges and fishing every day, playing with my sisters all over the mountains and fields, and growing up happily together.”

"That won't work. If we want to survive... that's completely impossible."

Xia Nuo's tone carried a hint of sadness, but his fingers slowly tightened.

Rayleigh's breathing became increasingly labored, and his cloudy pupils reflected the boy's increasingly cold and stern face.

"Roger's last words drove the whole world mad. Pirates swarmed the sea like locusts, endless and relentless, plundering, killing, and destroying... East Blue, South Blue, West Blue, North Blue, how many villages were burned to ashes? How many children died under the swords of pirates without even knowing what an orange tasted like?"

"I don't want to die like that, and I don't want my family to die either."

"So what did I do? I had to put everything else aside and train day and night, doing everything I could to become stronger. Only in this way could I protect my family and my hometown."

"You know, Rayleigh, I used to really love fishing. I could fish for an entire afternoon, and I'd feel restless if I didn't fish for a day. But it's because of the Great Pirate Era you guys started, and because your savior, Hachi, is coming to the island..."

"For as long as I can remember, for several whole years, I haven't gone fishing even once, not even once!!!"

As Shano's tone rose, it grew increasingly fierce, and the force in his hands increased. Rayleigh's face turned from blue to purple, and his eyes began to roll back.

"And you, Rayleigh."

"Do you think I set sail for some 'pirate romance'? Or to find some bullshit ONE PIECE and become the Pirate King?"

"Fuck One Piece!!!"

"At first, I just wanted to survive, so that the people I cared about could survive!"

With a roar, Shano suddenly released his grip with a ferocious expression and punched Rayleigh hard in the face!
Boom!
The latter was powerless to resist, fell heavily to the ground, lay in the mud, spat out a mouthful of blood, and coughed violently.

"As for now."

"I have power now, the strength to make the world take notice, and you think I'm trying to make the Great Pirate Era even more exciting?"

"How ridiculous!"

With a whoosh, Xia Nuo drew the long sword from his back, its blade gleaming coldly in the rain.

He walked step by step toward Raleigh, raindrops dripping down the blade and splashing tiny water droplets on the ground.

"Listen up, Rayleigh..."

"My ultimate dream has always been the same: to personally bring an end to this shitty world and this shitty era of pirates!"

"Whether it's pirates, lackeys of the World Government, or those arrogant fools who call themselves gods, no one can stop me. Whoever blocks my way is my enemy. Do you understand, old man!"

The curtain falls...

The curtain falls!
So that's what it meant?!
As if thunder had exploded overhead, Rayleigh looked up abruptly, his mind reeling.

He stared blankly at the black-haired boy approaching him, his body beginning to tremble slightly.

As Xia Nuo slowly raised the blade, his lips suddenly stretched into a wide grin, and he couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Heh...ha, ha, hahaha..."

His laughter was hoarse and desolate, aggravating the wound on his chest, causing him to cough up blood again, yet he continued to laugh heartily:

"The curtain falls! Is this the end of the Great Pirate Era? What arrogant ambition, what a remarkable brat... Hey, Roger! Did you hear that?! If you heard that, you'd probably jump out of your coffin in anger, hahahaha!"

Xia Nuo did not respond, but slowly raised the blade.

laugh!
A flash of sword light, and blood splattered!

Rayleigh groaned as his right arm snapped off at the shoulder, rolling several meters through the mud.

He endured the excruciating pain, glanced at his severed arm, and then looked up in astonishment, only to see Xia Nuo flicking the blood off his sword and sheathing it.

"why?"

Rayleigh looked at Shano, bewildered. "I was fully prepared to meet Roger... Is it because I didn't want to kill you before, and made you pay with your finger, that you...?"

"Don't misunderstand, I'm petty and always hold grudges. I don't have much of a broad perspective."

Xia Nuo glanced at him expressionlessly. "The reason for this is probably because your act of saving the slave even with your back exposed to me saved your life. That's half the reason. As for the other half, I think you can guess it if you think about it carefully."

"..."

Rayleigh paused for a moment, then gave a wry smile.

He looked down at the blood gushing from his severed arm, then looked up at Xia Nuo, a knowing glint in his cloudy eyes.

"I see……"

His voice carried a hint of self-deprecation.

"You want me to see it with my own eyes, right?"

"Watching you end this era, watching you crush everything Roger started, bit by bit..."

Shano didn't answer, or perhaps he disdained to answer, but simply turned around, his back to Rayleigh, and strode towards the shore.

Rayleigh remained silent.

"Yeah……"

With difficulty, he used his remaining left hand to prop himself up, swaying as he stood up. After taking a deep breath, he mustered all his remaining strength and roared:

"Then I, on behalf of Roger and the Roger Pirates, will live well and keep my eyes wide open—"

"Let's see just how far you, you arrogant brat, can go!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Xia Nuo's figure disappeared into the torrential rain.

Rayleigh was left standing alone in the blood and mud, gazing in the direction he had left, breathing heavily, motionless for a long time.

— *Smack*

The black-haired boy's feet landed steadily on the dock.

"captain!"

"Lord Shano!"

"elder brother!"

A variety of shouts rang out, and his companions, who had been waiting for a while and were getting a little bored, were pleasantly surprised when they saw him emerge from the rain and quickly got up to surround him.

"Is it finally over?" Nami looked at him expectantly. "Brother, that old man named Rayleigh, I heard he's the vice-captain of the Pirate King! A super strong guy, did you really defeat him?"

"Ah."

Xia Nuo smiled and nodded.

"Yay!" Nami cheered. "I knew it! As expected of my older brother!"

Xia Nuo ignored her and glanced around.

The place was a mess, with signs of a battle everywhere.

Pirate corpses were scattered everywhere, along with naval soldiers who were either frozen or suffocated by smoke. There were no warships to be seen on the shore, indicating that most of the naval soldiers had already evacuated and fled.

Xia Nuo was not surprised by this.

His companions inherited his nature and never hesitated to strike down pirates, most of whom were villains.

On the contrary, for rank-and-file naval soldiers, they are often spared as much as possible.

but……

That was only a preferential treatment for rank-and-file soldiers; those who led the way in the navy were often not so lucky.

Xia Nuo's gaze shifted to a deep pit on the shore, where Cha Tun lay with his eyes wide open, clearly dead beyond any doubt.

"Ok?"

He raised an eyebrow slightly, looking at Kuina with some surprise, "This guy..."

"You misunderstood."

Kuina shook her head slightly. "I am confident that I can defeat Doflamingo... but this Marine Admiral candidate is indeed stronger than me. I can only barely stop him and prevent him from disturbing you, Lord Shano."

"How did he die?" Xia Nuo couldn't help but ask curiously.

"This guy is still unethical. When Kuina said it was a one-on-one fight, none of us interfered. Even after we finished dealing with the others, we just stood by and watched."

Noki gave a cold snort and pointed at Chaton's corpse:

"As a result, when this guy saw that his men had been dealt with and he couldn't break through Kuina's defenses anytime soon, he thought he was surrounded and became more and more impatient. Suddenly, he turned to try to break out. If he wanted to break out, he had to choose Nami's direction and also wanted to kill her while he was at it."

They used Nami, who had the lowest bounty, as a breakthrough point.

Xia Nuo's gaze turned icy as he looked at Cha Tun's corpse. He then turned to Nami and asked, "Are you alright?"

"It's okay, bro!"

Nami spun around with a grin, showing off her unharmed body. "I usually train my abilities properly, so I just used my elemental powers to dodge it."

"That guy clearly didn't know I was a Logia-type Devil Fruit user. He was stunned for a moment and didn't react. The next second, everyone beat him up. Oh, right, Jack was the first to rush up. He turned into a mammoth and pinned the guy down. He couldn't even break free."

Are you going to be pinned down by a big butt and unable to move, then be beaten to death by everyone?
No wonder the tea pig's corpse looked a bit flat; it sounds gruesome enough...

Xia Nuo couldn't help but chuckle and patted Jack's arm beside him, "You're a great contributor, well done, Jack."

"Hehe, boss, don't praise me first. Kuina deserves the most credit." Jack scratched his head. "But this guy was asking for trouble. How dare he bully Nami? I'll definitely be the first to object!"

This is true.

"Thank you so much, Kuina." Shano gave another thumbs up, not holding back his praise for his first mate.

He fought Rayleigh for more than three hours straight.

Chaton and Kuina's battles often lasted at least an hour.

To be able to fight a Navy admiral candidate single-handedly for so long, and only be slightly at a disadvantage...

Tsk, at this rate of growth, it won't be long before he really does have a crew member who is known as the world's greatest swordsman.

"How's the ship coating project going?" Xia Nuo asked again.

"I just called a few minutes ago and it's already done."

The black-haired girl's face was burning red, but she still pretended to be nonchalant and said calmly, "I originally placed a regular order, which would have taken a whole day. But when I noticed that you, Lord Xia Nuo, were fighting with someone else, I paid double the money to speed things up. So it was completed in less than four hours."

awesome.

Xia Nuo mentally gave the reliable first mate a thumbs up again. Robin then asked, "Captain, are we leaving?"

"Ah."

Xia Nuo nodded slightly. "Let's go. It's too close to the Marine Headquarters. We've been fighting for so long, and a Marine Admiral could arrive at any moment."

If only one person comes, it's fine, he's in good condition right now, but if more than one person comes, then it will be a bit troublesome.

The group quickly arrived at the dock, where the "Falling Curtain" had already been coated and was quietly moored on the shore.

"Get on board, let's go!"

With a command from Xia Nuo.

The crew members rushed through the bubbles and onto the deck. Jack was the last to board, and he was responsible for taking up the anchor and untying the mooring lines.

……

In the square in front of the big screen.

The screen has now switched to the dock where the Fallen Ship is moored.

However, they dared not get too close. Their viewpoint was from the rooftop of a tower hundreds of meters away, broadcasting a live stream from above of the large ship encased in bubbles slowly sinking into the sea.

Although the battle scenes had all finished playing, the number of viewers gathered continued to grow, and the atmosphere of discussion became increasingly heated.

"That Dark King Rayleigh actually lost to Shano!"

"He even lost an arm! The Pirate King's right-hand man... How tragic..."

"So what? The Pirate King himself didn't just lose his arm!"

"...We really have nothing in common. Speaking of which, the navy suffered a terrible defeat. What admiral candidate? They couldn't even beat Shano's men."

"It seems only the Admiral himself can handle this. Strange, it's been so long, and the Marine Headquarters hasn't made a move. Are we really just going to watch them leave?"

As luck would have it, it seems to be in response to that statement.

Swish!
On the screen, a blinding light suddenly shone in the distant sky, and a golden laser ripped through the rain, approaching the dock at an astonishing speed.

"That's... Kizaru's Devil Fruit ability!" A knowledgeable person immediately recognized it, their voice trembling. "The Marine Admiral has really arrived!"

"awesome!"

"Damn it, go!"

The crowd instantly stirred; some were overjoyed, some retreated in fear, and some stood on tiptoe to get a better look.

"We're doomed! The Curtain Falls hasn't gone far yet, we can't escape now!"

"I've heard that Kizaru's Devil Fruit ability can reach the speed of light, how could he possibly escape?"

"Hey, look! That Xia Nuo seems to have noticed!"

In the live broadcast screen.

Xia Nuo, who was originally standing at the bow of the ship, suddenly turned his head and stared straight at the approaching golden light.

A cold smile slowly crept onto his lips.

"Is it finally here..."

(End of this chapter)