One Piece: Nobody knows Devil Fruits better than me.

Chapter 156 The Crimson Dragon Emerges from the Mist
The terrifying three-masted sailing ship.

As its name suggests, this island ship is a strange and terrifying place.

The island is home to countless twisted plants and bizarre creatures.

Or perhaps calling it a 'biological organism' is not entirely accurate.

Because essentially, they are all moving corpses.

They all bear gruesome stitching marks, stitching people together with animals, plants, and even human corpses.

But strangely, these corpses, which should not actually have any life, can not only talk and move, but also clearly have their own personalities.

The reason for this is that
"Furious!" "Furious!"

"As expected of Lord Moria's abilities! Whew, although I'm exhausted, the zombies I created this time are even more powerful!"

Deep within a massive, ancient, and bizarre castle in the center of a terrifying three-masted ship.

A sleazy man wearing a bizarre mesh outfit and high heels laughed lewdly.

"You've had a hard time. Now go die, Lord Hogback."

Beside him, a shapely, expressionless female zombie gave the same answer.

That's Hogback's zombie maid, Cindy.

"Eh!?"

Upon hearing this, Dr. Hogback was immediately stung by the words: "Do you want me to die?"

Please do this.

"They actually admitted it!"

And it was precisely during these daily moments when the man and his servant hurt each other.
"Hehehehe!"

From the shadows before them, a massive being emitted a shrill laugh.

“Well done, I knew it would be the right choice to entrust this to you—this is the body of the great pirate 'Kentara' and his crew from seventy years ago. Only your suturing skills and body restoration could have been done so perfectly, Hogback, my loyal subordinate!”

"And then, combined with the shadow of the famous swordsman of the South China Sea, 'Bear Slayer' Aradon, it's a perfect match!"

It was a huge, obese man with a prominent horn on his forehead, an extremely long neck, and incredibly sharp teeth and ears.

From any perspective, his appearance can be described as 'alien'.

Of course, this also fits perfectly with this terrifying three-masted sailing ship.

"Oh, you flatter me, Lord Moriah."

At this moment, Dr. Hogback's words naturally revealed the other party's identity.

One of the infamous Seven Warlords of the Sea, and the owner of this Thriller Bark—Gecko Moria.

"After all, I rarely stitched up corpses before."

Hogback grinned.

As a former genius surgeon, he used to suture patients' wounds.

He switched to cadaver stitching after collaborating with Moria eight years ago.

Therefore he knew
"Fizz. My technique isn't 'perfect' enough."

"After this period of experimentation, I have discovered that only the freshest, most recently deceased corpse of a powerful individual, combined with the most perfect stitching technique and the most powerful shadow, can create a 'perfect' zombie."

At this point, he also felt a little regretful.

Because it's obvious that he's still far from meeting all three conditions.

"Hehehe, no rush."

But Moria simply rested his head on his hands and casually said, "You're going to help me conquer the seas and become the Pirate King in the future—the corpses and shadows of the strong won't be lacking then."

At this point, Moria seemed to have thought of something.

"By the way, where is Absalom Perona?"

He was puzzled: "Today is the day to test the new zombie, why hasn't she come yet?"

And after he finished speaking
"Buzz!"

Inside the room, a man with a lion's face and wearing a trench coat appeared out of thin air.

"Gah!"

He first let out a beast-like roar, and then said, "She should still be sleeping—you know, once she falls asleep, it's hard for her to wake up. Should I go find her now?"

"Hehehehe, she's really grumpy when she wakes up, let it go."

Moriah was very tolerant of his subordinates.

"Since she's not coming, then we'll take the test."

"Boom!"

He didn't finish his sentence.

At that moment, the entire castle began to shake violently.

"Wow!"

Dr. Hogback fell to the ground in a sorry state, his round glasses askew, and his buttocks were stabbed several times by the scalpel.

"It hurts so much."

"Am I going to die, Lord Hogback?"

"I'm not dead yet!"

As the man and his servant continued to hurt each other, Absalom straightened up and asked, "What happened? Was it a sea earthquake?"

He was well aware of the sheer weight of this terrifying three-dimensional sailing ship—as an island vessel, its weight was such that even the storms of the Grand Line couldn't cause it to rock so violently. Only an earthquake could have caused it to sway to such an extent.

"No"

But at that moment, Moria frowned.

He hadn't fought in person for far too long, and many things had naturally deteriorated.

But even so.

At this moment, however, he still had an instinctive feeling.

"Open the window!"

So at that moment, he immediately ordered the zombies beside him to open the windows.

And when the window is opened, the view through the castle's extremely high elevation is breathtaking.

They immediately saw the entire scene outside.

At this moment, the Devil's Triangle, a sea area shrouded in thick fog and with a relatively calm surface year-round, has been transformed into something entirely different.

"Hoohoo!"

An unprecedented gale swept through the island, causing all the trees in the vast forest on the ship to collapse.

Unprecedented waves crashed against the ship's hull, and the thick fog moved faster than ever before.

"Boom!"

Above the pitch-black sky, deafening and dazzling thunder roared and boomed, while silvery-white lightning danced wildly like silver snakes.

"Storm. Storm and thunderstorm?"

"This is too exaggerated! Even in the New World, such celestial phenomena are rare. How could it possibly appear in the Devil's Triangle?"

"Lord Hogback, if you don't understand anything, don't talk nonsense. You might as well go die first."

"Hey? Cindy, don't say that about me."

Absalom and Hogback, seeing the terrifying celestial phenomenon, naturally made this judgment instinctively.

But
"Gudu."

At that moment, they could clearly hear Moria swallowing.

"Lord Moria?"

When they turned around, they saw that the Shichibukai's body was now completely tense.

He was trembling all over, his huge fists were clenched so tightly they were cracking, and even his eyes seemed to be twitching.

"No, it's not a celestial phenomenon."

He spoke, his voice trembling.

Memories that had been there for many years but were still piercing kept flooding back into my mind.

Because at that moment, he could already vaguely see that enormous figure through the thick fog.

It winds like a mountain, and its huge dragon horns stand out like a crown in the thick fog.

Every movement of its limbs stirred up wind and thunder, and swept across fiery clouds.

That's it. That's it.

At this moment, Absalom and Dr. Hogback had gradually come to see the creature more clearly.

"dragon!?"

"boom!"

Upon hearing this word, Moria almost instinctively collapsed to the ground.

"Kaido. Kaido—how could he possibly catch up? There's no way he could have."

At this moment, he was like a fish out of water, and even speaking and breathing became very difficult.

But only a moment later.
".Um!?"

Moria noticed the anomaly.

Because at this moment, the figure that appeared from the thick fog was indeed a 'dragon,' just like the evil spirit in his memory.

But here's the difference.

"color."

He saw the dragon in the sky—its long body was surrounded by faint flames, but he could still see that its scales were red.

"red!?"

It's not cyan.

so.
"Not Kaido!?"

Moria realized this incredible fact, and then he noticed other things—such as the sea monster mask that the dragon wore on its face, which was almost one with its own dragon head.

And at the location of the dragon's whiskers, a skeleton was swaying in the wind.

"This guy is..."

Then, a great fear and an unprecedented burning light flashed in Moria's eyes.

The next moment, the entire Terror Sailboat heard the roar of that enormous creature.

"'The Twelve Zodiac Signs' - Dragon".

"I have come to visit your esteemed place and request some items."

(End of this chapter)