One Piece: Rayquaza of the Beasts Pirates

With the ferocious beasts unable to be transported, Ace, Zoro, and Sanji alone are enough to wipe out all the attacking air pirates.

The intruders were quickly subdued and forced to kneel on the deck in a sorry state.

"So, Mr. Golden Lion, what do you have to say now?"

Kane casually pointed to the pirates who were tightly bound but still glaring angrily, and chuckled, "Their lives now depend entirely on your decision."

"Captain Skeeter! Don't listen to him!"

"Don't worry about us!"

"We'd be perfectly content if the Beasts Pirates were to die with us!"

The bound air pirates all spoke up, and not one of them begged for mercy.

They would rather give up their lives than see their captain threatened by Kane.

Looking at his loyal subordinates who remained devoted to him even in their final moments, the muscles on the Golden Lion's face twitched violently a few times. In the end, all his pride, resentment, and toughness turned into a heavy, deflated sigh.

You bunch of idiots...

How can I possibly be so heartless...?

"I'll do as you say." The Golden Lion finally relented.

Not only that, he then offered a bargaining chip that even Kane found somewhat unexpected.

"Lao Tzu discovered a plant called IQ on an island..."

He briefly recounted his rise to power and his mental journey after being released from prison, and concluded by saying, "I'm willing to use all of IQ Plant's research data, as well as my two knives, to exchange for the lives of my men and their safe departure."

His gaze sharpened again: "If you don't agree, I'd rather perish with those islands!"

"Then I can't refuse your kind offer. After all, I'm not some kind of demon."

Kane shrugged and agreed.

IQ plants aren't exactly trash; turning animals into berserk animals is just one of their simplest and most brutal applications.

It's somewhat similar to the Blood Orchid from Anaconda, which can cause animals to mutate, making it a promising area for research.

As for the Drywood and Sakura Ten, they are also top-tier Great Swords, rare treasures that are hard to come by in this vast ocean.

This deal is a good one.

"But honestly, Mr. Golden Lion, I still can't understand how you could have come up with the idea of ​​destroying the East Blue by breeding ferocious beasts?"

Kane was puzzled, and this was also the question on the minds of many One Piece fans.

Golden Lion's thought process is truly bizarre. Having mastered the Float-Float Fruit, such a powerful weapon, instead of thinking about how to maximize its destructive power, he is obsessed with creating some kind of biological disaster.

"If you really want revenge on the world, why don't you just throw a small island onto the Red Line every now and then? You can fly, so you can just throw it and run away. Who could catch you?"

"It's incredibly difficult to keep the Navy and the Five Elders safe."

Kane complained.

Does a ship's rudder really have such a big impact on intelligence?

The golden lion listened with a blank stare, as if he had entered the late stages of Alzheimer's disease.

So that's how it can be done?

Why didn't I think of that?

A wave of immense regret and a sense of absurdity from taking fifteen years of detours instantly overwhelmed him.

He was eager to put Kane's plan into practice, but his life, like a candle flickering in the wind, told him that it was too late and there was no point in trying.

"Pity."

The golden lion's eyes were unfocused, and it muttered to itself.

He was destined to die with regrets.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, his unfocused gaze inadvertently swept over a familiar young face on the deck, a face that stirred something within him.

"Hey, you little brat in the straw hat! What's your name?"

Upon hearing this, Ace turned his head in confusion, his brows furrowing slightly.

He glanced at Kane, then at the dying but piercingly bright-eyed Golden Lion, hesitated for a moment, and then answered frankly:

"Portcus D. Ace".

Considering the Golden Lion's identity, he roughly understood why the Golden Lion wanted to question him.

Sure enough, the Golden Lion's next words were:

"age!"

"15."

The Golden Lion smacked his lips and looked at Kane: "Hey, Kane, kid. This brat is Roger's son, right?"

Although the surname didn't match, based on his years of experience and intuition with Roger, he was 100% certain that this kid was definitely Roger's bloodline!

“Yes.” Kane nodded, confirming his guess.

"Hmph... I see. Even Roger, who thought himself extraordinary and pursued freedom, had a day when he was bound by family."

Golden Lion glanced at his subordinates, who were looking at him with worry in the distance, and sneered.

I don't know if I'm mocking Roger or myself.

Having figured out the real reason for Roger's arrest, Golden Lion seemed to have his last worry resolved and fell silent.

He closed his eyes, concentrated his remaining mental energy, and silently manipulated the island to slowly move towards the sea.

Just a few minutes later, a series of deep and loud roars came from the distant sea.

The islands that had been lifted into the sky by the floating fruits all fell back into the sea.

As the last echo faded into the sea breeze, Kane seemed to sense something and turned back to look.

The golden lion had closed its eyes, its head bowed, and was no longer breathing.

Shiki the Golden Lion, a legendary figure who once rivaled Pirate King Gol D. Roger and Whitebeard Edward Newgate for supremacy of the seas...

And so, the curtain falls completely!

Chapter 129 Aftermath! Retracing the Grand Line

With Shiki dead, the Flying Pirates were officially disbanded.

Kane kept his promise and released all the captured members of the Flying Pirates.

Most of them chose to return to the sea and find another way out; but a small number of them, disheartened, decided to stay on the island where the captain was buried and spend the rest of their lives there.

Indigo and Scaredo are the latter.

"These are all the results of my research over the years."

Following the instructions of the Golden Lion before his death, Indigo handed over all the piles of data, information, and various strange IQ drug samples in the laboratory to Kane.

His tone was calm, yet carried a hollow sense of relief.

He no longer needs these things.

The captain is dead, and he has lost interest in studying IQ plants.

Kane nodded, signaling his pirate crew to carefully move these valuable "spoils of war".

At the same time, he pulled out a Den Den Mushi—he needed to contact Kaido.

Without the strongest transporter present, he couldn't have transported such a large island back to Wano Country.

While Kane was devouring the Golden Lion's offspring, the Golden Lion's death had already stirred up a huge storm in the outside world.

Regardless of how much his power declined in his later years, his name itself represents a legend and a piece of history.

Marineford.

Naval Headquarters Building, Marshal's Office.

"Golden Lion is dead! Such momentous news, and our navy only found out through the World Economic Herald?!"

The Warring States Marshal angrily waved the newspaper in his hand, denouncing the lieutenant general in charge of intelligence who stood before him with his head bowed, looking like a lackey.

The goat on the table was so frightened that it stopped chewing the paper.

"Alright, Warring States period."

Vice Admiral Tsuru, who was standing calmly to the side, put down his teacup and spoke up to ease the atmosphere, "It can't all be blamed on him. You and I both know about Shiki's Float-Float Fruit ability. Finding his trail at high altitude is like finding a needle in a haystack. What's more, our Navy doesn't have a well-organized air force."

Lieutenant General Tsuru, I love you dearly!

The intelligence officer was deeply grateful and bowed his head even lower.

"Sigh... Let's go back."

Zhan Guo sighed deeply and waved his hand wearily.

How could he not understand this principle?

It's just that without comparison, there's no harm done. Morgans was able to obtain firsthand information, while their official institutions were slow to catch up, which is truly disheartening.

Crane stopped dwelling on the intelligence issue and turned her gaze to the relaxed-looking photo of Kane in the newspaper.

"So, should we take further targeted action against this Calamity Kane? It seems he didn't expend much effort to take down the Golden Lion."

"Let's increase his bounty by 400 million."

Sengoku frowned and pondered for a moment, then said helplessly, "As long as he doesn't openly attack any member state of the World Government or do anything else extremely outrageous, for now... let him be."

He can't keep expending the combat power of one or even two admirals on tracking down a powerful and elusive pirate.

There are still too few high-end combat forces.

He nodded, tacitly skipping over this heavy topic and instead chatting about some lighthearted and fun things.

"Speaking of which, Zephyr is still as sharp as ever. Luffy has recently started actively attacking pirates. Garp was overjoyed when he heard this news."

"Yeah, I was so happy that I ate senbei (rice crackers) like crazy in the office for three days in a row to celebrate!"

Warring States rolled his eyes.