Three super-godly powerhouses were on a rampage.
An island in a certain sea area of the Grand Line was almost destroyed and vanished forever.
The tsunamis triggered by the battle between the three continued to spread outwards.
Many giant sea kings in the deep sea also died or were injured in the aftermath.
Others who felt the crisis eventually hid in the ten-thousand-meter deep sea to escape.
Even so, the ocean currents of the entire Grand Line became incredibly chaotic due to the battle between the three.
Land of Extreme Evil.
After much wandering, Benedict arrived here, fighting and fleeing.
At the same time, it became another battlefield for them.
Fighting here would burden Benedict much less.
Cough! Cough! Cough!
Benedict gasped for breath, coughed up blood, and had numerous gruesome, bone-exposing wounds all over his body.
Even with the Senzu Beans, the fight was truly painful.
Especially the tacit teamwork between Im and Tree Spirit made him feel even more troubled.
Basically, he would injure the enemy eight hundred while hurting himself a thousand.
"Hoo! Hoo!"
Im gasped for breath. Although he was blown apart several times by Benedict and revived several times due to his devil fruit ability and physique, the mental and physical exhaustion throughout the process was immense.
This was the most difficult battle Im had fought in hundreds of years.
From the beginning until now, he had fought Benedict for ten days and ten nights, and had fought alongside Tree Spirit against Benedict for four days and four nights.
As a result, Benedict, this monstrous freak, had not been killed.
"How could his vitality be so tenacious?"
"What is the deal with those miraculous beans?"
Tree Spirit's temper had long since exploded.
He had originally thought that by joining forces with Im, he could easily kill Benedict.
However, reality had slapped him hard.
Benedict's tenacity was simply like a cockroach that couldn't be killed.
He was too monstrous.
"He has a limited number of those beans."
"Persist, persist, and once he runs out, he will surely die."
Im was also in a bad mood, but it was useless.
As long as Benedict was not dead, his bad mood would make him incredibly restless.
"Then let's trap him to death!"
Tree Spirit growled and attacked again.
Benedict heard their conversation and chuckled.
Having already eaten a Senzu Bean, he had regained all his strength and stamina.
He had killed tens of thousands of artificial devils, earning billions of Justice Points, with each Senzu Bean costing five thousand Justice Points.
As long as he had a supply of Senzu Beans, exhausting Im and Tree Spirit was not a problem.
Even without Senzu Beans, his immortal physique meant he was not afraid.
It was only a matter of time.
Therefore, Benedict fought them with a reckless abandon.
He would hurt the enemy eight hundred even if it cost him a thousand.
The battle continued.
The terrifying commotion filled all living beings in the latter half of the Grand Line with fear.
Red Line Continent.
The area where the Celestial Dragons resided.
Noxus Family.
Shanks stood alone before a five-meter-tall gate, flanked on both sides by CP0 agents dressed uniformly in black, standing in a neat row.
"Welcome home, Young Master."
A uniform, somewhat iron-blooded and cold voice echoed.
Shanks ignored them and walked straight inside.
No one found anything wrong with Shanks' actions; on the contrary, it was considered natural.
Shanks was not familiar with this home.
Fortunately, Grus was leading the way.
Thus, in a short while, Shanks saw his biological father, Saint Noxus.
Grus appropriately left, closing the door, leaving only Shanks and Saint Noxus in the study.
Shanks observed the man before him, remaining silent.
He had no impression of his father.
If it weren't for Roger, he wouldn't have acknowledged the Celestial Dragon blood flowing in his veins, nor would he have known that he belonged to the Noxus family.
Saint Noxus sat at the tea table, meticulously and gently completing each step before pouring two cups of tea.
One was for Shanks, and the other was for himself.
"Since you're here, why don't you sit down and have some tea with me?" Saint Noxus looked up, gazing at his grown son with a gentle smile, and said.
Shanks hesitated slightly before finally sitting down at the tea table.
"Drink up. You are the first person I have personally made tea for."
Saint Noxus said to Shanks with a chuckle.
Shanks glanced at the cup, picked it up, drank it in one gulp, then put it down and said, "I don't like drinking tea."
"Why?" Saint Noxus did not blame Shanks for wasting his fine tea; instead, he curiously inquired.
"Tea is not as potent as wine. It's not exhilarating," Shanks replied calmly.
Saint Noxus chuckled upon hearing this, then picked up his own teacup and slowly savored it.
A moment later, he put down the teacup, with about a third of the tea remaining.
"Sweetness after bitterness," Saint Noxus said with a smile after tasting the tea.
"Your adventures outside over the years have made you experience a lot and grow a lot."
"Without external influences, like flowers in a greenhouse, you would just be a fool even after growing up."
"I don't care about the people from other families."
"However, there can be no fools in my Noxus family."
"The Noxus family needs cunning and wisdom like a fox, as well as occasional refinement and elegance."
Within the Celestial Dragons, there were dozens of families.
Due to their innate sense of superiority and their disdain, even contempt, for races other than Celestial Dragons.
They were arrogant, married within their own bloodlines, and lived like pampered creatures in a greenhouse.
Therefore, while they were euphemistically called World Nobles, Celestial Dragons, they were, in reality, merely pigs raised in captivity.
However, not all Celestial Dragons were like this.
At least, the Noxus family was not.
This involved many secrets and certain methods.
"That kind of experience is not something only you have gone through."
"I was also like you once."
"This is a unique tradition of our Noxus family."
"Especially children who are considered to be groomed as the next family head must go through all of this."
Seeing Shanks' silence, Saint Noxus began to speak about some secrets of the Noxus family.
There were many secrets involved.
Saint Noxus revealed things that ordinary people should not know, and which only successive family heads were privy to.
Shanks listened to Saint Noxus's words, looking at him in disbelief.
The secrets involved were too terrifying.
They were even fantastical.
"Is everything you're telling me true?"
Shanks finally came to his senses after a long while and couldn't help but ask.
"Of course!"
"You have the qualification to know."
"You are the one I have recognized and am grooming to inherit this position."