"Idiots! Get up already!" Jango screamed from the rear, his voice cracking with rage.
"Captain Jango! We can't!" a pirate sprawled on the ground, drenched in oil, wailed miserably. "They poured oil all over the slope! There's nowhere to plant our feet!"
"YES!" At the top of the hill, Usopp saw his trap working perfectly, and his confidence exploded.
He yanked back his slingshot, didn't even bother aiming, and fired blindly into the crowd with his eyes shut.
"Special Move—Rapid-Fire Barrage!"
"Pa! Pa!"
Several pellets landed squarely in the packed mob, immediately triggering screams of pain and pushing the pirates into even greater chaos.
"Nice one, Usopp!" Nami couldn't help laughing as she watched the farcical scene below.
Just as everyone thought they could hold the line easily, a massive figure emerged from the rear of the pirate ranks.
A man bloated like a human boulder, wearing black cat-ear decorations on his head—the Cat Brothers' bruiser, Buchi.
He glared viciously at the jammed-up "trash" ahead of him and snorted coldly.
"Useless lot. Get out of the way!"
With a furious roar, Buchi slammed power into his thick legs and leapt straight into the air.
He didn't jump toward the hilltop.
He jumped toward the sheer rock wall beside the slope.
"NYAA—!!"
Twisting midair, his hook-like cat claws came down with terrifying force, raking into the fragile cliff face!
The pirates struggling on the oil-slicked slope saw this, their pupils shrinking in terror.
"No! Big Brother Buchi! We're still down here!!"
Buchi didn't even glance at them. His eyes were filled with cruel indifference.
"RUMBLE—!!"
Under the monstrous power of his claws, the rock wall collapsed.
Huge boulders mixed with mud thundered downward like a landslide!
The falling debris mercilessly buried the slippery oil—and the dozen or so comrades still flailing on it—completely.
"AAAH—!!"
The screams were cut off abruptly.
Blood seeped from between the stones, instantly staining the newly formed "path" crimson.
"Nicely done, Buchi." Jango adjusted his glasses, as if those crushed beneath the rocks were nothing more than gravel used to pave the road.
At the top of the slope, the air froze solid.
The laughter from moments ago vanished without a trace.
Luffy lowered his straw hat, its shadow hiding his eyes—but the veins bulging across his clenched fists told a different story.
"Those were… their companions…" His voice was low, carrying the weight of a coming storm. "I'm going to… knock every last one of them flying."
For someone who treasured comrades above all else, trampling on a partner's life like this struck directly at Luffy's deepest taboo.
At that moment, a hand pressed down on his shoulder.
Ronan stepped past him, holding the heavy Zhangba iron spear in one hand. His gaze was calm like an ancient well—yet unfathomably deep.
"Luffy, trash like this doesn't need you."
Ronan's voice was even, but each word seemed ground out between clenched teeth. "You all cover me. This spear's just been sharpened—it needs filthy blood to christen it."
Zoro glanced at the iron spear radiating cold menace in Ronan's hand, loosened his grip on his swords, and said flatly,
"Then it's yours, Ronan."
Ronan said nothing more.
He stepped forward—and in that instant, he was no longer the mild young man from before, but a tiger descending the mountain.
Carrying unstoppable momentum, he charged straight down the bloodstained stone path toward the pirates below!
"That brat's coming down!"
"Just one guy? Is he suicidal?!"
"Kill him! Step over his corpse and take the village!"
Seeing Ronan charging alone, the pirates broke into savage grins.
To them, this was meat delivered straight to their mouths.
The frontliners howled and lunged at Ronan, swinging sabers and axes.
Ronan's gaze sharpened—and the world seemed to slow.
The wind brushing his hair, the shifting gravel beneath his feet, the murky killing intent in the pirates' eyes…
[Host has entered combat mode. cultivation multiplier ×3]
The familiar heat surged once more.
Facing a saber chopping straight toward him, Ronan advanced instead of retreating.
His right hand gripped the spear's butt, his left slid to the mid-shaft. Waist and stance merged as one, spine rolling like a great dragon as overwhelming force surged through his arm!
"Xingyi Great Spear—Level Ground, Wind and Thunder!"
"BENG!"
A bone-grinding dull boom rang out.
Ronan didn't thrust with the spearhead.
Using his forward momentum, the iron shaft whipped upward like a black steel lash—an explosive lifting strike!
"BAM—CRACK!"
The hundred-pound iron spear carved a black afterimage through the air and smashed squarely into the saber-wielding pirate's jaw.
There was no suspense.
The man didn't even have time to scream—his neck snapped instantly, his body flung over three meters into the air like he'd been hit by a charging warhorse.
The saber flew free, spinning uselessly into the distance.
One strike. Instant death.
And Ronan didn't pause for even a breath.
As the spear rebounded upward, he flipped his wrist.
The spearhead traced a lethal half-moon in the air—then crashed down like Mount Tai itself!
"PA!"
The shaft slammed into the skull of another pirate trying to ambush him.
The man's head burst like a watermelon struck by an iron hammer—red and white spraying everywhere.
One lift, one smash.
In the blink of an eye, two vicious pirates were already corpses.
"W-What the hell?!"
The pirates behind them faltered in terror.
They'd thought this was just a kid waving a long spear to look intimidating.
Who could've imagined he was wielding a hundred-pound iron reaper?!
"Don't panic! He's alone! The spear's too long—it's not flexible! Close in and kill him!" Jango shouted from the back.
Several self-proclaimed "smart" pirates immediately crouched low, trying to slip into the dead angles of Ronan's long weapon.
Ronan curled his lips into a cold smile.
"Naive."
A spear being inflexible only meant the wielder didn't understand true great-spear technique.
As the enemies closed in, Ronan didn't pull back.
He snapped the spear inward—shrinking it—and the butt end lashed out like a venomous snake, smashing into the chest of the pirate attacking from behind.
The man's heart shattered instantly.
In the next breath, Ronan gripped the very end of the shaft and treated the entire Zhangba spear like a colossal cudgel, swinging it in a whirlwind sweep!
"Horizontal Sweep of the Six Directions!"
"WUUU—!!"
The heavy iron spear tore through the air with a wail like a dying ghost.
"BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!"
A rapid succession of bone-crushing cracks made scalps crawl.
The pirates who tried to close in were struck squarely across the waist by the thick iron shaft.
Ribs pulverized instantly, their bodies flung away like rag dolls—slamming into the rock walls before sliding down as unrecognizable heaps of flesh.
At this moment, Ronan was a tiger among sheep, a flood dragon raging through the sea.
In his hands, the iron spear stabbed (like a viper striking the throat), seized (spinning the shaft to rip weapons away), burst (exploding force that shattered grips), and cleaved (overwhelming, unstoppable).
That one-zhang-eight-chi reach marked an absolute boundary between life and death.
No pirate could withstand a single strike.
No weapon could block the hammering of that hundred-pound spear.
Blood soaked the ground beneath Ronan's feet—and streaked along the jet-black shaft in his hands.
To Read advanced Chapters, head over to P@treon
patreon.com/DarkVerse146