"Stop right there. Who are you?"
"How did you get in here?!"
The moment Alex landed, several members of the Beast Pirates shouted at him harshly.
Alex didn't reply.
He merely turned his head and cast a cold, indifferent glance at them.
Just that single look—
Boom!
The pirates' minds shook violently, as if struck by lightning. Their faces turned deathly pale in an instant, like terminally ill patients on the verge of collapse.
"Ho—Homelander!"
"It's Homelander!"
Two of them let out trembling cries, their voices shaking uncontrollably.
They weren't Kaido.
They weren't even the All-Stars.
They were just ordinary pirates under Kaido's command.
To them, the fact that Alex had punched Whitebeard to death was something that inspired bone-deep terror.
"Everyone, stand down."
At that moment, a deep, heavy voice rang out.
Hearing it, the trembling pirates felt as if they had been granted a reprieve. They hurriedly retreated to the sides, clearing a path.
From within the estate, Kaido emerged—
followed by the Three Calamities and the Tobiroppo.
A man over seven meters tall, like a walking mountain, radiating overwhelming pressure.
Kaido.
One of the Four Emperors.
With Kaido's level of power, there was no way he wouldn't notice Alex stepping onto his territory.
"Homelander?"
Kaido strode up to Alex, his face cold and grim.
"So you really came."
"You don't seem surprised," Alex said flatly, his expression devoid of emotion.
"Heh."
Kaido laughed, the sound carrying both anger and disdain.
"The Navy sure has a big appetite. I really want to know—why would someone like you become the Navy's lapdog? You're not one of them, are you?"
Although Alex had killed Whitebeard at Marineford, Kaido could tell at a glance that this man was not truly part of the Navy.
If anything, he resembled the Seven Warlords—someone in a cooperative relationship with the Marines.
"Talking is pointless," Alex replied calmly.
"After I kill you, I still have to go back for dinner."
As soon as he finished speaking, Alex's figure blurred.
He swung a punch straight at Kaido.
What?!
In that instant, Kaido felt as if his throat had been seized by an invisible hand.
He couldn't breathe.
Boom!
Before he could even react, an unstoppable force slammed into him.
Kaido was sent flying like a cannonball, crashing violently into the ground.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The earth shuddered violently as a crater hundreds of meters wide was blasted open.
Rumble!
The estate behind Kaido collapsed by half under the shock, burying the massive crater beneath rubble.
"Lord Kaido!"
"Lord Kaido!"
Shouts of alarm rang out.
The Three Calamities, the Tobiroppo, and the other core members of the Beast Pirates all cried out in shock.
Kaido-sama—sent flying by a single punch?!
As expected of the man who punched Whitebeard to death!
But…
Was Kaido-sama all right?
Yes. He had to be.
Kaido wasn't a sick old man like Whitebeard.
Boom!
Sure enough—
The next moment, the rubble exploded outward.
Broken stones and debris shot in all directions, like a torrential rain of rocks.
Then, before anyone could react, an enormous presence—over a hundred meters long—rose into the sky.
It coiled in the air, dominating the heavens with overwhelming majesty.
Azure Dragon.
That's right—
A colossal azure dragon.
"ROAR!"
A deafening roar burst from the dragon's maw, shaking the heavens like a thunderclap.
It was a roar filled with rage and murderous intent.
But what no one else knew was that beneath that fury, Kaido was also filled with shock and deep-seated fear.
That punch just now—
It had nearly killed him.
If not for his absurdly terrifying durability, Kaido had no doubt he would already be dead.
Had it been any other Emperor, none of them would have survived that blow.
At that moment, Kaido finally understood why this man had been able to kill Whitebeard with a single punch.
It had nothing to do with Whitebeard being old, sick, or weakened by past injuries.
Those were merely speculations.
The truth was simple—
Homelander was just that monstrously powerful.
So powerful that even Kaido, one of the Four Emperors, felt bone-chilling dread.
Huff!
The next instant, the azure dragon opened its mouth wide.
A massive blast of heat was expelled straight at Alex.
In a heartbeat, raging flames erupted—blindingly bright, overwhelmingly intense.
The temperature skyrocketed instantly, turning the battlefield into a blazing furnace.
The sheer pressure of the scorching airflow made it hard to breathe.
Even a mountain would have been vaporized under Kaido's Heat Breath.
And yet—
That terrifying attack slammed directly into Alex… and did absolutely nothing.
Alex stood calmly in the center of the inferno, utterly unfazed.
His breathing didn't change.
His expression didn't shift.
He didn't even blink.
Kaido's devastating Heat Breath was nothing more than a gentle breeze to him.
Boom!
In the next moment, Alex vanished in a sonic boom.
Like a living cannonball, he appeared right in front of the azure dragon.
He threw another punch.
This time—
He put a bit more power into it.
BOOM!
Everyone watched as the mighty azure dragon shuddered violently, then was blasted backward.
Sent flying dozens of kilometers through the air, Kaido plummeted from the sky and crashed into the ground far away.
And then—
Nothing.
No movement.
No sound.
Silence.
Absolute silence fell over the battlefield.
Every single person stared wide-eyed at the scene before them, unable to believe what they had just witnessed.
Kaido-sama, fully transformed into an azure dragon—
Sent flying with one punch?
Blasted away dozens of kilometers in a single blow?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For 60 advanced chapters, visit my Patreon:
Patreon - Twilight_scribe1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~