Blackbeard was unwilling—truly unwilling.
In his eyes flickered an abyssal darkness and a murderous ferocity. His fists clenched so hard the veins stood out. He stared at Luo Xing without blinking, as if waiting for the slightest opening—waiting to explode forward, ambush him, and finish him in a single decisive strike.
If he could do that, everything would be solved.
Everything would return to Blackbeard's stage.
But in the end… he never found a chance.
That man looked lazy to the extreme, almost carefree, yet from head to toe he gave off the feeling of having no openings at all.
Even if Blackbeard's greatest flaws were recklessness and arrogance, his combat skill and Observation Haki perception were far from weak.
Otherwise, back when he still didn't have a Devil Fruit, he wouldn't have been able to scar Red-Haired Shanks' eye.
And Blackbeard never slept. In terms of training time, he had twice as much as an ordinary person.
So—
he could roughly sense the domineering pressure radiating off Luo Xing. This was the same type as Red-Hair: someone who excelled at Conqueror's Haki, someone who mainly cultivated Haki rather than relying on Devil Fruits.
To be honest, this was exactly the kind of opponent Blackbeard found most troublesome.
Because the Dark-Dark Fruit could nullify an ability user's powers… but these monsters didn't even need a Fruit.
And their terrifying Armament Haki was also extremely effective against Logia-type abilities.
All in all, Blackbeard estimated that if he fought Luo Xing right now, his odds weren't great at all.
What's more—
Luo Xing had Zoro and Enel at his side, two powerhouses who could contend with Yonko commanders at the highest level.
Oh, and now there was also Shiryu of the Rain.
And Luo Xing's various outrageous "inventions"… those didn't even need mentioning.
After thinking it through and wrestling fiercely with himself, Blackbeard made the same decision he'd made back in Alabasta.
"Boys! We're leaving!"
With that, he turned and headed toward the exit of Impel Down, his face dark as storm clouds.
Behind him, Burgess shouted, "Captain, we're just leaving like this?! Damn it, I'm not satisfied at all! Why don't we just fight that guy head-on?!"
Blackbeard was already choking down anger and frustration. Hearing that, he exploded on the spot.
"If you think you can win, then go fight! I'll stay right here and wait for your good news!"
Burgess instantly shrank back, cowed.
He hadn't seen Luo Xing personally make a move, but he'd witnessed Zoro and Enel's battle with his own eyes.
Against just those two, Burgess had zero confidence.
Lafitte—the navigator and one of the few with a functioning brain—sighed.
"The odds really are too low. Leaving is the only choice… and we need to leave early."
"Otherwise, once Fifth Emperor Luo Xing finishes dealing with Magellan, we'll be the ones in danger next."
In truth, Blackbeard kept thinking about whether he should strike at Luo Xing—
but the real danger was that after Luo Xing handled Magellan, he would very likely turn on Blackbeard.
Fifth Emperor Luo Xing… that man was decisive and ruthless. He didn't hesitate, and he didn't go soft.
Blackbeard knew that, which was exactly why he chose to slip away before Magellan was finished.
Even if it was the best choice…
it still felt humiliating.
Compared to how high-spirited they'd been when they arrived, the Blackbeard Pirates now looked completely deflated.
Blackbeard forced the anger down.
He couldn't let this gloomy mood spread through the crew—
otherwise, how would they ever do anything big later?
Blackbeard squeezed an ugly smile onto his face and raised an arm, shouting loudly:
"Boys! Impel Down is just a tiny part of my plan! Losing it doesn't matter at all!"
"The real prize is Marineford—the Tremor-Tremor Fruit!"
"As long as we get the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, I'll become the strongest in the world in no time!"
"Then we'll come back and settle accounts with Fifth Emperor Luo Xing… and even Kaido!"
Only then did the crew's emotions lift a little.
They'd just gone from Marineford to Impel Down, and before they'd even warmed their seats, they were slinking back out again.
Luo Xing glanced in the direction Blackbeard and the others fled.
"He runs pretty fast."
If Blackbeard had stayed, Luo Xing really did have the intention of eliminating him while he was at it.
Though the Dark-Dark Fruit was special—whether it could be cleanly dealt with wasn't guaranteed.
After all, the Dark-Dark Fruit likely corresponded to the Sun God Nika Fruit in some way… meaning both might possess extremely unusual properties.
If there was a chance, it really would be worth testing.
While thinking, Luo Xing turned to Zoro, Enel, and the newly submitted Shiryu of the Rain.
"You three go together. Finish Magellan."
Magellan was strong, but under a three-way assault from top-tier fighters, he quickly found himself pushed into a precarious position.
Still, he refused to yield, roaring again and again.
He even used the awakened power of the Venom-Venom Fruit, turning the entire fourth level of Impel Down into a toxic sea.
"What an annoying ability," Luo Xing couldn't help but remark.
If he could bring Magellan under his command, that would be ideal—but it clearly wasn't possible.
Facing that poisonous ocean, even Zoro, Enel, and Shiryu felt the pressure. They were running out of places to stand.
Fortunately—
the "King of Biceps," the ten super-giants Luo Xing had used earlier, still had seven or eight left.
Luo Xing had them all swing their fists together, smashing down and battering the poisonous sea.
BOOM!!
A massive impact thundered through the level. The toxic flood surged violently.
Then the fourth level's ground collapsed—dragging the battlefield down to the fifth level.
The criminals on the fourth and fifth levels all witnessed the terrifying fight.
Their faces went pale, their hearts pounding.
They were terrified that poison, lightning, or sword intent would reach them.
And when Luo Xing spoke in his "kind" tone, asking whether they were willing to submit to the Beasts Pirates—
these prisoners had enough sense to immediately drop to their knees, shouting:
"We're willing to surrender, my lord! We pledge loyalty to the Beasts Pirates!"
Of course, a few stubborn fools refused to kneel.
The result was simple: the surrendered prisoners swarmed them, and those fools were swiftly put down.
In the end, Luo Xing successfully took control of the prisoners from the third, fourth, and fifth levels, bringing his manpower to over a thousand.
It didn't sound like much—
but each of them was a hardened fighter, not a single weakling among them.
Their original strength was already at a bounty level of fifty million or more. After consuming the "monster cells" Luo Xing granted, every one of them doubled in power.
Roughly speaking—
six to seven hundred now had the strength of hundred-million bounty fighters, two to three hundred were around the three-hundred-million level, and there were even more than ten around the five-hundred-million tier.
A force like that was terrifying enough to match an entire Yonko crew.
And that wasn't even counting the real monsters in the sixth level.
Luo Xing looked at his subordinates with satisfaction.
With these people and Moria's zombie army, taking Sabaody would be no problem at all.
Then Luo Xing suddenly realized he hadn't seen a single red nose among them.
He muttered to himself, "Buggy the Clown… that lucky bastard becomes a Yonko in the future. He wasn't stomped to death in the first two levels, was he? Heh. With my interference, maybe he never even got sent to Impel Down."
And indeed—Buggy hadn't been sent to Impel Down.
Because Smoker, who should've captured him, had gone to the G-5 base early, and Buggy had lucked his way into continuing his easy life in the East Blue.
Speaking of which, after Kaido and Big Mom were defeated in the original timeline, two new Yonko rose—Sun God Luffy, and Buggy the Clown.
It made Luo Xing wonder whether Buggy was truly weak… or whether he'd been pretending all along.
If he ever got the chance, Luo Xing really wanted to catch Buggy and "test" him properly.
That was for later.
For now—
under the combined assault of Shiryu, Enel, Zoro, and over a thousand fierce Impel Down criminals, Magellan finally couldn't hold out any longer.
He was brought down completely, and his body vanished into the depths.
Luo Xing didn't spare him a second glance.
He immediately led his newly recruited subordinates toward Impel Down's sixth level—
Infinite Hell.
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