Chapter 136: ONE PIECE (Part IV)

Donquixote Doflamingo is a rather unique individual. He is a pirate, and the "One Piece" is his goal. He is a Celestial Dragon, privy to intelligence that the "general world" knows nothing about.

Regarding this aspect, if one were to rank the world's intelligence density, the Celestial Dragons would undoubtedly come first, as they likely safeguard secrets related to the "Void Century." Next would be the official organization, the World Government, followed perhaps by the rebellious Revolutionary Army. After them might come the Kozuki clan of Wano and the scholars of Ohara, both of whom possessed the ability to decipher Poneglyphs—the former even being the creators of them—yet neither could escape the fate of their own extinction.

Following these are the various pirate factions. Frankly speaking, Doflamingo likely holds the most knowledge among pirates. That is why Qiu Bai hoped to gain something from him; compared to the "impossible" entities mentioned earlier or pirates on the level of the Four Emperors, Doflamingo was the ideal target—neither too big nor too small, just the right fit. This was what Qiu Bai thought, and it was how he acted; from beginning to end, he never once harbored a thought of "serving Doflamingo wholeheartedly."

Of course, besides these, there is another quite special group: Roger’s crew. But here, Qiu Bai’s view aligns with that of a certain Luffy later on—Roger’s crew are bugs that break the balance of the game. Everyone is chasing the answer, but they already know it. However, if one were to obtain those things from these people, what meaning would anything else have? It was for similar reasons that Qiu Bai subconsciously screened out the historians who were best suited for pathfinding—he still wanted to do things his own way.

There is nothing wrong with result-oriented thinking, but people will subconsciously bypass the fruit within reach to pluck another from the very top. Thus, Doflamingo was Qiu Bai’s choice, and now he had collected his wages for the past few years.

"Of course, if I can manage it."

Monet was not a little girl like Baby-5. She understood exactly what Qiu Bai was talking about, yet her response remained crisp and resolute.

"I have no way to take Sugar with me right now." Qiu Bai was surprised by Monet’s attitude, but he still pointed out the contradiction.

"Only for now... isn't that right?" Monet said.

A person’s character dictates their choices. Qiu Bai stared at Monet, and then... he shoved the notebook back into her hands.

"Let's go together."

The three of them changed direction and began to move west, hugging the edge of the city.

"How are we going to leave this Birdcage?" Monet asked from behind, having already tucked away that important notebook—there was no issue for her to leave the cage herself. There is a saying that "women are made of water," but Monet was a bit different; she was made of snow. The Birdcage could not trap a Logia user capable of "elementalization."

The problem was what to do about Qiu Bai—squeeze through?

"Don't worry, I've already found a porter from nature," Qiu Bai said, looking up at the white threads faintly shrouding the sky. Law was waiting for them up ahead. The Birdcage technique sometimes looks like a game-breaking bug, and other times like a piece of junk; ultimately, such "dead objects" cannot trap everyone with one hundred percent certainty.

But for Qiu Bai, things could not possibly go so smoothly that they could just sneak away. Whether by coincidence or not, someone blocked his path.

"Isn't this Mr. Pica? Why are you in a place like this?" Seeing a top executive in such a peripheral location, Qiu Bai was indeed a little surprised, but he maintained the tone of an "insider" to engage in conversation. The Birdcage was already right before his eyes; couldn't he just be allowed to pass in silence?

Pica glanced at Qiu Bai, then shifted his gaze over his head toward Monet behind him, and spoke in that distinctive voice, "Monet, your mission was the princess and her husband. Why are you appearing here?"

The retired gladiator, Kyros, was a troublesome task. Originally, Monet’s mission was to bring him before Doflamingo, but she was clearly not on that path now. Even a stone-headed person would be suspicious of the current situation. Qiu Bai, Ain, and Monet—these three should not be gathered together at this moment, so at the very least, there existed a situation of defying Doflamingo’s orders.

"If I said we were just going out for tea, would you believe it?"

Qiu Bai stepped forward, and just as his right heel landed and his left foot was about to lift, the scenery around his standing point underwent a total inversion. The pitch-black night was replaced by a tea-colored, desolate sky. The ground had completely transformed into a vast desert, resembling a ruined battlefield where countless swords were plunged into the earth.

This space appeared almost instantaneously. In the distance, the bright, cool tones looked like the final glow of a setting sun, while dark red flames danced on the horizon, as if the edges of a new world were spreading boundlessly. In the space before the horizon, massive, interlocking gears rotated slowly.

This was the manifestation of Qiu Bai’s A-rank item: the Reality Marble, "Unlimited Blade Works." It was a massive-scale magecraft capable of bringing a space into reality. It housed the countless weapons he used in his daily life, and since he liked to forge a few and toss them in whenever he was bored, the number of weapons had reached a count even he could not fathom.

Within the Donquixote family, Qiu Bai had always presented himself as a "mere marksman" and a "monotone swordsman." Everyone, including Doflamingo, saw him as nothing more than that, so this was the first time he had displayed his domain weapon. Of course, he hadn't done this just to engage in combat with a top executive.

Pica, plunged into this strange space, was completely bewildered. What the hell was this? In that momentary lapse of his, Monet, who was behind Qiu Bai, suddenly "melted," and then, a super-grade blizzard capable of cutting off one's vision engulfed the entire space.

"Unlimited Blade Works" plus the "Snow-Snow Fruit" equaled a dance of blades and a flurry of flowers and snow. The unknown situation caused Pica to instinctively activate his own ability, and a stone giant of excessive proportions slowly took shape. Its height seemed to pierce through the range of the wind and snow; however, when he regained his vision, the figures of the three were nowhere to be seen.

Sensing something, he looked behind him and saw the three of them sprinting with all their might toward the edge of the Birdcage. As his gaze extended a bit further, he saw another unexpected person standing outside the cage.

"Law!"

This shout was comparable to an air-raid siren. But Law merely glanced at him, then expanded his "ROOM."

The moment Qiu Bai and the others stepped into this domain, their figures vanished instantly, replaced on the spot by three small stones. Through this exchange, the three had arrived at the perimeter of the Birdcage. Qiu Bai then threw an arrow with a backhand motion, and a bright flare of fire exploded at the neck of the stone giant.

"You dummy, you can't get out, can you?"

With Pica’s physique, he truly could not get out. Even if Doflamingo knew someone had chosen to defect at this moment, he could not undo the cage. And so, that massive figure was, in reality, nothing more than a target for Qiu Bai.

Hmm, does that feel a bit like bullying?