Chapter 362: I Am Already a God; Why Keep Groveling for Anyone Else?
Above Marineford, a fierce battle erupted between the Whitebeard Pirates and Navy Headquarters.
After Uchiha Dali and Ōtsutsuki Kyōshiki arrived here, they did not intervene; instead, they silently watched from the sidelines.
Because no one interfered with the fight, the subsequent plot developments essentially matched what readers were already familiar with.
After Whitebeard was ambushed by Squard and gravely wounded, his combat effectiveness dropped drastically. He was then attacked by multiple powerful opponents and had half his head blown apart by Akainu Sakazuki.
Those events all happened more or less as expected.
Uchiha Dali simply watched everything unfold. Because he neither spoke nor acted, and although Ōtsutsuki Kyōshiki greatly desired to annihilate those chattering "inferior creatures" outright, he too did not move.
They waited like that until the Pirate King Luffy made his appearance. When Dali saw the moment Luffy, driven by lone courage, charged desperately toward the execution platform to rescue Ace, he finally spoke.
"This kid's not bad."
"Who? That one?" Kyōshiki followed Dali's gaze down to the ground with curiosity.
He saw the silhouette of the boy charging like a raging bull straight toward the execution platform.
"I'm beginning to doubt your taste."
"If you want someone to govern this area, I'd rather pick one of your subordinates."
"If you're too soft to act, I can remove all the obstacles for you."
"As long as we clear away the factions represented by these guys, getting the Shinobi to rule this region shouldn't be a big problem, right? After all, they're just some inferior creatures."
Kyōshiki curled his lip.
After hearing him, Uchiha Dali hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
He remembered his current identity.
He was no longer an ordinary man.
All filters could be turned off.
Because the protagonist he once admired now appeared to him no more than an insignificant ant.
With a snap of his fingers, he could decide anyone's life or death.
If that was the case, why insist that those people be irreplaceable?
"Hmph…"
Seeing Dali nod, Kyōshiki revealed a feral grin and began to rub his hands together.
"Then, who shall we start with?"
Kyōshiki looked down to pick a target.
To be the first inferior creature to die by his hand would, in a sense, be an honor.
Just as he was about to strike, Uchiha Dali stopped him.
"What, still hesitating?"
Kyōshiki looked up in surprise.
Dali shook his head in denial. "I just thought of a question."
"What question?"
"How did Àoshiki make his clones exist permanently in the first place?"
"I don't know. Why do you ask?" Kyōshiki thought Dali's line of thought had jumped oddly. His ideas were always unpredictable.
"Since someone needs to govern this planet — you've already unified the Shinobi world, and this sea also needs peace and stability — I plan to have one of my clones take my place to govern here."
"If I can make my replicated clone exist long-term, there won't be much of a problem, right?"
"That idea is better than mine, but the question is how to achieve it." Kyōshiki shook his head. He didn't currently possess such a method.
"Probably only that Àoshiki fellow can answer that question for you, right?"
"Not necessarily."
Uchiha Dali smiled slightly.
Then he split off a clone.
But this clone did not possess the exact same power and abilities as the original clone; instead, Dali deliberately weakened it.
Kyōshiki immediately noticed the abnormality.
He looked at the clone Dali produced in curiosity. "Why?"
Feeling that the clone had less than a tenth of Dali's original energy, Kyōshiki didn't understand.
"Just conducting an experiment to see if my guess is correct."
Dali didn't explain further; he pointed at the battlefield below toward the clone beside him.
That scene was, of course, noticed at once by the people above Marineford.
"Another person appeared!!" Garp noticed the extra clone beside Uchiha Dali at first glance.
"What's going on?? Why… do those two look exactly the same?" Sengoku and Vice Admiral Tsuru both looked bewildered.
Below the execution platform, two of the three admirals — Kuzan (Aokiji) and Borsalino (Kizaru) — were also full of surprise.
"But how did they appear suddenly? I didn't see that guy a moment ago."
"Oh my, these strangers are really scary!" Borsalino uttered his trademark line.
"Looks troublesome," Kuzan said indifferently.
Everyone else on the battlefield, whether pirate or Navy soldier, stopped fighting.
All eyes looked up into the air.
Only Luffy and his few companions were still charging toward the execution platform.
If it weren't for Luffy's actions, the scene might have seemed frozen in time.
"Want to test how strong our heaven-defying comprehension is?" Uchiha Dali pointed to the battlefield below and asked his clone.
"You want me to level up here?" the clone teased in reply.
"Give it a try."
"Your current duration is thirty minutes."
"If you don't disappear after that time, then my judgment is correct: this technique can be used to continuously strengthen you and increase your duration until you can exist permanently."
"If you fail, I'll take care of it personally."
"So what you must do is not only defeat your opponents, but also ensure you last the full thirty minutes if possible."
Dali told him.
"Simple."
The clone flashed and directly descended onto the battlefield below.
Appearing among a large group of Navy soldiers and pirates, the clone grinned viciously and said, "Now, let me play with you."
"You have five minutes. During that time you can attack me as you please; I won't retaliate."
"But be careful!"
"Because if you can't kill me after five minutes, I will strike back at you!"
Having said that, the clone spread his arms as if daring them to do whatever they wanted.
Hearing those words, everyone present was dumbfounded.