Im now stood before the gates of the Holy Land, Mary Geoise, looking for all the world like a god descended to the mortal plane.
The Ancient Weapon, Uranus, pulsed with a golden radiance in his hand. More startling, however, was his physical state—every wound he had previously sustained had vanished, completely healed. Yet there was something profoundly wrong with him. His eyes were devoid of white, replaced by twin spheres of infinite, pitch-black darkness.
Even before this transformation, Im had been a powerhouse. Now, the aura radiating from him was more than just powerful; it was predatory.
"Lin Xuan, you have exceeded my expectations," Im said, a cold smile playing on his lips. "I never imagined a human could achieve such heights. It would be a waste to kill you. Why not submit to me instead?"
Lin Xuan raised an eyebrow, his expression flickering with a moment of calculation.
A moment later, a look of realization dawned on him. He chuckled softly. "You aren't Im. If I had to guess, I'm speaking to the Mother Tree itself, aren't I?"
The onlookers turned their gazes toward Im, their expressions a mix of confusion and dread.
In the crowd, Luffy shouted out, his brow furrowed in bewilderment. "But he looks like a person! Lord Lin Xuan, why are you calling him a tree?"
Legends like Whitebeard, Shanks, and Rayleigh were equally shaken. They had recently learned of the existence of the Devil Fruit Mother Tree, but they struggled to grasp how the ruler of the world could suddenly become the tree itself.
Im's expression didn't waver. He let out a chilling sneer. "You certainly know a lot. Have you considered my offer? Submit to me, and I will not strip you of your freedom. I will grant you eternal life and unimaginable power. All I ask is that you serve as my guardian."
"Haha! You mean like those old fossils in the Five Elders?" Lin Xuan laughed heartily, his voice echoing across the battlefield. "Their strength was nothing to write home about."
A grotesque, disjointed cackle escaped Im's throat, sending shivers down the spines of everyone present. It was a sound that didn't belong to a human throat.
"They were weak because they could not contain the true depth of my power. But you... your vessel is different. You could withstand far more. You would become peerless."
Faced with such a temptation, Lin Xuan simply smirked. "It sounds like a tempting deal, really. But I'm afraid that's not quite enough to move me."
"Then name your price," Im countered.
Lin Xuan rubbed his chin, appearing to fall into deep thought.
After a long silence, as if he had finally hit upon a brilliant idea, Lin Xuan beamed. "I've got it! How about you give me a million Devil Fruits just for fun? Do that, and I might just consider your offer."
The air around Im instantly turned turbulent, his aura fluctuating wildly with suppressed rage.
A million Devil Fruits?
The being inhabiting Im felt a surge of fury. Even as the Mother Tree, it could not manifest fruits infinitely. To demand a million was an absurdity—it would practically have to wither itself away to meet such a demand.
It took a long moment for Im to regain his composure. His voice was now as cold as a mountain glacier. "It seems you have no intention of submitting."
"No, no, don't say that. I'm just Negotiating! If that's too much, we can try something else." Lin Xuan's face turned dead serious. "How about this: give me your core. Hand that over, and I'll swear fealty to you on the spot."
The Mother Tree—using Im's face—turned visibly dark.
The core was its very lifeblood, its essence. If it handed that over to Lin Xuan, its life and death would be held in the palm of his hand. This human was essentially asking for its soul while claiming he wanted to serve.
The sheer, brazen gall of the man was infuriating.
"Since you have chosen death, I shall grant it!" The Mother Tree was done talking.
The only reason it had attempted to recruit Lin Xuan was because it sensed he was a genuine threat. Since he could not be tamed, he had to be erased.
"Lowly human, for your insolence, you shall pay with your life!"
A voice erupted from Im's mouth that sounded as though it bubbled up from the darkest depths of the underworld. It wasn't a voice of air and vibration, but a psychic pressure that made the onlookers' pupils contract and their hearts race with primal fear.
Rumble!
The world responded. Gale-force winds whipped across the Red Line, the sea below erupted into massive tsunamis, and the sky bruised into shades of purple and black as jagged lightning tore through the clouds.
"Sigh. Such an impatient fellow," Lin Xuan muttered with a mock sigh of disappointment. "If you didn't like the terms, we could have kept talking. There's no need to get all violent."
The Mother Tree nearly lost its hold on Im's composure. There was no "talking" with someone who asked for your heart as a down payment.
Lin Xuan's smile finally vanished. His gaze sharpened, turning cold and focused. "Fine then. Let's see just how powerful this so-called Mother Tree really is."
However, the possessed Im only began to laugh hysterically, a high-pitched, mocking sound.
"Heeheehee... You cannot defeat me. The only thing capable of harming me vanished long ago. It is too late for you! It is too late for everyone!"
As the words fell, the massive continent of the Red Line began to groan and shake violently. A bizarre, invisible energy began to radiate from the very earth beneath their feet.
Hum—!
The energy wasn't a sound, but a metaphysical ripple that expanded outward in every direction.
Almost instantly, people in the surrounding fleet began to collapse. Their bodies shook with violent tremors, their skin turning ashen. Every single person affected shared one trait: they were Devil Fruit users. Even titans like Whitebeard and Sengoku were not immune; they gasped for air, clutching their chests as their internal powers began to turn against them.
Lin Xuan's eyes narrowed. He felt the shift in the atmosphere—the very laws of the world seemed to be warping. Something was very, very wrong.
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T/N:
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