"Want to fight?"
Kicking a pirate away with a single kick, Sabo did not panic at all. Instead, he looked at Bluejam very calmly.
"Get them!"
The surrounding pirates gradually compressed the space, and Sabo tightly gripped his metal pipe in vigilance.
Suddenly, a wooden barrel rolled down from a high place, breaking apart after disrupting the formation, and Ace and Luffy jumped out from inside.
"Ace, Luffy."
Sabo breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. More than thirty pirates were not something he could handle alone, but with Ace and Luffy, there might still be a sliver of a chance of winning.
"Sabo, you okay!"
"I'm fine."
The three stood back-to-back, gripping their pipes tightly in a triangular formation as they looked at the surroundings.
"As long as the three of us work together with one heart, we don't have to be afraid of these guys at all."
Far from being scared, a look of eager anticipation appeared on Ace's face.
"We even managed to take down that giant tiger on Mount Colbo."
Luffy wore his straw hat, equally fearless and undaunted, baring his teeth as he glared viciously at all the pirates.
Tang An did not act rashly; he merely gripped his long blade and joined in the encirclement.
"Damn brats."
Some pirates cursed aloud, their eyes burning with anger.
"If we want to finish this quickly, we have to take out the captain fast."
As soon as Ace finished speaking, the three of them charged straight toward Bluejam with remarkable tacit coordination.
Bluejam did not make any grand moves; he simply pulled out the flintlock pistol from his waist and fired a shot directly at Ace, though it missed.
It was precisely this single shot that made Ace and the other two halt their movements.
"Brats, just stay right there."
"Hmph, that thing is completely useless. Luffy, Sabo!"
Ace let out a cold snort and quickly charged toward Bluejam once again.
At the same time, Sabo and Luffy flanked around from the left and right.
Yet, the three of them had forgotten that there were still more than thirty pirates all around.
"Bang! Bang!"
Amidst a chaotic skirmish, five or six pirates immediately collapsed to the ground.
Tang An slowed his pace and followed behind them.
One had to admit the strength of the three boys; even with the threat of Bluejam's flintlock pistol, they still managed to take down quite a few pirates.
Yet, in the end, they were still captured.
The three were pinned to the ground by the pirates, unable to move at all.
"Looks like I made it just in time."
Just as Tang An was about to make his move, more than thirty security guards wearing uniforms and carrying flintlocks appeared in the distance, led by none other than Sabo's father, Outlook III.
"Father."
Grabbed by the arms by two pirates, Sabo's expression changed.
Ace and Luffy, who had been struggling incessantly, also froze in shock.
"He didn't suffer a single scratch."
Bluejam smiled, beckoning with his hand as the two pirates dragged Sabo right up to the front.
"These are the two ruffians who led Sabo astray onto an evil path."
Outlook III merely glanced at Sabo briefly before turning his gaze to Ace and Luffy.
"Give Sabo back to us."
Luffy gripped his fists tightly, furious.
"I don't understand what you mean by giving him back. Sabo is my child, and you incited him to run away from home. Have you set your sights on our family's wealth?"
Outlook III looked down from on high, his eyes filled with disgust.
"What are you bastards talking about?"
Ace gritted his teeth in rage.
"Kill them."
Outlook III looked at Ace and Luffy as if they were mere trash.
"Father, I did it of my own accord..."
"Puff..."
The sound of a sharp weapon piercing flesh echoed out as a notched long blade thrust forward from behind, piercing straight through Ace's heart.
Hot blood dripped from his mouth, and Ace's body trembled violently. He lowered his head to look at the blood-stained blade tip, his expression twisting in agony.
"Ace..."
"Ace!"
Pinned to the ground, Luffy's eyes widened as he struggled frantically.
Sabo's mind went completely blank.
Even the pirates pinning Ace down, along with Bluejam and Outlook III, were momentarily stunned, all staring at Tang An in utter astonishment.
Tang An had made his move the moment Outlook III finished speaking, without even a fraction of a second's hesitation.
"Damn it, let me go, Ace!"
Luffy wailed bitterly and loudly.
"What are you doing?"
The pirate controlling Ace let go, and Tang An took the opportunity to pull his long blade back out.
His strike had been aimed directly at the heart, leaving zero possibility of survival.
"Didn't that noble lord just say to kill them?"
Tang An glanced sidelong at Ace lying in a pool of blood; the boy's face was rapidly turning pale, and his breathing was growing faint.
He was merely following Outlook III's orders anyway. When the time came to investigate accountability, the other party would shoulder the bulk of it, making him a convenient scapegoat.
"Luffy, Sabo..."
His consciousness beginning to fade, Ace's face was filled with utter reluctance.
He hadn't even set sail yet, hadn't yet achieved his dream....
"Waah... waah... Ace!"
Luffy was on the verge of a breakdown. Watching Ace slowly close his eyes, he tried desperately to break free, but the pirate behind him pressed him down into the dirt so fiercely that he could not move at all.
At the same time, Tang An walked over to Luffy's side.
With clean and decisive efficiency, he drove his blade down, pinning Luffy directly to the ground.
"Ah..."
Luffy let out a miserable scream, his chest quickly soaking with blood that stained the earth below him.
"No, Luffy!"
Sabo felt as though his eyes were splitting apart, and he struggled desperately with all his might.
"Sabo, Ace!"
Luffy slowly stopped crying out, his face filled entirely with terror and tears.
"Forget it."
Outlook III had lost all interest in staying in this filthy place.
As the security guards took custody of Sabo, he turned around and left the scene entirely.
"Let me go, Ace... Luffy..."
The heart-wrenching roars gradually faded into the distance. Tang An pulled out his long blade, his gaze flickering.
One Child of Destiny, one important supporting character--he believed that harvesting them would surely allow him to draw some truly great items.
If possible, he would have loved to eliminate Sabo as well, but unfortunately, there was no opportunity left.
Next, he had to figure out a way to leave the Goa Kingdom and henceforth evade the relentless pursuit of both the Revolutionary Army and Garp.
Just thinking about it sent a chill down Tang An's spine.
Yet, given the chance to do it again, he would still make the exact same choice.
"Well done."
Bluejam was extremely satisfied with Tang An's actions, and judging by Outlook III's reaction, he was pleased as well--after all, he had accepted a large sum of money from the man.
Moreover, he had already reached an agreement with the king: as long as the Grey Terminal was burned down, he would become a noble of the Goa Kingdom, and by then he could further cement favorable relations with Outlook III.
As for the death of two brats, he hadn't cared about them in the slightest to begin with.
Not long after everyone departed, a sudden fierce gale swept through the Grey Terminal. Right beside the corpses of Ace and Luffy, a cloaked figure materialized out of nowhere.
Upon seeing Luffy lying in the pool of blood, a terrifying aura erupted, centering on the Grey Terminal and rapidly spreading across the entire Goa Kingdom.
The previously clear blue skies instantly churned with dark, rolling clouds, and bolts of lightning, dense like an apocalyptic web, crashed down inverted toward the earth.
Whether it was the Townspeople and thugs of Towns or Central Street, or even the wild beasts of Mount Colbo, every single one of them rolled their eyes back and collapsed unconscious onto the ground.
Meanwhile, Tang An and his group had just arrived aboard the pirate ship. Just as Bluejam finished announcing that a banquet would be held that night and the numerous pirates were cheering, that terrifying aura radiated over them.
Impacted by the pressure, everyone collapsed one after another, falling into deep unconsciousness.
Tang An only felt a sharp pain in his head and could not help dropping to his knees, drenched in cold sweat, his face etched with absolute horror.
Yet, his past life experiences and his battle with cancer had forged an exceptionally resilient willpower in Tang An. Coupled with the fact that they were far enough away from the Grey Terminal, Tang An gritted his teeth and forcefully weathered through it.
Right now, he had only a single thought: leave the Goa Kingdom.
The corpses of Ace and Luffy might be discovered at any moment now, and this immense pressure was most likely Haki.
Furthermore, in the original story, Dragon was in the East Blue at this exact time, so there was a high probability it was him.
It could also be Garp.
In any case, the Goa Kingdom was no longer safe.
When the suspected Haki pressure finally subsided, Tang An was drenched in sweat as if he had just been fished out of water. He wobbled to his feet, looked around at the unconscious Bluejam and the horde of pirates, and with a ruthless glint in his eyes, he drew his long blade and took action.
He needed the ship beneath his feet, which meant all these pirates had to die.
Rapidly killing every single pirate and tossing their bodies overboard, Tang An spared only the helmsman.
After forcefully waking the man up, under the threat of a firearm, the pirate ship began to pull away from the coastline.