34 How dare you let her escape!?

It didn't take them long before they reached an area filled with ruins.

The Shandia group was filled with mixed emotions as they knew this was one of the ruins of Shandora, where their ancestor lived in.

Jiutian raised an arm and points towards somewhere and said with an indifferent voice. "The Poneglyph is over there." Jiutian was almost bored as she honestly didn't care about the Void Century, the only reason that Jiutian was very thoughtful and helped Izan and Robin was because she was doing it for Izan.

"Thank you Jiutian." Izan thanked Jiutian with a gentle tone as he walked towards where Jiutian pointed at. Following behind him were Robin, Nojiko and the Shandia Chief.

The four of them walked for around two hundred meters before they saw a Poneglyph covered in vines. Robin was very excited as she ran towards the Poneglyph and started reading the Poneglyph carefully. It took Robin over half an hour before she sighed as she silently shook her head.

Izan, Nojiko and the Shandia Chief had stayed quiet for the entire time.

"I guess it wasn't that interesting after all?" Izan asked with a curious tone. What he was curious about was what could make Robin sigh.

"It leads to another Poneglyph at the base of the Golden Belfry, other than that, there's no worthy information on it." Robin sighed once again as she shook her head in annoyance. Robin was annoyed that she couldn't find any useful information about the Void Century even after having read 3 Poneglyphs in her life.

"Perhaps there will be some useful information on the Golden Belfry then." Nojiko shrugged as she turned around and gazed at the ruins. "It is at least a very beautiful place, even after having been abandoned for a long time."

A small smile appeared on Robin's face as she knew that Nojiko was trying to cheer her up. "Now we only have to find the second Poneglyph at the base of the Golden Belfry."

"BANG!"

It was at that moment that a loud crash was heard and a Poneglyph with a Golden Belfry. Jiutian stood in front of it with a tired expression. "Here, happy now…?" Jiutian said with a hint of annoyance as she couldn't help but think of how much it took her to get the Golden Belfry which was on top of an enormous vine which seemed to be placed in the centre of the island.

While everyone else had their eyes widened by the shock of how Jiutian was able to bring forth the Poneglyph and the Golden Belfry. On the other hand, Izan walked towards Jiutian with a smile on his face, his smile slowly turned into a grin as he whispered. "You seem to be very thoughtful lately, it makes me very happy."

Jiutian chuckled when she heard that, but she didn't deny any of it, the only thing she did was to nod slightly.

Robin did also smile before walking to the Poneglyph. She carefully placed her hand on it and read through it slowly. It didn't take her that long before she finished, unlike the other Poneglyph I'm the Sandorian ruins.

"Just some information about the Ancient Weapon – Poseidon." Robin sighed as she traced her fingers on the writings of the Poneglyph before turning around towards Izan, Nojiko and Jiutian.

"Now as that's done, where are we going next?" Nojiko asked Izan with a curious tone.

Izan glanced around before sighing. "We're taking a break for two days here in Skypiea before we return to the blue-sea and continue our travels."

Izan started walking towards Defying as he remembered where it was. He peeked a glance at the Shandorian group and said. "We will leave, you can retake this island if you wish."

"Thank you Benefactor." The Shandia Chief and the rest bowed deeply as they thought of being able to visit and live in their ancient city where their ancestors lived once.

Izan chuckled before glancing at Nojiko, Jiutian and Robin as he spoke with a smile on his face. "Let's go back then?"

Nojiko and Robin nodded as they smiled back towards Izan. Whereas Jiutian was standing by Izan's side and walked shoulder to shoulder with him.

"Rumbling!"

It didn't take five minutes before a rumbling noise sounded throughout the whole area.

Izan saw a gigantic shadow in the horizon, he narrowed his eyes slightly which made his eyebrows furrowed. He knew that something was coming his way, but he didn't feel any threatening feeling from it.

As Izan was in deep thought, a humongous snake appeared in front of Izan. It glared at Izan, Jiutian, Nojiko and Robin with curiosity.

"...!" Nojiko was afraid of snakes and stepped towards Izan, she held onto Izan's clothes as she trembled slightly.

'How cute...' Robin thought as she stared back at the humongous snake.

"Stupid snake, what are you doing here blocking our path?" Jiutian asked with a cold voice as she squinted her eyes.

The snake hissed as it rolled around, wrecked hundreds of trees around the area with its large body.

Izan tilted his head slightly as he said with a surprised tone. "It said that he liked my smell and wants to follow me... Was it that you just said?" Izan asked as he stared back at the snake.

The snake seemed to nod furiously as it glared at Izan, seemingly trying to smile.

"How are you able to understand it?" Robin asked with her eyes wide open. Even Nojiko and Jiutian peeked at Izan, wanting to know how he could understand animals.

Izan shook his head as he walked towards the humongous snake. "I don't know how I can understand it." As he neared the snake, he raised his hand and started stroking its head gently. "Be calm will you, I think I know what to do." Izan stated calmly as the snake started hissing.

A purple light appeared from within of Izan which spread and shrouded the humongous snake. The snake hissed in a joyous manner as if felt that the purple light would let it stay with Izan.

Slowly but surely the purple light went inside Izan, the humongous snake was nowhere to be seen.

"I think I got a pet..." Izan said with a dumb-founded expression as he saw the shocked expression of Nojiko and Robin whereas Jiutian smiled at him.

Somewhere in Grand Line.

There were six ships travelling together with five of them guarding the one in the middle.

The five outer ships had a Navy flag on it whereas the one in the middle had a particular flag with a World Government flag and one over it with a Dragon on it.

There were a few strange people on the middle ship. Particularly a man with a bubble covering his head.

He had a nasty look on his face and he could be called ugly with his messy black hair and disfigured face.

But even so, everyone on the six ships feared him. Not wishing to anger him and hoping that he would not put his eyes on them.

"How dare she escape from me!?" The man with a bubble covering his head asked while kicking beneath him.

The person he was kicking was a burly man with chains covering his body. No matter what he suffered, he didn't dare to resist or talk back.

"You ice man, where are you!?" The Celestial Dragon continued kicking his slave as he yelled his lungs out.

It didn't take a moment before a tall man appeared in front of the Celestial Dragon. He had black curly hair, wearing a blue vest and he wore a sleeping mask on his forehead.

"Yeah yeah, I am here." Aokiji was the selected admiral to protect the Celestial Dragon while they were in the Grand Line.

"How dare you let her escape!?" The Celestial Dragon drew his pistol as he aimed it at Aokiji, threatening to fire.

"I am only here to protect and guard you. I won't leave this boat, that was why we have the warships with us." Aokiji answered slowly as he didn't even put the pistol as a threat.

"...! How dare she try to leave me, Charloss, one of the Celestial Dragons!" Charloss continued kicking the slave beneath him while he was fuming.

"It seems that she had barely escaped by herself while her poisonous followers tried to stall us." It was at this time that a man in white wearing a mask appeared in front of Charloss. He spoke with a tone filled with respect.

"Did you catch any of them as slaves?" Charloss's thoughts wandered away when he thought of obtaining new slaves.

"No, none of them are alive." The man in white said with a happy tone as he glanced behind himself at the island. He squinted his eyes as he saw hundreds of dead bodies on the island.

"I want her as my slave!" Charloss roared as he pointed his pistol at his slave and shot several times within a short time.

"Haa haa..." Charloss was breathing heavily as he kicked the dead slave away. Charloss turned towards another slave with an angered expression.

"By your will!" The man in white answered respectfully. He turned around towards Aokiji and whispered in a low voice. "Don't let her escape next time. That is unless you want your position compromised...!"

Aokiji didn't care about what the man in white said as he turned around and walked away with an indifferent expression.

Still it was the truth, Aokiji didn't stop her escaping as he saw this as a mess and it wasn't 'Justice'. A cold glint appeared in his eyes, but it vanished the next moment.

On the Defying

It had taken them a while. But, they had finally managed to get on board their ship after having dealt with the Shandorian group and Izan got his pet snake which is inside of him.

Izan asked Jiutian and she told him that it was one of his soul abilities. It could hold onto different animals as pets and they would sleep inside of him and only come out after having awakened.

Izan did allowed the Shandia Chief to regain control of the island in Skypiea as it was their ancestors homeland.

It made the group of Shandia warriors turn 180 degrees in their attitude towards Izan. They respected him as a warrior and someone who helped their entire tribe.

"I can't believe how tiresome that was." Izan shook his head slightly before picking up the mug in front of him and drank the cold water.

"They seemed to be a decent group. I bet that they would pick up their weapons if you called for them." Nojiko said with a smile. She truly enjoyed it and felt proud whenever others would see how great Izan is.

"Decent is at most what we could call them." Robin drank a glass of wine as spoke. "They might be blindly loyal, but their strength isn't over the top. I don't believe we would face weaker opponents in the future."

"Robin is right on that topic. Us helping them is at most a coincidence, and we should let whatever happens happen in the future." Izan nodded as he decided not to think much of what happened earlier.