But… Ian looked back at the Marines who were pouring in, firing at them, and setting up mortars. He knew that if he let these soldiers keep what they were doing, they might be hit badly when they start sailing.

“Get on the s.h.i.+p now, leave them from me!” Ian ordered the slaves who were still fighting with him.

“Okay, benefactor!” Everyone was obedient to Ian's words, without much thought, they ran straight towards the wharf.

'Well, it's time to sweep up the area!'

After watching the crowds leaving, Ian's eyes narrowed, and he turned a huge amount of Nen into Haki, and used it as Haoshoku Haki, spewing out to the surrounding!

Whether it was the marine soldiers who were shooting or the soldiers who were setting up mortars, in the face of this shock wave, their eyes turned white, and they fell to the ground with their mouths foaming.

Ian's current Haoshoku Haki shock, can't distinguish between the enemies and the allies, that's why he kept everyone away from him. According to Ian's estimation, he may need a higher level of Nen skills, in order to freely control this kind of power.

Bang! Bang…! One soldier after another fell to the ground. Although there were still some powerful marine officers standing unaffected, the number of soldiers suddenly decreased by a lot, after Ian's shock wave.

Ordinary soldiers were the main operators of firearms and mortars. When they fainted, the mortars that threaten the s.h.i.+p won't be fired.

Seeing this scene, both the Marines and the slaves on board were dumbfounded, they did not understand what had happened.

“Hurry up, take this opportunity!” Ian told the people on his side and quickly jumped onto the s.h.i.+p.

With such a shout, the slaves on the s.h.i.+p just came back to their senses. They quickly hurled the oars and operated the sails to leave the dock.

Among the more than 500 slaves saved by Ian, there were all kinds of talents. Many of them were experienced sailors. Although the s.h.i.+p was huge, it was not a problem.

The rest of the marine officers didn't intend to stop and watch them slip away, so they ran desperately and jumped on their s.h.i.+p.

However, they were defeated and thrown into the water one by one by their slaves who were still on guard.

This channel connected to the waterfall was actually a Grand Ca.n.a.l, it was quite wide! On the other side of the two rivers, which were at least 100 meters wide, the current was very gentle. As the s.h.i.+p slowly moved to the middle of the channel, those marine officers could no longer jump over.

“We made it!!!”

“It worked!!!”

All the slaves on the s.h.i.+p, seeing these scenes, couldn't help cheering. They were very clear that as long as they drove through this channel and came to the sloping point, they would be able to completely break away from Marijoa and rush to the ocean of New World at an extremely fast speed.

“Hold the wheel!”

“Strike hard!”

Along with the slogans of everyone, the s.h.i.+p was moving forward, and as it was about to reach the downward channel, a figure appeared by the river.

Ian has not relaxed his vigilance, watching the river, so as soon as this figure appeared, it was discovered by Ian!

Illuminated by various marine lights and torches, Ian saw the general shape of the figure clearly, and immediately his pupils shrank.

Aokiji!? He has finally come!?

When Aokiji came to the river, he squatted down with his tall body and put his hands in the water.

“Ice Age!”

Just for a moment, the river, which was flowing happily, immediately froze. The spread of the frost was fast, which didn't even leave a sign at all. At this moment, the original clear river surface directly became a thick ice layer!

If someone could overlook this scene from the air, he will find that not only the river there was frozen, but the entire ca.n.a.l did freeze!

The waterfall, which was far away at the other end, turned a huge ice mirror.

Ian's s.h.i.+p was moving forward, and then instantly, it became stuck by the ice.

“What … what happened!?”

“How…! Why did the river suddenly freeze?”

All the people in the s.h.i.+p panicked, shouting loudly and looking at Ian at the same time.

“It's the Admiral Aokiji!” Ian said solemnly.

“Haa..!?” When they heard this, they were frightened.

A young female slave, covering her face with both hands, fell on her knees and cried bitterly, “Why? Why are they all like this? Why can't they just let us go?”

The slaves went silent, which was probably a question that everyone has in mind.

Ian sighed. He also knew that on the way to escape, many slaves who had been rescued had been lost or caught. They would probably be sent back… Those who did make it were about to escape, it was so close… They had already boarded the s.h.i.+p and were about to sprint down the waterfall. But at the last moment, they were disillusioned by the emergence of Aokiji.

At this time, the despair of everyone was probably stronger than ever…

Silence, the s.h.i.+p fell into a strange silence, just at this time, a sigh came.

Of course, it came from Ian.

He walked slowly to the side of the s.h.i.+p and said, “I will try to hold Aokiji for a while. Take advantage of this time, you can get the s.h.i.+p out of the ice. We still have hope. Don't give up!”

After that, Ian jumped out of the s.h.i.+p, stepped on the ice, and walked towards Aokiji.

To be honest, if it was possible, Ian really didn't want to face Aokiji head-on. As the top force of the Marines, one of the three Admirals, Ian knew that he's almost invincible.

However, whether it was to save these slaves or himself, Ian must step over the threshold of Aokiji.

Looking at Ian walking towards the Admiral step by step, the slaves on the s.h.i.+p were silent for a while, then suddenly, the giant warrior roared and said, “the benefactor is right, we can't give up now!”

With his huge hands, he grabbed the s.h.i.+p's anchor, jumped off the s.h.i.+p, and began to dig the ice at the bottom of the s.h.i.+p with the anchor.

With desperation and resentment, and hatred for the Marines, the slaves began to release the s.h.i.+p.

Ian felt this scene naturally, and he was relieved. He stared at Aokiji tightly and walked to him. Then he asked the System, “Did you get enough fragments of Hiei's card?”

“The search has been completed!” The System said: “By obtaining 960 pieces of Hiei's card, the System has consumed 3.84 million diamonds. The number of refreshes was 4128, which consumed 8.256 million diamonds!”

Hearing this, Ian was relieved. Fortunately, he asked the System to do this operation. Otherwise, the four thousand times refresh would take him a long-long time to complete. Although it consumed more than 12 million diamonds, it was worth it for Ian now.

“How many Breakthrough Stones does it take to upgrade Hiei's card to five stars?” Ian asked again.

“A total of 36000 Breakthrough Stones are needed!” The System replied.

“Very good! Now start the automatic opening operation of ten consecutive draws!” Ian ordered: “Gather enough Breakthrough Stones and stop automatically, then notify me!”

After giving the task to the System, Ian arrived in front of Aokiji.

Aokiji stood alone on the bank of the river, dressed in a white suit vest and blue s.h.i.+rt. The goggles were worn on his forehead. At his behind, a large number of marines were lined up while pointing their firearms at Ian.

After seeing Ian coming over, Aokiji raised his head, looked at Ian's clothes carefully, and then said, “Are you the mastermind of this event?”

“A mastermind! What are you calling about!?” Ian shook his head and said: “It's just a matter of escaping together, I helped them, and they're helping me now!”

“Then why covering your face?” Aokiji asked: “Take it off and let me see your face if it's okay?”

“I'm not stupid!” Ian chuckled: “I killed Celestial Dragons! Letting you see me, I'm afraid the entire marines will come after me?”

Aokiji glimpsed: “You killed a Celestial Dragon? Strange, this matter was not mentioned by the intelligence bureau!”

When the intelligence officer contacted Aokiji, he was probably too shocked, so that he forgot to mention it. At this time, Aokiji was shocked too.

“This is an unforgivable crime!” Aokiji scratched his head with a headache and said, “Well, I'm too lazy to deal with this. Please hand over the ident.i.ty chip first.”

This time, Ian was stunned: “Ident.i.ty chip?”

Then he immediately remembered the thing in the gla.s.s bubble that he took from the trove at that time?

Ian's thoughts turned sharply, and then he said to Aokiji: “I'm sorry, it's not on me. I've hidden it!”

“I don't believe this kind of deception!” Aokiji frowned and said, “Since you are not going to hand it back on your own initiative, then I have to knock you down and search you.”

If he could, Ian would keep chatting with Aokiji in this way to gain more time, but when Aokiji finished the sentence, he had rushed towards Ian.

'I have no choice but to fight back!'

Clang!!! A deafening sound came, in a moment, the Devil's Blade Yamato, who was drawn from its sheath, collided with an Ice Saber that suddenly appeared in front of him!

This Ice Saber was the weapon that Aokiji transformed with his own ability. However, it was such a weapon made of ice. In terms of hardness, it was comparable to Ian's sword, and even with the sharpness of Yamato's blade, it failed to cut it off!

Because the ice layer under his feet was formed by Aokiji freezing ability in an instant, so it was not that smooth. Although it was very slippery, the sole of Ian's shoes could barely grasp, but… That changed a little after the blow.

Aokiji's Strength was much higher than what Ian imagined. After his sword collided with the ice saber, he was forced to slide out of the ice.

Before he could stand still, Aokiji has caught up with him. He was running on the frozen river unaffected by its slipperiness.

When he came to Ian, Aokiji waved his sword with both hands and slashed down.

Ian swung the Devil's Blade Yamato to block his attack. Although he was able to stop his blade, he always felt unstable.

'F***! This surface is unfavorable. I have to find a way to change the place!'

Ian suddenly waved his sword towards Aokiji. But when Aokiji dodged away, he turned his wrist and thrust his sword into the ice under his feet with.

The blade of Yamato easily pierced the ice surface, but the expected breaking of the ice did not happen.

“It's useless!” Aokiji rushed up again, swung his ice saber and waved it towards Ian, and said, “The whole river has been frozen by me. It's impossible to cut open the ice surface and make me fall into the water!”

Clang! Ian lifted Yamato to block Aokiji's attack, but this time, after his ice saber broke directly after hitting Ian's Blade.

At this time, Yamato's blade was wrapped with Haki. Ian's Nen was entangled on it, which easily broke Aokiji's ice sword.

When the ice blade was broken, Aokiji was slightly stunned. At that moment, Ian turned his wrist and attacked Aokiji.

Swis.h.!.+ After a light sound, Aokiji's chest was cut by Ian's blade, and a splash of blood spread in the air.

Aokiji looked down at the wound on his chest, then stretched out his palm and touched the wound, and then, the wound was frozen.

“Huh! You can use the Haki, I underestimated you!” Aokiji frowned and said, “Well, then, I have to stop playing around…”