After the combination of Haki and Nen, Ian's energy recovery now depends on his physical strength. As long as he has enough Stamina, the recovery of his Nen will become fast.

However, during the period of fighting with Aokiji, Ian's stamina declined rapidly.

The coldness was the easiest to aggravate the human body's energy consumption. Ian lost a lot of Stamina before being frozen and after…

Although he finally managed to survive it with the help of his flame, he didn't know how long things could stay this way.

Struggling to stand up from the ground, Ian almost stumbled back to the ground. He found that his left hand and legs were swollen and had a tingling sensation.

It was a very strange painful sensation. In fact, he also knows that his skin may have been necrotic due to the sharp alternation of cold and high temperatures, which should not have any sensation. However, his subcutaneous muscles still have a little consciousness, but they were sending out a swelling pain… so much pain, which made Ian feel that his skin is being peeled by the moving muscles below.

Although the fire can solve the freezing effect, the damage dealt to Ian was also huge!

Watching Ian trembling to stand up, Aokiji scratched the back of his head and said, “What a tough guy…”

Hearing such words from the mouth of a Marine Admiral can be regarded as a kind of praise, but Ian was not happy at all. He knew that if he continues to fight with Aokiji like this, he will die soon!

“Stop resisting!” Aokiji said to Ian, “My mission is to catch you alive, but if you keep fighting back, don't blame me for the results.”

Ian was about to say something, but they suddenly heard a huge cheering from behind.

He turned his head and saw that the slaves had broken the ice under the s.h.i.+p. That is to say, the s.h.i.+p at this time was no longer stuck by the ice.

“Benefactor!” The giant warrior from Elbaf shouted to Ian: “Get on board!”

While shouting, he ran to the bow position. Besides him, there were many Fish-men. When they got to the bow position, they caught the ropes thrown from the s.h.i.+p.

These ropes, which were connected to the bottom of every mast on the s.h.i.+p, were tied firmly.

After the giant and the Fish-men caught the ropes, they carried them on their shoulders and began to pull hard. These guys were representatives of the strongest races. Under this life-depending drag, the s.h.i.+p carrying many slaves started to move!

Keep on pulling, they actually dragged the s.h.i.+p out of the ice pit!

“Woohoo!!!”

All the slaves on the s.h.i.+p cheered when they saw this scene.

Although Aokiji used his ability to freeze the whole river, the ice was very slippery after all. Under the drag of the giant and Fish-men slaves, the keel of the s.h.i.+p at the bottom was used as a support point and slid on the ice!

This principle was just like the Blade of the Ice skate shoes, once it got out of the pit they dug, and with them pulling the s.h.i.+p up that would save a lot of effort. Under their drag, the huge s.h.i.+p begins to accelerate slowly, heading for the downward channel ahead.

“Hurry up! Benefactor, we are about to go!” The giant warrior continued to shout.

And the slaves on the s.h.i.+p, waving their hands, shouted to Ian simultaneously while crying in tears, “benefactor! Come on! We have to get out together!”

“Let's go!”

“Let's go!”

The shouts soon became united, and all slaves were calling for Ian, the benefactor who took them out of h.e.l.l.

Ian heard them and showed a twisted smile. He wanted to do it too, but the problem was that his legs were not moving!

In the distance, the Marines saw that the slave s.h.i.+p was about to escape, so they wanted to surround the river bank and hunt then down.

However, at this moment, Aokiji suddenly said: “Don't come over!”

The marine soldiers were stunned. They didn't understand why Aokiji shouted like this, but they stopped at his command.

Aokiji turned his head to Ian and said, “As long as you are caught, I can let go of these slaves. I believe that when I catch the mastermind, then the escaped slaves will not be pursued!”

However, what Aokiji said went in vain, because Ian did not pay attention to his speech at this time.

What he listened to was a notification from the System in his mind.

“The number of advanced stones has reached the necessary amount. Do you want to upgrade Hiei's card to a five-star red card?”

“Confirm!”

After Ian gave the order, he came back to his senses and said to Aokiji: “What did you just say?”

Aokiji was annoyed and repeated what he had just said.

“Admiral Kuzan, you think too much!” Ian suddenly had a large smile on his face, but it was covered by his mask, so Aokiji didn't see it.

“I never thought I would be a hero!” Ian said, “I'm not the kind of person who would sacrifice himself to make others happy!”

“What do you mean?” Aokiji frowned.

“Don't you hear it?” Ian turned to look at the slaves in the s.h.i.+p and said, “They are calling for me. They want me beside them!”

A stronger chill suddenly broke out from Aokiji. The buildings on the sh.o.r.e and other objects were frozen in an instant. It can be said that they did not need to change the place at all, because of what Aokiji did.

“You won't run away!” Aokiji said to Ian with a calm face.

“Really!?” Ian laughed.

Just as Aokiji wanted to say something, he suddenly found that Ian's right hand holding the Yamato was abnormal. Ian had taken off his black sweats.h.i.+rt to wrap the box of Devil Fruit, but he was still wearing a tight black long sleeve s.h.i.+rt. However, in Aokiji's eyes, the right sleeve of his s.h.i.+rt had gradually turned into countless flying ashes!

From the wrist to elbow, to the whole arm, the cloth seemed to be burned up by something hot in an instant. Even before emitting these flames, things were getting withered.

“What's going on?” Aokiji was a little confused.

“You stopped the soldiers from coming over, that's wise…” Ian said: “Because, I don't know how powerful my next move is…”

In Aokiji's gaze, Ian's white and strong arm was exposed when his sleeve was burnt, and slowly a black pattern appeared on it.

The black pattern was like a splash of ink, slowly appearing, started from the wrist, winding to the elbow, and then reached his shoulder.

With the appearance of the black lines, Ian's right hand began to emit amazing heat!

This heat was getting higher and stronger, even though he was far away, Aokiji still felt it. Such heat originally conflicts with his Ice-Ice Fruit, which immediately made Aokiji uncomfortable.

“What the h.e.l.l is that!” Aokiji frowned.

Hiei's card has been successfully upgraded to the five-star level, which means that Ian can finally use the ultimate skill of Hiei's card. However, this was the first time for Ian to use this skill. He found that if the Black Dragon h.e.l.lfire wave wants to take shape, he must continuously inject a lot of Nen to maintain it, and the injected Nen was rapidly draining away the remaining value of his Nen.

Slight vertigo began to appear. Ian knew that it would not work like this. How much Nen the Black Dragon h.e.l.lfire wave is going to take away? For the moment, there was no exact number. So he gritted his teeth, and he crushed all the Ice Tear Gem he had saved!

However, the restoration of Nen brought by these Ice Tear Gems was still like a droplet of water in a bucket, which was taken away immediately by the Black Dragon h.e.l.lfire wave forming in his arm.

Seeing that his Nen value was about to reach the bottom, but the Black Dragon h.e.l.lfire wave on his wrist was still not fully formed, Ian had to use the active skill of the Evil Eye Expert again!

Ten seconds! This skill could only last for ten seconds. Whether it can be completed depends on how much Nen the ultimate of this card cost!

Hiei's card has been upgraded to its final stage, a five-star red card, which brings a higher attribute bonus. Ian's Nen value has already exceeded a thousand points. As soon as the skill of the Evil Eye Expert was activated, it quickly covered Ian's Nen value at the cost of Vitality consumption, but it also gives him the double of his max Nen value.

The full recovered power was quickly injected into the Dragon of the Darkness Flame. However, this whole amount of power was consumed again, but this time, the Dragon of the Darkness Flame was finally formed!

This… this technique has consumed more than 3000 points of mental energy!?

Ian looked at his right hand in amazement. Although his wrist did not emit the h.e.l.lfire yet, the astonis.h.i.+ng blaze had distorted the air around him!

Ian looked at Aokiji and said, “I'm sorry, Admiral Kuzan, but I have to escape!”

As soon as the voice fell, Ian slammed the Yamato in his right hand forwards and launched Hiei's Dragon at Aokiji!

“Roar!!!”

He didn't know if it was an illusion or what… Aokiji only heard a loud dragon roar. Then he saw a huge black dragon made from the h.e.l.lfire, which was launched straight along the blade of Ian. The Black Dragon wave ent in a sinuous and circling posture. It opened its mouth and rushed forwards at an amazing speed!

Even though his opponent was Aokiji, at this time, he also felt the threat of death, because the heat carried by this Black Dragon was really shocking. As soon as it approaches, all the objects around it had been incinerating and turned into black ashes!

This was a powerful technique that summons black flames from the depths of the Spirit World and shaping it in the form of a dragon capable of instantly incinerating nearly anything in its path.

'I have to dodge this! I must avoid it!'

For a moment, there was only such a thought left in the mind of Aokiji. He used Soru with all of his strength and escaped from the impact of the Dragon of The Darkness Flame!

Aokiji had escaped this monstrosity, but all the things behind him had disappeared. The inflamed black dragon roared and rushed out, just like a real dragon, it constantly twisted its body and wantonly emitting his high-temperature flames. Even the separated objects at a distance were all affected and incinerated, leaving only a black mark like carbon residue.

Even Ian himself would not have thought that the power of the Dragon of The Darkness Flame was this great. The black dragon wave he unleashed, which was raging in a whole straight line, burned everything on its way, whether it was stones on the wharf, or marine soldiers and their guns and mortars, all turned into nothingness.

When his Nen couldn't sustain and the Dragon of The Darkness Flame dissipated, all that left was an empty avenue, which was about 100 meters wide. Everything disappeared.

The ground turned into magma, bubbling hot air. On a huge rock, there was a huge round gap with smoke. The astonis.h.i.+ng heat was still scattered in the surrounding air. A dry tree, affected by the heat, was ignited with a loud crack.

At the moment, when Ian released the Wicked King Immolation Black Dragon Wave,(T/N: this technique has a lot of names XD sorry for that…), he turned his head and ran to the s.h.i.+p. While Aokiji and the rest of the marine soldiers were stunned, staring at the scene…