One Piece: Hell Pirates

Chapter 445: Three-Part Heart Mountain

"You slug..."

The Toad Sage glared at the Slug Sage in displeasure.

This fellow was actually eyeing the toad clan's inherited treasure. If he had known it would come to this, he should never have saved this slug in the first place.

Of course, if the Toad Sage had not persuaded the Slug Sage that day, then the Slug Sage might have already been subdued by Brook by now, not killed by Brook as the Toad Sage had claimed.

Indeed, the Toad Sage had deliberately exaggerated Brook's threat to scare the Slug Sage. That was why the Slug Sage had abandoned Shikkotsu Forest and come to Mount Myōboku, becoming the Toad Sage's ally against Brook.

More importantly, if the Slug Sage ended up fighting Brook for a long time inside this alternate dimension, then it might even become an emergency food reserve for the toad clan.

That would be a win-win.

Hearing the words of both the Toad Sage and the Slug Sage, Lian fell silent for a moment.

Meanwhile, at the heart of Mount Myōboku, Brook and Kaguya were inside a black portal, relentlessly attacking the flaw in the alternate dimension's barrier.

After failing to break through for so long, Brook also grew somewhat impatient, and his expression became more serious.

This power was far too strong.

It was even stronger than the clone formed from the two legs of the Southern Underworld God, the Soul King.

However, that only strengthened Brook's determination to take it for himself.

In order to deal with this alternate dimension and continuously attack the flaw in its barrier, Brook summoned the Ten-Tails Groot from Shikkotsu Forest and ordered it to take root directly on the energy wall blocking the breach.

Let's see how much it can absorb.

Brook also used the Illusionary Body Technique to send the brothers Hanyu Shiroi and Hanyu Kuromura to guard Shikkotsu Forest, preventing it from being occupied by other summoned beasts.

At the same time, he had also found them a new training ground.

For those two brothers, this was a pretty good deal.

"Brook, if we could turn Groot into a Divine Tree, its absorption speed would increase ten thousandfold. If only..."

Princess Kaguya suddenly grew a little excited, but then quickly became awkward.

Right now, it seemed that she was the only one suitable to be used as a sacrifice for the Ten-Tails Groot.

The way she said it was almost as if she had put herself in a difficult position all on her own.

No wonder she was a naive and innocent woman.

Perhaps it was because she was pregnant now, making her thoughts even more direct than usual.

"We can wait them out. I don't believe the toad clan can last forever."

Brook stopped attacking and chose to slowly devour, fuse with, and absorb the energy.

Just like Groot absorbing the Ten-Tails, Brook treated this as a form of training.

Princess Kaguya did not have a devouring ability, so she could only watch helplessly as Brook and Groot absorbed everything.

"Kaguya, go and turn Mount Myōboku into our territory. This sacred land is very powerful. It contains not only natural energy, but also divine energy.

"Maybe you can try eating the fruits and animals of Mount Myōboku and see if you can extract more chakra energy from them."

Seeing that Princess Kaguya could no longer help here, Brook told her to leave the black space and go back outside to cause trouble in Mount Myōboku.

In truth, even the Otsutsuki clan needed to refine their own chakra energy. They even had to regularly hand over chakra energy to the higher-ups of the Otsutsuki clan.

They perfectly embodied the image of exploited workers.

Not only did they have to travel from planet to planet planting Divine Trees and handing over the fruits, they also had to surrender part of the chakra they refined.

In the end, all they received was a pill made from the Divine Tree Fruit by the upper ranks of the Otsutsuki clan, which they then used to slowly evolve their life level.

However, the energy contained in that pill might not even be one percent of the energy within the Divine Tree Fruit.

The remaining energy was naturally collected by the higher-ups of the Otsutsuki clan.

This kind of exploitation was even more outrageous than the Hyuga main family's exploitation of the branch family.

No wonder Otsutsuki Shibai had been able to break through so quickly.

Aside from devouring the legacy of the Otsutsuki God and the Northern Underworld God, Hirasaka, the endless stream of Divine Tree Fruits and chakra power had also served as his fuel.

After his soul ascended beyond this world, Brook wondered whether the current Otsutsuki higher-ups had supported another figure as important as Shibai.

Based on the limited information known by Kaguya and Isshiki, the current Otsutsuki leadership seemed to have split into several factions instead of continuing the old pyramid structure that supported only Shibai at the top.

The current Otsutsuki clan might have several high-ranking members, each with their own small pyramid of subordinates and tribute.

With nourishment divided like that, their growth rate would definitely be much slower. It would be extremely difficult for another being to achieve soul ascension.

Moreover, most of the benefits and opportunities in this world had already been taken by Otsutsuki Shibai.

Now that Brook, an alien plunderer, had appeared, the chance of the Otsutsuki leaders becoming gods was even lower.

After Kaguya left the black space, Brook and Groot continued working hard to absorb and fuse with the thick energy wall blocking the barrier's flaw.

But inside the alternate dimension, Lian, who currently belonged to the kind and gentle Will of Nature, did not reject the suggestions of the Toad Sage and the Slug Sage.

At this moment, he was indeed willing to hand over control of his energy.

After witnessing Lian's changes, the Toad Sage became even more determined to seize control of the sacred mountain's energy. It wanted to merge all of that power into its own body and achieve true immortality.

However, Lian, now possessing a trace of humanity, believed that the two sages could help extract the natural energy from his body faster. That would make it easier for him to control Heart Mountain.

Therefore, he was willing to hand over part of the energy control to the Slug Sage.

But in the end, under the Toad Sage's forceful negotiation, the Toad Sage obtained twice as much control as the Slug Sage.

It knew that as the natural energy inside Lian decreased, Lian's own personality would grow stronger. When that happened, Lian would definitely want to reclaim control of the sacred mountain's energy.

So while Lian was still obedient, the Toad Sage and the Slug Sage demanded complete control over the sacred mountain's energy.

In the end, the two sages took almost half of the heart's energy.

After gaining control of that energy, they immediately merged it into their own bodies.

Their strength soared rapidly, causing even the toads of Mount Myōboku to tremble.

When Lian's natural energy dropped below half, his dominant personality finally lost its gentle nature. Combined with his memories of being controlled by the toad clan for thousands of years, his expression quickly became complicated.

He immediately wanted to fight the Toad Sage and the Slug Sage to take everything back.

However, his current strength was still somewhat weak.

After weighing the pros and cons, and under the Toad Sage's persuasion, with Brook still threatening them from outside, Lian had no choice but to cooperate.

In order to deal with Brook, the Toad Sage also had no choice but to join forces with the Slug Sage and help Lian extract the remaining half of the natural energy from his body, allowing him to fully control this space and Heart Mountain.

Finally, Lian also gained control of the remaining half of Heart Mountain's energy.

He immediately transformed Heart Mountain into a domineering divine body, fusing his consciousness and soul into it and becoming a powerful new life form.

-------------

The Toad Sage received thirty-five percent of Heart Mountain's power, while the Slug Sage received fifteen percent.

Lian, who had been born from Heart Mountain, once again wanted to reclaim all of the heart's power. However, he could only fight the Toad Sage and the Slug Sage to a draw. In fact, due to his lack of technique and combat experience, he was faintly suppressed by their combined strength.

In the end, with no side able to defeat the others, they had no choice but to join forces and unleash Heart Mountain's full power in order to deal with Brook's threat.

Only then would they have a chance to repel Brook, the intruder.

"That energy barrier is about to give way."

Lian spoke coldly.

After regaining his own personality, he immediately abandoned his old name and took on a new one from the inherited memories in his mind.

Hirasaka.

He was part of Hirasaka, but he was not the true Hirasaka.

He was merely a consciousness born from Hirasaka's heart, but even so, he had the right to bear the name Hirasaka.

The current Hirasaka was extremely wary of the power of the Four Gods inside Brook. But compared to Brook, he hated the toad clan even more.

Those toads had controlled him like a fool for thousands of years.

And now, they had joined hands with this slug and stolen half the power of Heart Mountain. Worse still, that foolish former self had personally handed that control to them.

Now that Hirasaka had regained his own will, he hated it so much that his teeth nearly cracked.

"Then prepare for battle. We take Brook down together!"

The Toad Sage felt the surging power inside his body, and his confidence grew. However, he still glanced warily at Hirasaka, this so-called ally whose eyes were filled with killing intent.

Hirasaka, the Toad Sage, and the Slug Sage were all wary of one another. They even hated one another.

But under Brook's pressure, they had no choice but to cooperate.

At the same time, the alternate dimension began to grow unstable after the disappearance of Heart Mountain.

Hirasaka sensed that Brook had almost finished absorbing the dense Heart Mountain energy outside. That energy wall was a high-level defense he could only release when he still controlled the whole Heart Mountain.

Now that these two beasts had stolen half his power, he could no longer produce such high-grade divine power.

"Get ready, you trash."

Hirasaka spoke to the two beasts with a gloomy expression.

Then, using his control over the alternate dimension, he ejected the entire toad clan and the Slug Sage from that space in one breath.

After that, he used the techniques from his inherited memories and shrank the alternate dimension into a protective shield covered in ancient immortal runes. It had clearly become a powerful talisman-like artifact.

When the Toad Sage had been carrying out his plan, he had already used illusionary arts to cover the view at the barrier flaw. Because of that, Brook did not see them dividing up Heart Mountain.

The sudden disappearance of the alternate dimension and the ejection of all the summoned beasts inside made Brook's eyes light up.

He had not expected the alternate dimension to collapse so quickly.

But in the next instant, three powerful auras made him alert.

Brook frowned when he saw the completely unfamiliar human figure. There was an extremely powerful yet strangely familiar feeling coming from that person.

Even his appearance felt somewhat familiar.

"You're Hirasaka?"

Brook was suddenly startled. He finally remembered the broken statue in the Northern Underworld, as well as several memories left behind by the incarnations of the Underworld Gods.

Kaguya had initially been excited when she sensed those dead toads, but after feeling the powerful energy pouring out of Gamamaru, her expression also became serious.

That dead toad had become much stronger.

"You actually know me?"

Hirasaka paused for a moment.

Even he and Gamamaru had not known the true origin of Heart Mountain. He only knew the name Hirasaka through fragments of inherited memory, and nothing about the deeds behind that name.

"You really are Hirasaka? Impossible. Hirasaka perished together with the Otsutsuki God!"

Brook spoke in disbelief.

If this were truly Hirasaka, the God of the Northern Underworld, Brook would turn around and run without hesitation.

"So that is how he died?"

Hirasaka murmured softly.

Now he finally understood why there had only been one heart-shaped sacred mountain inside the alternate dimension.

"What? He is the Northern Underworld God, Hirasaka?"

Kaguya was also shocked.

A true god who had perished together with the ancestor of the Otsutsuki clan.

"No. At most, he's only a clone of Hirasaka."

After Brook realized the truth, he spoke with absolute certainty.

He did not believe the other three Underworld Gods had made a mistake. That proved the Northern Underworld God, Hirasaka, was indeed dead.

"That is correct. I am merely a new consciousness born from Heart Mountain. And I have been controlled by these dead toads for thousands of years in this world.

"Only today have I truly regained my own personality. But from now on, my name is Hirasaka."

Hirasaka glanced at the Toad Sage, then spoke to Brook.

"These two are my enemies."

"So the thing inside that alternate dimension was Hirasaka's heart. Judging from your current strength, you've already divided the heart among yourselves."

Brook narrowed his eyes and looked at them with a dangerous glint.

They had actually eaten the thing he had his eyes on.

There was no way he would let them off.

"Brook! The three of us might not be any weaker than you now! The ninja world is no longer yours to decide!"

With thirty-five percent of Heart Mountain's power, the Toad Sage's confidence had clearly returned. It no longer believed Brook could suppress them so easily.

"Yohoho! Looks like this toad has gotten too cocky! If the power in both of you were combined into this new Hirasaka, then maybe I would be a little wary.

"But since you dead toad and slug stole half of his power, none of you are much of a threat to me!"

Brook made no attempt to hide the discord he was sowing.

He could also clearly see Hirasaka's resentment toward the Toad Sage and the Slug Sage.

"Hmph! The three of us are allies now. As long as we join forces against you, you won't gain any advantage!"

The Toad Sage glanced at Hirasaka, then spoke slowly.

"If you cede half of the ninja world to all summoned beasts, perhaps we can coexist peacefully!"

"Enough. You can shut up now. Do you really think I can't do anything to you?"

Brook sneered.

They were merely three powerful beings formed from a broken heart.

As for Brook, he possessed the power of the Four Gods, along with the energy he had recently absorbed from a section of Hirasaka's spine.

Moreover, Brook still had plenty of helpers.

Kaguya and Groot were excellent combatants, and his Pure Land Hell and All Nations also had countless subordinates.

Even if this became a war of attrition, he could grind them down to the end.

With such limited resources, they dared to demand half the ninja world?

Wishful thinking.

It seemed they had truly underestimated Brook's real strength.

.....

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