Onboard the Ghost.
Lafitte was standing at the sentry position at the top of the mast, holding the outside of the wooden guardrail with one hand, his whole body facing the outside, and holding a telescope in the other hand, looking into the distance.
He had long ago discovered a black shadow on the distant sea. He could vaguely tell it was a ship, but he was not sure what kind of ship it was.
As the two ships continued to approach, the black shadow gradually became clearer.
"That flag is..."
When he saw the flag on the ship clearly, Lafitte's expression suddenly changed slightly. He, who always looked like a strange gentleman, rarely showed an extremely serious expression.
Whoosh!
After making another judgment, he jumped from the mast, landed on the deck below, and said to Robin: "Call the captain to come up. That ship is... the Red Hair Pirates."
"The red-haired pirates?!"
Robin also looked moved. He thought it would be a merchant ship or an ordinary pirate ship, but he didn't expect it to be the red-haired pirates who were extremely terrifying on the Grand Line!
soon.
Robin found Ross in the training room, and Ross was stunned for a moment when he heard about the encounter with the red-haired pirates, and then came to the deck with a serious expression.
He took the telescope from Lafitte, took a careful look at the ship approaching in the distance, and said thoughtfully: "It is indeed the Red-haired Pirates..."
Calculating the time, it is now August of the eleventh year of the Great Pirate Era. According to the normal plot, Shanks arrived at the Windmill Village in the East China Sea around this period and stayed there for about a year.
"Captain, do you need to avoid it?"
Lafitte suggested from the side.
Although he is very optimistic about Ross and boarded Ross's ship, he is not an idiot. At this point in time, facing an existence like the Red-haired Pirates, which has already become famous throughout the world, is undoubtedly a kind of The act of seeking death.
After Rhodes put down the telescope, he took another look in the direction of the red-haired pirate ship, and said calmly: "Don't panic, look at the route, we won't hit you head-on, at most we will pass by."
"This is also very dangerous..."
Lafitte was slightly worried.
Ross stood on the bow of the boat with his hands behind his back, not intending to go around in a big circle to avoid it. If he encountered the Beasts Pirates or the BIGMOM Pirates, he might avoid it for the time being, but for the Red Haired Pirates, he There is no need to do this.
Speaking of which, the Four Emperors are also his hunting target, but that is the ultimate goal... It is indeed too early to encounter the red-haired pirates at this point in time.
Ross looked at the red-haired pirate ship approaching in the distance and murmured in his heart.
“…”
Looking at the red-haired pirate ship getting closer and closer, Robin couldn't help but show a hint of nervousness. There were very few people who could make her nervous, but the navy admiral Qingzhi made her still deeply afraid, and the red-haired The pirates are a group that even the admiral would not dare to easily provoke.
As the distance between the ships gradually narrowed, the routes of the two ships became very clear. They were indeed not directly opposite each other, but two parallel lines that did not intersect. They would pass each other at a distance of about thirty or forty meters.
Both Robin and Lafitte were a little nervous, but Ross remained calm, as if it was just an ordinary merchant ship.
One hundred meters…
Ninety meters…
As the distance between the ships continued to approach, the people and buildings on both sides gradually became clearer, and Ross could clearly see the figure standing on the bow of the red-haired pirate group.
One of them, wearing a black cloak and a yellow straw hat, is none other than the Four Emperors of the New World, red-haired Shanks!
Forty meters…
Thirty meters…
When the distance between the two ships reached thirty meters, it stopped shortening. At this distance, Ross and Shanks, standing on the bow of the ship, faced each other and could almost see the expressions on each other's faces clearly.
This distance did not freeze, but increased again as time went by, becoming forty meters, fifty meters, until the two ships completely passed each other and nothing happened.
"call!"
When the red-haired pirate ship's hull completely passed by the Ghost Shadow, both Lafitte and Robin almost let out a long sigh of relief. They looked at each other and found that there were fine beads of sweat on each other's foreheads. .
Only Ross remained calm, with no expression on his face.
"never mind."
"Keep moving forward, target Belos Town."
Ross turned around, spoke softly, walked into the cabin and disappeared.
…
The other side.
On the ship of the red-haired pirates, there were still a large number of crew members drinking and eating meat. Most of them didn't even know that they had passed by the Ghost Shadow.
Even those who knew about it didn't pay much attention and were still talking and laughing while drinking.
Only the red-haired Shanks, who was standing at the bow of the ship, facing Ross far away until the ship completely passed by him, had a slightly strange look in his eyes after he came back to his senses.
"That person just now..."
"What's wrong?"
Beckman turned to look at Shanks and asked, "Do you want to stop them?"
"Need not."
Shanks shook his head and said with a slight twinkle in his eyes: "It's just... the look in that person's eyes just now gave me a very unusual feeling. I have a hunch that we will meet again."
"Yeah?"
Beckman took a drag on his cigarette and smiled.
No one can explain this kind of thing clearly, but he didn't expect to meet someone in the West Sea who gave Shanks a premonition.
"That guy just now should be Rhodes, the ghost hand of the West Sea. I read it in the newspaper before. Judging from the heading, they should be going to the Grand Line. It's not easy to see us again."
This time it was just a chance encounter. For the pirates, if they wanted to meet them, just conquering the first half of the Grand Route would have caused countless people to fail.
Shanks' premonition may be just a premonition.
…
After passing by the red-haired pirates, peace returned to the Ghost Shadow again.
Lafitte continued to control the course, Robin still read her book, and occasionally directed the handymen to do some cleaning work on the ship, or assisted Lafitte in reefing and hoisting the sails, while Ross returned to the training room and continued to exercise his body and practice weapons. Domineering color.
"Armed!"
Standing in front of a hard steel wall, Ross stretched out his fist and muttered silently in his heart, while controlling his armed domineering energy to gather on his fist.
Compared with more than half a month ago, the armed domineering force has been strengthened a lot. It is constantly gathering and condensing, gradually turning from surrounding to being attached. It is getting stronger and stronger, but it has never been able to form a black hardening.
"It's still not enough."
Ross shook his head and punched the iron wall.
boom!
Even if it cannot reach the level of hardening of the weapon color, it can only be surrounded by the weapon color, which also greatly enhances the attack. He did not use the power of distortion with this punch, but still blasted out the thick iron wall with a bang. Made a fist seal.
"Very good. If I continue to improve at this rate, in another half a month, I should be able to gradually reach the level of armed color hardening."