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'That was... Conqueror's Haki? Is this man the one who defeated the Golden Lion? What does this guy want to do?'
Silvers Rayleigh frowned and looked at Vivi, who was bidding on him next to Ikki, with some confusion.
He couldn't figure out why Ikki's partner would bid for a "slave" like him.
Facing Rayleigh's gaze, Ikki just smiled and nodded.
'Forget it, let's see what happens first.'
The corners of Rayleigh's mouth curled up slightly, and he suddenly became curious about what might happen next.
"Five hundred thousand berries!" the auctioneer announced.
"The lady at number 88 wants to bid 500,000 berries for this old man. Is there anyone who wants to increase the bid? Very good, this old man also belongs to our bidder number 88!"
The auction master knew that the people participating in the auction had no interest in bidding for an 'ordinary' old man like Rayleigh and was ready to bring down the auction hammer to finalize the transaction.
"Ten million berries."
At that moment, a lazy and arrogant voice echoed through the hall.
The auctioneer's movements froze as he quickly looked in the direction the voice came from. The people around him did the same.
However, after seeing who the speaker was, they immediately turned their heads away, afraid of being noticed by the newcomer.
"Oh no... a Celestial Dragon?!" Vivi's eyes widened as she looked at Ikki worriedly.
"Ikki, what should we do?"
"Don't worry, Vivi. The person up there is Silvers Rayleigh. Even if he's bought by a Celestial Dragon, he'll be fine," Ikki said, patting Vivi on the shoulder and whispering.
Vivi immediately showed an extremely surprised expression when she heard that the old man in front of her was the person they were looking for.
But she also felt relieved. As Ikki said, Silvers Rayleigh's safety was nothing for her to worry about.
'However, these Celestial Dragons really are troublemakers. Coming in and immediately quoting an excessive price—are they showing off their financial strength?'
Ikki glanced at the Celestial Dragon group passing by his party, then looked at Silvers Rayleigh.
'I wonder if Silvers Rayleigh will rob a Celestial Dragon, haha.'
Ikki didn't bother caring about the Celestial Dragon's affairs when it had nothing to do with him. He allowed them to be escorted to the most luxurious seats at the front of the auction house.
However, Ikki quickly discovered that his aloof attitude simply wasn't working. In the following auctions, whenever Vivi participated in the bidding, the Celestial Dragon would outbid her with a higher price.
"Ikki, are we going to watch that Celestial Dragon turn those people into slaves?" Vivi asked anxiously.
"There's nothing we can do about it. With our strength, we could naturally defeat that Celestial Dragon," Nico Robin said calmly.
"But once we take action against a Celestial Dragon, our situation will become quite troublesome."
Hearing this, Vivi's face became even more distressed.
"That said, we can still make some attempts," Ikki said with a smile.
Conqueror's Haki surged from his body. After avoiding the others, his Conqueror's Haki fell directly on the Celestial Dragon.
Under Ikki's perfect control, the Celestial Dragon felt his head shake, then slowly lowered his head and passed out.
When the surrounding guards saw the Celestial Dragon breathing evenly, they just thought he had fallen asleep. After all, Celestial Dragons had dozed off during auctions many times before.
'Taking action against a Celestial Dragon? It seems this bounty hunter isn't exactly law-abiding either. But that precision in controlling Conqueror's Haki is quite impressive.'
Everything Ikki did could be hidden from others, but not from Silvers Rayleigh.
Sensing that Ikki was taking action against the Celestial Dragon, Rayleigh felt an inexplicable liking for him.
After the Celestial Dragon "fell asleep," his guards had no intention of staying. After instructing the auctioneer to deliver the items the Celestial Dragon had bid on to his mansion, the guards quickly left the auction house with their charge.
However, none of the guards noticed that when they passed Ikki's location, his eyes suddenly became clear—he had obviously entered the Transparent World state.
At this moment, in Ikki's eyes, the internal structure of the Celestial Dragon clearly appeared before him.
'My Conqueror's Haki can already cause actual damage to objects. I'll just turn him into an idiot.'
Ikki thought as his Conqueror's Haki delicately destroyed some of the nerves in the Celestial Dragon's brain.
Although not fatal, Ikki was sure that when he woke up, his already limited brain would become even more stupid.
Rayleigh, who had been observing Ikki with Observation Haki, had a glimmer of light in his eyes and turned to look in Ikki's direction with shock.
He was surprised not only by Ikki's courage to take action against a Celestial Dragon, but also by his control over Conqueror's Haki.
What he didn't know was that when Ikki was in the Transparent World state, he could clearly observe an enemy's physical condition. At the same time, his control over his abilities would skyrocket.
'For doing such a thing to a Celestial Dragon, this Ikki is not an honest bounty hunter. Maybe one day in the future, he'll also become a pirate.'
Rayleigh smiled to himself.
Without the Celestial Dragon, the entire auction house became lively again.
"Great! Now we can bid normally," Vivi said, clenching her fist happily.
"No need to bid, Vivi," Ikki said, holding her shoulder and whispering.
"Why not, Ikki?"
"Think about it—Silvers Rayleigh was bought by that Celestial Dragon, but is he the kind of person who would willingly be a slave to a Celestial Dragon?"
"Ikki, are you saying he's going to disrupt this auction later?" Vivi's eyes lit up as she spoke with slight excitement.
Vivi naturally disliked the so-called slave auction. But she also knew that this industry, recognized by the Marines and World Government, wasn't something she could influence with just a few words.
Now hearing Ikki talk about what Rayleigh might do to the auction house, Vivi was naturally very happy.
"Even if he doesn't do anything, we can still do something," Ikki said, raising the corner of his mouth as he looked toward the auction stage, silently watching as slaves were brought up one by one.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
"Damn it! What kind of ability does this woman have, and what's with the ghosts around her?" Kid shouted as he once again recovered from his negative state, looking at Perona with hatred from one meter away.
Kid, Killer, and the others had been hit by Negative Hollows several times already.
Obviously they had power, but after being controlled by the Negative Hollows, they were unable to use their abilities.
How could this not make the arrogant Kid, Killer, and others feel frustrated?
"Horohorohoroho! Give up," Perona laughed.
"No one can escape my abilities except my crewmates. To deal with you, I don't even need to use my swordsmanship."
Perona smiled as she looked at Kid and Killer, who were once again penetrated by Negative Hollows and lying on the ground.
At this moment, her confidence in her abilities was completely restored.