"What else? I spent so much effort, all for you," Yun Lie said directly, his gaze sweeping over Perona's delicate face.
"Then, can Mr. Absalom and Doctor Hogback also be brought in? Let him accompany Lord Moriah," Perona suddenly thought of something, asking cautiously with a hint of expectation in her eyes.
"Absalom is out of the question, but Hogback can," Yun Lie pondered for a moment, various images flashing quickly through his mind, and then he instantly vanished from the spot.
Perona was a little confused, looking at the person beside her with a puzzled expression. Robin then explained, "The Absalom you mentioned, is that the lion-faced man? He is already dead."
Hearing that Absalom was dead, Perona was stunned for a moment, her face revealing deep sadness, her eyes dimming, and she stood blankly in place, as if she had lost something important.
Nami, who couldn't bear to see anyone sad, her compassionate heart overflowing, quickly stepped forward and gently embraced Perona's small body, softly explaining to her why Absalom was killed, while gently patting Perona's back, trying to comfort her.
Not long after, ripples appeared in the space, and Yun Lie returned, carrying a peculiar-looking man with a pointy nose—Hogback.
Hogback was a quack doctor who loved money more than his life and had no professional ethics.
However, no one could deny that he was a rare genius doctor in the world of pirates.
It was just that his love was terrifyingly twisted.
Once, during a medical journey, he unilaterally fell in love with the dancer Cindry and was deeply immersed in unrequited love.
But fate was cruel; a stage accident mercilessly took Cindry's life, and from then on, Hogback was utterly devastated, sinking into endless pain and despair.
Moriah saw through Hogback's obsession and successfully recruited him onto his ship by luring him with the "resurrection" of Cindry.
By implanting others' shadows into Cindry's corpse, a "resurrected" zombie Cindry appeared before Hogback.
But this was not the real Cindry after all, and Hogback's love for this zombie, driven by his obsession, became increasingly twisted and reckless, completely immersing him.
Just like Moriah's treatment, Yun Lie directly restricted Hogback using Causality Power.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" After a long period of unconsciousness, Hogback slowly woke up, the soreness in his limbs making him groan.
His gaze swept around, and when he saw Moriah lying on the bed, he couldn't help but exclaim, "Eh? Lord Moriah?"
Moriah was startled awake by the sudden shout, and still not fully conscious, he grumbled, "Hogback, what are you doing?!"
After a moment of confusion, Moriah suddenly realized something was wrong: "No, where is this?"
As his memories gradually resurfaced, he nervously looked around, and finally, his gaze, like a hawk, locked onto Yun Lie and the women in the distance.
"Perona, it's dangerous there, come here quickly!" The moment he saw Perona, Moriah's face flushed with excitement, but when he noticed Yun Lie beside Perona, an alarm immediately blared in his heart, and he urgently called out.
He struggled to get up but was swept by a strong wave of weakness throughout his body.
It wasn't until he saw the Sea Stone handcuffs restraining his hands that he fully recognized his trapped situation.
Perona's eyes were filled with tears, and her voice was choked with sobs: "Lord Moriah, I'm sorry π_π"
In her heart, standing beside Yun Lie at this moment was undoubtedly a betrayal of Moriah, and the guilt and conflict made her heart ache.
Yun Lie took Perona's small hand, his tone calm yet undeniable: "Alright, Moriah, Perona is my crew member now. Just stay in this world."
As his words fell, he took the women and, like a gust of wind, instantly vanished from the spot.
Leaving Moriah here, in Yun Lie's opinion, was far better than having him defeated by Wang Lufei in the future and then captured by the World Government and thrown into the dark Impel Down.
At least here, Moriah could live peacefully.
After all, this bloated great pirate Moriah was now just a dead couch potato; changing his "home" seemed to make no difference to him.
In contrast, Hogback's situation was much more miserable; there was no Cindry whom he longed for, nor Moriah to help him create zombies.
From now on, the only thing he could do was to be Moriah's subordinate.
With his strength, trying to resist Moriah was simply a pipe dream.
Even if Moriah was restrained by Sea Stone and unable to use his abilities, he could easily crush Hogback with just his physical strength.
"Give Perona back to me!" Moriah roared, using all his strength to punch the stone wall blocking him.
However, the stone wall remained unmoving, not even leaving a single punch mark, while the recoil sent him flying backward, crashing heavily to the ground.
.......
In the room, Perona hugged her knees tightly, burying her face between them, her body trembling uncontrollably, tears flowing freely down her cheeks like a broken dam, soaking her skirt.
"Wuwuwu......."
Her sobbing voice was filled with grievance and confusion, as if she wanted to vent all the emotions in her heart.
Yun Lie slowly walked to her side, gently patted Perona's small hand, and said with a comforting tone: "Alright, don't cry. It's not like I won't let you visit Moriah in the future."
Perona, as if clutching a lifebuoy, suddenly looked up, her swollen eyes glistening with hope, and her voice trembling slightly: "Re-really?"
Tears welled up in her eyes, and crystal clear teardrops hung from her eyelashes.
"I never lie to children," Yun Lie said seriously, looking at her with a firm gaze.
This sentence, however, seemed to touch a raw nerve in Perona, and she immediately retorted indignantly, subconsciously shouting, "Bastard, I'm not a child!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, she seemed to realize something, a hint of panic flashed in her eyes, and then she fearfully shifted her body to the side, her voice softening: "I didn't mean to scold you."
Yun Lie's lips curved slightly into a smile, and he leaned closer, casually putting his arm around Perona's waist, saying with a chuckle, "Right, right, right, you're not a child, you're an adult now."
He slightly tightened his arm, drawing Perona closer to him.