Chapter 342-343: Commission From the Underworld

“This… is this his soul?”

Ian looked at the light mass in his hand with surprise. It felt so magical.

That’s right! Although Ian can now use some superhuman powers, whether it was fire, lightning, or space, it doesn’t exceed Ian’s cognitive range, so he thinks it’s normal, however, this is still his first time seeing the so-called soul!

It’s not just him, but most people have never seen how the soul looks like…

Ian seemed surprised, which made Crocodile get frightened. The moment Ian’s hand entered his body, he was wondering why he was not injured. As a result, Crocodile felt as if he had lost something important when Ian pulled his hand out, and a strong sense of emptiness and weakness suddenly struck him.

His intuition told him that this light group mass is an extremely important thing!

“You…what did you do to me!?” Crocodile glared at his chest, groping up and down, but he didn’t find a wound.

After that, Ian came back to his senses when he saw Crocodile’s reacting, turned his gaze from the ball of light, and looked towards Crocodile.

Ian knows very well that the reason why Orochi’s card consumes a large amount of Nen, is because all his skills were high-tier abilities, whether it is the Space Shield, or the Soul Ripper. But their special effect requires a lot of Nen, especially the Space Shield, the power of this trick is not as strong as Ian imagined.

This is not only due to the Nen simulation, but also because Orochi’s card is inherently imperfect. Just imagine if Ian can cause a wide range of Space collapse, then he can easily destroy a country, not just as simple as injuring Crocodile, and making him spit blood.

Therefore, the ordinary skills of Orochi are not extremely powerful, but what really matters about this card is that it gave a special ability to Ian, that is, soul destruction!

In Ian’s impression, there are only two people in this World who can tamper with soul stuff. One is the skeleton Brook, who is estimated to be wandering in the fog of the Devil’s Triangle, and the other is the Yonko Bigmom!

Now, with the help of Orochi’s card, Ian has put his hand on the power of the soul, although at present, it is only limited to the scope of ingestion and destruction, it is indeed a big deal.

Holding the piece of his life force, Ian smiled at Crocodile lightly and said, “Are you curious about what I grabbed from your body?”

Crocodile looked at Ian, gnashing his teeth, didn’t talk, and waited for his answer.

As a result, Ian gently tossed the orb in his hand high and then caught it again. “This is a chunk of your soul! a large amount of your vitality! What do you think would happen if I crush it!?”

Upon hearing this, Crocodile’s eyes were opened wide, a chunk of my soul!?

I’m damned! He finally knew why he had a feeling of losing something important after the orb left his body!

“No… This is impossible!” Crocodile said with some disbelief: “How could you have the ability to interact with soul? As far as I know, the only person who can manipulate human souls in this world is the Bigmom!”

Crocodile has tried his luck in the New World a couple of years ago, so he naturally knew about the Bigmom’s capability, so he doesn’t believe that Ian also has the ability to tamper with souls.

In fact, he’s half right. Ian really can’t control others’ souls. At least Ian can’t absorb “life force” or use it for other purposes. Bigmom’s soul-soul fruit can absorb the soul of living creatures, and then put it in non-living objects, giving them personality and the ability to move, while Ian can only destroy it.

“Do you want to gamble?” Ian didn’t bother, looking at Crocodile with a smile, he held the light ball tightly in his hand. As soon as Crocodile takes the dare, he will immediately crush the orb.

“…” Crocodile went silent, how can he gamble with such a thing?

According to Ian, this is 10% of his soul, which means that it is equal to one-tenth of his lifespan. If Crocodile can live to eighty years old, this light group represents eight years of his lifespan. So if Ian pops the orb in his hand, it will cost sir Crocodile a lot!

In the distance, Robin was very shocked. She produced an ear in the back of Ian by using the power of her fruit, and heard the conversation between the two. The light mass in Ian’s hand, she did not expect it to be a part of Crocodile’s soul.

This… what exactly is this kind of Ability!?

“What do you want?” Crocodile asked Ian gnashing his teeth, with a strong reluctance in his tone.

He found that he really couldn’t deal with Ian, Ian’s endless skills have overwhelmed his Logia capabilities, and now a part of his soul is in the hands of Ian, therefore he can only subject to Ian.

However, listening to his question, Ian was also a little bit troubled… Yup, what does he want to do with Crocodile?

Just kill him? It seems that something isn’t quite right. Although he has stolen one-tenth of his soul, even if he smashes this light mass, he still won’t kill Crocodile. At most, he will once again deal serious damage to him. Crocodile is in his early 40s, and 10% of his life force won’t end his journey.

‘Besides, what is the benefit of killing Crocodile now? I am already a Shichibukai, and I don’t have a candidate to replace him. Moreover, Shichibukais can turn hostile among each other, but they can’t fight… so If I kill Crocodile myself, I am afraid the World Government will find its reason to revoke my rank.’

To put it bluntly, killing Crocodile has no meaning for now.

Ian had a headache about how to deal with this matter. He felt that it doesn’t seem cost-effective to coerce Crocodile and take Nico Robin away. So after thinking about it, Ian said: “Alright, I’m not going to destroy your soul, but what’s your bargaining chip, what are you willing to exchange for it?”

This is equivalent to throwing the problem/question back to Crocodile. If he wants to retrieve his soul, Crocodile must come up with something equivalent.

He was aware of this, took a look at Nico Robin’s location, and hesitated.

What Ian took is a part of his soul. If Crocodile was crazy enough, he would’ve ignored it. In this case, he won’t be threatened by Ian, but Crocodile didn’t dare to gamble with this matter. Since Ian could take a chunk of his soul, who can guarantee that he wouldn’t take more!?

So thinking about it, Crocodile had to say: “Nico Robin, you can take her away!”

“Not enough!” Ian shook his head.

Crocodile took a deep breath and said, “Huh, well then, let me add a piece of information!!?”

“What do you got?” Ian was somewhat confused.

Crocodile laughed. The scar across his face looked very ferocious. He pulled out a cigar and bit it. After lighting it, he said confidently: “A message that has been spreading around and you absolutely need to know!”

“… Keep talking!” Ian looked at him for a while and said: “If I think it’s too important, then we have reached a deal.”

“Just a few days ago… Hmm, days before you arrived in Alubarna, I got a message from the Underground World!” Crocodile said: “It’s an employment commission, someone from the Underground World has released a task for a high amount of money!”

“I’m listening…!” Ian nodded.

“The amount entrusted is up to 10 billion Berries!” Crocodile sneered: “And the content of the mission is to attack an island, and the report indicated that hired soldiers must kill all the people on the island!”

Ian felt that something was wrong, and asked: “What do you mean!?”

“What do I mean!? Don’t you get it?” Crocodile laughed wildly: “The name of that island is Travolta… It’s the island where your pirate group, the Dragon Hunters are located!”