46: Chapter 46: What does it matter? Jade must be carved to become a work of art!

"Uncle... Did Uncle really leave?!"

Luffy stared blankly at the empty sea, his eyes reddening, and he immediately sat down on the ground, letting out a wail like a stuck pig.

"I want to eat meat! I want the barbecue from the Sabaody Archipelago!!!"

"That's enough, Luffy! Stop howling!"

Ace took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, his eyes scanning the surrounding eerie and terrifying primeval jungle with vigilance.

"Uncle is testing us. If we can't even conquer this island, what do we have to take to the New World?"

Ace pulled Luffy up and said in a deep voice: "We must find a clean water source and a safe shelter first! Smoker said that this island has..."

"Roar——!!!"

Ace hadn't even finished speaking!

Deep in the jungle, a terrifying beast roar suddenly erupted, so brutal it seemed to tear one's soul apart!

Immediately after.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The ground began to shake violently! Towering trees that would take ten people to hug were snapped like fragile weeds, broken with extreme brutality!

In the eyes of the brothers, filled with horror.

A primeval giant Masira, nearly thirty meters tall, covered in black fur like steel needles, with eyes emitting a scarlet, blood-red light, rushed out of the jungle like a moving fortress!

It slammed its thick arms against its chest, erupting with a thunderous sound, and the resulting air wave blew the surrounding sand into the sky!

"What... what kind of monster is this?!" Luffy was so scared his jaw nearly hit the ground.

The violent aura emanating from this Masira was even more terrifying than those Vice Admirals at Marineford!

"Don't talk nonsense! Run!!!"

Ace felt his scalp tingle and turned to run without hesitation!

"Boom!"

The giant Masira leaped up, its hill-like giant palm, carrying a shrill sonic boom that tore through the air, smashing fiercely into the spot where the two had just been standing!

The entire beach instantly collapsed into a giant crater with a diameter of tens of meters!

Luffy and Ace scrambled into the jungle, beginning a humiliating and extremely wretched flight for their lives!

...

On the other side of the island. Deep within the clouds ten thousand meters in the sky. A warship was hovering there very quietly.

This warship, modified by Carl using System black technology, not only possessed optical stealth capabilities but could even shield against all Observation Haki perception.

On the deck. Carl was lying on an extremely comfortable beach chair, with a glass of iced watermelon juice on the small table next to him, and Smoker was sweating profusely as he fanned him.

In front of Carl, a semi-transparent System light screen emitting a faint glow was hovering!

[God-level Item: Elder's Gaze (No-Dead-Angle Surveillance Version)]

[Effect: After locking onto a target, the Host can monitor any of the target's actions 24/7, 360-degrees without dead angles! And within a certain range, achieve zero-latency instant teleportation!]

In the light screen, what was playing was the high-definition footage of Luffy and Ace being chased all over the mountain by that primeval giant Masira, scrambling and rolling.

"Hahaha! Look at that kid Luffy, he ran so fast his Straw Hat fell to the ground!"

Carl looked at the miserable situation in the light screen, not only without the slightest worry, but instead laughed heartlessly, grabbing a piece of watermelon and stuffing it into his mouth.

"Ca... Carl-san..." Smoker said, fanning while swallowing his saliva, "That is one of the overlords of Rusukaina Island. Even if they team up, they definitely can't beat it. Are you really not going to intervene?"

"What do you mean intervene? Without carving, jade cannot become a gem!"

Carl spat out a few watermelon seeds and rolled his eyes.

"If they aren't chased for hundreds of streets by beasts, how can they stimulate their physical potential? How will they survive in society?"

Carl tapped the table, his eyes shining with an extremely black-bellied gleam: "However... these two little brats lack basic wilderness survival knowledge, so I, their Uncle, really need to give them a remedial lesson in this."

In the footage. Luffy and Ace ran for their lives in the jungle for three whole hours before finally jumping into an extremely rapid underground river, barely shaking off the terrifying giant Masira.

The two drifted along the underground river and were finally washed into a dark and damp giant karst cave.

"Huff... huff..."

Luffy lay sprawled on the cold stone, his stomach letting out a "rumble" like thunder.

The escape had exhausted all his physical strength, and the side effects of Gear Second made him so hungry that his vision was going black.

"Ace... I'm hungry... I feel like I'm going to die..." Luffy wailed weakly.

Ace was also exhausted; he leaned against the stone wall, closing his eyes: "Just endure it. When it gets dark outside, we'll go out and find something to eat."

After saying this, Ace fell straight into a deep sleep due to extreme fatigue.

However, how could Luffy endure it? His stomach, comparable to a bottomless pit, was rebelling crazily.

Luffy struggled to get up, and using a sliver of light leaking from a crack in the top of the cave, he groped around the cave.

Suddenly. His eyes lit up!

In the dark corner at the deepest part of the cave, there was actually a huge, brightly colored purple-red mushroom!

This mushroom not only emitted an extremely alluring exotic fragrance, but its cap was also pulsing, faintly oozing a juice like roasted meat grease!

"Meat! It's a meat-flavored mushroom!"

Luffy instantly lost all reason, drool flowing "splashingly" all over the ground.

Like a wolf that had been hungry for ten days, his eyes shining, he lunged forward, opened his blood-red mouth, and bit down hard on the large purple-red mushroom!

"As long as I eat this, I can survive!" This was the only thought left in Luffy's mind.

Just as his teeth were less than 0.1 millimeters away from the mushroom, at the critical moment!

"Swish!"

A phantom-like figure materialized out of thin air behind Luffy without any warning!

"Want to die? You idiot, go find a block of tofu and smash your head into it! Don't f***ing get a stomach ache and make your Uncle pay for your medical bills!"

A voice rang out in Luffy's ear!

Immediately after.

"Snap——!!!"

A shrill, air-tearing sound of a belt whipping exploded in the empty cave!

Carl held the belt in his hand and whipped it mercilessly onto the back of Luffy's outstretched right hand!

"Aaaaaah——!!!"

Luffy let out a shrill, pig-slaughtering scream!

The extreme, stinging pain made him roll around on the ground like he had been electrocuted!

"Un... Uncle?!"

Luffy clutched his right hand, which had swollen with a thick bloodstain, looking at Carl, who had appeared out of thin air, with tears and snot running down his face, his eyes nearly popping out.

"You... didn't you leave?! Why are you here?!"

"I did leave, but my eyes aren't blind!"