The pirates sat and forgot, and they really believed the nine truths and one lie.

Impel Down, Level 6 Infinite Hell

Unlike the chaos and clamor emanating from the upper levels, this prison, located at the deepest point of the ocean, has long maintained a deathly silence and oppressive tranquility.

Those imprisoned here are all vicious criminals capable of shaking the world, but even the fiercest beasts, when deprived of their freedom and kept in the dark for years, will gradually lose their edge. But beneath this deathly silence, undercurrents are always surging.

Although the sixth level is isolated from the outside world, the fierce battle and great commotion that took place in the scorching hell of the fourth level still managed to pass down some fragmented information through some hidden channels, such as panicked rumors among the jailers.

Before the fourth line of defense completely collapsed, Deputy Commissioner Hannibal made a final warning to the deepest part of the defenses through an internal Den Den Mushi.

At that moment, in the shadowy corridor of the sixth level of prison, a tall man wearing a prison warden's coat and with a cigar in his mouth slowly walked out.

He was toying with a dormant Den Den Mushi in his hand, a bored expression on his face. He was none other than Shiryu of the Rain, the former warden of Impel Down, who had now been bribed by the Celestial Dragons.

"The commotion above has completely subsided. It seems that Hannibal, that good-for-nothing, and the remaining jailers have all been wiped out."

Shiryu exhaled a smoke ring and complained in a hoarse voice, "What on earth is Magellan doing? Can't he even defend his own base?"

He made no secret of his contempt for his former colleagues' incompetence and his former superior Magellan. Now that he had sided with the Celestial Dragons and gained higher power and greater freedom to kill, he naturally didn't care about the fate of Impel Down.

He even had a bit of anticipation, hoping that even stronger enemies would come down so that his demonic sword, which hadn't tasted the blood of a strongman in so long, could once again savor the taste of a powerful being.

Like a lion surveying its territory, Shiliu walked with steady yet dangerous steps down the empty prison corridor, his cold and murderous gaze sweeping over the heavy cells on either side.

Inside the prison, most of the once infamous and vicious pirates would instinctively avoid his gaze, lower their heads, or turn away when they met his eyes.

They were not afraid of death, but they feared Shiliu, a madman who took pleasure in killing and had no rules. His atrocities of randomly selecting prisoners to test his knife had already left a deep shadow in the hearts of the prisoners on the sixth floor.

Shiryu's sarcastic remark about Magellan wasn't quiet; some sharp-eared prisoners still heard it.

Suppressed, subtle commotion and whispers began to rise from the cell: "Has the prison upstairs really fallen?"

"Imperial City is doomed?!"

"Whose world is it now? Will Buggy the Clown's pirate crew accept us?"

These whispers spread like a plague through the deathly silent prison, awakening long-dormant ambitions in the prisoners. No normal person wants to die in prison.

"So noisy..." Shiryu frowned irritably and took a deep drag on his cigar.

The prisoners' commotion and speculation, like the buzzing of flies, worsened his already anxious mood caused by the wait.

He tightened his grip on the hilt of the demon sword, an uncontrollable urge to kill welling up inside him. For him, killing was the only effective way to calm his agitation and relax his mind and body; this path dependency had become ingrained in his very bones.

Just as he was considering whether to randomly select a lucky prisoner to sacrifice to, so that the other prisoners could relearn to be quiet, the situation took an important turn.

Shiryu's powerful Observation Haki suddenly emitted a sharp alarm, as an extremely terrifying and destructive energy wave was approaching vertically from the rock layer directly above them at an incredible speed.

"Good timing!" Shiryu's pupils contracted, and his body reacted instinctively. He stomped his foot and his figure flashed to the side and back like a ghost.

Boom! Almost at the same instant he dodged, the ceiling of the sixth level prison, made of the hardest mixed rock and tens of meters thick, exploded as if struck by a meteorite.

A huge hole with a diameter of more than ten meters was blasted open, and debris poured down like a torrential rain. The wind and snow from the fifth floor drifted into the sixth floor, and the temperature on the sixth floor began to drop.

It was Pochi, obeying the black sperm's command, restraining most of its power and precisely controlling the energy cannon, only blasting open the passage to the sixth floor without breaking through the floor of the sixth floor.

Otherwise, if a passage to the outside seawater were opened, the seawater would flood in, which would be a catastrophic disaster for the invaders and prisoners, most of whom were Devil Fruit users.

This earth-shattering blow produced a deafening roar and tremor, like a heavy bomb dropped into still waters. The entire Infinite Hell trembled with the sound, and the locks on all the cell doors and the shackles binding the pirates clanged together with a piercing sound.

The legendary pirates who were whispering or sleeping were almost all awakened by the sudden loud noise, and pairs of eyes, some sharp, some crazy, some gloomy, and some curious, lit up in the darkness.

They all walked towards the railing, their eyes fixed on the huge hole in the ceiling, and the pale light and falling snowflakes of the fifth layer of ice that could be faintly seen through the hole.

The ceiling was punched through?!

"We are finally saved and free! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"

The endless silence was completely shattered, replaced by a restless atmosphere intertwined with chaos, anticipation, fear, and madness. The pirates in the sixth level of the prison had been waiting for this day for who knows how long, and they were finally about to see the light of day again.

Shiryu of the Rain stood not far away, dusted himself off, looked up at the hole, and instead of fear, a cruel and excited smile appeared on his face.

"Finally, some decent guys have arrived. Don't let me down..."

As the smoke and dust from the explosion slowly dissipated from the hole in the ceiling, a tiny figure, less than half a meter tall, smooth and black, resembling a simple line drawing, came into view.

He stood brazenly at the edge of the hole, his beady eyes casually scanning the area below, this so-called endless hell that imprisoned the world's most vicious criminals.

His posture was incredibly arrogant, with his arms crossed over his chest, his head slightly tilted, and his face showing a casualness as if he were strolling through his own backyard, even with a hint of...disdain?

He just stared at them, completely ignoring the legendary pirates who had once been famous throughout the seas below, and also ignoring Shiryu of the Rain, who was not far away, wielding a demon sword and whose killing intent was almost tangible.

"Can anyone tell me where Barrett is? I'm in a bit of a hurry." Searching cell by cell is too much trouble for Black Sperm; it's much more efficient to ask a regular on the sixth level.