Chapter 54 Desert Country

The most serious wound on Thatch's body was the knife wound on his heart. Fortunately, perhaps because Teach escaped too hastily, the tip of the knife deviated from his heart by a few centimeters, so he did not die immediately. But his condition was still very bad. He lost too much blood, his face turned pale, his eyes were closed and he fell into a coma. His pulse and breathing were almost non-existent, and he looked like he was in critical condition.

Marco immediately performed emergency surgery on Thatch, and with the ginseng soup boiled by Cheng Xi, he took it internally and externally. Although Thatch's condition was still very bad, he was at least out of danger of life. He only needed to rest.

The operation required a lot of physical strength and energy. Even Marco, who had a very strong physical fitness, felt a little tired after working non-stop for four or five hours. He transferred Thatch from the emergency operating room to the intensive care unit, plugged in various monitoring instruments, and the nurse began to take good care of Thatch. He was slightly relieved, but he did not dare to relax completely.

When he came out of the intensive care unit, the sun was already high above the sea. Marco took off his bloody white coat and gloves, leaned against the wall tiredly, sighed, and told his father and brothers about Thatch's current situation. After seeing the anxious and worried expressions on their faces slowly fade away, he said to Cheng Xi who was also waiting at the door: "Cheng Xi, thank you for your emergency hemostasis and ginseng soup, which pulled Thatch back from such a dangerous situation."

After that, other members of the Whitebeard Pirates, including Ace, thanked Cheng Xi very seriously.

Before, the Whitebeard Pirates always had a relaxed and happy atmosphere in front of her. At first, she was a little uncomfortable with such seriousness. Cheng Xi didn't feel anything about this thank you. Although she didn't have much contact with Thatch, she still liked Thatch's personality. He was a very good and interesting person. Good people should live happily.

"It's mainly because of Marco's excellent medical skills. The emergency surgery was very successful."

Everyone saw that she didn't want to take credit, so they didn't continue. However, their gratitude to her was real. Several captains secretly made up their minds that no matter what difficulties Cheng Xi encountered in the future, as long as it did not violate their principles, no matter where in the sea, the Whitebeard Pirates would rush to help.

Two days later, after confirming that Thatch was completely out of danger and transferred to a general ward, everyone finally let go of the hanging stone.

The next step is to investigate the murderer who attacked Thatch.

The result is obvious. That day, Ace saw Thatch escaping on the sea through the wall, the devil fruit that should have belonged to Thatch's trophy but disappeared, the conversation trying to inquire about Cheng Xi's race, etc. All these clues point to Marshall Teach, a former member of the second team of the Whitebeard Pirates.

The most important rule of the Whitebeard Pirates is not to kill their companions, but Teach did such an excessive thing. Because Teach was his team member, Ace felt guilty and angry. After thinking for a while, he decided to go out to sea to track Teach and bring him back to the Moby Dick to be judged by his father and Thatch. 

Everyone disagreed with his decision. Through this incident, everyone realized that Teach was scheming and good at disguise. No one knew how much hidden ability he had. 

He was already strong, and coupled with the fruit that he would rather kill his companions to take, Ace was their youngest brother. Without scheming, he would definitely not be able to beat Teach, the scheming guy. 

Although Ace was the last to join the Whitebeard Pirates, everyone liked him very much. Now Thatch was seriously injured, and they didn't want Ace to get into trouble again. Even Whitebeard didn't want Ace to go and hunt him, but Ace was too persistent. There was no way, so he could only acquiesce. 

Everyone had no choice but to focus on Cheng Xi, hoping that she could help persuade them, but what was unexpected was that Cheng Xi actually supported Ace to hunt down Teach. 

"I just think that even if Ace is stopped from hunting down Blackbeard this time..., he will regret it in the future." 

What's more, Ace has never been the kind of man who chooses to retreat because of fear of danger. He is so indomitable that even if Blackbeard has the power to destroy the world and be comparable to millions of soldiers, he will not hesitate to attack head-on for his companions. 

In the end, Ace still took the flame boat to start the voyage to hunt down Teach. 

Ace felt a little guilty about Cheng Xi. He had agreed to invite her to visit and play on the Moby Dick, but he didn't expect such a thing to happen, which made her worried. 

"It's not your fault, Ace." Cheng Xi held Ace's cheek, looked at him, and looked into his eyes, "It's all Blackbeard's fault. He is the initiator of all this. For me, your safety is the most important thing in the world." 

"In any case, protect yourself and don't get hurt." 

The two parted on a certain route on the sea. 

Cheng Xi returned to the store, and after a few months of a dull and leisurely life, he asked Ace about the progress of the hunt in his dream. 

He is now in the Drum Kingdom, known as the "Medical Kingdom", because he received news that Blackbeard had attacked here before, so he hurried here. Unfortunately, he was late, and Blackbeard had already left the island. He is currently planning to try his luck in Alabasta, and stay there for ten days, waiting for his brother, Luffy, to meet him. 

Cheng Xi: "Hey, Alabasta, is it the Alabasta known as the desert country not far from the entrance of the Grand Line?" 

Ace nodded: "Yes, that's it." 

Cheng Xi said excitedly: "Then wait for me by the way." 

Seeing Ace's puzzled expression, Cheng Xi explained that she was preparing a poison, the raw materials of which were extremely difficult to find. She had been studying for two years, and finally only needed the last raw material to be collected, which was the specialty of Alabasta, desert strawberry. 

Then Cheng Xi talked a lot about pharmacology. Although Ace didn't understand it very well, he didn't interrupt her. He still held his chin with his hands, listened to her carefully with a doting look in his eyes. 

Then he fell asleep. 

Even though he tried hard to listen to Cheng Xi, these things were more difficult to understand than the books that Deuce asked him to read. Ace felt as if there was an elastic membrane on his ears. As soon as the characters approached his ears, they were bounced away, and they didn't even enter his head. 

Looking at Ace who was sleeping soundly next to him, Cheng Xi felt speechless. He was probably the only one who could sleep in a dream, right? 

But he still said to him gently: "Good night, sweet dreams." 

After saying that, he felt something was wrong. According to Ace's character who didn't like to think, such a fantasy thing as a dream within a dream could easily dry up his brain cup, and then he fell asleep again because it was difficult to understand, and began to dream within a dream within a dream... and so on. Infinite cycle. 

"Forget it, I wish you a sweet sleep, but don't dream." 

... 

Cheng Xi and Ace met at the Governor's Port of Narohara in Alabasta. 

This is a vast and magnificent city, with yellow sand dancing in the wind, majestic and desolate intertwined. Looking around, the buildings here all have the unique style of the desert, and even people's clothes are the kind of light and breathable, easy to dissipate heat, and can block the sun and wind. Wearing robes with headscarves. 

After getting ashore, Cheng Xi was dumbfounded. 

Under Ace's puzzled gaze, she hammered her head and cursed herself that there seemed to be something wrong with her brain recently. 

In Chinese characters, desert and beach are only one character apart, but in reality they are worlds apart. 

Cheng Xi looked down at her hot-headed, enthusiastically dressed, a Hawaiian holiday beach-style floral shirt, shorts, slippers, a fisherman's hat...

Adhering to the principle of dragging friends along even if they are mavericks, Cheng Xi bought a similar red floral shirt for Ace because he was topless and was afraid that he would get sunburned.

You know what, you really don't know, the combination of the red floral shirt and black denim shorts seems casual, but because Ace has a good figure and looks handsome, simple outfits look fashionable and energetic on him. 

The two walked side by side in the market in the city. Ace took out Luffy's bounty order and asked the stall owners if they had seen the person in the photo, but they only got an answer that they had never seen him. 

After walking for a short time, Cheng Xi found information about the target of her trip, so she temporarily separated from Ace to do her own things and agreed to contact each other by Den Den Mushi later. 

After she walked through many twists and turns and corners of the small road, bought the target desert strawberries of this trip, and packed the city's special barbecue for Ace, she took out the Den Den Mushi and dialed Ace's number. 

Buru Buru, Buru Buru~, it rang for a long time but no one answered the other side. 

"This guy..." Cheng Xi sighed, put away the Den Den Mushi, and began to look for someone on the street. 

Because they found traces of the navy in the city, Nami, Chopper and others were rushing to the port. Suddenly, Zoro stopped and stared at the girl in a blue shirt not far away. To be precise, he was staring at the two swords behind her. 

One of them was the famous sword Shiqing, which was included in the famous sword atlas. Although the other one was not famous, his intuition as a swordsman believed that it should be a peerless sword that was not inferior to the famous swords. 

Feeling the gaze coming from him, Cheng Xi turned around and also carefully observed the man in front of him. He was wearing a black and white striped robe and an orange headscarf on his head. Although he looked fierce, Cheng Xi could not sense any malice from his breath. This man had three swords on his waist, so he should also be a swordsman. 

Judging from the aura she exuded when she walked over, Zoro felt that this person should be very strong, at least as strong as the pirate who was looking for Luffy just now. 

Cheng Xi's footsteps were getting closer and closer, and Zoro was even ready to draw his sword. 

"Um, please tell me..." The girl didn't make any attacking moves, but seemed very polite. "Did you see a boy wearing an orange cowboy hat?" 

"He went to the restaurant." 

"Sorry, I'm not from this city. I want to ask you about the approximate direction of the restaurant?" 

"Well..." Zoro actually thought about this question seriously, and then tried to give an answer based on his previous understanding of the city. He pointed to one side: "Over there, just keep walking along this road." 

"Thank you." 

After saying that, Cheng Xi left along the road Zoro pointed to. 

Nami and Usopp watched the whole process in a daze. 

Nami: "Hey, Usopp, I'm really tired recently. I had a dream in broad daylight. In the dream, someone actually asked Zoro for directions." 

Usopp: "The follow-up was that Zoro really pointed the way, and the girl actually believed it. Did we have the same dream?" 

Under Chopper's dull gaze, the two of them looked at each other, looked at each other, and then realized that this seemed... not a dream! ? 

At this time, Cheng Xi had already walked far away, and it was impossible to catch up with her. Nami silently said sorry to her in her heart, and then punched Zoro on the head: "Idiot, you are a person with poor directions, and you still have to give directions to others!" 

"Huh!?" Nami punched him with her fist. Zoro did not react, but when she said he was a person with poor directions, he was furious: "How dare you guys who get lost every time you run away and inexplicably say that I am a person with poor directions!?" 

Usopp silently complained: "It is obviously you who are lost, Zoro." 

Cheng Xi kept walking in the direction pointed by Zoro, and believed in the road he pointed out, but the more she walked, the lower the buildings on both sides of the road became, the stronger the wind and sand became, and there was no sign of the hotel at all. 

Even so, she never doubted the rightness of this road, and thought that this city was quite fashionable, and there was actually a sand pile theme restaurant. 

After walking for a few more minutes, she suddenly heard a loud noise behind her. She turned back suddenly and saw a huge vortex flying up from the buildings. The vortex was composed of orange flames and white smoke. It was spinning at high speed with a flying wind, rushing into the sky, emitting a dazzling light. 

Then the vortex composed of wind columns and fire columns spread out into the air, leaving wisps of black smoke, and then continued to confront each other, looking magnificent and grand. 

Looking at the familiar flames, at this moment, Cheng Xi finally realized that she had taken the wrong path, and quickly ran over to find Ace. 

The city currently has the navy, bounty hunters, and many tens of millions of elders and billionaires under the Baroque Studio, holding various powerful weapons in their hands, either standing in the open or hiding in the dark. In short, it is a mixed bag and a mess. 

Ace helped Luffy resist Smoker, listened to Luffy introduce his partners to himself, and separated from him to deal with those troublesome bounty hunters, and then boarded the Merry. 

Ace bowed politely to Nami and the others: "Hello everyone, my brother is in your care. You must have a hard time with such a troublesome captain." 

Everyone was stunned. 

Especially Zoro, who was so surprised that he was deformed. 

I thought Luffy's brother was a mess like him, but I didn't expect him to be so polite. The sea is really incredible. 

Ace lit a cigarette for Sanji with his fruit ability and said to Luffy: "By the way, Luffy, I have a good friend who came to this city with me." 

Nami asked: "Hey, is it the girl wearing a blue shirt and carrying two swords behind her?" 

"Yes, it's her. Her name is Cheng Xi." 

When Ace mentioned Cheng Xi's name, a barely perceptible smile appeared on his face. 

Nami turned her head stiffly to Zoro, but found that his expression did not change at all, and he seemed very confident about the road he pointed out. 

Nami: "So was she left on the shore? The Merry is now far away from the shore. Do we need to return to pick her up?" " 

No need." Ace raised the brim of his hat, looking very confident in Cheng Xi's ability. "Just now when we were on the shore, she said she found a few annoying flies. After cleaning them up, she will come to meet me." 

"Flies!?" 

When everyone was surprised by the flies that Ace mentioned, a full five ships of Baroque Studios were approaching the Merry. There were many high-spirited billionaires standing on them, ambitiously trying to kill Fire Fist Ace and the Straw Hat Pirates to find the boss to claim the reward. 

"It's them again!" The ships on the opposite side had already started to set up their guns. Nami and others felt a little tricky, and Luffy, who stretched his neck to see this scene, was ready for a fight. 

In contrast to their full-scale preparations, Ace was squatting on the railing leisurely: "Luffy, trust Cheng Xi, she will handle it." As soon as 

he finished speaking, he saw a blue shadow shuttle back and forth between the five ships on the opposite side, light and agile, very fast, so fast that only the afterimage could be seen, and then it flew over the sky, drew the sword and slashed at the ships on the sea, looking very relaxed and casual, just a simple sword, but cut all five ships in half. 

It was magnificent and unstoppable. 

Zoro made it a little emo.

It turns out that the swordsmen of the Grand Line are so strong.

Who would have thought that he would encounter two swordsmanship ceilings in a row just after leaving the Novice Village?

Cheng Xi threw a thunder talisman to the opposite side, and in an instant, the enemy's ship emitted a swift and fierce light. This was the lightning that she had carefully calculated to injure people but not to kill them.

After a while, the thunder gradually faded, the dust settled, and a girl with black hair and blue clothes walked out of the ruins. She was tall and straight, and the wind blew her fluffy black hair apart. Cheng Xi stretched out her hand to press down the fisherman's hat on her head, and jumped from the air to the Merry from a long distance, landing in front of everyone.

Nami: "This, this is..."

Usopp racked his brains and used all the words he could think of in his life to summarize the situation of Cheng Xi in front of him: "Probably, a rich and beautiful swordsman came with meat...?"

Everyone looked at Cheng Xi with some surprise, but everyone thought of different key points.

Ace pulled her to his side and introduced her to everyone: "This is the one I mentioned, a very good friend."

Cheng Xi greeted everyone with a smile: "Hello everyone, my name is Cheng Xi, please give me your advice."

Ace: "This is my younger brother, Luffy."

Cheng Xi looked at the younger brother whose name Ace had mentioned countless times before. He was wearing a straw hat and had round eyes. He looked even cuter than the photo in the bounty order, but his expression now... was a little silly! ?

Luffy stared straight at the desert barbecue packed for Ace in Cheng Xi's hand, sniffed heavily, and the saliva in his mouth was about to flow out.

"Hey, Cheng Xi, the barbecue in your hand looks delicious."

Cheng Xi: ...

As expected of Ace's younger brother, the brothers love to eat the same thing. She handed the barbecue to Luffy, who couldn't wait to take it from Cheng Xi's hand, but unfortunately, he was hit on the head by Sanji and got a big bump just halfway through this action.

"Asshole, don't be so rude to the lady!"

"Oh, what a beautiful lady!"

Cheng Xi: ...

Then she saw this man, who looked noble in both appearance and temperament, twisted his body into a wave shape, surrounded by happy bubbles, and even his eyes turned into pink hearts.

As expected, Sanji was taught a lesson by the girl with short orange hair on the ship, and a bump on his head: "You are not polite at all."

Cheng Xi: This is not a pirate ship, it is clearly a reserve member of the boxing championship.

The girl with orange hair introduced herself to Cheng Xi, saying that her name is Nami, and she is the navigator on the ship. At least from her words and deeds, she is much more reliable than the other people.

"Wow, Nami, you are so beautiful." Then Cheng Xi looked down at the small bag of treasures that she had just looted from the enemy ship. Out of love for beautiful women, she directly handed the treasures to Nami: "This is our first meeting, I'll give this to you as a gift."

After saying that, she regretted it a little, and she didn't know whether Nami liked these treasures or not. Not everyone in the world likes money as much as she does. It would be embarrassing if the girl in front of her thought she was insulting her with money.

She was about to explain when she saw the eyes of this sensible navigator turned into Bailey and stuck to the treasure, with the same expression on his face as Luffy and Sanji.

"Cheng Xi-chan is really the cutest and best girl in the world!"

Cheng Xi:...Ah! ?

In addition, there is a sniper on the Merry who pretends to be powerful but actually looks cowardly, a cute reindeer doctor Chopper with a furry pink hat, a beautiful princess, and...

She focused her eyes on the swordsman with green hair and three knives on his waist. The smile on her face disappeared, and even her eyes became gloomy, her brows slightly frowned, and she looked a little angry. At this time, everyone also noticed her change and turned to look at her.

Cheng Xi pointed to Zoro, her voice trembling, and said angrily: "I know this person. Just now, he deliberately pointed me in the opposite direction."

In her previous life, she never thought that someone could be so bad and deliberately pointed her in the wrong direction.

As for Zoro, he still maintains an inexplicable confidence in his sense of direction.

"It's obvious that you are the one who has a poor sense of direction and took the wrong road. Why do you blame me for giving you the wrong direction?"