Chapter 833: Chapter 513: Desire Is the Ladder of Progress
The seven-colored light entered Sage’s chest, in an instant flickering faintly between his chest and belly, then filled the space around him, spreading all the way up to his skull.
"Human desire... is the most terrifying thing."
Bode muttered under his breath, "Too much desire is what causes suffering. No matter who it is, the desire in their hearts is a wild beast."
As he spoke, that flickering seven-colored halo shone even brighter inside Sage’s body.
"Farmers want a better harvest? No, they want more land, they want others to till it for them, to receive food piled as high as a mountain."
The seven-colored light flashed along Sage’s limbs.
"Merchants want to earn more from their goods? Not really. Merchants want to monopolize the goods on the sea, to make a single thought of theirs enough to plunge a nation into shortage."
The light flashed in Sage’s abdomen.
"Nobles want higher status? No! Nobles want to reach the pinnacle of the sea and rule over everyone!"
The light flashed at Sage’s chest.
"Pirates don’t just want to rob more either, what they want is chaos with no order at all, to feed the beast in their hearts, never to be satisfied!"
The light flashed in Sage’s head, turning his whole body into a man of seven-colored light.
"Wanting more, wanting to gain more—these are the desires I’ve collected over the past two years. They’re all here. Feel it... and then despair!"
The light shrank back and sank into Sage’s body, as if nothing had ever happened.
He twisted his neck, mouth pulling into a grin as he looked down at Bode. "That’s it?"
Bode, whose life had been flickering like a candle in the wind, suddenly seemed to perk up under that condescending gaze—it was unclear whether it was a last flare of life or a final burst of the flame.
Those eyes held no madness, no pain, as calm as if he had just taken a sip of water.
"You, you..."
Bode’s lips trembled, his face full of disbelief. "Impossible! How are you completely fine?! That’s the combined desire of tens of thousands of people. That kind of thing is like a filthy rag soaked in vomit and garbage—just the stench on the soul is already disgusting enough, so why!!"
The Crave-Crave Fruit could not only absorb desire, it could also turn desire into an attack, using it to assault others. Once someone bore that desire, at best they would lose control and do things far beyond what they themselves could comprehend.
At worst they’d go straight-up insane, becoming a lunatic who knows nothing but chasing their desires.
After escaping Impel Down, the first thing he did was absorb the desires of the inmates around him. Taking those desires out with him, in the following two years he had absorbed the desires of at least tens of thousands of people—piled up, enough to turn anyone into a raving monster.
Normally, he was unwilling to use those desires as an attack, but he was about to die, and the man before him was a Pirate like Sage whom he had absolutely no way of dealing with, so he unleashed them.
For ordinary people, just the desire of two or three others could drive them mad.
The desires of tens of thousands gathered together—there’s no way even a Four Emperor could walk away unscathed!
Where’s the promised agony?!
"Disgusting? I don’t really feel... hmm, anything off."
Sage snorted. "Isn’t this just human nature? However many people you pile up, it’s still human nature. What’s so hard to bear? If you can’t even handle this much..."
He bared his teeth in a laugh. "What kind of ’landlord’ would that make me?! A so‑called landlord is someone who owns everything—whether it’s other people’s wishes and demands, or everything on the land, it’s all something he can possess!"
"You treat these things as sin? I overestimated you a bit. I thought you had a tough will, that you were a real powerhouse. Turns out you’re just a diode..."
Half his body cut off and he was still forcing himself to hang on, his whole body wrecked, throat hacked open, yet he could still squeeze out the strength to talk.
Judging from willpower alone, this was someone Sage found worth taking seriously.
But that’s a separate issue from being a diode...
"A diode? You mean all-or-nothing, black-and-white?"
Bode, who more or less understood what Sage meant, suddenly flushed red. No one knew where he found the strength, but he straightened his arm, pointed at Sage, and roared:
"What do you know! Desire is the most terrifying thing, that’s how it really is! It’s because desire exists that the sea has so many tragedies. Like this island—before I came here, cough, cough!"
The surge of emotion made him spit out several mouthfuls of blood. The flush on his face faded, turning even paler.
"Before I came, this place had already erupted into conflict several times over water sources and farmland between villages. Everyone’s children, everyone’s parents, all died because of this pointless strife!"
"After I came, I quelled the chaos here. People stopped getting into these pointless disputes, and that’s exactly because there is no desire!"
A crowd of figures gradually gathered around them—the residents of the island, drawn here by the sounds of battle, had come to see what was going on.
Their eyes were all calm. Everyone they bumped into could respond with a smile, getting along in apparent harmony.
Only...
Sage swept his gaze over them, then fixed his eyes back on Bode. He squatted down and flicked at Bode’s robe. "Where’d you get these clothes?"
"What?" Bode froze for a moment.
"I’m asking where your clothes came from—no, where the fabric came from. This whole outfit..."
He rubbed the material of the robe between his fingers. "Yeah, woven. The fabric’s not bad, middle price range, I’d say. Of course, that’s the kind of ’middle price range’ ordinary people can hardly afford. If people have no desire... what are you wearing this for?"
Sage chuckled. "Or are you trying to say that if you don’t wrap yourself in this robe, how will people on the sea know that you’re some saint with zero desires?"
