Chapter 480: Secrets Beneath Impel Down

Ye Fan’s body was a manifestation of pure elements, so the Seastone shackles and cuffs meant nothing to him.

He simply shrank his hands and feet slightly, slipping out with ease.

His effortless escape left the pirates in the nearby cells silent and wary.

Anyone who could break out of shackles so easily—especially one who walked in here willingly—was definitely someone not to be trifled with.

“That’s so much better,” he sighed in relief.

But he didn’t stride out of the cell. With surveillance Den Den Mushi monitoring every corner of the prison, stepping out would get him caught instantly. That was the same reason Buggy had returned so quickly after escaping.

“Time to unleash the full power of this body,” he murmured.

This elemental avatar contained a tenth of Karl’s power. By Karl’s current standards as an overlord, even this fragment of his strength reached the level of a mid-tier Admiral.

Buzz!

Thin streaks of black and red lightning crackled, knocking out every pirate in the neighboring cells and leaving their eyes rolled back.

Ye Fan pushed his Observation Haki to its limit, channeling the force of water elements to sense the entire cell block and search for the legendary Seventh Floor.

When he first entered, he’d already swept every level thoroughly with his Observation Haki, examining all the barriers between floors—yet the mythic Seventh Floor was nowhere to be found. If it existed, it had to be farther below.

Soon, Ye Fan’s Haki reached the sixth layer—the eternal hell known as Infinite Hell.

Only the most dangerous and notorious pirates were imprisoned here: among them, the Seven Warlords’ Crocodile and Jinbei, the battered Ace, and the likes of Avalo Pizarro, Sanjuan Wolf, Vasco Shot, and Douglas Bullet.

Each of them carried bounties well over a billion Berries—a pirate among pirates.

But that wasn’t his goal. Saving Ace wasn’t on the agenda today either.

“The Seventh Floor should be right beneath the sixth, but I’ve already probed fifty meters down and there’s nothing.”

His Observation Haki started to strain. From this point beneath the sixth floor, thick layers of seastone dulled his senses. He hadn’t found a single sign of an entrance to the mythical Seventh Floor. Could there be a Devil Fruit power that could move seastone aside and close it up again?

If there was really a Seventh Floor hidden below, the World Government must’ve put a real monster on guard down there—definitely someone with a formidable Devil Fruit ability.

Ye Fan’s face flushed as the mental pressure of probing deeper increased with every ten meters.

He was about to collapse from the effort when, at one hundred fifty meters beneath the sixth floor, he finally sensed a hidden space—only for a furious roar to shatter his concentration.

“Who dares to spy here?”

The psychic force of that bellow snapped his Observation Haki back instantly. Pure energy burst from his mouth as he spat blood he couldn’t stop.

It splattered on the ground and evaporated instantly, curling up in wisps of steam.

“Hahaha!”

“So the Seventh Floor really exists after all!”

Oda-sensei was right, it seemed—and maybe, just maybe, this would be key to toppling the World Government.

Meanwhile, over on distant Jail Island, Isaac withdrew his Observation Haki that had been cast more than two hundred meters beneath the island.

“A sneaky little rat?”

Isaac was the warden the World Government had brought in to guard the Seventh Floor. Personally appointed by the Celestial Dragons, his strength could crush Akainu in an instant—he was a true overlord.

No one knew what promises the Celestial Dragons made to win him over, but Isaac had only agreed to guard the prison, not to fight battles for the government.

“All for that thing… nothing else matters down here.”

He wore a black suit under a white coat, with a flowing red robe draped over his shoulders. Rising from his bench, he made his way to the elevator and descended fast to the depths—over two hundred meters below ground.

Down here, nearly a hundred cells clustered together, each one holding a prisoner.

“Lapdog of the Celestial Dragons!”

“Spit!”

“Damn Celestial Dragons! If they hadn’t stolen our victory, how could they rule the world now?”

“A traitor’s a traitor.”

“Hey lapdog, what do you want down here?”

Isaac ignored them, striding down the long corridor and scanning for any sign of invaders.

Eighty-eight prisoners were kept here—outlaws the World Government had erased from history. Their cultures, very existence, and any word about them were all sealed away.

Even Isaac didn’t know how long these people had been here. His only order was to watch them and deny them any food, letting nature claim them.

After decades as warden, he’d always find a few less active souls each visit. Were they dead, or just hiding?

Ever cautious, he never opened a silent cell. If there was no noise, that was fine—even if the prisoner inside had already passed.

“Hm?”

“Did I sense wrong?”

Isaac checked every cell but found no trace of infiltration—not even a single unfamiliar presence. It made him wonder if he’d simply been down here too long, his nerves playing tricks.

Click!

As the elevator rose again, Isaac ascended back to the surface.

And once Eternal Prison—the Seventh Floor—fell back into silence, a few ancient voices whispered from within.

“Just now…”

“That’s right…”

“Seems like…”

“It’s finally time…”

To avoid being overheard by the guard above, they spoke in tiny fragments, sometimes only a word or two—after so many years, it was the safest way to speak under Isaac’s watch.

Sure enough, Isaac’s first stop upstairs was the monitoring room to replay everything he’d heard. But there was nothing but scraps of useless chatter, so he left in silence.

“How many of us left?”

“Not many now.”

“Can we make it?”

“We’re not dead yet.”

“I get it…”

“Just wait.”

As the voices beneath the Eternal Prison faded into quiet once again, Ye Fan—still unconscious and bleeding from the mouth on the Fifth Floor—slowly opened his eyes.

“Looks like I have to visit Level 5.5 after all,” he muttered.

A dungeon this deep—even the real Karl would need brute force to break through.

But that would risk destroying the entire prison and flooding the place with seawater and crushing pressure. Everyone inside could die—even the ones he came to save. It wasn’t worth it.

Molly of Level 5.5 was supposed to be one of Dragon’s top four commanders—a strong Revolutionary and user of the Push-Push Fruit.

Ye Fan couldn’t even remember when Dragon had sent Molly into Impel Down to carve out that space, but he should still be here.

Who knew how long it would take Molly to tunnel a full hundred and fifty meters?

But that was a problem for his real body to solve. Right now, his main goal was to contact Crocodile and the others on Level Six.