Deep within Skull Rock on Hachinosu, torches stuck into the stone walls crackled and burned.
The orange-red firelight reflected off the rough stone walls, and the sea breeze slipped through the crevices of the Rocks, carrying a salty and fishy dampness.
A crude wooden table was set inside the stone chamber, and Rocks and Rector sat facing each other.
“What did you call me here for?”
“I advise you to go back and take a look at God Valley after this mission ends!”
“My intelligence network has discovered that the God’s Knights of the Celestial Dragons are wandering nearby!”
“That is your hometown!
You should know what this means!”
Rector tapped his fingertips lightly on the table, the firelight casting flickering, crisscrossing shadows of light and dark across his face.
“Is this another future you saw?” Rocks stared at Rector, his Observation Haki continuously sweeping across his entire body.
He wanted to find a flaw on Rector’s face; after all, predicting the future was simply too unimaginable.
“That’s right!
Furthermore, it was this member of the God’s Knights who found God Valley, which triggered the war that destroyed God Valley!”
“Destroy God Valley?” Rocks’s pupils suddenly contracted, and Conqueror’s Haki uncontrollably overflowed, instantly filling the entire room.
Dark red lightning flashed around Rocks’s body, and a strong sense of suffocation permeated Rector’s heart.
“I hope you aren’t lying to me!
Otherwise!” Biting killing intent wrapped in Haki pressed down toward Rector.
The air seemed to have frozen.
“Why would I lie to you?
What good would it do me?”
“The information I know could easily be traded with the World Government for an island belonging to a large kingdom!”
Withstanding Rocks’s Conqueror’s Haki, Rector slowly stood up, a crazy smile appearing on his face.
“I’m telling you this just to make this world even crazier!”
“Both the Marines and the World Government want to kill me!”
“I am going to make the World Government pay an even heavier price!”
“Hum!!!”
Invisible wills collided in the air, and Rector’s Conqueror’s Haki erupted.
Compared to Rocks’s, his Haki was much weaker, but this boldness still surprised Rocks somewhat.
“Jie hahaha!
What an interesting brat!”
“I’ll consider your opinion!” Rocks stood up and strode out the door.
Leaving Rector alone in the stone chamber, that overbearing Conqueror’s Haki also dissipated accordingly.
Rector felt his entire body relax; he had already done everything he could.
He also wasn’t sure exactly when Garling went to God Valley, only knowing that Garling had found God Valley by chance.
The time was probably after Shakky arrived at Hachinosu.
Afterwards, upon confirming that God Valley was the hiding place of the Davy Clan, he returned to Mary Geoise and reported the situation of God Valley to the Five Elders.
He requested God Valley to be designated as the venue for the next festival.
It was also during this period that Rocks saved Eris and she conceived Teach.
“Hey!
Rector, come with me to Elbaf!”
Rocks’s voice came from outside the door.
“Not going!” Rector flatly refused.
Big Mom is the one who killed Jorul, the hero of the Giant Race.
If Harald finds out that he is Big Mom’s son, he’ll definitely kill him directly.
“Come with me!
I’ll tell you news about a top-tier Devil Fruit!”
Hearing about a Devil Fruit, Rector immediately perked up.
Devil Fruits were very rare on the great sea, especially powerful top-tier fruits which were hard to find.
Over the years, he had relied on his intelligence network to search everywhere for rare Devil Fruits, but hadn’t found a single piece of news.
A top-tier Devil Fruit was enough to nurture a commander-level powerhouse, and if eaten by someone who had awakened Conqueror’s Haki, that would make an emperor-level powerhouse.
“Fine!
I’ll go with you!”
Rector pushed open the door and agreed to Rocks’s request.
“Jie hahaha!
Then we’ll set off right now!” Rocks laughed out loud.
The abacus he was playing in his heart was to rely on Rector to persuade Harald to eat Elbaf’s national treasure and conquer the world together with him.
At the same time, inside the council hall of Pangu Castle in Holy Land Mary Geoise, heavy floor-to-ceiling curtains blocked the sunlight outside, dense intelligence documents were spread across the long table, and a dull, oppressive atmosphere drifted in the air.
The Five Elders sat around the table, looking grimly at the intelligence just submitted by the Cipher Pol Agent.
“Useless trash!
People disappeared right under our noses and you still couldn’t find them!” Saint Shepherd Ju Peter, with a long mustache at the corner of his mouth, looked icy cold.
The Celestial Dragon who went missing this time came from his family, and the people in the family had already been making a fuss for quite a while.
There were always plenty of brainless people among the Celestial Dragon families.
In the past, Celestial Dragons were either killed by pirates or lost contact while traveling in various places, but an incident of vanishing into thin air like this was happening for the first time.
Yet this matter happened to fall on the Shepherd family, which was a blatant provocation to the authority of the Celestial Dragons.
The agents accompanying that Celestial Dragon had their bones and internal organs crushed by immense force, leaving no further useful clues at the scene.
“Lord Five Elders!”
“Cipher Pol Agent have discovered new clues!” came the guard’s report from outside the door.
Soon, the new intelligence was placed on the table, and right on top of it was Rector’s wanted poster.
Saint Shepherd Ju Peter picked up the intelligence and began browsing through it.
There were burn marks left by lightning at the scene, and according to the testimonies of witnesses and auction-related personnel, all clues pointed to the same person — Charlotte Rector.
Big Mom’s eldest son, a pirate who had just set sail not long ago.
And the missing Celestial Dragon was currently on Hachinosu, the stronghold of the Rocks Pirates.
“Clatter!”
“Who is it?” Ethanbaron V.
Nusjuro’s shodai kitetsu instantly flashed out of its sheath, a red glow flickered in his eyes, Observation Haki instantly spread out, and a flying slash chopped straight toward the direction where the sound came from.
The fierce slash instantly tore apart a mud puppet, and the letter clutched in the mud puppet’s hand dropped to the ground.
“He escaped.” Ethanbaron V.
Nusjuro looked at the shattered mud puppet on the ground, his tone as cold as ice.
Deep within the underground rock layers of the Red Line, Ochoku, who had transformed into a puddle of swamp, trembled violently all over.
The next moment, his figure appeared beside the outer rock wall of the Red Line, re-condensing into a human form, opening his mouth to spit out a large mouthful of fresh blood.
“Damn Rector, I’ve jotted down this debt!” Killing intent flashed in Ochoku’s eyes.
But he wasn’t stupid either.
Right now, Rector was valued by Rocks; if he dared to make a move against him, Rocks would definitely kill him.
“This is the ability of Ochoku, an officer of the Rocks Pirates.
It’s recorded in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia that the Swamp Fruit can temporarily create a clone.”
Jaygarcia Saturn bent down to pick up the letter that had fallen on the ground, “It’s a letter sent by the Rocks Pirates.”
Facing the most heinous pirate crew in this world, the gazes of the Five Elders all turned gloomy and cold.
Sixteen years ago, when Rocks left Mary Geoise, he killed a Marine Admiral, and until now, that Admiral’s position was still vacant.
With the current strength of the Rocks Pirates, wanting to bring this Celestial Dragon back safely would require even the Marines to pay an extremely heavy casualty price.
Jaygarcia Saturn opened the letter, and as soon as he saw the contents on it, black Conqueror’s Haki carrying electric arcs instantly filled the entire council hall!
“How audacious!
To actually dare use a Celestial Dragon as leverage to extort treasures and Devil Fruits!”
Saint Shepherd Ju Peter’s expression turned livid, “Pirates actually delusionally thinking about negotiating with the World Government!
Simply foolish!”
“Let Harald make a trip,” Jaygarcia Saturn, leaning on his cane, proposed.
“Tell Harald that as long as he kills Rocks, we will reconsider the proposal for Elbaf to join the World Government and become a World Government affiliated country.”
Blond Saint Marcus Mars stated the final plan, because Harald was currently the only person who could go head-to-head against Rocks.
“What about the Celestial Dragon?”
Saint Topman Warcury, whose mustache looked like wild boar tusks, looked at Saint Shepherd Ju Peter.
As the person in charge of the Shepherd family, he still had to make the final decision on this matter.
“Have Somaz lead the God’s Knights to make a trip.”
“In special circumstances, if he cannot be brought back, kill him directly.” A trace of icy killing intent flashed in Saint Shepherd Ju Peter’s eyes.
“Even if a Celestial Dragon dies, they cannot become a bargaining chip for pirates to exchange interests.”