The method for deciphering the Poneglyphs was a secret known only to the Kozuki family. It wasn't something that just any literate person in Wano Country could read.
Even after being cut off from the outside world for centuries, the characters themselves had evolved, making the script of Wano Country vastly different from the ancient form. Besides, it's possible that Wano Country never used these ancient characters as its official language to begin with.
This was the language of the great kingdom from eight hundred years ago; it was perhaps more like an official court language, while Wano Country had its own "dialect." Therefore, it was understandable that Yuriko couldn't read the characters on it.
Fortunately, Ren had already guessed the general content of this Poneglyph. It was about the location of the ancient weapon, "Poseidon." And Ren knew far more than what was written on this stone.
The location of Poseidon was in Fish-Man Island, ten thousand meters deep below the Sabaody Archipelago. Poseidon wasn't a weapon, but an unborn mermaid—Princess Shirahoshi.
Speaking of which, Fish-Man Island was of great importance. If possible, Ren would very much like to transform one of Wano's islands into a Sea God's Island, making it a place for merfolk to live.
Indicating the boundless power of the sea, a single King of the Sea might not seem like much, but when countless of them gather together, it truly becomes an unimaginable force. This was why, before adding Seastone components to the bottoms of Marine warships, the Calm Belt was a region that even the Marines rarely set foot in.
It was because the Calm Belt was filled with a large number of Sea Kings. However, that was a problem for another time.
Even someone as powerful as Whitebeard would have found it nearly impossible to take Fish-Man Island away. The island's area was on a completely different scale from the Upcoming Kingdom that Ren was about to move.
"It seems I'll have to find a scholar from Ohara in the future," Ren thought to himself softly. While the Kozuki family could decipher Poneglyphs, their knowledge was limited to them.
The archaeologists from Ohara, on the other hand, were different. They had knowledge of many ancient scripts.
Or rather, it was precisely because they had conducted in-depth research on most of the ancient scripts from the past eight hundred years that they began to study the Century of Void. Of course, these scholars' vast knowledge wasn't the accumulation of a single generation.
It was the result of countless people leaving the ancient books and research materials they collected in the Tree of Knowledge, passing down their wisdom from one generation to the next, which allowed them to aim for that goal. Ren couldn't remember what language the clue about the Vampire Fruit left in Sleepy Forest was written in.
Now that he thought about it, his decision to bring Yuriko along was purely based on a "what if" fluke. But in reality, it was also nice to take her out for a walk.
As the thick fog spread to every corner of the forest, Ren and the other three had half their bodies standing in the clouds, as if in a fairyland in a dream. The fog in the jungle was even denser.
The Heavenly White Clouds extended to the edge of the island, then cascaded down like a waterfall, enveloping the base of the island. "Should we go ring the Golden Bell now?" Molly asked excitedly.
"Yes, let's go light the lamp of Shandora," Ren said with a smile. Although doing this held no practical meaning for him, it was even a bit childish.
But since coming to this world was like a dream in itself, sometimes one didn't have to be too constrained. Doing what you want to do, a promise maintained for four hundred years.
For him to be the one to put an end to it was also a romantic thing. The three of them returned to the top of the vine again.
Ren clenched his fist, and flowing Haki instantly covered his arm. However, he hadn't actually mastered the internal destruction of Haki.
Even if he had, he couldn't have just shattered the Golden Bell like that. At the same time, the space around his arm seemed to warp, and the air rippled continuously like waves.
This was a manifestation of his Great Buddha power; the power of sound or waves was wrapped around his hand, allowing Ren to transmit his voice much farther. "Cover your ears," Ren said.
He didn't have Molly and Yuriko move farther away because he wasn't planning to make the sound louder; he was simply enhancing the stability of the waves to carry the sound farther. "GONG—" The majestic sound spread out at once.
The ripples in the warped air around Ren's arm continuously expanded, carrying the sound into the distance. "GONG—" The echoing bell tolls seemed to come from the distant horizon, yet also as if they were ringing nearby.
Countless Sky Islanders looked up in confusion, searching for the source of the sound. "GONG—" Gan Fall slowly woke up.
He shook his weary head and looked toward the jungle. The bell tolls coming from all directions made his head spin.
But the scene before him drew even more of his attention. "Is it foggy?" The flowing mist passed over his body.
"No, the feel of this cloud is... it's like an Island Cloud!" Gan Fall's eyes widened.
An Island Cloud was a tangible mist; once it condensed and reached a sufficient mass, it would no longer drift. For so many Island Clouds to suddenly appear in the Sacred Land for no reason, did that mean that person planned to move the Upcoming Kingdom away?
"That guy, he said he only wanted the gold!" Gan Fall was furious, to the point that he wanted to rush out to find Ren and question him about it right now.
But the corpse of the former God of the Sky, who had died not long ago, hadn't even stiffened yet, not to mention the many injured guards who had fainted. Gan Fall could only sigh helplessly, woke a few people up, and left with the others.
Perhaps for the Sky Islanders, despite regarding this land as a sacred place, they had never truly owned it for even a moment. "GONG—" The sound traveled to even more distant places, causing ripples to appear on the surface of the White Sea.
The Shandians hiding in Cloud Hidden Village also heard this sound. "This bell toll is..." "There's no mistake, this is the melody of Shandora! The lamp of Shandora has been lit!" These raggedly dressed people were moved to tears, as if witnessing their faith manifesting before their eyes.
Many old warriors who had fought their entire lives even trembled and knelt to the ground, paying reverence toward the distant Upcoming Kingdom. The Great Warrior's blood was burning.
He didn't say a word, only silently equipped his weapon, and the other warriors did the same. It had been four hundred years, and the Golden Bell was ringing for the first time.
To them, it was as if fate was calling them back to their homeland. "Daddy..." a young child looked up at his tall father.
At this moment, the man squatted down and placed a hand on his child, who was as small as a little bean. "Webu, Daddy is going to take back our homeland!"
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