"His ambitions are no longer satisfied with being just another Yonko. If he's allowed to keep growing, he may truly threaten the very foundations of the World Government's rule."
"We must report this to that lord."
The Five Elder with the birthmark on his head spoke gravely. "His methods and the level of threat he poses—this is practically a second Rocks."
"But when Rocks attacked God Valley back then, that lord didn't react much either…" another elder shook his head.
"Then we'll have to resolve this ourselves."
The bald Five Elder tightened his grip on the Kitetsu in his hand, a flash of killing intent passing through his eyes.
"If we can't break him from the outside, then we must strengthen the power in our own hands."
"The Navy's foundation is still too shallow. Against a monster of this caliber, it's already showing signs of strain."
He swept his gaze across the others and said in a low voice, "I propose we immediately activate the 'World Military Draft'!"
"At any cost, we dig out true monster-level powerhouses from among the civilians to fill the gaps in the Navy's high-end combat strength!"
Just as the World Government resolved to go all in and launch the great conscription—
After several days of explosive fermentation, the shockwaves of that earth-shattering battle in the New World finally swept across the entire globe.
For these past few days, news birds around the world were practically vomiting blood from exhaustion.
Printing presses at countless newspapers ran non-stop, yet every edition was sold out the moment it hit the streets.
Two Yonko have fallen!
The Skyborne General ascends to godhood!
The Four Emperors' structure that had lasted for years completely collapsed, and the New World directly entered a terrifying era of "dual emperors standing side by side."
Even the Totto Land archipelago had been uprooted wholesale—such a heaven-and-earth-shaking feat left everyone's scalp tingling.
By overall strength alone, today's Wano had already faintly surpassed the Whitebeard Pirates, becoming an unquestioned behemoth of the seas.
Closely following this came the Navy Headquarters' latest bounty announcements.
This wave of bounties dropped like a nuclear bomb on the world.
Staring at those frighteningly high numbers, countless people were so shocked their jaws practically hit the ground.
[Skyborne General · Tenma]
Identity: One of the Dual Emperors, Sovereign of Wano, strongest hegemon of the New World
Title: World's Greatest Swordsman
Bounty: 4,851,000,000 Beli
Dead or Alive
[Raiji · Yamato]
Identity: Oniwabanshu Ace Combatant
Bounty: 2,200,000,000 Beli
Dead or Alive
[Momousagi · Gion]
Identity: One of the General's Three Great Swordsmen
Bounty: 1,895,000,000 Beli
Dead or Alive
[Hawk-Eye · Mihawk]
Identity: One of the General's Three Great Swordsmen
Bounty: 1,600,000,000 Beli
4.851 billion!
Just looking at that number was enough to make one suffocate.
Across the entire Age of the Sea Circle, only a handful of people had ever reached such heights.
The most ironic part?
This bounty was exactly one million Beli higher than that of the "World's Strongest Man," Whitebeard.
That extra million wasn't very damaging—but the insult factor was off the charts.
The Navy was openly proclaiming to the entire world:
The emperors of the old era have grown old.
The king of the new era has already ascended the throne.
And as for the officers under his command—pick any one of them, and their bounties started at a billion.
This was a true… army of monsters.
Even among the reserve forces not yet formally commissioned, dazzling figures like the Snow Samurai alone were enough to draw attention.
Not to mention the two imperial sisters under Hancock, and the ruthless standouts who had shone brilliantly in the storm of war—pull out any one of them, and they'd likely be a terrifying presence with a nine-digit bounty.
Beyond these elites, there existed an overwhelming mass of combat power, flooding in like crossing carp. The base numbers were simply too absurd—so much so that the Navy hadn't even had time to evaluate them individually, leaving their bounty posters completely blank.
It had to be emphasized:
This suffocating list of combat power didn't even include the Totto Land forces and Beast Pirates remnants who had fallen into captivity!
Just imagining the full scope of this power was enough to clearly realize what kind of colossal monster Wano had now become.
There was even a growing unspoken consensus in the outside world:
This place wasn't just the most terrifying forbidden zone in the New World—but across the entire sea itself.
No matter how wildly public opinion raged outside, Tenma—the very eye of the storm—was calmly escorting mountains of spoils back to his home base, bathed in the thunderous cheers of millions.
At present, the Totto Land archipelago had temporarily been transformed into floating sky islands, positioned in midair at the same altitude as Wano's sea level.
With a single stroke, he now possessed thirty-four islands in total. In Tenma's mind, his vision of ascending to a true superpower was gradually shifting from blueprint to reality.
The original territory of Wano—no matter how tirelessly he had expanded its infrastructure over the years—was at best just a somewhat larger island.
But now, with the entire Totto Land archipelago integrated, this massive numerical base finally began triggering a qualitative leap.
After all, Wano was originally an inland sea enclosed by two massive mountain ranges. If it kept reclaiming land inward, it would eventually run into severe spatial limitations.
Without prematurely exposing Wano's true national foundation, Tenma turned his gaze toward the sky.
The outline of a grand "Sky Archipelago Project" began to take shape.
Especially with the dual boost of flying yacht technology and new energy systems, transportation between floating islands was no longer a fundamental issue.
Of course, behind this decision lay two even deeper considerations.
By building floating islands—combined with the Float-Float Fruit and the absurd abilities of the Momo Fruit—he could greatly mitigate the kind of island-erasing annihilation that Im had demonstrated in the original timeline.
At the same time, whether constructing defenses or creating signature landscapes, this entirely new sky territory could be shaped freely according to Tenma's personal will.
Naturally, all of this still remained at the strategic planning stage. Tenma was simply arranging the order of moves in his mind for this vast game of chess.
Though the world-shaking "Apex War" had come to an end, before fully relaxing, Tenma hadn't forgotten that there was still a massive variable on the board that had to be accounted for—
The Whitebeard Pirates.
At this moment, in a stretch of sea near Sphinx Island in the New World, the atmosphere was as oppressive as the calm before a storm.
Several pirate ships as massive as mountains lay quietly upon the sea. Their iconic white whale figureheads looked especially solemn under the sunlight.
Black skull flags snapped sharply in the wind atop the masts, the upturned crescent-mustache emblem proclaiming unmistakably that this was the flagship of the legendary Whitebeard Pirates—the Moby Dick—and its escort fleet.
Corners that were usually filled with laughter and heavy drinking fell into deathly silence the moment a few news birds dropped several newspapers onto the deck.
At the center of the deck, upon a massive custom throne, Edward Newgate sat imposingly.
This time, he didn't let his sons read for him—he personally picked up the newspaper.
When the confirmation of Charlotte Linlin's death and Kaido's utter defeat reached his ears, Whitebeard's calloused hand gripped the paper as he read with deep focus.
Every word on the page matched what his sons had just discussed, yet when the information struck his mind directly, the weathered heart within his chest still trembled faintly.
At the same time, an indescribably complex emotion surged up—grief and remembrance for yet another old comrade of the previous era.
Though that crazy woman had spent half her life proposing to him and getting rejected, no matter what, they had once fought side by side on the same ship.
The vicissitudes of fate were cruel. Of all the remnants of that dazzling era, only this old skeleton of his remained, standing alone upon these turbulent seas.
After briefly immersing himself in memories of the past, Whitebeard refocused on the present. His keen perception clearly caught the heavy expressions on his sons' faces.
Since they had already chosen to stand against the other side, no one was naïve enough to hope their enemy would fare well.
But the most troublesome issue now was that the fangs Wano had revealed in this battle far exceeded the level of mere "wariness."
Even the most arrogant captains had to admit that against a dual-Yonko alliance of Kaido and BIG MOM, even if the Whitebeard Pirates went all out, they could never produce the kind of crushing, unstoppable victory Wano had achieved.
The louder the boasts before the war, the more deafening the silence that now filled the air.
Whitebeard's hawk-like eyes swept across the crew as he broke the stillness in a deep voice:
"So what? That snot-nosed brat Tenma just won a slightly tough fight, and he's already scared your spines crooked?"
"What—are you doubting your old man's strength when it comes to dealing with that little punk?"
His words rang out like a great bell, instantly acting as a shot of adrenaline. The previously silent crowd immediately shouted their denials.
"How could that be, Pops?! You're the acknowledged World's Strongest Man—nothing will ever change that!"
"That's right! As long as Pops is here, we fear nothing!"
Though the Whitebeard Pirates' cohesion came from that family bond—treating one another as true kin—
Beneath that warm veneer, the reason most had boarded this ship in the first place was the shining signboard of "World's Strongest Man."
Every crew member held absolute, soul-deep faith in Whitebeard's personal strength.
The root of the silence, however, lay not in doubt of Whitebeard—but in the shaking of confidence in themselves.
With Pops as a towering tree sheltering them, they could run rampant across the seas.
But this brutal war was like a sharp blade, mercilessly piercing the fragile shell of "fearlessness" they had hidden beneath his banner.
If Whitebeard were to fight the Skyborne General one-on-one, they naturally believed Pops would win.
But if it turned into an all-out war between the Whitebeard Pirates and Wano as a national war machine—
No one could say for sure how that would end.
"Gurarararara! That's all I needed to hear!"
Whitebeard burst into a booming laugh. He refused to let this gloom spread any further, waving his hand to cut off any more dispiriting talk as he turned to the commanders and issued orders.
"Marco! Immediately reorganize the forces and prepare the crews. Since that drunk Kaido joined the war, the territories he left behind after losing naturally belong to us!"
"As for that crazy woman Linlin's Totto Land—since that brat hauled it wholesale back to Wano, I'll make a special trip there myself!"
Whitebeard slammed his bisento, Murakumogiri, into the deck, his Haki surging outward.
"I'll see with my own eyes whether that arrogant little punk Tenma is truly qualified to climb onto my head!"
The division commanders exchanged glances, but since Pops had spoken, no one dared utter a word of dissent. They followed his lead, quickly regaining their usual swagger.
"That's right! Pops is the real World's Strongest!"
"I've long been sick of those messed-up Navy bounties anyway—trying to disgust people on purpose, huh? Why don't we storm a G-branch in the New World and give them a lesson!"
Amid the noisy clamor—
Only Blackbeard, Marshall D. Teach, sitting in the corner, seemed distinctly out of place.
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