Chapter 254: Returning to Alabasta

The first step was to find an animal or object that could temporarily store the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's ability, but at this moment, Robin handed Uchiha Feiyu a shell.

"What do you think of this dial? I searched it from one of the priests in that forest; it has the ability to create clouds."

"Robin, you've performed a great service. This is truly an excellent choice!"

Uchiha Feiyu took the Cloud Dial and revealed an expression of keen interest; the shells on Sky Island appeared to be objects, but they were also living animals, which could be called the best temporary hosts.

Especially after the Cloud Dial absorbed the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, could this shell create a powerful thundercloud like the Zeus in Charlotte Linlin's hands?

Even if the Rumble-Rumble Fruit were extracted later, would the thundercloud created by the Devil Fruit Ability disappear?

If it didn't disappear, that would be truly interesting... It is said that the Island Clouds created by the Cloud Dials of Sky Island can only exist within the environment of Sky Island. If the Rumble-Rumble Fruit could break this boundary, perhaps some thundercloud weapons could be manufactured in the future?

No matter how beautiful the thoughts in one's mind are, they are useless; in reality, one must take action to reach a conclusion. Uchiha Feiyu brought the Cloud Dial to the place where Enel was being held. At this moment, this God of Sky Island had already regained consciousness. Seeing Uchiha Feiyu enter, he immediately opened his mouth and made "woo-woo-woo" sounds, wanting to say something.

Well, because he didn't really want to listen to the nonsense of this megalomaniac, Uchiha Feiyu directly sealed Enel's mouth.

Looking at the Cloud Dial in Uchiha Feiyu's hand, Enel did not know what Uchiha Feiyu intended to do, only that there was a hint of anger in his eyes.

However, he did not need to think any further. Uchiha Feiyu reached out and grabbed his head. The "magic power" that should have belonged to a Vampire within his body, simulating the power of the Blood Scripture in a short time, began to carefully identify and extract the Devil Fruit power belonging to his soul.

"Woo-woo-woo-woo-ugh-ugh-ugh!"

Veins popped out on Enel's face, his eyes widened until the sockets were almost splitting, his pupils were filled with bloodshot lines, his body trembled incessantly, and a large amount of sweat soaked his hair in an instant.

That was pain that transcended the level of the physical body; his soul was being pulled and torn apart, his reason was evaporating, as if someone had pried open his skull, poured boiling hot oil into his head, and then stirred it twice with a red-hot iron rod. Even this conceited god completely collapsed under such agony.

A moment later, Uchiha Feiyu finally pulled the Devil Fruit power out of Enel's soul and directly fused it into the Cloud Dial. The tiny Cloud Dial instantly erupted with intense lightning, as if it had transformed into a core possessing infinite electrical energy.

However, after a moment, this electrical core gradually quieted down and returned to its original shell shape. Uchiha Feiyu manipulated the shell in his hand, spitting out a large mass of black clouds; within the clouds, tiny snake-like lightning bolts were constantly weaving through.

"Using a Cloud Dial to create thunderclouds—it really succeeded!"

Uchiha Feiyu's expression was somewhat pleasantly surprised; at least the first step of his idea was completed. As for whether this thing could be used in the ocean below, that was another matter.

Subsequently, Uchiha Feiyu's gaze turned back to Enel. The Devil Fruit ability had already been extracted, and at this moment, the Sea Prism Stone could no longer suppress Enel's physical strength. However, this guy was still lying on the ground, his eyes rolled back, saliva flowing from the corner of his mouth, and his body twitching intermittently.

Seeing this, Uchiha Feiyu casually flicked the thunder-cloud dial in his hand. A tiny bolt of lightning instantly struck Enel, and then, following a scream, the guy twitched for a moment, and his eyes finally returned to normal.

No, to say they returned to normal—in reality, the guy's eyes were vacant, his mouth slightly agape, a look of being completely out of it, which gave Uchiha Feiyu a bad premonition.

"Hey, Enel, what's wrong with you? You haven't become an idiot, have you?"

"Hehehehe, hehe... Hahahahaha!... Aba, ababa..."

"No way?! Really turned into an idiot? Could it be because of the soul damage?"

When extracting the Devil Fruit ability, Uchiha Feiyu had no experience, so he had always used the simplest and crudest method, forcibly cutting off the part of the soul mixed with the Devil Fruit. Therefore, Enel's soul was already riddled with scars.

Uchiha Feiyu knew in his heart that this would definitely leave behind some Aftereffects, but he had originally thought the Aftereffects would only be some intermittent headaches or amnesia. However, looking at it now, the whole person had become brain-damaged!

After tossing Enel around for a while longer, Uchiha Feiyu even activated his own Devil Fruit Ability, using the power of Hypnosis and Mind Reading. Finally, he confirmed that Enel was indeed completely stupid; not only was his memory a blank slate, but because of the soul damage, his intelligence had also regressed to a level inferior to that of an animal.

Losing one's memory and becoming an idiot are two completely different things. Even if lost memories cannot be recovered, as time passes, the amnesiac's personality and intelligence will gradually improve. But an idiot or someone brain-damaged—that is a lifelong matter.

"Tsk, it seems I still can't have my subordinates switch Devil Fruits in the short term. I'll have to do more experiments to get proficient with the process."

Uchiha Feiyu estimated in his heart that to be able to extract a Devil Fruit without damaging the soul at all, it would take at least dozens or hundreds of experiments to become proficient and have a certain degree of certainty. As for doing this with 100% success, that would probably require hundreds of experiments.

Fortunately, doing a few hundred experiments was no big deal; as long as one Devil Fruit was continuously rotated among personnel, there was no need for hundreds of Devil Fruit users. Otherwise, Uchiha Feiyu would really feel a headache.

After finishing the experiment, Uchiha Feiyu directly released Enel back into Sky Island. Let the people of Sky Island deal with this God of Sky Island who had become an idiot. It was unknown whether Enel would be beaten to death by the Sky Island people filled with resentment.

Subsequently, Uchiha Feiyu took the Cloud Dial and came to the core of the Maxim. After placing this energy source into the core, the entire Maxim immediately began to move with a "clack-clack" sound. Infinite electricity flowed to every corner of the ark, the huge gears began to turn automatically, and a moment later, the propellers rotated, and the Maxim flew directly into the air.

"It really... it really can fly!!"

"It's truly unbelievable, a ship made of gold can actually fly in the sky... I'm not dreaming, am I!"

Nami and Mikita looked at the flying Maxim, each of them showing expressions of amazement. The weather on Sky Island was always clear and sunny with high solar radiation. The sunlight shone on the ark, flashing with golden light, almost turning Nami and Mikita's eyes golden.

By comparison, Robin was relatively calmer, though she still couldn't restrain her expression of surprise:

"A flying golden ark? With a ship like this, one could easily reach any corner of the ocean!"

"Even the Marine and the World Government, I'm afraid, would have no way to deal with this flying golden ship..."

As an old hand who had been avoiding pursuit and mixing in the underworld for nearly 20 years since the age of eight, Robin was not confused by the material value of the Maxim, but instead thought of the strategic significance of this ship that could fly in the sky, or even in space.

At the very least, with this ship, Robin would no longer have to worry about the pursuit of the World Government and the Marine. Once there was news of a Poneglyph, it would become very easy to go and search for it.

"By the way, Captain, can such flying ships continue to be built?"

Hearing Robin's calm words, Uchiha Feiyu revealed a thoughtful expression:

"The driving force of this ship should be electricity, which is why it needed to be made of gold... However, gold is not the best benign conductor among metals. According to electrical conductivity, the ranking of conventional metals should be silver, copper, gold..."

"So theoretically, using copper to build such a flying ship should also be possible. The biggest problem is the energy core."

"If the thundercloud created by that Cloud Dial can also possess endless electricity, perhaps this kind of flying ship can indeed be replicated!"

Hearing this, even the most money-grubbing Nami completely came back to her senses:

"Doesn't that mean we can build a flying fleet!"

Mikita's already rosy complexion became even more excited:

"I heard that during the era of the Pirate King, there was a Great Pirate called Golden Lion who built a legendary flying fleet. Even Roger was once forced into a desperate situation by him. The World Government and the Marine couldn't do anything to him, and I even heard he nearly seized the whole world!"

"But that Golden Lion relied on his own Fuwa Fuwa no Mi ability, and it only differs by one word from my Light-Light Fruit..."

Actually, it was far too different, and the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi and the Light-Light Fruit were completely different things. Trying to compare your Light-Light Fruit to his Fuwa Fuwa no Mi was a bit too self-delusional.

Moreover, Golden Lion's seizing of the world was nothing more than empty talk; in reality, this guy was at most at the level of a terrorist.

Uchiha Feiyu secretly mocked in his heart, but he didn't laugh at Mikita. This person was just a small Pirate from the first half of the Grand Line; it was perfectly normal for her to have no experience.

Moreover, a flying fleet was indeed worth pursuing. At the very least, one could advance to attack and retreat to defend, without worrying about the threats from the Marine, Pirates, or the World Government, and there was no need to consider the strange sea conditions of the Grand Line or the Sea Kings that blockaded the Calm Belt.

"Alright, those are things for the future. I don't have much certainty about whether it can succeed. For now, let's return to Alabasta with our harvest!"

……

In Alabasta Palace, Cobra, who was handling government affairs, suddenly heard exclamations coming from outside.

"What's going on? What happened? Could it be that Pirates have come again?"

Cobra was somewhat terrified and uneasy. There was no help for it; too many things had happened during this period, and this King was a typical "enlightened monarch" who had benevolence but no strength to truss a chicken, so he was naturally a bit jittery.

"Daddy! Come out quickly, come out and look! There is a giant golden ship floating down from the sky!"

Princess Vivi poked her head out and shouted twice, leaving King Cobra looking completely bewildered.

A golden ship? What kind of thing is that? A Mirage?

While his mind wandered, Cobra walked out of the palace, lifted his head, and then opened his mouth wide, revealing an expression of disbelief.

In the sky, the golden Maxim, carrying a golden radiance, slowly descended; under the illumination of the Alabasta sun, it shimmered with a dazzling and blinding brilliance, as if another sun had appeared in the sky.

"This, this, this, what on earth is going on? A golden ship flying in the sky? Could it be some kind of Devil Fruit Ability?"

Just at this moment, two figures flew out from the Alabasta royal palace; they were none other than the Falcon Bell and the curly-haired guard captain who had obtained the Sand-Sand Fruit, the only two people in Alabasta currently capable of flight.

Although the curly-haired guard captain possessed the ability of the Sand-Sand Fruit, his flight speed was not fast, and his flight altitude was not high; after all, flight was merely an ability derived from the Sand-Sand Fruit.

Bell, however, was different; the flight ability of the Falcon Fruit was already second to none among ordinary Zoan types, and after Awakening, his speed was even more astonishing, with the Flame Cloud behind him trailing like a golden streamer cloak, carving out a golden tail flame as he rushed toward the Maxim in the sky.

Having just arrived on the deck of the Maxim, before Bell could even react, he heard a familiar voice:

"Huh! Bell, why are you here? Oh... is this ship too conspicuous?"

Bell turned his head, looked toward where the voice came from, and saw Uchiha Feiyu and the others.

By the time the Maxim landed in the royal palace, it had already been surrounded by quite a few people; ordinary guards and the like had naturally long since been driven away, and those remaining were all members trusted by the Alabasta royal family.

After all—this was a golden ship! It was not a ship that had been gold-plated or had a layer of gold foil pasted on its surface, but a ship where every part and every screw, from the inside out, was made of gold.

There was no need to consider its practicality; the value of these materials alone was enough to attract the attention of Pirate crews on the level of the Four Emperors, or perhaps the Celestial Dragons.

Once the news leaked out, I fear the entire Alabasta would never know peace again.

"It is truly crafted entirely from gold; the gold reserves of Alabasta, I fear, do not even amount to a few tenths of a percent of this ship..."

King Cobra walked around the ship, feeling completely dazed; in reality, this was the result of the Alabasta national treasury being flush after Uchiha Feiyu had wiped out many great nobles.

If it were half a year ago, the gold reserves of Alabasta, I fear, would not even be enough to trade for a single mast of the Maxim.

(End of chapter)