Chapter 287: Rest and Recuperation! Collective Level-Up!

Rather, they were absorbed by Mary Geoise due to their outstanding talents or special abilities, gaining the status of Celestial Dragons.

Unlike the current nineteen Wang Zu of Mary Geoise, they possessed no power to rely on; they were tools completely obedient to Imu, a executioner's blade hanging over the heads of other Celestial Dragons.

This identity granted them privileges surpassing ordinary Celestial Dragons, yet it also made them numerous enemies within Mary Geoise, driving them to be ever more loyal to Imu, for that was their only reliance.

But Xia Mu Luo Ke was different; he was one of the nineteen Wang Zu, even the heir to the Figarland family, second only to the contemporary Five Elders' family.

At the same time, he was the Vice-Captain of the God's Knights, his combat power so formidable that he could defeat Big Mom.

With these two identities combined, ordinary Celestial Dragons had to bow, or even kneel, to pay him respect upon seeing him.

Yet for these subordinates of humble origin beside him, he did not blame them too harshly, speaking slowly:

"The Surgery Fruit is in exile; even if found, one must wait for the next user to awaken. To perform the Immortality Surgery would take at least several years, or even decades."

"Kais, you should know clearly that the Captain does not have much time left. Moreover, what the Captain wants is not merely ordinary immortality."

"In any case..."

"Once this mission is completed, the things you desire will have a result."

"I understand."

A member of the High Divine Cavalry, namely Kais, nodded subconsciously.

A trace of barely perceptible excitement flashed in his eyes, but his expression sank:

"That woman, Britannias, can serve as the final target; the true trouble right now is the Knight Gao Wen."

"Even that Jin Shizi was defeated by him; the Red Dragon Fruit that should have been allocated to that fellow Manticore has now been eaten by the Knight Gao Wen."

"With these two factors combined, to snatch someone from under his nose, relying solely on our strength恐怕 is not enough."

Xia Mu Luo Ke nodded, his expression unchanged, clearly having expected such a situation; he spoke calmly:

"Kathy has already performed divination."

"Soon, the legend of Britannias will reappear; the Knight Gao Wen and his group will inevitably appear there."

"We simply need to go there in advance and wait for the rabbit to strike the tree stump."

"Moreover..."

Xia Mu Luo Ke raised his hand to wipe the fresh blood from his face, his expression momentarily becoming somewhat playful:

"That fool in the Destiny Cult has always wanted to enter Mary Geoise and become a Celestial Dragon, hasn't he?!"

"Then we might as well give him this opportunity."

Kais was stunned:

"But we do not have such authority!"

"Who knows?!"

"Heh~"

A mocking, light laughter echoed over the sea; even the seagulls skimming the water surface seemed startled, flapping their wings to fly high, only to be swallowed in one bite by a Sea King leaping from the water.

Half a month later.

Alabasta, Rapeseed Flower Port.

This city, completely destroyed by the battle between Gao Wen and the Jin Shizi, had already recovered somewhat of its original appearance.

Countless workers moved through the docks, cooperating to rebuild or repair the structures within the port; the shadow left by that battle seemed to have completely passed.

Yet the two crisscrossing rivers within the port still made people recall the battle that occurred there from time to time.

"It is said that these two canals were left by a battle that occurred here; that person could merely raise a hand to make the earth roll and the seawater flow backward..."

A thin old man with a very good spirit sat in a corner, smacking his lips with welding fumes.

He vividly recounted to the surrounding crowd a rumor that could only be described as absurd, and unsurprisingly drew a round of laughter.

"Just blow your own trumpet; how is it possible for a human to do such a thing? You probably heard that legend from somewhere, didn't you?!"

"Exactly, exactly; don't bully us outsiders who don't know the things of this place."

"Hahahaha~"

"Who says there isn't!"

Seeing the crowd disbelieve him, the old man immediately grew agitated:

"I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Several months ago in Aruba Na, sandstorms appeared almost every day; normal sandstorms cannot be so regular!"

"There are rumors that it was because two great figures were cultivating and clashing there!"

His face flushed red; he stood up directly to argue with the crowd, gesticulating wildly, his words gradually becoming more intense.

Yet this drew even stronger mockery from the crowd.

Just at a certain moment, all sounds around completely ceased.

The little old man wondered what was happening.

He looked up.

Before his eyes was a familiar skull flag with a round shield as its base, and the figure standing on the deck made him tremble with excitement on the spot.

"It is him!"

"One of the two sides in that battle was that man, while the other was rumored to be an Admiral in the Navy!"

Silence reigned around them for a moment.

Only rows of eyes full of awe looked at Gao Wen and his group in the distance.

They did not know whether the little old man was boasting or something else.

But what they did know was this.

If the one who struck was that man in the distance, then altering the heavenly phenomena with the aftershocks of their clash would be a trivial matter for him.

"It is Knight Gao Wen! One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea authorized by the World Government!"

"And also... the hero who once defeated Crocodile and saved Alabasta!"

Boom!

The cargo ship came to a steady stop.

Gao Wen led his subordinates down the gangway and, together with Robin who had come to meet them, walked toward the Lord's Mansion in the center.

Roubo Luqi had departed alone half an hour after the banquet ended earlier.

He intended to return to the World Government to become the eyes for Gao Wen's group; Xiang Keluo and Akin had expected this all along, so they did not press the matter.

Instead, Zoro and Law felt somewhat unwilling.

After all, the third hard coin was still in Roubo Luqi's hands, and that was the target they were pursuing.

Now that Roubo Luqi had left, the two showed no sign of stopping; on the contrary, they became even more intensely competitive.

This led to a situation where, in just half a month, both of their strengths had seen obvious growth.

Gao Wen was naturally delighted by this.

Now that his combat power had reached the level of a Warlord of the Sea, the sense of urgency on him had lessened somewhat, yet his swordsmanship and fighting spirit had not regressed even a little; instead, they had become even more pure.

A few minutes later.

The office room of the Lord's Mansion.

Robin, Gao Wen, and Xiang Keluo gathered here, looking at the report on the table with rather strange expressions.

"You say that in recent months someone has been attacking the partners of the Martial Arts Tournament behind the scenes?"

"That is correct."

Robin nodded, her unhidden gaze falling directly on Gao Wen, making his scalp tingle:

"However, they have already been repelled by the combined efforts of Stussy and D-Field. The opponent acted very cleanly, leaving no traces, so their identity naturally cannot be known."

Gao Wen nodded:

"It should be the faction that Jia Sha mentioned earlier, the one wanting to seize the side bets of the Martial Arts Tournament."

"It seems they dare not attack us directly, so they chose to strike at D-Field and Stussy, who are cooperating with us, as a second-best option?!"

"Heh."

"These two factions are no pushovers; they should give that opponent quite a hard time."

Robin and Xiang Keluo breathed a sigh of relief.

Afterwards, Gao Wen asked about the progress of the Martial Arts Tournament in the New World, receiving answers from Robin that far exceeded expectations.

Under Robin's leadership.

The Rapeseed Flower Port, which was originally expected to take several years to regain its former glory, had already shown traces of its past within just a few months, with many merchant ships now docked there.

Robin's talent in combat might not be described as powerful, and her own potential was merely Bai Yin level, but in fields outside of combat, she was almost a universal genius.

If there was anyone in Gao Wen's pirate crew, besides Gao Wen himself and Xiang Keluo, who could take on a major leadership role, it could only be Robin.

Everyone else, whether Roubo Luqi, Akin, Zoro, or Sanji, had their own flaws and were unsuitable to become decision-makers.

Law, who had just joined the crew, was still too immature and needed time to grow.

Fortunately.

Another purpose of Gao Wen's return to Alabasta was to further enhance his subordinates' strength before formally entering the New World.

He did not expect them to immediately match the configuration of the Beast Pirates' Three Calamities, the All-Stars, or the countless True Fighters; at the very least, they needed to grow to a point where they would not drag Gao Wen down.

A hard battle awaits in Britannia.

Gao Wen had this intuition.

But that place is already the most suitable location within the entire world for the Red Dragon to exert its abilities.

Gao Wen had no reason, nor could he, simply give up on it.

Soon.

The small meeting of the three ended.

Gao Wen then asked Robin to designate an area for the Franky Family within the port to serve as a shipyard, entrusting the task of building the pirate ship entirely to Robin, while he himself took on the role of a hands-off manager.

Time passed in a flash; three months went by.

Within the Rapeseed Flower Port, apart from the two canals running through it, there were no longer any traces of the great battle that once took place there.

Countless merchant ships came and went, treating this place as a transportation hub for goods entering Alabasta, and the port had once again become bustling.

To achieve such results, besides Robin's excellent talents as the Lord, there was also the pirate ship about to be launched, docked in the port, and the intimidation of the pirate flag flying from that ship.

Whoosh—!

Under the clear sky, Zoro and Sanji, two figures, once again engaged in fierce combat.

One drew all three of his swords, their blades coated with Armament Haki, his entire aura condensing like a demon, resembling an asura who had fought his way out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

The other had his legs wrapped in flames, moving with swift speed like a devil bathing in fire, each strike possessing the power of a meteorite impact.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

The violent collision erupted in bursts of thunderous roar, stabbing pain into everyone's eardrums.

"These two are both so strong! They're practically monsters!"

"Compared to when they were in Seven Waters City before, their strength has multiplied several times over at least!"

"But in the end, who will get the 4th coin?!"

Zanbai watched Zoro and Sanji clashing in the arena, clicking his tongue in secret admiration; beside him, Kiwi and Mozu could not help but let out bursts of cheers, and all around, countless companions erupted in celebration.

"Woo-hoo~~~!!!"

"Go for it, go for it!"

They had now fully integrated into Gao Wen's pirate crew — the stronger their companions' combat power, the greater their own sense of security.

Keluo stood shoulder to shoulder with Gao Wen, watching the fierce battle between Zoro and Sanji in the arena, and could not help but nod subtly:

"According to the grading standards we set before, these two already possess the combat power of Upper Bai Yin."

"Even placed within the Beasts Pirates, they could fight for a spot among the Flying Six, and it's hard to say whether the current Flying Six could even be their match."

"Three months of time to achieve this kind of growth — that talent is truly enviable."

Gao Wen also nodded in satisfaction.

During this period, he had also promoted the Captain System's scoring system throughout the crew.

To be honest, the rating tiers the System gave were extremely crude.

Back in the East Blue, Gao Wen, who was also Black Iron rank, found killing a few ordinary pirates hardly harder than slaughtering a chicken.

At the same Gold rank, if the East Blue-era Gao Wen had faced his Zephyr-era self from Alabasta, he probably could not have withstood even a single move.

Therefore, Gao Wen further slotted four sub-grades — Lower, Middle, Upper, Extreme — into each existing rating tier.

The so-called six tiers and twenty-four grades, to make it easier for his subordinates to pinpoint their combat-power bracket.

However.

After all, this thing is not the same as levels in a game, where being one grade higher means you are stronger and can crush lower-grade opponents.

There are simply too many things that can influence the outcome of a battle.

Apart from one's own basic qualities — mindset, fighting spirit, cunning, even luck — any slight gap in any one of these can reverse the conclusion of a fight.

Unless the gap between the two sides is already so vast that one party can bulldoze through on stats alone, otherwise who is stronger and who is weaker still has to be decided by fighting.

Therefore, the grading Gao Wen proposed can only serve as a reference for judging baseline combat power, to help everyone find their own positioning.

And according to this evaluation system, Sanji and Zoro, still entangled in combat, are both Upper Bai Yin.

After three months of training, Keluo had already climbed to Middle Gold, and Akin had also brushed against the threshold of Gold.

But at this step, the pace of improvement for the two had once again slowed.

To advance further, they either had to surpass their own limits through enough combat, or their own abilities had to take a leap-forward improvement.

For example, awakening Conqueror's Haki, or an ability awakening.

The former, by Gao Wen's estimate, was unlikely; rather, Keluo had already touched the threshold of ability awakening, which was beyond Gao Wen's expectations.

This was the benefit of a high compatibility between a Devil Fruit user and their ability — not only could they use it right out of the box, their development progress was lightning-fast, and even the speed of awakening was beyond what others could match.

Good lord!

If it turned out that the first Legendary grade on my ship, apart from me, was not Zoro or Sanji as originally expected, but Keluo instead — that would be one heck of a joke.

More critically...

If this guy really got ahead by one step, he could probably brag about it for a lifetime!

Thinking of this.

Gao Wen shot a glance at Keluo beside him, his mouth twitching hard.

Damned hell!

This kid is watching the fight with both feet off the ground — even at this level he doesn't forget to train, he's dead set on outdoing me in this!

"What's wrong?!"

Keluo turned his head to look at Gao Wen, his gaze slightly puzzled, while inwardly he had already started secretly gloating.

Sure enough!

This guy noticed too — my ability is about to awaken; as long as I beat him by one step in this, I'm not completely useless!

While pondering.

The corner of Keluo's mouth had even uncontrollably revealed a trace of a smile.

(End of this chapter)