Chapter 132

At the same moment, inside the Wang Gong of Alabasta.

On that high Wang Zuo, King Cobra should have been sitting.

Instead, a man with a golden hook on his left hand, a cigar in his mouth, and a contemptuous expression sat there.

And King Cobra was actually kneeling at his feet.

On both sides of the palace stood the senior officers of the Baroque Works.

Including Miss Sunday, the Devil's Child, Luo Bin;

Mr. 1, the user of the Quick-Strike Fruit, Daz Bonez;

Mr. 2, the user of the Mimic Fruit, Bon Clay;

Mr. 3, the user of the Wax-Wax Fruit, Mr. 3, and other powerful officers like Gar Dinno.

The reason they gathered here was naturally the summons from the leader, Crocodile.

Since successfully seizing and eating a Devil Fruit during the previous struggle for the strange cells, Crocodile's power had increased greatly, and his ambition swelled accordingly.

Add to that the increasingly tense situation in the New World, the ever-louder reputation of the Beasts Pirates, and even the Whitebeard Pirates, who once defeated him badly, were showing signs of movement!

And Doflamingo, who was also one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, was actually dead!

All these signs indicated that the world might soon erupt in chaos, and a great era was about to arrive!

In this wave of the times, he, Sand Crocodile Crocodile, naturally would not be willing to remain silent.

He wanted to be the trendsetter of the era; he wanted to defeat Whitebeard; he wanted to become the ultimate king, the Pirate King!

And to realize this ambition, he must obtain the legendary Ancient Weapon, Pluto.

This was the reason he had been lying low in Alabasta for so many years.

But there had been no progress on this matter; to this day, Crocodile had not even seen a shadow of the Poneglyph.

He had completely lost his patience, directly controlled the Wang Gong by force, tied up King Cobra, and forced him to reveal the whereabouts of Pluto.

Sand Crocodile Crocodile spoke with a contemptuous voice:

"Cobra, quickly tell me where the Poneglyph and Pluto are. You should know my methods."

Cobra was covered in wounds, clearly having suffered inhuman torture long ago, yet he remained unyielding.

Looking up at Crocodile, he gritted his teeth and said:

"Don't even think about it! I will never let you, this demon, obtain the Ancient Weapon! Even if I die, you will not get a single clue about Pluto from my mouth!"

"Hahahaha..."

Crocodile laughed disdainfully.

"Cobra, you are too naive. I will not kill you."

"Your King's Army and the Alabasta rebels are about to fight. Isn't such a good show even more interesting?"

"By the way, your daughter Vivi is trying to mediate between the two sides right now. She must feel very helpless at this moment, hahaha!"

"But even greater helplessness is yet to come, because I will not only play with the people of Alabasta, but in the end, I will kill her too!"

"Cobra, do you think this is more cruel than death?"

With every word Crocodile spoke, Cobra's face grew paler.

In the end, there was not a trace of color left.

Cobra's eyes bulged, his eyes turned red, and he let out a piercing roar:

"Crocodile, you demon! Bastard! If you have something to do, come at me! Do not harm the people of Alabasta! Do not harm my daughter!"

Crocodile laughed with even more disdain and contempt, like a cat playing with a mouse.

This ferocious crocodile loved nothing more than to play with his opponents while smiling.

You used the Dance Powder, deliberately causing it not to rain for three years in areas of Alabasta other than the capital.

This led to countless people in those areas dying from drought.

The rebel army was born from this.

Not knowing this was all Crocodile's conspiracy, they directed all their hatred at King Cobra and thus planned to attack the capital.

The King's Army, loyal to Cobra, naturally had to resist, and the civil war thus began.

To expose Crocodile's true face, Cobra's daughter, Nefertari Vivi, infiltrated the Baroque Works as a spy.

Crocodile had known about this long ago.

He simply held a mindset of playing a game, which is why he did not expose Vivi.

Now that the King's Army and the rebel army were about to fight, Crocodile deliberately let Vivi go to mediate, wanting to admire the expression of despair on her face.

He also wanted to use this to threaten Cobra into revealing the whereabouts of Pluto.

This method was very effective; indeed, Cobra's face showed a look of struggle and pain.

Believing that it would not be long before he could no longer hold on.

Crocodile thought triumphantly.

But just at that moment.

A small underling of the Baroque Works suddenly ran in in a panic, shouting loudly:

"Not good, my lord! Pirates have entered Alabasta and are heading towards the Wang Gong!"

"They seem to be... they seem to be the Blackbeard Pirates who killed Whitebeard's Fourth Division Commander, Ace!!"

120. Luo Bin's Plan, the Arrogant Blackbeard, Luo Xing Waits in the Wings

Crocodile on the Wang Zuo frowned, but immediately returned to his usual disdain and contempt.

Crocodile, with a cigar in his mouth, sneered:

"That guy Teach, calling himself Blackbeard. When I challenged Whitebeard back then, he was just an inconspicuous brat. Now he actually dares to intrude on my territory without permission!"

Crocodile had once challenged Whitebeard and seen Blackbeard.

At that time, Blackbeard was still a member of the Second Division, looking honest and simple, with no fame to speak of.

Compared to Crocodile, who at twenty had already fought Douglas Barrett of Roger's crew and risen to fame, he was utterly insignificant.

Therefore,

Crocodile had never taken Blackbeard seriously at all.

He swept his gaze over the officer members of the Baroque Works beneath him and said:

"Which one of you will go bring me the heads of the Blackbeard Pirates' members?"

Crocodile didn't even plan to meet Blackbeard himself, only sending his subordinates to act, believing that would be enough.

Mr. 3, Galdino, stepped forward:

"Boss, leave such a small matter to me!"

Having said that, he walked toward the palace door.

Nico Robin's gaze followed Galdino's departing back, a strange glint flashing through her blue-black pupils.

Unlike the arrogant and overbearing Crocodile, the widely-read Robin, whose knowledge spanned an immense range, had once come across secret rumors about Blackbeard.

Those rumors said Blackbeard had eaten the Dark-Dark Fruit, the most vicious of the legendary Logia-type Devil Fruits, and mastered the power of darkness!

And it seemed that even before eating the Devil Fruit, he had clawed and injured the current Yonko, Red-Haired Shanks.

Moreover, this man had lain潜伏 on Whitebeard's ship for decades—his scheming mind, ambition, and methods absolutely could not be underestimated!

Nico Robin did not believe Blackbeard was someone Mr. 3 alone could handle.

But she did not warn Crocodile.

Although within Baroque Works her position was second only to the boss Crocodile, as Miss All Sunday, that was merely a cover, an empty title.

Nico Robin was only borrowing the name of Crocodile, a Warlord of the Sea, to evade pursuit by the World Government and the Marines.

At the same time.

Crocodile was likewise only using her ability to read the Poneglyphs in order to search for the Ancient Weapon Pluton.

The two sides were in a relationship of mutual exploitation.

And Nico Robin, whose strength was far inferior to Crocodile's, occupied an absolutely dominated and controlled position in this exploitative relationship.

She naturally would not be especially loyal to Crocodile.

So she kept silent, intending only to watch from the sidelines the struggle between Blackbeard and Crocodile.

How could Crocodile know all these thoughts of Nico Robin's? He continued to interrogate Cobra.

Meanwhile.

Luo Xing, who had entered the great desert of Alabasta, sensed a strange and deeply uncomfortable aura.

"This feeling of darkness, like pests hiding in the shadows, makes me sick to my stomach."

Luo Xing's gaze turned toward the direction of that deeply uncomfortable aura.