Chapter 238: Warlord of the Sea Meeting

Sabaody Archipelago, Island No. 60.

Temporary Marine Headquarters.

The first Warlord of the Sea meeting is about to convene; the Marine Headquarters has successively welcomed famous great pirates, among whom two are the most renowned.

One is Crocodile, who challenged Whitebeard and lost, then fought Barrett to a draw.

The other is Gecko Moria, who challenged Kaido and was defeated, yet managed to escape unscathed.

Though both are losers, they did not fall to mere mortals, but were bested by the sea dominators Whitebeard and Kaido.

Drawing a blade against a Yonko is already a symbol of strength, and not everyone has the qualification to challenge a Yonko.

Just as Kaido lost to Saint Saint Saiwen, no one would call Kaido trash; people would only think Saint Saint Saiwen is stronger.

Failure itself is not terrible; what is terrible is losing to an obscure junior.

If a great pirate with a famous name and over twenty years at sea loses to a rookie pirate who has only been sailing for a few months, that is truly heartbreaking.

Crocodile, with his slicked-back hair and wearing a fur coat, grinned and greeted Moria.

"Saxi!"

"Saxi!"

Moria nodded in response.

The two were old acquaintances; five years ago, when the Pirate King was executed, they had met in Loguetown.

After parting ways in Loguetown,

Crocodile went to the New World to challenge Whitebeard, while Moria went to Wano Country to challenge Kaido, and both ended in failure.

"Your two subordinates are quite unique."

Among the four Warlords present, the subordinates standing on Moria's left and right were the most peculiar: a fat cat of the Mink Tribe and an afro-wearing skeleton.

Moria chuckled twice: "Yours aren't bad either. Has the little one come of age?"

Jaldino, standing behind Crocodile, opened his thick lips: "I just turned eighteen."

Crocodile was actually quite helpless.

Whether in the Grand Line or the New World, pirates with a bit of strength first choose to join the Morning Star Group, and second choose to become subordinates of a Yonko.

The third choice is to go solo; only as a last resort do they think about joining subordinates like them.

One can only say the Morning Star Group rose too fast, so fast that it almost absorbed all the high-end combat power on the seas.

Subordinates of the Morning Star Group like Mihawk, Master Tenghu, Big Bear, and Yuzhi Xiliu would absolutely qualify to be Warlords if they were elsewhere.

The Morning Star Group has a whole group of such subordinates.

If not for Barzab Saint Saint Saiwen's excessively high standards, Crocodile suspected that Yonko crews would probably fail to recruit anyone.

Precisely because of this,

the first Warlord of the Sea meeting had only four Warlords attending, not even enough to make up the full number.

Crocodile, smoking a cigar, greeted the Fish-Man Tiger: "Mr. Tiger."

As the most famous adventurer of Fish-Man Island, Crocodile acknowledged Tiger's strength and fame; even the Blue Fatty behind Tiger was somewhat well-known.

"Crocodile... Mr."

During his travels, Tiger had heard a rumor: Crocodile was not like this before; as for why he became this way now, perhaps only the person involved or the captain knows best.

The captain seems to know everything.

With Crocodile as the intermediary, Tiger and Moria pretended to meet for the first time and chatted casually.

It was a meeting of four people, yet Hanafusa could not find any opportunity to interject, so he sat on the chair in gloomy silence.

Especially seeing the powerful subordinates standing behind the other three, Hanafusa instantly felt even more depressed.

The Beasts Pirates were in urgent need of personnel; Big Brother Kaido could offer limited support, resulting in him attending the Warlord meeting without even a decent subordinate.

Moreover, he felt those three guys were showing off; this meeting was truly unworkable.

Damn it, why hasn't the Fleet Admiral arrived yet?

At this moment, inside the Fleet Admiral's office.

Sengoku pointed at the monitor screen of the Den Den Mushi, looking at the three Marine Admirals and Chief of Staff Tsuru and others.

"Why do I feel the Warlords of the Sea specially invited by the World Government are just so-so?"

For a moment, Sengoku couldn't tell: was it because he had fought too many high-level battles with the Morning Star Group in recent years? That he looked down on these four misfits?!

Or were these four Warlords simply average to begin with?

Kizaru understood why Sengoku asked this; it was because Sengoku-san had been in high-level battles for so long and had not yet adapted to that pace.

"Although these four Warlords still have a significant gap compared to the Morning Star Group, coordinating with the Marines to deal with a Yonko crew would definitely be no problem."

Akainu, wearing sunglasses, said nothing.

Not executing those four pirates on the spot was already Akainu's greatest concession.

The World Government is truly a bunch of idiots; the Five Elders who initiated the Warlord of the Sea system are the most outstanding among the idiots, actually fantasizing about cooperating with pirates.

Attempting to grant legal plundering rights to make pirates cooperate with Marine operations.

Is this a plan a human could devise?

After the Battle of Marineford and Barzab Saint Saint Saiwen becoming Saint Saint Saint Saiwen, Akainu understood one truth: his opposition was meaningless before the Five Elders.

It would only add unnecessary trouble.

It would be better to find a way to become the Fleet Admiral, lead the Marines to grow stronger and create new glory; by then, he would have the confidence to oppose the Five Elders.

For now, he must continue to endure for a while.

One day, Akainu will lead the Marines to eliminate all pirates on the seas.

"They seem to be chatting quite lively." Kuzan dryly picked up the conversation.

Kuzan truly did not want to attend this broken meeting, yet he had to sit here.

With such idle time, he would rather spar with Enel and Smoker, preparing to recruit them as his aides in the future.

Aokiji saw very clearly that although the World Conscription replenished the Navy's manpower and recruited a group of mid-level non-commissioned officers,

the Navy itself was extremely fractured.

With Sakazuki's return, the hawkish faction of the Navy, whose ranks had been broken during the Battle of Marineford, rose again, gathering around Sakazuki.

Zeff, who used to clamor for a New Navy, now appears much more gentle, but is actually secretly forming cliques to build a new faction of the Navy.

The dove faction surrounding Fleet Admiral Sengoku, while still the mainstream faction within the Navy, currently faces the risk of being wooed by other factions.

Finally, there is the salted-fish faction surrounding Borsalino, which has become even more lethargic than before.

The Navy, once whole, has split into four factions; because of this, Garp nearly fell into depression.

With the Navy fractured internally, the Four Emperors carving up the seas, the Saint Saint Saiwen Warlords of the Sea getting involved, and the Morning Star Group being unnervingly quiet,

Aokiji increasingly felt that the current situation was the calm before the storm.

Perhaps before long, the seas will plunge into total chaos.

And the spark for all of this is very likely the Morning Star Group, which has been extremely abnormal recently.

Aokiji simply did not believe that a Celestial Dragon identity could keep a man like Barzab Saint Saint Saiwen in check.

Just as Sengoku was about to speak, a messenger suddenly burst into the conference room to report.

"Fleet Admiral, the Navy fleet transporting the Heavenly Gold has successively encountered attacks by unknown enemies; the Heavenly Gold of about twenty member nations has been robbed."