Chapter 419: The Future Belongs to Us

Seven didn’t take Blackbeard seriously at all.

Blackbeard became the biggest winner during the War of the Summit because he was the hidden mastermind behind the entire war, reaping all benefits at the lowest cost.

He had bided his time within the Whitebeard Crew for decades.

He killed Sachi to seize the Dark-Dark Fruit, defeated Ace, and handed him over to the Marines in exchange for the title of Warlord of the Sea.

He exploited Ace’s public execution to precisely provoke the Whitebeard Pirates into launching a full-scale assault, forcing the Marines and the strongest pirate crew to cripple each other.

Only when both sides were exhausted did Blackbeard enter the battlefield and claim victory as the ultimate winner.

Using his Warlord status, he infiltrated Level Six of Impel Down, recruiting legendary prisoners like Shiryu, the Evil Emperor, and the giant warship, instantly transforming his crew’s power.

He killed the mortally wounded Whitebeard and, using the unique ability of the Dark-Dark Fruit, successfully seized the Shake-Shake Fruit.

He then defeated the remnants of the Whitebeard Crew led by Marco, seized all of Whitebeard’s territories and influence, and officially joined the ranks of the Four Emperors.

Thus, he completely reshaped the New World’s balance of power.

Yet now, the sea itself—the very soil upon which pirates thrived—was about to vanish entirely.

Both the Marines and the Army were all Seven’s people.

The Four Emperors had submitted under the United Kingdom, and nearly every powerful figure on the sea, one by one, now served under Seven.

Even Blackbeard’s own crew members, Shiryu and Lafitte, were respectively Seven’s number-two fanatic admirer and controlled by a Devil’s Pact.

Lafitte was even undercover beside Blackbeard.

Seven allowed Blackbeard to live—

partly to use Blackbeard as a tool to locate the Dark-Dark Fruit, and partly to make Blackbeard a beacon, drawing out the remnants of the old era hiding in the shadows.

After all, the Dark-Dark Fruit and that so-called Gum-Gum Fruit—which was actually the Nika Fruit—were just too bizarre.

The World Government had failed to obtain them for eight hundred years.

Not to mention someone like Seven, who was inherently incompatible with Devil Fruits.

Although these two Devil Fruits, under the current unified Four Seas, were unlikely to drastically alter the world’s balance of power,

still, keeping them in one’s own hands was better than letting them slip away.

Of course, Seven didn’t place all his hopes on Blackbeard—he had already tasked the Red-Haired Crew with tracking the whereabouts of these two Devil Fruits.

In addition, the Black Ice Bureau under Shiryu’s command, along with the Marines and the Army, were all searching for these two Devil Fruits.

And all other Devil Fruits as well.

With senior officials maintaining the United Kingdom’s operations, Seven was freed from all duties beyond cultivation and began seeking pleasures in life.

With six years still left until Yamato came of age, Seven had no urge to do anything he truly wanted to do.

Time passed day by day.

Until one day, the geography of the Four Seas underwent a massive change—the Red Line, which had severed the Four Seas, was severed again by Seven.

The United Kingdom immediately built a port at the break and imposed tolls on all merchant ships passing through; from that day forward, exchanges between the Four Seas grew increasingly frequent and intimate.

The first year of the United Kingdom’s founding passed like this.

Sabaody Archipelago, Island One.

The former slave auction house at the island’s center had been completely rebuilt into a commercial exchange center, exclusively for merchants from the Four Seas and the Grand Line to negotiate trade and share market intelligence.

“Mung bean ice, fine mung bean ice.”

Vaporeon, a Blackbeard Crew intern, was selling it from a street stall outside the commercial exchange center.

Due to the Blackbeard Crew’s lack of funds, after a democratic vote among the three official crew members and one intern, Vaporeon was forced to take to the streets to earn money.

Otherwise, the crew couldn’t even pay rent.

Vaporeon was suffering inside.

After consuming the Gomu Gomu no Mi, he had ruled over Iron Barrel Island, amassing over three million Berries in just over a year—only to fall back into Blackbeard’s hands.

He lost not only his freedom but also his three million Berries, all seized by Blackbeard.

And Lafitte suffered even more than Vaporeon.

Though he had over two billion Berries in his pocket as allowance from the captain, to maintain his cover, Lafitte was forced to live in poverty alongside Blackbeard.

He drank the cheapest rum, lived in the worst seaside huts, and couldn’t even eat his favorite bananas.

He was practically starving three meals out of nine.

To find Elaine Saint, who had vanished for a year, the four members of the Blackbeard Crew had all lost a full circle of weight.

Fortunately, heaven rewarded their perseverance—Blackbeard accidentally discovered Elaine Saint’s trail.

“That bastard, playing hide-and-seek right under our noses.”

Thinking of the six months of misery, Blackbeard’s anger boiled over.

Blackbeard never imagined that Elaine, whom they had searched so desperately for, was hiding right on Sabaody Archipelago, married into a fisherman’s family as a son-in-law.

Far off, he watched Elaine, bare-chested, fishing by the shore.

The three members of the Blackbeard Crew fell silent.

Though they knew little of Elaine Saint, the very words “Celestial Dragon” were enough to conjure images of his former life of extravagant luxury.

Compared to the fisherman now scraping by, it was heaven versus earth.

“Captain, shall we move now?”

The thought of personally capturing the once-omnipotent Celestial Dragon sent Lu Bianyi, the former CP agent, into a surge of uncontrollable excitement.

In the past, Lu Bianyi would never have dared entertain such a thought.

From this perspective, Barzab Seven’s overthrow of the World Government truly saved this sea.

But their comrades’ vengeance must be settled.

“What are you thinking, in broad daylight?” Blackbeard shook his head. “Karp is stationed in G1 Branch next door. We move after dark. Grab him and leave immediately.”

Even if Karp weren’t next door, Blackbeard wouldn’t strike in daylight.

Not until he had sufficient power to protect himself.

Unless absolutely forced, Blackbeard refused to expose himself to the Marines or the United Kingdom’s gaze.

Even though he had fused the bloodline factors of two and a half top-tier races, granting him power nearly equal to a Vice Admiral, Vice Admirals ranked nowhere in the United Kingdom’s hierarchy.

Little White Hair’s forces included veterans such as Karp, Whitebeard, Gold Lion, and Red Count.

Most crucially—

Little White Hair’s forces included the Paw-Paw Fruit user Big Bear, the Door-Door Fruit user Jin Ni, and the Mirror-Mirror Fruit user Bre, who could teleport this entire group to the Sabaody Archipelago at any moment.

With the Blackbeard Crew’s current strength, if caught by the Marines, they’d be annihilated.

How then could they ever chase their dreams?

Blackbeard planned to wait another ten years—by then, these old men would be aged, and it would be his own peak.

“Lu Bianyi, we’re still young.”

“Stay patient. The future belongs to us.”

He glanced again at the girl wiping sweat from Elaine’s brow, and a strange ache stirred in Blackbeard’s chest.

Even a damn Celestial Dragon could find such a beautiful wife, yet he, Blackbeard, remained alone.

But then he remembered that Little White Hair had no wife either—and his mood instantly lifted.

Little White Hair, you’re no better than me.