Chapter 171 The struggle for hegemony has begun

"This is the real empty island!"

The Polar Ship passed through the winding "River of Clouds" and went all the way up. After passing through a cave, Rhodes and his party felt that the sight in front of them suddenly became wider, and a dreamlike island appeared in front of them.

"It's so soft, the ground here is made of clouds!"

Peijin stepped on the ground, feeling the softness under his feet.

"So this is the so-called 'like falling into the clouds' feeling."

"It's fun!"

Bonnie was jumping up and down on the beach, Sissi ran happily around her, and the big bear followed far behind, looking at Bonnie with a doting expression.

"I feel his breath."

Compared to Bonnie and the others having fun, Neru was more concerned about the big-eared thunder fruit user from before.

After entering the real sky island, Nailu's sight also sensed his breath in the distant direction.

"Let's find a place to rest first. It's rare to go to Kongdao, and I want to enjoy some of Kongdao's special delicacies!"

"Yes, delicious food!"

Minina raised her hand in agreement.

At this moment, a burst of ethereal music flowed into everyone's ears along the sea breeze.

"Yo ho ho ho, that's the sound of the harp!"

Brooke turned to look in the direction of the sound.

Among his former partners, there were also people who were good at playing the harp.

"It's an angel!"

Seeing the person playing high up, love suddenly appeared in Brooke's eyes.

It was a girl with a slender figure and a pair of pure white wings. Under the sunlight, her whole body seemed to be emitting light.

"It's so dazzling that it makes my heart beat wildly! - Even though I no longer have a heart, yohohoho~~"

As if hearing Brooke's voice, the girl turned her head and looked here. After seeing Rhodes and his group, a gentle smile appeared on her face.

"Hasso!"

"Hasso?"

"This is our way of greeting you. You must have come from Qinghai."

The girl approached the crowd and noticed that Rhodes and the others did not have the wings unique to Sky Islanders behind them.

"That's right!"

Rhodes nodded and looked at the girl in front of him. In the original timeline, the Straw Hats, who would arrive at Sky Island several years later, seemed to have encountered each other at the beginning.

But it's no wonder that the place where she used to practice piano is the place closest to the entrance to the Kingdom of God.

"I am a resident here, my name is Cornish!"

Cornish opened her mouth to introduce herself.

"If you have just arrived at Sky Island, you may not understand many things. If you need anything, I can help you."

"Very good!"

Brooke stood in front of Cornis and bowed down in a gentlemanly manner. The etiquette was impeccable.

"Can you let me take a look at your--"

Boom!

Nia punched Brooke on the head and knocked him to the ground.

"Sorry, don't worry about him."

Nia kicked Brooke away, and Sissi rushed over and bit Brooke's leg bone.

"Wait, wait, don't break my bones!"

Ignoring Brooke who was in trouble with Sissi, Nia looked at Cornish.

"You know, Enelu?"

"god!?"

Suddenly hearing the name of God Enel from Nia's mouth, Cornis was stunned for an instant.

"god?"

Nia looked at Cornis in confusion.

She originally thought that the so-called [god] was just the big-eared self-promotion, but she didn't expect that ordinary residents here would also recognize this title.

"Our ruler of Sky Island is called [God], and Master Eniro is the current [God] of Sky Island!"

Cornis calmed down her emotions and explained to Rhodes and the others.

"Are you from Lord Enelu...?"

Nia sensitively noticed that when Enel was mentioned, the body of the little angel girl she had just met in front of her was trembling unconsciously.

"us?"

Nia laughed.

"We are the ones who want to kill [God]!"

Cornish exclaimed and covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes filled with desperate fear.

In the entire Island of Gods, as long as someone makes unfavorable remarks about [God] Lord Eniru, God's sanctions will fall from the sky the next moment, and the person who made the rude remarks will instantly turn into ashes.

No one survives!

The other party just said something about killing gods, which is absolutely offensive to [God].

And there is no chance that I, standing with the other party, will be spared.

"Um?"

After waiting for a few seconds, the thunder that represented despair and destruction did not fall from the sky, and a trace of doubt flashed in Cornis's eyes.

God, didn’t you hear that?

"Rhode, you won't take action in this battle, right?"

Nia looked at Rhodes.

Neru and Luo made the request on behalf of all their crew members.

They don't want to be the ones being protected all the time.

"In that case, I ask you to take care of this Miss Cornish."

It can be clearly seen that this Miss Konis has no traces of exercise on her body. When she said "Slay God" just now, this Miss Konis' whole body froze and she fell into deep despair. middle.

Combined with the previous experience at the gate of heaven, this so-called [God] may directly launch a thunderous attack from a distant place.

If Ms. Cornish was struck by that Enel's lightning because of her involvement, she would probably be wiped out in an instant.

"Have you decided who is ready to join the fight?"

Rhodes looked at his partners.

Big Bear is not a member of the pirate group, and he has to take care of Bonnie and will not join the battle.

"This is a good opportunity to test the results of our practice, how could we miss it!"

Peijin and Xia Qi were the first to stand up, looking eager to try.

"Bear too!"

Bebo also stood up.

As one of the first veteran members to join, he didn't want to be left behind by the rising stars.

Bowness did not speak, but stood silently beside Nailu, replacing words with actions.

"Me too, let's move a little bit."

Genos lit a cigarette and glanced at Sissy who was having fun with Bonnie.

After all, he was also the one who boarded the ship when he was in the North Sea. Even guys like Bowness who joined later were trying their best to practice and improve themselves. He couldn't continue to be lazy like this.

"Hey! Even though I'm just a skeleton, I will try my best for everyone."

Brooke held a sword flower on his arm, looking a little serious.

"I'll just wait until you clear the battlefield before going over."

Robin had a small smile on his face.

She is just a scholar. Compared to fighting, the unique civilization on Sky Island attracts her more.

"I just hope that you will pay a little attention to your surroundings when fighting."

The legendary Golden Land may have been washed up on the empty island by the sea currents. It was an ancient city four hundred years ago!

"Then I'll stay with Robin."

Baccarat blinked, stood next to Robin, and hugged her arm.

The person with the Thunder Fruit ability looked dangerous at first glance, so it was safer for her to stay with the captain.

"I'll prepare a banquet for everyone after the victory!"

Minina shouted.

“Special food of Kongdao!”

"It was recorded in Rolando's logbook that there are various kinds of [shells] on the sky island, as well as a special means of transportation [Weiba]. I'm very curious about it."

Gray rubbed his chin.

After entering Kongdao, he felt that there was a big difference between Kongdao and Qinghai below. The navigation of ships and other aspects were different. In this case, Kongdao should have unique means of transportation. .

Maybe it's the [Victory] mentioned in Rolando's logbook.

"Eh? Don't you know much about [Bei]? As for Wei Ba, I have one at home."

Having not been sanctioned by God for a long time, Cornis gradually relaxed and replied immediately after hearing Gray's words.

"Really? Can you show me? It's a vehicle that can sail without sails, and it doesn't sound completely different from the power equipment I designed. It's really amazing!"

"Well, it should be no problem."

"I also want to join the battle!"

After Kosha hesitated for a moment, he stood up suddenly.

The enemy is indeed very strong, and that kind of terrifying thunder can make one's skin numb and make one's body tremble unconsciously, even from a long distance away. But if you don’t even have the courage to fight, how can you gain strength and protect the country?

"Then, this battle will be left to you."

Rhodes looked at these partners in front of him, a trace of expectation flashed in his eyes.

"No matter what, we must get the Thunder Fruit!"

Gray suddenly added.

He even has a complete plan to integrate the power of the Thunder Fruit into the new Polar Ship.

"Long-winded!"

Nia waved her hands and took the lead to jump onto the Polar Ship.

"Just wait for our good news!"

Thinking of the big ears that discharged just now, Nia's hands trembled slightly with excitement.

She can finally fight against natural ability users!

The Polar Ship carried the crew members of the Rhodes Pirates who wanted to experience a battle to prove themselves. Under the leadership of Nelu, they sailed along the winding 'empty road' towards the feeling of Eni Road.

Rhodes took the remaining crew members and followed Cornis, who was still a little uneasy, into the town.

"These are Bei?"

After arriving at Cornish's house, Gray looked at the various shells that Cornish brought out, curiosity flashing in his eyes.

"Yes, this is a wind shell that can store and release wind power."

Cornish stretched out her hand and showed Gray how to use it.

"sharp!"

An astonishing light suddenly bloomed in Gray's eyes.

According to what this sister Cornish said, in addition to wind shells, there are also 'flaming shells' that can emit fire on the sky island, 'hot shells' that can release heat, 'impact shells' that release shock, etc. It can cover literally every aspect of life.

Although she did not collect some of the shellfish here, just hearing the introduction of related functions already made Gray excited.

If those shellfish can be collected in large quantities, not only can they be used on the Polar Ship, making the Polar Ship's power mode more comprehensive and able to cope with various situations, they can even be used in the design of weapons, and their own [ha Diss] series can probably receive an upgrade.

Thinking of this, Gray became even more excited and ran to the side with a bunch of shells in his arms to study them carefully.

"Is this also a food unique to Sky Island?"

Minina curiously poked at the vegetable-like things growing in front of Cornish's house.

Different from their common vegetables, the vegetables here looked like balloons. Minina just relied on her rich experience to judge that these were probably edible.

"Yes, it tastes very good."

Konis showed no impatience and introduced various ingredients to Minina.

"It's decided! I'm going to make delicious food for everyone that perfectly combines the characteristics of the ingredients from Kongdao and Qinghai below!"

Minina raised her arms.

"Okay!"

Bonnie jumped up and raised her fists.

"Let's go catch fish first!"

The big eaters, one big and one small, looked at each other and rushed towards the coast.

The taste of empty fish that I have tasted before is very delicious!

"Overall, this is a relatively affluent town."

Robin walked around the town, returned to Cornish's home, and sat down opposite Rhodes.

"Furthermore, I have noticed before that when we first arrived at Sky Island from Qinghai below, it was difficult to breathe for a while. Of course, Rhodes, you may not have noticed."

Robin thought about his captain's abnormal physical condition. I'm afraid he wouldn't react at all to such a change in environment.

"However, based on my observations in the town just now, the people here have relatively low oxygen content because they have been at high altitudes for a long time, so their overall physical fitness is higher than that of people in Qinghai below."

Robin poured a cup of tea and pushed it to Rod, then poured another cup for himself.

"I remember you said, captain, that our goal is to achieve new world hegemony."

Robin took a sip of hot tea and stared at Rod.

"This place is very suitable as a base for us."

"This place is so far up in the sky that the Navy or the World Government won't notice it at all. Even if we do something secretly here, we won't be easily noticed. Moreover, the special functions of the [shells] here are also worth it." Research, with Gray's scientific research capabilities, there should be some breakthroughs; not only that, the residents here also have stronger physical fitness, which can be said to be an excellent talent base. "

Robin expressed his thoughts one by one.

"Aren't we preparing to kill their [God] now? In that case, let Captain Rhodes become the new [God] here."

Rhodes looked at Robin in astonishment, not expecting that she would say such a thing.

"You must be a devil. We are guests in other people's homes, but you say that you want to occupy their country."

Robin rolled his eyes when he heard what Rod said with a slight smile.

"However, I don't think this [God] is a good person! He uses thunder bombardment at will and governs the country with terrorism. When the residents mention him, they will feel fear from the bottom of their hearts.

As a partner of justice, in the name of His Majesty Shichibukai, I will definitely punish such villains! "

"Okay, okay, our captain has always been a partner of justice."

Robin clapped his hands perfunctorily.

"So, the battle over there is just the beginning."

Rhodes' expression straightened slightly.

"After Nailu and the others have solved the original [God], if this country can be better brought under control and can truly become our territory, it will be a more important battle!"

Rhodes raised his eyes and looked into the distance.

Rhodes wants the power of both the natives of Sky Island and the Sandians who have been fighting against the natives of Sky Island for so many years!

The Navy, or the World Government, still occupies an absolutely dominant position in the first half of the Grand Line. Before entering the new world, Rhodes has no too eager thoughts on occupying territory. But as Robin said, Sky Island is an excellent place, not only to avoid the prying eyes of the navy, but also to provide a source of high-quality talents.

If it can be completely controlled, it will be a good thing for the Rhodes Pirates.

Because of Tezoro's secret defection, the Rhodes Pirates are not short of funds, but if they want to seize hegemony, money alone is not enough, and relying solely on Rhodes' power is not enough. Even the strength of the entire Rhodes Pirates is not enough.

Not to mention the hegemony of the entire world, even the great pirates who have the name of 'Emperor' in the New World each have huge power. Not only do they have numerous pirate groups, but they also have many islands attached to them. Only by surviving to this extent can they be considered to have joined the contenders for hegemony.

Although Rhodes has not yet entered the New World and has not been able to meet the four emperors of the New World, the fight for hegemony has begun from now on!