One Piece meme: Starting with eight extraordinary skills

Of course, this is also in line with his consistent persona on the Whitebeard Pirates' ship, so Thatch at most winked and teased him, without any intention of showing contempt.

After all, they were a bunch of pirates who risked their lives. They had no wives, children, or elderly parents, so they always needed to find some fun to relieve their boredom.

Back on the 4th Division's flagship, Blackbeard Marshall D. Teach watched as Thatch and Ace drank and chatted, and heard a murmur among the people around him.

"Ace is amazing! He's so young and he's already gained the favor of Father. I heard that soon he'll not only be promoted to a regular position, but he'll also be promoted to captain of the 2nd Division!"

Chapter 300 Ace, in Danger!

Blue sky and white clouds, fish swimming in the shallows.

A ship bearing the Whitebeard Pirates' insignia, the flagship of the 4th Division, was sailing on the high seas, and the pirates were discussing it over tea.

"Ace was too brave recently, he actually broke into Impel Down all by himself. We all thought he would fail, but we didn't expect him to succeed!"

"Yes, it's said that some pirates who escaped from Impel Down are recruiting all over the Grand Line, ready to make a big splash!"

"No wonder, no wonder! No wonder Father values ​​Ace so much and intends to make him the captain of the 2nd Division!"

"Back then, after Captain Kozuki Oden left, my father kept the position of captain of the 2nd Division. No matter how strong the new recruits were, they could not get this position. You can imagine how valuable the position of captain of the 2nd Division is!"

Listening to the murmurs of the crowd, a greasy middle-aged man who was silently eating an apple pie by the campfire revealed a strange smile.

"Ace...?"

The flickering flames of the campfire in Marshall D. Teach's blackbeard's pupils seemed to be a reflection of his burgeoning ambition.

Ever since learning of Lee Sin's plan to weaken both the Whitebeard Pirates and the Navy, he had been pondering how to carry out the plan.

Regardless, Sachi, the captain of the 4th Division, is quite strong. If he wanted to kill him silently, it would be relatively easy. However, if he wanted to capture him alive without being noticed by others, the difficulty would increase dramatically, and he might even provoke the entire 4th Division.

However, if we take Ace, the newly appointed captain of the 2nd Division, as the starting point, it will be much simpler!

After all, Ace had only been a member of the Whitebeard Pirates for a short time. Even after taking office as the captain of the 2nd Division, he didn't have many trustworthy subordinates. If something happened to him, it would be difficult to arouse the unity of the entire 2nd Division. Some people would want to report the situation to Whitebeard, some would plan to wait and see, and the rest would have their own plans.

In this way, the difficulty will be greatly reduced, and at the same time, the deal with Li Qing, the Lord of the Night, can be completed!

Ace, who was enjoying drinks with Thatch, seemed to sense something and suddenly turned around, meeting Blackbeard Marshall D. Teach's gaze across the campfire.

But what Ace saw was not the black-bearded Marshall D. Teach with a strange smile, but a greasy middle-aged man who looked rustic inside and out, taking big bites of apple pie in his hand, with juice even splattering all over his mouth and hands. He looked sloppy and silly, and was simply a harmless figure.

Ace, unsuspecting and thinking he was being overly sensitive, raised his glass of rum and clinked it with Marshall D. Teach across the glass, nodding in greeting. He then continued to boast to Satch.

This was neither because Ace was naive or overly careless.

In the family-like atmosphere of the Whitebeard Pirates, where all the crew members were part of the family, Ace never imagined that there was a cunning and ambitious figure among them, who, coincidentally, had his sights set on his head.

Perhaps just as this world has a bizarre existence like the will of the sea and Mother Nature, there also exists a mysterious destiny and cause-and-effect relationship. Even though Yang Ming wanted to carry out his plan and tried his best to avoid Ace, Blackbeard Marshall D. Teach still managed to set his sights on Ace by chance, just like in the original story.

It has to be said, this is truly fate!

"Ding!"

"Congratulations, host, for reciting a classic line from Akame ga Kill! You have been awarded one chance to draw a prize. Would you like to start the prize wheel?"

There are only two types of prizes on the lottery wheel: Imperial Arms and Imperial Guards.

Imperial Arms: Dimensional Square Shangri-La, Eight Chambers of the Dead's March, Demon-Possessed Armor...

Servants: King of Smash, Rattlesnake, Water Dragon Sword...

【Water Dragon Possession】: A ring-type Imperial Arms that allows the wearer to freely manipulate the liquids in anything they come into contact with, and to use their own blood as a weapon.

On the steel warship, Yang Ming inspected the previous gains.

With Yang Ming's current perspective, unless it's equipment with special functions like the Dimensional Array Shangri-La, combat-type equipment like the Water Dragon Possession is unlikely to catch his eye.

Of the six puppets under his command, Captain John was lacking offensive equipment, and this Imperial Arms with the Water Dragon Possession Ring was just the right thing to do with him, which could enhance his strength.

On this voyage, the steel warship had an additional guest: King Cobra of the Kingdom of Alabasta.

Of course, with the flames of the revolutionary uprising burning throughout the entire Kingdom of Alabasta, no matter how tenacious the resistance in the capital Albana was, it could not withstand the revolutionary army's desperate attack. Now, the capital Albana has changed hands, and the entire Kingdom of Alabasta has fallen into the hands of the revolutionary army.

This matter is currently being deliberately suppressed by the world government, and no news has been released to the public.

After all, one of the Five Elders had been replaced by one of Yang Ming's own people, and the other four were under the strong pressure of Lord Im and were now in dire straits.

Lord Im has ruled this world from behind the scenes for eight hundred years and has long since developed a capricious personality. He has demanded that the Five Elders find the Dark Lord Li Qing within a month, and they must carry it out perfectly.

Although Lord Im knew very well that this was a task that was beyond his capabilities, he didn't care.

Furthermore, he couldn't possibly dismiss all five elders; otherwise, without these five loyal ministers, each with top-notch strength and strategy, the World Government would find it difficult to function.

Just then, Cobra lost the Kingdom of Alabasta, and he himself was interested in competing for the position of one of the Five Elders. Now, without any more worries, he boarded Yang Ming's flagship and headed straight for the Holy Land of Mary Geoise.

With the full support of Yang Ming, a powerful admiral of the Navy Headquarters, and the help of an insider lurking among the Five Elders, the matter seemed to be a done deal, and Cobra was full of confidence.

If nothing else, there will be an accident.

No secrets stay hidden forever. Yang Ming could guarantee that the governor-general he had personally trained would be of one mind and that all his generals would be loyal to him, but he couldn't guarantee that when Kobra fled the capital, Alba, his men would remain equally loyal.

The wages of avarice is death.

If Cobra were still the king of Alabasta, he would have something to strive for.

But when he lost his country and became a homeless dog, his subordinates also began to lose their way and did not know where to go in the future.

The fastest way to travel from the Grand Line to the Holy Land Mary Geoise is by traveling through the Calm Belt, which avoids many islands blocking the way and makes the journey much faster.

Yang Ming naturally understood the importance of speed in warfare and feared that delay might lead to unforeseen circumstances. With the roar of its steam engines, the steel warship sped through the dangerous seas of the calm zone.

The Calm Belt is a strip of land on either side of the Grand Line, sandwiching the entire Grand Line in the middle. This sea area has neither wind nor current, and the entire sea surface is absolutely calm.

Even though Carrera has developed new steam-powered ships, most forces and groups on this sea still use wind-powered sailboats. Once a sailboat enters the calm zone, it loses power and becomes immobile.

Not to mention, beneath the surface of this calm sea zone live numerous sea king creatures, many of which are over fifty meters long, and some are over a hundred meters long. If you are unlucky enough to encounter a behemoth over a thousand meters long, you'd better pray for good luck.

Over time, the Calm Belt came to be regarded by the public as a forbidden zone that mortals could not enter.

In fact, the doldrums are not a strange phenomenon, but an objective phenomenon that arises from the combination of astronomical and geographical factors.

Because the doldrums are located near the equator, where the sun shines almost directly down year-round, the temperature is high and the ground pressure is low, creating the equatorial low-pressure zone. Trade winds converge from the subtropical high pressure to the equatorial low pressure, strengthening the vertical movement of air. As a result, the rising air currents mean that no wind movement is felt on the ground.

At the same time, the reason why the ocean currents in this area have stopped moving is that the currents have hardly made any vertical movement, which means that these seawaters will be permanently trapped on the seabed.

Logically speaking, the lack of contact with the ocean surface means that the oxygen content in the area is very low. Creatures entering this area may die suddenly due to lack of oxygen, making it impossible for such enormous creatures as sea kings to emerge.

Generally speaking, the larger an organism is, the higher the oxygen content of its environment is required to ensure its survival. Otherwise, it will suffer from insufficient oxygen intake, leading to a decline in bodily functions.

The formation of the doldrums and the stagnation of ocean currents have long been studied by researchers from scientific institutions under the World Government, and are considered world mysteries.

Even more remarkably, after geologists excavated the ore from the doldrums and took it back for research, they discovered that the doldrums appeared to have formed eight hundred years ago.

All research stopped at this point, with no further follow-up studies.

Because all the relevant researchers and experimental data were completely destroyed.

Yang Ming learned of these secrets from two sources: Caesar Courland and CP9 commander Spandam.

CP9 was initially responsible for destroying the relevant data, but there were corresponding backups stored on Enies Lobby, which benefited Yang Ming.

As for why the World Government is so tight-lipped about this, perhaps we should ask Lord Im in person.

As the steel warship sailed along, it left behind a trail of sea monster carcasses of all sizes floating on the surface of the sea.

Just as they were about to embark on their triumphant journey, a massive pirate ship suddenly appeared on the distant horizon.

Chapter 301 Faintly, like light clouds veiling the moon; drifting, like swirling snow in a flowing wind.

On the Grand Line, you can always see all kinds of ships.

Right now, in this windless zone that few outsiders set foot in, a 100-meter-long sailboat is slowly sailing.

Two enormous sea serpents towed the bow of the ship, propelling it smoothly through the calm seas, leaving trails of ripples as it sailed from the distant horizon.

Generally speaking, sailboats rarely exceed 100 meters in length. This is because the load capacity of a ship is closely related to many factors, with timber being one of the most crucial.

In the process of shipbuilding, trees such as oak and cypress are widely used as raw materials for ships. Due to the time and place of wood collection, the humidity inside the trees is too high during the season, which indirectly increases the weight of the ship. In order to prevent the ship from being too heavy and sinking at sea, the ship's size is often reduced.

But this wooden sailboat is clearly not ordinary.

The planks of the entire ship are not connected by nails or other bindings, but by mortise and tenon joints, which greatly improves the efficiency of using planks. This allows the ship to be larger and the interior space to be more rational and comfortable. At least the rooms planned for the crew are no longer the coffin rooms that are commonly seen in the past.

This sailboat is equipped with suspended ramps. Once it gets close to an enemy ship, the ramps will be lowered, and the claws at the front will firmly attach to the enemy ship's deck, creating the best ramp for pirates to land and engage in close combat.

The bottom of the ship was covered with a thin layer of lead to isolate the wood from the seawater, preventing it from being soaked in seawater for a long time and causing the hull to erode and rot. A triangular red sail appeared on the main mast of the sailboat, with a black skull pattern engraved on it. Nine jet-black snakes coiled around each other, forming the unique symbol of the Kuja Pirates.

Clearly, this ship, towed by two enormous sea serpents, is the famous Nine Serpents Ship.

Interestingly, most of the members of the Kuja Pirates come from a kingdom called Amazon Lily in the Calm Belt. They are all women, and each of them is proficient in using Armament Haki. They are a powerful local armed force and do not belong to any member state of the World Government.

The Amazon Lily Kingdom is mainly composed of canyons and forests. According to local customs, men are not allowed to set foot in the Amazon Lily Kingdom. Otherwise, if they are discovered, they will suffer unpredictable treatment.

If you look closely, you'll notice that since men aren't allowed to exist in the Amazonian lily kingdom, how do they reproduce?

There is a Chinese idiom, which means "to think about something closely and it becomes terrifying."

In fact, the Amazonian lily kingdom buys a batch of strong male slaves from outside every year, severs their tendons and ligaments, and uses them as seeds for procreation.

If a boy is born, he will be drowned in the ocean; if a girl is born, she will be taken in and taught various combat skills.

As for the male slaves who were drained of their energy, they would be fed to the giant sea serpents cultivated in the Amazonian lily kingdom.

Those unaware of the facts might mistakenly believe that the Amazonian lily kingdom is a paradise for men.

But in reality, this is a graveyard for men.

According to the original work, throughout history, only a handful of people have been able to land in the Amazon Lily Kingdom and escape unscathed: Rayleigh and Luffy.

From birth to death, women in the Amazonian lily kingdom are required to carry bows and arrows and scimitars with them at all times, and to practice throwing javelins and shooting arrows from a young age.

On the deck of this Nine Serpent Ship, an elite group of pirates from the Amazon Lily Kingdom were getting ready to set sail. Everyone was wearing loose-fitting tunics and goggles on their foreheads. Since it was the cold season, they also wore cloaks made of rectangular cloth, which they wrapped around their torsos and fastened to their shoulders with buttons.

"Hiss hiss hiss! Hiss hiss hiss! Hiss hiss hiss..."

A strange woman with long green hair, hissing as she flicked her tongue, lay on the deck, her head more than twice the size of her body. She wore only thin clothing, revealing large patches of pale skin, and her lower body was covered with python scales, which coiled and twisted across the deck.

The woman's eyes widened; her brass-colored snake eyes seemed to have eyes that could see a thousand miles away, able to see the passing steel warship several kilometers away.

In fact, it does.

Boa Sandersonia is a Zoan-type Snake-Snake Fruit user with the Snake-Snake Fruit - Boa Form. In her Beastman form, she possesses some of the physiological characteristics of a boa.

Boas' eyes can see visible light like human eyes, and they also have infrared vision, allowing them to see creatures several kilometers away. Although they can only see a blurry thermal image in this way, it is still a very powerful reconnaissance capability.