One Piece meme: Starting with eight extraordinary skills

"Li Qing, the Lord of the Night, this matter is not over!"

Yang Ming naturally couldn't sense Shanks' lingering regret.

At this moment, without any outside interference, Yang Ming pulled out the black knife Night and the famous sword Griffin that were stuck upside down in his body. Two jets of blood spurted from the wounds and landed on the ground, creating a dark patch.

Fortunately, with the support of various abilities, Yang Ming's self-healing ability is even more exaggerated than Kaido's. In just a few breaths, the wound was already sealed up and the injury was no longer visible.

Now, it's finally time to check out the spoils.

The Black Blade Night is over two meters long. Its blade is forged from black steel and tempered with Armament Haki by Hawkeye Dracule Mihawk for decades. The blade exudes a faint cold light and a murderous aura. The hilt is engraved with intricate patterns and inlaid with precious gems, making it appear extremely majestic and luxurious. The blade is incredibly sharp.

Yang Ming did not use Armament Haki to wrap around his body. He merely covered his body with a layer of dragon scales. Holding the black sword Night, he gently scraped his arm and easily made a wound. Although it did not touch the bone, it was still a rare treasure sword in the world.

It's important to know that Yang Ming's dragon scales are directly proportional to his strength; the stronger he is, the stronger the dragon scales' defensive capabilities become.

Satisfied, Yang Ming put the Black Blade Night into his spatial ring, then turned his attention to another piece of spoils.

The mirror-like blade exuded a chilling aura, reflecting Yang Ming's true appearance. The blade was long and slender, its tip sharp, with a glint of light seemingly constantly flowing within the high-set edge, adding to its sharp, cold presence.

Yang Ming held the famous sword Griffin and casually assumed a fighting stance.

The sword moved like a white snake spitting its tongue, hissing as it cut through the wind; it moved like a dragon weaving through the air, its movements fluid and graceful. Sometimes it was as light as a swallow, rising with a flick of the sword; other times it was as swift as lightning, scattering fallen leaves. Truly, a silver light rose from the courtyard, swallowing the blood of enemies for thousands of miles.

"What a fine sword! It's truly an unparalleled sword!"

Yang Ming toyed with the famous sword Griffin in his hand, just like he was toying with Shanks' girlfriend. No matter how he handled it, he found it very interesting.

"When I see Shanks again, I must have a good discussion with him about how to use the famous sword Griffin."

He casually stored the famous sword Griffin into his spatial ring. Yang Ming gazed intently into the distance, watching the Red Fox rapidly recede from Gaya Island, now a tiny black dot on the horizon. A slight smile played on his lips.

"After this incident, what will Shanks do next? He'll probably pass on the news that my disguise appeared on Jaya Island to the World Government. Knowing Im's temperament, he'll probably use the legendary Uranus to deal with me, right?"

Chapter 355 Change

He casually stored the famous sword Griffin into his spatial ring, then gazed intently into the distance, watching the Red Voss rapidly recede from Gaya Island, now becoming a tiny black dot on the horizon. A slight smile played on his lips.

"After this incident, what will Shanks do next? He'll probably pass on the news that my disguise appeared on Jaya Island to the World Government. Knowing Im's temperament, he'll probably use the legendary Uranus to deal with me, right?"

Yang Ming stretched and decided to put the matter aside for the time being.

In any case, his planting of the Ten-Tailed Divine Tree on Jaya Island, and his deliberate appearance under the guise of Lee Sin, the Lord of the Night, was clearly a ploy to probe Mother Nature's attitude toward the existence of the Ten-Tailed Divine Tree, while also drawing out Lord Im.

The reason why Lord Im is so mysterious is that there are almost no written records or books in this world that record anything related to Lord Im.

Now, under Yang Ming's instructions, Cobra, the former king of the Alabasta Kingdom and now one of the Five Elders, is collecting information about Lord Im and is also reading through the ancient books in his family, trying to find some clues.

These things all take time, but Yang Ming was clearly getting impatient.

Only if Lord Im shows a few moves can Yang Ming accurately estimate the difference in strength between them.

Due to his unique background, Shanks has an inextricable connection with the World Government. If he were to go to Mary Geoise to file a complaint, Yang Ming was 60% certain that Lord Im would intervene.

After all, the destruction of Mary Geoise by the Dark Night Pirates was too heinous. The Dark Night Pirates and Lord Lee Sin have always been a thorn in Lord Im's side. Now that they have finally caught a trace of him, Lord Im will certainly not let him off the hook.

Since there was still plenty of time, Yang Ming went back to rest.

Anyway, he now has informants all over the world, and he has people everywhere, so he's not afraid of losing track of the Red-Haired Pirates.

A few days later.

An island thousands of meters above the ground.

After Yang Ming's reforms, the Sky Island is no longer ruled by gods, but by a parliament. Every resident of the Sky Island has the right to vote and be elected, and elections are held every four years to elect members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Now, several years have passed since Yang Ming came to Sky Island, and a new election season has begun.

As the chieftain of the Shandians, War Ghost Wipa was originally an enemy of Yang Ming. After the war, he was a prisoner of war for several years and worked as a bricklayer for a few years before finally getting through his prisoner-of-war period and regaining his freedom.

Over the years, War Demon Wipa has come to realize the importance of the council. Compared to a single god ruling the sky islands, the council's majority system is clearly more scientific and efficient. As long as the Shandians can occupy more seats in the council, they will be able to provide more policies and strategies that are beneficial to the Shandians' survival and reproduction.

In order to compete for a seat in the next House of Representatives, Ghost Weapon arrived at the Preaching Square early to prepare.

The Sky Island isn't very large, and even though it encompasses the former land of the gods, it will eventually become overcrowded if not properly managed.

Therefore, the entire island's land was utilized and planned in different categories. Only the Preaching Plaza was allowed to hold election speeches, and candidates were not allowed to give speeches in other places to avoid occupying other people's space.

At first, the inhabitants of the Sky Island were naturally unable to understand or adapt to it, but over time, they became accustomed to the atmosphere and began to develop different factions of supporters.

Before the war demon Wipa even began his speech, a large crowd of Shandians had already gathered in the propaganda square. These primitively dressed Shandians held banners and flags bearing lines of sermon text:

"Make the Shandians great again!"

Humans are inherently selfish creatures. Once the threat of external enemies is eliminated, internal strife becomes inevitable, a phenomenon that has been true throughout history.

Once, the Shandians suffered exploitation at the hands of Enel, who claimed to be a god, and they wanted to rise up in rebellion to reclaim their ancestral lands.

Now that the ancestral lands have been returned, everyone is free to live on what was once the land of the gods. However, the limited living space on the Sky Island has become the flashpoint for conflict between the Shandians and the original inhabitants of the Sky Island.

Fortunately, the system of parliamentary elections allows such conflicts to be expressed in a civilized manner, rather than resorting to force to end with the physical elimination of the other side.

Yang Ming led a group of people through the newly renovated streets. Sugar and the others were like country bumpkins visiting the city, finding everything new and exciting. They looked left and right, especially noticing that the surrounding crowd was clearly divided into two groups: one group of Shandians and the other of Sky Island natives.

Among the indigenous people of the Sky Island, someone also ran for office, including Yang Ming's old acquaintance, Angel Girl Connie.

Connie competed against the Ghost Wipper on the same stage, showing no sign of backing down despite his ferocious appearance and burly physique. Instead, she righteously and vehemently confronted him, engaging in a fierce verbal battle and rebuttal. The surrounding supporters frequently erupted in enthusiastic applause, creating quite a lively scene.

Sugar blinked, finding the scene particularly novel, and asked:

"These two groups are clearly at loggerheads, so why are they able to sit down and debate peacefully?"

Sugar's doubts echoed the doubts of everyone else.

In Sugar's mind, if it were back in the Kingdom of Dressrosa, the young master would have killed or imprisoned anyone who dared to defy him, turning her into a toy to serve him for all eternity.

That's why she couldn't understand the actions of the two groups on Sky Island.

Instead of wasting energy arguing there, it's much easier to just pick up a weapon and kill the other party.

Yang Ming paused, looking at the crowd behind him. Besides Sugar, there were also people like R.3 Gardino and ISS Golden Week Mariano. These people were not his generals who had always followed him. Instead, they were people he had captured later and forced to join his ranks. Given their past experiences and knowledge, it was understandable that they could not understand the system of civilization.

It's easy to change a person's material conditions; simply make them wealthy, and their living conditions will improve. But changing a person's mindset is incredibly difficult, because people tend to take the customs, habits, and culture of the past for granted. They find it hard to recognize the shortcomings of their own country and are unwilling to change these things.

Chapter 356 Civilization

It's easy to change a person's material conditions; simply make them wealthy, and their living conditions will improve. But changing a person's mindset is incredibly difficult, because people tend to take the customs, habits, and culture of the past for granted. They find it hard to recognize the shortcomings of their own country and are unwilling to change these things.

Yang Ming established a branch of the Dinosaur Merchant Guild on Sky Island, where he purchased local specialty products and sold Blue Ocean daily necessities. This helped Sky Island residents gain more jobs and income, making them wealthier.

But if he had listened to Gan Fall's advice and stayed to become the new god of the Sky Island, the island's inhabitants would have continued the culture and experiences of countless years past, living an unchanging life. Apart from changing the god, nothing would have actually changed.

It is precisely for this reason that Yang Ming took advantage of the Sky Island's distance from the Blue Ocean to implement a system that had never existed before: the government controls the administration, the parliament has legislative power, and the courts have judicial power. Under the separation of powers, the three branches check and balance each other.

Although it may seem that this will lead to many things, such as arguments and delays in work, it is a huge step forward for a region with a long history of conflict between the island's native inhabitants and the Shandians to put aside centuries of ethnic hatred and disputes and sit down to discuss things instead of resorting to violence to resolve the conflict.

War is not child's play.

Once war begins, people will inevitably die.

Every person born into this world will have ties with relatives, friends, classmates, teachers, and so on. When a person dies on the battlefield, hatred will spread from the individual to the group of people bound to the deceased. If it is only a few people, the pain and hatred can be resolved over time. But when this group expands to the entire clan, it means that the two clans will develop into a state of irreconcilable enmity.

At that time, the conflict between the Sky Island natives and the Shandians can only be resolved when one side is completely wiped out.

Even the victors only achieved a Pyrrhic victory.

In addition to resolving conflicts between the two ethnic groups, parliamentary elections can also enlighten the public and liberate ordinary people from the ignorance of authoritarian rule.

Only when everyone has the right to vote and be elected will they develop a sense of ownership and spontaneously safeguard the security and stability of the country.

On this basis, people's ideas and values ​​are subtly influenced, abandoning the barbaric and bloody methods of warfare in the past, resolving conflicts through negotiation, and demonstrating the value of individual survival, which is not only the right to live, but also the dignity of a person.

As Yang Ming explained in detail, Sugar and the others were completely bewildered, feeling both impressed and confused.

People like Sugar, still living under feudal rule, naturally found it extremely difficult to understand when they suddenly came into contact with the system of a civilized country.

Does a person still have individual dignity?

This is something they can't even imagine!

On this vast sea, people have long been accustomed to nobles exploiting commoners, pirates, bandits, and mafia wantonly plundering and killing others, and the strong trampling on the dignity and lives of others, even taking it for granted to seize other people's kingdoms and territories.

Even ordinary people have become accustomed to working tirelessly 365 days a year, cultivating the land or fishing at sea. Half of their hard-earned money is handed over to the nobles, and the other half is donated to the local mafia and bandits in exchange for their own and their family members' safety, which they consider to be a very normal thing.

The poor sell their labor for meager wages, or sell their bodies as slaves to beg for food from nobles, or risk going out to sea as pirates, venturing into the world at the risk of their lives.

Whether they were poor or rich, or nobles from various countries, they all believed that all of this was a matter of course.

The rich and nobles treat ordinary people like cattle and horses, and the poor also see themselves as cattle and horses, and no one feels that there is anything wrong with it.

The poor envy the lives of the rich and nobles and yearn to become the strong.

Their desire to become strong is not to protect those who were once as weak as themselves, but to ride on the necks of countless poor and weak people like the rich and noble, and to enjoy the admiring gazes of the lowly.

If Yang Ming wanted to, he could easily become the strongest person in the world with the system he obtained after transmigrating, and naturally become a legendary figure worshipped by the world.

But just as this floating island became a new god, the people on it continued to live the same unchanging lives; in reality, nothing had changed.

When Yang Ming dies of old age and becomes a handful of dust a hundred years later, a new powerful figure will take his place, and the world will fall into a new cycle once again. Nothing will change.

Sugar and his ilk cannot comprehend Yang Ming's dream, just as they cannot comprehend the rapid changes taking place on this floating island.

Just like how people in primitive tribes are used to a life of eating raw meat and blood, they find it hard to understand how modern people can process food into gourmet food and enjoy the delicious flavors on their tongues.

Sugar and the others were involved in Yang Ming's important plans. Seeing their confusion, Yang Ming simply stopped and patiently went to the propaganda square to let them properly observe the propaganda and debate.

Sugar and the others looked at each other, now that they were under someone else's roof, they had no choice but to bow their heads. Facing this infamous Marshal Shura, they naturally dared not object and obediently stood in the crowd.

They looked up and saw a young man dressed in the style of a primitive tribe giving a loud speech, gesturing wildly, on a high platform erected in the propaganda square:

"All Sky Island residents, we are joining a great movement to rebuild our homes and fulfill this nation's promise to all its people!"

"For a long time, a small group of people on the Sky Island have reaped the benefits, while the Shandians and some of the original inhabitants of the Sky Island have borne a heavy price. They have made us live in remote places, in cramped houses like pigeon coops, working from dawn till dusk every day, exhausted to death, yet unable to buy a house in the Land of the Gods."

"The arrival of the Dinosaur Merchant Guild brought prosperity to Sky Island, but most of us didn't share in the wealth. Those corrupt councilors, those shameless judges, and those despicable politicians have all amassed huge fortunes, but the consequence is that we've had to work longer hours, day and night, with no entertainment whatsoever..."

Chapter 357 Exhilarating

"The arrival of the Dinosaur Merchant Guild brought prosperity to Sky Island, but most of us didn't share in the wealth. Those corrupt councilors, those legislators, and those despicable politicians have all amassed huge fortunes, but the consequence is that we've had to work longer hours, day and night, with no entertainment whatsoever..."

“Those rich people hoard land, inflate housing prices in the land of the gods, and indirectly plunder our hard-earned money. The rich who have more wealth can spend money to gain more votes. They enter parliament and become glamorous members of parliament. They enter the courts and become high-ranking judges. They also enter the government and become despicable and dirty politicians.”

"Friends, we must recognize one thing: if we continue to let things develop as they are, the descendants of these congressmen, judges, and politicians will still follow in the footsteps of their ancestors and occupy these positions forever. Then we Shandians and the native inhabitants of the Sky Islands will never have a chance to turn things around!"