Pirate: I, Ace, am the King of Eclipse!

Bucky's body parts flew back and reassembled. He slumped onto the deck, staring wide-eyed at the white expanse around him.

Leona and Sabo regained their footing, and even Geno from the lower deck pushed open the hatch and climbed up.

Everyone stood on the deck, utterly awestruck by the mythical sight before them.

They actually sailed a boat up to an altitude of 10,000 meters.

Ace walked to the ship's railing and took deep breaths of the thin air unique to this sea of ​​clouds. Recalling the extreme thrill of riding the natural disaster and soaring ten thousand meters into the sky, the blood in his body was boiling.

He gazed at the pure white sea before him, a sight that seemed straight out of a myth, his eyes looking beyond the clouds and towards something higher.

"How beautiful! It's perfect as our base for rest and training as the Eclipse Pirates!"

Ace turned around, looked at his crew, waved his hand, and ordered, "Sail the ship over there!"

"Let the people on the sky island know who has taken over this sky!"

Chapter 59 The Gates of Heaven, Pirates Don't Need Tickets

The howling wind and deafening roar of the water seemed to have been muted in an instant.

The Eclipse was steadily anchored on a pristine white sea of ​​clouds.

The sun shone down without obstruction, illuminating the surrounding clouds, which resembled giant cotton candy, with a dreamlike, soft glow. The salty, briny smell of Qinghai was gone, replaced by a cool, slightly thin air.

"It's incredible that the clouds can actually support a heavy warship made of black steel and iron pine."

Sabo walked to the ship's side and gently probed the sea of ​​clouds below with the alloy rod in his hand. The sensation from the tip of the rod was not ethereal water vapor, but a peculiar resistance with astonishing buoyancy and elasticity.

Bucky reassembled his shattered body, regained his vitality, and began hopping around, boasting to the others about his experiences on the sky island.

Geno, carrying a large wrench, ignored the mythical scenery around him and immediately lay down on the ship's side to carefully inspect the outer propellers and the meteorite black steel rams on both sides of the hull.

"Click, click..."

After confirming that there were no cracks or structural deformations, the mechanical enthusiast let out a long breath, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face behind his goggles.

"My craftsmanship is truly unparalleled! Even the immense power of heaven and earth couldn't make this ship lose a single screw!"

Geno patted the sturdy black steel deck, turned to the people on deck, and announced loudly, "The propulsion system is working perfectly, and we can continue sailing at any time!"

Ace stood at the bow of the ship, looking down at the ocean formed by clouds, feeling the thin oxygen unique to this altitude of seven thousand meters. For an ordinary person, this environment would be enough to make them feel short of breath and feel suffocated, but for his powerful cardiopulmonary function, which had been modified by the divine fire of a mythical beast, it had no effect whatsoever.

"Since there's no problem with the power source, let's keep going."

Ace continued, "Let's go see what kind of scenery this so-called sky island holds."

"understand!"

Karina took a deep breath to calm her excited emotions and quickly ran into the wheelhouse to grab the helm.

With the restart of the steam boilers in the lower decks, the black steel outer propellers on both sides of the Eclipse began to churn again.

Surprisingly, the resistance of this sea of ​​clouds was much less than that of ordinary seawater. The Eclipse glided at an extremely high speed on the cloud surface, like a black blade cutting a straight track in this pure white world.

The journey took about half an hour.

"Captain, there's a building ahead!"

Karina, who was holding binoculars, suddenly spoke up to report.

Following her gaze, everyone saw a magnificent archway standing at the edge of the vast sea of ​​clouds. The pillars were carved with intricate and ancient patterns, and directly above the archway, the words "HEAVEN'S GATE" were written in common script.

The Eclipse gradually slowed down and docked on a cloud platform in front of the arch.

On one side of the archway sat a short, wrinkled old woman. She had a pair of small white wings on her back and held a strange device that resembled a camera in her hand. She stared at the imposing black warship with a blank, emotionless gaze.

Are you from Qinghai?

The old woman—Amazon—said in a hoarse, slow voice, “I am the immigration inspector of the Gates of Heaven. If you want to enter the White Sea above, you must pay the legally required entry fee here.”

"A fee?" As the treasurer, Karina was very sensitive to this word. She walked to the ship's railing, looking down at the old woman. "How much?"

“One billion IQ per person,” Amazon slowly held up one finger.

"One billion?!"

Karina gasped, and Bucky jumped up from the deck in shock: "You old hag, are you robbing me?! Six people is six billion! That could buy an entire navy fleet!"

"That's the currency of the Sky Island."

Sabo calmly reminded him from the side. He had previously seen some snippets about Skypiea in ancient books, "If I remember correctly, the exchange rate between Bailey from Qinghai and Ik from Skypiea is about one to ten thousand."

Upon hearing this, Karina's mind immediately began to calculate in her head.

"One to ten thousand, which means one billion Ikkiyak only costs one hundred thousand Berries?"

After calculating the figure, Karina breathed a long sigh of relief. As the chief financial officer who had just robbed a warlord's treasury and held hundreds of millions in cash, a mere 600,000 Berries for entry fees was nothing more than a drop in the ocean for the Eclipse Pirates at their current level.

"If it's just this little bit of money, there's no need to make things complicated." Karina turned to go back to the living room to get the money.

However, before Karina could take a step, a hand blocked her way.

Ace pointed to the pirate flag above the bow of the ship: "Karina, have you forgotten what flag we're flying?"

Ace's voice echoed across the sea of ​​clouds.

"We are pirates. Pirates sail in other people's designated territorial waters. When have we ever needed to abide by those ridiculous laws or even buy tickets?"

Karina was stunned by these words.

Sabo adjusted his top hat and laughed.

"Well said! I didn't build this ship so it would line up like a merchant ship to pay tolls!"

Upon hearing this, Jeno, the mechanical fanatic, felt his blood boil. He shoved aside the power compartment's megaphone and roared, "Hold on tight, everyone! To hell with this damn door!"

"BOOM—!!"

A high-pitched roar came from the steam boiler in the lower deck of the Eclipse.

The black steel outer propeller suddenly accelerated, and the entire warship not only did not slow down, but instead, like a black beast charging out, it stirred up clouds and waves and directly smashed open the entrance to the Gate of Heaven!

Without paying or registering, the Eclipse Pirates, with the purest and most violent pirate style, forcefully barged into the Express Shrimp Channel leading to the 10,000-meter-high White Sea.

"Click".

Below, the Amazonian grandmother pressed the shutter button on her device with a blank expression, capturing the silhouette of the Eclipse and Ace's tall figure.

"The Eclipse Pirates, illegal immigrants who haven't paid their fees, have been notified to God's Island." The old woman's hoarse voice echoed across the clouds behind her.

……

Following the steep waterfall of clouds, the Eclipse surged up to an altitude of 10,000 meters—the White Sea.

The clouds here are whiter and denser than those below.

Not far away, towering, unique trees grow on the cloud-covered shore, and a beach that looks like a fairyland comes into view. The beauty of Angel Island is displayed before everyone without reservation.

The Eclipse dropped its anchor at the beach of Yunsha.

Just as everyone was preparing to disembark and explore, a light engine sound suddenly came from the calm sea of ​​clouds.

"Put-put-put-put"

A single-person vehicle, resembling a small motorboat, smoothly cut through the clouds without any sails or external propellers, speeding towards the Eclipse.

The vehicle was driven by a middle-aged man with a big beard, and in the back seat sat a young girl with small wings on her back and holding a small white fox.

Paggar and Connie.

"Welcome to Angel Island, guests from Qinghai!" Pagya stopped his vehicle below the Eclipse and warmly removed his hat in greeting.

However, the people on the deck of the Eclipse did not pay any attention to the two enthusiastic indigenous people.

"boom!"

With a loud bang, Geno's tall body leaped off the deck like a cannonball, crashing heavily onto the sandy beach without even bending his knees.

His eyes, hidden behind his goggles, were fixed intently on the small vehicle driven by Pagya, his eyeballs practically glued to it.

"Hey, uncle."

Jeno's voice trembled, as if he had seen a treasure he had never seen before, "This thing of yours has no boiler, no gears, not even sails. What on earth powers it to move so fast on the sea?!"

"Huh? You mean Wiba?"

Pagya was startled by the enormous man with a full metal exoskeleton and stammered as he explained, "This is a unique mode of transportation on our Sky Island. Its power source is the Wind Shell located at the tail."

As he spoke, Pagya pointed to the inconspicuous milky-white shell at the rear of the vehicle.

"shell?!"

Geno shoved Pagga aside and brought the ordinary seashell close to his eyes for a closer look. When he felt the powerful airflow continuously emanating from inside the shell, this top-tier mechanic from the scrap metal district felt as if his brain had been struck by lightning.

A completely new technology tree, entirely different from what we know about Qinghai, suddenly opened a door for Geno!

"Storing wind in a shell, requiring no fuel, no heavy steam boiler, and small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, yet providing such powerful and continuous power?!"

Jeno held the wind shell tightly in his strong hands, his whole body trembling with excitement.

He turned his head sharply and looked at Ace, who was standing at the bow of the Eclipse, looking down at everything.

"captain!"

Geno's metallic voice was hoarse and almost cracked, and his eyes were filled with excitement.

"This island! This island is an immeasurable treasure trove! These seashells are absolutely amazing, hahaha!"

Chapter 60 Sword Pointing at the Island of Gods

Angel Island, Cloud Beach.

Geno squatted down next to Weba, like a giant bear guarding its food. His thick fingers carefully played with the disassembled milky-white shell, and he even pulled out a set of sophisticated dismantling tools from somewhere, preparing to dismantle this unconventional thing into eight pieces on the spot.

"Wait a minute! Sir, the Wind Shell is a living biological skeleton. If you forcibly break the shell, the storage function inside will be completely disabled!"

Pagya was so frightened that he waved his hands repeatedly and quickly stopped the mechanic who wanted to dismantle Wiba immediately.

"Live?"

Jeno stopped what he was doing, his brow furrowed, but the excitement in his eyes grew even stronger. He grabbed Pagga by the collar and lifted the middle-aged man up. "Uncle, you just said this is a unique mode of transportation on the Sky Island. Besides this kind of seashell that can spew wind, do you have any other kinds of seashells in the sky?"

“Yes!” Pagya swallowed hard and answered nervously, “Besides the Wind Shell that stores wind, we use the Heat Shell and Flame Shell for cooking, the Flash Shell for lighting, and the Sound Shell that can record audio…”