Pirates: Your emperor has returned!

There were no top-notch navigators on this ship. If there were, they could have easily made it fly through the air as if it were flat ground, thanks to the combined effects of ocean currents and air currents!

"Hey, you don't actually think you can reach the sky with that kind of empty luck and faith, do you?!"

Crocodile gritted his teeth and dodged a shove of seawater to keep himself dry.

On the other hand, Rowan, while avoiding getting his body wet from the seawater, kept his eyes on the distance not far from the ship.

Crocodile followed Rowan's gaze and saw a tiny target.

That was the paper airplane that Rowan had thrown out earlier!

At this moment, the paper airplane is following the air currents created by the ocean currents, climbing upwards along with the ship.

But the next second, the people on the ship felt a distinct sense of weightlessness.

The navigator roared, "The bottom of the ship has broken free from the current!"

That means the entire ship has lost its only remaining foothold in the air!

Crocodile frowned, but for the sake of his own life, he forcibly extended his elemental arm to hold the mast in place, which was about to be torn apart by the airflow.

He growled, "You really want to leave it to fate?"

Just then, he finally heard Rowan's voice.

It was an extremely serious voice, yet without the slightest fear or wavering.

"Little crocodile, I've always had terrible luck, so I never leave things to fate!"

Rowan looked away from the paper airplane and slammed his hand on the ground.

boom!

In an instant, a tremendous roar resounded throughout the ship's cabins, and countless grains of sand poured out, mixing with Rowan's own elementalized sand and swirling around the ship.

Crocodile finally understood why the ship was so heavy.

He finally understood why Rowan had been keeping an eye on the paper airplane.

Rowan is observing the flow of gas.

The next second, countless grains of sand surrounded the ship, transforming into "feathers," and even causing the ship to grow two enormous "wings."

A golden eagle, guided by a paper airplane, soars straight into the sky!

[Chapter 52. The Golden "Eagle"]

Above the clouds lies a clean and desolate world.

The sunlight poured down without reservation, creating a refreshing and invigorating feeling.

call out!

Suddenly, a small black dot pierced through the clouds and reached this flawless space.

It was a paper airplane with useless handwriting left on it after the navigator's calculations.

Its wings were damp with a few water droplets, making it look somewhat heavy, but this did not prevent it from taking off on the strong air currents and heading into the distance.

A few seconds later, another huge roar came from the thick clouds.

It was like a thunderclap, or like a train speeding across the tracks.

Rumble rumble rumble...

Swish!

A massive black shadow, far larger than a paper airplane, broke through the clouds, blocking out the sunlight.

That was a ship.

A massive ship covered in sand and feathers, with its "wings" spread wide!

Like a golden eagle, it pierced through the sky.

Following closely behind the ships was the towering ocean current that had propelled them all the way here.

With the help of wings and feathers on both sides, the ship's hull rose up close to the ocean current, its speed even exceeding that of the current itself, and finally reached the tip of the current!

Rowan's voice echoed across the deck.

"Unfurl the sails, all crew, prepare for the charge!"

Upon hearing this, Dalton and the fishman Hoka each pulled up a rope, and with two low growls, the previously slightly loose sails were tightened again.

boom!

After the sails were fully unfurled, the entire ship suddenly came to a sharp stop.

Two doctors, exhausted, lost their grip on anything and crashed through a window, falling out of the cabin.

At that moment, the entire ship was still in an upright position, and the two doctors fell straight down.

Rowan was about to help when he saw a giant sand hand blocking one of them, while Bell, the half-orc transformed into a giant falcon, caught the other.

Crocodile tossed the doctor he was holding into the cabin, biting his cigar tightly, and growled, "Don't cause me any more trouble, you... you bastards!"

He wanted to curse them as "bastards," but considering that he was still maintaining his "national hero" persona, he had to swallow the profanity that was on the tip of his tongue.

Crocodile's gaze shifted, his eyes fixed on the sand and feathers surrounding the ship.

Can something so heavy, even with the appearance of feathers, really fly in the sky?

boom!

A loud roar interrupted Crocodile's train of thought, followed by a strong feeling of weightlessness.

At this moment, the immense power within the ocean current was exhausted, forming a plane composed of the ocean current above the clouds.

But the enormous ship, propelled by the inertia of the surging ocean current, soared even higher into the sky.

The shape of the ship's hull has also changed from vertical to a normal horizontal shape.

After a brief pause, the ship began to plummet downwards.

Below them were not cumulonimbus clouds capable of supporting ships, but ordinary clouds composed of water vapor.

In other words, they are now falling into the ocean thousands of meters below!

call!

The wind howled high in the sky.

Just as everyone was feeling intensely uncomfortable due to weightlessness, Rowan's figure remained standing on the deck.

His left hand held the scepter, which he rested on the deck, while his right hand was raised to his chest with his fingers spread.

The sand flowed slowly around Rowan's fingertips, like countless traction threads connecting the numerous feathers surrounding the ship.

Not far away, the paper airplane also lost its upward momentum, but drifted away into the distance along with the air currents in the high sky.

Rowan stared at the paper airplane and said in a deep voice, "Report the location of Emperor Jiyun!"

"Yes!"

A navigator forced his way onto the deck, and under Dalton's cover, grabbed a pair of binoculars and shouted:

"Ji Di Yun is at the five o'clock position, about four nautical miles away!"

Luo Wen nodded slightly, let out a low growl, and slowly clenched his right hand.

Immediately afterwards, a creaking or scraping sound came from around the ship.

Under Rowan's control, those wing-like feathers extended to a much greater distance, even exceeding the length of the ship itself by several times.

At this moment, the ship of the Four Seas Alliance resembled an enormous bird, soaring through the sky.

Rowan flicked his finger, and the feathers changed angles.

The airflow at high altitudes passes over the feathers, creating different pressures on the upper and lower parts of the feathers, which in turn generates upward force.

The ship stopped falling, and the nauseating feeling of weightlessness finally dissipated completely.

Immediately afterwards, the ship began to change direction, carrying everyone towards the location of Emperor Jiyun.

Rowan's right hand trembled slightly with a range of millimeters, fine-tuning the angle of each feather.

Seeing this, Dalton, who was not far away, scratched his head and exclaimed, "I didn't expect Mr. Rowan could fly too!"

But Bale, who was standing next to him, shook his head and denied this view.

As a bird-type Zoan-type Devil Fruit user, Bell is extremely familiar with "flight".

"Our ancestor's ability was not 'flying'."

Bell pointed to the wings on both sides.

Dalton then noticed that the wings around him were not flapping up and down like those of ordinary birds.

At first glance, these feathers appear to be fixed, but in reality, they are constantly adjusting in extremely minute increments.

That's 'gliding'.

Bell explained, "Using the initial momentum of the surging ocean currents to fly high into the air, and then using the feathers formed by the sand to maintain the subsequent momentum."

"If I had to use an analogy, it's a lot like a hang glider, but making a large ship glide at an altitude of 10,000 meters is definitely many times more complicated than operating a hang glider!"

Bell was extremely familiar with things "in the air," but he knew very well that he absolutely could not do that.

Not far away, Crocodile also heard Bell's explanation.

If it were not long ago, he might have been surprised, but now he is used to it.

That man could split an island in two with the width of a grain of sand, so naturally he could also use feathers formed from sand to guide a large ship gliding through the sky.

……

Ahead, there was an ordinary cloud.

Further ahead lies the location of Emperor Jiyun.

Once they break through this cloud, they will be able to reach the "White Sea" that can carry ships!

For Dalton, Bell, and others, it was a wondrous thing that existed only in legends, so they couldn't help but have some expectations.

Rowan flicked his finger again, maneuvering the ship into the clouds.

A dozen seconds later, the group broke through the clouds, and the blinding light came into view.