I guarded Impel Down for a hundred years in the pirate world.

It quickly turned into a tiny dot and disappeared into the clouds in the sky, continuing upwards.

The people of Qinghai, living in a remote corner of the country, have taken their first step in connecting with the universe!

……

Actually, even earlier, after failing to contact God Valley for several days and realizing that something was wrong, the Celestial Dragons stationed at God Mountain activated the transmitter.

A special signal, transmitted into the starry sky using unknown technological means!

At the same time that Qinghai Lunar Landing No. 1 was launched, on a desolate planet in the distant starry sky, a short, slightly chubby, and old canine fur-bearing race was leisurely pedaling a bicycle-like device when it was disturbed by the whirring sound of a space denial mushi (snail phone) coming from the basket of the vehicle.

"What is it?" He answered the Den Den Mushi.

"Your Majesty, we just received a special signal from an unfamiliar planet. It should be the same one from nine hundred years ago..."

"Another problem stemming from the Demon Clan liberation plan?" Old Dog's face wrinkled, and he sighed, "It just never ends."

"What should we do, Your Majesty?"

"Can you roughly determine what civilization is coming from the location where the signal came from?" Old Dog asked.

"According to our research, there should be a branch civilization of the Angel race there. Their technological civilization is decent, but their individual civilizations are weak. However, it seems that we haven't heard from them for several hundred years. That place is really remote and desolate, with too few life-bearing planets. Even space pirates rarely go there."

“I see…” The old dog blinked his cloudy eyes and said, “If nothing unexpected had happened, the signal wouldn’t have been sent out nine hundred years late.”

"Let Barbani lead the team there, but be careful. If it turns out to be the progenitor civilization of the demon race, evacuate immediately and wait for me to personally lead the annihilation. If it's the Celestial Dragon civilization, gather as much information as possible to see if there's any possibility of winning them over or if it's worth plundering."

"And if neither is true, Your Majesty."

"Then it doesn't matter, let Babani decide for herself."

"Yes!"

The Den Den Mushi (a type of electric scooter) beeped and hung up.

The old dog tossed it back into the basket, continued pedaling, and sighed again: "This is never-ending. This so-called demon rescue plan is truly the biggest mistake our ancestors made. Creating trouble for the Celestial Dragons? Sigh—"

Suddenly, a river appeared ahead, blocking his path. The already troubled old dog frowned in displeasure and pressed the brake.

He looked across the river, which was several dozen meters wide, took a hook from the basket of his bicycle, swung it hard, and hooked it across. With a clang, it landed in a crevice in the rocks on the other side of the river.

Then pull.

Boom! !

It was as if he had pulled the continental plate on the other side of the river. Amidst the violent tremors, the land on the other side moved as a whole towards this side, squeezing out the river and fitting it together seamlessly!

The road is now level.

The old dog retrieved the hook lock.

I continued pedaling leisurely forward.

Chapter 134 A Small Step

"Lord Barbani, the spaceship's fuel has been fully replenished, and the route has been planned. If all goes well, we expect to arrive near the target planet in 16 days."

"Alright, let's set sail." Barbani, a black-haired gorilla from the Mink Tribe, who was over five meters tall and extremely strong, waved his arm and gave the command.

"Yes!"

With a slight jolt, the spaceship he was riding quickly lifted off the ground and into the air.

"16 days! This is such a remote place."

Next to Babani, a furred woman was using a small mirror to groom a tuft of pink hair on her forehead, complaining, "This is the fastest airship in our fur tribe. I thought the 14 days of the last mission was far enough, and now I'm going to miss two more regular beauty treatments. It's really something."

“After all, it’s the target planet of the Demon Race’s liberation plan.” A crocodile-skinned furry man next to him said, “Those that aren’t remote were discovered hundreds of years ago.”

“That makes sense,” the pig girl said. “Sebek, how about we make a bet? Guess whether it’s the Demon Clan civilization, the Celestial Dragon civilization, or even a branch civilization of our Mink Clan?”

"Of course I hope it's the Celestial Dragons civilization, and the worst kind at that, so we can reap a harvest without any scruples." Crocodile Seebek grinned, his smile somewhat sinister.

"How boring, all you ever think about is fruit, fruit. The demon race is so pathetic."

"And this possibility is the lowest, otherwise why would it take hundreds of years to activate our transmitter?" The pig girl cupped her cheeks and blinked her big eyes, saying, "I guess our ancestors, in their panic while being chased by the Celestial Dragons, stumbled into some uninhabited planet, their spaceship was damaged, and their transmitter was lost, making it impossible for them to contact us."

Generation after generation passed, and our ancestors rebuilt civilization on the desolate planet. Finally, a handsome Mink boy found our transmitter, mistaking it for a toy, and accidentally activated it. Then… the beautiful and powerful Lady Omerf descended from the sky, and then… hee hee…

Adding pink to the pink fur.

Seebek was speechless. "You're the one who's completely impossible, aren't you? And why are you blushing!"

"The demon race is pitiful? The day you see a planet slaughtered by the three progenitors of the demon race, or even witness them being killed casually, you won't feel sorry for them anymore," he said dismissively.

"That's pitiful too. At most... I, an innocent person, will become just as pitiful as them."

"You... are truly unreasonable."

"Hmph, cold-blooded bastard."

"Alright, stop arguing," Barbani interrupted. "This exploration is somewhat dangerous, Omef, don't be reckless."

"I know, I know." Omofu pouted and muttered, "In such a remote place, they probably don't even know the skills of mind network or weaponry. Even if it were the progenitor civilization of the demon race, they wouldn't be that strong."

"Don't forget the lesson of the great pirate Speer two years ago. He roamed the stars and thought nowhere was dangerous to him, but he still encountered an exceptionally advanced demon civilization on a small planet and couldn't escape."

Omf covered her mouth and chuckled: "What great pirate Speer? Compared to our Mink Tribe's mighty warrior, Lord Barbani, hee hee..."

The chimpanzee glared at her, then crossed his arms helplessly, but still smiled confidently, revealing his white teeth.

During the exchange, in just two minutes, their spaceship left their original planet far behind and entered the starry sky.

……

Meanwhile, in Qinghai, Figo's spaceship, after nearly 20 minutes of ascent, finally passed through a sea of ​​clouds, meaning they had just reached an altitude of 10,000 meters.

It's not that the airship's speed is impressive, but rather that it's currently flying at its slowest speed. The slower it goes, the easier it is to spot problems, and Figo also wants to record the entire first test flight.

While filming the outside of the airship with a video Den Den Mushi, he also used another black encrypted Den Den Mushi to contact the ground airship experimental base.

"The footage captured by the video den Den Mushi can still be transmitted back as usual, right?"

"Yes, Lord Figo."

Figo nodded: "Yes, as you can see, we just passed through the sea of ​​clouds where the Sky Island is located and arrived at an altitude of 10,000 meters above the ground. Now all we can see above us is the azure sky and the sun; there are no clouds."

The airship is moving very smoothly now, and its speed hasn't changed at all; it's still ascending about 500 meters per minute. Keep track of the time, and we'll see how many meters it ascends before it changes.

The Den Den Mushi responded, and then kept reporting the location and altitude to Figo, from 10,000 to 15,000 meters, and then to 18,000 meters. The blue sky above remained unchanged, and the airship was not affected in any way, not even by the wind.

At 20,000 meters, the airship finally swayed slightly, as if passing through some thin membrane, and the scene suddenly changed from blue sky to pitch black.

Figo was taken aback.

The pirates were also emotionally affected, and they all crowded closer to look ahead in surprise.

"Have we entered the starry sky already?"

"...A bit hasty, isn't it?" Although he had learned some information from the Noah's Ark left by the moon people, Figo still felt a little strange about actually entering the starry sky so smoothly.

What was the feeling I gave him just now?

It's probably like entering Fishman Island.

That layer of blue sky is like a membrane protecting Fishman Island. Entering the membrane means entering a blue sky with white clouds and sunshine, while leaving the membrane means entering a dark but not completely starless starry sky.

The inside and outside of the membrane are two different worlds, yet crossing this membrane is incredibly easy.

"Is that our target moon?"

"Oh, it looks even brighter in the starry sky."

The pirates pointed excitedly ahead, while Rocks even threw away the lunchbox he had been holding, which he had been tearing apart and then putting back together.

Nervous? Nobody's nervous.

For the pirates, entering space is far less stressful than facing Figo's power.

"Yeah, it's so bright," Figo murmured, gazing at the bright disc in the distance.

The strange feeling intensified.

When you look at the moon in the starry sky, should the moon be shining? Probably not. Although Figo's knowledge of celestial bodies was very limited, he knew that the light from the moon and stars was reflected sunlight, passed through the atmosphere, and so on, before finally appearing in the night sky as seen by the human eye.

But the moon in the One Piece world had turned into a luminous star, dazzlingly bright in the dim starry sky. The large disc and the patterns on it clearly guided them in the right direction!

There's no need to worry about not being able to find the right spot.

"Can you still see the image? We've entered the starry sky, does the Den Den Mushi still have a signal?" Figo asked Moses twice through the Den Den Mushi.

An excited reply came from the Den Den Mushi.

"Yes! Yes! You can see it! Is this the starry sky? It's so beautiful!"

"If you say it's beautiful, then it's beautiful." Figo clicked his tongue, let the Den Den Mushi continue tapping, turned around and went to the tail of the spaceship, looking towards Qinghai.

The azure planet, mostly oceans, with red earth continents visible, does resemble Earth from the starry sky in a way.

The pirates also realized what was happening and, like Figo, looked at Qinghai, pacing back and forth excitedly.

Figo returned to the front and stared at the disc.

The spacecraft continued its steady journey toward the moon, and the luminous disk naturally grew larger and larger in view, its light becoming increasingly dazzling.

One hour, two hours, five hours.

When the moon was extremely bright, the spacecraft seemed to pass through some kind of membrane, and the blinding light immediately dissipated, revealing a desolate, cratered land below, and an ordinary night sky above.

It's not the moon that's emitting light; it's an invisible membrane surrounding the moon that's glowing!

As the reference point changed, the airship changed from flying diagonally upwards to descending diagonally, gradually approaching the legendary infinite land of the Sky Island people. Excited voices came from the Den Den Mushi.

"This...we succeeded?"

"The moon landing was a success! A success!"

The pirates cheered excitedly.

Figo, however, only felt: That's it?

It went so smoothly that it was beyond words, and the journey took even less time than a voyage between the two islands.

Moreover, each planet has a special protective membrane, like independent fish-man islands or sky islands in the sea of ​​stars. The air environment and gravity coefficient have never changed. Can this be called the universe?

It's practically an enlarged version of Qinghai.

Forget it, it's a different world. If it were the kind of universe environment like in reality, with endless starry sky, a single journey would take a year or two, which would be quite frightening. So, if travel between planets were to be fast, it would only take a day or two, wouldn't that be better?