A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

Gildarts said, lifting his cloak to reveal the guild crest on his left chest, "Although everyone in the guild is a bit noisy sometimes, we're like family, and everyone is a very trustworthy partner!"

Ace's eyes lit up instantly: "Oh my god!!! Isn't that just like our Whitebeard Pirates?! We are too. Although none of us on the ship are related by blood, we are like family because of our father."

"Hahaha... It seems we're really destined to meet! Our guild also has a father figure! The old man is our guild leader, and although he's over 80 years old this year, he's still very energetic!"

Upon hearing the words "very energetic," Estun was immediately embarrassed. He scratched his cheek and changed the subject: "So, the people in the guild you mentioned, 'Fairy Tail,' are all mages like you?"

"Yes!"

"Natsu is in the same guild as you??"

"Basically, any mage you encounter is either a member of our guild or a friend of our guild!"

Gildarts picked up the newspaper beside him and pointed it out to Ace with great interest, "These three are from our guild, and the other five are our friends from the guild. They're really strong!"

"I already know that!!"

Eight people defeating the main force of the Big Mom Pirates, how could they not be amazing?

Just then, Ace suddenly remembered something and quickly asked, "Uncle, do you know what this 'resurrecting the dead' thing in the newspaper is all about? Can he really bring the dead back to life? Is that magic?"

Gildas put down his wine glass, glanced at Neinhart's figure in the newspaper, and said, "Oh, you mean that? That's the effect of the magic 'memory of corpses,' which can indeed resurrect people in a certain sense."

Gildarts then explained the effects of the magic to Ace, while Bucky and the others overheard the entire explanation.

"It really can resurrect the dead?"

"So he was reading powerful enemies from his opponent's memories and summoning them. No wonder he could summon Silver Axe, Wang Zhi, Captain John, and even Captain Roger and Rocks..."

When Buggy was young, he heard the name Rocks from the captain's men. He knew that Rocks was a great pirate who was no less powerful than his own captain. He also knew that three of the current Four Emperors—Whitebeard, Kaido, and Big Mom—were members of the Rocks Pirates. Even their vice-captain Rayleigh's wife was...

Cough!

In short, before Rocks was defeated by his own captain, Big Mom had already given birth to several children on the ship, including her now famous subordinates Katakuri, Perospero, and several of her older sons and daughters.

In other words, there's a high probability that these people have seen Rocks and Captain Roger, so there's no problem with them being summoned.

After hearing Gildas's words, everyone on the ship fell silent.

After a long silence, Bucky finally exclaimed in surprise, "Amazing... With magic like this alone, one person could probably form an army, right??"

Although it's not a true resurrection, and the individual strength of these memory corpses cannot exceed that of the user, if there were ten, a hundred, or a thousand of them, they could not only conquer the territories of the Four Emperors, but even the Marine Headquarters!

"Wow, that magic is so cool..."

"Hahaha, of course! Ace, although I don't know how much power you used in that attack just now, if your flame temperature is only this high, then you're far inferior to Natsu!"

For some reason, Ace felt like a bad student being singled out by the teacher, and retorted defiantly, "Don't underestimate me, old man! My flames are incredibly strong! If I used my full power, I could have roasted that sea king in one hit!"

Gildarts nodded and said, "But if it were Natsu, he could burn ten Sea Kings of that size to ashes in one move!"

"What?! Really?!?!" Ace stared wide-eyed in disbelief, beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead, while leaning back to reveal his double chin.

"Of course! Don't let Natsu's age fool you, he's only 20 years old, but his strength ranks in the top ten in our guild!"

"This... I'm 20 years old too! My strength would rank in the top ten of the Whitebeard Pirates!! By the way, uncle, where do you rank in your guild?"

Gildas stroked his chin, pondering, "Hmm?? Where does my strength rank in the guild? Let me think, currently it's third... no, second! After all, the old man can't beat me anymore! But if we also include those retired old men... it should drop to third!"

"No way?! Someone like you is only in the top three?!"

Ace was completely stunned. He could sense how strong Gildarts was; he might only be slightly weaker than his own father. But now Gildarts was saying that Ace was only ranked third in the guild?! Did that mean that the other guild had at least three 'Four Emperors' level experts?!

Just as Ace was filled with doubt and uncertainty, Gildarts suddenly hugged him: "Don't be discouraged by your strength, boy! Let me tell you a secret, the secret to making flames stronger is extreme high temperature! Even Natsu only realized this in the last two years, and since then, his strength has improved by leaps and bounds at a speed visible to the naked eye!"

"Extreme...high temperature?!"

Ace was a little confused. If someone else had pointed at his flames in front of him, he might have already shouted to beat them up. But since it was Gildarts giving him pointers, he could only listen humbly.

In the past, Ace's flames always pursued attack range and exquisite attack techniques, because in his opinion, the best way to attack was to present the flames in two forms: large and wide or small and exquisite. He even simulated the sun to develop the Flame Emperor Great Flame Ring, and simulated fireflies to develop moves like the Fire Daruma.

Thanks to his two understandings of fire, Ace has always been virtually unmatched on the high seas.

Now, someone is telling him that he's using it wrong, which Ace finds hard to accept.

"That's right, it's extreme high temperature! You just said your Devil Fruit ability is called the Flame-Flame Fruit, right?"

"Yes...yes...!!" Ace replied, bewildered, not knowing what Gildarts wanted to say.

"It's called the Flame-Flame Fruit, not the Fire-Fire Fruit. Therefore, to unleash its power, the key is not the size, range, or technique of the flames, but whether you can set your target on fire!"

Gildarts had Ace ignite a flame in his hand, then pointed at it and said, "The fire you're using now is too diffuse! You need to concentrate the heat of the flame on one point so that you can burn the target!"

"Natsu can melt even rocks harder than diamonds into liquid just with his passive ability!"

Ace was startled by this: "What did you say?! Diamond? Is that really possible??"

The third division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, "Diamond" George, can make his surroundings as hard as diamond. Ace fought him many times, but he never managed to break through his defenses.

Previously, Ace thought that the defense of diamonds was absolute, but now he realized that it might just be that his flame temperature was not high enough. Just like many swordsmen cannot cut through steel, he was facing a major bottleneck!

“Natsu’s flames are characterized by burning, which is similar to your Flame-Flame Fruit.”

Gildas continued, "He can also use anger as fuel to increase the temperature and destructive power of the flames, something I doubt you could do."

"Uh... um..."

Ace scratched his cheek sheepishly, his mind reeling as if he'd just heard something utterly ridiculous: fueled by emotions? What the hell?! Can emotions really burn? That's absurd!

Seeing this, Gildarts immediately understood Ace's embarrassment and burst into laughter again: "Keep it up, kid!"

"You have a long road ahead of you!!"

Chapter 878 Sky Island

"'Crimson Dragon' Irene Belserion, bounty 30 billion Berries;"

"'Moon Dragon' Selene, bounty 2.898 billion Berries;"

"Necromancer Neinhart, bounty 2.27 billion Berries;"

"'Female Assassin' Timalia, bounty 1,055 million Berries;"

"'The Giantess' Brandish, bounty 994 million Berries;"

"'The Witch' Mirajane, bounty 1,061,000,000 Berries;"

"'Beast King' Elfman, bounty 577 million Berries;"

"'Hundred Demons' Lisanna, bounty 330 million Berries."

On the Hope, Kira looked at the news in the newspaper and the World Government's new bounty notice, and fell into a deep silence.

He never expected that his grand plan, which would shake the entire ocean, would be thwarted at its very first step, and by one of his own people!

He had already planned to first build momentum in Alabasta, then show off his skills in a major event like the Marineford War, ideally defeating Whitebeard in front of the entire world, and then announcing the arrival of a new era. At the same time, he would use Robin and the Poneglyphs to revise history for the World Government and bring the entire sea into the magical age.

And now?

Irene and her group took the initiative to kill Big Mom, directly exposing the existence of mages to the eyes of all forces, including the Navy and pirates. This also caused a huge change in the maritime power. As a result, not to mention her earth-shattering plan, she will probably have to deal with the surveillance of mages by various forces.

You know, there are still dozens of comrades missing. They're not as strong as me. Once their existence is exposed, they'll inevitably be labeled by 'Eileen' and her group, and then there will be endless trouble...

But since things had come to this point, Kira had no way to stop it and could only quicken his pace.

What Kira didn't know was that Irene's defeat of Big Mom had caused a new uproar in the New World. The Navy had already begun to take action, and due to the reappearance of Roger's memories, Ace had temporarily abandoned the pursuit of Blackbeard and was already heading to the New World.

"Everyone is so amazing..."

Wendy, Charlotte, Erza, and the others huddled together, looking at the wanted posters and newspapers on the table, their eyes filled with envy: "30 billion Berries?! As expected of Erin-san!!"

The purchasing power of the currencies in the One Piece world and the Fairy Tail world is roughly the same, both basically equivalent to Japanese Yen. So 3 billion Berries is 3 billion Yen, which is equivalent to 100 times the prize money for the Grand Magic Games!

"Selene came too? That makes sense. Her magic is spatial, so it's normal for her to want to come in and check when she encounters a spatial rift. And she already has 2.898 billion in her first battle. She truly lives up to her title of 'Moon Dragon'!"

"Happy, look! Mira has a bounty of over 10 billion?! We wouldn't even have that much money if we sold ourselves!" Natsu and Happy looked at each other in shock. As they looked at each other, they thought of their meager savings and their eyes turned red with envy.

Lucy held Brandish's bounty poster, looking puzzled: "Brandish's nickname is 'The Giantess'?! And her bounty is so much lower than Timaria's and Mirasan's??"

"Perhaps she didn't show her full strength during the battle? After all, you know her personality!"

"That makes sense..."

Gajeel and Marcus were complaining about a muscular man: "Hey, hey, hey... Elfman is such a loser! Only 5 million? He's completely outclassed! He's utterly disgraced Fairy Tail!!"

"Unbelievable! Even Lisanna..."

The group exclaimed in amazement, pointing and commenting on the stack of bounty notices. Some envied the high bounty of one person, while others complained that the bounty of another was too low. In short, they made a lot of noise.

The noisy atmosphere left Robin utterly shocked. His eyes widened, cold sweat beaded on his face, wetting a few strands of hair on his forehead: "Do these people... even understand the significance of having a bounty exceeding 100 million on their first try?!"

"No, compared to that, defeating the 'Four Emperors' is the most surprising thing, isn't it?!"

"Looks like I've really found a great group of partners this time?"

"Ahem!! With Erin-san's strength, a bounty of 30 billion Berries is actually quite low, because the current 'Four Emperors' all have bounties of over 40 billion Berries. Defeating a 'Big Mom' should have required even more. However, perhaps it's because the World Government had never heard of Erin-san before, which is why her initial bounty is so low..."

Kira explained to everyone, "But then again, a bounty of 3 billion Berries for the first time is probably unprecedented in the entire ocean! You know, the number of times a bounty has ever exceeded 100 million can be counted on one hand!"

Wendy asked curiously, "But didn't Irene and the others fight off pirates? Why are they still wanted?"

"It's probably because of Neinhart's magic..."

Killer gripped the newspaper in his hand, his gaze fixed on the photos of Rocks, Roger, and others, his eyes wide with surprise. The fact that even the Pirate King and Rocks could be summoned would definitely attract the attention of the Navy and even the World Government!

Since Neinhart possesses such an ability, even if the Navy doesn't understand the characteristics of corpse memory magic and doesn't know that the individual strength of the summoned dead is far less than that of the user, it's not surprising that he has a bounty of over 22 billion.

Thinking of this, Kira couldn't help but sigh, "Sure enough, in places where the stronger the dead are, the stronger the magic effect, necromancy is really popular, even the bounty is twice as high as the other two Shields of Twelve!!"

If a Marineford War were to actually happen, simply placing Neinhart there would likely grant them a million-strong army for free, including a host of incredibly powerful fighters!

While the others were engrossed in the newspapers and the wanted posters, the Hope was ascending into the sky at a steady pace.

Anti-gravity magic can make the target escape the Earth's gravitational pull, achieving the effects of levitation, ascension, and free movement. Getting into the sky is naturally effortless.

The formation of the floating islands is caused by the surging ocean currents.

Under the sea, there is a huge cavity. Low-temperature seawater flows into the cavity and generates steam due to geothermal heat. When the steam pressure reaches a certain level, it will erupt.

The surging ocean currents carried keratinous particles called 'PYROBROIN' into the sky, where they condensed with water vapor, changing their density and forming 'island clouds' and 'sea clouds'. Later, the Sky Islanders further compressed and altered the density of the island clouds, creating artificially processed clouds that could be used to make 'Cloud River Roads' or building materials.

In the world of One Piece, there aren't many Sky Islands mentioned throughout the series, and Killer only knows a few:

Located above Jaya Island is the 'Kingdom of Gods,' which is the place Luffy and his crew arrived at in the story. It includes 'Angel Island' and 'Appayado,' the latter being the part of Jaya Island that was swept into the sky, where the golden city 'Shandora' is buried.