The Great Voyage Begins with the Celestial Dragons

"By the way, Ringo's real name is Shimotsuki Ushimaru. He is an excellent swordsmith and swordsman. He supports the Kozuki family and is openly at odds with the Shogun's mansion."

"East of Udon lies Yuki-mai, where Wano Country's only outlet to the sea, Submarine. Currently, Yuki-mai appears to be under the control of the daimyo Shimotsuki Yasuie, but in reality, it has been slowly infiltrated by Kaido and the Shogun's mansion. Shimotsuki Yasuie and Shimotsuki Ushimaru share similar positions, both supporting the Kozuki clan, the former Shogun of Wano Country."

"The central area encompassed by the four places of Udon, Nozomi, Ringo, and Yuki is the Flower Capital, the most prosperous place in Wano Country, and also the location of the Shogun's mansion. It is currently controlled by the Shogun of Wano Country, Kurozumi Orochi, who is Kaido's partner. He is extremely incompetent and has no good character. He has nothing to be praised for."

"Besides Kaido and Orochi's forces, the underworld is also a very powerful force in the Flower Capital. It is currently controlled by Hyogoro Hane, who is a close friend of Kozuki Oden."

"In general, there are currently two major forces in Wano Country. One is the old force led by Kozuki Oden, the daimyo of Kuri, and the other is the new force led by Shogun Tanjiro Orochi and Kaido."

Absalom delivered a long speech almost without taking a breath, and seeing that the others were still processing the information, he secretly gulped down a few mouthfuls of tea.

Before he could even recover, he heard Sakazuki's slightly questioning voice:

"The information is comprehensive, but I'm curious, where did the intelligence come from?"

The intelligence was too detailed, which made him somewhat suspicious.

He had witnessed firsthand in the past few days just how weak the Navy and the World Government's intelligence was in the New World.

Absalom's expertise made him somewhat uncomfortable, to the point that he had some doubts.

"This intelligence was naturally not collected by me."

Absalom shrugged and explained in a very straightforward manner:

"This information was all given by Kozuki Oden's foolish son. Without him, it wouldn't be easy to obtain such detailed information."

"Kozuki Oden's son?"

"Yes, Kozuki Momonosuke!"

Chapter 68 Guangyue Family

"Guangyue..."

Sakazuki pondered for a moment. He didn't know Kozuki Momonosuke, but he did have some impression of Kozuki Oden:

"Kozuki Oden, is he the one who was in both the Roger Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates? I heard he's quite strong."

"Yes, that's the guy who was on brotherhood with Whitebeard and ultimately witnessed Roger become the Pirate King."

Absalom nodded and began to introduce Oden's other identity:

"Kozuki Oden was the son of the previous shogun, Kozuki Sukiyaki. He was idle and lazy from a young age, and could even be described as a villain. He was obsessed with going to sea."

"Oh, right, there's another interesting tidbit."

Absalom always seems to get more interested when the topic turns to strange and interesting tales:

"It is said that when Oden's friend died, he set up a sukiyaki on his friend's burning body and ate it with great relish, crying and laughing at the same time... cough cough, ugh, I can't stand it."

He was speaking quite fluently at first, but in the end he disgusted himself.

He simply couldn't understand how such a bizarre person could exist.

Even Luther and the others couldn't help but frown, and Robin quietly put down his tea and snacks.

"Ahem, I apologize for making you all laugh. I'll continue..."

Absalom coughed twice guiltily, then continued:

"Because of a series of absurd things, Oden was severed from his father-son relationship by Sukiyaki and exiled to Kuri, a place that was once chaotic."

"Before Oden came, Kuri was extremely chaotic, with mountain bandits and thieves running rampant. It was not suitable for normal people to live in, and they would fight whenever they met. Our village used to be a mountain bandit's settlement."

"After Oden arrived, he used his powerful military force to restore order to the area, transforming it from chaos into order."

"Oh, right, that's the only shining thing Oden did. But as far as I know, Oden didn't do much besides military conquest."

"The samurai of Wano Country are quite righteous. Oden defeated them, so they spontaneously maintained the stability of Kuri."

"In my opinion, this matter is likely that Kozuki Sukiyaki is paving the way for his son and has done a lot of things in secret."

To cover up the embarrassment of almost letting something slip, Absalom quickly jumped to the important part, his tone turning somewhat gloating:

"However, Kozuki Sukiyaki probably never imagined that his good son would run off with Whitebeard a few years later, and that the shogunate that should have belonged to him would be taken by Kurozumi Orochi."

"When Oden returned, everyone thought he was a savior returning, but..."

Absalom had originally intended to keep them in suspense, but feeling the intensely oppressive gazes of several people, he quickly forced a smile and said:

"As a result, Oden went to the Flower Capital, but instead of regaining his position as shogun, he returned to the Flower Capital every week to strip naked and dance the Flower Dance in public. He did this for more than four years, and the prestige of the entire Kozuki family was almost completely ruined."

"I see... What's going on with Momonosuke?"

Luther nodded; this information largely corroborated what he already knew.

As for Momonosuke, Moria didn't elaborate, and he wasn't particularly clear about him either.

"Your Highness, Momonosuke is the son of Kozuki Oden. With a father like that, how good do you think the son can be?"

Absalom pursed his lips and chuckled:

"This all started with a coincidence. Once, I went to the Oden residence to gather intelligence and happened to see this kid peeping at the maids taking a bath."

"Kozuki Oden wasn't very old, was he?"

Gion frowned slightly, making a quick mental calculation.

"Not much. Kozuki Oden is 39 years old, and Momonosuke is 8 years old this year."

Luther glanced at Gion, understood what she wanted to ask, and gave her the answer directly.

"8 years old... hopeless."

Gion shook her head slightly and said nothing more.

What happened next?

Luther, unconcerned about Momonosuke's spying, steered the conversation back on track.

Absalom didn't dare to hide anything and quickly continued:

"Then I got to know him. He wanted to use my abilities to spy on people, while I obtained some information through him."

At this point, Absalom clicked his tongue:

"This kid is a cowardly lecher! He's not even as good as his father, Kozuki Oden, at least his father wasn't a coward."

"I see. I understand the general situation now."

Luther nodded slightly, understanding what Moria had been doing during his stay.

The other party did indeed lie in wait in Jiuli, following his instructions.

They even exceeded expectations and managed to get involved with Momonosuke.

With Moria's strength and Devil Fruit power, if he wanted to hide, no one except Kozuki Oden would be able to find him.

Given Kozuki Oden's carefree personality, he wouldn't have given Moria a second thought even if he showed up in a flamboyant manner.

Not to mention that Kozuki Oden didn't come back every week because of his dancing.

There's nothing particularly noteworthy about Kozuki Oden's nude dance.

Ultimately, it was Kozuki Oden who was too foolish to believe Kaido and Kurozumi Orochi.

Kaido and Orochi used the people of Wano Country as a threat, and under the pretense of building a ship for Kaido, they forced Kozuki Oden to perform a naked dance in public. For each dance, they would release 100 people, and they set a five-year deadline.

There are only a few months left until this five-year deadline.

According to the agreement, Kaido would leave after building his ship in five years.

But in reality, only a fool like Kozuki Oden would place his hopes on the enemy.

Without those five years of buffer, Kaido and Orochi would have been no match for Kozuki Oden.

The Kozuki clan's prestige in Wano Country is deeply rooted and cannot be shaken by Kurozumi Orochi and Kaido in the short term.

It all comes down to Kozuki Oden. If he hadn't constantly made a fool of himself in front of everyone, the reputation that the Kozuki family had built up over hundreds of years wouldn't have been worn away so quickly, and Kaido and Orochi wouldn't have been able to win over the rest of Wano Country so easily.

Given the current situation, even if Kozuki Oden were to realize this now, it would be too late...

However, this was exactly what Luther wanted.

Both Kaido and he are outsiders. Kaido will be the first to pluck the peach, but he may not necessarily be the first to eat it.

After Absalom finished explaining, he left temporarily because he needed to prepare Wano Country costumes for Luther and the others.

If you wear outer clothes, you'll be recognized very quickly in Wano Country.

"Sakazuki, do you have something on your mind?"

Seeing that Sakassky was staring intently at the sketch drawn by Absalom, Luther asked a question.

"Your Highness, I'm wondering if we could just kill Kaido directly."

Sakazuki's expression turned serious, and he pointed to the smaller circle next to the larger one:

"This is Kaido's stronghold, Onigashima. I can launch a surprise attack here."

"Then what? Even if you can defeat Kaido, what will happen to Kozuki Oden?"

Luther smiled slightly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, but instead asked this question in return.

Sakazuki fell silent after hearing this.

He had encountered many examples of kings who became pirates, and each time he faced them, it was much more troublesome than dealing with a lone strongman.

According to Absalom, the stronger samurai in Wano Country all possess Armament Haki, and many can even use Ryuo.

Faced with a national power of this caliber, he and Gion were still somewhat inadequate.

Furthermore, given Wano Country's geographical location, mobilizing naval support is not realistic.

“I understand.” Sakazuki said thoughtfully, “His Highness wants to wait until Kozuki Oden and Kaido have decided on the final winner before closing in.”

"That's roughly the idea. Let's rest for a few days, see the specific situation in this country, and then make specific plans."

Luther stretched his limbs, looked at the stack of intelligence reports Absalom had pulled out of the table, pointed to the blue-haired, burly man at the top, and laughed:

"However, I don't plan to wait until the five-year agreement is over. If nothing unexpected happens, I'll start by taking action against this person."

The person Luther pointed at was named Hana no Hyogoro, a close friend of Kozuki Oden and also the boss who controlled the yakuza in Hana no To.

Simply put, he is the only one in Oden's faction who still has influence under Kaido's nose.