A cook, vice-captain of the Rocks Pirates?

"Warring States" said in a deep voice, his usually confident face now showing a serious expression.

"According to reports from G-5 and G-8 branches, their course remains unwavering, and their target... is indeed the Red Earth."

"What is he trying to do? What exactly is he trying to do?!"

Steel Bone Kong slammed his fist on the table, and the desk, made of a century-old tree, let out a mournful cry of unbearable weight.

"How long has it been since the tragedy of Lox? Does he want to repeat the same mistake?!"

"Perhaps... things are not as we think."

Sengoku pushed up his glasses, his eyes deep: "I always felt that the key to this matter wasn't Whitebeard, but that cook."

This speculation instantly made the atmosphere in the office even more oppressive.

At the heart of the storm, atop the Primordial Giant Tortoise, the atmosphere was the complete opposite of the tension outside; in fact, it could be said to be... excessively leisurely.

"Hahaha! Look! I made a captain's statue using cream from Creamy Mammoth and caramel from Caramel Sea Monster!"

Gatz's roar came from the other end of the island. He was holding up a huge dessert statue that was ten meters tall. Although the facial features were distorted and the proportions were off, the crescent-shaped mustache was exceptionally lifelike. He looked smug.

"Idiot! You've used up all our dessert ingredients! The head chef will hang you up and beat you to a pulp if he finds out!"

Dorum's screams followed immediately.

Ryan ignored the commotion on deck and focused on his new research.

He laid out a rubbing of the list of forbidden ingredients on the kitchen counter and drew circles on it with a special pen made from the mucus of fluorescent jellyfish.

He wasn't planning a hunting route; he was... designing a menu.

"Sun apples are rich in light element energy. When combined with the thunder element of the Thunder Dragon Eel, they might be able to create an ultimate energy dish called 'Rondo of Light and Thunder,' but the side effect might be that it turns the consumer into a walking light bulb for a short period of time..."

"The spiritual energy of stardust truffles and the hallucinogenic components of dream-eating starfish seem to complement each other, if we also add a little bit of time snail powder..."

A mad scientist's gleam shone in Raine's eyes; he felt as if he had opened a door to a whole new culinary world.

"Reporting to the head chef!"

Just then, a crew member rushed in, holding a newspaper he had just bought from Newsbird.

"It's terrible! Everyone outside is going crazy! They're saying... saying we're going to attack Mary Geoise and start a war with the World Government!"

Upon hearing this, Ryan merely glanced at the exaggerated headline in the newspaper and calmly said, "Oh, really?"

He picked up a glass of sparkling water that had just been mixed with soda spring water and lemon berries, took a sip, and then continued to study his menu.

“Tell them we’re just delivering some takeout and, incidentally… checking out the local restaurant market.”

The crew member: "..."

Looking at his head chef's nonchalant demeanor, he felt that his earlier tension and worry were nothing but a joke.

Perhaps... going to the Holy Land Mary Geoise is really as simple as visiting your neighbor?

He shook his head, banishing the absurd idea from his mind, then turned and ran off to relay the head chef's words to his companions in the same confident tone.

A strange, powerful confidence, originating from the kitchen, began to quietly spread across the ship.

The ancestral giant tortoise's voyage was smooth and steady, its massive body like a moving island, ignoring the unpredictable weather and undercurrents of the new world.

However, as it approached the edge of the red earth, a secluded and absolutely tranquil sea lay before them.

Calm zone.

There wasn't a breath of wind here, and the sea was as calm as a giant mirror, reflecting the clouds in the sky.

But beneath this desolate beauty lies the lair of the world's most terrifying monster—a colossal sea king.

Chapter 230 Collective Sleepwalking

"It's a doldrums..."

Dorum looked at the sea that seemed to have been abandoned by the gods, and his face turned deathly pale.

"How...how are we going to get across? There's no wind here, our sails are useless. The Primordial Giant Turtle is enormous, but once it gets entangled by those monsters slumbering in the sea, it'll probably be..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but everyone understood what he meant.

The Calm Belt is a nightmare for all navigators; even naval warships need to have seastone embedded in their hulls to barely pass through it.

For those hungry sea kings, their living, mobile homeland, brimming with vibrant life, was nothing short of a gigantic, top-tier buffet floating right before their eyes.

"Gulalalalala, what's there to be afraid of!"

Newgate burst into laughter, his eyes brimming with pride.

"Perfect timing! It's been a while since I've stretched my muscles. Let's show these sea creatures who the true king of this ocean is!"

He slammed the naginata in his hand onto the deck, and an invisible shockwave spread out, causing the surrounding seawater to churn.

"Perfect timing! I'm starving!"

Gatz hoisted the anchor and roared excitedly, already deciding whether to braise or steam the sea king.

Just as everyone was in high spirits and ready to force their way through using the most violent methods, Renn walked over calmly.

"Captain, everyone, please wait a moment."

He walked to the bow of the ship, looked at the desolate sea, and gently sniffed the air.

"The aroma of the ingredients here is very strong, with more than 300 kinds, including some legendary ones. If we disturb them with violence, it will not only cause an unnecessary battle, but also destroy the original flavor of these top-quality ingredients, which is a huge waste."

Ryan's tone carried a hint of condemnation for wasting food.

Gatz's face instantly fell: "Then...then we won't fight? What are we going to eat?"

"Fighting is the behavior of a reckless person."

Ryan glanced at him and said calmly, "A good chef should know how to communicate with ingredients in a more civilized way."

"communicate?"

The group exchanged bewildered glances, feeling that their head chef's thought process had once again entered a realm beyond their comprehension.

Raine didn't explain; he simply turned around and gave instructions to the enormous kitchen behind him, which resembled a small factory.

"Dorum, bring out that super food grinder and blender, connect it to the Primordial Giant Turtle's backup energy core, and turn the power up to the maximum."

"Yes!"

Soon, a huge machine, resembling a giant blower and exuding a steampunk style, was pushed onto the deck.

This is a super tool that Raine had Dorum and Master Max from Clockwork Island work together to create in order to process various exotic ingredients. Its power is enough to turn the armor plate of a warship into iron powder in three seconds.

Raine opened his food storage room, which was filled with all sorts of ingredients they had collected along the way, all emitting a strange glow.

He didn't take out those aggressive flaming peppers or the scales of the thunder eel.

Instead, they took out a few things that looked the most harmless.

There is a powder of sleeping grass collected on Symphony Island that can emit hypnotic sound waves.

There is a strawberry-flavored tranquilizer extracted from the dream-eating starfish, which has a strong calming effect.

There were also some spices from the Island of Gluttony, containing pure life energy, which he named pacifism.

Renn dumped everything into the huge machine and then nodded to Dorum.

"Launch now!"

With a command from Renn, a torrent of energy, a mixture of grassy scents, sweet strawberry notes, and some indescribable, dreamy pinkish-purple hue that made you want to lie down and sleep, erupted from the pipes like a volcanic eruption!

The torrent of energy did not fly into the sky, but instead drew a perfect parabola in the air, scattering evenly across the desolate sea below like a celestial maiden scattering flowers.

The pinkish-purple powder, like the gentlest spring rain, silently blended into the seawater.

At first, nothing changed.

Just when Gatz thought the chef's secret weapon had failed, a sudden change occurred.

The calm sea suddenly began to churn violently, and one after another, enormous, unimaginable shadows slowly emerged from the seabed.

There are giant sea serpents that are over 10,000 meters long and resemble moving mountains.

There is a Kraken with hundreds of eyes, each like a whirlpool in the abyss.

There are also some ancient behemoths with bizarre and fantastical appearances that are not even recorded in food guides.

The terrifying aura they exuded combined was enough to cause any naval fleet to collapse instantly.

However, these normally ferocious and tyrannical sea monsters showed no hostility at this moment. Instead, they all displayed an extremely human-like, comfortable, and satisfied expression of intoxication.

They swayed their enormous bodies gently, swimming leisurely in the pinkish-purple seawater. Some even rolled over, revealing their soft bellies and making comfortable gurgling sounds.

"These...they...are they...asleep?"

Gatz's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"He's not asleep."

Raine calmly corrected, "They just ate their fill and then went into sage mode."

"..."

The deck was deathly silent.

Everyone looked at the still expressionless young man with the eyes of someone looking at a god.

Using a pot of sleeping pills to induce a collective "post-coital" state in all the sea kings of the Calm Belt?

This unreasonable, dimensional-lowering method of pushing forward is ten thousand times more outrageous than Whitebeard using the Tremor-Tremor Fruit to clear the way!

"Goo la la la la!"

Newgate was stunned for a moment, then burst into a deafening laugh.

"Raine, you always manage to surprise me!"

And so, amidst the welcoming (or rather, the collective sleepwalking) crowds of countless top-tier sea kings, the Primordial Giant Turtle, like a king surveying his territory, smoothly and gracefully traversed this forbidden zone of death that had once struck fear into the hearts of countless navigators.

If this scene, so full of magical realism, were captured by a news bird, it would probably be enough to prompt the Five Elders of the World Government to hold an emergency meeting overnight and raise the threat level of Rein several notches.

The process of crossing the doldrums was so smooth it felt almost unreal.

The ancestral giant tortoise sailed through this once-dead zone, surrounded by various colossal sea monsters that were sleeping peacefully, belly up, blowing bubbles.

They would even subconsciously make way for the giant tortoises, a scene resembling a flock of docile sheep welcoming their shepherd.

Gatz was itching to jump in and try to catch some of the best-looking fish for a snack, but he was stopped by Ryan with the seemingly reasonable excuse that disturbing their sleep would affect the tenderness of the meat.

Finally, after several days of sailing, a magnificent red cliff, seemingly at the end of the world, appeared in everyone's sight, its grandeur beyond description.

Red Earth Continent.

Chapter 231 The Holy Land of Mary Geoise, Arrived

This massive landmass that divides the four seas is like an insurmountable chasm, blocking the path of all navigators.

It soars into the clouds, its top shrouded in perpetual mist, making it impossible to see its end.

The hard red rock walls reflected a dim light under the sun, as if silently proclaiming their timeless majesty.

"Is this... the Red Line?"

Even Newgate, looking at this miracle that seemed to have been cleaved by the very hand of the creator god, felt a hint of shock in his eyes.

How are we supposed to get up there?

Despair was written all over Dorum's face. He felt that his knowledge of shipbuilding was as insignificant as dust in the face of this continent.

"Our big guy is powerful, but it can't grow wings and fly up, can it?"

This is indeed a difficult problem.

For ordinary ships to enter the latter half of the Grand Line, they either have to pass through Fishman Island on the seabed or take a special bubble cable car invented by the Navy to cross the Red Line.

However, neither of these methods is applicable to their mobile territory.

"How about... I smash a hole in it?"

Gatz picked up the anchor and offered a simple and direct solution.

"Then let the seawater flood in and drown us all? You idiot!"