The next day, a bombshell piece of news shook the entire world and caused a massive uproar.
Ace, the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, had been captured and would soon be publicly executed.
The whole world was in an uproar.
That was the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates.
One had to understand: Whitebeard was not only the strongest man in the world, but also the most fiercely protective man in the world. For the Marines to publicly execute Ace was undoubtedly a provocation against the Whitebeard Pirates.
Who could possibly tolerate that?
At least in most people's eyes, Whitebeard definitely couldn't.
So a world-shaking battle was bound to break out.
Marine Headquarters realized this as well. After the news was released, it immediately transferred one hundred thousand elite soldiers and powerful officers from Marine bases all over the world, gathering them at Marineford.
In addition, all the Seven Warlords of the Sea were forcibly summoned by the Marines.
If any of them refused, they would be removed from the Seven Warlords and given bounties.
And on the second day after the news spread, the Whitebeard Pirates disappeared as a group.
To be precise, they broke away from the surveillance of the Marines and the World Government and vanished somewhere.
This made Fleet Admiral Sengoku extremely uneasy. He gathered the Marine commanders and held a meeting to discuss the matter.
"What do you all think about the disappearance of the Whitebeard Pirates?"
Akainu said calmly, "Whitebeard's disappearance likely means he has gone into hiding, planning to catch us off guard. I propose that we increase our surveillance and make sure we locate the Whitebeard Pirates."
The moment he spoke, the Vice Admirals loyal to Akainu all chimed in, expressing their support.
"That's right. We must find Whitebeard."
"We absolutely cannot allow him to ambush us."
Kizaru drawled lazily, "How scary. As expected of the strongest man in the world."
Aokiji spent the whole time looking at his fingernails and said nothing.
At that moment, Vice Admiral Tsuru slowly spoke.
"What we should do now is reinforce Impel Down as quickly as possible."
Sengoku's expression changed. "Tsuru, you mean the Whitebeard Pirates might attack Impel Down?"
Tsuru said, "There is that possibility. If the Whitebeard Pirates attack Impel Down and rescue Ace from there, they won't need to clash with us head-on."
Sengoku felt that made sense.
Tsuru continued, "Of course, that is only my speculation. From what we know of Whitebeard, he is definitely not the kind of man to avoid battle."
"More importantly, Impel Down is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Even Whitebeard may not be able to break through its defenses."
"Not to mention, there is currently a heavyweight stationed inside Impel Down."
Sengoku knew who Tsuru was referring to and let out a long sigh.
"Garp…"
After sighing, Sengoku quickly gathered himself. He swept his gaze across everyone present, his eyes sharp and bright.
"In short, the matter of the Whitebeard Pirates must be resolved. We cannot allow them to remain out of our sight for too long."
"Now, you must do everything possible to locate the Whitebeard Pirates and bring them back within our surveillance range. Understood?"
Akainu agreed without hesitation. "Leave this to me."
He would find Whitebeard and make sure he had nowhere to hide.
Sengoku nodded in satisfaction, then moved on to the second matter.
The summoning of the Seven Warlords.
While Sengoku had gathered everyone for a meeting because of the Whitebeard Pirates, Rowan was also holding a meeting.
And the supposedly missing Whitebeard Pirates were right there at Rowan's meeting.
"I already know about Ace," Rowan said calmly. "On the day of the execution, I will send the entire Whitebeard Pirates to Marineford."
"When the time comes, you only need to make a scene at Marineford and save Ace."
Whitebeard burst into loud laughter when he heard that.
"Gurararara! If we make a scene at Marineford, what do you plan to do?"
"Attack the Holy Land, Mary Geoise," Rowan said frankly.
Whitebeard suddenly understood. "So you plan to use us to pin down the Marines?"
Rowan gave a hum and said, "When the time comes, Hawkeye of the Seven Warlords will help you."
Whitebeard was surprised. "Hawkeye is one of your people too?"
"He doesn't count as one of ours, but he owes me a favor," Rowan replied.
Whitebeard looked at Rowan meaningfully. "Your methods are truly impressive."
Golden Lion, Kaido, Charlotte Linlin, and now even Dracule Mihawk…
Whitebeard simply couldn't understand how this man named Rowan had managed to recruit so many powerful people.
It was unbelievable.
Add to that the group of experts around him.
This level of power had already far surpassed the Rocks Pirates.
Terrifying. Truly terrifying.
"By the way, do you need me to send a few people to help you?" Rowan asked.
Although every Emperor was said to possess enough strength to rival Marine Headquarters, that was only an exaggeration.
In reality, the Marines' combat power far surpassed that of any single Emperor.
Just counting Admiral-level fighters, they had several: Aokiji, Kizaru, Akainu, Sengoku, Garp…
Beyond them, there were also Admiral candidates such as Momousagi, Chaton, and others.
How many Admiral-level fighters could the Whitebeard Pirates produce?
Aside from Whitebeard himself, who was slightly stronger, the others were still some distance away from the Admirals.
Even Marco, who was at the level of an Emperor's right-hand man, could only restrain an Admiral for a while.
If they truly fought, he would definitely lose.
The reason the Summit War in the original story had been so tragic was partly because the three Admirals had not gone all out. Garp slacked off the whole time, while Kizaru and Aokiji were basically idling.
The only one who fought from beginning to end was Akainu.
Later, among the Seven Warlords, the Pirate Empress stabbed them in the back, while Gecko Moria fled mid-battle.
On top of that, Luffy brought a large group of powerful people from Impel Down to assist.
Even Blackbeard came over to cause trouble.
Because of all that, the Summit War ultimately achieved nothing except Whitebeard's death.
But now things were different. Rowan, this butterfly, had changed many things. He was genuinely afraid that the Whitebeard Pirates might fail to withstand the Marines' full assault and collapse directly at Marineford.
Whitebeard could hear that Rowan did not think highly of their chances. If this had been any other time, he would have flown into a rage.
But now, Whitebeard fell silent.
Although he had regained the strength of his prime, facing the full elite force of Marine Headquarters was still not something he dared to casually claim victory over.
And this battle was certain to be extremely bloody. Many of his sons might very well die.
If Rowan truly could send several experts to support him, then perhaps his sons would not have to be sacrificed.
Because of that, Whitebeard really could not bring himself to refuse.
Rowan also saw this and said knowingly, "When the time comes, I'll send experts from the Big Mom Pirates and the Beast Pirates to help you. However, I'll be taking Kaido and Charlotte Linlin with me to Mary Geoise."
"Thank you," Whitebeard said.
Even without the two Emperors, those two pirate crews were still not to be underestimated.
Whether it was Katakuri or King the Wildfire, both were right-hand-man-level fighters who could tie down many opponents.
With their help, the battle situation would certainly change greatly.
Whitebeard was sincerely grateful for Rowan's help.
…
After sending the Whitebeard Pirates away, Rowan had not even relaxed when Nico Robin walked in from outside.
"Good news. We found Zephyr."
Rowan's eyebrow twitched. "Where?"
"In the New World. What do you think? Shall we move?" Robin asked.
Previously, they had discussed recruiting a large number of powerful fighters to oppose the World Government.
Not just Zephyr. Even Garp, Aokiji, and others had been on the list.
But as time passed, the number of powerful fighters around Rowan grew larger and larger, and the value of those people had become less important.
So in Robin's view, whether they recruited Zephyr or not no longer mattered much.
"Let's go. Once he's healed, he'll at least be an Admiral-level combatant."
Rowan stood up. Following Robin's directions, he located Zephyr, who was currently sailing at sea.
The process of recruiting Zephyr went very smoothly.
Although there was a small conflict along the way, the final result was that Zephyr joined Rowan's side.
Rowan did not mistreat Zephyr.
He brought Zephyr to Egghead, then had Tsunade use the Op-Op Fruit to give him a brand-new arm. After that, he gave Zephyr the Phoenix Fruit and cured his asthma.
Thus, the Admiral-level fighter, Black Arm Zephyr, fully returned.
But Rowan still wasn't entirely satisfied.
He had Zephyr injected with the Superhuman Serum, then gave him the Warp-Warp Fruit and the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
With the help of these two fruits, Black Arm Zephyr declared that he was terrifyingly strong. The Five Elders? The God's Knights? He no longer placed them in his eyes at all.
No matter how strong the God's Knights were, could they be stronger than his three Devil Fruits?
At the same time, Zephyr finally understood why Rowan dared to overthrow the World Government and kill all the Celestial Dragons.
The ability to mass-produce Devil Fruits alone was enough to shake the World Government's rule.
Not to mention, Rowan could also allow people to eat multiple Devil Fruits.
Unbelievable. Inconceivable.
If Zephyr hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would definitely have thought Rowan was bragging.
But now, Zephyr only wanted to say one thing:
This was stable.
World Government, Celestial Dragons—wait for your deaths.
The only thing Zephyr was somewhat dissatisfied with was that Rowan had too many pirates under him.
Kaido, Charlotte Linlin, and Whitebeard were all under Rowan.
If Rowan had not promised that after overthrowing the World Government, he would absolutely not allow these pirates to take power, Zephyr would never have joined him.
After all, in Zephyr's eyes, pirates were still pirates. They were things that did not belong on the stage.
How could they become the rulers of the new World Government?
If those people failed to change their nature, then for ordinary citizens, they would be the greatest disaster.
Of course, Rowan understood this as well. So in front of Zephyr, he had Robin contact Dragon, the leader of the Revolutionary Army, and said he wanted to meet Dragon.
When Dragon learned that the person behind Nico Robin wanted to meet him, he agreed almost impatiently.
He had been waiting for this day for a long time.
~~~
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