Compared to the Grand Line,
the Four Seas were the foundation of the World Government's rule over the entire Pirate World.
And now, with the dangerous Whitebeard intending to head for the Four Seas,
the Marines and the World Government naturally could no longer sit still.
This was not merely because Whitebeard's entry into the Four Seas might further shake the foundations of the World Government's rule.
More importantly, any one of the Four Seas was far more vast than the first half of the Grand Line.
So once Whitebeard entered the Four Seas,
if the World Government and the Marines wanted to launch another campaign against him, the price they would have to pay might be one even the World Government could not accept.
Therefore, while the Whitebeard Pirates were still in the first half of the Grand Line, the World Government's upper echelon decided to abandon some of its interests there and concentrate its forces on eliminating Whitebeard first.
Recently, nearly every nation in the first half of the Grand Line had adopted a policy of closing itself off.
At this moment, they were being mobilized by orders from above to intercept the Whitebeard Pirates.
Over the past several centuries, the World Government had found this strategy effective time and again.
Using this method, they had eliminated many troublesome voices of rebellion across the seas.
But for many World Government member states and interest groups that survived under the World Government's protection, this was undoubtedly a catastrophic disaster.
The World Government had made this kind of decision more than once over the past eight hundred years.
Among the pirates currently roaming the first half of the Grand Line were quite a few members of the Whitebeard Pirates, as well as people who had escaped from the deep-sea prison