Starting a War with Other Pirate Crews

Julian gathered the crew. Since he had just paid them, morale was quite high, and they stood in two neat rows with great spirit. The Mud Dragon Pirates looked decent enough; after all, who could refuse a charismatic man who understood the secrets of success?

Julian, looking excited, shouted, "A pirate ship has appeared on the sea today, and we are going to bully them hard! This is the first battle of our Mud Dragon Pirates. As your captain, I will lead the charge, and I intend to thoroughly crush them!" George and Peachy both looked respectful, shouting, "The captain is mighty! The captain is invincible!" Leo also stood in the ranks, gripping his flintlock. Julian commanded, "Everyone, follow me and charge!"

Julian led the forty-plus men, surging like a rainbow toward the beach at the lower end of the island. The opposing pirate ship was preparing to land on that very stretch of sand. George said with a serious expression, "Captain... that is the Wild Boar Pirates. Their captain is a user of the Zoan-Zoan Fruit: Wolf Model, and he is very powerful." Julian replied with disdain, "I am a Logia Devil Fruit user. I'll annex them in a moment, and as for the women, let me have them first."

As the hundred-plus pirates from the opposing ship began to land, Julian took the lead and charged out. The captain of the Wild Boar Pirates, Tar Garim, said arrogantly, "Are you looking for death? How dare you attack our Wild Boar Pirates!" Julian smiled without answering and immediately activated his Devil Fruit ability: Mud Dragon Giant Mode. Three mud dragons danced behind his back, striking directly at Garim's body. "Ah!" Garim cried out in pain, "Shouldn't there be an introduction of names between pirate crews? You have no martial virtue, attacking directly! I haven't even transformed yet!" The three giant dragons strangled Garim, and he fell on the spot.

The officers and crew of the Wild Boar Pirates prepared to retaliate, but Julian unleashed his Mud Dragon's Earth Spikes at full power. Several five-meter-long spikes tore into the crowd, instantly filling the air with a bloody mist. The hundred-man crew screamed in heavy losses. "Ah! Ah!" Julian said fiercely, "Everyone, attack! Kill those who do not surrender!"

Hearing Julian's order, George moved immediately, activating his Great Bear Form. He rushed in and unleashed a flurry of attacks; anyone who didn't surrender was met with a bear-paw strike, and one hit was enough to send them to their graves. A few minutes later, the opposing crew had either surrendered or were dead. Julian shouted to the survivors, "Listen well, I am Mud Dragon Julian, captain of the Mud Dragon Pirates! Surrender and you shall live!" Of the hundred-plus Wild Boar Pirates, only forty remained, with a dozen others lightly wounded. The officers and elites of the Wild Boar Pirates had all been killed by Julian's Earth Spikes; the entire force was wiped out.

Blood mist stained the beach, and Julian used his ability to cover all the blood-soaked sand. He told George, "Go and recruit all of them." George replied, "Understood, Captain." Julian smiled and said, "Peachy, take some men and search from the lower reaches to the upper reaches. See if Garim's Devil Fruit has respawned on this island." Peachy nodded and said, "Understood."

Julian took two men and walked toward the Wild Boar ship. He smiled at George again and said, "Take some men to the island and transplant some of those apple trees, cantaloupe trees, and orange trees onto our ship." George replied respectfully, "Understood, Captain." Julian thought to himself, If you don't eat fruit during the Great Age of Pirates, you'll get night blindness. If I have these things ready, I'll have no worries.

Julian boarded the Wild Boar and began to loot the berries and treasure. He walked into the treasure room and said, "This treasure room is pathetic. Only two million berries and a few navigational charts. The ship isn't big either, only seventy meters long, and it's a very dilapidated sailboat." Julian stored the berries into the Mud Space within his body. This was a skill Julian had developed: his body could turn into a Mud Space, allowing him to store large quantities of items, much like Caribou.

Julian also discovered another heaven-defying ability of the Swamp-Swamp Fruit: devouring, decomposing, and development. He had discovered niter—the saltpeter used for explosions—in the swampy ground. Julian used his ability to decompose this niter and store it in his body, allowing him to develop clay with explosive power. The Swamp-Swamp Fruit was equivalent to the Earth-Earth Fruit and the Land-Land Fruit; it was just mud composed of dirt and water. Developing a Devil Fruit was all about how bold one's ambition was.

He could turn into wet mud, which was full of devouring and adhesive power, primarily used for crowd control. Julian also decomposed some mineral soil from iron ore; the mud, mixed with many minerals, allowed him to develop black Mineral Mud, which greatly enhanced his defense. This characteristic of the Earth-Earth Fruit was incredibly powerful; any mud he touched could be stored in his body, and with further development, he could continuously strengthen this ability.

As long as Julian came into contact with more types of soil, he could develop more types of mud abilities. Julian planned to develop a few more skills in the next few days so he could pull off some big jobs when he went out. The South Blue was only guarded by a Major General, while the Vice Admirals were all at Marineford. Garp was still chasing Roger around the world. There were only two Admirals now: Black Arm Zephyr and Buddha Sengoku, while Steel Bone Kong was still serving as Fleet Admiral. Julian's company was just starting, so he wouldn't mindlessly provoke the Navy, but that didn't mean he had no ideas. The Naval Branch in the South Blue had training methods for the Marine Rokushiki; how could he not sneak in and steal them?

Julian planned to activate his Earth-Earth Fruit's elementalization to sneak in from underground, steal the goods, and slip away. After all, he could use Earth Elementalization to move freely underground. Currently, Julian only remembered the training method for the Marine Soru, and of course, it was an unrefined, "version 0.5" wild method.

Julian waited until noon and saw George return. Julian asked, "George, did you transplant those fruit trees?" George said, "Captain, we dug up several trees, picked a lot of fruit, and caught over twenty wild sheep." Julian looked at the twenty sheep and said, "We'll have a banquet tonight and roast these sheep." George said, "Understood, Captain. You take some men to transplant those fruit trees onto the ship." A while later, Peachy returned and said, "Captain, I found a wrecked ship under the cliff over there, along with these bags of gold coins, weighing about two hundred kilograms."

Peachy added, "We found this Devil Fruit in the fruit grove." Peachy pulled out a Devil Fruit, and Julian said happily, "Your luck is quite good." Since Julian didn't have a Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, he couldn't identify it, so he said to Peachy, "Eat it." Julian thought to himself, It doesn't look like high-end merchandise—a gray apple shape with some patterns. Of course, it wouldn't be the Human-Human Fruit: Commoner Model.

After Peachy finished eating, Julian asked, "Any gains?" Peachy looked at Julian, bewildered, and instantly transformed into a black wild boar, six meters long and three meters tall at the shoulder. Julian said, "As expected, it's the Zoan-Zoan Fruit: Common Model, Black Boar Form. Garim's Devil Fruit really did respawn in the nearest location."

Julian patted Peachy on the shoulder and said, "This Devil Fruit is a perfect match for you. You happen to be named Peachy, and this Devil Fruit is also called Peachy. It chose you. One day, you will become a powerhouse." Peachy muttered to himself, "Isn't this a wild boar form? Why is it called Peachy Form?" Julian said, "That's not important. The point is that it chose you." Peachy nodded and said with a smile, "I'm a Devil Fruit user too, I'm so happy!"

Julian thought to himself, Sure enough, the soul of a Devil Fruit will always seek out the nearest fruit to inhabit. In the afternoon, Julian began to drill his crew. Everyone was running with fifty kilograms of mud weights. Julian shouted, "If you're this weak, you at least need to be able to run away from enemies you can't beat!" The two division captains, who had eaten Devil Fruits, each wore five-hundred-kilogram Earth Weight-Bearing Suits. Julian said, "Whoever lasts until the end today gets five hundred thousand berries." George was the one who got the money in the afternoon.

The next day, the Mud Dragon set sail. According to the navigator's Log Pose, they searched for the next island. The main reason was that this island had been squeezed dry. Ninety-nine percent of the pirate world was ocean; the Red Line and the Calm Belt divided the world into four seas, with the rest being islands. The Red Line was where the Celestial Dragons lived, guarded by the Navy Headquarters, protected by the CP Organization, and defended by the Celestial Dragons' Holy Knights. The World Government's eight-hundred-year foundation was so deep that even if the Four Emperors joined forces, it would be hard to defeat Imu-sama. The most terrifying was Imu-sama; Julian had absolutely no intelligence on Imu-sama.

That was a god who had lived for eight hundred years and had granted the Gorosei centuries of life. Julian added, "The most disgusting one is Saint Saturn; he's rotten to the bone. The other Gorosei just pose in their offices from episode one to over a thousand. When Akainu became Fleet Admiral, they just scolded him daily. Those were the only two things they did; their strength is unknown."

After five days of sailing, Julian realized the sea was indeed dangerous. Giant waves, tsunamis, storms, and heavy rain—they encountered everything in those five days. Fortunately, it was a large ship, so they didn't fear ordinary storms or rain. Seeing the waves rolling in, Julian felt his heart pounding; it was too shocking. No wonder the navigator was the captain's eyes; without a professional navigator, it was easy to get lost at sea, as islands were very scarce. Julian wanted to go to his original body's hometown, but the navigator said there was no pointer, so they couldn't reach it, leaving them like blind men.

Julian immediately gave the navigator a huge sum of money to prepare all the pointers at the next island, especially the Eternal Pose leading to the Grand Line. Julian's navigator was named Garud, a very honest and dutiful employee. Garud had told Julian, "My dream is to go to the Grand Line and see every island and every country." Julian said, "Don't worry, I will help you realize your dream."

Sitting in the captain's cabin, Julian had ideas. He would first go to various World Government member nations to collect Devil Fruits and build his own army of Devil Fruit users. This world was full of powerhouses, especially in the New World, where pirates were rubbed into the ground by Whitebeard, Big Mom, Kaido, and Golden Lion. The Great Age of Pirates hadn't started yet, and there were no titles or organizations like the Four Emperors or the Shichibukai. Once those titles existed, Julian had his own ideas. It would be best to become a Shichibukai or one of the Four Emperors, then seize a country so he could recruit talent everywhere and have more people work for the Mud Dragon Pirates.

Julian thought, Fame is very important on the sea. Fame means more fans. Julian thought about which fruits were where in his past life. What tempted him most was the Sleepy Ancient Town, where there was a god-level Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit: the Bat-Bat Fruit, Mythical Zoan: Vampire Form. The greatest characteristic of this god-level fruit was that it could absorb the lifespans of others to strengthen one's own, or consume one's own lifespan to increase combat power. It could also turn into darkness and use darkness to create bats to attack opponents, making it a weakened version of the Dark-Dark Fruit. The user was Count Red, but that point in time was still decades away from when he would eat it in Impel Down. There was plenty of time now.

This gave Julian an idea: once he reached the Grand Line, he would prepare to find this Sleepy Ancient Town and claim the Vampire Fruit for himself. As for Count Red, he was a product of the previous era; there was no ship for the old era in the new era. The reason Julian was so keen on this fruit was that he could eat another Devil Fruit.

Julian had soul-traversed into this body. When he ate the first Devil Fruit, he clearly felt a soul memory in his body that didn't belong to him, possibly a case of one body with two souls. Julian could devour that remnant soul at any time, but he kept it; it had no consciousness anyway.

Secondly, he would learn from Blackbeard. Blackbeard was able to eat the Dark-Dark Fruit and the Tremor-Tremor Fruit because of the two souls in his body, not because of the Dark-Dark Fruit's ability. Julian thought that since he had also soul-traversed, he could definitely eat another Devil Fruit. If that didn't work, he could go to Punk Hazard to find that Artificial Devil Fruit—the one made from Kaido's flesh and blood, the Mythical Zoan Dragon form. That fruit was an artificial Devil Fruit and had no Devil Fruit consciousness of its own. Julian thought that although that fruit was made by Vegapunk extracting Kaido's Lineage Factor, it was essentially using Kaido's flesh and blood. That Devil Fruit did indeed possess the power of the Azure Dragon form. His original body's remnant soul was only that tiny bit; eating an artificial Devil Fruit shouldn't cause his body to explode, right? In any case, Julian was going to take that fruit. As for that little beast Momonosuke, he shouldn't even think about it—did he even deserve it?

Julian had already planned Momonosuke's future: go to Okama Island and become an okama; don't even think about returning to Wano Country to be a shogun. He didn't deserve it. Julian had his own ideas for Wano Country. If Kaido was defeated by Luffy, Julian planned to go and seize Wano Country, or turn it into a colony; there were no other options. Julian also coveted those samurai sword manuals.