Alabasta and Ohara!
Dead silence
The 'Kingdom Guardian' of Alabasta and a group of royal army warriors glared angrily at the Senior Councilor Warner and others, clearly indicating that they would be willing to take down these men in black at the slightest order from King Cobra.
Faced with so many weapons and two menacing Zoan Devil Fruit users, the latter didn't even bother to change his expression, coldly awaiting the king's decision.
"Eh----"
After a long silence and internal struggle, the young King Cobra finally sighed, waved his hand, and commanded, "Igaram, you and General Ulan take them to the Funerary Temple, but they are not allowed to touch anything other than the Poneglyph!"
"Your Majesty, that is the resting place of all the kings throughout history!" another general among the 'Guardians of the Kingdom' quickly stepped forward to remind them.
"Alright, General Chaka."
King Cobra waved his hand, signaling the other party to stop talking.
"In that case, we'll take our leave." The Senior Councilor Warner nodded somewhat disappointedly, then turned and left with his entourage.
Igaram exchanged a glance with the king, and seeing the determination in the latter's eyes, he quickly followed with General Ulan, who held the title of 'Falcon'.
"Your Majesty, why are you so afraid of them?" After everyone left, General Chaka, who was known as the 'Jackal', was furious, his face flushed red.
"We have 600,000 elite royal troops, tens of millions of loyal citizens, and General Ulan and I. Even if we lack warships and cannot compete with them at sea, we should be more than capable of preventing the World Government's army from invading!"
Hearing this, if it were the King Cobra, he would have thought it made sense, after all, Alabasta's national strength was undoubtedly the strongest among all the Affiliated Nation.
But after watching the live broadcast that was known to the world as the 'One Piece Great Sea Battle', he looked at the other party with a puzzled expression.
"General Chaka, didn't you watch the world live broadcast a few days ago?"
"If you're referring to that great treasure of the One Piece, I truly have neither paid attention to it nor have any interest in it. I'd rather use that time to train my troops or hone my own strength and martial skills," General Chaka replied matter-of-factly.
King Cobra was speechless, realizing that he couldn't explain how powerful the Navy Admiral and the Vice Admiral were, and even if he gave a rough explanation, the general probably wouldn't believe him.
He thought for a moment and decided to approach the topic from another angle.
"General Chaka, once we completely break with the World Government, we will face a large-scale attack from the naval fleet. Even if our royal army can withstand it, the peaceful lives of our people will be disrupted. They are living in peace and prosperity now, so why should I plunge the entire country into misery for a stone I can't even understand?"
King Cobra's earnest words echoed throughout the hall, reaching the ears of every royal soldier, subtly touching their resolute expressions.
"As a descendant of the Nefertari Clan, it is indeed my incompetence to fail to protect the Poneglyph passed down from our ancestors and to allow outsiders to enter the Funerary Temple and disturb the An Ning of our ancestors."
"But as the King of Alabasta, my primary responsibility is to ensure the peace and prosperity of the nation. We should not resort to force unnecessarily."
"In my view, neither the Poneglyph nor the rules of the Funerary Temple are worth mentioning compared to the safety of the kingdom. The royal army should fight to the death for the kingdom, not for a single stone!"
The young king's every word was so powerful and resolute.
This resolute and wise ruler, upon returning to his bedroom, embraced his queen and wept bitterly, tears streaming down his face.
"Titi, I'm so sorry to our ancestors, sob sob sob----"
At this moment, King Cobra's initial thought that the World Government had become more benevolent vanished; the World Government was still the same World Government.
Cold, domineering, ruthless, and terrifyingly oppressive.
The Holy Land, Mary Geoise, in the Moon Chamber within Pangaea Castle.
"As expected, Alabasta chickened out!"
Imu had just learned from the Five Elders about King Cobra's choice, which was to obediently hand over the Poneglyph.
He had actually considered how he would deal with Cobra if he hadn't backed down and had chosen to confront the World Government head-on to protect the Poneglyph.
Alabasta's national strength is undoubtedly formidable, befitting its reputation as a superpower in the first half of the Grand Line.
However, this superpower status refers to its strength among the Affiliated Nation; it's far from being able to challenge the World Government.
However, in Imu's view, there is no need to wage war if one truly wants to deal with Alabasta.
Just have the navy blockade its coastline, prohibiting any ships from entering or leaving.
Although Alabasta is large, almost 90% of it is desert, so it has very few resources that it can utilize, and it relies entirely on imports of fresh water from other islands.
Therefore, as long as the flow of supplies is cut off, it won't be long before the people inside die of thirst and starvation.
However, Imu doesn't really want to kill too much unless absolutely necessary.
The reason is simple: population is very important. Once the multiverse is opened, population will become even more important. The scale of military forces in civilization wars will definitely be in the hundreds of millions, but the population of Sea Star is not that large now.
"I've got the Poneglyph from Fish-Man Island and Alabasta. The other Poneglyph I knew from my previous life include one from Ohara, one from Zou's back, one from Shandora Sky Island, two from Big Mom, and one from the sea monster city that Jinbe discovered in the future."
Needless to say, the easiest piece to get here is the one from Ohara!
"Let me think about it."
With his extraordinary Divine Power, Imu continued to delve into the memories of his Echizen.
"The Ohara expedition set out in Poneglyph, which is four years ago, and was then arrested by Saul in 1500, which is two years later. So Nico Robin's mother is still out there wandering around."
"They've been searching for so many years, they must have found quite a few Poneglyph, but those things are too big and too heavy to carry around easily. So, for research purposes, they need to make rubbings and record the locations."
As he thought about it, he suddenly realized that perhaps he didn't need to rush into intervening and could let things develop naturally.
Even if the butterfly effect occurs and this group isn't caught by Saul, CP can simply keep an eye on them in Ohara and catch them when they return.
Then the Poneglyph Processing Division can retrieve the locations recorded by the expedition team one by one.
How easy is that?
Once captured, the scholars in Ohara who studied the Poneglyph certainly wouldn't let him go.
Because they were conducting illegal research despite explicit prohibitions and repeated warnings from the World Government, it is only right and reasonable for them to be dealt with; it is their own fault, and I believe they are prepared for this.
But forget about the Buster Call. That tree is huge, such a beautiful sight, and there are so many books there. It would be perfect to use it as a giant library. It would be such a waste to blow it all up.
For Imu now, everything on this planet belongs to him, so he wants to preserve its uniqueness as much as possible.
Including those important roles, if they can be used, we should try our best to make good use of them. Only if they are truly unusable should we consider removing them. After all, unusable things are just waste, and of course they should be treated as garbage.
"However, Nico Robin is a promising talent. She should have already eaten the Flower-Flower Fruit by now. Sending her to Guanhao Island in Cipher Pol for some training will soon turn her into a top-notch intelligence agent."
Imu stroked his chin, pondering the matter to himself.
In the future, intelligence agents will definitely be the first to enter and gather information Heavens and Myriad Worlds.
Therefore, the more experts in this field, the better.
"As for her, we could use Olvia as a hostage. For example, we could reduce her sentence based on her merits, and we wouldn't have to worry about her disobeying us."