The Situation in the West Blue

Inside the Swordfish Submarine.

Belfinger calmly flipped through intelligence on the West Blue. Making contact with Nico Robin had merely been an idle move.

The piece had already been placed on the board; it would naturally bear fruit in the future.

Now, Belfinger had to make his move as well.

Wang Gao's Impel Down strategy was progressing very smoothly, while the Black Reef Archipelago Base in the South Blue was also gradually developing.

Since the West Blue was home to the Flower Country, Wang Gao's homeland, he paid more attention to it than to the other three seas.

Speaking of the West Blue, it was a sea with a fierce populace, one that did not pale even in comparison to the North Blue.

It possessed a unique Mafia culture. Across the islands and kingdoms of the West Blue, Mafia groups were practically everywhere, even capable of dominating entire regions.

For example, the future Supernova, Capone Bege, was currently a member of the Capone Family, one of the Five Great Mafia Families of the West Blue. Capone Bege was already in his twenties.

Aside from that, Shanks was also from the West Blue. There was Ohara Island, the island of scholars, as well as the Giant Kingdom of the West Blue—not Elbaf.

Then there was the famously powerful Flower Country.

The Flower Country was renowned throughout the West Blue not because of its unique culture.

After all, in this world dominated by island nations, the geographical isolation meant that every island possessed all manner of strange and unusual cultures.

The reason it was famous was its formidable strength.

The Flower Country's semi-official pirate force, the "Eight Treasure Navy," was not merely one pirate crew. It consisted of eight pirate crews.

The Eight Treasure Navy included the First Treasure through the Eighth Treasure. Chinjao was the current pillar of the Eight Treasure Navy, and his strength was not even considered the greatest among them.

Judging by the fact that Chinjao had survived Garp, he was at least Quasi Admiral level.

That was no joke.

When Chinjao was defeated by Garp, Garp had been around forty-eight years old. That had been his prime, when he could chase the Roger Pirates all over the seas.

Yet even prime Garp had failed to keep Chinjao behind, while Chinjao himself was merely middle-ranking within the Eight Treasure Navy.

This showed just how powerful the Flower Country was. At the very least, in the West Blue, a sea where the Mafia ran rampant, no outside Mafia groups existed within the Flower Country's borders.

The Five Great Mafia Families of the West Blue also rarely entered the Flower Country. The main reason was that the Eight Treasure Navy was simply too powerful. Even the World Government had no choice but to tacitly accept its existence, while the Marines could only turn a blind eye.

Wang Gao and Ochoku were both born in territory belonging to the Five Treasure Navy. Ochoku had even been the fifteenth-generation pillar of the Five Treasure Navy. Only after he went to the New World and joined the Rocks Pirates did he relinquish his position as pillar.

The generations of succession among the pillars also revealed that the Eight Treasure Navy had not originally consisted of eight pirate crews.

Rather, in order to strengthen itself, the Flower Country continually recruited powerful pirates. Those pirate crews were then passed down generation after generation, gradually forming the Eight Treasure Navy of today.

Of course, everything had its pros and cons.

The Eight Treasure Navy was not united either. Especially after the Liaozhou Rebellion several years ago, the rifts within the Eight Treasure Navy had continued to widen.

However, Belfinger was still a long way from the Flower Country. Ohara Island was roughly forty-two thousand kilometers away from the Flower Country—practically at opposite ends of the world.

The closest kingdom to Ohara Island was the Cliff Kingdom, along with dozens of Free Islands.

So-called Free Islands were inhabited islands that were relatively independent but lacked the qualifications to become nations. These Free Islands either attached themselves to nearby major powers or could only rely on themselves.

The reason Free Islands emerged was the vastness of the oceans. If there were not many islands nearby, then in this era of inconvenient transportation, relatively independent island city-states could easily form.

There was nothing to be done about that. Blue Sea Star's primary means of transportation was wind-powered sailboats. When traveling depended entirely on the waves, islands that were too far away and possessed neither strategic resources nor strategic locations had terrible cost-effectiveness when it came to administration.

If direct administration were demanded, not only would the cost be enormous, but long-term rule would also be difficult to maintain. Loyalty could be ensured for one or two generations, but beyond three generations, it became difficult to guarantee.

Moreover, the World Government did not wish to see excessively powerful member nations emerge. For example, Germa 66, which had briefly unified the North Blue back then, maintained its rule for only sixty-six days.

It was practically impossible that the World Government had not interfered behind the scenes.

For all these years, the World Government had been pursuing a balancing strategy, including tying Heavenly Gold quotas to population and territory in order to divide the internal forces of those powerful member nations.

The most obvious example was Alabasta. If the World Government had truly been unaware of Crocodile's Petty Actions in Alabasta, that would have been seriously underestimating the CP Organization's capabilities.

After all, Alabasta's royal family had nearly become one of the Twenty Kings among the Celestial Dragons, and they also possessed some information on the Ancient Weapon Pluton.

No matter how careless the World Government was, it would not relax its surveillance of Alabasta. Crocodile's scheme had likely been exploited as well.

Belfinger had been created by Wang Gao and inherited Wang Gao's cautious nature. Their wariness toward the World Government exceeded that of anyone else.

Never underestimate a force that had ruled the world for over eight hundred years. How many trump cards it had hidden remained an unknown.

Since Ohara Island would soon become a place of conflict, Belfinger had no intention of staying there any longer. Instead, he submerged and headed northwest.

His destination was the northwestern waters of the West Blue, where the Flower Country was located.

However, the Flower Country was currently in a semi-Closed Country state. Entering it directly would make it easy to be discovered.

Furthermore, the Eight Treasure Navy nestled along the Flower Country's borders was not to be trifled with.

Therefore, his target was another kingdom not far from the Flower Country—the Palm Kingdom. It was a kingdom made up of tropical islands, roughly twelve hundred kilometers from the Flower Country.

The Palm Kingdom was a tropical archipelago composed of three large islands and 283 small islands. It covered roughly 850,000 square kilometers and had a population of around fifteen million. Its economy centered on tropical crops, especially palm oil, which was famous throughout the West Blue.

The Palm Archipelago was a region focused on agriculture, supplemented by fisheries. It was also a place where pirates and the Mafia ran rampant.

The Sicily Family, one of the Five Great Mafia Families of the West Blue, controlled this kingdom's underworld.

Traveling at full speed aboard the Swordfish Submarine, Belfinger finally reached the southeastern region of the Palm Archipelago after roughly half a month.

Palm Archipelago, Starfish Island.

This was a prosperous port city. The island was shaped much like a starfish, with excellent natural harbors and abundant fisheries in the surrounding waters, all of which had created its prosperity.

Where there was a thriving economy, there were naturally gray areas as well.

On the afternoon of September 11, beneath clear skies and a gentle breeze, a small merchant ship slowly docked in the harbor. A middle-aged man smoking a cigar stepped off the ship with Dozens Crew Members.

"Perfect weather for a nap!" the middle-aged man said lazily.

His One-Eye first mate, standing beside him, asked with a tense expression, "Sir, what are we doing next?"

"Relax. First, buy a plot of land and a building for the trading company's headquarters. I'll leave that to you. No problem, right?" the middle-aged man said with a cheerful smile.

"Hehe, no problem. Leave it to me," One-Eye promised respectfully.

Thank you all for your support (ω｀)