After the World Government was dealt with, Wano Country's development officially got on the right track.
They mined Seastone in exchange for resources, regularly went out into the surrounding waters to rob a few lucky pirates, planted Wano Country's flag in other nations while they were at it, and so on...
As more and more ninja forces were teleported over, Wano Country's military strength also grew increasingly abundant.
Who said only pirates could go around seizing territory and planting flags?
As a nation of samurai in the New World whose overall strength was second only to the Giant Kingdom of Elbaf, no one could stop Wano Country once it started expanding.
Especially after Araki used Demon Blood to take complete control of Blackbeard.
Blackbeard Teach's own strength was honestly nothing special, but the Dark-Dark Fruit's method of stripping away another person's fruit ability and transferring it intact was extremely useful.
With the help of his ability, quite a few ninja under Araki gained very good fruit abilities over the past two years.
It was also because of this behavior that the New World seas, which should have been boiling over completely after two of the Four Emperors were gone, were forcibly kept lukewarm.
Because every great pirate who believed they had a decent fruit ability no longer dared to show themselves rashly, afraid that one day Araki would set his sights on them and strip away their fruit ability.
Although Devil Fruits were different from Tailed Beasts, and the original host would not necessarily die even if the ability was taken away, anyone who had tasted the wonderful flavor of power could not accept the outcome of losing it.
So despite the New World clearly being packed with great pirates, pirate ships were rarely seen in the waters around Wano