After suffering a devastating blow, the World Government and Marine Headquarters seemed to have abandoned the idea of invading the New World.
Under the watch of Tsugikuni Yoriichi and Issho, the Marine Headquarters fleet began to turn around and swiftly withdraw from Crimson Valley. The fleet had entered Crimson Valley in magnificent force, yet now it could only leave it in disgrace.
Before withdrawing, Sengoku left behind a force of nearly a thousand men. These people shed their Marine uniforms and changed into the white T-shirts they normally wore during training, then began retrieving the bodies of their comrades from the vanguard who had perished.
However, because the sunken ships had blocked the passageway, the salvage team's progress was extremely slow. The number of bodies they successfully recovered was also pitifully small.
Tsugikuni Yoriichi's slashes were not something ordinary soldiers could withstand. Even the residual shockwaves they gave off were enough to shred an ordinary person's body apart.
After the battle, Yoriichi and Issho did not immediately leave the valley. They remained there, watching for several days. On one hand, they wanted to keep track of Marine Headquarters' movements. On the other, they were guarding against the possibility that the Gorosei and the others buried beneath the collapsed rocks might possess some special means of breaking through the rubble.
However, judging from their watch over the past few days, it seemed they had worried too much.
"We haven't seen any sign of the Gorosei or the others for so many days."
"They must have been buried completely beneath the seabed, right?"
"Marine Headquarters has no intention of breaking through the rock wall and forcing its way into the New World, either. This time, we won!"
On top of the rock wall sealing off the waterway, Tsugikuni Yoriichi sat on a