Shiki Couldn't Help Humming

"You bastard! I was kind enough to tell you all this, and you still suspect me!?" Shiki froze for a moment before cursing furiously.

"It was just too much of a coincidence. You said you were going back to the New World to raise hell with Linlin and the others, then immediately told me Linlin had a Poneglyph at home. How could that not make me suspicious?" Roger said, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Hmph!" Shiki snorted. "Believe it or not. Linlin did mention that Cake Island had some kind of Poneglyph she picked up when she was little. But it seemed different from what you described. It was red..."

"Red?" Roger's eyes lit up. "Are you sure it was red?"

"Yeah. Why?" Shiki asked.

"Hahahaha! Anyway, I owe you one, Shiki. Running into you here was the best thing that could have happened, hahahaha!" Roger said with a laugh, happily throwing an arm around Shiki's shoulders.

Roger's buddy-buddy attitude made Shiki somewhat uncomfortable, but hearing Roger promise him a favor still filled him with delight. He couldn't help humming softly.

Roger had not known before, but with Vikengam's arrival, he had learned in advance that finding Final Island required locating four crimson Poneglyphs. He had been wondering where to start, but now he had a lead. At the very least, Charlotte Linlin's stronghold, Cake Island, had one crimson Poneglyph!

This also indirectly proved that Vikengam's claims had some credibility.

At that moment, Jaba and Silver Axe's fight was gradually coming to an end. Unexpectedly, the two seemed to get along rather well?

"Hey, brute, weren't you and Shiki on terrible terms? The Rocks Pirates have disbanded anyway, so why not join our pirate crew?" Jaba immediately tried to poach him, just like Rayleigh.

Silver Axe strapped his massive battle axe back onto his back, then glanced at Jaba. "I could consider it, if I get to be captain..."

"Well, that would be a little difficult. Forget it, then." Jaba pretended to think it over before waving his hand.

Clearly, Silver Axe looked down somewhat on the Roger Pirates. He felt that these people did not resemble pirates at all. They did not even have territory of their own, just wandered aimlessly across the sea all day without any proper ambition.

Silver Axe wanted to ride the surging tides of this era and fight for power and influence on the seas.

Compared to the Roger Pirates, he actually thought more highly of Shiki.

At the beginning, his relationship with Shiki had indeed been poor. The two had plenty of grudges and entanglements between them, but after joining the Rocks Pirates, they had temporarily put those aside.

During that time, he had constantly learned more about the various members of the Rocks Pirates.

Then he discovered... Newgate seemed sick in the head, wanting to play house every day. Kaido was too weak and was not yet fit to play a leading role in the coming era. Linlin was decent enough, but she was either having children or preparing to have them. Despite possessing such tremendous talent, she had squandered most of it away. It was painful to watch.

On top of that, Silver Axe was somewhat chauvinistic and did not want to hang around with Linlin.

As for John, Gan Sui, Wang Zhi, and the rest, they were ultimately a notch below. Instead, Shiki, the man he had always found incompatible with him, possessed the bearing of a king.

It was only then that Silver Axe realized that perhaps he and Shiki had always disliked each other because they were both equally ambitious?

Now that Rocks was dead and the pirate crew was finished, Silver Axe truly needed to consider his next move. And clearly, he and Shiki currently had something of a mutual attraction.

Before long, Stania Island returned to peace, and the Roger Pirates began resupplying.

However, the harbor docks had been destroyed almost beyond recognition, and the nearby streets had suffered as well. Some innocent civilians would inevitably have been caught up in it, but fortunately, Shiki had scared a group away earlier. There should not have been too many innocent victims.

And without a doubt, whether it was Shiki's vicious crew or Roger's comparatively mild-mannered group, no one cared too much about such matters.

Pirates were pirates. They were not good people pretending to be pirates.

Their essence was plunder and destruction!

Inside the tavern.

The Roger Pirates and Shiki's group had gathered there to drink and chat, creating a lively atmosphere.

"If you're talking about those unreadable stones, there's one in the Sea Forest on Fish-Man Island too. Ever since I can remember, it's been sitting there untouched. They even say it's been there for several hundred years..." Babel said as his enormous body leaned against the wall. He used an entire barrel as a cup, drinking as he spoke.

"Is that so? We've been in and out of Fish-Man Island so many times, and we never noticed. We'll take a look next time," Roger said happily.

"Ah, right. Babel said earlier that his younger brother Sunbell really wants to join our pirate crew. When we go to Fish-Man Island next time, we can get in touch with Sunbell," Rayleigh added.

Clearly, he had failed to recruit Babel away from Shiki, but Babel had recommended someone instead: his younger brother, Sunbell.

"No problem. I've recently been thinking that our ship needs a Fish-Man companion who's good in the water. That would make many things much easier," Roger said with a smile.

No one knew what situations they would encounter while searching for the Poneglyphs. Having a Fish-Man companion who could move freely underwater would undoubtedly make many situations easier to handle.

"I think Marlon said there was one somewhere in the West Blue too? But I can't remember where..." Silver Axe muttered thoughtfully, holding his drink.

"Huh? Come to think of it, I heard he died. Is that true?" Jaba asked curiously.

Shakky, beside him, nodded. "That's right. It was all that bastard Wang Zhi's doing. That day, he drugged the wine Marlon and I drank..."

At the mention of that bastard Wang Zhi, Shakky's teeth clenched with hatred.

A flash of killing intent also crossed Rayleigh's eyes. "When I get the chance, I definitely won't let that bastard go."

Marlon had also been one of the big shots in the Rocks Pirates, and he held tremendous prestige in the West Blue.

As everyone knew, the four seas had very different conditions. The North Blue was notorious for its harsh environment, with every country constantly at war and troublemakers like Germa stirring things up. That sea was either in the middle of a national war or on the way to one.

As a result, order had somewhat collapsed, preventing much of the population from being effectively utilized and instead turning them into sources of chaos. There were countless criminals there, making it a sea beloved by the underworld. Donquixote Doflamingo later rose to power there.

The South Blue, while less war-torn than the North Blue, lay under the World Government's oppressive rule. Most countries wanted to flatter the World Government, hoping the South Blue could become the next peaceful East Blue.

Yet this high-pressure environment also gave the South Blue an especially strong spirit of resistance. Throughout the World Government's eight-hundred-year history, the Revolutionary Army was far from the only group to flip the table. Such incidents had occurred repeatedly in the South Blue, and it was precisely because of that history that the World Government continued to exert such pressure there.

There was no need to say much about the East Blue. It had already been thoroughly tamed by the World Government and was currently the most stable of the four seas. Vikengam had heard World Government officials in Mary Geoise refer to the East Blue as a "sheep pen" more than once.

But that place either had no trouble at all, or when trouble came, it was always enormous. The same went for its people.

The West Blue, meanwhile, was steeped in mafia culture. Marlon, whom they were discussing now, was a truly legendary figure there. He had united the various mafia families of the West Blue and could be called the underground emperor of the entire sea. He had also been the Rocks Pirates' greatest financial backer.

The result was rather absurd. A hero of his generation had been schemed to death by Wang Zhi.

Who knew where in the West Blue the Poneglyph he mentioned was?