The Iron Fist of Autocracy

He suddenly woke up. In this world, no one could correct his mistakes for him. He was the source of all ideas, so he had to remain vigilant at all times, remind himself, and discover his own mistakes.

He decisively abandoned his original approach and began making use of his advantages—the Kuja Pirates and the Shichibukai.

He had said it himself before: the world of pirates was one where strength reigned supreme. He needed high-end combat power.

And the deterrence of high-end combat power was enough to keep ordinary pirates from speaking, make ordinary civilians blindly obey, and make ordinary revolutionaries blindly follow.

He had originally believed that using force to suppress others was wrong, that it could never earn their wholehearted approval.

But now, he had realized the truth.

Revolution was not about what you said, but what you did; whether others approved of you depended on whether they approved of what you had done. If you only assimilated others through ideas, then in the end, you would merely be a giant in thought and a dwarf in action.

The unity of knowledge and action advocated by Wang Yangming was precisely meant to address this situation, the next stage of learning prepared for most scholars.

Modern people had been washed away by the flood of information, causing him to lose himself briefly, but he quickly corrected his problem.

Getting along with them was certainly important, but it was a means, not the end. If he confused the difference between the two, he would never achieve his goal.

They would leave the Calm Belt in as little as three days or as many as five. Winning them over during that time was Leo's goal; making them accept Leo's ideals and beliefs was the final result.

As for how to do that, it would depend on Leo's methods.

That night, Leo returned to the Perfume Yuda with Rindou to rest, but his entire presence had become exceptionally grim.

"Hiss..." Unfortunately, the moment he returned to the Empress's bedchamber, that murderous air vanished. Leo impatiently took off his clothes, looked at the bruises all over his body, and sucked in a breath of cold air.

"Rindou has already told me what happened." Holding medicine for his wounds, the Empress walked barefoot across the carpet of her bedchamber on feet as white as jade. She used her slender fingers to apply the medicine to Leo's back, making his body shudder and his waist straighten slightly.

"Do you need me to teach them a lesson?" she asked worriedly.

She knew that Leo wanted to train his combat ability, but the Amazon warrior women were far too highly ranked. Just like the Straw Hat Pirates had been utterly unable to resist Bartholomew Kuma, Leo would gain nothing from fighting the Amazon warrior women except a beating.

But being beaten up like this was simply too much. As the Empress applied the medicine, her brows rose in anger.

"No need." Leo gave a bitter smile. "This time, it was my fault. I misjudged the situation. Tomorrow, I'll use a different way to deal with them."

"Today, I've already given them a warning. Tomorrow, I hope two or three Amazon warrior women can come help me." Leo did not reveal what his plan was, but Hancock still trusted him wholeheartedly.

Everything he did was in preparation to overthrow the rule of the Celestial Dragons. If the pirates who should have been killed by the Kuja Pirates could instead become Leo's soldiers, their strength would grow.

Although Hancock looked down on the Cutlass Pirates, Leo's actions were undoubtedly right, and beneficial as well.

His methods might have had some problems, but that was nothing serious. As long as he continued like this, their forces would sooner or later grow larger and larger.

"Sorry, let's stop here for today. I'm going to sleep first." After having Hancock bandage him up, Leo stretched and spoke apologetically to her.

"Good night." Hancock's cheeks flushed slightly as she watched Leo shyly walk into his room. Then she suddenly grew annoyed. I missed my chance to sleep with Leo again today!

The next morning.

Rindou, Ran, and Sandersonia followed Leo onto the Cutlass Pirates' ship. There had actually been others who wanted to come, but that would have been too many, so Leo did not let them follow. Rindou had originally been on duty today, but because she knew more about the situation after yesterday, she forcibly claimed the spot, leaving many others deeply resentful.

Not to mention Rindou—even Hancock was curious about what Leo intended to do.

Great Bay Blade William looked furtively at Sandersonia. She was only half a head shorter than him, and both had the build of giants among humans. He liked her very much, but the vast difference in their strength made him dare not entertain any improper thoughts.

Leo did not care about that. He called all the pirates onto the deck.

"Today, I've still brought bread, rum, salted meat, and the fish you caught yesterday. They're all your food. But this time, if you don't complete the goals I've set, then you won't get anything to eat today." Leo stood on the railing as before, grinning at the densely packed crowd.

"Why? We caught those fish ourselves!" someone shouted defiantly from within the crowd.

If it had been yesterday, Leo would definitely have compromised. He would have said that they could eat the fish however they wanted, but they could not drink his rum.

—That would have been too petty.

Today's Leo was completely different from yesterday's. Since he had abandoned the idea of integrating with the masses, he had to let these pirates know what the iron fist of autocracy was.

He laughed. "You are already our prisoners. Your food belongs to us, your ship belongs to us, and the fish you caught belong to us as well."

"When I stand here, you can only obey my orders unconditionally."

"From now on, only those who raise their hands and are called on by me may speak. Do you understand?!"

PS: My friend Driving Through Mist's new book, I Just Want to Quietly Be a Master, was reported and banned. It had only reached a hundred thousand words, and for a moment, I felt deeply uneasy... This book of mine is also in a high-risk category. Thinking back on my previous experiences with bans...

I recommend my friend Lanyi Jianshao's new book:

Title: I Won't Be an Onmyoji Anymore

An ordinary young man named Guan Junyan transmigrated and became the head of a Japanese onmyoji family. But he did not inherit the original owner's memories. To avoid being exposed, he could only nervously play the role of family head while trying every possible way to get rid of both the identity of family head and onmyoji.

This book is also known as I Won't Be the Family Head Anymore, Little Brother, Hurry Up and Take Over, and Physical Onmyoji.

Written by the author of What Business Is It of Mine, Shinji?, quality guaranteed.