Skypiea, Angel Island.
The residents had already dispersed, but the discussions never stopped. Gan Fall had posted the detailed regulations on every inhabited island so that every Skypiean could understand them.
After hastily finishing lunch, Reiju was sent by Yake to take over Skypiea's military. Yake himself went with Robin to meet the Shandia chieftain.
"Honorable God Yake, I am the chieftain of the Shandia. It is an honor to meet you!" The crown-wearing Shandia chieftain respectfully bowed to Yake.
"You came for Upper Yard, didn't you?"
"Skypiea is now all part of my territory. I have no objection to you living in Upper Yard, but in return, you must obey my orders. Any problems?" Yake said calmly.
The Shandia chieftain had not held out much hope, but Yake's words were truly a huge surprise.
"No, no problem. As long as my people can live in Upper Yard, we will be completely satisfied. From this day onward, we will await your orders."
"Very good. Then go join my military selection. From now on, you will fight only for me."
Yake also had another idea: using Flame Clouds to directly transport Gaya Island up to Skypiea. But his current territory seemed large enough already. Skypiea did not have many residents to begin with, so there was no need for so much land.
"Yes, God Yake. Then I will take my leave."
The Shandia chieftain left with excitement written all over his face.
Yake placed the Golden Bell on the ground. The Poneglyphs were on its base, and Robin was translating their contents.
The general content concerned the location of the Ancient Weapon Poseidon. However, they had already met Shirahoshi, the Ancient Weapon herself, so there was not much to discuss. Taking a rubbing would conveniently complete the second phase of the Poneglyphs collection mission.
The only thing worth noting was a sentence carved beside the Golden Bell's base.
"I came here and carried this text to the end of the world. —Pirate Gol D. Roger"
Robin read it calmly. She was not surprised that One Piece Roger had come here. After all, Rayleigh had been a member of One Piece's crew. A little deduction was enough to reach that conclusion.
"Robin, help me carve a sentence too," Yake suddenly said, struck by inspiration.
"No problem, Captain. What would you like me to carve?"
"Hmm, let me think... Got it!"
"I conquered this place and shall bring the Sky God Kingdom to the world. —God Yake"
Yake racked his brains to come up with the line. Robin could not help covering her mouth and laughing. What a strange competitive streak.
"Robin, take your time carving it. I'm going to look for the Golden City's lost gold."
Yake flew above Upper Yard. The ancient ruins of Shandora lay sleeping within the island, containing countless treasures of gold.
Very soon, Yake encountered Skypiea's strongest creature: a hundred-meter-long giant snake. He planned to tame it and make it the guardian of the Sky God Kingdom.
Yesterday's bell had reminded the giant snake of its childhood. It had lived in Upper Yard since it was young and had been close friends with Great Warrior Calgara and Noland. Then Upper Yard had been sent into the sky by the Knock Up Stream, and it had lived alone for more than four hundred years.
For four hundred years, its only mission had been to find the Golden Bell. It firmly believed that as long as it rang the Golden Bell, its friends would return to its side.
Yet today, it had encountered an uninvited guest. He was as tiny as an ant, but his punches hurt terribly. That ant was naturally Yake himself.
Yake punched the giant snake again and again. Whether it would submit or not, beating it up first and letting it know who was stronger could not possibly go wrong.
Very soon, the giant snake's head was covered in bumps. Tears glimmered in its huge doe eyes. Pitiful, weak, and helpless.
"You're my pet from now on. If you understand, nod!" Yake raised his fist.
The giant snake hurriedly nodded wildly, kicking up a cloud of dust. It was terrified that Yake would throw another punch.
"Very good. From now on, your name is Jormungandr, World Serpent Jormungandr!" It was the only relatively good-sounding name Yake could think of.
"Alright, Jormungandr, open your mouth!"
The giant snake apparently did not yet understand what Jormungandr meant. It stared at Yake with a foolish, adorable expression.
Yake sighed, punched it once, and called its name again.
When it still did not listen, he kept punching it. Before long, the giant snake finally understood that Jormungandr was its name from then on.
Yake stepped into the snake's belly. Inside were ruins, along with scattered treasures in every corner.
"This snake really eats anything. Its teeth are pretty good too. Fine, I'll help it out."
Yake stored all the precious metal treasures in his storage inventory, then put the ruins, stones, and miscellaneous junk into it as well, giving Jormungandr's stomach a thorough cleaning. Fortunately, the ruins and miscellaneous items each only took up one inventory slot. Otherwise, they really would not have fit.
"Open your mouth!"
Jormungandr obediently opened its massive bloody maw and let Yake out.
"Very good. Don't eat random things from now on. Stay here for now. I'll come find you again after a while!" Yake sent Jormungandr away. Communicating with a snake was indeed inconvenient, but the people of Amazon Lily were snake experts. Once the initial construction was complete, Yake would move Amazon Lily up here.
Yake took the ruined debris out of his storage inventory, quickly piling it into a small mountain. His inventory was now filled to the brim with gold. Yake roughly estimated that this gold was worth at least a hundred billion Beli. Most of the money would be used to build the Sky God Kingdom.
He continued searching the island and found plenty of gold within Shandora's ruins. Enel was already dead, so none of that gold had been used to build the Ark Maxim. Yake naturally took it all without hesitation.
After collecting all the gold, Yake returned to Angel Island. Honestly, compared to Upper Yard, Angel Island was still far too small, let alone Birka. But after he gradually moved islands from the Blue Sea up here, it should be able to accommodate more citizens.
"Captain, you're back. How was the haul?" Robin, who was reading, looked up and asked.
"Here, this much." Yake raised his hand and produced a small mountain of gold, instantly turning the entire room resplendent with gold.
"Wow, that's outrageous, meow!" Anna had completely lost control of her expression. Fortunately, Nami was not here, or she might have fainted on the spot.
"This is only the tip of the iceberg. The gold I collected today is worth at least a hundred billion Beli, maybe even more!" Yake had already grown numb to gold. The troublesome part was figuring out how to exchange it for Beli.
Skypiea had another problem: currency. A currency called Ek was still circulating in Skypiea. Although most people had already started trading with Beli, Ek remained a problem.
Yake planned to abolish Ek tomorrow and let the Skypieans exchange it. There were not many residents in Skypiea, and Yake still had more than a billion Beli in cash. It should be enough. If not, there was always the gold.
"Oh, right, Reiju, how is the military situation?"
Yake remembered the task he had assigned Reiju.