"..."
Back in his enormous office space, Wang Hao looked at the mountains of sacks of grain piled up inside, then at the countless empty bookshelves around him, and the veins on his forehead throbbed.
When he heard Ain report that Long had taken away more than 300 books at once, he joked about it but didn't pay much attention to it.
It's just a little over three hundred books; he can print them out in no time. The only troublesome part is the process of revising and compiling them into volumes, but that step will naturally be handled by someone else, so he doesn't need to worry about it.
But I never expected that Dragon would have such a huge appetite; he took all the books here.
It should be noted that this enormous tree hollow was specially carved out by Binz at his request. It was ten thousand meters in size and filled with densely packed bookshelves, the books on which were the fruits of his labor during his year of travel in the South Blue.
But now all the fruits of their labor have been packed up and taken away by that guy Long, not even leaving behind the entire bookshelf of catalogs, leaving him only bags of grain.
What use is all that grain to him?
"That bastard Ryu is so awful!"
Once she came to her senses, Ain flew into a rage. Her fair and pretty face turned bright red with anger, and she clenched her small silver teeth, wishing she could go over there right now and hack that bastard senior brother Long to pieces.
"Forget it, we're planning to upgrade anyway. Once the consciousness of the Tree of Knowledge is fully formed, those books won't be of much use anymore."
He sighed; he was out of options. He couldn't very well go after that guy Long and get it back!
Moreover, compared to these paper books, he already has a better way of recording information, which can be implemented once the consciousness of the Tree of Knowledge is formed. At that time, it will be much more convenient for everyone on the New Noah to read books than it is now.
The dragon incident was just a minor episode. Wang Hao continued to pilot the New Noah around the world, first circling the West Blue, then turning to the North Sea, and finally flying over the Red Line to reach the East Sea.
" Garp's grandson really became a pirate!"
Looking at the poster that Ain handed him with a strange expression, and at the picture of the silly-looking boy on it, Wang Hao grinned.
This is none other than Monkey D. Luffy, the protagonist of the Pirate King storyline.
That kid finally went to sea!
"Teacher, was Vice Admiral Garp's tutor...?"
Ain looked puzzled, genuinely unable to understand what was going on with Garp's family.
Garp himself is Marine Vice Admiral and a Hero of the Navy, a benchmark of an era, but his son is Dragon, a revolutionary known as the most vicious criminal in the world, and now his grandson has gone to become a pirate.
This family...
Ain didn't know what to say!
"Do you think someone with Garp's intelligence and Water Transformation would have any sense of proper upbringing?"
Amused, Wang Hao glanced sideways at his disciple, Ain, and then rose shakily from his recliner. He solemnly commanded, "The tide of the new era has risen; it's time for us to set off. Head towards Reverse Mountain!"
After all, he needed to deceive the World Government, so although he was still alive these past few years, he pretended to be very old and near death in order to lull the World Government into a false sense of security.
Otherwise, if he always maintained such an energetic demeanor, anyone would know there was something wrong with him.
As for the issue of lifespan, he had already resolved it, and his cultivation had also fully entered the Heaven Realm three years ago.
After breaking through that barrier, his cultivation level advanced by leaps and bounds, changing every day. At the same time, he didn't forget to develop the New Noah, after all, it was his foundation!
After several years of training, all the disabled naval soldiers who were taken in initially and later were fully healed. Even those who had lost limbs grew them back, and their cultivation levels rose to an extremely high level.
Under his careful tutelage, all adults on the New Noah now possess at least the cultivation level of a naval Commodore.
The person with such power had a terrifying 10 billion people on his New Noah, all of whom were unfortunate souls he had taken in during his travels around the world.
" Noah, activate Magnetic Field Number Three. Let's proceed towards Reverse Mountain!"
Ain accepted the order, waved his hand to Projection a projected screen, and gave the command.
"Yes, Lord Ain!"
A melodious voice rang out; this was the Noah, now upgraded countless times, a true consciousness.
This Noah consciousness was developed and nurtured from a fragment of the original Tree of Knowledge, and has now become the soul of the New Noah, with its roots spreading throughout the entire Noah, inside and out.
Not only can it generate its own magnetic field under Wang Hao's guidance to propel the Noah forward, but it can also function as a supercomputer, storing vast amounts of knowledge.
Wang Hao channeled all the martial arts techniques and skills he had created into them using Observation Haki, and the high-tech screen Projection that Ain had previously controlled was also the work of Noah.
The Noah can now Projection this screen at any time within its coverage area. It can be used not only for controlling communications but also for the people on the New Noah to learn. Noah can even act as an artificial intelligence butler.
Because he needs to keep the World Government in check, Wang Hao has rarely appeared in public in recent years. Instead, he has set up a live streaming platform where he gives lectures every day, allowing countless people to watch and learn, which is far more efficient.
The New Noah was traveling at an extremely fast speed and soon arrived at the foot of Reverse Mountain.
Although Noah can now control the magnetic field on the Noah, it is only able to keep the Noah floating on the sea surface and to navigate simply. It cannot control the Noah to float away from the sea surface.
The New Noah simply too enormous, spanning millions of miles, a veritable moving continent. Even Wang Hao is finding it difficult to control this thing and keep it levitating.
"You all wait here, I'm going upstairs to see an old friend."
After greeting Ain and the others, Wang Hao stood up, manipulated his own magnetic field, and flew rapidly towards the lighthouse at the top of Reverse Mountain.
There was an old acquaintance there whom he had long wanted to visit and chat with, but he had never had the chance. Now, he naturally had to go and see him.
Ain and the others were not worried about Wang Hao's departure. Although their mentor had aged considerably, his strength had become even more terrifying, many times more so than it had been a few years ago.
They even sometimes wondered if their mentor, unleashing his full power, could truly destroy the entire world.
Even if all the world's strongest warriors came, they wouldn't be able to harm him in the slightest. They would only be a burden if they went with him. The best thing for them now is to stay on the New Noah and wait for their mentor's return.
Wang Hao was very fast, and it didn't take long for him to fly to a lighthouse at the top of Reverse Mountain. There, sure enough, was an old man leisurely lying on a deck chair, basking in the sun and reading a newspaper.
As if sensing Wang Hao's arrival, the old man waved his hand, and a beach chair and a teacup appeared out of thin air from inside the lighthouse. He then poured a cup of tea.
"I thought you would have come three years ago, I didn't expect you to come only now!"
The old man spoke casually, clearly having anticipated that Wang Hao would come looking for him.
This old man is named Crocus, a name that may not be widely known, but his other identity is quite astonishing. He was the ship's doctor on Roger Pirates, and during the final period, he was responsible for treating Roger's illness, so he knew Roger's physical condition best during that time.
Wang Hao came here to find out exactly what Roger's physical condition was like back then, as this is very important for his future plans.
"It wasn't a rush, so I didn't hurry to come over!"
Wang Hao sat down without ceremony, took a sip of the tea in his cup with relish, and was quite impressed with the old man's tea-making skills. As expected of a doctor, he really knew how to maintain health; even a cup of tea had the effect of nourishing the body.
"Here's what you wanted!"
With a light stomp of his foot on the ground, a small box that had been sealed away for a long time appeared on the ground not far away. Crocus pushed it in front of Wang Hao.
Clearly, he was aware of Wang Hao's intentions and had already prepared a response.
"You've mastered the magnetic field technique that Rayleigh taught you quite well!"
After praising Crocus, Wang Hao took the box, opened it, and inside was a medical record—the medical record of the Pirate King Roger during his final days.
As Wang Hao perused Roger's medical records, his expression grew increasingly grave. Finally, he sighed and said, "Just as I expected."
Things turned out pretty much as he had initially predicted, and in the worst possible way.
Long before he determined that the essence of Devil Fruit was the power of the world's origin, he suspected that this world might be facing a major problem.
The origin of a world is something extremely precious to any world, and it's impossible for it to appear on such a large scale as Devil Fruit in the One Piece World. This is clearly problematic.
Either someone deliberately split off the world's origin to create Devil Fruit for some earth-shattering scheme, or the world's will sensed a deadly crisis and autonomously split off its own origin power in an attempt to create powerful beings to save itself.
Either way, it's a very bad situation, proving that there is a super strong person, at least at the Celestial Person Realm Peak, hiding on this planet.
Roger's medical record basically confirms his conjecture and leans towards the second possibility: that the world's will itself split off its original power in an attempt to protect itself.
The fact that even a world will of this size could sense a deadly crisis and be forced to make such a decision demonstrates just how terrifying the powerful figure hidden behind the scenes must be—at least significantly stronger than he is now.
Is it the World Government?
Gazing into the distance, Wang Hao muttered to himself that he was basically certain that the powerful enemy was likely hiding within the World Government, or even that the World Government was just a puppet that the enemy had casually created.
Wang Hao Pirate King saw a post on a One Piece forum where someone mentioned that there was a being in the World Government with a higher status than the Five Elders, named Imu. Even the Five Elders had to kneel down in fear when they saw him.
It's important to know that the Five Elders are the highest rulers of the World Government and the leaders of the Celestial Dragons. Even such beings have to kneel before them, which shows how powerful Imu is.