A thousand miles away, in the Organ Islands.
After taking on supplies at a nearby port, an armed merchant ship quickly set sail north toward the Domini Islands.
A News Coo was soaring overhead not far away. It suddenly spotted the ship and flapped its wings gently, drawing closer.
Anthony casually handed over fifty Beli. The News Coo took a newspaper from its bag, then flew off again.
"Any news worth paying attention to?" Ray asked, leaning against the mast.
Anthony leafed through the paper as he replied, "Kaido defeated the Kingdom of Prussia and plundered its military manufacturing equipment. It looks like the arms market in the New World is about to undergo a major upheaval."
"Hasn't that guy become an Emperor of the Sea yet?"
"Soon. I'd say within a year or two."
Suddenly, Anthony's gaze sharpened as he looked at a report in the corner of the newspaper.
[Marine Vice Admiral Sakazuki kills the Wild Beast Pirates...]
"Sakazuki... In other words, the Wild Beast Pirates' Steel-Steel Fruit user is most likely dead." Anthony made a mental note of it.
Three days later.
Anthony, who had planned to go ashore and rest on a nearby deserted island, looked at the empty sea ahead of him and hurried to retrieve an Eternal Pose from the wheelhouse.
In fact, Eternal Poses existed not only for islands on the Grand Line but also for islands in the four seas. However, the magnetic fields of the four seas were generally stable, so ordinary compasses could also provide accurate navigation. As a result, relatively few people used Eternal Poses or Log Poses.
The Noah Family, however, possessed quite a few Eternal Poses, most of which had been found in shipwrecks on the seabed.
Several hundred years ago, the four seas had not yet been as fully developed as they were now. At the time, Eternal Poses and compasses had coexisted.
The Eternal Pose Anthony held pointed to a place called "Barak Island."
Now, however, its needle had shifted from its original direction and was pointing northeast.
Anthony fell into thought. What's going on? Why has the direction of Barak Island changed?
"Anthony, what's wrong?" Ray jumped down from the lookout atop the mast.
"Barak Island isn't where it's marked on the sea chart. The needle's pointing northeast now."
"How did that happen?" Ray was just as baffled. "What do we do now? Head straight for the Domini Islands, or go looking for Barak Island?"
Anthony thought for a while, then made a decision. "Change course. We'll check out Barak Island first."
"OK."
The armed merchant ship soon adjusted course and sailed northeast.
Before they knew it, another three days had passed at sea.
During that time, they had sailed nearly six hundred kilometers.
The armed merchant ship finally dropped anchor and came to a stop.
On deck, however, Anthony stared gravely at the Eternal Pose in his hand. Its needle was pointing at the white clouds in the sky.
He took out a telescope and watched for a while. At last, he spotted some faint outlines among the clouds, confirming his suspicion.
The Golden Lion had moved Barak Island.
The Beast Legion incident two years ago had drawn the Marines' attention to the Golden Lion. To prevent the same thing from happening again, he had abandoned the dozen or so islands he had previously moved and selected some obscure deserted islands in the East Blue, turning them into a brand-new floating base.
What the Golden Lion had not expected was that Barak Island, which he had moved on a whim, had an Eternal Pose.
In fact, 438 years ago, Barak Island had been a renowned medical nation in the East Blue, and a great many Eternal Poses for it had circulated.
According to the World Government's official historical records, a rare plague had broken out on Barak Island 438 years ago, and the island had soon vanished from the currents of history.
After reading the world history annotated by Noah, however, Anthony knew that every three years, the Celestial Dragons conducted what they called "Human Hunting" in countries that had not joined the World Government.
It was very likely that Barak Island had been destroyed by the Celestial Dragons.
The Golden Lion naturally knew nothing of Barak Island's history. Thinking it was just a deserted island with some historical ruins, he had moved it away.
Since Barak Island was on the way, Anthony had planned to land and investigate, to see whether any medical technology from the Barak Kingdom had been left behind.
Instead, he had ended up finding the Golden Lion's location.
Anthony quickly calmed down. He took out a Den Den Mushi and called Noah directly.
"Big brother, there's been a small complication with the cargo. I need you to come in person. I'll have Ray pick you up."
"Is that so? No problem. I'll be right there."
This was a code the Noah Family had established in advance, primarily as a precaution against their Den Den Mushi being tapped.
Before long, Ray opened a wormhole, and Noah stepped through from the Rum Kingdom.
As soon as Noah arrived, Anthony told him everything he had discovered.
"The Golden Lion is right up there?"
Noah was pleasantly surprised by the news. He had expected that, after suffering a setback, the Golden Lion's precise location would be very difficult to find.
He had not expected to encounter Noah in such a way.
Noah soon took out his tarot cards.
The divination results appeared on the cards.
"A 100% chance of victory, a 62% chance of him escaping, a 21% chance of killing him, and a 7% chance of capturing him."
Noah did not find the divination results troublesome, because they were merely a reference. The future was not set in stone.
He soon thought of a way to raise the chance of a successful capture to nearly one hundred percent.
The merchant ship stayed there for over an hour before setting sail again, with Anthony and Vic continuing their previous mission.
Meanwhile, on a nearby deserted island.
Ray and Noah emerged from a wormhole.
Ray then brought Lilith over from the Rum Kingdom.
Before long, a small sailboat appeared by the shore.
Lilith had changed her appearance and put on an old set of clothes, dressing like a female pirate. She sailed alone through the nearby waters.
Two days later.
When the Golden Lion came down to the sea with his men to raid, Lilith appeared nearby aboard the small sailboat at just the right moment. She then began maneuvering the boat to escape.
The Golden Lion naturally would not let Lilith go after spotting the little sailboat. He rapidly closed in on her.
But Lilith, whose perception of her surroundings was exceptionally sharp, made use of the currents and weather to give the Golden Lion a little thrill.
After capsizing Lilith's boat, the Golden Lion looked at the raging wind and rain around him, a trace of remembrance and anger on his face. At the same time, he looked at the little girl before him with some suspicion and uncertainty.
He grabbed Lilith by the throat. "Did you know a storm would break out here?"
"Cough, cough... You monster..." Lilith pretended to be too weak to resist.
"Hahaha, very good. If you're willing to be my navigator, I can give you anything you want."
"Heh... Even if you're the Golden Lion, you can't help me..." Lilith put on an expression of disdain.
The Golden Lion was instantly consumed by anger. "Are you sure?"
"If you can bring me a Celestial Dragon's head, I'll agree to be your navigator. Otherwise, please let me go." Lilith's eyes were filled with hatred and fury.
Hearing that she wanted a Celestial Dragon killed, the Golden Lion became much less suspicious of Lilith. After all, CP agents would never dare speak ill of the Celestial Dragons.