In the White-White Sea, roughly two kilometers northwest of Angel Island.
Three Shandia warriors, draped in artificial clouds, were cautiously watching the area not far away.
Suddenly, the three saw more than a hundred sky cavalrymen and a large wooden ship rapidly approaching them.
"This is bad! We've been spotted! Run!" Laki, who still looked somewhat inexperienced, turned pale.
Mantis Kamakiri and Braham immediately reacted.
But then a voice sounded behind the three of them.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen." Tomani appeared behind them with a smile.
Mantis immediately swung his burning sword, but in the next second, it cut through nothing but an illusion. Tomani's body vanished on the wind.
"Visual Art: Palette!"
In an instant, dozens of Tomanis appeared around them.
"Explosive Burning Slash!" Facing a formidable enemy, Mantis swept his sword indiscriminately in every direction.
"Visual Art: Inverted Corridor!"
In an instant, the world around them seemed to turn upside down. Vivid, kaleidoscopic staircases closed in on the three from every direction.
Mantis, Laki, and Braham stood back to back.
But they soon felt dizzy and disoriented. The kaleidoscopic staircases around them had a powerful hypnotic effect and disrupted their vision.
They were already trapped in an illusion, with no way to break free.
The next moment, the surrounding staircases scattered into countless flower petals, and Laki, Mantis, and Braham discovered that their hands and feet had been shackled.
"When did this happen?" Laki was astonished.
Tomani strolled out of thin air with a smile. "The moment you heard my voice."
Mantis, who had just come to his senses, noticed something important. "No wings. You're not Skypieans!"
"Tomani, have you had enough fun? Bring them up!"
At Noah's prompting, Tomani casually picked up the three of them and used Geppo to return to the wooden ship's deck.
Mantis saw Noah basking in the sun on deck, and his expression grew grave. He could sense a terrifying aura coming from Noah.
Noah glanced at him but had no intention of speaking to him.
The wooden ship and the sky cavalry force rapidly headed northwest.
They crossed roughly thirty-seven kilometers of the White-White Sea.
Noah and his group arrived at an unremarkable stretch of the White-White Sea.
But soon, a large group of Shandia People emerged from the nearby White-White Sea, including Wyper, who had just become a great warrior, and the chief of the Shandia tribe.
Standing on the deck, Noah looked at the Shandia People surrounding them. "This is Hidden Cloud Village, isn't it?"
Seeing Mantis, Laki, and the others bound on the deck, Wyper could no longer contain his anger. He charged at Noah with a weapon made from a Sky Island shell:
"Blue Sea man! Hand over Mantis and the others!"
"You're overestimating yourself."
The next moment, a violent blast of Conqueror's Haki struck all the Shandia People. Wyper, who bore the brunt of it, turned purplish-red, and even with his teeth clenched, he was still pinned in place, unable to move.
The other Shandia People fared even worse, falling in heaps as they stared in horror at the figure on the deck.
The old and shrewd chief immediately stepped forward. "My lord, we had no intention of offending you. Please forgive our rudeness..."
"Enough. I don't want to hear about your so-called history. I'm only here to offer you a brand-new future. The question is, are you willing to accept it?" Noah asked, a hint of a smile on his face.
The chief and Wyper, who had been brought aboard the deck, looked startled and uncertain when they heard Noah's words.
"My lord, how do you intend to deal with us?" the chief asked cautiously.
"I've already brought Angel Island and God's Island under the rule of the Kingdom of Dawn. If you're willing to join and abide by the kingdom's rules, I can allow you to live on God's Island."
"My lord, will you really allow us to live on God's Island?" the chief asked, both surprised and delighted.
"Why would I need to deceive you? If I wanted to deal with you, why would I go to this trouble?"
The chief immediately understood.
Indeed, given the situation, if Noah really wanted to deal with the Shandia People, he could simply kill them all. There was no need for any schemes.
"My lord, I'm willing to lead the Shandia People to join the Kingdom of Dawn." The chief immediately dropped to one knee and pledged his loyalty to Noah.
"Get up! From now on, we're one family, and your grudge against the Skypieans ends here."
Though Wyper and the other young Shandia were unwilling to accept it, the chief accepted this reality. After all, they had fought the Skypieans for four hundred years and had long since grown tired.
Soon, with the chief's cooperation, all 1,273 Shandia People in the tribe were gathered together. Noah then brought out several large transport ships and took them all back to Upper Jaya Island.
When the transport ships reached the shore of Upper Jaya Island.
The chief and the other Shandia People stepped onto the land with tears streaming down their faces.
But an uninvited guest soon arrived.
A massive python emerged from the sea of clouds.
Noah's Conqueror's Haki gathered in an instant. Its crushing pressure seemed capable of shattering heaven and earth, leaving the Sky Lord, Nola, trembling.
"I know you can understand me. From now on, you'll be the guardian of this Sky Island. Are you willing?"
The Sky Lord Nola could already sense the chill in Noah's words. It seemed that if he refused, Noah would hack him to pieces, so he hurriedly nodded in fright.
"Go play by yourself. Don't hurt people without reason from now on."
As if granted a pardon, Nola immediately darted into the sea of clouds.
The chief watched the giant snake depart, a trace of reminiscence appearing on his face. "It's the Sky Lord. Lord Noah really is powerful."
Rather than chat with them, Noah led the group to the ruins of Shandora.
He also brought down the Golden Bell and the Poneglyph, which had been pushed high into the sky by a giant vine.
"The Golden Bell! It really is the Golden Bell!" The chief excitedly ran his hands over it, then looked at the huge black stone. "This is what our ancestors always protected."
Noah laughed. "Heh, you should be grateful the Knock Up Stream sent you up to Sky Island back then. Otherwise, you would have been wiped out long ago."
"What? Why?" Wyper asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Do you know what this is? It's a Poneglyph, and it's taboo to the World Government. If you were still down on Jaya Island, sooner or later the World Government would have set its sights on you and wiped you out completely."
Noah then added, "And as for that agreement Noland made with your ancestors, you'd better not be idiots about it."
The chief felt somewhat uncomfortable, but he remained very restrained. "Lord Noah! Although we agreed to join the Kingdom of Dawn, the agreement with Noland concerns a promise made by our ancestors. We cannot break it."
"Read this book first!" Noah casually handed him a copy of Noland the Liar.
The chief was somewhat puzzled, but he took it. When he saw what was written inside, his face involuntarily showed a trace of anger:
"Our benefactor was falsely branded a liar."
Noah shook his head, genuinely worried about their intelligence. "You really are honest folk! You're still grateful after being sold out."
"What do you mean by that, Lord Noah?" The chief frowned deeply.
"Noland revealed that there was gold on Jaya Island. Afterward, an expedition fleet from the Lvneel Kingdom came to Jaya Island based on Noland's account, but found no gold there, and then Noland was executed by the king. Haven't you noticed anything wrong with that?"
The chief thought it over carefully, and suddenly cold sweat poured down his face.
"It looks like you've figured it out. If Shandora hadn't been sent up to Sky Island back then, you would have been attacked by the Lvneel Kingdom's expedition fleet. You might even have been wiped out."
"How could this be?" For a moment, the chief felt utterly miserable.
The agreement the Shandia People had waited four hundred years to fulfill had such hidden consequences behind it.
The other Shandia People looked miserable as well.