When he sent off the Blackbeard Pirates at Thriller Bark, Link had created three wood clones with a massive amount of chakra.
The three wood clones divided the work, with two in the first half of the Grand Line and one in the second half.
The two wood clones in the first half were responsible for monitoring the two Children of Destiny, Luffy and Teach, allowing Link to successfully obtain the Logia-type Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
The wood clone in the second half went to find Punk Hazard.
Punk Hazard, the island of ice and fire in the original story, was also once Vegapunk's research base.
Two years ago, Caesar Clown developed a poison gas monster called "Land of the Dead," turning Punk Hazard into an island of death and blowing up two of its three research institutes.
This act led to Caesar's arrest by the Marines, but he successfully escaped from a prison ship using the abilities of the Logia-type Gas-Gas Fruit, and his bounty was immediately set at 300 million Beri.
Last year, Caesar returned to the poison gas-covered Punk Hazard, purified the toxic materials there, and began producing artificial Devil Fruits and researching gigantification, as well as large-scale development of the "Land of the Dead."
After obtaining the Paramecia-type Door-Door Fruit from Teach, Link immediately had his wood clone enter the New World, find the island, and infiltrate the room Caesar used specifically for storing failed artificial Devil Fruits, obtaining the artificial Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon, which was stored in a glass tank.
After recruiting Hancock, Link had Carina take Nojiko to the New World to retrieve the artificial Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon from the wood clone.
The artificial Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon, was the world's first artificial Devil Fruit. It took Vegapunk over a decade to research, and it was considered a failure.
The reason it was deemed a failure was quite comical: the one who ate the Devil Fruit turned into a dragon, but it wasn't an Azure Dragon.
For such a comical reason, Vegapunk left the Devil Fruit in his research lab. He neither gave it to the World Government nor took it to Future Island, which ended up benefiting the time-traveling Kozuki Momonosuke.
Having read the original story, Link knew very well that Vegapunk had not failed; he had truly replicated a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit, which was even rarer than a Logia type.
Whatever abilities the Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon had, the artificial version also had.
This artificial Mythical Zoan could change one's fate as miraculously as other Mythical Zoans. If the person who ate this Devil Fruit was a mutated human like Teach, or a member of another race with a powerful physique, they could also immediately enter their full form, just like the grown-up Kozuki Momonosuke.
Link was now going to recruit such a person.
In his opinion, no one was more suitable to be the host of the artificial Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon than that person.
Ten thousand meters below the Sabaody Archipelago, Fish-Man Island was currently in a state of chaos.
Just as chaotic were the islands in the New World that flew the flag of the Whitebeard Pirates.
As the world's strongest pirate crew, the Whitebeard Pirates occupied the largest piece of the pie in the New World.
Now that Whitebeard was dead, this pie had lost its owner and was naturally being frantically fought over by the great pirate crews of the New World.
It wasn't just the great pirate crews; even the Four Emperors had entered the fray.
Fish-Man Island, which had always been peaceful under the protection of Whitebeard's flag, had now lost its protector.
Thinking of the prices that mermaids fetched on the black market, the pirates who coated their ships and entered Fish-Man Island couldn't help but be overcome with greed.
So, for the past few days, pirates had been burning, killing, and looting all over Fish-Man Island. Fortunately, the Fish-Man Island guards were no pushovers, and those pirates had not succeeded.
But battles result in casualties.
In just a few days, many civilians on Fish-Man Island had been affected, and the guard force had also suffered numerous casualties, which greatly worried Neptune.
Although Jinbe, Knight of the Sea, was not killed by Link, he was the only pirate who did not break out of prison.
He hadn't met Luffy and was unwilling to accept help from the traitor Teach, so he hadn't left Impel Down.
Because of his status as a Warlord of the Sea, his Ryugu Kingdom being a member nation, and for the sake of racial balance, the World Government would surely not do anything to Jinbe.
Not only would he be released, but his Warlord title would also be preserved.
But it would certainly take a considerable amount of time for Jinbe to return...
During this period, the Ryugu Kingdom could only hold on.
Even now, the three Neptune brothers were leading the Neptune Army in battle against the pirates.
Creeak—
A giant door of air suddenly appeared on the battlefield.
The fighting Neptune Army and the various pirate crews subconsciously stopped their actions and turned their gazes towards it.
Many who had watched the live broadcast of the Summit War found the door of air somewhat familiar, but they couldn't quite place it at the moment.
But in the next second, the expressions of everyone on the field changed drastically.
After the giant door opened, a ten-meter-tall nine-tailed fox slowly walked out from the green, otherworldly space.
Atop the nine-tailed fox's head sat a young man.
No one was unfamiliar with this young man.
He was one of the two most dazzling protagonists of the Summit War, with a bounty even higher than that of the world-rule-breaking Marshall D. Teach—the Impaler Prince, Link.
Link glanced over the battlefield, then released his Perception Technique.
Immediately, he clapped his hands together:
"Wood Style: Silent Killing Binding Technique!"
In an instant, on the battlefield below and in various places across Fish-Man Island, a large number of branches suddenly grew out of the ground. Like ropes, they bound everyone whose body energy reached a certain threatening level.
These branches appeared very suddenly, as if they had a will of their own. Those who didn't react, or who reacted but were caught by the pursuing branches, were all tied up tightly.
The moment they were entangled by the branches, everyone's energy was rapidly drained, and they lost their ability to fight in the blink of an eye.
Link, having taken out the entire field in a single move, slowly stood up. He looked down at the fish-men and pirates who had lost their ability to fight but were still conscious, and said calmly, "From now on, Fish-Man Island is my territory!"
Zzzzzzt...
Almost at the instant Link's words fell, Nami's wrist transformed into electricity and she disappeared.
A bolt of lightning struck down, blasting the Whitebeard Pirates' flag, which no one had yet dared to take down, into ashes.
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