Chapter 171: Is Fire Fist Ace Here, Too?
The more information Bill heard, the uglier his expression became. "Boss, why don't we leave Silver Island first? I heard that the Emperor and 3 Marquises of the Goa Empire are very powerful. What with meteorites, blood-sucking devil vines, and heads falling off by themselves—it's too terrifying."
"That Jack kills without batting an eye; wherever he goes, there's devastation everywhere, and not a blade of grass grows." The cadres and members of the Silver Alliance were already trembling with fear from these messages. They had run rampant in the first half of the New World, hunting down rookie pirate crews who had just entered. But when it came to truly facing powerful forces, they were just small fry. One Jack could wipe them out several times over. Perhaps Boss Bill couldn't even defeat Buffalo Atmos. After all, the fame of Whitebeard's 16 Division Commanders was immense. Bill was confident he could defeat a few of Whitebeard's affiliated Captains with bounties of 200 or 300 million Berries.
"Where are we going to escape to? This is our territory!" Bill cursed with a dark expression. Now, the entire Silver Island was filled with a large number of mine tunnels and passages, forming a war fortress. They would hide in the mine tunnels and engage in guerrilla warfare with the enemy, not feeling intimidated at all. As long as they lured the enemy into the mine tunnels, they could bury them alive by collapsing the tunnels. In short, Bill couldn't bring himself to flee Silver Island in disgrace. Since those bastards wanted to turn Silver Island into a battlefield, he would find a way to make these bastards buried on Silver Island.
"Bring all the explosives out for me; I'm going to blow them to hell." Instead of strategically fleeing, Bill planned to use the terrain of Silver Island to deal with these arrogant powerhouses. At Bill's command, all the cadres and subordinates of the Silver Alliance sprang into action, setting up explosives and traps in various mine tunnels.
The Exile Emperor slowly made its way towards Silver Island, also waiting for the enemy to arrive. It took the Goa Empire 2 days to reach Silver Island. During these 2 days, everyone had been cultivating, preparing for the upcoming battle to make a name for themselves.
Issho was not so fixated on being promoted to Duke, and Spartan was not confident in defeating Jack. So, neither of them had any objection to Aramaki snatching Jack as an opponent. However, Zoro, Saga, and Bege were under immense pressure. After all, they were going to fight against the affiliated Captains of the Whitebeard Pirates. Those were all well-known elite Captains in the New World, each incredibly powerful. Kael had them team up to deal with these affiliated Captains. If they couldn't win but still insisted on a 1-on-1 fight, that would be irrational.
"Go and make a name for yourselves throughout the world, and make the Goa Empire and your own names famous!" As Silver Island appeared, Kael sat on the Kirin Lion, waving and smiling at everyone. He wanted to promote the Emperor and 3 Marquises to the Emperor and 3 Imperial Dukes. He wanted the World Government and the Four Emperors to get a good look at the Goa Empire's hard power.
"Ahahaha, Vlad the Impaler's name will surely spread throughout the world!" Aramaki was determined to defeat Jack and become the first man to be promoted to Imperial Duke. As for the 2 former Dukes of the Goa Kingdom, Outlook III's ducal family was annihilated by Kael, and 1 old Duke who obstructed Kael from going to war was directly exiled. The 2 Dukes of the Goa Kingdom disappeared.
When the Goa Kingdom was promoted to the Goa Empire, Kael ordered that all original titles of the Goa Kingdom be forcibly demoted by 1 rank, causing the Marquis title to also disappear. There were also many useless Barons who even lost their titles, while a portion of decent Barons were retained.
Now, among the original nobles of the Goa Empire, only 4 Earls, 8 Viscounts, and 34 Barons remained. The current Hereditary Title system of the Goa Empire had also become a system of generational demotion. Without contributions and merits, titles inherited from ancestors would decrease in rank with each generation. It was possible that more than half of the 34 Barons of this generation would disappear in the next generation. Therefore, more and more Hereditary Titles joined the Imperial Guard to earn merits and preserve their family's titles.
Moreover, these original Kingdom titles were called 'Civil Titles' by the Goa citizens, while the meritorious titles conferred by Kael were called 'Military Titles'. The status of Civil Titles was lower than that of Military Titles. Even the Earls with Civil Titles would be polite when they saw Zoro, who held a Military Viscount title. However, the monarchs of other Allied Nations would still be polite when they saw a Civil Earl of the Goa Empire. This was the power of the Goa Empire.
The Exile Emperor quickly sailed into the port of Silver Island. "The people on the island seem to be hiding in the mines." Issho sensed the situation on this Silver Island. Logically, this Silver Alliance was also an armed group that captured pirates, so why would they hide from the Goa Empire? Did they not even dare to greet guests?
"It seems they also consider the Goa Empire an enemy." Kael looked at this Silver Island; that Bill was also an arrogant and ambitious fellow, unlikely to submit to others. Hiding from Kael meant that Bill looked down on the Goa Empire's titles. "Don't worry about them; we just need to wait for Jack and the others to arrive."
"Since they are unwilling to come out, you don't need to look for them. These mine tunnels are interconnected, making it easy to get lost and unable to get out, and there are also many traps inside. If the mines are flooded by explosions, or if the passages are collapsed and you get trapped inside, that would be a bit troublesome." Kael sensed that there were quite a few people observing the Exile Emperor at the entrances of these mine tunnels. Bill avoided him, and Kael couldn't be bothered with him.
Using Jack to gain fame was Kael's main objective this time. If the Four Emperors didn't make a move, Kael would even consider going to Hive Island to defeat the boss, Wang Zhi. Finally, he would enter North Blue with great momentum and subdue the stubborn North Blue underworld.
"These little mice don't even have bounties." Aramaki didn't care about Bill, the leader of the Silver Alliance, at all. If they dared to show their faces, Aramaki's vines could fill any number of mine tunnels. The people of the Goa Empire landed at the port and immediately started a banquet there, with no intention of sending anyone to explore the mine tunnels. This made Bill's extensive traps and preparations look like a joke.
"Do they really not want this Silver Island?" Bill's mood was very heavy. Could it be that Kael really just wanted to use Silver Island as a battlefield and had no intention of occupying the island or plundering its pure silver? He heard that the Goa Empire had looted a lot of things in the Kano Kingdom and Wano Country. Although the pure silver of Silver Island was not as valuable as gold, it was still a precious metal and worth a good amount of Berries. Kael surprisingly did not directly enter the mines to steal silver. This made Bill a bit conflicted; if these people didn't steal the silver, how could he use the mine traps to deal with these bastards? Should he send people out to provoke the Emperor and 3 Marquises and forcibly lure them in?
While waiting, the Whitebeard Pirates' fleet arrived in the waters of Silver Island before Jack. "Are the 3 Division Commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates here?" Aramaki only wanted to fight great pirates with bounties over 1 billion Berries; he wasn't interested in Division Commanders with bounties of 500 or 600 million Berries. And in Whitebeard's fleet, Kael actually saw Fire Fist Ace. Was this rising star, the 2nd Division Commander, also here to join the fun? Was he here to stand up for Buffalo Atmos, or simply to challenge strong opponents and fight? "It seems things are getting interesting." Besides Fire Fist Ace, Kael seemed to have spotted a few other familiar figures; quite a few guys had shown up.
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