Any bearer of Black Sun power who reached the Master rank was required to enter the Cyber Dimension for real combat at fixed intervals.
Once every three days, without exception.
At least ten real-player battles per month—mandatory.
Fail to participate for more than three days, and Black Sun points would begin to drain automatically. Each additional day doubled the penalty, until the offender was forcibly demoted from the Master tier.
The Black Sun Arena primarily operated in a 5v5 competitive format. Victors would seize 20 to 30 Black Sun points directly from the defeated side.
There was also a solo dueling mode.
Single combat.
Open wagers.
Winner takes everything.
Loser… eats dust.
To "ensure fairness," Xiao even introduced an ELO rating system.
The result was simple and brutal.
The strong grew stronger.
The weak became nothing more than leeks waiting to be harvested.
If they wished to preserve their power, there was only one choice—
continue enforcing justice and harvesting sin.
Xiao's intention was never subtle.
He wanted to accelerate the accumulation of Black Sun power, pushing the fusion of the two Devil Fruits forward at maximum speed.
There was another purpose as well.
To make the Earthly Executors accustomed to being harvested.
Once these executors clawed their way to the King tier, stepping over mountains of corpses and sin, Xiao would personally enter the arena—
And reap them.
Even if their painstakingly accumulated Black Sun points were taken away, those fanatical believers would never complain.
They would only believe that Xiao was stronger.
After all, in their worldview, if Xiao could harvest them, then one day they might also harvest Xiao in return.
That was how the ladder worked.
…
…
After the banquet marking conquest and reorganization, Xiao changed attire, reshaped his appearance into Blackbeard, and led his men onto the Grand Line.
Not long after, they encountered a bizarre duo:
Poison Q, the sickly ship doctor, and his skeletal horse, Stronger.
Facing this ominous pair, Xiao relied on what was known as "overwhelming luck" to subdue Poison Q effortlessly.
Poison Q's test of "fortune" was infamous.
He would place one normal apple among a basket of exploding apples.
Whoever could pick and eat the safe one without hesitation earned his recognition.
Yet this encounter made something clear to Xiao.
It revealed the operational logic of destiny itself within the pirate world.
According to the original timeline, Poison Q should have attacked the Drum Kingdom alongside Blackbeard.
But this time, he hadn't.
Xiao had assumed the opportunity was lost.
Yet fate simply redirected the meeting.
Blackbeard Teach did not meet Poison Q—
Blackbeard Xiao did.
Destiny did not care who wore the name.
It only required a villain to move the world forward.
That was the secret behind Xiao inheriting Blackbeard's terrifying fortune.
Individuals were irrelevant.
What mattered was who occupied the role.
Since fate was so powerful, Xiao naturally became curious.
And curious people liked to test limits.
Thus, Xiao immediately set course for Whiskey Peak, intending to intercept and annihilate the Straw Hat Pirates ahead of schedule.
But from the moment he resolved to oppose fate directly—
Everything went wrong.
The journey turned into a nightmare.
Every few steps brought a raging storm.
Every few miles summoned colossal Sea Kings.
The probability of encountering Sea Kings surged to a ludicrous one hundred percent.
There was no peace.
Not a single calm stretch of sea.
Yet the moment Xiao abandoned the chase and retraced his original route—
The world softened.
The seas calmed.
The skies cleared.
Luck returned.
Poison Q even stumbled upon a Devil Fruit perfectly suited to him.
Xiao refused to believe it.
He pressed on toward the Straw Hats again.
The result?
The instant he closed in, a cataclysmic superstorm erupted—
Blasting both fleets straight into the Doldrums, a sea of death.
By the time Xiao dragged his crew out of the Sea Kings' encirclement and escaped the forbidden waters—
The Straw Hat Pirates had already reached Alabasta.
"…This is absurd."
Xiao's face darkened, fury rolling off him in suffocating waves.
His subordinates trembled beneath the pressure.
For the first time in his life, Xiao truly understood the saying:
"When fortune arrives, heaven and earth unite to help you.
When fortune leaves, even heroes are bound."
The power of destiny was terrifying.
No wonder the Golden Lion, who once commanded over a hundred warships, had been obliterated by a sudden tsunami during his battle with Roger.
His fleet shattered.
His body crippled.
His momentum lost forever.
On the Grand Line, where the weather itself seemed alive, fate's power was magnified to an absurd degree.
The closer one came to the Straw Hat Pirates, the more violently the world reacted—
Storms, monsters, disasters, as though the sea itself were protecting them.
Yet after a month of torment, the ordeal was not without reward.
Forced to survive endless crises, every member of the Blackbeard Pirates underwent explosive growth.
More importantly, Xiao's understanding of destiny deepened.
He began to grasp its limits.
Fate could punish him—
Through storms.
Through accidents.
Through chains of "inevitable misfortune."
But it could not directly strike him.
It was bound by the planet itself.
In other words—
Even the God of Fate could not truly harm Xiao.
…
And that realization?
That was worth every storm.
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