The halberd in the chest was about four and a half meters long.
Its shaft was entirely pitch-black, as if dyed with ink.
Even under the high noon sun, it didn't reflect a single ray of light.
Only the diamond-shaped tip and the wide, crescent-shaped blades on either side reflected a faint, subtle shimmer.
But no matter how Carlo looked at it, the halberd seemed quite ordinary.
There was nothing particularly striking about it.
Was this unremarkable halberd really what Wang Zhi wanted?
Was he just looking for an excuse to take something and save face?
Or was there something special about this polearm, a weapon rarely seen in this world?
"A Meito?"
The term immediately sprang to Carlo's mind.
However, he wasn't sure if it was just his own ignorance.
In all his years, Carlo had never seen an obscure weapon like a halberd in any book detailing famous blades.
Seeing Carlo remain silent,
Wang Zhi felt a surge of joy, assuming Carlo had tacitly agreed to his request.
With a sudden movement, he flickered across the distance and reappeared on Carlo's ship without warning, reaching out to grab the pitch-black halberd in the chest.
However, another hand was faster. It reached into the broken wooden chest first, gripped the slightly rough shaft of the halberd, and pulled it out!
"Hmm?"
The moment the black halberd was in his hand, the expression on Carlo's face shifted.
The weight of this halberd... it wasn't right!
Although he had managed to snatch the halberd from the chest before Wang Zhi could,
the sheer weight of this unremarkable halberd was so exaggerated that even Carlo, whose strength exceeded 70 points and rivaled that of an Ogre, couldn't help but feel surprised.
This cold weapon, less than five meters long, weighed at least fifty tons!
It was two or three times heavier than the rockery he used for training on Hachinosu!
This absurd weight left Carlo stunned.
What kind of high-density metal was this made of?
An equal volume of steel would probably only weigh a few tons at most.
Seeing Carlo intervene and snatch away what he wanted,
Wang Zhi's face instantly turned incredibly sour.
The smile vanished from his face, and the look he gave Carlo became cold and vicious.
"Carlo! What is the meaning of this?"
Holding the black halberd, Carlo looked at him expressionlessly.
"It doesn't mean anything, Wang Zhi. Pick another treasure. I'm taking this halberd; I happen to be in need of a suitable weapon."
Wang Zhi rested his right hand on the hilt at his waist, a dangerous glint appearing in his eyes. "Are you doing this on purpose? Intentionally opposing me?"
"I said, I'm taking this halberd." Carlo ignored his fierce gaze, testing the weight of the black halberd in his hand before giving it a swing.
The terrifying weight of the halberd sliced through the air, letting out a dull whistle and whipping up a gust of wind across the deck.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"
Carlo swung it faster and faster, it becoming more natural and urgent with every movement.
Eventually, the halberd in his hand became a blur of pitch-black shadows.
The airflow generated by the halberd caused the entire steamship beneath his feet to vibrate and sway.
Suddenly, Carlo pivoted and stepped forward, gripping the halberd with both hands as he brought it down in a vertical slash toward the sea behind him.
At the moment of the strike, for some reason, Carlo subconsciously released the Haki within his body, coating it onto the wide blade of the halberd.
In the next instant.
"Swish!!"
A crescent-shaped shockwave, as black as ink, erupted from the blade and sliced into the sea ahead of Carlo.
The shockwave was dozens of meters high, slicing through the ocean like a shark's fin and carving a narrow, kilometer-long fissure into the surface of the water!
The wreckage of the other steamship, which Wang Zhi had ordered sunk and was now tilting on the surface, silently split in two as the shockwave passed through it.
And at the moment the halberd swung down, Carlo clearly saw a large amount of black lightning erupting from the pitch-black shaft!
Carlo's pupils suddenly constricted.
"Is this... my Haki?"
The black lightning erupting from the halberd was unmistakably the Armament Haki he had just infused into it.
However, it was different from the Haki Carlo usually released.
This black, lightning-like Haki could only be formed when Armament Haki was highly compressed.
It was an application of Haki that contained powerful offensive capabilities.
Among the Fist Bone techniques he had learned from Garp, there were skills related to this.
Until now, Carlo had not yet fully mastered this advanced technique.
To produce a highly compressed Haki lightning effect, even with his current strength, he would need to prepare in advance, much like Elizabeth I.
But now... just by swinging this halberd, he had used this powerful technique effortlessly!
Carlo looked at the black halberd in his hand in disbelief.
This thing... it can actually compress Haki?
This miraculous weapon effect immediately brought Kozuki Oden's blade, Enma, to Carlo's mind.
It was only then that Carlo realized the black color on the halberd wasn't the original color of the forged metal.
Instead, it was a blackness formed by years of being permeated by something, possessing a heavy, profound texture.
"Is this a Black Blade?!"
Even if Carlo were slow-witted, he would have realized by now that this pitch-black halberd was very likely a Black Blade!
A so-called Black Blade is a weapon tempered by Armament Haki over time.
The characteristic of such a weapon is its unparalleled hardness and resilience.
The nurturing and tempering of Haki significantly increases the hardness and toughness of the metal used to forge the weapon.
This characteristic alone is enough to elevate a Black Blade-grade weapon into the ranks of the great grade blade.
In other words, the black halberd he was holding was at least an great grade blade!
"Do you recognize this weapon?" Carlo asked, gripping the halberd as if he couldn't bear to let go, looking at Wang Zhi, whose face was becoming increasingly grim.
Wang Zhi didn't speak; he just stared fixedly at the halberd in his hand.
Seeing that he wouldn't speak, Carlo looked at Kaido, who was completely bewildered.
"Don't ask me, I don't know anyth—"
Before Kaido could finish, he saw Carlo's gaze skip right over him.
"You bastard... what's with that look?!"
Even though he really didn't know, Carlo's dismissive look still made Kaido furious.
Carlo thought he wouldn't be able to find out the name and origin of the halberd here.
Unexpectedly, when he glanced at Old Buck nearby, he noticed that the haggard old pirate had a strange look in his eyes as he looked at the halberd.
Keenly sensing this, Carlo asked directly, "Do you know this weapon?"
Old Buck nodded nervously. "I... I do."
Without waiting for Carlo to press further, he pointed at the halberd and said hesitantly, "This weapon... it seems to be the national treasure of the Flower Country that was lost for hundreds of years, the legendary heavenly dragon halberd."