Wano Country waters.
As a 'giant water mountain' appeared, seemingly standing out of thin air on the sea's surface, the thunderous roar of a massive waterfall vibrated throughout the surroundings.
This was the Guardian Waterfall of Wano Country!
From a distance, it looked like a fixed, ultra-large Knock Up Stream.
Or rather, like a super-giant spring.
It was unknown where this continuous flow of seawater was actually emerging from.
However, in a world where Reverse Currents, Knock Up Streams, Sky Islands, and ten-thousand-meter giant elephants exist, there was no need to discuss science.
Existence is its own justification!
Imagination trumps everything!
As long as it can be imagined, the rest can be left to the 'Power of My Thoughts' to complete.
According to certain legends and intelligence, eight hundred years ago, Joy Boy and the Great Kingdom were defeated.
Joy Boy hid the Pluton in Wano Country and had the Kozuki Family, a clan of stonemasons in Wano, carve the Poneglyphs to preserve various historical truths and prophecies.
Naturally, there was also information about the Great Kingdom, the details and locations of the three Ancient Weapons, and the Road Poneglyphs.
Wano Country began frantically constructing Guardian Walls to protect itself.
Legend has it that even Joy Boy utilized the Sun God Nika's rubber abilities to turn the ground into rubber, pulling up the earth from the flat ground to accelerate the construction of Wano's Guardian Walls.
Finally, knowing the Great Kingdom's cause was lost, Joy Boy ordered the heavily-depleted Wano samurai, the Elbaf Giant Race, and the Fish-Man Island mermen to return to their own lands to preserve their strength and hope.
He himself remained in the Great Kingdom to fight a final battle against the Twenty Kings.
Ultimately, Joy Boy died in battle, and the Great Kingdom was destroyed.
The magnetic fields surrounding the entire island were thrown into such disorder that the Great Kingdom vanished from the world, becoming what would later be known as the 'Final Island'.
This is also the forbidden island of the World Government and the Celestial Dragons.
Any pirate or scholar seeking to reach this island or study the Void Century will be utterly destroyed by the World Government.
Furthermore, it is unknown how Joy Boy established a relationship and became friends with Nefertari Lily, one of the Twenty Kings.
This Queen actually acknowledged Joy Boy, quietly becoming a member of the D Clan as Nefertari D. Lily, and helped Joy Boy scatter the Poneglyphs across the world.
She even brought the Poneglyph regarding Pluton's location back to Alabasta for safekeeping, placing it within the royal mausoleum.
Pluton remains hidden within ancient Wano Country.
However, these constructed Guardian Walls not only protected the subjects of Wano and Pluton but also nearly brought about Wano's ruin.
After the defeat of the Great Kingdom and the death of Joy Boy.
An extreme storm, appearing like fate itself, swept through ancient Wano Country.
Continuous extreme storms raged for several years, turning the impregnable Guardian Walls into water-retaining walls, as countless amounts of rainwater submerged ancient Wano Country.
This forced the subjects of ancient Wano to migrate continuously upward along the great volcano, Mount Fuji.
Only after the massive volume of rainwater from the extreme storms completely flooded the Guardian Walls—forming a natural chasm waterfall that flowed out into the open sea—did Wano stop its upward migration.
In this way, the new Wano Country was formed, while ancient Wano remained submerged beneath the seawater and rainwater trapped within the Guardian Walls.
Even Pluton was submerged within ancient Wano.
This sea area created by the massive Guardian Walls was called the Inner Sea by Wano.
Within the Inner Sea, there are only two inner islands: the new Wano Country, built on the mountainside of the great volcano Mount Fuji, and Onigashima.
Beyond the natural chasm waterfall lies the open sea.
---
Aboard the Flying Battleship, the great love immortal venerable.
Hearing the roar of the waterfall made Shimotsuki Furiko, Shimotsuki Kozaburo, and Fūgetsu Kisaburō feel incredibly excited.
Among them was a sense of homesickness mixed with trepidation.
Especially for Kisaburo; the clan members and retainers of the Fūgetsu Family who had set out to sea were completely wiped out. How could he face the Daimyo Patriarch?
He wondered if his becoming a Shogun of an island would bring even a bit of comfort to the Fūgetsu Daimyo.
When the Shimotsuki contingent fought their way from the New World into the Grand Line, there were also casualties, but overall, they fared reasonably well.
Shimotsuki Furiko held her son, Kogetsu Ryuma, her eyes filled with anticipation.
She wondered if her father would be surprised to know he had a grandson.
As for the punishment from the Shoguns Mansion, Furiko had already ignored it.
Her husband was the Emperor of the Sacred Ancient Moon Empire and the Vice Captain of the strongest pirate crew in the Outer Seas, Great Demon Venerable Gu Yue Fang Huo.
She knew that with Fang Huo's strength, he could already crush all the samurai experts in Wano Country!
"I wonder if that fellow Gyumaru has gotten any stronger..."
Shimotsuki Furiko thought of her somewhat directionally challenged, foolish younger brother Shimotsuki Ushimaru. This brother was single-mindedly devoted to the sword and had a simple personality; even when wandering to the Northern Cemetery to pay respects to their ancestor Ryuma, he couldn't find his way home.
He was truly a cause for concern.
"A natural chasm waterfall created by extreme storms, a new Wano Country built on the mountainside of Mount Fuji, yet there appeared Sea Stone, which is like solid seawater..."
Fang Huo looked at the massive waterfall and murmured softly.
Another extreme storm!
Ancient Wano was submerged, which protected Wano and also protected Pluton.
This had a faint, elusive similarity to the extreme storm during the Battle of Edd War that protected the Roger Pirates.
These extreme storms that always seemed to appear coincidentally at critical moments... Could it be that the wrathful God of Ocean in the halle divine codex mural truly exists?
This truly is a world full of predestination and fate.
"Husband, the Ringo District is over there."
Shimotsuki Furiko desperately wanted to go home and didn't want to waste a single moment.
"Alright!"
Fang Huo adjusted the direction of the Flying Battleship, even though his main objective for this trip was the Sea Stone quarry in Udon.
But he didn't mind spending a few days to meet his father-in-law and brother-in-law.
As for the black blade shusui on Shimotsuki Ryuma's grave in the Northern Cemetery, let Kogetsu Ryuma go get it himself when he grows up.
Without the grave robber Gekko Moriah, the national treasure Shusui, this black blade, would be safe in Wano for hundreds of years.
Moreover, as Fang Huo's development of the Munch-Munch Fruit ability progressed, various alloys were becoming increasingly powerful.
Forging a great grade blade was as easy as snapping his fingers; with a little more time, he could even forge supreme grade meito like gokudō kaisen and Murakumogiri.
Besides using the Gulp-Gulp ability for high-quality synthesis, Fang Huo also developed the Lightning High-Temperature Quenching Method and the Super-Gravity Forging Hammer Method, taking the quality of weapons to the next level.
What Fang Huo lacked now were ores with special attributes, like those found in cursed blades or demonic blades.
Like the seven star demon sword which can control souls, the ominous demonic power of the Kitetsu series, enma which can drain Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki... and thundor ragnar which can store Haoshoku and comes with its own Conquerors Haki Infusion... Fang Huo was currently unable to synthesize these types of special metals with inherent attributes.
Perhaps such special ores can only be formed in specific natural environments.
At this moment, at the port of the Ringo District, Shimotsuki Ichiran looked at the life paper, which was twitching faster and faster, his eyes filled with worry and anticipation.
He even wanted to take a boat out to sea and wait at the edge of the Inner Sea for his daughter, who would be coming up against the current of the Guardian Waterfall.
But his retainers stopped him; after all, the undercurrents at the edge of the Inner Sea were turbulent and extremely dangerous.
One mistake could lead to being swept directly down the waterfall and falling into the Outer Sea.
Just as Shimotsuki Ichiran's face was full of anxiety, a Flying Battleship appeared before everyone's shocked eyes...