"There is no high-value prey on Red Soil Island this time!"
Makas Petygrew, a God's Knight, had little interest in this elimination game.
Her current strength was insufficient to claim the position of Commander, and there were no outstanding Divine Blades among her clansmen, so it was unlikely anyone could be promoted to God's Knight.
Of course, other families would never allow a single family to have two God's Knights.
Unless your strength was truly formidable and you received the personal attention and recognition of Lord Imu.
In the future, the Figarland family would even come close to the grand spectacle of having three God's Knights in one family.
If Shanks hadn't deserted at the last moment, the Figarland family would have truly become the strongest Celestial Dragon family.
One Gorosei, one Commander of the Gods Knights, and one God's Knight.
Originally, Imu wanted Shanks, a Divine Blade, to become a God's Knight; it was only after Shanks fled that he considered letting Harald take the spot.
Once a Divine Blade's Shallow Sea Mark left the range of Holy Land Mary Geoise, Imu could no longer sense them from a distance or exert forced control.
However, the Deep Sea Mark of a God's Knight and the abyss mark of the Gorosei allowed Imu to control their will regardless of the distance.
This was why, while Shanks was undercover in Holy Land Mary Geoise, he didn't dare speak to Harald and even directly rebuked him, fearing Imu might notice something amiss.
In the main storyline, there are new God's Knights like Saint Shamrock, Marfygong Gunko, and Saint Limosiv Qilingom, indicating that God's Knights have died or been replaced.
If the deaths of these God's Knights weren't due to Imu actively reclaiming their immortality to erase them...
Then the most likely possibility is that they died at the hands of the Roger Pirates.
After all, Saint Garling, who became the Commander of the Gods Knights, gave the order to the God's Knights to retrieve his son, Shanks.
The God's Knights repeatedly sought trouble with the Roger Pirates.
It was during these battles that the Roger Pirates figured out the method to kill the God's Knights.
That was to use high-level Conquerors Haki Coating to slowly wear down the God's Knight's immortal body.
Perhaps it was because the Roger Pirates had killed a God's Knight that Shepherd Ten Somaz Saint broke out in a cold sweat of fear upon seeing Rayleigh in Elbaf.
It seemed Saint Somaz was not only beaten up by Rayleigh during the 'hero saving the beauty' incident at God Valley.
Later, when seeking trouble with the Roger Pirates, he was nearly hacked to death by Roger and Rayleigh using Conquerors Haki Coating.
---
Hearing Makas Petygrew mention Red Soil Island,
Thatchers Mafy Palace recalled the Counts Son who had escaped on Red Soil Island, a lower-world ant who had awakened Conqueror's Haki.
A mere person with awakened Conqueror's Haki shouldn't be able to cause much of a stir.
Later, Thatchers Mafy Palace stopped paying attention to that fleeing Counts Son.
As a dignified God's Knight, she had actually failed her elimination attempt after putting so much effort into a lower-world ant.
It was indeed a bit embarrassing.
If that Counts Son dared to return to Red Soil Island, he would be erased in passing.
Making this lower-world ant watch his hometown be destroyed bit by bit could also be quite fun.
---
Satan Saint looked at the Age-Age Fruit recovered by the World Government.
Before it became a prize for this competition, he didn't even know the Celestial Dragon treasury held this Devil Fruit.
This Devil Fruit had historically manifested a certain divine form.
This made Satan Saint, the Science Defense Martial God, very interested.
If the Divine Blade of the Jaygarcia Family couldn't seize this Devil Fruit,
He would use his status as one of the Gorosei to requisition or purchase the Devil Fruit from the winner for scientific research.
A Age-Age Fruit ability that could even transform one into a deity was indeed full of wonder.
Could it also transform into the Sun God, God of Ocean, God of Forest, God of Earth...?
Satan Saint didn't know the mechanism or power of this ability.
He had to research it thoroughly.
To see if he could cultivate a 'Sun God' loyal to himself.
---
Saint Garling didn't continue to focus on the Devil Fruit prizes; he flipped through the devil fruit encyclopedia.
Mythical Zoan: Azure Dragon Ability, Phoenix Ability, Qilin Ability, Yamata no Orochi Ability... As a noble Celestial Dragon, Saint Garling most desired the Azure Dragon Ability; he wanted to become a high-and-mighty divine dragon, looking down upon the world.
Although there were no Devil Fruits that tempted him this time, he still had to perform well and fight for the position of Commander.
---
"The Jaygarcia Family is truly generous, contributing two Lunarian Tribe slaves as high-value prey!"
"This Saint must personally kill these two high-value prey worth ten thousand points!"
"The Herbert Family contributed three rare Minks..."
"The Thatcher Family is also generous, providing 20 Fishmen slaves as r-rank fleeing rabbits."
"But r-rank fleeing rabbits are only worth a thousand points; to win the championship directly, one must reach 100,000 points, which is too difficult."
"It's been decades since a genius clansman reached 100,000 points; the title of [Celestial Dragon King] is still too hard to seize."
"If one could become a 100,000-point Celestial Dragon King, let alone becoming a God's Knight, they might even gain Lord Imu's favor and have a chance to directly become the Commander of the Gods Knights."
Some Divine Blades and Celestial Dragon elites were passionately discussing the prey for this competition.
There were 10 high-value prey worth 10,000 points each, 150 r-rank fleeing rabbits worth 1,000 points each, and 100,000 commoner fleeing rabbits worth 100 points each.
Although killing 10 high-value prey would directly reach 100,000 points,
So many God's Knights, Divine Blades, and Celestial Dragon elites were all staring at these high-score targets.
Therefore, it was impossible for one person to hunt all of these high-score prey.
Furthermore, before the competition began, the Celestial Dragons would allow all the prey to run for an hour.
These high-value and r-rank prey would scatter all over the island.
Whether one could find these high-score prey depended heavily on luck.
If some weak Celestial Dragons lacked sufficient strength and encountered high-value or r-rank prey, they might even be injured in a counterattack.
Ordinary Celestial Dragons should stick to hunting commoner fleeing rabbits for fun.
---
Meanwhile, on Red Soil Island in the West Blue.
This island had long been completely blockaded.
After the Celestial Dragons set out, all those commoners were forced to wear fleeing rabbit clothes with heart-shaped targets, reduced to prey whose lives could be stripped away at any moment.
Powerful islanders, guards, or some nobles had a bit of qualification to become r-rank fleeing rabbits worth a thousand points.
Endless despair flooded this island under the jurisdiction of a Affiliated Kingdom.
These islanders never imagined that as people of a Affiliated Kingdom, they would fall to such a fate.
The heavenly tribute they paid was all in vain.
The kingdom to which Red Soil Island belonged didn't even dare to speak up; they could only huddle on the kingdom's main island, trembling with fear of being affected.
The King only knew that this island was completely blockaded by the World Government for harboring criminals.
Now, the King didn't care at all about the fate of Red Soil Island, even cursing the rebellious island for daring to harbor criminals, directly severing Red Soil Island from the kingdom's territory.
As long as it didn't involve them.
And on some Marine fleets responsible for blockading Red Soil Island, some Marines with a sense of justice clearly noticed some unsettling clues.
But they didn't dare to disobey orders, didn't dare to take any action... deeply falling into conflict and confusion...