The old man was searching for something on the beach while telling his story.
He used to live on this Cloud Beach as a native, but he was forced to move to the upper level because of the war between two sky islands.
He came back this time mainly to see if there was anything he could take away from his old house, but he didn't expect to see only a beach destroyed by lightning.
"Oh, I knew it..."
The old man shook his head repeatedly, and the wrinkles on his face deepened.
"If my daughter hadn't insisted that I move away, I would probably be a pile of ashes on this beach now!"
This place is close to the border of the sky island, and it is most likely to be affected by the war.
But the old man repeatedly stressed that he didn't need help.
"Help me? No need. Besides, how can you help?"
The old man said with a bitter smile: "Can you stop the war that has been going on for several years?"
Rowan touched his chin and muttered, "Maybe I can."
"Huh?"
The old man was stunned, "What did you say?"
"Oh, just talking to myself."
Rowan smiled at the old man: "We are also going to the upper level, but we don't know how to get there. Would you like to go with us?"
The old man searched through the ruins in front of him a few times, but in the end only found a few broken wooden boards. He sighed and cursed:
"Those little brats don't know how to be careful. This used to be a tourist destination for people from the Blue Sea!"
Blue Sea - is what the sky islanders call the sea below.
Finally, the old man, empty-handed, patted the ashes on his clothes and sighed:
"Everything is gone, so let's go together."
Rowan nodded, and Crocodile followed behind them.
As they were leaving, Crocodile, smoking a cigar, looked back and suddenly saw a tall, thin figure on the distant hillside.
"Huh?"
Crocodile squinted again, but the figure had disappeared without a trace.
He didn't doubt that he was mistaken, but because of the backlight, he couldn't see the person's appearance at all.
He could only vaguely see that there was a huge "ring" behind the person, which seemed to be some kind of decoration.
"Hey?"
Crocodile signaled Rowan with his eyes, sure that the other person had also sensed the presence of that mysterious guy.
But what annoyed Crocodile was that Rowan ignored his hint and continued to chat and laugh with the old man, learning about the origins of the war between the sky islands.
"Tsk, whatever."
Crocodile clicked his tongue and didn't bother to care anymore.
Anyway, for him, these messy things would not affect him at all.
If anyone dares to come, he will dare to kill!
...
On the way to the upper level Sky Island.
"So, the sky island that is at war is another sky island called Bika?"
Rowan thought about the old man's words and asked, "How long has the war been going on?"
"It's been about five or six years since the first friction between the two sides."
The old man recalled: "At first, it was just ordinary conflicts on the border, but later, the scale of the battle became larger and larger, and eventually it turned into a war."
"Is it always fighting?"
"No."
The old man shook his head, "It's intermittent, sometimes a few weeks apart, sometimes a few months apart, and the main battlefield is around the border."
Speaking of this, the old man couldn't help but sigh again: "A lot of people used to live on that beach, but now everyone has left. I'm the last one..."
The old man was muttering to himself, and Rowan looked back at Crocodile behind him.
"Little Crocodile, what do you think?"
"..."
Crocodile didn't want to answer, but Rowan had already asked, so he could only say with a gloomy face, "This is not a 'pure' war."
It has been dragging on for several years, and it is even intermittent. Such a "war" obviously has other purposes.
But Rowan shook his head and said slowly: "There is no pure war, never, any war has its purpose."
Crocodile did not agree with Rowan's point of view, and instead asked, "So, what else do you see?"
Rowan replied with a smile, "Someone is using that war to 'train soldiers'."
"Huh?"
This view was indeed something that Crocodile had not thought of, so he couldn't help but be stunned.
"Train soldiers? Who wants to train soldiers?"
"Who knows? The leaders of the two sky islands, or even their generals, are all possible."
Rowan replied: "After all, war is the best exercise."
At this point, the old man suddenly reacted, "Oh oh, right, I remember."
"The leader, yes, it's the leader."
He turned his head and said: "About six or seven years ago, a young man named Enel appeared on the Bika side. He took over the rule of Bika, and the war between us and Bika started from that time!"
Hearing this, Crocodile fell into deep thought.
Enel? He hadn't heard this name before. He shouldn't be one of the important figures in the Grand Line.
But Rowan's eyes narrowed.
Enel - Rowan was of course very familiar with this name.
Natural Logia type Rumble-Rumble Fruit user!
In the future, he will personally destroy his hometown, and then come to the sky island, seize the sky island from the then leader of the sky island, the "God" Gan Fall, and try to build the Ark "Maxim" to reach his dream land of Limitless.
Unfortunately, this ambition was ultimately defeated by Luffy and his crew.
Time goes back to the present.
At this time, Enel is about twenty years old, just the age of youth.
As for the matter of destroying his hometown, Bika, it should be a few years later. Enel still lives there now.
In fact, according to the old man, Enel not only lives in Bika, but also has great influence in Bika, and is the actual leader there.
After all, he is a Natural Logia type Devil Fruit user!
Among them, Enel combined Observation Haki with the characteristics of his own fruit ability to develop a special Observation Haki that can cover the entire sky island - Mantra.
"That guy named Enel is leading Bika to launch a war against this sky island for the purpose of training soldiers?"
Crocodile silently recorded this information.
He always likes to plan before acting.
The three of them walked along the way, and at a white sea pier, they saw the wooden boat that the old man had come on.
In the distance, there was a white waterfall, which was the special section that must be passed to reach the upper level of Jack Empire Cloud - Cloud Flow Waterfall!
There are several huge cloud flow waterfalls in various places, connecting the middle and upper levels of Jack Empire Cloud.
The three boarded the wooden boat.
Crocodile looked at the old man's skinny arms and legs, and was slightly surprised.
He didn't believe that the old man could row the boat up the waterfall with manpower.
That was indeed the case.
The old man whistled, and a giant shrimp suddenly clamped the left and right sides of the wooden boat, and then took the wooden boat to the cloud flow waterfall at a very fast speed.
Sky Island specialty - Small Rocket Shrimp.
Crocodile looked at Rowan and found that there was a strange light flashing in the other person's eyes, as if he was thinking about something.
After a while, Rowan took a few deep breaths of fresh air and then began to appreciate the surrounding scenery.
Crocodile said with a gloomy smile: "Do you have a plan?"
"Maybe." Rowan nodded.
Crocodile took a puff of his cigar, "You are interfering in the war between the two islands. Be careful to make the whole sky a mess!"
Rowan grinned and said, "Actually, the current situation is very good, even better than I expected."
"Huh?"
Crocodile did not understand Rowan's words.
Rowan picked up a shell from the wooden boat, looked at it carefully, and then explained:
"The so-called war is the extreme of emotional outbursts."
"And people who are in extreme emotions are most easily guided."
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