"First satisfy the Revolutionary Army's demands? That's an option."
Although the Five Elders felt that doing so would damage the dignity of the World Government, they had no choice, because the Revolutionary Army had now grown powerful enough that it was no longer something the World Government could manipulate at will.
At present, the only safe method they could think of to rescue Im was this one.
If they barged into Marine Headquarters to rescue him, they might not only fail to rescue Im, but could also anger the Revolutionary Army and put Im in danger instead.
The Five Elders did not believe that those crude Revolutionary Army members would have any respect for their revered Lord Im.
"Then what about those reports concerning Lord Im? Should we deal with them?" one of the Five Elders asked.
"Letting them openly discuss Lord Im like this, Lord Im will definitely be very unhappy after he comes out."
The long-bearded Five Elder in the dark blue suit shook his head and said, "Let's ignore them for now. These reports are all being led by the Revolutionary Army. If we send forces to suppress them now, we may anger the Revolutionary Army."
"We are going to negotiate with the Revolutionary Army and have them release Lord Im. We must eliminate every possible factor that could affect the final outcome."
Obviously, the long-bearded Five Elder felt that the focus now was not on public opinion, but on negotiations with the Revolutionary Army and rescuing Im.
Although the reckless criticism of Lord Im and the World Nobles by the common people made him extremely displeased, he still knew that he had to consider the bigger picture and temporarily put public opinion aside.
"However, these negotiations must be conducted secretly. They cannot be leaked, otherwise it would damage the dignity of our World Government too much."
If those affiliated countries found out that the World Government had been beaten so badly by the Revolutionary Army and was still shamelessly begging for peace, wouldn't the affiliated countries explode with rage?
They paid huge sums of money every year to join the World Government, only to find that the World Government was this pathetic. Wouldn't they be furious enough to want to withdraw from the World Government alliance?
Because of the Five Elders' orders, the world entered a strange situation.
The Revolutionary Army desperately exposed all kinds of dirty secrets about the World Government, practically wanting to strip the World Government down to its underwear.
Meanwhile, the World Government seemed to have simply given up. It directly ignored everything, as if those scandals did not belong to them.
This left everyone somewhat confused. When had the World Government become so magnanimous? Its underwear was practically being ripped off, yet it still did not take action. Back then, Ohara had merely researched history and was annihilated by a Buster Call.
Not only did they fail to suppress public opinion, they did not even gather their forces to attack the Revolutionary Army that had already occupied Marine Headquarters. Their calmness was somewhat bizarre.
Of course, this was merely the perspective of those who could only obtain information through newspapers.
In reality, the Five Elders acted very quickly. As soon as the meeting ended, they sent CP0 to Marine Headquarters to negotiate with the Revolutionary Army.
This time, the Five Elders were very sincere. The CP0 agents not only carried no weapons, they had also informed the Revolutionary Army of their arrival long in advance.
The news quickly reached the upper echelons of the Revolutionary Army.
"The World Government wants to discuss something with us?" Dragon was somewhat puzzled.
He had already gone this far, even taking Marine Headquarters and liberating so many affiliated countries. Logically speaking, he and the World Government were already locked in a fight to the death. One of them had to fall.
This was a conflict of ideologies, not merely a change of dynasty like in a feudal kingdom. There was no room for negotiation between the two sides.
Because the world envisioned by the Revolutionary Army had no place for the Celestial Dragons, nor for any nobles.
And the World Government happened to be the ruling group representing noble interests. Its core purpose was to serve the nobles and the Celestial Dragons.
"That's right. They claim to have something very important to discuss with us, something related to peace."
"Let's see what they want to do first." Nagasawa said with a smile.
After dealing with Im, Nagasawa actually felt that he had more or less cleared the game. However, there were still some Devil Fruits he had not harvested. In addition, to be safe and prevent unexpected situations, he had not immediately left the world of One Piece.
He did not plan to stay for long. After the Revolutionary Army attacked Mariejois, he would harvest a good batch of Devil Fruits, then leave the world of One Piece and return to the Naruto world.
Nagasawa was quite satisfied with this trip to the world of One Piece. He had thoroughly experienced the thrill of revolution and put into practice the things he had learned back then.
He had also harvested many Devil Fruits. After returning to the Naruto world and exchanging them, they would further strengthen Konoha's high-end combat power.
Powerful Logia such as the Magma Fruit, Ice-Ice Fruit, and Glint-Glint Fruit could basically allow anyone to soar in strength as long as the person given them was not useless.
There were also many Devil Fruits that could make up for certain weaknesses of shinobi. For example, wouldn't Might Guy suffer damage when using the Eight Gates? If Guy had the Phoenix Fruit, the damage caused by the Eight Gates would no longer be a problem, and he would also gain the ability to fly.
Dragon nodded, preparing to see what exactly the World Government's people wanted to do first.
Soon, the World Government members who had come to negotiate were brought into the conference room.
"We ask that you release Lord Im." The World Government negotiator had a very clear purpose and immediately stated his objective upon entering.
"I refuse!" Dragon rejected him without thinking.
You have to be kidding. Returning Im to the World Government? How big would one's heart have to be to do something like that?
Dragon had not seen the extent of destruction Im's attack had caused, but he had seen the power of the dragon. If Nagasawa had not stopped it, Marine Headquarters would already have been erased by the dragon. Someone as powerful as Dragon might have had a chance of surviving, but most of the Revolutionary Army would certainly have been doomed.
Therefore, Dragon was extremely wary of Im and felt that he posed an enormous threat to the Revolutionary Army.
The World Government negotiator was not surprised when Dragon directly refused. After all, he had not even stated the conditions yet, so it was normal for Dragon to refuse.
The World Government negotiator was extremely confident that the Revolutionary Army would definitely agree after hearing the conditions, because the World Government's sincerity this time was simply too great, so great that even he, as the negotiator, found it somewhat unbelievable.
"Mr. Monkey, please don't be so hasty. You can first look at the conditions offered by our World Government." The World Government negotiator handed a document to Dragon and continued.
"If the Revolutionary Army can release Lord Im, the World Government is willing to give half of the World Government's territory to the Revolutionary Army." The negotiator spoke with full confidence.
He did not believe anyone could refuse such a temptation. This was half of the World Government's territory.
"Half of the World Government's territory?" Dragon casually flipped through the document before asking.
"That's right. Half in the truest sense. Half the world will be handed over to the Revolutionary Army." The negotiator said.
Nagasawa laughed, revealing a mocking smile. "Half the world? Where does the World Government have so much territory? Do you think the affiliated countries belong to you too?"
"Of course." The negotiator felt that there was nothing wrong with what he had said.
"You Revolutionary Army want to eliminate the oppression of the people and save them, don't you? As long as you agree to this agreement, half the world will be 'liberated' by you." The negotiator continued.
"You will accomplish your great dream, while we will obtain what we want. This is a win-win situation. From now on, the Revolutionary Army and the World Government will each rule half the world, without fighting each other. Then the world will be at peace."
Nagasawa could barely keep himself from laughing. He felt that this World Government negotiator must have lost his mind. The Revolutionary Army already had the strength to overthrow the World Government, so why would they share the world with a World Government whose ideology was fundamentally opposed to theirs?
Still, directly cutting away half the world sounded quite bold. Nagasawa saw that some of the Revolutionary Army's high-ranking members in the conference room were showing surprised expressions.
However, after hearing about living in peace with the World Government, everyone once again showed disdainful expressions.
The Revolutionary Army could temporarily cease fighting with the World Government, but it was impossible to live in eternal peace with the World Government. Even a temporary ceasefire would merely be for the purpose of defeating the World Government more effectively later.
"Go back and tell the Five Elders. Im is guilty of countless crimes, and releasing Im is impossible." Dragon said coldly. Half the world? He could liberate the entire world, so why would he accept half the world as charity from the World Government?
The World Government negotiator was still unwilling to give up and wanted to persuade him further, but Dragon directly used wind to throw him out.
Thus, the World Government's people could only return dejectedly and report to the Five Elders.
"They rejected even such conditions? Aren't they afraid of choking on their own greed?" The Five Elders were extremely angry, feeling that the Revolutionary Army's appetite was simply too large.
That's right, they did not feel that the negotiations had completely lost hope. They merely felt that the Revolutionary Army wanted more.
"How about trying to give them some tangible benefits? I heard that many members of the Revolutionary Army were ordinary civilians before." One of the Five Elders felt that he had thought of a good idea.
The reason the Five Elders had dared to boldly surrender half the world was actually because those affiliated countries were not directly governed by the World Government in the first place. If the Revolutionary Army really agreed, then when they arrived in those places, they would discover that they still had to liberate them themselves.
To rescue Im, the Five Elders were truly going all out. This time, they added a large number of tangible benefits on top of the previous offer.
But what they did not expect was that Dragon still refused, and then exposed the fact that they had come to negotiate.
The revelations released by the Revolutionary Army once again caused a huge uproar throughout the world.
When the civilians saw the news, they suddenly understood. No wonder the World Government had been pretending to be deaf and dumb. It turned out they had been secretly trying to admit defeat.
The affiliated countries were even angrier than one another. The World Government was generous, huh? It was going to give half the world to the Revolutionary Army, but what the hell did it mean by using their countries as gifts?
However, although they were angry, very few affiliated countries dared to directly withdraw from the World Government.
Because compared with the World Government, they were more afraid of the Revolutionary Army.
The World Government would merely disgust them, but if the Revolutionary Army attacked, their good days would be over. They wouldn't even be able to remain kings and nobles, ordinary civilians could no longer be casually oppressed, and they couldn't even keep slaves anymore. Wasn't that equivalent to taking their lives?
The Revolutionary Army did not waste time arguing with the World Government. Their actions were swift. After resolving some existing hidden problems, the Revolutionary Army gathered its forces and attacked toward the Red Line, preparing to storm Mariejois and destroy the World Government's headquarters in one fell swoop.
Since the time was right, Nagasawa also no longer had the Empress and the others continue hiding. He had the combat forces of Amazon Lily join the Revolutionary Army's forces attacking the World Government headquarters.
The Whitebeard Pirates also arrived as promised. However, they did not bring the large number of affiliated pirate crews. Only Whitebeard's main ship came, but the main ship already represented most of the Whitebeard Pirates' combat power, with the commanders and others all aboard the main ship.
In addition to these forces, Nagasawa also invited Mihawk and Garp. After all, Garp had previously said that if they were going to attack the Celestial Dragons, they should call him.
Such a large-scale gathering of forces naturally could not escape the World Government's notice.
Although the World Government's influence in the New World had been greatly reduced because of the defeat of Marine Headquarters, it could still monitor the Marine Headquarters' movements.
After learning that the Revolutionary Army was gathering its forces, the Five Elders also mobilized troops from around the world to defend the Holy Land of Mariejois.
As for pirate disturbances and other incidents elsewhere, they were too lazy to consider them. After all, they were almost finished themselves. Where would they have the time to care about those things?
Large numbers of troops were stationed on the Red Line to block the Revolutionary Army's advance.
Even though the World Government had done everything it could, the disparity in high-level combat power still caused the scales of victory to continuously tilt toward the Revolutionary Army.
One checkpoint after another was broken. The Revolutionary Army swept away every force standing in its path like a force of nature and arrived at Mariejois, the highest point of the Red Line.
"What a prosperous place. But this isn't the kind of prosperity I want." Dragon sighed with emotion as he looked at the magnificent buildings of Mariejois.
The prosperity of Mariejois belonged only to a small number of people. It was the prosperity of the Celestial Dragons, while what Dragon wanted was prosperity for everyone.
At this moment, Mariejois had entered an unprecedented state of alert. Even the air was filled with a murderous atmosphere. The Celestial Dragons had all hidden inside their homes and refused to come out, while their guards, slaves, and enforcers had all been conscripted to fight the Revolutionary Army.
"Do you really have to fight until both sides are destroyed?" The Five Elder holding a katana stood at the front with the other four Five Elders, speaking with a gloomy expression.
"We should adopt a more civilized and harmonious approach to resolve the conflict between both sides." One of the Five Elders spoke.
"Bah." Garp spat and looked at the Five Elders disdainfully. "You pieces of trash are talking about civilization and harmony now? When your Celestial Dragons were killing people, why didn't you think about civilization and harmony then?"
Garp had never concealed his dissatisfaction with the Celestial Dragons.
The reason he had always refused promotion to Admiral was that he did not want to work for the World Government, or work for the Celestial Dragons.
"Even at a time like this, are you still clinging to wishful thinking? Perhaps surrendering peacefully would be a little easier." Nagasawa said with a smile.
Having reached this point, Nagasawa's journey through the world of One Piece had also completely entered its final stage. Once everything was finished, he would find an opportunity to harvest several powerful Devil Fruits and return.
The Five Elders looked at one another and nodded in unison, ordering the army to launch its attack. All kinds of cannonballs and bullets were fired toward the Revolutionary Army.
Among them, the Five Elder holding a katana prepared to attack Nagasawa, but before he could reach Nagasawa, he was intercepted by Mihawk, and the battle instantly erupted.