On the coast of Alabasta.
The gears of fate began to turn, and a raft appeared.
The early members of the Blackbeard Pirates appeared in Alabasta.
To hunt Ye Fan, Blackbeard came here to meet Crocodile.
The surrounding sea was Crocodile's territory, and besides wanting to use him to get information about Ye Fan,
Blackbeard also wanted to invite Crocodile to join the Blackbeard Pirates.
Everyone Blackbeard set his sights on possessed a certain level of ability; he had immense ambition.
"Ah ha ha ha!"
Since defecting from the Whitebeard Pirates, he had gathered these few members, each of whom was exceptionally strong.
Laffitte, Doc Q, Jesus Burgess, Van Auger—each of these names represented power.
"Admiral, will that Crocodile agree?"
Burgess, as Blackbeard's most loyal subordinate, always prioritized Blackbeard.
Blackbeard had endured for decades within the Whitebeard Pirates solely to obtain the Dark-Dark Fruit, truly making him a formidable schemer.
Over twenty years of lurking, capable of betraying even friends—his tenacity, cruelty, and greed were self-evident, and this ruthless streak was essential for anyone aspiring to be a dominant figure, unable to be indecisive.
His flaws were arrogance and recklessness.
After obtaining the Dark-Dark Fruit, Blackbeard exposed his ambition, and simultaneously, his flaws were magnified countless times.
The reason was one move, Dark Water: using the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit to pull Devil Fruit users towards him; upon contact, the opponent's Devil Fruit ability would be nullified, and he could also absorb Devil Fruit attacks, but only small-scale ones.
It was with this move that he felt incredibly fresh; he didn't even put Whitebeard in his eyes.
Blackbeard: "Pops, are you really going to kill me? I'm your son..."
"Ah ha ha ha!"
He had absolute confidence in his strength, and his eyes immediately turned gloomy and serious, looking very intimidating.
"He will agree!"
Regarding the conversation between the two, the other three merely looked on indifferently.
In fact, their joining Blackbeard was purely for shared interests; Blackbeard could help them achieve what they wanted.
And also help them gain Devil Fruit abilities.
Blackbeard had his own methods to directly extract abilities from users and then transfer them to others.
Such a twisted ability was simply monstrous.
Although arrogant, Blackbeard was not foolish; he knew that only with sufficient strength could he become an admiral and lead others.
...
The capital, Arubana.
As Ye Fan and the three others appeared above the royal capital, the guarding soldiers, under their leader's command, shouted:
"Fire!"
Now, anyone attempting to enter the royal capital was definitely a rebel, and any dangerous act against the royal family was to be suppressed.
Amidst a hail of bullets, many bullets were fired towards Ye Fan and the three others. The bullets whistled, but Ye Fan remained completely calm, becoming as cool as ice.
Seeing such a welcoming method, Ye Fan's eyes instantly turned cold, and he slowly uttered two words.
"Freeze!"
He condensed his ice ability, and a cold blue energy enveloped him, forming a blue aura.
When the bullets approached within ten meters of Ye Fan, they were immediately frozen into small spheres by an ice wall, emitting a crisp cracking sound before falling to the ground.
Among the four, even Nami showed no panic; as long as Ye Fan was there, she believed she wouldn't get hurt.
This scene left the guards dumbfounded; they hadn't expected the young man before them to possess such powerful abilities.
Just as the guards were at a loss, a white figure appeared, soaring into the sky.
A man with fair skin, muscular build, purple lines under his eyes extending along his cheekbones to his chin, resembling a falcon's markings, and two large star-shaped scars on his left chest was seen.
He wore a white robe with sporadic star patterns, a matching hood, a large orange necklace around his neck, striped socks, and ordinary shoes.
A sharp sword was strapped to his left arm.
As the vice-captain of the Alabasta Kingdom's Royal Guard, he was known as Alabasta Kingdom's strongest warrior.
He was a Zoan Devil Fruit user, the Bird-Bird Fruit, Falcon Model, capable of transforming into a falcon. Pell would not allow anyone to harm Alabasta.
He had already deemed Ye Fan and the three others in the sky as invaders. Since the soldiers were ineffective, he would take action himself.
With a pair of bird-like wings, he swiftly attacked Ye Fan, drawing his sword with a murderous expression.
Clearly, he intended to kill.
"Hahaha, with Lord Pell acting personally, those four will surely die a terrible death."
"That's right, Lord Pell is the guardian of our Alabasta, the strongest warrior."
...
The soldiers below, seeing Pell personally take action, immediately became excited and had great faith in him.
He was the strongest warrior of this country, capable of defeating all invaders.
There was nothing special about him except for his speed, but unfortunately, his strength was too weak.
And his development of the Devil Fruit was clearly only at its most basic form, making him only slightly stronger than an ordinary person.
Ye Fan estimated that Pell couldn't even defeat Buggy.
Since he showed murderous intent, it was a fight to the death. Since he actively sought death, Ye Fan would grant his wish.
Without any fancy moves, Ye Fan merely glanced at him and then ignored him, flying directly inside.
The three accompanying Ye Fan simply watched him with indifference.
They were all adults; out in the world, if one showed murderous intent, they had to bear the consequences.
"Nani?"
Suddenly, Pell found his head starting to freeze, then his neck, body, and extending all the way to his wings.
In just a few seconds, his entire body was frozen into a block of ice, plummeting rapidly.
When he realized what was happening, Pell actually wanted to do something, but he only had three seconds, and by the time he tried, it was already too late.
Not only the Royal Army below, but also the rebels, were equally stunned.
Pell's name was very well-known in Alabasta, the strongest man.
To be instantly defeated like that—was this a movie?
It didn't seem real at all, and they also realized that these weren't people from the kingdom, nor were they from the rebel army.
So who were they?
With no further obstacles, Ye Fan and the three others headed towards the royal palace; the treasures were definitely all inside the palace.
A country, at the very least, should have nearly two billion Berries!
Vivi had once said she would give a billion to the Straw Hat, and as a superpower, even if its military strength wasn't great, it certainly had money.
And it was Ye Fan's casual strike just now that the Blackbeard Pirates, who had just landed in Alabasta, felt.
"Ah ha ha ha ha!"
"It seems an interesting person has appeared. Come on, my lads."
Although the distance was far, none of the five were ordinary people; they could feel the power within it.