With the gold removed, the ruins of Shandora looked noticeably dim.
The gold that had once been embedded into its walls, floors, and decorations was gone. Stripped bare, the Golden City no longer looked golden. Without its luster, Shandora felt like an empty shell, a corpse drained of blood. It was no longer glorious, no longer worthy of its name.
Teach had not taken every single piece of gold from Shandora.
The Nightfall Pirates were thorough, like wild geese plucking feathers, but this place only held part of the Golden Mountain. The majority of the gold had never been here to begin with.
Just as Mont Blanc Cricket had said, a portion of it had been scattered across the seas around Jaya Island.
On broken walls and collapsed houses, traces remained where gold inlays had once been fixed. Under the catastrophic force of the Knock-Up Stream, which had struck like a world-shaking earthquake, even gold firmly embedded into stone had been torn free and flung away.
Compared to what Teach now possessed, it was nothing.
But by any normal standard, it was still an astonishing fortune.
Teach had no intention of spending time searching for scattered scraps. The gold was too dispersed, buried too deep, and the effort-to-reward ratio was poor. Perhaps he would send people back one day.
For now, he was happy to leave it to those down below.
And indeed, they did not disappoint.
Within half a day, news spread from Jaya Island that shocked everyone. Someone had found gold. Not a small amount either. After professional appraisal, it was valued at fifty million Berries.
That was only the largest haul.
Other groups had also found gold, each gaining respectable profits.
Some factions and pirate crews quietly set sail to search the surrounding seas. They did not announce it openly, but so many people moving at once could not be hidden. Before long, the entire island knew.
At first, many remained skeptical. Gold scattered across the sea from the Golden City sounded too absurd.
But luck could explain one discovery.
It could not explain many.
Multiple factions had found gold in different areas around Jaya Island. That was no coincidence.
Mont Blanc Cricket's conjecture was proven correct.
A vast amount of gold had indeed been scattered across the sea.
When people realized what that meant, their bodies trembled. Their hearts burned.
How much gold was hidden beneath these waters?
No one could say.
No one had expected the world's largest gold-producing region to be born in this way. As the truth of the Golden City spread and more gold was continuously dredged from the seabed, everyone understood one thing.
This sea held endless treasure.
Jaya Island, once obscure and notorious, instantly became the focus of the world.
The surrounding waters gained a new name.
The Golden Sea.
Countless gold-hungry individuals flocked in, triggering an ever-escalating gold rush. Pirates, merchants, underground organizations, even civilians with dreams of fortune all poured into the area.
Mock Town transformed overnight.
Its population exploded. Its economy surged at an unprecedented pace. Under the stimulation of gold, money flowed so rapidly that this small pirate town briefly surpassed even major cities in economic circulation.
Some even came just to watch.
Tourists arrived to see gold being pulled from the sea with their own eyes.
All of this was still in its early stages, but the direction was already set. Today would be remembered as a turning point. Everyone present on Jaya Island had unknowingly become a witness to history.
The Nightfall Pirates had ascended to Skypiea in full view of the world. The Golden City was proven real. And most importantly, Mont Blanc Noland, the so-called Great Liar, had not lied.
Four hundred years of humiliation were finally washed away.
Later, to commemorate Noland, the pioneer who discovered the Golden City, the people of Jaya Island even cast a golden statue in his likeness.
No one could have predicted that this lawless pirate den, already under Marine scrutiny and steeped in violence, would undergo such a dramatic transformation in just a few years.
At the same time, another question spread quietly.
Just how much gold did the Nightfall Pirates take?
With the Golden Bell exposed, curiosity and greed grew. People knew gold was scattered across the sea, and they knew the Golden City existed, but no one could confirm how much gold had originally been there.
What was certain was this.
Whatever remained had fallen into the hands of the Nightfall Pirates.
To chase the truth of the Golden City and follow the footsteps of the so-called Dark Emperor, many later traveled to Skypiea. They found the land that had once belonged to Jaya Island, the Upper Yard, and uncovered the ruins.
They found Shandora.
The traces left behind made one thing clear. The gold had already been taken.
Even so, careful searching still turned up small amounts of residual gold. Some places on the island had hidden deposits where gold had scattered during the upheaval.
Inside the body of Nola, the giant python known as the Lord of the Sky, a massive amount of treasure lay undiscovered. Anyone strong and lucky enough could claim a fortune.
Because of this, the Upper Yard later gained another name.
Golden Island.
One island above, one sea below. Golden Island and Golden Sea, facing each other across ten thousand meters of sky.
All of it traced back to a single storm stirred up by the Nightfall Pirates.
A single gust of wind could change the world.
Those gathered on Jaya Island stood at the eye of that storm, and many destinies would be rewritten.
Having secured the treasure of the Golden City, the Nightfall Pirates turned their attention to their next target.
Birka.
Without hesitation, guided by the map provided by Gan Fall, five pirate ships sailed through the White Sea toward Birka Island.
Gan Fall had been very cooperative. After handing over the map, he also explained Birka's situation in detail.
Birka was far larger than Angel Island. While Angel Island held just over a thousand residents, Birka was home to tens of thousands. In Skypiea terms, it was a massive island.
It was also known as the Birka Kingdom.
There was no king.
Birka was ruled by the Temple, and its leader was known as the God of Birka. This God commanded the God's Guard, an army numbering in the thousands. Structurally, it resembled Angel Island, but on a much larger and more aggressive scale.
The God of Birka was ambitious.
Unlike most Skypieans, who rarely interacted across long distances, Birka sought expansion. Its God harbored intentions of ruling Angel Island and had long coveted the Upper Yard, rich in earth.
For Skypieans, earth was obsession.
Birka was also deeply xenophobic, especially toward people from the Blue Sea. There were eleven harsh rules imposed on outsiders. Worse, Birka's people often deliberately lured Blue Sea dwellers into breaking those rules, just to condemn them.
One of the punishments was Cloud Drifting.
The condemned would be stripped of everything, placed alone on an island cloud, and exiled into the White Sea.
At ten thousand meters above the surface, one misstep meant death.
Angel Island merely charged a landing fee. Birka was outright hostile.
There was a reason Enel later established those eleven rules.
They were inherited.
If the Nightfall Pirates entered Birka, war was inevitable.
Gan Fall knew his warning would not change anything. Birka had always been Teach's target. Given the Nightfall Pirates' strength, he doubted Birka's warriors could stop them. Their God's Guard was comparable to his own at best.
What worried him was Birka's high-level fighters.
Several of them had mastered Mantra.
Gan Fall admitted he could only barely hold them back. He had secretly investigated Birka before, but once the God of Birka noticed him using Mantra, Gan Fall withdrew and never returned.
It was a dangerous place.
Even at full speed, the journey from Angel Island to Birka would take half a month.
Along the way, Laffitte suddenly spoke up.
"Captain," he said, frowning, "why do the Shandians have wings like Skypieans? And theirs are real. My sword cut through bone."
The question drew everyone's attention.
Teach had once said those wings were decorative. At the time, no one cared. Now, thinking back, something felt wrong.
Teach paused, then replied, "Because the Shandians are Skypieans who drifted down to the Blue Sea. Skypieans have wings, but over time, they degenerated. Functionally useless."
"That makes no sense," Nelson blurted out. "Why would wings degenerate? Having wings is good."
Teach simply said, "Environmental mismatch."
That explanation only raised more doubts.
Redyat stepped in. "Because Skypieans are not native to this planet. They are aliens. Different environment, different evolutionary pressure. The wings degenerated."
Silence fell.
Aliens.
Their worldview cracked.
Redyat had no reason to lie, and disturbingly, it explained everything.
Teach knew even more but said nothing. The ancient weapon Uranus had been built by these people. That level of technology did not belong to this world. Now, that knowledge was largely lost, and Uranus itself was likely in the hands of the World Government.
When Baccarat smiled and said, "We'll get answers in Birka," both Teach and Redyat's eyes lit up.
The Ark Maxim blueprints were there.
And if Baccarat was that confident, then Birka's God knew far more than he let on.
Teach and Redyat exchanged a glance.
Their target was clear.
Some things had to be taken.
Memories were the most direct option. Laffitte's hypnosis was another.
With Baccarat's ability, secrets would surface. The history of eight hundred years ago, the truth of these aliens, and perhaps even information about Uranus.
Pluton was a battleship. Poseidon was a living weapon.
Uranus remained unknown.
And that made it the most dangerous.
Conflict with the World Government was inevitable. Preparation had to begin early.
The course was set.
Birka awaited.