Amidst the rolling smoke and fire of the Cang Kingdom's capital city.
The Heavenly Tribute warship departed, with Rocks also helping himself to the Cang royal treasury, seizing countless treasures.
At the island ruins of the former Gu Yue Village, Rocks drove all the prisoner soldiers off the ship.
Even the dozen or so young soldiers who had initially become sailors and laborers wanted to disembark and return to their homeland.
In the end, only six orphaned soldiers with no families or anyone to rely on remained on the ship as sailors and laborers.
The World Government flag on this Heavenly Tribute warship was torn down and destroyed by Rocks, replaced with a black flag inscribed with the name Rocks D. Xebec.
He also named this Heavenly Tribute warship the "Xebec's Sword."
But now, due to a lack of executives and strong members, Rocks wasn't in a hurry to hoist the Jolly Roger of the Rocks Pirates.
He wanted to witness the establishment of the Rocks Pirates together with those powerful future subordinates!
However, for now, the World Government had long since defined Rocks as a pirate, the most evil pirate at that!
His wanted poster had long been issued.
A few days later.
"Vohahaha! Ignis, your wanted poster is out too!"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Personally executing the general and king of a member nation like Cang, you really have a nasty personality, don't you?"
"Consider this: when I kidnapped those five kings at the Holy Land Mary Geoise, I didn't even kill a single one of them."
Rocks grinned widely, teasing Ignis, but completely omitted mentioning his own nasty deed of killing a Marine Admiral.
"What kind of lousy epithet is that!"
Ignis was frantically developing his two Devil Fruit abilities, trying to train and enhance his soul worms.
Only during breaks did he spare a glance at his own wanted poster.
["Killer Arsonist" Gu Yue Ignis, Bounty 80 Million Berries! Only Alive!]
'Damn it, the big fire in the Cang capital was clearly set by Rocks, so why was it pinned on me?'
"Vohahaha, 'Ignis the Killer Arsonist', that's a decent enough infamy!"
"However, with your current strength and bounty, you still can't be my executive. You'd better work hard!"
Rocks shot Ignis a meaningful glance. He knew that this special mutant, Ignis, truly possessed the potential of a world-class powerhouse.
A future user of nine abilities, just thinking about it was terrifying!
As for Rocks's own wanted poster, it featured a long string of zeroes.
["World's Worst Pirate" Rocks D. Xebec, Bounty 3,811,540,000 Berries]
In this era, this bounty far surpassed those of the great pirates in the New World!
This showed how seriously the World Government regarded Rocks.
Currently, the famous great pirates in the New World had bounties around 1 billion.
Charlotte Linlin, who had gone to sea a few years ago, received her first bounty of 50 million at age 6. In just five years, her bounty had risen to 500 million.
Now, at 12 years old, Charlotte Linlin already had a significant reputation in the New World.
By the time of the God Valley Incident, the bounty of Rocks Pirates executive Gill Bastar was 970 million.
Captain John, Silver Axe, and Ganzui, who were around his level, probably had bounties of around 1 billion as well.
The stronger ones, like Whitebeard, Golden Lion, and Big Mom, were likely a tier higher than 1 billion, somewhere between 1 and 2 billion.
After all, the inflation of that era wasn't as high!
It was only after these great pirates each went independent, formed their own crews, became regional powers, and entered the era of the Three Legends and then the Four Emperors structure of the Great Pirate Era that bounties would skyrocket to four or five billion.
....
"Ignis, didn't you say we were going straight to find strong people? Why are we still lingering in Paradise!"
Rocks was impatient to gather all his future powerful subordinates under his command and then launch an assault on Mary Geoise.
"Because some of them haven't grown up yet!"
"For example, this Charlotte Linlin. She has an iron balloon physique and is a user of the Paramecia Soul-Soul Fruit. She's a future top-level powerhouse and one of your top executives."
"But she's only 12 years old right now!"
"Marlon, the Mafia boss of the West Blue, has already grown up now. We can go recruit him!"
"Shiki the Golden Lion, a user of the Paramecia Float-Float Fruit, has already made a name for himself in the New World. We can bring him aboard, but he's very arrogant and conceited..."
"The pirate Edward Newgate, user of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, is currently serving as a combatant on someone else's ship. We absolutely must win him over; his strength is immense!"
"The big-time smuggling pirate, Ganzui, a user of the Paramecia Bomb-Bomb Fruit, is already quite famous. We can forcefully recruit him!"
"Ochoku, the Pirate Guru, that guy will betray you in the future. Do you still want to recruit him?"
"Captain John, a user of the Paramecia Magnet-Magnet Fruit, this guy will also betray you. I have my eye on his Magnet-Magnet Fruit ability!"
"Of course, the main reason we're still sailing in Paradise right now is to go seize a demon sword I've got my eye on. That's fine, isn't it?"
Ignis listed a whole bunch of names for Rocks.
He had already checked the information on these guys and confirmed their recent situations.
They had all already obtained their Devil Fruit abilities.
So Ignis wasn't worried that he would interfere with their future of obtaining those abilities.
As for Stussy, that scientific pirate, there wasn't a trace of information about her at the moment. It seemed she was lying low.
"Vohahaha! Just hearing about these Devil Fruit abilities tells me they're powerful."
"As for betrayal! We'll see about that later!"
"But Ignis, are you really only interested in the Magnet-Magnet ability?"
"The Soul-Soul Fruit, the Float-Float Fruit, the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, the Bomb-Bomb Fruit... these are all powerful abilities. Aren't you tempted?"
Upon hearing so many accurate names, Rocks immediately grinned widely.
Finally, he licked his lips and spoke to Ignis with a sinister air.
He didn't believe Ignis could resist the temptation to give up so many powerful Devil Fruit abilities.
"I'll kill whoever betrays us. That's fine, isn't it, Captain!"
Ignis met Rocks's gaze without flinching. He knew his special ability couldn't be hidden from Rocks anyway.
It was better to just lay his cards on the table.
Rocks, a member of the Clan of D., also seemed to possess a form of Observation Haki similar to the "Voice of All Things," where his thoughts could appear directly in the consciousness of Roger and Garp.
"Vohahaha, that's fine!"
"As long as you're strong enough and help me defeat the King of the World, you can kill those guys whenever you want! They're not on the ship yet anyway!"
Rocks erupted with powerful Conqueror's Haki. He was confident he could keep this little monster, Ignis, in line.
"I'm not interested in the position of King of the World. My goal is the sea of stars beyond this world!"
"You can play with Imu and that Sun God Nika for this world!"
Ignis spread his hands and spoke calmly.
Whether Rocks believed it or not, he himself believed it.
Rocks stared at Ignis for a long time, as if trying to see through his true intentions.
But he chose to give a bold laugh and ultimately didn't refuse Ignis's personal request to sail through Paradise and search for a demon sword.
Conveniently, he could follow his original plan and first have some fun with the pirate crews in Paradise.
See if he could find any powerhouses different from the ones Ignis had mentioned.
After all, the future Ignis saw wasn't a complete future.
....
Several weeks later.
The Xebec's Sword sailed on, thrashing every pirate crew they encountered.
Ignis also made numerous moves, practicing and developing his Moonlight and Gravity abilities.
Finally, they arrived at Ignis's destination: Asuka Island.
Ignis and Rocks barged in forcefully and soon found the ancient village guarding the Shichiseiken.
Without any dilly-dallying with the guarding priestess, Ignis directly opened the altar stone platform and seized the Shichiseiken.
"Vohahaha! Looks like this demon sword isn't much inferior to my own blade!"
Seeing Ignis unleash powerful soul force to forcibly subdue this eerie double-edged demon sword, Rocks immediately burst into laughter.
It seemed his little bro was getting stronger and stronger!
But only by getting stronger could he qualify as his subordinate.
"He actually subdued the Shichiseiken!"
The priestess watched in disbelief as Ignis took the Shichiseiken away, seemingly without being controlled by it.
That meant the destiny of the priestess clan to guard the Shichiseiken had vanished.
They no longer had to worry about the demon sword breaking its seal.
After obtaining the Shichiseiken, Ignis unleashed a terrifying slash across the sea, a look of deep satisfaction in his eyes.
Having a monster like Rocks watching his back was truly exhilarating.
In the future, Ignis would do his utmost to help Rocks change his destiny, to repay him for his protection along the path.
He made a scabbard for the Shichiseiken and suddenly glanced towards the East Blue.
He considered whether to tell Rocks about Roger. Given Rocks's charisma, was there a chance he could recruit Roger and Rayleigh?
But Roger and Rayleigh probably hadn't even set sail from Loguetown yet, so their strength was likely insufficient.
When Ignis collected wanted posters and information, he hadn't found a wanted poster for Roger.
In the original timeline, 52 years from now, when Brook was sailing through Paradise near the Florian Triangle, Roger was just a rookie entering the Grand Line.
It probably wouldn't take four years to go from Loguetown into the Grand Line. Roger was probably still in Loguetown and hadn't set sail.
Ignis did, however, find information about the Rumbar Pirates sailing in the West Blue. Brook had already quit his Kingdom's guard and boarded a ship as a pirate, either for music or some other reason.
When Gunko was a child, she and Brook had spent some time together.
Now, Gunko had grown into a young woman and was serving by Imu's side.
When Rocks invaded the Room of Flowers to meet Imu, Gunko was there too.