Chapter 242: Dark Justice
What Whitebeard didn't know was that while he had slightly set Ian up, the one who ultimately ended up suffering the consequences was Vista.
Ian wasn't discouraged by losing to Vista. In truth, he understood that his swordsmanship talent wasn't that exceptional. Back in Shimotsuki Village, he often lost to Kuina during sparring sessions, so losing to Vista didn't bother him much. As long as he didn't lose in a real battle, it was fine.
On the contrary, after losing this sparring match to Vista, Ian became even more persistent in pestering him. He had vaguely sensed the threshold to a higher level of swordsmanship, so how could he let Vista go so easily?
Having spent so much time with his junior brother Zoro, Ian had also picked up that never-give-up attitude. As a result, Vista's life became miserable from then on.
Every day, Ian would pester Vista for sparring matches, constantly demanding that Vista use his full strength to strike him, all in an effort to comprehend Vista's "momentum"!
Yes, momentum. Ian's intuition told him that this so-called momentum was the key to entering the realm of a master swordsman.
It sounded like a simple concept, but understanding it was extremely difficult. At first, Ian kept wondering if it was similar to the killing intent found in fantasy novels—that ability to intimidate and lock down an opponent, preventing them from moving. It did seem quite similar to killing intent.
However, when he actually asked Vista about it, he found out that wasn't the case. If merely accumulating killing intent through murder could make someone a grand swordsman, then all the vicious pirates on the New World seas would be grand swordsmen.
According to Vista, momentum was something difficult to describe. He could feel that he possessed this momentum, but he couldn't explain how it had formed. This kind of intangible thing couldn't be taught through words; it could only be understood and discovered by each individual. If you couldn't grasp it, you couldn't use it.
This was also why there were so many swordsmen in this world, yet so few grand swordsmen. That hazy awareness, if you couldn't break through it, you couldn't achieve it.
Ian had now stopped playing mahjong with Fujitora. Every day, he chased after Vista for challenges. Not only that, but Ian's grand plan for farming experience was also gradually being implemented. He began challenging the Whitebeard Pirates' division commanders one by one.
Among the Whitebeard Pirates, the higher-ranked division commanders were undoubtedly stronger.
And while he only used swordsmanship when fighting Vista, when sparring with other commanders, Ian had to resort to his card abilities to win and gain experience.
The end result of all this was that all the division commanders below Vista, the Fifth Division Commander, were beaten down by Ian one by one...
The biggest advantage of sparring to level up was that you could farm experience from the same person multiple times. So even though the other commanders had all lost to Ian in sparring, Ian shamelessly dragged them into more fights.
Only four people in the Whitebeard Pirates hadn't lost to Ian in their sparring sessions: First Division Commander Marco the Phoenix, Third Division Commander Diamond Jozu, Fourth Division Commander Thatch, and Fifth Division Commander Vista. They had all fought Ian to a near draw.
Besides them, there was also Ace. Ian called him out for sparring every day as well. His schedule was now completely full; whenever he had free time, he would find someone to fight.
Later on, besides fighting the commanders, Ian even expanded his sparring range to include members of the Whitebeard Pirates who had some strength but weren't commanders. He had them gang up on him as sparring partners to farm experience.
This led to the Whitebeard Pirates' members, after a month, looking at Ian as if he were a ghost, and they all started avoiding him.
Fortunately, the members of the Dragon Hunter Pirates all knew that their captain Ian was a training maniac, so they were long used to it. While Ian let them do as they pleased, they spent their days having fun with the Whitebeard Pirates.
As for Fujitora, he had recently been trying to recruit Whitebeard into his mahjong circle. Because of Whitebeard's massive size, Fujitora had even carved a larger set of mahjong tiles based on Ian's set and started teaching Whitebeard how to play "blood battle to the end" and how to count points.
When Ian saw the two old men playing with those shield-sized mahjong tiles on the table, he burst out laughing...
A month of crazy leveling had yielded excellent results. Ian's level had skyrocketed from the initial 19 all the way to 31!
Needless to say, the fourth card slot had been successfully unlocked. Ian could now equip up to four cards simultaneously, while the fifth card slot would require level 40 to unlock. As the experience required for leveling increased more and more, Ian didn't know when he would have another chance to farm experience so freely like this.
So sometimes Ian wondered if he should go to Shanks' territory to farm some experience in the future, or maybe target Big Mom's or Kaido's subordinates... After all, only under the Four Emperors were there so many talented people.
The Whitebeard Pirates and Ian's Dragon Hunter Pirates hadn't been idly staying on Salamis Island for a month just to freeload food and drinks. They were waiting for news from the Marines.
When he first met King Carlos of the Salamis Duchy, Whitebeard had promised to give his old friend an explanation.
The deployment of Kizaru and Zephyr this time had caused considerable damage to the Salamis Duchy. They had no justification for this, because when the Salamis Duchy's military tried to stop them, they had destroyed one of their ships and fired cannons at the island. Even though the Salamis Duchy was a non-member nation, such behavior was excessive.
Of course, the Marines had their own arguments. Capturing pirates was their duty and responsibility. The Salamis Duchy had obstructed the Marines' arrest operation, so no matter how they framed it, they could be blamed.
If this were just a dispute between Salamis and the Marines, the Salamis Duchy wouldn't get anywhere. The World Government would probably ignore their protests entirely, and might even make an example of them by taking punitive measures against the Salamis Duchy, showing the other non-member nations in the world what would happen.
However, when Whitebeard got involved, things became different.
Back then, Kizaru had fled quickly, so Whitebeard couldn't do anything to him. Zephyr, on the other hand, had some connection with Whitebeard and was let off. Only then were the two Marine Admirals able to retreat unscathed.
But letting the Marine Admirals go didn't mean Whitebeard's anger had subsided. Although he had stayed on Salamis Island for a month, his 43 independent pirate crews had, under Whitebeard's orders, begun to gather during this time!
The Marines were always on guard against the Four Emperors. The reason they could obtain intelligence on the Four Emperors was that they always had surveillance ships monitoring their movements. The unusual activity of the Whitebeard Pirates' fleet was naturally detected by the Marines.
Gathering all their fleets and pirate crews—what exactly did the Whitebeard Pirates intend to do?
Such intelligence made the Marines and the World Government break out in cold sweat. They knew that Whitebeard, for the sake of his old friend, was prepared to go all out and cause a massive uproar.
So, even though they were reluctant, the World Government ultimately compromised. For the sake of a non-member nation to go to full-scale war with a Four Emperors, the Five Elders weighed the pros and cons and found it wasn't worth it. So they finally agreed to the Salamis Duchy's compensation demands.
However, this matter required face-to-face negotiations. The World Government needed to hear Whitebeard's promise in person. So, after a month, a Marine ship finally appeared again at the Salamis port.
But on this Marine ship, besides some ordinary Marine soldiers, there was also a group of people wearing black suits and ties!
These people, aside from wearing the same style of suits, also wore different styles of coats and various masks on their faces.
Due to the masks, no one could see their true faces. However, the Marine soldiers on the ship treated them with great respect and fear, speaking to them nervously.
Because these people were from the World Government's directly subordinate secret intelligence agency!
Abbreviated as... CP0.