Although there had been no direct physical exchange, El and Whitebeard had indeed been engaged in a battle of wills. In fact, even without this phone call, after El ended this adventure and returned to the New World, he would have challenged Whitebeard anyway.
After all, if he wanted to awaken his Devil Fruit ability, he had two options: either practice step by step, and then—like with the awakening of Haki—try to grasp that elusive feeling to awaken his Devil Fruit, or take a shortcut by fighting the strongest man in the world. That would place him under life-or-death pressure, allowing his will to complete a sublimation and forcibly push him into the realm of Devil Fruit awakening.
El didn't want to waste several years developing his Devil Fruit ability gradually, hoping to one day capture that feeling. He wanted to use a method similar to Luffy's—continuously fighting life-and-death battles with strong opponents and using that pressure to enter Devil Fruit awakening.
Strong individuals who had awakened their Paramecia Devil Fruits in this sea were simply too rare.
Besides Charlotte Linlin, Whitebeard, and Douglas Bullet, El only knew of these three who fit his criteria.
Among these three, Whitebeard and Douglas Bullet were El's targets. However, Douglas Bullet was still imprisoned in Impel Down, and his strength had not yet reached the level of his first appearance. Therefore, between him and Whitebeard, Whitebeard—who wasn't yet too old—was El's first choice.
So naturally, El wouldn't miss this opportunity to fight. If it weren't for the fact that Carina and the other girls were still young and their willpower was still far from matching their abilities—making them still a long way from awakening their Devil Fruits—El would even consider showing weakness to Whitebeard to provoke a crew battle with the strongest pirate group in the world. That way, even if they didn't awaken their Devil Fruits, their strength would still skyrocket. However, such a top-level war would come sooner or later anyway, so there was no need to rush it.
"Jinbe, you also heard our conversation." After the Den Den Mushi was hung up, El looked at Jinbe and said with a chuckle. "Then please take us to see King Neptune."
—
"Before coming here, King Neptune has already instructed me to treat Your Excellency as an honored guest of our Fishman Island and sent me in person to invite you to Ryugu Palace."
Jinbe came back to his senses and looked at El with a complicated expression, then said, "Your Excellency, I don't know what deal you're talking about."
"Don't worry, it has nothing to do with Fishman Island's safety." El smiled and said, "Just like I said before, Shirahoshi is a crew member I wanted to recruit before entering the New World. Since she's a partner I've recognized, then the country where she lives and the people related to her will all be my friends..."
"As for this deal, I want to discuss it with King Neptune in person."
"I see!"
Jinbe was silent for a while, then nodded before bowing slightly to El. "Your Excellency, please come with me."
After finishing speaking, he turned and led the fishman guards in one direction, with El's group following behind.
Not long after, a Ryugu—the main mode of transportation on Fishman Island, made with a large hull built around a giant oarfish—arrived to carry them toward Ryugu Palace.
After passing through the bubble protective film that separated the water from the surrounding sea, a palace located deep beneath the ocean suddenly appeared before El's group.
At the entrance of the palace at this time stood a twelve-meter-high, muscular coelacanth merman accompanied by his servants, waiting for Jinbe and El's group to arrive.
As king of one of the 170 affiliated countries under Mary Geoise, known as the "Great Knight of the Sea" and sworn brother of the strongest man in the world, King Neptune personally coming to the palace gate to wait for a pirate's arrival seemed like a gesture of respect toward the strong. But in reality, it fully reflected how sorrowful it was to be weak in this world.
Just by doing this, one could see how helpless—or more precisely, powerless—King Neptune truly was. Despite having the strongest man in the world as his backer, and being associated with one of the strongest pirate crews in the world—people with the capability to destroy islands—such individuals were treated no differently from gods.
If such people stood on the side of justice, they would be restrained by order, making them not so frightening. But unfortunately, El's previous actions—ignoring rules to achieve his own goals and ambitions, deterring enemies and making his fortune even if it meant destroying an island, a kingdom, or extinguishing a hundred thousand lives—truly intimidated King Neptune.
In particular, El—called the "World Destroyer"—standing before him was like his good brother Edward Newgate. He could easily destroy islands. The attack that made him famous was merely meant to deter a pirate, yet it created a super tsunami that destroyed two islands and killed a hundred thousand people.
A hundred thousand people—what kind of concept was that? The entire population of Fishman Island was only that many. That is to say, if El wanted to, he could easily destroy all of Fishman Island and kill every fishman and mermaid.
So King Neptune dared not offend El. If he hadn't received a message from Whitebeard and hadn't already sent Jinbe to receive El, he would have personally gone down with his sons to welcome El's group.
As for using the Whitebeard Pirates' flag to intimidate them—King Neptune didn't even dare think about it. The flag of the Whitebeard Pirates could at most frighten some weaklings. If he tried to use that flag to scare someone on the same level as Whitebeard, he would only anger the other party.
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