"The national treasure of the Flower Country? The heavenly dragon halberd?" Carlos was somewhat surprised.
He hadn't expected that this item from the Prodence Kingdom in the New World would actually be related to the Flower Country in the West Blue.
Old Buck glanced at Ochoku's gloomy face and whispered cautiously:
"Legend has it that hundreds of years ago, within the borders of the Flower Country, a divine beast known as the Heavenly Dragon rampaged, causing countless deaths and injuries among the people."
"The King of the Flower Country at that time—Xiang—personally visited the most formidable blacksmith in the West Blue, Jack, to forge a weapon capable of slaying the Heavenly Dragon."
"Xiang had only two requirements for the weapon: first, it must be heavy; second, it must be hard."
"Thus, the blacksmith Jack extracted the essence of iron from the depths of the West Blue's seabed and spent forty-nine days smelting and forging it. He exhausted an entire undersea mineral vein to finally create a weapon that satisfied Xiang—a halberd."
"This halberd weighed 129,000 catties. In the entire Flower Country, only Xiang, who was born with divine strength, could swing it."
"After the forging was successful, Xiang didn't even have time to name the weapon before rushing back to the Flower Country. He used this weapon to slay the Heavenly Dragon that was ravaging the nation."
"Afterward, in commemoration, Xiang named this world-renowned heavy weapon after the Heavenly Dragon; this is the legend of the heavenly dragon halberd."
"Legend has it that hundreds of years ago during Xiang's lifetime, he tempered this heavenly dragon halberd into a Black Blade. Because of Xiang's peerless martial prowess, it was ranked as the head of the twelve Supreme Grade blades of that era!"
"Unfortunately, after Xiang's death, this divine weapon was lost by the Flower Country and did not reappear for hundreds of years. Later, it was removed from the list of Supreme Grade blades."
"I never expected..."
"That I, Old Buck, would actually have the honor of seeing this divine weapon from hundreds of years ago."
As he spoke, Old Buck's face was full of emotion. He looked at the heavenly dragon halberd in Carlos's hand with endless sighs of admiration.
"The legend you just told... I feel like I've heard something similar somewhere."
After hearing the story of the heavenly dragon halberd, Carlos couldn't help but think of the legend of Shimotsuki Ryuma, the owner of the Black Blade Shusui.
Legend says that hundreds of years ago, during Wano Country's 'Land of Gold' period, a giant dragon appeared and brought disaster to the nation.
The Sword God Shimotsuki Ryuma, wielding the precious blade Shusui, fought the giant dragon and eventually succeeded in slaying it.
One was the Flower Country.
The other was Wano Country.
Both involved slaying a giant dragon.
In the end, both legendary figures also tempered their weapons into Black Blades.
This connection made Carlos strongly suspect that the giant dragons slain in these two legends might not have been giant dragons in the literal sense at all.
But rather, Celestial Dragons.
However, none of that was important.
What mattered was that this weapon was actually a Supreme Grade blade from hundreds of years ago!
Carlos's previous guess that it was a great grade blade had been an understatement.
Furthermore, its weight had reached a terrifying 129,000 catties!
That is 64.5 tons!
The spiked club Kaido held, hachisai-kai, was also forged from a special heavy metal and weighed over ten tons. Even among heavy weapons, it was considered extremely heavy.
But compared to this heavenly dragon halberd, it was far inferior.
Carlos weighed the halberd in his hand once more.
Oh right, it should be called—the heavenly dragon halberd!
Having unexpectedly gained a divine weapon, Carlos was in an exceptionally good mood.
But Ochoku, standing before him, was not feeling quite so wonderful.
His fingers gripping the long blade at his waist loosened and tightened, then tightened and loosened again.
Finally, he forcibly suppressed his emotions and spoke to Carlos in a heavy voice, "Since you already know the origin of this weapon, you should know what it means to me."
Carlos was left completely confused by his words: "Huh? What on earth are you talking about?"
Ochoku's face turned red and white in turns. He pointed at his own nose and shouted angrily, "I! Ochoku! Am royalty of the Flower Country! Do you not know that?"
Carlos curled his lip. "So? What does that have to do with me?"
"It indeed has nothing to do with you! But the heavenly dragon halberd in your hand is the national treasure of my Flower Country! The royalty of our nation has been searching for its whereabouts for hundreds of years!"
"Now it has appeared! And it just so happens to appear before me. This is the will of heaven! Heaven wants me, a member of the royal bloodline, to take back the kingdom's treasure!"
Ochoku was emotional, even taking several steps forward.
He looked Carlos in the eye with a serious expression.
Sincerely, he said, "Carlos, give the heavenly dragon halberd back to me. In exchange, I will guarantee your status within the Rocks Pirates. You probably don't know yet, but Rocks intends to establish several more Division Captain positions. I can recommend you..."
"Division Captain?" Carlos grinned and tightened his grip on the heavenly dragon halberd. "That kind of thing, I'll take it myself. Don't trouble yourself over it."
Ochoku's face completely darkened. "So, there's nothing to talk about?"
Carlos swept a glance over him expressionlessly, not even wanting to say another word.
What a joke.
If it were some ordinary national treasure, he might have considered tossing it to Ochoku.
But a powerful weapon like the heavenly dragon halberd, which could directly enhance his strength—how could he possibly give it up?
Did the man take him for a fool?
Furthermore, he truly liked this heavenly dragon halberd.
These days, finding a weapon that suited oneself was not easy.
Compared to the swords and blades that the vast majority of people in this world chose, Carlos preferred this kind of heavy weapon.
And for someone with great physical strength like him, a heavy weapon provided a much larger boost to combat power.
Although he had already learned many powerful hand-to-hand combat techniques from Garp, Sengoku, Zephyr, and Kong at the Headquarters...
...who would complain about having an extra divine weapon of the Supreme Grade blade level?
If nothing else, just using it to show off would be top-tier style, wouldn't it?
Just look at Mihawk.
Every time he appeared, people would hype up both the man and his blade.
"Good! Good! Good! Carlos, you are very good!"
Seeing that Carlos was completely unmoved, Ochoku spat out the word 'good' several times, gave a heavy cold snort, turned around, and stomped away.
Seeing this, Carlos immediately looked toward Old Buck and Kaido, intending to get these two moving to sail this steamship full of celestial tribute back first.
He didn't know if Old Buck knew how to pilot a steamship... Just as this thought surfaced in Carlos's mind!
Ochoku, who had turned around and seemed to be leaving in a huff, had a ruthless and fierce light flash in his eyes.
His body, which was facing away from Carlos, suddenly blurred and vanished from the spot without any warning.
The speed of his disappearance completely exceeded the visual capture limits of both Carlos and Kaido.
Even with Carlos's Observation Haki constantly active, he couldn't see clearly how Ochoku had disappeared.
And in the next instant—
A flash of light like a silver dragon slashed toward Carlos's neck!
It was Ochoku!
He appeared out of thin air behind Carlos, holding a blade that shimmered with a cold light, and delivered a twisting horizontal slash!
"Then you can just go to hell!"
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