Starting with the Uchiha clan, they began cultivating demonic arts.

Chapter 282 Dressrosa

Just as Shirahoshi stepped into the hot spring, she heard Uchiha Tou sigh softly, and then a figure emerged from the water.

With a whoosh, Hancock tossed her long hair, raised her swan-like neck, swallowed hard, and a charming smile appeared on her perfect face.

Then, the Snake Princess slowly stood up from the water, embraced Uchiha Touyu, and her expression became increasingly alluring.

"It's Hancock! Hehe, I was wondering why I didn't see you earlier, turns out you were hiding underwater!"

Shirahoshi said with a smile, "Hancock, with her love-struck mind, is probably the person in Uchiha Tou's harem who likes to pester him the most."

During this time, even though Uchiha Tou was strengthening the mermaid every day, Hancock never avoided him. Sometimes she would even help Uchiha Tou with a push. Shirahoshi was wondering why she didn't see him in the hot spring just now.

"Phew, it's Shirahoshi! Uh-huh, wait a minute, let's talk again..."

Hancock's face flushed red as she gently smoothed her damp hair and greeted Shirahoshi.

After all... Hancock often rolled around on the White Star Mermaid bed, so the two of them were obviously very close.

Seeing Hancock biting her lip, her body trembling, her eyes glazed over, yet her limbs clung tightly to Uchiha Touya like an octopus, Princess Shirahoshi couldn't help but sigh.

"Being small has its advantages...you get more pampering..."

Although Uchiha Tou could grow to the same size as Princess Shirahoshi, that would mean the other members of the harem wouldn't be able to play together.

Uchiha Touya, who was used to being with others, rarely showed affection to her alone and preferred to use her as his bed.

After a long while, Uchiha Tou handed over Hancock, whose body was still trembling, to several mermaids serving her, and then walked out of the hot spring.

The aloof and elegant Madam Shirley followed closely behind, kneeling down on the ground like a warm chair, allowing Uchiha Touyu to sit on her lap.

"Shirahoshi, how's your skill training going these days?"

Looking at the enormous mermaid before her, Uchiha Touyu sized her up and down, sensing her still-growing physical strength and dual-color Haki. She nodded in satisfaction and then asked a question.

"I can now control sea kings within a range of thousands of kilometers! And I can also hear some strange sounds. If I'm not mistaken, my Observation Haki should have reached the level of hearing the voice of all things."

Shirahoshi spoke softly. Uchiha Touyu was not surprised by Shirahoshi's progress. In fact, Shirahoshi's mother, the former Queen Otohime, was a genius who was born with Observation Haki and possessed special characteristics.

As a Sea King, Shirahoshi is able to communicate with Sea Kings and has her mother's bloodline. Her talent for Observation Haki is already ridiculously high. As soon as she awakened, she gained the ability to listen to emotions. It is not surprising that she was able to enter the highest realm of listening to the voice of all things in such a short time.

"So, you can control all the sea kings?"

"Yes, Lady Tou, I can completely control even sea kings that are several thousand meters in size."

"Very good. These sea kings are already large enough to be considered small islands. It seems that my submarine can be retired."

Princess Shirahoshi nodded slightly. Her ability to control the Sea Kings was quite useful. These giant Sea Kings were of great use, whether for transportation, combat, or simply as resources for Uchiha Tou's training.

In addition, there is one more thing... Uchiha Touyu discovered that these Sea Kings were all excellent materials for becoming believers. Although their souls were not as strong as their physical bodies, their personalities were extremely simple. They accepted any ideas that Shirahoshi instilled in them without question and could easily become extremely devout believers.

It was precisely because they were able to harvest a large amount of faith power from the Sea Kings that Uchiha Touyu did not use them as cultivation materials. In comparison, although humans far surpass the Sea Kings in terms of overall population, they cannot be so simple in terms of faith.

During this period, Uchiha Touyu has devoted almost 80% of his faith power to the Buddha Fruit. The power of this Devil Fruit is increasing day by day. However, the upper limit of the Buddha Fruit is much higher than that of the Vampire Fruit, and there is still no sign of it being fully digested.

In addition to the Buddha Fruit, the Dark-Dark Fruit and the Shadow-Shadow Fruit shared the remaining 20% ​​of the power of faith. The Dark-Dark Fruit has unlimited potential, and although the 10% of the power of faith invested in it greatly increased its power, it was only a drop in the bucket compared to its own limit. However, the Shadow-Shadow Fruit can be vaguely seen to have reached its limit.

This fruit, representing shadow, was used in many creative ways by Uchiha Touya. In addition to the original abilities of Gecko Moria, it was used to summon shadow ninjas like in the Jackie Chan Adventures world, or to perform shadow ninjutsu like in the Naruto world.

However, while these abilities are good, they are only icing on the cake. The biggest benefit of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit for Uchiha Touyu is that he can directly summon his shadow and transform it into a combat avatar with the same strength as his main body.

It's somewhat like the Valkyrie summoned by Amazon in Diablo. All its abilities are completely identical to the original body. They are connected in mind and senses. When the original body and the avatar join forces, they can unleash a power greater than 1+1=2. It's also roughly equivalent to a flawed version of the One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones.

Reaching this level is already quite good for Uchiha Tomoyu. During this time, he has been preparing to put all his faith power into the Shadow-Shadow Fruit, trying his best to completely digest this Devil Fruit. The Dark-Dark Fruit and the Great Buddha Fruit are too difficult to digest. He should digest the Shadow-Shadow Fruit first to make room for another Devil Fruit before thinking about the others!

The main reason is that Uchiha Touyu has a Devil Fruit he highly values ​​in the upcoming actions, so he naturally wants to digest it first.

"Alright, Shirahoshi, let's modify those giant sea kings first. These sea kings can easily house small ecosystems, which are much more useful than ordinary submarines."

"With the help of these sea kings, it will be much easier to resist the climate of the New World or to deal with those great pirates."

With Uchiha Tou's strength, taking down the pirates of the New World would certainly not be a problem. However, if he wanted to rule the New World, he would need sufficient transportation capabilities to at least maintain his rule after conquering it.

A giant sea king that is several kilometers long is equivalent to a small island in itself. It can carry at least several thousand people in a single transport. For the island nations in the One Piece world, several thousand people are enough to maintain the rule of an ordinary island.

……

The closest island to the New World from Fishman Island is Dressrosa.

This island was once the territory of Doflamingo, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Unfortunately, after Doflamingo was conscripted by the Navy to participate in the Marineford War, he never returned and became the prey of Touya Uchiha.

The Marineford War was broadcast live to the entire nation, and Dressrosa naturally had its own video Den Den Mushi (snail phone) broadcasting the event. Everyone witnessed how the unfortunate Doflamingo died, which plunged Dressrosa into chaos after that day.

Fortunately, Doflamingo only participated in the Marineford War alone, without bringing his subordinates. As a result, Dressrosa still retains a very strong force, so even though there are undercurrents, Dressrosa has maintained a general order.

However, no one knows how long this inertia-driven order can be maintained. For one thing, after Doflamingo's death, many connections with the underworld and even with the Four Emperors' pirate crews have been completely severed.

In the New World, without a powerful pirate as a backer, one can easily become meat on the chopping block and be eaten by others!

Not only that, as a Shichibukai, Doflamingo could ignore the threats from the World Government and the Navy during his rule of Dressrosa, but the other members of the Doflamingo family all had pirate bounties, and after Doflamingo's death, they resumed their status as pirates.

If it weren't for the fact that the Navy had suffered heavy losses and was still licking its wounds, the Navy warships might have already surrounded Dressrosa, because in the eyes of the Navy and the World Government, Dressrosa is now occupied by a group of pirates.

Moreover... the Doflamingo family isn't entirely united. Violet, the family's female assassin and investigator, was formerly the second princess of the Riku royal family. When Doflamingo occupied Dressrosa, he seized it from the Riku royal family through conspiracy and violence.

To say that Violet was absolutely loyal to the Doflamingo family would be something even the most clueless person wouldn't believe.

However, this princess was not so easy to deal with. After seeing the scene of Doflamingo's death through the video Den Den Mushi, she defected without hesitation and even recruited the Tontatta tribe as allies during her defection.

Naturally, the Flamingo family, having recovered quickly, immediately began hunting down Violet. Unfortunately, this pursuit was largely ineffective against Violet's Devil Fruit abilities.

Violet is a user of the Gaze-Gaze ​​Fruit, the greatest ability of which is to grant the user superhuman vision. Violet currently possesses an abnormal visual range of 4 kilometers.

What does 4 kilometers mean? Anyway, the largest diameter of the island of Dressrosa is no more than 100 kilometers. With Violet's eyesight, it can be said that the entire island is completely under her surveillance.

With the entire map activated, the Doflamingo family, currently in complete internal chaos, is utterly helpless against Violet, who has gone into hiding.

However, even though Violet had allied herself with the Tontatta tribe, she was still far weaker than the Doflamingo family in terms of strength, so she naturally didn't dare to provoke them. The two sides remained deadlocked on Dressrosa Island.

Dressrosa, Greenbit Island.

Violet's face was tinged with worry as she looked toward the King's Hill in Dressrosa.

"This time, another group of murlocs has arrived in Dressrosa and is heading towards the King's Highlands."

"Another fishman has joined the Doflamingo family. How strange, where did all these fishmen come from in Dressrosa?"

Sitting next to Violet was a beautiful girl with pink hair. She frowned and spoke with some confusion.

The girl carried a large sword on her back, her figure was perfectly alluring, and beside her was a soldier doll missing a leg.

The girl's name is Rebecca, the daughter of Violet's sister, and her niece. The toy soldier next to her with a missing leg is named Cyrus, Rebecca's father and Violet's brother-in-law. However, due to Sugar's Devil Fruit ability from the Doflamingo family, he was turned into a toy soldier.

Violet possesses the power of the Gaze-Gaze ​​Fruit, so there's practically no information in Dressrosa that can be hidden from her. Even though Sugar's Hobby-Hobby Fruit can erase other people's impressions, Violet later confirmed the toy soldier's identity when she observed the entire Dressrosa.

Violet, Rebecca, Cyrus, and a Tontatta—that's the entire force that Dressrosa has to fight against the Doflamingo family…

Calling them a rebels is really giving them too much credit. After all, neither Violet Rebecca nor Cyrus are particularly strong fighters. At his peak, Cyrus might have been no less than the top executive of the Doflamingo family, but now that he has lost a leg and has been turned into a toy, he might not even be able to beat his own daughter Rebecca.

The Tontatta tribe isn't weak, but unfortunately, they're not very bright. They're the kind of people who can be easily fooled by the Doflamingo family a hundred times over. With this rabble, let alone facing the Doflamingo family head-on, the fact that they weren't wiped out by the Doflamingo family is all thanks to Violet's Devil Fruit ability.

"I heard that something happened on Fishman Island. The fishmen rebelled, killed the king and prince of the mermaid race, and were eventually punished by the mermaid princess."

"That mermaid princess, I heard, is planning to kill all the fishmen! She's really ruthless... that's why so many fishmen are fleeing."

"Kill all the fishmen... There must be millions of fishmen on Fishman Island! Doesn't that mean even more fishmen will come to Dressrosa?"

Rebecca spoke somewhat nervously, saying that Dressrosa is the closest island to Fishman Island and the New World, and it is also the first choice for Fishmen to escape.

As for the other island that is even closer to Fishman Island than Dressrosa, it is the Sabaody Archipelago in the first half of the Grand Line—a paradise for human traffickers and a hellish place in the mouths of Fishman Island, where few fishmen dare to go.

(End of this chapter)