I am the Bandit King of the East Sea.

At this moment, Rocks finally made his move, facing General Steelbone Kong directly. The vast, billowing black smoke was now boiling, almost engulfing Steelbone Kong.

The power of the Dark-Dark Fruit possesses properties similar to those of a black hole.

Not only can it absorb the Devil Fruit abilities of other users, it can also generate the power to manipulate gravity, attract enemies from a distance, absorb enemy attacks, and compress, distort, and destroy external objects.

"It's almost time!"

In the deep darkness, Lox roared:

"We're not here to fight the navy to the death. Once we've taken the gold from the sky, we're ready to retreat!"

Although the pirates are greedy and harbor deep hatred for the Navy, they also know what is important.

Resin Island is close to the Red Line. If we continue to linger here, we will eventually be surrounded by reinforcements from the World Government.

"It's time to retreat!"

The pirates began to consolidate their forces and returned to the sea one after another.

Meanwhile, Newgate and other skilled warriors held off the powerful reinforcements, resulting in a chaotic battle.

Dracula is still active.

Then, Dracula continued to pierce through the naval lines with his electric drill in hand.

However, this time he consciously chose his target.

Dracula's Thousand Years of Death might miss against mid-level officers who have mastered techniques like Shave and Iron Block, so Dracula specifically targets the lower and middle-ranking marines and indiscriminately slaughters them.

And those mid-level officers and generals generally didn't dare to provoke Dracula.

Let alone others, even Lieutenant General Cowell had an indelible shadow in his heart regarding Dracula.

As a result, Dracula, wielding the electric drill in both hands, had almost no rivals and fought his way in and out of the naval ranks seven times.

His kill count far exceeded that of powerful figures like Newgate, the Golden Lion, and even Rocks.

With a buzzing noise, Dracula's figure flickered and stabbed like a ghost. The rapidly spinning drill not only caused streaks of blood to bloom in all directions, but also pulverized the dark yellow filth and sent it flying in the wind.

Dracula was not the strongest warrior on the battlefield.

Young Newgate wields the earth-shattering power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, while Shiki the Golden Lion is no less formidable, his sword flashing like a vast ocean.

Rocks, the leader of this pirate group, relies on the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit to create darkness with a wave of his hand, and is able to contend with the renowned Marine Admiral Kong.

But these dazzling powerhouses paled in comparison to the daisies blooming all over the ground.

On this day, Dracula became famous on the battlefield as the Piercing Lord, becoming the brightest star on the battlefield.

For whom does the flames of war ignite? For whom do the chrysanthemums bloom?

Wherever the piercing office went, chrysanthemums bloomed and flew in the wind.

Dracula's signature technique, "Flying Thunder God Technique," was deeply etched into the minds of the Marines, and the name of the Piercing Lord appeared in the nightmares of countless Marines ever since.

He is known as the deep yellow flash that pierced the dark battlefield, the [Piercing Duke] Dracula.

.........

The arrival of General Steelbone Kong only made the battle more protracted, but it was not enough to form an encirclement and capture Rocks' fleet.

The problem was that there were several powerful individuals on Rocks' side, and even Kong himself was held back and couldn't unleash his full potential.

The pirates fought and retreated, quickly loading the treasure onto their ship and preparing to leave.

"The Heavenly Gold must not be lost! Chase after it!"

Admiral Steelbone Kong loudly gave the order, determined to bite the bullet and pursue the retreating Lockheed fleet.

But when he saw the soldiers wailing all over the shore, Kong's eyes twitched, and he took a deep breath.

This large group of soldiers were almost all pierced by Dracula, the Piercing Lord, single-handedly. Although their injuries were not very serious and could be treated in time, they could have died if left untreated.

"That pirate named Dracula isn't just ruthless; he's also incredibly cunning..."

Steel Bone looked very unwell.

A large group of severely wounded naval personnel will require far more trouble to deal with than a group of dead.

Moreover, it would be difficult for Steelbone Sky to bring himself to issue an order for the naval fleet to abandon these wounded soldiers.

The navy rushed to their aid, and Cyborg continued the pursuit with his unarmed forces. In reality, he was not confident of defeating Rocks and his men.

Chapter 642 The Beginning of the Age of Lox

While Steelbone Kong hesitated about whether to pursue, Lieutenant General Kewell had already changed into a new pair of pants and walked over.

"General Air Force..."

"The Heavenly Gold matter is of great importance, and that Dracula is extremely cruel. We absolutely cannot let go of such a vicious pirate!"

"I'm filled with righteous indignation," Kewell said.

However, Kong's expression was somewhat subtle, as if he was still hesitant.

Kewell thought for a moment and continued to persuade him:

"General Kong, the dangerous figures in this incident are not just Dracula or Rocks..."

"There is another pirate named Wang Sig, whose subordinate is the ruthless Dracula. The key is that Wang Sig also possesses strange techniques."

"This person is perhaps even more dangerous than Dracula! We absolutely cannot let him get away..."

"He possesses a strange technique that allows him to temporarily manipulate my body, and he has an irresistible attraction to me..."

"Oh? An ability to manipulate gravity similar to the Dark-Dark Fruit? Wang Xige? I wonder what kind of ability he is?"

Steelbone was somewhat interested.

He was also impressed by Sieg's performance.

While Kong and Rocks were locked in fierce combat, Kong noticed that during the lulls in the fighting, Rocks wasn't fully focused on the battle; some of his attention was still on Sieg.

It's important to understand that when Rocks fights a battle-hardened powerhouse like Cyborg Kong, even the slightest distraction could lead to a fatal mistake.

Lox's distraction was unusual.

This also made Kong, the Steel Bone, interested in Sieg.

In this war, Sieg appeared very restrained. Apart from briefly suppressing Lieutenant General Cowell with his sword to allow Dracula to unleash his ultimate skills, he did not do much else.

It's almost like...

"Wang Xige is clearly holding back; he's not fighting at full strength because he's deliberately concealing his Devil Fruit ability?"

"This suggests that his Devil Fruit ability is probably extraordinary. Could he be Rocks' trump card? That's why he's not making a move easily, to avoid revealing his weakness?"

The hollow steel frame immediately became alert.

As the future Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, he was never lacking in shrewdness and a broad perspective.

This crucial war over the Celestial Gold involved powerful figures like General Steelbone Kong and Rocks. Despite the intensity of the conflict, there was one strange individual who barely participated, seemingly holding back his strength.

Crucially, this person was also under the close watch of Rocks, and had a formidable general like Dracula under his command, clearly indicating that he was no ordinary person.

“There’s definitely something wrong with Wang Xige and Dracula.”

He had a feeling, though it was not without some intuition, that the war was ostensibly started by Rocks, but the key figures were probably King Sieg and Dracula.

"If we continue the pursuit, perhaps that will be the moment to reveal this trump card?"

With this hesitation and deliberation, Rocks' pirate fleet gradually broke free from the encirclement of the naval fleet and drifted away.

...........

The Rocks Pirates' retreat was not hindered in much way.

Even the difficulty of this war was much lower than Rocks, the Golden Lion, and others had anticipated.

About half a day later, the Rocks Pirates had completely escaped the Navy's pursuit.

After escaping the threat of naval pursuit, a loot-sharing ceremony and victory banquet immediately began on the high seas.

Rocks did not stop the pirates. Instead, he took the opportunity of dividing the spoils to gather more than ten captains on the same ship.

A rough count reveals that the treasure acquired by the Rocks Pirates this time is worth over two billion Berries.

The Rocks Fleet, comprising more than ten pirate crews and including powerful figures such as Newgate and Shiki, received a combined 300 million Berries from Higuma and Dracula based on their contributions in the war.

Sieg didn't say anything about this.

The amount of work he actually did was quite limited; the dirty work was all done by his shadow clone Dracula. Lying down and getting 300 million was already a great thing.

After all... the money from the shadow clones is his money!

While everyone was beaming with joy, Lox stepped forward, holding the quiver in his hand, and said:

"Everyone should have experienced this incident."

"The navy's fleet is not weak; even a naval admiral came, yet they couldn't stop us. They were even hesitant to pursue us, clearly showing they were wary of us!"

"If we pirates stick together and work together, this amount of heavenly gold is just a small coin!"

These words resonated with many pirates, who became interested in the idea.

Pirates are always doing dangerous things, and they also have to worry about being hunted down by the Navy.

However, with powerful figures like Rocks as their backers, they suddenly discovered that they were actually able to fight head-on against the fleet led by Admiral Kong, and in the end, they even managed to seize a full two billion Celestial Gold from the Navy!

This is so much better than my previous precarious pirate life!

Lox noticed the changes in everyone's expressions and laughed loudly:

"As long as we continue to stick together, there will be plenty of opportunities to make big money in the future!"

"If we can seize the Heavenly Gold this time, we can do it next time too."

"Besides, the New World is a misnomer now. If we make it a New World ruled by pirates, a pirate paradise everywhere..."

"This is truly a great era for us pirates!"

Under the influence of alcohol, the pirates gradually became excited.

Sig did not drink alcohol.

He watched this scene silently from the sidelines, taking in Lox's words.